Doctor Who - Logopolis (Episode 116)
Starring: Tom BakerStudio: BBC Warner
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release: June 5th 2007
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DVD Review
The Doctor and Andric head to Earth to fix the TARDIS's chameleon circuit. Once there they face danger involving a newly regenerated Master and a feisty young air hostess named Tegan Jovanka. How can the people of the distant and mysterious planet Logopolis help? And just who is the strange, ghostly figure watching the Doctor's every move? (Episodes 1-4, 98 mins)
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Audio Commentary by actors Tom Baker and Janet Fielding and writer Christopher H. Bidmead
DVD ROM Features:1982 Doctor Who Annual, Radio Times and BBC Enterprises literature PDFs
Documentary:A New Body at Last: A new 50-minute documentary on the transition from Tom Baker to Peter Davison, featuring many of the actors and production team involved, plus exclusive behind the scenes footage of the regeneration
Interviews:Nationwide: Interviews with Tom Baker and Peter Davison (8 mins) Pebble Mill at One: Peter Davison interview (12 mins)
Music Only Track
Other:BBC News Reports on Tom Baker's wedding, the announcement of Tom Baker's departure and Peter Davison's arrival (1 min)
Photo gallery
TV Spot:Trailers and Continuity Announcements (2 mins)
User Reviews
The End - Rating: 3/5
I never really cared for this story as it marks the end of two eras, one being Tom Baker's long, illustrious reign as the Doctor, and the other being the best Doctor Who decade. Gone is the trademark humor from Baker, to be replaced by mournful brooding. Now the show enters its most controversial decade, the John-Nathan-Turner-influenced 80s. Peter Davison and Colin Baker are good, but the last one leaves something to be desired, with poor stories. In addition, Anthony Ainley is a poor substitute for the late great Roger Delgado.
thank god he's finally gone! - Rating: 2/5
I thought Baker would NEVER leave...his era is interminable, it just goes on and on and on and on....argh!
With this story, second in the brilliant Master trilogy (the first really deacent thing in Tom Baker's era in four years!!!)
we finally get rid of him. The story is so cool and does such a good job that we actually almost feel sad for a minute there, but its a massive releif when the sod fianlly pisses off once and for all so a good era can begin and the brilliant Peter Davison takes over. No more pulling faces, forced grins, bad puns, unfunny attempts at humor "Don't wana lose my arm, rather attached to it, so handy!" (yeah, right!) just a cool hero with real emotional depth and an occasional dangerous edge (shoots door open with flintlock and says "I never miss.."). And no more shouting at Leela and K-9 to "shut up" every five minutes to remind us that he has "authority". Yup, authority! "Leela, tell your friend to shut up!" "Leela, order K-9 to tell you to shut up" "No, shut up, K-9, listen... we'll finish that game of chess now." Yeah, I'm glad to see the back of him, good bye Thomas, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out! Peter Davsion has finally arrived, long live Peter Davsion, the real King of Dr.Who!
Singing the Language of Numbers - Rating: 5/5
Most regeneration stories are specifically meant to wrap up their era. It had to be in "The Caves of Androzani", for example, that we learn why Peter Davison wears celery on the lapel of his blazer. It's why we could only learn of the Doctor's origins in "The War Games". However, for my all-time favorite "Doctor Who" story, I make the argument that "Logopolis" worked just as well as the pilot for a new series of Tom Baker adventures.
If you had to isolate one image to explain "Doctor Who"'s fall from grace in the 1980s, it's Anthony Ainley. The final actor to play the Master on the BBC also held on to the role the longest, dragging his hammy character kicking and screaming alongside four different Doctors, until he was fat and possessed by the spirit of the Cheetah People. Although this may have been a fitting end for the character, some of us preferred Roger Delgado, all dignity and cigars.
In 1981, though, Anthony Ainley was magically new. In "The Keeper of Traken", he played the Doctor's friend, good guy Tremas, whose body was stolen by the decaying Geoffrey Beevers. A rejuvenated Master sneaks away into his TARDIS, chuckling, whispering, "A new body, at last. A new body. At last". That disembodied chuckle is all that remains, fading into the electronic scream of the end credits. More, please!
Director Peter Grimwade, who showed up with a zillion directorial flourishes, wisely kept the Master off-screen for more than half of Tom Baker's swan song. Menace is restored to the character for the first time, since, oh, "The Mind of Evil", because we can't see him, just hear him off-camera, as another character dies, shrunken to a corpse. Music composer Paddy Kingsland, the best there was in 26 years, punctuates the revelation of each doll-sized body with another mini-electronic scream.
When the Master finally does appear, in Part Three, we learn he's been working to a plan even since before Part One: follow the Doctor to Earth, leave deadly calling-cards, and then stow away on board to Logopolis to steal the Monitor's secrets for himself. But it's there the Master is beaten: for Logopolis is the keystone of the Universe, holding the moment of heat death at bay through sheer force of chanted numbers. And the Master's technological interference has caused the city to crumble to dust, unleashing an entropy field that will reduce the Universe to ash within hours. It's the Doctor's utterance that the Master is "mad... utterly mad" that finally convinces us this is the most dangerous Master we've seen in years.
But Ainley's not the only revelation in this story. There's Tom Baker. Just listen to his dialogue, especially in the early TARDIS scenes alone with Adric It's so dense, and delivered so rapid-fire, so naturally. We are now a million light years away from the Tom Baker who worked with Louise Jameson and Mary Tamm, trampling all over the script, clearly bored with proceedings. This Baker loves the script, giving the dialogue all sorts of inflections, loaning the Doctor a whole new scared dimension. "Nothing like this has ever happened before." It's something to say that a man could so compellingly reinvent the character in his final hour, when he could well have gone through the motions as if this were "The Power of Kroll".
The sense of newness is also borrowed from the supporting cast. Matthew Waterhouse, surprise of surprises, is compelling; witness his constant questioning of the Doctor in Parts One and Two. He even pulls an audience, getting thoroughly confused by the script: "We're going to measure Logopolis too?. When Tegan and then Nyssa arrive in Part Two, Adric starts to exhibit the bossy I'm-in-charge nature that made him so unbearable for most of Season 19, but one senses that Baker would have kept him in line. Even working with Janet Fielding, an actress he really didn't need to know at all, Baker planted the convincing seeds of a Doctor who really wanted to time-travel with this young flight attendant. It's a shame he never worked with either of them again.
And then there's the script. Chris Bidmead, with his emphasis on hard-sounding science, helped mold the "Doctor Who" of not just the 1980s, but the `90s as well. But his script in "Logopolis" far exceeds in quality any book out of the technobabble-drenched Simon Bucher-Jones oeuvre. Not only is "Logopolis" full of phrases like "unraveling the causal nexus" and "my biomechanisms are unaffected", but it's also got poetry: "And now the world I grew up in, blotted out forever"; "We are beyond recriminations... beyond everything", and my understated favorite: "Time has changed little for either of us, Doctor. You continue to roam the Universe, while we persist in our humble existence on this planet."
Special praise must be reserved for John Fraser, who, as the Monitor, played quite possibly the smartest, least hammy character in 26 years of "Doctor Who" guest turns. He has no rants, no over-the-top bursts of comedy. He's just a smart guy who knows more about what's going on than the Doctor, and actually saves the day with his computer code: he just has the good graces to die early in Part Four. That's done so Tom Baker can save the Universe and then fall to his death. Just when we were looking forward to at least another season of this exciting new Doctor.
"Its the end. But the moment has been prepared for"-Doctor - Rating: 5/5
This was the swan song for the best actor to play the good DOctor. For 7 years Tom Baker personified Doctor Who. This was his last adventure and goes out in an emotion filled story. This was Tom Bakers shining moment as the Doctor. All 7 years come to bear in this episode. His portrayal is that of legends. He is able to display that the Doctor has grown old and in many cases tired. That in growing old he is making mistakes. He lets the Master get the upper hand on him and has to play catch up. So much that in the end it costs him his life. This is the middle of a trilogy which starts with "The Keeper of trakken and ends with "Castrovalva". As with Jonathan Turners new format this is a very dark episode. The end is classic. Tom Bakers regeneration will bring even the toughest person to have a lump in there throat. Very well acted and a great story. Its a sad episode in that we know it also is the beginning of the end for Doctor Who. Turners dream of the Doctor turned to a nightmare. 3 replacements follow Tom Baker in the next 6 years. The budget goes down as does the writing. Its so sad that he took over a great show and destroyed it
One of Doctor Who's finest moments - Rating: 5/5
Logopolis really is a fine story. In fact, it's probably one of the best stories in the series. But first, realise that Logopolis is the second story in a set of three - the first being The Keeper of Traken, and third being Castrovalva. If you haven't seen keeper of Traken, go watch it first before seeing this one.
Logopolis presents a really well conceived, detailed story, and executes well on every level. The story is darker than most, with some forboding incidental music, and several references to entropy, decay, etc. Tom Baker is utterly fantastic in his last story. The scene when he looks outside the TARDIS in Episode 1, and notices the Watcher is precious. His expression and the realisation of worry, and maybe sadness that you see in his face are a sign of what is to come. It's a credit to Tom's acting ability that he can convey so much in barely a ten second scene.
All the actors put in good performances. Tegan is somewhat underused, and Nyssa doesn't really do a whole lot. Adric is still annoying, but is starting to settle in. Of course the story belongs to Tom Baker, and his regeneration scene is touching, sad, and memorable. It was the end of an era for Doctor Who, and the end of a role that Tom Baker adored playing.
