‘Once I too had life.’ Compared to the normal pattern, this third episode definitely feels like it’s stepped up a gear from the opening half. Maxil, previously only interesting because he’s played by Colin Baker, finally does something not completely useless and proves that Nyssa was, in fact, telling the truth – that someone in the High Council is a traitor, plus the Doctor is still alive. This is enough to prompt the Castellan to actually start doing some Castellanning (perhaps he wasn’t feeling well – Paul Jericho sounds a bit hoarse). The result is an episode that, fitfully, starts to make something of the conspiracy mystery.

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‘So much for your justice.’ An attempt to redo The Deadly Assassin with a mysterious traitor in the High Council and lots of intrigue about biodata is undermined by the Doctor’s passive acceptance of his fate. This time, he gets to spend an episode mostly standing round the TARDIS while Nyssa and Damon play Dempsey and Makepeace and try to uncover the truth and save his skin. The plus: Sarah Sutton finally gets a character; the way she imperiously tosses her head at Maxil is pure class and holding the High Council of Gallifrey at gunpoint is a power move.

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‘To kill you? Is that why they’ve brought you back?’ You can see why on paper this looked like a good idea: opening the 20th anniversary series with the first Gallifrey story since 1978, some overseas filming and the return of both an old friend and an old enemy. It’s a slightly longer list of requirements than a writer might usually have – but only slightly. It’s not like The Five Doctors.

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‘I’ll explain later.’ The punchline of The Curse of Fatal Death comes from its repeated use here to gloss over the need for more immediate explanations. It would be OK if these just highlighted Brigadier-style density on the part of the some of the flight crew, but it extends to the conclusion of the whole serial, which – having under-used the Master – doesn’t even feature him. Instead, the Doctor hand waves something to Nyssa and then, to get out of another mildly tricky explanation, abandons Tegan. Coming after Adric’s death, this just makes the fifth Doctor look like a careless idiot: the pay-off to a season when he’s continually been a bit useless.

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‘The TARDIS has turned into a helicopter!’ The end point of Season 19’s Liberty Hall attitude towards the TARDIS naturally concludes with randoms wandering in and flying it about. This undermines what should have been a jarringly wrong moment of the Master at the controls. Having unveiled the Master, Grimwade under-uses him: Ainley spends most of this wandering in and out of the TARDIS looking purposeful.

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‘I’ve always found domination such an unattractive prospect.’ Something about this reminds me of Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Possibly it’s the juxtaposition of Seventies paranormal airy-fairyness with a pretty stolid cast of contemporary characters. Perhaps it’s because elements look like a deliberate homage to The Three Doctors (a mysterious wizard figure and his lumpen guards living in a massive castle in the middle of a barren landscape, apparently using psychokinesis to create objects from thin air). In which case Captain Stapley fulfils the Brigadier role and Professor Hayter stands in for Dr Tyler.

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‘He wouldn’t want us to mourn unnecessarily. A special treat to cheer us all up!’ When the show spends more time dealing with the fall-out from Kinda than Earthshock, something’s not right behind the scenes. It doesn’t need everyone to be wailing and gnashing their teeth, but Adric’s death deserved more than a handful of lines, a non-explanation why the Doctor can’t go back and save him (presumably he just doesn’t want to), and a sudden switch in mood to everyone joking about going to the Great Exhibition (and then complaining when they don’t get there).

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‘Good luck Adric.’ Earthshock is unforgettable for that ending, which I think it earns. I’ve pointed out a lot of things I don’t like, or think don’t work, about the story, but it does a good job of escalating the stakes, creating mounting chaos, and setting up the context for Adric’s death. There are a few contrivances (the Cybermen have to become sadists so that Adric is forced to remain alive on the bridge rather than going back to the TARDIS or being shot), but most of them tie into ideas introduced in earlier episodes – like the Cyber Leader’s desire to make the Doctor suffer – or plot points, like the death of the dinosaurs and the damage to the TARDIS console. Only the freighter’s surprise time travel feels inadequately set up.

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‘Apprehended! Why can’t he say caught? So melodramatic!’ There are moments of visual brilliance in this (the Cybermen fused into a shield door; the Tomb-inspired scenes of Cybermen waking from hibernation and bursting out of cling-film). The bits lifted from Alien – like the scenes where the alien hunt is watched on a ship schematic – are new to Doctor Who, and quite punchy. Brigg’s horrified realisation that there are 15 thousand Cybermen aboard is great.

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‘Brave heart Tegan!’ The new Cybermen look good – more muscular than the earlier versions, while retaining most of their distinguishing features – and Saward has picked up on the idea that they tend to lurk in the shadows while their agents do the dirty work. The Cyber Leader seems a bit vague on the details of how their equipment works, which makes him a typical senior manager, exuding breezy confidence and morale-boosting exclamations of ‘Excellent!’ (these Cybermen have clearly embraced their emotions) while his Lieutenant sweats about delivery. He also has a nice little clips show of previous Doctors Who which probably gave the 1982 fan audience permission to squee.

Back on Earth, the Doctor bravely disarms the Cyber Bomb – thematically relying on instinct rather than methodical procedure. Perhaps there’s a hint, here, that Adric’s dependence on maths and logic mean he’ll ultimately fail while the Doctor’s ability to think irrationally allows him to foil the Cybermen’s Plan A. Alternatively, the Doctor is just as reckless as Adric just much luckier (supporting this: the Doctor’s lovely little smile when Adric suggests they’re being followed). The two of them enjoy a rapprochement, and Adric decides, like Tegan, that he doesn’t want to head home after all. And with Nyssa not having a home to head to the Doctor’s finally got a full crew who want to be there. Let’s hope nothing goes wrong.

Oh. The Cybermen have a Plan B. Of course they do. This involves a space freighter crewed by a typical bunch of Saward “types”: the sarcastic female officer, the sullen male officer and the grizzled, been-there-done-that captain. None of them want to be there, all of them want the promised bonus. They spend their scenes together sniping at one another archly. The most interesting thing about them is that Captain Briggs (hopefully her first name is Nichola) is played by renowned comic actor Beryl Reid, best known latterly (including by me) as the presenter of the Children’s ITV programme Get Up and Go. The campness of this is so completely at odds with Saward’s “gritty” dialogue that it can only have been either an in-joke with his approval, or sabotage. Brilliantly, she’s written almost exactly like Star Trek: Voyager’s Captain Janeway, right down to declaring, ‘Don’t call me ma’am’.

Next episode: Earthshock – Part Three