Category: Complete Review

Sideways in Time – Doctor Who episode 44/B: The Urge to Live (14/11/1964)

Previously on Next Episode… Planet of Giants | Dangerous Journey | Crisis

‘It’s our duty to stop the destruction of a whole planet.’ I can see why the story, rather than The Dalek Invasion of Earth, was held back to open the second season. It provides some great character moments and a chance for all four regulars to work together to save the planet in a rather more intimate way than in Nation’s War of the Worlds epic.

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Sideways in Time – Doctor Who episode 44/A: Crisis [Original Version] (14/11/1964)

Previously on Next Episode… Planet of Giants | Dangerous Journey

‘Some person has invented a way of destroying a planet. Totally destroying it. I cannot – will not – stand by and allow a whole planet to be emptied of life.’ The Doctor’s impassioned plea for his fellow travellers to brace themselves to their duties, even in their desperately reduced circumstances, is a highlight of the episode, and another milestone in his progress from cantankerous anti-hero to Time’s Champion.

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Sideways in Time: Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (19/8/1972)

‘There’s always an answer to be found if you only dig deep enough.’ In every respect this is a superior movie to Dr. Who and the Daleks, dropping most of the laboured comedy and making the most of its significantly bigger budget to bring the highlights of the TV serial (i.e., not the Slyther) to the cinema screen, IN COLOR!. And yet, released in August 1966 after the peak of Dalekmania and during a period of reduced Doctor Who TV audiences, it didn’t capture the public imagination. Nor do I imagine it had quite the same impact on TV audiences on first broadcast in August 1972 – coming just seven weeks after the debut of Dr. Who and the Daleks.

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Sideways in Time: Dr. Who and the Daleks (1/7/1972)

This big-screen reimagining of the first Dalek serial is not strictly in the scope of the Pilgrimage – as it wasn’t made by the BBC. But it has at least been broadcast on BBC One several times since it first aired in July 1972, in the downtime between The Time Monster and The Three Doctors. Thus, while it was the first colour Doctor Who when it played in cinemas during 1965, by the time it reached TV screens it was too late to be either the first story broadcast in colour, or the first Dalek story broadcast in colour.

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Doctor Who episode 887: The Power of the Doctor (23/10/2022)

‘This is the day you are erased from existence forever.’ This was conceived not only as Whittaker and Chibnall’s swansong, but also the final Doctor Who episode for the foreseeable future – the Survival of the 21st Century series. It was also part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations. Thus Chibnall has to strike a balance between wrapping up the continuity of his own episodes, and making something that marks four, 17, 59, or 100 years depending on your point of view.

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