LOGOPOLIS and the FINAL SEASON

[Prydonian]

Well, Tom admits he was getting more and more criticial of the scripts that were coming in, and felt it was time for someone else to have a go. Plus, he may not have gotten along well with the new personnel in front of and behind the camera, as they only had that one series (some only a story or two) to work on, so things just were not gelling. Or maybe he was just getting tired of the role. I certainly don't blame him for leaving when he did, and think he went out on a real high.

[Tanlee]

In terms of the final season, I'd say The Leisure Hive was a clear sign of something having gone badly wrong. The story is just incoherent drivel and horribly impenetrable, and in a way that's unprecedented for the show at that point but a mainstay of the JNT years, it is utterly sterile and soulless. Had I been watching it at the time, I think it would have been enough to make me stop watching the show altogether.

Meglos is a kind of guilty pleasure. A kind of last hurrah throwback to the fun of the Williams era. Full Circle is at least competent but doesn't really have much to it. State of Decay and Warriors Gate I'd rank as the best of the season and as some fine examples of Doctor Who.

Keeper of Traken again is too slow and dull for me. But Logopolis is an impressive finale to the season and deliberately unnerving and uncomfortable to watch with some deeply haunting images. I like the way it's done almost in meantime. Given the almost corrosive critical mass of bad stories we would get after this, I strongly believe that it would have been better if they'd ended the show on Logopolis.

I will say I kind of liked Bidmead's approach, or at the least I felt that he was exactly the kind of tedious perfectionist the show needed at that point, and without him it all fell apart (and I take my hat off to him for his hardline criticisms of the RTD revival and for not toeing the insufferable party line).

[Captain Rum]

I think Logopolis is an excellent final story for Tom, he gets to save the entire universe so you can't really get much more of a heroic last act than that, can you? The story is very clever and thought-provoking, as well as very atmospheric with terrific music, Anthony Ainley's Master is a creepy foe for the Doctor and Tom gives a great final performance. The concept of the Watcher is brilliant as well.
Tom's last season is very atypical of his overall style of stories, with little humour, very serious and scientific and the updated music and titles give it a much more 80's feel, while Tom is very subdued throughout compared to his previous madcap lunatic style, and you also get the loss of Romana and K9 and the introducing of the juvenile companions so for these reasons it's not the most popular of seasons but there is much to recommend in Season 18, and all of the stories are well above average.

I agree with you 100%, plus Logopolis is my favourite ever Who story. As for him deliberately letting go, I don't think that that's the case, unless the chat with The Watcher on the bridge was when he was told that his time was soon to be up. Then again a bit of mystery is to my liking, I wouldn't want to know ALL the facts anyway, leave a bit to my imagination! The Keeper Of Traken and Logopolis are fantastic stories and I think Tom finishes with some of his best performances as The Doctor, seeing the Dvd and knowing what's going to happen...it still hits you.

[metalheadjay]

I think the fact remains that John Nathan-Turner was a terrible choice as producer. I often wonder if Anthony Read was even asked? I feel Read would have been the perfect choice to take over after Graham Williams. He actually produced "The Pirate Planet" while Graham was out with a broken leg(holiday accident) and convinced the BBC to take a chance on the Douglas Adams script. He was also a great script editor and writer and knew the show instinctively.

[ThetaSigma]

Yes, but did he get on well with Tom, that Tom would have been happy doing what became his final season on the programme? Let alone staying for a few more years, would Tom have been happy working for Anthony Read?

[metalheadjay]

I think Baker and Read got on quite well. They always had positive things to say about one another on the commentaries. I definitely think Read could have convinced Tom to do another two or three seasons. Tom did enjoy Read's contributions. He was certainly more of a fan of his compared to John Nathan-Turner.

[ThetaSigma]

Oh Lord yes, I mnow Tom did not get one well with his last two TV series producers. A shame as I feel Tom really came into his own mid-run and it would have been nice had everyone behind the scenes been on the same page with him.

[metalheadjay]

The problem with Turner was that he wanted to make a teen to adult show that was all style over substance. He really just sucked all of the fun out of "Doctor Who". Tom wanted it to be a family show that had both style and substance.

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Tom's final season(18). I enjoy the harder science fiction themes and the tone is quite atmospheric but I so miss the fun, the humor, the more witty writing, story development, and Dudley Simpsons wonderful scores of Tom's previous seasons. I just thought Turner took the show way too far in one specific direction and disregarded too many of the aspects that made "Doctor Who" so excellent in the 70's. In most interviews, I've seen of writers(who worked on his stories) speaking about him. They seem to imply that he really didn't care about an intelligent, witty story that paid attention to narrative development and characterization. I guess this was indeed the case, because "Doctor Who" continued to get worse and worse as the years passed when he was producer. Sylvester McCoys last season wasn't too bad but by then it was too late.

[ThetaSigma]

True, the series changed drastically and was never the same again when Nathan-Turner took the reins in hand.
I am not as into the later uyears as I am of the eras of the earlier Doctors. I have tried with every Doctor, to like his era no matter how short or long, good or bad, but really come back to one fundamental truth: the classic series was greatly ruined in some respects after Tom bowed out. Thank God he is now doing audios as an alternative for those who miss his tenure and want to hear new stories set in that timeframe.

[metalheadjay]

And what would be even better? Putting those audio's to an animated series!