8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Timelash is not the Plan 9 of Doctor Who, August 15, 2001
This review is from: Doctor Who - Timelash [VHS] (VHS Tape)
As a Doctor Who fan, I am well aware of Timelash's "bottom of the septic tank" reputation in the show's history. However, I've seen it many times without getting queasy in the brainpan. And while it has its drawbacks, it isn't all that bad.
The story involves the Doctor and Peri's visit to Karfel, a planet first visited in an untelevised adventure by the Third Doctor, Jo, and Mike Yates. There, they face the Borad, a brutal dictator in command of the title machine, a time corridor apparatus that sends those enemies, mostly imagined, to Scotland in 1179.
The Borad, a half Karfelon/half Morlox mutant, is one of the most imaginative villains I've seen in Who, with a chilling voice to match. If anything, his explanation of his plight is one of the most interesting things in the whole story.
There are many events from the novelization that didn't make it to the televised story due to time and budget limits. One was where the Doctor tossed a stake dipped in M80, hurled it at a Morlox creature, where it mutated into an amalgam of animal and wood tissue. The other was a scene where Mykros and the Doctor discover that the Borad had made twenty-four clones of himself. A pity that one of those scenes couldn't have been used instead of the opening five minutes in Episode 1 of the Doctor and Peri arguing in the TARDIS.
Also missing is the Doctor's explanation of how the TARDIS survived the bendalypse warhead. It involves use of the timeslip used to produce an afterimage and how the missile hit the image after the TARDIS returned to Karfel. All we get here is, "I'll explain someday."
The one drawback is the sets, which seem too drab and claustrophobic. As this was the penultimate story of Season 22, with more of the budget allocated to Revelation Of The Daleks, I suppose that was excusable.
What also sinks Timelash are the supporting characters, most of whom are unappealing or uninteresting. JeanAnne Crowley as Vena and David Chandler as Herbert are exceptions.
Theres a scene where the Sixth Doctor smashes a portait of his third self to help Peri. I felt a bit chagrined at this callous bit of destruction, as Jon Pertwee is my favorite Doctor Who.
Apart from Blake Seven's Paul Darrow as the weaselly Maylin Tekker, there's Steven Mackintosh as the ill-fated Gazak, who has appeared in one of the Cadfael episodes, starred in Lady Audley's Secret, Our Mutual Friend, A Dark Adapted Eye, and best known to American audiences as Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels' Winston.
Not a classic, to be sure, but not an absolute stinker.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well...I liked it anyway., February 3, 1999
This review is from: Doctor Who - Timelash [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Let me start by saying that this story gets an undeserved bad rap from fans. These fans, however, tend to make very good arguments. They tend to say that Baker is bad, the plot is paper thin, the Borad comes back from the dead one too many times, Herbert is annoying, Peri has nothing to do, and on and on and......you get the idea.
All I have to say is...I liked it anyway. My opinion might be slightly biased because I can't see fit to dislike anything Paul Darrow is in(Avon in Blake's 7, note my e-mail address), even if he is playing Tekker a bit OTT. In continuing, I'm going to put a bit of a spoiler in here, so if you haven't seen this story, I would suggest you stop reading.
Anyway, my favourite part of this story has to be the whole idea of Herbert being H.G. Wells, and how in reflecting on the story, you can see the parallel's to Wells's 'The Time Machine'. There is the whole futuristic society controlled by outside forces that seems a bit similar, the Doctor Who character Vena and the Wells character Weena, the Time Machine and the TARDIS, and most obviously the Morlocks who are protrayed in both stories as evil underground dwellers.
As for the Doctor Who part of the plot, see the first paragraph. This story has obviously rubbed some people the wrong way, but I have always thought of it as one of the better efforts from the Colin Baker era.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you've heard is true..., April 9, 1999
This review is from: Doctor Who - Timelash [VHS] (VHS Tape)
...it really isn't very good. Believe it or not, I'm actually a huge fan of season 22. But "Timelash" sticks out like nothing else. It's mostly the plot which is at fault - to be blunt, it's very weak, filled with dull action being extended beyond any sense of proper pacing. There might just be enough story to fill one 45 minute episode, but with two it's simply a sleep-inducer. Things are not helped by the faceless characters and the bad acting on the part of everyone save Colin Baker and perhaps Nicola Bryant and Paul Darrow. And let's not forget the substandard (and for DW no less!) production values either - I suppose from some standpoints they are amusing enough to keep the viewer awake. On the plus side, it's not very hard to understand. But I would definitely recommend any of the other season 22 stories on tape or DVD first, especially "Vengenace on Varos" or "Revelation of the Daleks."
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