I just can't review this as a mere story. The behind the scenes for its development are far more considerable, and knowing the context of the time is as relevant as anything else. So please bear with me.

In 1980, the media was endlessly criticizing "Doctor Who" as becoming more silly and repetitive. Incidental music was recycled, and the whole thing needed a revamp. My intent in this review is to adumbrate the details of the time and why "Doctor Who"'s format was shaken up considerably, while at the same time critiquing this first episode under the new producer's reign.

John Nathan-Turner, who had worked on the show in various aspects as far back as 1969 (floor assistant for "The Space Pirates"), was promoted producer.

Noting how silly the show had become, he sought to make it more serious - but allowing the Doctor to retain his wit for when it fit in the story, rather than the element of making jokes at the audience. One such joke where silliness was out of hand was in the previous year's story, "Nightmare of Eden". Cornered into a wooded alcove by some monsters, the Doctor is heard yelling "My arms, my legs, my everything!" as if he's addressing the audience rather than the scene the character was in. Fast forward to "The Leisure Hive" and such silliness is gone. But the humor remains. In one of the show's best moments, a murderer used the Doctor's scarf to strangle someone to death. The prosecutor states "His scarf killed Stimson!" The Doctor retorts, "Arrest the scarf then!" We know he's being funny, but the humor flows with the script and with the characters rather than the actor making a joke just for the audience.

John was a shrewd man, in ways. With Romana, he saw in "The Horns of Nimon" she could be a very vocal, moral person who wanted to fight wrongdoing. As "The Leisure Hive", and later stories, prove, this trait was expanded upon and works to GREAT effect. (Indeed, Romana's swansong features this element of her persona as well...)

By 1980, Dudley Simpson's music felt worn out and recycled. John wanted to update the music to fit the new decade society was entering. Dudley, who had worked on the show for roughly 15 years, was let go. John brought in artists from the (now defunct :( ) BBC Radiophonic workshop. It was modern, it was pacey, yet at the same time it had the flair worthy of "Doctor Who". And it works beautifully. The Radiophonic workshop was used as far back as the show's very start in 1963. A brilliant move.

John also felt the show deserved some more educational value; albeit not in the form of history but in science. More children of the time preferred watching the glossy and equally vapid American show "Buck Rogers" (you know, the guy is frozen in 1987, wakes up 500 years later thanks to sexy aliens and has to teach the dumb humans how to boogie their booty to disco and make friends with an oddly shaped robot...) Their loss; WHO now managed to incorporate some science and engineering ideas into its format. While it's true "The Leisure Hive" takes these new ideas heavyhandedly, with later episodes being more even tempered, there's still a lot of detail that holds value over time. How many series and stories of the time (or now!) that deal with nuclear conflict, sterlization, farewell gestures, and so on, with the depth sci-fi should allow by default -- and not being an exception to.

Even the direction; JNT was ambitious early on and the directors he brought in has it showing. Feature film techniques, depth of field, and angles were brought in when possible to help give an updated look. It's visually stunning, in its way.

The show simply HAD to change, to meet the call of the critics and the call of the future. To fade away would be unworthy of such a show (ironic as the BBC ultimately let that happen, deliberately) and, more to the point, WHO's audience was growing up and John felt the show should grow and grow up with it. And "The Leisure Hive", warts and all, is the first example of this change. Subsequent episodes are much more worthy of representation, but there's still a lot in this first story under the new producer that really shows just how much change was in store. It's impossible to critique one without the other, and despite the story's failings, it's still an overall success for where JNT wanted to take the show - as later episodes instantly prove (check out "The E-Space Trilogy" and "New Beginnings" box sets for much more).

"Doctor Who" was reborn and it showed. It had the looks, it answered critics' complaints, it still had great monsters, it had a new and deeper insight on sci-fi concepts (some using real science again), and was intelligent. Did it grab viewers of the time? Depends on the child, but the existing ratings figures showed WHO's revamp wasn't much noticed. Not until the 5th Doctor's arrival did anybody really look. Was it because of the new producer, or was it because people were tired of the show's silliness and other criticisms? Perhaps both, and as I am a rabid fan of Tom Baker's final year, I still want to be objective about this story: Most kids won't understand high school or early-college concepts. But then, WHO's new audience was supposed to be older, more intelligent teenagers. I just don't see a problem with that; mainstream shows are typically banal to begin with, but it's not like anybody in the media gave a fair warning about the changes that were taking place.

But the only real negative on the general revamp of the format is one simple question...

...mark.

"The Leisure Hive" featured the Doctor's outfit now showing question marks on the lapels. There are numerous reasons for this, from character-centric (the Doctor's symbol, like how Superman (Kal-El) had the funky letter "S") to pragmatic marketing; a "?" symbol being more readily recognizable as a logo. The ? mark is partly shrouded in the costume with similar colors, not to mention the scarf... but later eras make prominent use of the ? symbol, it sticks out, and that's when the real arguments begin. Check out another "Doctor Who" story, "Delta and the Bannermen", where I describe just how ridiculous the ? symbol was overused...

And now, because I want to be objective and, besides, it's more fun to complain, the story is far from being perfect:

One of two real problems I have with the story is simple: No explanation for the Doctor's changes in persona. Looking back, I think it can be pieced together. Between "The Horns of Nimon" and "The Leisure hive" is "Shada". Meant to be a season ending extravaganza where the Doctor has to stop one of his own from traveling to the Time Lord prison planet and wreaking havoc, this story could be the epiphany that saps the Doctor of his more comedic nature and makes him more brooding. With "Shada" being scrapped thanks to a strike, the story was never made and viewers were shocked to see the Doctor's new, more serious nature. The story doesn't acknowledge or reflect any event(s) that humbled the Doctor, but with hindsight we can piece enough together and get on with life.

The other is: Episode recaps to the previous episode's cliffhanger often are a minute in length. Episode 4 takes two minutes. I have to blame this on lack of story material/empty padding, as several scenes in the story have no purpose except to waste time (e.g. just how many times we need to see the shuttle arriving bit when it looks like a close-up of a radio microphone circa 1950 instead of a spacecraft from the docking port POV.)

I suppose I should also bleat over the fact the alien Foamasi, big fat lizards with huge honkin' eyes, can squeeze into human skinsuits (unless they're the carcasses of humans, but that would be too grizzly and that level of grim violence wasn't yet introduced into the show...)

And, of course, for kids and casual viewers, they're not going to care about aliens blowing each up in war and making farewell gestures. A shame; this is the stuff that really makes good sci-fi. Allegory without being direct, without being obvious, without being patronizing, and without being preachy. And it's storytelling based on fictional events. We know what nuclear war can do but we don't need to live it in order to understand it and feel for the Argolin plight. The story takes the idea of nuclear war and actually DOES SOMETHING with it, with sci-fi concepts, instead of taking the idea and regurgitating it on itself in a continuous drunken stupor and taking place on Earth circa (insert today's year) because apparently only modern day audiences can fathom what happens to people on Earth in the here and now. Or so modern day producers keep telling people... hmmm...

Rest in peace, John. I saw what your intentions were and most of them were genuine and good. Your era (1980-1989) has some of the most creative stories the show ever had, thanks to the level of detail the show offers by default. Except the ? mark and how it became a parody of whatever intentions were initially devised, but nobody's perfect...

With this storyline, "Doctor Who" embarks upon its tumultuous trek through the 80's with a bang. Starting of course with a new opening sequence complete with a revved-up version of the theme music. I still remember how this surprised me when I was watching the show on PBS in the late 1980's; it seemed excitingly up-to-date, and, well, like most things that are self-consciously up-to-date, it's rather dated now. Pleasantly so, like a hit song by Duran Duran that you haven't heard in ages, but in any case it's rather emblematic of a fairly noticeable shift in the show's long history.

In fact, it's extremely difficult to evaluate "The Leisure Hive" on its own terms instead of as the starting point of John Nathan-Turner's extended tenure as producer. For one, because his fingerprints are all over it. He seems madly intent on redesigning and reinvisioning everything from the Doctor's scarf (toned down to burgundy) to his pet (K9 is written out in what seems like a rather malicious joke). Sometimes he seems almost prophetic; his emphasis on prominent instrumental music with a greater variety of texture and his insistence that the special effects be as top-notch as possible is very much something taken for granted in television today and can readily be seen to great effect in the new "Doctor Who" series now running. But then again, sometimes he seems to be working at cross purposes, toning down the wonderful "undergraduate humor" that Tom Baker brought to the role and which tends to appeal to adults while attempting to make the show more sophisticated by incorporating undergraduate astrophysics (tachyons in "Leisure Hive"). Anyway, at least Romana's still around, so we are given some modicum of continuity.

Now, as for "Leisure Hive" itself, it's lots of hits with a few misses. Again, as with the new opening, the first thing that catches your eye is that it's eye-catching. This is a visually rich storyline with intriguing sets full of exotic colors, and the make-up for the Argolins who run the Hive is aesthetically pleasing and convincingly alien. A clear "Cold War" ambiance informs the tale's historical background: a very brief but extremely devastating war leaving a planet (Argolis in this case) infertile and its people sterile. Similarly to "The Armageddon Factor," it's really fascinating to see how the anxieties of the nuclear arms race translated into a science fiction idiom so that the dire absurdities and fearsome consequences of the situation could be explored without hitting too close to home. The story itself intriguingly deals with serious issues of xenophobia and fascism as well as cultural heritage and corporate exploitation--unfortunately, where these two story elements converge the plot tends to blur somewhat incoherently, as if one more round of editing was needed to tighten up the script just so. However, the directing is creative and expertly evokes depth and tension while the acting is quite excellent, especially Tom Baker's perfect rendition of the Doctor prematurely aged 500 years older.

It must be said too that the extras on this DVD are unusually interesting, especially since they're on the very same disc as the episodes (so as not inflating the wallet damage). In lots of DVD extras out there today, the cast and crew all describe each other as geniuses and go on about how they were all like one big happy family. Which is both unbelievable and boring. Not here, though. the interviewees are delightfully frank, straightforward, opinionated, and critical (in the true sense of the word), and listening to them discuss the significant shift in "Doctor Who" marked by "The Leisure Hive" and their involvement in it is a real eye-opening experience. Their candor is appreciated. So kick back and enjoy this reasonably fine "Doctor Who" moment at your leisure.

John Nathan Turner took over the reins of the series as producer and he showed viewers what was in store for the future of Doctor Who; better special effects, a great opening and stronger performances by future Doctors. The problem with this story is one that is featured in many future stories, plot. Nathan-Turner was more concerned with the flash of the series and not the substance. He went for the hype, the gimmick and left many a story that could have been great flailing to the side. The Leisure Hive is a strong example of this. A great idea of a planet used for pleasure being faced with extinction, but there are so many gaps in the story, you're left scratching your head and saying, "HUH?" The three stars are for the good points and for the intentions of the author.