Season 18 – Doctor Who

Audience Reviews

View All (5) audience reviews

Nymphrodell S This season felt like it was treading water until Peter Davidson. Keeper of Traken and Logopolis were the highlights. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking when they made the Leisure Hive. It might have been okay in the 70s, but they were way too proud of their special effects. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 11/19/23 Full Review Wolfgang B Tom had very obviously checked out by this stage, unfortunately. The off-screen issues are apparent by this point. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/02/23 Full Review Audience Member A strong enough final season for the 4th doctor era, taking away some of more ridiculous elements, and giving the show a bit more of a serious and focused tone. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Atrocious apart from the e space trilogy Tom bakers fourth doctor goes out on a low note Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Along with Season 19, Season 18 ushered in the best era of 'Doctor Who' after the 60s-early 70s seasons of the show. The preceding season was marred my exceedingly low budgets - that even made 'Blake's 7' look like a Hollywood blockbuster! - and inanely stupid scripts filled with absurd and usually painfully unfunny comedy. Season 16 and 17 are some of the lowest points the show ever experienced, being even worse than most of poor Colin Baker's seasons and on par with McCoy's disastrous first season. Tom Baker is pretty dour and grouchy in the role of the Doctor by this point, due to personal problems and a general fatigue after having played the Doctor for the past six years, but despite this, his change of persona for this season actually helped cement an air of importance and danger and fed into the idea that entropy was, indeed, fast approaching from E-Space, posed to bring about the heat death of the universe. Gone are the campy, over the top gags and shenanigans of the Doctor from the previous season, replaced by a sophisticated sarcasm and a sense of urgency in his thoughts and actions. Unlike the preceding seasons helmed by Graham Williams, none of the stories in this season are actually bad. You'll certainly not find the abject stupidity of something like 'Horns of The Nimon' here, nor will you find the bland, monotony of 'Creature From The Pit' and 'Nightmare of Eden'. The weakest stories are the opening story 'The Leisure Hive', which still features generally good acting from stalwart guest stars and interesting scientific and philosophical themes that will heightened later in the series after the Doctor reaches E-Space, and 'Meglos', which admittedly is a bit of campfest, made, in fact, as a spoof of the stories of the Graham Williams; but 'Meglos' contains a charm that the Williams era never really possessed. The greatest stories of this season are hard to chose as they were all very good and Bidmead certainly proved himself to be one of the greatest of all the script writers the show ever had. Perhaps I'd go with 'The Keeper of Traken' as the greatest of the serials this season, as it brought back an air of quiet malevolence to the Master after the shouting, maniacal meglomania of Peter Pratt's (admittedly good) portrayal. Geoffrey Beevers's, playing the decayed and dying Master, intent on seeking a new regenerative cycle, plays the role with a soft and silky voice, soothing and chilling all at once, bringing to mind Satan as a seducer. Beevers gives a masterclass - if you'll pardon the pun - in subtle acting, which really benefits the role. As much as I like Anthony Ainley as an actor and in the role of the Master, I find it a bit of a shame that he wasn't allowed to be as subtle and menacing as Beevers was, and neither were any of the New Series Masters, save for Jon Simm in his final appearance in New Who's Series 11 finale. It is strange that the Master would become such an over the top figure when even Roger Delgado was usually quiet, sly and cunning, only bordering on maniacal when it the midst of defeat or when hypnotising a victim to do his bidding. This season also saw the introduction of a much better looking TARDIS after the flat-roofed TARDIS held sway for so long after being brought in nearer to the end of the Hartnell era. This Season 18 TARDIS would closely resemble the TARDIS of Hartnell's earlier seasons and would continue to be the official TARDIS, even through much of the long hiatus until it was replaced in 1996 with a similar looking model in the McGann TV movie. None of the TARDISes (Tardeis?) in the New Series have ever looked as good as the TARDIS from Season 18. All in all, JNT and the rest of the production team of Doctor Who really did save the show from the trash heap it had found itself in after the travesty that was the Graham Williams era. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/09/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Doctor Who — Season 18

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW