CinemaSerf

This is another of my childhood favourites, and it features the RSC's very own Philip Madoc, too! It starts with the traditional TARDIS ending up in the wrong place malarkey, and for the "Doctor" (Tom Baker) and "Sarah Jane" (Elisabeth Sladen) to find themselves stranded on a bleak, moonscape of a world with lightning storms and little else. They stumble upon the castle of "Solon" (Madoc) and his patchwork sidekick "Condo" (Colin Fay) and we enter the "Frankenstein" phase of the drama. "Solon" is somehow luring ships to their graves on this rocky planet so he can use their dying crew for body parts. For "Condo"? Well maybe, but we know that there is to be another, altogether more malevolent, recipient of a body too. Meantime, there is a devout sisterhood on the planet too, a race whose mastery of telepathy is every bit as formidable as that of the Time Lords. They suspect that the "Doctor" has come to pinch their sacred, life-giving, elixir - and so set about making sure he is set for a fiery end. Now the time travellers have to juggle the mad scientist - and his own version of "Igor" in one corner and the powerful and superstitious women, clad in red, in the other. This is a well told story with plenty of familiarity (no, it's not very original) and some good old Thespian ham to counter a little of Baker's dominating flamboyancy. The sets and the writing work well and leave us with an enjoyable mix of science and mysticism.