Doctor Who - Time-Flight

The end of season 19

I should start be saying that for me the show began to go off kilter a bit during the JNT era. However, I really still like Peter Davison's first season but this one is the worst of them. It isn't really a bad story but it feels like a missed oppertunity which unfortunately would mark a bit of the JNT era. This is one of those episodes that you sit around, watch and can't really why you don't care more for it. I hadn't seen it in years and then I preordered it before it was released about a year ago. My thought was that it probably wasn't as bad as I had remembered and sat down prepared to give it a chance. The problem is that after watching it again, I haven't pulled it out since. October 19, 2008

"The coherence is breaking up!"

I hadn't watched TIME-FLIGHT since my teenage years and I didn't really remember much about it apart from the very low opinion it has amongst Doctor Who fans. Watching this on DVD years later it turns out that the serial is everything I was expecting and more.

TIME-FLIGHT is the story of two British Concordes which accidentally travel 140 million years into the past. In this time zone is a mysterious sorcerer, an old enemy, blobby creatures called Plasmatons and an ancient, powerful extraterrestrial race called the Xeraphin with the whole plot revolving around the age-old struggle between good and evil. If this sounds interesting to you, then you'll no doubt be disappointed by the end result. The serial ends up being a bunch of different bits and pieces thrown together with little in the way of structure or logic to form them into a cohesive whole.

TIME-FLIGHT's first problem is its script. By eleven minutes into the first episode, we're already knee-deep in technobabble; we'll be in over our heads before the final credits roll. This is what people who say they don't like science-fiction probably cannot stand. If one doesn't know the conventions of the genre, one would assume that one lacks the knowledge of science and therefore cannot follow the story for that reason. They don't realize that the screenwriter is just making up all this physics as he goes along.

The script does far too much telling with almost no showing. Characters simply stand around reading plot points to each other. Why, for example, does control of the Xeraphin give the story's bad guy unlimited power? The audience is never given a reason for that; the story simply asserts it. The epic verbal battle between the good Xeraphin and the bad is also poorly illustrated. Philosophers and theologians for centuries have discussed the nature of good and evil; the best on offer here is one guy surrounded by odd special effects shouting (and I paraphrase), "Be good!" at another guy who responds (paraphrasing again), "No, be evil!" (This script is apparently hostile to philosophers in general. There's a bizarre potshot at Bishop Berkeley in episode one which never gets followed up on.)

There's no sense of danger, suspense or drama; the characters simply happily tell the audience when things are going well and then gloomily inform us when things are going badly. Even when actual events occur, they aren't particularly memorable. Fans remember the two stories where Tegan's mind was possessed by the Mara; does anyone similarly look upon TIME-FLIGHT as the gripping story where Nyssa is possessed by the Xeraphin? Does anyone recall that plot-point more than an hour after viewing?

And what is the point of Kalid the sorcerer? I don't want to give away too much (can I really spoil a story from twenty-six years ago?), but does any part of his plan make sense? Why does he chant and cackle and stay in that outfit even when there is no one else around? Amusingly, the first word he states out loud is part of his chant and is a hearty: "Shiraz!" Which I assume that producers were drinking quite a lot of when they came up with these ideas.

Like Peter Davison on the DVD's commentary track, I find myself trying desperately to think of something positive to say. The set of Kalid's inner sanctum is kind of nice looking. I like his giant crystal ball. And the DVD extras are not only the best thing about the purchase, but they're actually good on their own merits.

This disc features a mini-documentary focusing on the companion Tegan. It's mostly built around a single camera interview with Janet Fielding who turns out to give one of the strongest and most interesting takes I've seen an actor give concerning their time on Doctor Who. In just a few sentences she neatly sums up virtually all of the problems that the show displayed during this era.

The DVD commentary track is also worth a listen. Actors Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding join script-editor Eric Saward who spends most of his time alternating between profuse apologies and finger-pointing at the rest of the production team. There's not a lot of insight to be gained, but the cast at least make the serial fun to watch by pointing how much they enjoyed working with the other people in the story. Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding have a lot of fun pointing many of the shortcomings. Peter Davison on numerous occasions points out (correctly) that quite a lot of the problems with how the production visually looks are due to the fact that TIME-FLIGHT was at the end of a season and therefore had almost no money left out of Doctor Who's already minuscule budget.

In Doctor Who serials, when sorrows came, they came not as single flaws but in battalions. TIME-FLIGHT is one of those stories where virtually every aspect of production ends up looking shabby . The script is unsteady, the sets are cheap, and the direction is static and dull. If you plan on watching this, then I suggest taking a page out of the DVD's commentary track participants and plan plenty of breaks and the medicinal use of chocolates or other mood-enhancing substances. May 22, 2008

Great DVD.

An excellent episode. I can't wait for the rest of the series to be released. February 9, 2008

Oh, come on, it's better than you think!

Thanks to reviewer John Liosatos, I was convinced to have a second look at Time Flight when it came out on DVD and I'm glad I did. I have a newfound liking for the story, it's a good light-hearted simple adventure.

Like Timelash, Time-Flight certainly isn't a classic, I can't give it five stars, because there are a few things still niggling, the way they leave Tegan still feels jarring, as does the Master dressing up as an Arabic zombie.

But despite that... Time-Flight is great! Once they get over the sadness of Adric being killed, this TARDIS crew of the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa suddenly work a lot better, without Adric's petulant streak that was apparent with his time with the Fifth Doctor. I love the irony that the Doctor keeps trying to get Tegan to Heathrow Airport, but fails, and when he doesn't try, he reaches it bang on target, right place, right time. And the script has some good quips in it, with the Doctor climbing out of the TARDIS and into a side compartment of the plane, and saying in wonder, "This is smaller on the inside than it is on the outside!" Nice twist on the common quote.

As for the same old argument, the special effects are worse here, Grimwade (the writer) shoulod've known better, boo-hoo, get over it. The sole positive viewpoint on the DVD with the Grimwade interview says it perfectly, "You've got to keep pushing the ideas" Good on ya Grimwade. If you can't stretch your imagination, and let yourself get into the story (sending a Concorde back to prehistoric times... you don't see that in every sci-fi show), then frankly, you're a mindless zombie. I remember when Star Wars Episode 2 came out in the cinemas, and me and a friend who had just seen it were talking about it, his comment was... "Well, there wasn't really a story. It was... just special effects. But man, they were good!" Six years later, he's a new Doctor Who fan thanks to this very DVD!

And after some forgettable extra characters in Earthshock, we have what Janet calls on the commentary, "Crispin's Boys!" (??) Captain Stapley makes an excellent short-term friend for the Doctor, taking in all his unreal surroundings with a mixture of wonder and daring (Who else tries to sabotage the TARDIS to stop the Master?) Oh, and Professor Hayter makes a good foil, at the start seeming like a closed-minded sceptic, but at the end, sacrifices himself to the Xeraphin. Oh, and at the end, where the three pilots try to convince security that they went back 140 million years, and one of them quips "Think of the overtime!" is hilarious. A 1980's pilot's yearly salary multiplied by 140 million... anyone know how much that will be?

All in all, give it a go. Be careful, though, because most of the extras, like Timelash, are on the negative side. After the commentary, I was almost convinced that I had watched the worst Doctor Who story ever. Then I remembered Last of the Time Lords, Boom Town, Parting of the Ways, Silver Nemesis, Arc of Infinity, and I came back to my senses. January 21, 2008

One of my favorites!

I have always enjoyed the interaction between Peter Davison's Doctor and Anthony Ainley's Master, and this is one of my favorite episodes featuring the two. I was delighted to see it come out on DVD, and I enjoyed the extras! December 27, 2007

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