Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity (1983)

This season opener would like to be a more significant story than it is: we get the return of Omega, the fallen Time Lord introduced and despatched in the mythologising The Three Doctors (though only long-time series fans remembered who he was), a trip to a foreign locale (Amsterdam) as in City of Death, a forced return to Gallifrey for another go-round with the Time Lord High Council (picking up threads from The Deadly Assassin and, um, The Invasion of Time) and an odd feint whereby Tegan (Janet Fielding), who seemed to have left the TARDIS and the show, is roped back in again. It even brings on a future Doctor, Colin Baker as a nasty Gallifreyan security wonk who strides about in a breastplate with his helmet under his arm like some Flash Gordon character. But somehow, it's all a bit flat - confirming that the show was shrinking in ambition, intent only on addressing its fanbase. Furthermore, it's full of hackneyed business and overinflated dramatics: because the mystery anti-matter being identified late in the day as Omega is threatening to bond with the Doctor to return to this universe, the Time Lords decide the simplest thing is to kill the victim as if this'll leave the baddie with nowhere else to go - and the only dignitary who is against this is therefore guessably the traitor working with Omega (since he's played by Michael Gough at his most unctuous, it's even more obvious).

As usual when onscreen too much, the Time Lords turn out not to be figures of awesome power and diffidence but snivelling near-senile idiots in robes who never get anything done (Leonard Sachs has a lot of trouble with his lines). It has an odd structure whereby we cut between business with the Time Lords on Gallifrey and Tegan's adventures with her zombie cousin (who looks like a complete '80s plonker) and an English twit backpacker in Amsterdam - and the astonishing coincidence that out of all the people in the universe, Omega happens to snare someone the Doctor knows. Omega seems everywhere all at once, making one wonder why he wants to be confined to a body - and has an especially silly beaked monster sidekick who serves no story point. There are good moments - Peter Davison makes something of his brief role as Omega, suggesting that having a body might even make him less of a grumpy bastard (he listens to a calliope playing Tulips from Amsterdam and smiles at a little boy) before he dissipates under glowing goop. Out of her stewardess uniform, Fielding is stuck with an appalling 1983 ensemble: cream lacy boob tube, culottes and organ grinder's monkey waistcoat.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com