Just as with Colonel Archer's unfortunate(ly acted) demise, you can tell how much fans are willing to disavow something by how few images of it you can find doing a Google or Bing search. Our search for an image of the Bandril Ambassador from Timelash - a story that regularly comes in dead last in lists of worst Doctor Who stories - turned up exactly two such images. Neither were of sufficient quality to show just how ghastly this thing is, nor to communicate just how much it makes most fans want to crawl away and die whenever they see it. Now, we've already said that we know Doctor Who always had to work on a shoestring budget, and this story more than any other in the 1980s reveals that, right down to the Christmas tree tinsel in the Timelash itself. But the Bandril Ambassador takes the cake, and could probably hold onto it, too, because he is a hand puppet. Pure and simple. There's no point in even trying to suspend disbelief on this one - disbelief would have to be surgically removed from your body and then transplanted into someone else in order for you to believe this was a serious attempt to suggest an alien lifeform. Much like it would have to be removed and transplanted before you believed that Timelash was a serious attempt at a Doctor Who story.
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
