6. The Deadly Assassin
General Plot: After leaving Sarah Jane Smith on Earth, the Doctor is summoned back to his home planet of Gallifrey. When he arrives, he is struck with a premonition of the Lord President of Gallifrey being assassinated. Sure enough, on the day the President is due to leave office and names his successor, he is shot, with The Doctor found holding the gun. He is captured and put on trial by Chancellor Goth the Time Lord in pole position to become the new president but gets the proceedings postponed on a technicality. He quickly realises that he has been framed for this crime and all signs point to an old foe with a score to settle The Master. Dying and bitter, The Master seeks to harness the power of the Eye of Harmony to ensure his survival at the expense of Gallifrey and hundreds of other worlds. With the help of Co-ordinator Engin and Castellan Spandrell, the Doctor must enter the twisted world of the Matrix to do battle with the Master, with all of reality at stake.
What Makes It Great: A dark and gothic Doctor Who take on the classic novel and movie, the Manchurian Candidate, provides a clever and cunning plot as written by the superb Robert Holmes. The Doctor returns to Gallifrey for the first time since Patrick Troughton's swansong The War Games, and is immediately thrown into the depths of conspiracy, a quest for political powers and a fight for survival. For the only time in the Classic series, the Doctor is without a companion, although he does find allies who are sympathetic to his cause. But essentially the Doctor is alone. This works well, as it shows the Doctor using his own instinct and intellect against a foe that is as brilliant as he is. For the first time since 1973 and the tragic death of Roger Delgado, The Master, now dying and vengeful, returns to square up against Tom Baker for the first of only three meetings. Tom is brilliant going up against Peter Pratt's Master, who is just as ruthlessly determined and manipulative of his predecessor. Holmes is true to the character, as many of the Master's signature traits return his murderous signature of compressing a living being to the size of a doll with his Tissue Compressor Eliminator and his manipulation of Chancellor Goth and the ruthless will to survive at any cost all remain. However, what makes this element of the story so interesting is that when Roger Delgado played the Master, he was hell-bent on conquering the world, whereas now the Master is dying, and his only goal is to survive at any cost. This new take was a fantastic way of reintroducing a classic adversary without the added pressure of replacing the irreplaceable Roger Delgado. The story's secondary adversary is Chancellor Goth, who represents a corrupt and sinister political system. Such a plotline is just as if not more relevant and relatable now then it was back in 1975. The whole thing is rife with political machinations from Goth's ruthless quest for power, which would see the murder of a President and conspiracy to frame the Doctor for the crime, to the Doctor's old teacher Cardinal Borusa trying to cover up the whole incident by 'adjusting the truth' to make Goth seem like a hero instead of letting his crimes come to light where they could damage the public's trust. This corruption at the heart of the Time Lord government is a chilly all-too-real representation of how power affects people and the lengths they would go to for ultimate control. Part 2 and 3 of this story are set mainly inside the vortex in a tense game of cat and mouse between the Doctor and Goth. It's a sequence full of suspense and an example of truly fantastic directing from David Moloney. The final, and most long term effect of this episode, was the establishment of much of Doctor Who folklore. Robert Holmes had a virtually clean slate as the Time Lords had only twice appeared in force, first in War Games and second in The Three Doctors, and he did not disappoint. So much of what was established in this story, set the ground work for many future stories in both the Classic and New series. He established the Time Lords as a proud and noble race that, on the surface seemed great, but at its heart is a corrupt and self-serving civilisation. In doing so, he made it totally believable as to why the Doctor opted to leave all those years ago. Those who have seen The Deadly Assassin would not be surprised as to how the Time Lords were portrayed in The End of Time, as they have always been about self-preservation and corruption. It also established how Rassillon and the Time Lords enabled the use of time travel, as well as other key components like the Eye of Harmony. But the most controversial idea the episode established was the fact that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, a plot device that is now proving to be quite a headache, as the Doctor nears the end of his own life cycle.
Memorable quote: The Doctor: "Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly, and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history..."