Admittedly, I’ve always been a bigger Tom Baker fan than of Jon Pertwee, and I consider Tom’s first three seasons to be the pinnacle of the program — certainly of the entire classic era. And yet… I think Pertwee’s Season 7 might be the single best season in the history of the show.
I emphasise might. When evaluating a season, it’s about the lesser stories just as much as the brilliant ones. What’s the overall quality of the season taken as a whole? Season 7, unlike most other seasons surrounding it, kind of cheats a bit. Other seasons have six or more stories — more chances for an epic, but also more chances for a dog. Season 7 contains a mere four stories. But they’re heavy hitters.
Usually, I’d wait until the Blu-ray box set comes out, rewatch them, and then do the article, but The Collection set probably won’t be in my hands for another year, as I’m in America. It will be an event rewatching those, but in order for the first time. You know I love a good overview and this season is soooo good. But does it, in fact, beat out all other seasons?
Well, Season 7 offers us:
- Spearhead from Space
- Doctor Who and the Silurians
- The Ambassadors of Death (I’ll get there, Bar)
- Inferno
We’ve talked about certain stories having an edge, being darker, more serious. These tend to be more highly regarded in general than the lighter fare, that lean a bit more toward the kiddies. The show may have had a reputation for being a kids’ show, but we know that was just incorrect marketing and an uninformed, blathering public back in the day. As soon as the first Dalek terrorised Barbara in that corridor, viewers knew this was more than “just” a kids’ show.
And Season 7 was certainly a more serious affair in general. In Spearhead, Pertwee lightens the tone as he recovers from regeneration and wraps those tentacles around his face — you can take the actor out of the comedy, but you can’t easily take the comedy out of the actor — but the rest of the story is a mix of James Bond, Quatermass, and horror.
The curious title of Doctor Who and the Silurians is probably the lightest part of that production. The whole notion of an entire species sleeping beneath us, then waking up to take back the planet? Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were really swinging for the fences here. The conflict between the Silurians and humans, the conflict between the Doctor and the Brig at the end: very heady stuff. As a seven-parter, clocking in at just under three hours, I could see this trimmed down into a wonderful two-hour, 10 minute film. But stay away, Russell.
Admittedly, maybe the best thing about The Ambassadors… OF DEATH is the screaming title, but then again, maybe it just doesn’t get the necessary love simply by being compared with the stories before and after it! There’s a fair bit more padding in this seven-parter, but again, horror and sci-fi. At this juncture, we should mention Liz Shaw, the most accomplished and professional of all companions to date, again, appealing to the dads, but as a quite brilliant, serious role model to the young girls out there as well. But in every season, there is at least one perceived weak link, and The Ambassadors… OF DEATH would be it for this season. Probably no such thing as a perfect season out there.
Then of course, the showstopper: Inferno. Everything you could want in a present-day Earth story, complete with alternate realities (multiverse, anyone?) and an eyepatch thrown in for good measure. Instead of racing up and down corridors, we’re racing in between realities and against the clock as one world is destroyed, and ours is next on the burner. Few stories have been as suspenseful as this one. Usually, I’d say you could edit this one down to a movie-length feature as well, but the more I think about it, I actually think the episode cliffhangers work very much to this one’s advantage.
Now that we’ve been reminded of the breadth and scope of this season, let’s compare to others. It gets tricky, because of course tastes and opinions of best, worst, and in between are all over the place, especially in Doctor Who.
And again, what strengthens Season 7’s position is it having only four stories, and thus, a great winning percentage. Other seasons might have an epic classic in its stable, like say, Season 12’s Genesis of the Daleks, but then here comes Revenge of the Cybermen to bring down the average. If you’re assessing an entire season, you must include the bad with the good and the excellent. The question in this instance is, does that whole season on average measure up to Season 7?
One contender for consideration might be Season 13. Six pretty strong stories:
- Terror of the Zygons
- Planet of Evil
- Pyramids of Mars
- The Android Invasion
- The Brain of Morbius
- The Seeds of Doom
But this is just one offering, and everyone’s tastes are different. Taken as a whole, averaging the good, the bad, and the ugly, what complete season would you stack up against Season 7?
Discuss! Debate! Deliberate!
