Tuesday 14 June 2011

204 The Wheel in Space: Episode One

EPISODE: The Wheel in Space: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 204
STORY NUMBER: 043
TRANSMITTED: 27 April 1968
WRITER: David Whitaker
DIRECTOR: Tristan de Vere Cole
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: Wheel In Space
TELESNAPS: The Wheel in Space: Episode One

The Doctor & Jamie watch as Victoria waves goodbye to them on the scanner screen. A fault causes the Tardis to land suddenly, Mercury vapour filling the room. The Doctor removes the Tardis' Time Vector Generator immobilising the ship as the retreat into the spaceship in which they've landed. They investigate the seemingly deserted ship, seeking mercury to replenish their supply and noting they're in deep space. Elsewhere on the ship a servo robot patrols and encounters the Tardis. The robot controls the ship changing it's course which alerts the Doctor and Jamie. The Robot opens a pod, revealing a set of white spheres which it allows to escape through the airlock. The ship is approaching a space station and comes to a halt. Trying to get back to the Tardis the Doctor is cornered by the robot which Jamie destroys, but the Doctor is knocked unconscious. On the space station the ship is identified as the Silver Carrier, a missing supply ship. The objects launched from the ship start to collide with the space station. Judging the rocket to be a hazard` they decide to destroy it with the station's X-ray laser.....

Oh dear, what a dreadfully boring episode. It's effectively a two hander between The Doctor & Jamie, but there's no real threat to them for most of the episode and their dialogue lacks the usual sparkle between them. Mercury gets some screen time so this has to be a David Whitaker story!

No comments:

Post a Comment