Season 18, Episode 3 | 4 parts | First broadcast: 25 October – 15 November 1980 | Writer: Andrew Smith | Director: Peter Grimwade
Cast
- Tom Baker as the Doctor
- Lalla Ward as Romana
- Matthew Waterhouse as Adric
- John Leeson as the voice of K9
Summary
Drawn through a mysterious charged vacuum emboitement into the parallel pocket universe of E-Space, the Doctor and Romana arrive on Alzarius, where the descendants of a marooned starship crew face a recurring, mysterious crisis called Mistfall, during which savage amphibious Marshmen emerge from the swamps. As young stowaway Adric proves unexpectedly useful, the Doctor uncovers a shocking truth about the colonists’ own origins that threatens to upend everything they believe about their history.
Interesting Facts
- This story introduces Adric, played by Matthew Waterhouse, who stows away aboard the TARDIS and becomes a regular companion from this point onward.
- It marks the Doctor and Romana’s accidental arrival in E-Space, a parallel universe setting that would frame the next several serials of the season.
- Writer Andrew Smith was reportedly a teenage fan when he submitted the script, making him one of the youngest writers ever to pen a broadcast Doctor Who story.
- Its twist regarding the Alzarian colonists’ true nature and origin gave the serial an unusually thoughtful science-fiction core beneath its monster-of-the-week surface.
No Responses