N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Delta and the Bannermen, as with Paradise Towers before it, shows a lot of promise, although, much like its predecessor, it suffers from a clash of tones at times.

“This is the real Fifties.”

The Doctor, Delta and the Bannermen: Part One

Delta and the Bannermen also shares with Paradise Towers an incidental music score that is slightly incongruous to the action onscreen, although there are other musical elements that are at least period-accurate.

But, for a story in which Ken Dodd, General Tagge and even a Flying Picket (Brian Hibbard) turn up, I remember remarkably little of Delta and the Bannermen, with the only bits that seemed familiar to me being the long shots of the Doctor riding the motorcycle, in which Sylvester McCoy can be seen wearing his glasses. Even that is more than I remembered of Paradise Towers.

“Actually, I think I may have gone a little too far.”

The Doctor, Delta and the Bannermen: Part Two

The confidence hinted at in Paradise Towers is also apparent, especially from McCoy as the Doctor, and particularly in the cliffhanger to Part Two, although overall I couldn’t shake the impression that the Hi-De-Hi camp had been invaded by a gang of Federation thugs from Blakes 7 [sic]. The contrast between the joviality of the Nostalgia Tours trip with the almost off-hand way in which Don Henderson and the rest of the Bannermen dispatch the entire busload of them is particularly jarring.

Delta and the Bannermen is the first three-part Doctor Who story in twenty-three years and, shorn of having that extra episode to fill, the action fair zips alongs, in truth almost too quickly in places. (Does Delta actually introduce herself by name to anyone? Everyone seems to know it by the second episode!)

But, as with Paradise Towers, you can sense that McCoy, script editor Andrew Cartmel and the rest of the production team are starting to find their feet with the Seventh Doctor. Like its direct antecedent, Delta and the Bannermen is not perfect, but you feel the show is on the right track.