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

I suppose it’s wrong of me to think the best thing about Four to Doomsday is that Adric gets rebuked by all other three members of the TARDIS crew.

“You’re not so much gullible as idealistic. I suppose it comes from your deprived delinquent background.”

The Doctor, Four to Doomsday: Part Four

Nyssa tells him to shut up, Tegan knocks him out and the Doctor calls him an idiot. Adric may be young, naïve and credulous, but it’s hard not to think he deserves it after his efforts in Four to Doomsday — well perhaps not the concussion, but certainly the hairdryer treatment Tegan gives him beforehand. He’s petulant when told to work with Nyssa, sexist (calling women ‘mindless, impatient and bossy” and following that up by saying Nyssa is ‘only a girl’) and frankly, for all his vaunted intelligence, pretty stupid to believe wholeheartedly in Monarch’s plan without questioning his motives.

Given his relative absence for much of Castrovalva, I’m tempted to think that it’s simply the contrast of his being around that makes Adric’s behaviour so irritating here. Castrovalva worked so well with just the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan. I say I’m tempted, but then I recall that petulant moment in Logopolis and wonder again if he’s not just hacked off at the fact that he doesn’t have the Doctor to himself any more.

Still, being annoyed at Adric certainly livens things up as you go. Otherwise, for me, Four to Doomsday meanders along without ever really being all that engaging. The inhabitants of the space ship — Monarch, Enlightenment and Persuasion, Tigon, Lin Futu — are interesting enough, but the airlock fisticuffs and the space walk (swim, more like) stuff are a bit silly.

That said, I quite like the cricket ball being used to propel the Doctor towards the TARDIS. He’d have to be absolutely spot on with his throw and catch, of course, but then he did say he used to bowl a very good chinaman (and, in a nice touch, looked suitably embarrassed when his eyes met one of the Chinese characters as he said it).

Throwing a cricket ball in space is just the kind of bonkers idea you’d expect to see any of the 21st century Doctors attempt, which is perhaps why, in marked contrast to my vivid memories of its predecessor, going into this marathon, it was just about the only thing I could remember about Four to Doomsday