N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Momentous stuff here – the Doctor meeting his previous selves resulting in the Time Lords lifting his exile, an epic space opera featuring the Master and the Daleks in the middle of it and a much-loved companion leaving at the end. Yes, you got your money’s worth in the tenth anniversary season!
No disrespect meant to Katy Manning, who’s been great from the off as Jo Grant, but I’ve always questioned the production team’s thinking behind ditching Liz Shaw. I don’t think there were nearly as many dramatic problems as has been suggested in having a companion who was a scientist like the Doctor. In fact, the seventh season was one of the strongest the show ever had.
“It’s quite like old times …”
The Second Doctor,
The Three Doctors: Episode Two
So for me it’s taken until this season for the Doctor and Jo’s companionship really to find its groove. Here, there’s an easy rapport between the two, perhaps helped by the Doctor’s being less grumpy now that he’s able to roam the universe again. Despite the new-found freedom, it’s perhaps telling that at the end of Planet of the Daleks, all Jo wants to do is go home. (Mind you, after the number of times she was captured in Frontier in Space, can you blame her?)
Events off-screen would also have contributed to the sombre feel that accompanied the transmission of the season’s final episode. Roger Delgado’s tragic death a few days earlier robbed Doctor Who of one its greatest stars, who, despite his brilliant scene-stealing villainry on screen, was by all accounts one of the nicest men you could ever meet.
As with Jo Grant, Delgado’s Master will be much missed.
"My favourite Third Doctor stories so far are season finales:
The Dæmons, The Time Monster and The Green Death."
"My least favourite Third Doctor story so far is Spearhead from Space."
