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

In a neat (but most probably completely accidental) parallel with An Unearthly Child, the Doctor’s travels end, for the time being at least, with him back in contemporary London, in this case 1989 Perivale.

Apart from a slightly dodgy animatronic cat and Ace going all Krypton Factor assault course on the children’s playground, Survival has a tremendous first episode, the kind of build-up they’d do in a five-minute pre-credit sequence these days but which benefits greatly from having room to breathe. That the second episode is then a pacier affair on the planet of the Cheetah People provides a nice contrast.

Indeed said planet manages to look very alien, one of the least quarry-like looking quarries Doctor Who has been to in many a long year.

“The trails stops here.”

Ace, Survival: Part Three

Add to this a supporting cast that includes future Bernice Summerfield, Lisa Bowerman, comedy duo Hale and Pace, and an especially good Anthony Ainley in a menacing turn as the Master and you have a story that’s rather more than Perivale’s ‘tin cans and stray cats’.

Whilst I can’t deny that it’s taken me a few viewings to warm to Survival, it really does finish off an excellent run of stories for the Seventh Doctor, and albeit with a break of 15+ years, sets up 21st Doctor Who rather nicely. (And this won’t be the last time the Doctor returns to Earth with a Londoner to discover her mother has reported her as missing.)

As it was, Survival was not quite the end for the Seventh Doctor. He’d pop up more than a few times during Doctor Who‘s years in the wilderness, but if it had been the last time we saw him, it would have been a fitting finale.

And of course, it’s hard not feel a lump in the throat with the Doctor’s rather lovely speech at the end as he and Ace head off into the distance for new adventures …