N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
“Like it or not, Gallifrey is involved, and I’m afraid things will never be quite the same again.”
The Doctor, The Deadly Assassin:
Part Two
This is the point at which my childhood memories of Doctor Who begin, if not exactly to kick in, at least to fade in.
Given my comments last time out about not remembering Sarah, I think it must be the repeat transmission from the summer of 1977 that I recall seeing. (Forty years ago – doesn’t that make me feel old!)
In truth, the memory is pretty vague, more an impression of a memory than a clear one, but the shots of the Doctor with his foot trapped in the rail and the fight in the water with Goth (in its unedited form, arguably Doctor Who‘s most controversial moment of the 70’s), were definitely familiar when I watched this story again back in the 90’s. As such, The Deadly Assassin holds the distinction of being the earliest Doctor Who story I can remember seeing.
As with The Brain of Morbius, Robert Holmes’s gift for drafting swathes of Time Lord mythology almost in passing is on full display here. We learn that the Doctor is a member of the Prydonian chapter, that there is a computer matrix of all Time Lord knowledge (a form of cyberspace in all but name), that the Time Lords rely on the Eye of Harmony, that the sacred relics of Rassilon wield great power (indeed the mention of Rassilon himself is a first), and, perhaps most significantly of all, that there is a twelve regeneration limit for Time Lords.
Why only twelve regenerations? My own half-baked, unsupported theory/interpretation is that Robert Holmes took the four televised Doctors (Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee and Baker) and added them to the eight Morbius faces to give us the possibility that the Doctor only had one more life left in him. (I realise that this is of course unsupportable in light of subsequent events, but as I’m pretending it’s still late 1976, it’s all I have!)
The idea of there being a limit to the number of lives a Time Lord has is nevertheless a good one. For one, it gives the Master motivation behind his desperation here. Speaking of whom, how long has it been for him since we saw him slope off at the end of Frontier in Space? Did the Daleks catch up with him and reduce him to this emaciated state on Tersurus before Goth rescued him? (Remarkably, the Master’s appearance in The Deadly Assassin makes it the only story in seasons thirteen and fourteen with a returning villain.)
“We must adjust the truth.”
Borusa, The Deadly Assassin:
Part Four
The Gallifrey of The Deadly Assassin is a richly drawn place, stuffed with the kind of pomposity and circumstance that makes you understand precisely why the Doctor bunked off with a TARDIS in the first place. Part-political thriller, part-hallucinatory head-trip, The Deadly Assassin is another classic slice of the seventies and further proof, if any were needed, that Robert Holmes is Doctor Who‘s greatest writer.
Although yes, the title is a bit naff.
"Oh Doctor? …
Nine out of ten."Borusa, The Deadly Assassin:
Part Four
"The matrix is a great idea – that's why Part Three is so good."
"Also, the idea of being constantly followed (like Heaven Sent) is a great one because it's breathtaking and you don't know what's going to happen next."
"In Part Four, Engin says that Time Lords dies after the twelfth regeneration. That is the first time anyone has said that in the show, ever!"
Son of UT Rating: 9/10
