Doctor Who: Four To Doomsday (1982)

You have to feel sorry for the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) 'trapped' in the TARDIS with two of the universe's biggest whiners: Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) and Tegan (Janet Fielding). At least he had the smart and lovely Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) for some intelligent conversation!

Following on from the disappointing Castrovalva, The Doctor is trying to get Tegan back to Heathrow airport in 1981 so she can resume her job as an air hostess.

Arriving at the right time, but in the wrong place, The TARDIS and her crew find themselves on a massive spaceship four days away from Earth.

The ship is home to a trio of strange, super-powerful humanoids led by the polite, soft-spoken autocrat Monarch (a wonderful turn by Stratford Johns). Also on board are four seemingly immortal humans - from various points in Earth's anicent history - each with a retinue of silent helpers from their same period of time.

Four To Doomsday is one of Doctor Who's more cerebral tales, with limited bursts of violence reserved for the final episode of this four-part, 100-minute story. There is a lot of talking and pontificating, punctuated by some really annoying moaning, griping and complaining from Tegan and Adric.

It is only really through the actions of Ancient Greek philosopher Bigon (Philip Locke) that The Doctor really finds out what's going on and realises that Monarch's intentions for Earth are not as benevolent as he may have suggested.

Sadly, Adric - as his way - is more gullible and sides with Monarch, while Tegan strikes off on her own eventually and somehow manages to dematerialise the TARDIS and move it out of Monarch's ship, so that it is left hanging in the vacuum of space.

Nyssa is the only one of The Doctor's companions who keeps her head... and almost gets turned into an android for her troubles!

An entirely studio-bound story with some cracking dialogue and minimal, wonky 80's special effects, Four To Doomsday is an interesting story because it's very different from an average Doctor Who story. Perhaps it's major weakspot is the rather sudden - and possibly brutal - way that The Doctor ultimately disposes of Monarch.

There seems to be no reason for Monarch's continued travels between Earth and his home planet and Tegan converses fluently with a millenia-old aborigine, but this is really nit-picking in an absorbing, dialogue-led, quirky - if slightly forgetable - story.