Ep. 98 Volcano

"Well this really is extraordinary. You don't remember anything like this happening before, do you, Scott?"

   While the Doctor and crew are toasting Christmas on board the TARDIS, the Daleks are performing tests on the Time Destructor.  And by tests, I mean that they are going to try to use it to kill Trantiss, the seaweed delegate that the Doctor impersonated a few episodes back.
    This fails leading to a lot of shouting between the Daleks and Mavic Chen.  Chen comes off as a whiny bastard in this scene.  Actually he has come off as a whiny bastard for a few episodes.  Kevin Stoney (who plays Chen) will be back to play one of the series all-time best villains, Tobias Vaughn, in a couple years, so I don't place the blame on the actor.  I know that he can deliver the goods.  I place the blame on the script.
   The Daleks decide to take off after the Doctor to get the real core.  A time ship is summoned from Skaro.
   The TARDIS sensors have picked up a craft following them.  The Doctor is surprised that the Daleks would have gotten to them so quickly.  Steven can't think of anyone else who might be following them. 
   The Doctor decides to take drastic action and lands.  On the middle of a cricket pitch.  In the middle of a game.  Most of this bit is carried by two sports announcers trying to make heads or tails of the odd happening.  It's a fun and funny bit that works, at least on audio.  The actors playing the announcers are wonderfully unflappable as they banter back and forth.
   The TARDIS dematerializes and then materializes on the planet Tigus.  The travelers find themselves in a volcanic landscape.  The TARDIS scanners pick up on the other time craft arriving nearby.  The Doctor decides to investigate, not convinced that the other ship belongs to the Daleks.
   It turns out to be the Monk's TARDIS.  I have to say that after half a dozen episodes of shrill and vile pepper pots, it's nice to see Peter Butterworth take a turn as baddie.
   The Monk managed to get out of 1066 England, but not comfortably.  He's been looking for the Doctor to have his revenge.  Said revenge being to burn the TARDIS lock so that the travelers are trapped on Tigus until the Monk one day returns to release them.  A nice shout out to the Doctor's letter to the Monk in the earlier serial.
   I'm not thrilled with the way they got the Doctor out of this one.  He takes off his special ring and reflects light from the sun onto the lock of the TARDIS.  The TARDIS doors open.  He (rather nebulously) explains that the star in this galaxy (he meant star system, the series is really bad at differentiating between star system, galaxy, and universe at times) has unusual properties that interact with the unusual properties of his ring.
   When the ring was last discussed (back in The Web Planet serial) I didn't remember it having come up again.  I had forgotten about this usage.  With good reason, it's a cheap deus ex machina.
   The travelers are off again with the Monk in hot, albeit polite, pursuit.
   The TARDIS' next stop is London January 1, 1966.  I think that the TARDIS missed Barbara and Ian and wanted to check in on them.  My more practical self notes that this episode aired on New Years Day.
   The Daleks have gotten their tin butts in gear at this point and are also following the TARDIS.
   So far Sara  (not Jane) has traveled with the Doctor to:
       the planet Mira (via teleport)
       the planet Kembel (via Dalek ship)
      20th century Liverpool (via TARDIS)
      early 20th century Hollywood (ditto)
     20th century(?) Australia (ditto)
      the planet Tigus (ditto)
   That's a fair number of trips in a small number of episodes and she still has a few episodes to go.  This may be the best argument that she qualifies as a companion, but I'll hold off on that debate until the end of the story.

Next up: Golden Death