The Ambassadors of Death

This story begins intriguingly with UNIT and The Doctor helping to look into space missions which have run into trouble. The whole story has brilliant performances from Jon Pertwee (The Doctor), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stuart), Ronald Allen (Professor Cornish), John Abineri (General Carrington) and the rest of the cast, some good grown-up science fiction writing, realistic dialogue, plenty of thrills and intrigue plus good production values. It features some mysterious aliens, lots of action and double crossing and some good underlying moral themes to do with xenophobia and military reaction to perceived threats. That this good, solid story is the weak link in season 7 is testament to the extremely high quality of this series of the show.

The first episode is very well done with interest provided by missing astronauts, mysterious goings on, lively action and very good script and performances. The second and third episodes are less impressive. The storytelling in these two episodes feels a bit jumbled and unclear and in the second episode the Doctor inexplicably is able to make an object disappear into thin air and reappear at will - bizarre and inconsistent with anything in the series history! Episodes 4 and 5 are better although it is slightly hard to believe that UNITs security is repeatedly shown to be so poor. Episodes 6 and 7 are back to the excellent standard of the first part with the story coming to a well written, action packed and satisfying climax.

Whilst being pretty impressive for its day in presenting a space mission it does not feel entirely in keeping with its setting in the 70s or even early 80s. The ability to travel to Mars, to carry out launches and returns to Earth at great speed and a few other bits of technology shown suggest a more advanced age. This is because it was originally written to be a Second Doctor story set a bit further in the future. The original story was written by David Whitaker and would be his last credit as writer on the series. Whitaker had been the very first Doctor Who script editor, a role he carried out brilliantly, and had written such great stories as The Crusade, The Power of the Daleks and The Evil of the Daleks. His contribution to the series was huge. Sadly this final story was rewritten (uncredited) by Terrance Dicks, Malcolm Hulke and Trevor Ray and, whilst good, I believe it became less successful than it could have been. I think the rewrites lead to the little bits of jumbled plot, UNITs inept security and the Doctor's incongruous magical powers making it into the story! It is also a pity the story was used whilst the Doctor was stuck in a contemporary Earth setting as a setting in the future would have added believability.

This is a very exciting, enjoyable, well acted story but under different circumstances I think it could have been one of the real classics which it falls short of in my opinion.

Episode ratings: Episode 1 - 9/10, Episode 2 - 6.5/10, Episode 3 - 7.5/10, Episode 4 - 8/10, Episode 5 - 8/10, Episode 6 - 9/10, Episode 7 - 9/10.

Overall: 8.14/10

Series seven episode three is a gem buried in diamonds. It’s a great fun action packed story with a few surprises up its sleeves. It merely suffers being surrounded by three classics.

If you’ve not seen it I suggest you do as it’s one of the most entertaining episodes in regards to unit action.

The threat of the story also gives it a nice distinction!

Oh go on give it a shot.

8/10 (7.5 if could... though the action!? Maybe 7.75 ha! )

This is the weakest story in Season 7 and that’s a good case for why Season 7 is probably one of the best seasons of Doctor Who ever made. In this story, we have a mystery involving three missing astronauts, and various attempts at sabotage and cover up. It’s a grand conspiracy with double crosses, triple crosses, and plenty of action.

All of the regulars are firing on all cylinders with the Doctor being a true menance to this dangerous conspiracy, Liz Shaw showing how well she can operate on her own, and the Brig having a fairly strong story particularly in the final episode. The story’s filled with action, suspense, and a nice helping of terror. There’s some great surprises and twists to this story that turn the typical Doctor Who formulas on their head.

In many season, this would be a highlight, however as the other stories in Season 7: Sparehead from Space, the Silurians, and Inferno are all masterful classics, this one is easily overlooked. However, if you’ve not seen it, it’s highly reccomended. As General Carrington would say, “It’s your moral duty.”

Ambassadors of Death has the unfortunate experience of being the really weak story sandwhiched in the otherwise terrific season 7. All the other stories range from very good (Spearhead) to really fantastic (Silurians.) Its a damn shame too, because this story isn’t dreadful by any means, it just suffers heavily from some very clear last minute rewrites that do nothing but muddle the whole affair. The beginning of the story is very strong, but it continues to add new elements that never go anywhere, and the ending just sort of… stops. The motivations are either contrived, predictable, or nonexistent, and the plot fails to give our main characters anything meaningful to do. But hey, the aliens are actually quite well realized.