The Leisure Hive

A terrible shame the Leisure Hive comes together to form such a plodding serial, given its really interesting nature both on screen and behind. There's tonnes of creative direction; very competently handled lighting; some lovely film work on Brighton beach and a novel new rulebook on Doctor Who scores as we move into an electronic synth age, past the days of Dudley Simpson.

The Foamasi whilst a bit forgettable, have a novel twist and unlike the Mandrels, despite being rather naff are kept away from camera long enough for them to deliver some of the creepier scares since season 14. There's some hard science, as well as maturely handled themes of militarisation, imperialism, warfare, decline, decay, tourism - some handled satirically, some dramatically. The satire is funny, the drama is suspenseful.

My criticism is effectively ripped wholesale from various comments made on the DVD documentaries. Despite having more meat on the bone, reigning in some other elements leaves the serial a bit po-faced. With Tom Baker and without production elements available to the show in latter decades, without the 'undergraduate humour' the show feels cold and bereft.

This story kicked off Tom Baker's last season as the Doctor with a truly 1980s theme. The story of a war-torn and dying people establishing a tourism planet actually has some interesting features, and the story builds slowly from a somewhat slow beginning to a smash conclusion with pretty solid cliffhangers for each part. It also has some interesting scenes with the Fourth Doctor aged to an old man.

This story has some very dull moments, most notably a pointless two minute pan of a beach which the Doctor and Romana promptly depart right at the beginning of the serial, and a few other odd shots that served as padding The serial does get better but it's not in the same league as the best Doctor Who stories from the Baker era.