207c. The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel

The Doctor and Ace find themselves caught up in a heist inside a hotel that's run by a totalitarian regime. The heist story part of the episode works pretty well. However, it's framed by a sequence where Ace is being tried in a kangaroo court and these sequences don't work or add much to the story and lead to a way over the top bit of shoutyness by Ace that's really not necessary.

There is a theme running through these stories, that are all inter-related it is also becoming apparent that there is something slightly odd about the TARDIS's behaviour as well. However on with the story, the Doctor and Ace arrive in a corridor in the Hotel Betelgeuse, however there is a disquiet with the whole Hotel and the planet it is built upon, the indigenous population that were once living there have become enslaved to the Earth settlers who have made them essentially the workers to run this huge corrupt leisure complex. It comes then as no surprise when ACE and the Doctor find themselves cast right in the midst of a illegal burglary of the very heart of the Hotel's anonymity and it's well known blind eye to ill got gains and goings on. This plan of course is never going to run smoothly when it is dependent on a person blind to their cause, or an individual driven by personal loss. Both of which are in play in the story. The Doctor trying to establish the right way for all gets caught in the middle of the action, and the story told in flash back from the court case of ACE, who faces certain death, builds the tension throughout. This is a simple and yet wonderfully different style from the previous story. Sophie and Sylvester are without precedent in their roles, they can do this with their eyes shut now, and that is the feeling you get. I especially liked the performance of John Culshaw once again.