Richard Mace would have been a great companion, love Michael Robbins' performance in this. This is also one of Peter Davison's three favourite stories from his time as the Doctor. Just a solid, straightforward pseudo-historical adventure.
The Visitation is one of the best stories from the Peter Davison Era, and Davison has said this is one of his personal favourites. A solid pseudo-historical that perfectly blends the grim iconography of plague-riddled Stuart society and a clever sci-fi premise, and it's evident the cast are heavily invested. Richard Mace is definitely a standout guest character, played with rich melodrama by Michael Robbins. This story was so well-received, its writer, Eric Saward, would become the show's script-editor very shortly after.
The DVD commentary for this one is a lot of fun. Davison, Fielding and Sutton spend most of their time making fun of Matthew Waterhouse, but they occasionally let slip something interesting about the show, too.
Reading the comments I’m pleasantly surprised at how popular this story is with most of the fans. It is one of my personal favorites from the entire classic era but I thought I was in the minority. Love the group dynamic, the historical setting, location filming, the synth-renaissance music, the witty dialogue, and the final scene of part four. Great stuff.
Absolutely love❤ Tegan hardcore burning the Doctor, "Call yourself a Time Lord... A broken clock keeps better time than you do. At least it's accurate twice a day, which is more than you ever are."😮😂
Sesska, it's been a long time since you reacted to it, but you should now understand a line in the Matt Smith episode "The Crimson Horror", when the Doctor tells Clara about how he once "spent a long time trying to get a gobby Australian to Heathrow Airport" 😁
This is my second fav Davison Era show. Well written story, villain, and the group dynamics with the companions and the doctor are on point. EDIT: there is also a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference in episode two. Tegan's line about Giford is what Ford Prefect tells people about where he's from in the first episode H2G2. And you are not the only one who loves he Fab 5000 android, that outfit is a gas.
There's a lot to love about this story. I like the glittery robot, the Tereleptils, the historical setting, Richard Mace. Even quite keen on the forcefield disguised as a brick wall, with the Doctor shown poking his head through it at one point. We get Adric piloting the Tardis inexpertly in this one - we were going through a phase of having companions try to work the Tardis in this season.
My favourite Doctor Who story of all time! Also, I am related to Michael Melia who plays the villain in this story - small world & the resemblance is uncanny haha! 😂🤣
This is one of my favourite classic stories. A great alien race, one off companion and plot. Plus the TARDIS team gel together well in this. I'm not the first to say but the Terileptils should come back. For a one off threat they have a fleshed out backstory. Could contribute greatly to the Whoniverse. The Mask in the story utilises animatronics and holds up excellently. Richard Mace is a fun addition to the team. He could be a template for a Stuart era companion in the future.
I love this story. In the top three of Peter Davison stories for me. Mace is played by actor Michael Robbins, who gives a delightful performance despite the fact that he was unhappy to be appearing in the series, loudly complaining that it was the nadir of his acting career. His most famous role incidentally, was in a comedy series called On the Buses, which many critics considered to be the epitome of a mediocre sitcom. He's also appeared (briefly) in the movie Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews, James Garner and Robert Preston as Andrew's lecherous landlord. The moving gills on the masks of the aliens (Tereleptils) are achieved through the first use of animatronics on the series.
I love bigger Tardis teams as well!! You are not on your own. Very enjoyable entertaining story in a great historical setting. Very good aliens with an interesting background. Big fan of Richard Mace. Another one off companion like Todd in Kinda.
Oh I absolutely love this story. My first experience with The Visitation was i got it from my local charity on vhs. It came packaged with the following story Black Orchid. But yeah this one of my favourite 5th doctor stories. I think the Terileptils are one of the best monsters in the show and i hope someday i will return to new who. Also when I meet Peter Davison many years ago he signed my dvd copy of The Visitation. He was very lovely to meet.
When I saw this on first broadcast, as a child & a plane nerd, I was fascinated by the idea of Heathrow Airport being fields & trees. The same location but at a different point in time. Yes that bejewelled android isn't really built for blending-in is it.
So right. Thank you. You totally get the dynamic and why Tegan is awesome. This era, Doctor and Tegan all get too much negativity and I adored and still adore this dynamic and era and I’m so glad you get it.
Davison himself later observed how five starts off being polite and gradually becomes less and less so, as misunderstandings and his inability to wrest control of the situation builds up the drama. So he's constantly on the back foot, breathless, looking for the solution. And this is a deliberate move away from Tom's characterisation, that tended to undercut everything with humour or introduce some hidden skill we'd never seen before. It's also hard not to see in Peter's flat speed, long coat flowing, a model for what his future son-in-law (then viewing the show as an impressionable 10 year old) would do with the part in the 21st century...
The "not again!" line being a nice call back to Four to Doomsday, ironically the only other adventure Davison had recorded at this point, so from his perspective the threat of execution happens in 100% of his (recorded) adventures thus far! ;-)
Glad you’re enjoying these first two parts. Like everyone else has said on here, the Richard Mace character would have made an ideal historical companion. Alas it wasn’t to be. Eric Saward had only previously worked in radio drama before he submitted this storyline to the Doctor Who production office, and on the strength of it, the producer John Nathan-Turner (JNT) offered him the post of Script Editor which Saward was happy to accept. Saward’s dialogue for Richard Mace is so good, it could have come from the typewriter of the late, great Doctor Who writer, Robert Holmes. Faint praise indeed!
Some have remarked that the opening scene - featuring the legendary John Savident - has no bearing on the rest of the story. But the house itself does became the base of operations for the Terileptils (for it is they). A much more obvious candidate for this observation is the cutaway scene in 'The Stones of Blood', where the two unfortunate campers are killed off by the vampiric Ogri stone-creatures - and are never mentioned again. Nobody even finds their tent!
RIP John Savident. That opening scene establishes the time period, suggests its a historical, then having slightly wrong-footed the viewers, throws in an alien antagonist suggesting its actually a pseudo-historical. It also shows the power the android possesses. Love the campers scene in Stones. Would have been interesting had the Doctor encountered their remains. Then again, having scenes of apparent little consequence can round out some stories and show a wider context, suggesting the world doesn't entirely revolve around the Doctor and highlight what happens when he isn't there to make a stand against the would-be aggressor.
I once saw a list about Doctor Who that recommended 1 iconic Episode/Story from each Season from the Classic Era & this was the Story recommended for Season 19.
"Shouldn't we go back to the Tardis?" Ah, music to Jess' ears. I really like the companion moments in this one. The first ten minutes of part one are a great introduction to that nice family (who the android kills) and then a lot of conversations I like between the Tardis team.
This season was my first experience of a "Bigger Tardis Team". (Tom Baker's Doctor really didn't have much in the way of them). I loved it, and still do! It's a cool minority to be in!
This story Seska was one of my favourite, and also there are so well known, actors in this story and also the location is awesome too. I do say it is worth Seska viewing and reacting to Blake,s Seven an awesome sci-fi series, if you have not seen Blake,s Seven Seska it i worth watching Blake,s Seven and reacting to it .
A fantastic story, one of the very best Fifth Doctor stories, and a highlight in a very strong season. The cast are all on top form here, even Matthew Waterhouse is only mildly annoying. Richard Mace is a superb guest character and Nyssa continues to shine. Such an underrated companion. Speaking of underrated, the Terileptils are right up there with the Ogrons, Draconians in the ‘why didn’t we see them more’ creatures list from the classic era
The whole dynamic of this team works because Peter Davison plays exasperated so well! Even the 'traditional' companion of Nyssa bring it out in him at times. The really nice thing is that he never once seemed to let his 'star power' impact his treatment of anyone on the show-and that is refreshing after the the last two Doctor Actors (I still find it virtually impossible to watch any 3rd Doctor story due to just how misogynistic the whole show is at that period... made only worse by knowing that Jon Pertwee effectively got two actresses fired-one by convincing the rather 'people pleasing' producer that her character didn't work... and the other, well we've all come to know *that* story...and while we fortunately got Katy Manning and Elisabeth Sladen as a result-it doesn't gloss over how despicable what happened to the others was. Particularly April Walker who while 'compensated' for Pertwee's actions, due to the BBC's contract shenanigans, she was basically made to work for free on whatever they wanted during that period instead to repay her 'debt') Rant over!
Another favourite story of mine from the 5th Doctor. Peters first season was pretty great imo. I am biased though as his era is my favourite full stop.😁
Michael Robbins' casting was probably controversial at the time. Although, as Richard Mace, he's got a very different character to play, the general public would have only seen him really as a long-suffering husband in the none-more-British sitcom 'On the Buses'. By the 1980s, with a edgier brand of comedy taking root, youngsters would have seen this lineage as quaint, at best. In fact, Robbins' apparent disdain for his Dr Who role later led Matthew Waterhouse to comment '...but HE was in 'On the Buses'!'
I think it’s a fair question as to whether or not he is failing to get Tegan back on purpose or not. There r fan theories than even the 1st doctor was trolling Ian and Barbara. Maybe he likes Tegan and doesn’t want her to leave? And is stalling? Not convinced of the theory myself. I tend to believe it’s the tardis that is trolling her not the doctor. I also love 5s passive aggressive exasperation. The glamorous android is very this era, lol.
This is such a wonderful example of Doctor Who being Doctor Who. I love the dynamic between the Tardis crew during this era. As a matter of fact Tom Baker's last season and all of the Peter Davison era is by far my favorite era ever of Doctor Who. I love the music the costume design the pacing the hardest science fiction elements Etc plus they still managed to hit a few decent Historical Notes along the way. Overall this is definitely one of the best seasons of the entire run of the show. It's just wonderfully good comfort food Doctor Who.
Say hello to Eric Saward! He wrote this as well as three other serials after this one. Personally The Visitation is not one of my favorites, but the novelization (also by Saward) was a good read.
Arguably a little pedestrian certainly compared to later Classic and NuWho (especially the complexity of the Moffat era.) There again, Davison's adventure often were cited as "effectively Hartnell-style adventures made in colour". The dynamic of three companions (not seen since The Faceless Ones in 1967) echoing the original TARDIS teams of Season one and two.
I don't mind a larger TARDIS team also, but for the production team it was a pain in the posterior and the actors felt they weren't given enough time to shine. But we the audience benefit, at least 🙂
interesting you watched the updated effects version of this story, but the original effects of Kinda. How do you decide which version to watch? I like when you original versions, even tho some of the updates are quite good.
Eric Seward who wrote this was an excellent guest writer, unfortunately he turned out to be a terrible script editor. And the scripts he provided from this point were a benefit to the show, but his contribution as script editor was detrimental.
