Who Review: The Deadly Assassin
Having dropped Sarah Jane Smith off safely on Earth, the Doctor continues to Gallifrey, responding to a summons from the Time Lords. Before he arrives, he has a vivid premonition of the Time Lord President’s assassination. Sneaking past the guards who have come to greet him–to all but the CIA (Celestial Intervention Agency), the Doctor is still a renegade–the Doctor steals some robes and mingles with the crowd awaiting the appearance of the President to give his resignation speech and announce his successor. Up in the gallery, where the proceedings are being filmed, the Doctor sees a gun, and the shadow of the assassin. He runs to apprehend the criminal, but the mystery man escapes. The Doctor grabs the gun intending to take him out, but instead shoots the President. Immediately, the Doctor is apprehended and accused of murder. Despite his protestations, his guilt seems undeniable. With only hours until his trial, inevitable conviction, and execution, the Doctor must somehow prove his innocence, and uncover the real master behind the plot…
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
For the first time in the show’s history, the Doctor works alone, without a companion. Tom Baker had, apparently, put in a request for a serial where it’s just him and no assistant. Always willing to try something different, and at a point in the series where the Doctor is between companions, the production team granted Baker’s wish.
The story was written by script editor, and one of the finest Who writers of the era (if not period), Robert Holmes. It seems to be quite heavily influenced by the 1959 book (later adapted into a movie) THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, in which a couple of US Korean War soldiers are captured, taken to Gallifrey, and tricked into assassinating the Time Lord President. No, wait–I mean, they are taken to Manchuria, and programmed to obey commands that they subsequently forget whenever they see a certain playing card, all to the ultimate goal of assassinating the Time Lord President a candidate for the US Presidency, and bringing Communism to Gallifrey. I mean America.
Much of “Deadly Assassin”‘s appeal is the way that Holmes takes the concept of the Time Lords, and the little tidbits of information we’ve been given so far, and runs with it. In this story, we’re introduced to the various ranks of Time Lord, the Presidency, the Panopticon, the Sash of Rassilon, the Eye of Harmony, artron energy–all ideas and elements of Time Lord lore that the show would come back to, not just in the Classic Series, but in the New Series too.
Perhaps the most important Time Lord idea Robert Holmes saddles the show with is that they can only regenerate twelve times. This was something that didn’t seem too much of a problem for Doctor number four. Who knew we’d ever surpass that number of incarnations for the Doctor? Clearly Holmes smiled a devilish smile, and decided it could be someone else’s problem long after he was gone. Which it was (see “The Time of the Doctor” for Steven Moffat’s resolution to the issue).
There are a lot of great things about this story. The Matrix as a data store of all Time Lord life, into which a conscious mind could enter and go through these wild virtual reality scenes, was quite a novel idea for the time. And it’s marvelously realized on film, using “natural” effects (rock fall, gunshot, etc.), and some great acting from Tom Baker and Bernard Horsfall. Castellan Spandrell, the firm but funny Germanic security officer who is first to side with the Doctor and help him prove his case, comes off a little wooden, but he’s too likable to fault. And the cliffhangers are good, so good they got the show into trouble–especially episode three’s where the Doctor’s head is being held under water.
The political references aren’t far from the surface, either. And I’m not referring to the fact that Borusa looks (and sounds) like former UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The revelation that Time Lord politics is as corrupt as politics elsewhere perhaps betrays some of the mid-70s cynical and conspiratorial attitude toward government, especially US government (post-JFK, post-Vietnam, post-Watergate). As if to underscore this, we have the Doctor complaining that “vaporization without representation” is “unconstitutional.”
The story reveals in Episode 1 that the baddie behind everything, who accessed the Matrix, summoned the Doctor, and fed him his premonitions, was the Master. He is at the end of his life, and wants to use the symbols of the President’s office to access the Eye of Harmony so he can have power to regenerate, and destroy Gallifrey, too. He evidently feels a bit bitter. He doesn’t look well at all, either. He’s barely a skeleton with a layer of shiny flesh. The mask and costume is quite effective, especially for 1976, and maybe a little much for early evening television. At the end of the story, the Master escapes and takes his bony self off in his TARDIS, which looks like an old grandfather clock. That will become important in five years. 🙂
The thing I like least about “The Deadly Assassin” is the voice-over introduction. Doctor Who had never done that before, and hasn’t done it since (I don’t think). For good reason. It’s hokey and cheesey, and better done by working that backstory into the dialog.
That said, this is must-see Doctor Who for any Whovian. It’s a great story, and it stands up pretty well even today. But that aside, it’s this vision of Time Lord society that has persisted to the present. So if you really want to understand the role of the Time Lords in Doctor Who, this story is essential. But, as I said, it’s a really good serial, too!
