Colin Howard's excellent unused art for the VHS release of the love it or hate it Season 19 finale, Time- Flight.
Following on from the tragedy of Adric's death linked to the return of the dreaded Cybermen, Tegan Jovanka gets a further shock when the Doctor inadvertently returns her to Heathrow Airport in 1982! Sadly, despite such a welcome arrival, the after effects of a dangerous time contour convergence linked to a missing British Airways Concorde aircraft soon sends the TARDIS crew, and those of another rescue Concorde, into Earth's distant past and a new battle against their old enemy, the Master!
Tegan, back home, finally, in 1982!
Much derided over recent years thanks to the rise of social media, but not so much on its original transmission in March 1981, Time-Flight, the finale story of Peter Davison's beloved first year, is extremely under-rated. No following adventure was ever going to top Earthshock's success and its superbly handled return of the Cybermen, plus the shockingly memorable death of Adric, for sure. Nonetheless, Time-Flight has its raw charms- Peter Grimwade's script is ambitious (an attempt to do something fun whilst on an Earthbound keel-related akin to the Pertweek era, in many respects), is always well paced, has good cliff-hangers, and the Doctor has some fine moments sparring against Anthony Ainley's Master/Kalid the Sorceror.
Time Lords assemble!
Here's some of my own personal remembrances from Time-Flight's original transmission, and reasons why I still enjoy it!
The Doctor experiences a different kind of travel with Concorde.
The use of Concorde. The filmed sequences at an atmospheric, snow-covered Heathrow Airports for parts one and four are well shot by Ron Jones, of which the scenes overall have big ambition about them. An aircraft few people could afford to travel in during its lifetime in operation, it really was a scoop for the Who production team to gain unique access to the glamorous, sleek and innovative British Airways Concorde icon.
Now back in the past, the rather wonky Plasmatons capture the Concorde pilots
The mysterious alien citadel must be explored.
The Doctor confers with the mysterious Kalid (Leon Ny Taiy) within the alien Citadel.
The Master (Anthony Ainley) fully revealed!
The return of the Master. Escaped from Castrovalva, we all knew it was Anthony Ainley having make-up/costume fun as the conjurer Kalid trapped in prehistoric history, so the final reveal of his true self grinning like a deranged Hyena at the end of part two was much welcome. The Master's plan in this tale is genuinely horrific and as nasty as anything that Roger Delgado's incarnation would have diabolically schemed - devouring an entire peaceful, technological race into his TARDIS so that he can have an infinitely superior new power source. And, as mentioned previously, Ainley and Davison make such a fine onscreen antagonistic sparring duo, right up to the end of the story - of course, we all know Who wins in the end...?
The Melkur returns!
The disfigure Terileptil.
The phantom menaces! Part Two's fun conclusion also saw our prehistoric era trapped Nyssa and Tegan's efforts to enter the Xeraphin Citadel's sanctum (the two having more to do together now that the TARDIS crew has been trimmed down slightly) challenged by several phantom apparitions - it was nice to see the monster legacy of the series then current two seasons being referenced: the Melkur of Traken, and the Terileptil, both popular recent monsters whom the public would remember, for sure. Plus, of course, there was the brief return there of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric - a nice touch.
The Xeraphin known as Anithon (Hugh Hayes) emerges from the activated Sanctum sarcophagus.
The Xeraphin. I remember thinking their scenes were interesting emerging from the sanctum chamber, especially the dark side form of Zarak, whom I remember finding very creepy when he first materialized himself to interfere and side with the plans of the Master. Overall, a potentially interesting race that could have had more exploration.
The good and bad aspects of the Xeraphin clash with the arrival of Zarak (Andre Winterton).
The Doctor and the Master reluctantly work to escape the wastelands of history.
"Happy landings, Doctor!"
Tegan's (first) departure! Our bolshy Aussie 'mouth on legs' Tegan's time spent in the TARDIS had certainly been a bumpy one, but she'd clearly gotten used to travelling with the astray Doctor and Nyssa after a while. So it was quite an effective gut-wrench to audiences on original transmission when it seemingly looked like our hero had quickly and unceremoniously dumped her as soon as he could now she was back in her relevant time and home. We all knew that Tegan would return at some point in the show's Twentieth Anniversary (and ditching her trademark air stewardess uniform, stockings and heels in the process!). Nonetheless, Janet Fielding effectively stole the final scene of the story and brought a lump to the throats of sad audiences...
The original two covers showcasing Time-Flight in Doctor Who Monthly magazine.
The messy DVD cover to the US release of the story.
Nicely composed art for the German DVD release.
An effective composition that appeared in the Doctor Who - The Complete History partwork series.
Superb Alister Pearson art for the novelisation BBC AUDIO BOOKS reading by Peter Davison.
I hope that readers have enjoyed my complete and affectionate look back at Season Nineteen in its Fortieth Anniversary- certainly one of the all-time great and memorable runs of the Classic Series!
The powers of light and darkness are after the final segment of the Key to Time, as the Black Guardian uses his own key agent of evil, the Shadow, to acquire it and the overall Key from our Time Lord heroes during the apocalyptic battle between warring worlds Atrios and Zeos, within the critical events of Bob Baker and Dave Martin's mostly successful The Key to Time season wrap-up, The Armageddon Factor.
With so little photography having been captured on set of the menacing Shadow as played so well by Callan star William Squire, this great fan art by Phillip James Allison effectively compensates...
No doubt about, The Sea Devils is one of the quintessential Pertwee era adventures, showcasing the heroic Time Lord incarnation at his best with audiences of the early seventies. And when the general audiences fondly remember this particular gem they are most likely to think of the great scene where the Sea Devils come out of the water en masse. But for fans, surely sone of the most iconic imagery must be the posed publicity images of bold Jon Pertwee confronting Pat Gorman's lone Sea Devil during on-set recording rehearsals of the story in 1971, as captured in this great shoot.
Fifty years on, the late Don Smith's work on image directing/promoting this special story for the BBC remains superb...
Newly arrived on an Earth vessel deliberately trapped by the mysterious inhabitants of the Sense-Sphere planet, our TARDIS heroes find themselves in a frustrating position as they await the imminent and ominous arrival of the aliens known as The Sensorites, in this great on set image from the popular 1964 adventure, which is now available in audio drama LP translation from Demon Records.
Another gorgeous release from the Demon Records label for Classic Who.
Gorgeous cover art for the original lost story's audio LP release of several years back, from Demon Records.
We hope you've enjoyed our extensive coverage of The Abominable Snowmen - a genuine all-time classic Who adventure now available in complete animated form via BBC STUDIOS.
For anyone who may have missed some of this week's tribute posts, here is the complete set of links:
Colourized shot of UK journalist and presenter Alan Whicker meeting one of the original Yeti at the eerie Highgate Cemetery, in a memorable Whicker's World episode from 1967.
A now iconic shot of Patrick Troughton and Yeti on location.
Wrapping up our week-long celebration of The Abominable Snowmen, here's a fun selection of behind the scenes images from the busy location filming in Snowdonia, Wales, of which this story was then notable for having more outside footage shot for its episodes than any other story at that point in the show's still youthful five-year history.
Time for tea!
Good humour with Watling and Troughton.
Fine camaraderie within the BBC location coach between filming.
Going through the script with his new friend.
Filming on safer ground for this Yeti.
Preparing for filming.
The Yeti costume takes a break between takes!
Frazer Hines keeps warm on location.
Preparing for the final costume adjustments.
Young fans meet the new monsters!
A quick chat between takes.
Troughton is interviewed by the press on location.
