The Tour completes it’s July cap-itudinous odyssey throughout the ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ Season with the cap addition for The Ultimate Foe, a story for whom the backstory is sadly more compelling than the story itself.
After Robert Holmes’ illness prevented him from completing the second episode, script editor Eric Saward finished the story but when the JN-T rejected it, Saward quit taking his contribution (and much vitriol) with him. Pip and Jane Baker were called in under impossible circumstances (that is not being able to access either Holmes’ or Saward’s notes or work) and did what they could with it. They’re not to blame for the disjointed quality to the story, or the fizzle of an ending.
If Holmes, who wrote The Deadly Assassin and invented the matrix in addition to being one of the series great auteurs, had been able to finish what he started, then certain portions of the story would have undoubtedly played better. The Valeyard being a darker aspect of the Doctor itself was a very cool revelation, one which Mount Moffat would borrow from in Amy’s Choice. Was the Master, aside from putting the finger on the Valeyard, really necessary in the story? Probably not but in a pinch …
Colin Baker deserved better. Thank goodness Big Finish have been there to provide a proper second act in his Doctor Who life.
Caps for The Ultimate Foe are another pure addition for the Tour. I wonder what next weeks caps will be?