A Flight Through Eternity: Season 2 in Review

It's taken me a long time to get through season 2. I've reviewed many inserted books, comics, audios and short stories; they are included in the lists but not in the analysis, which concentrates on TV and film only.

Episode Rankings
10/10:
066 (P3): The Wheel of Fortune
MA28c: The Plot Thickens
080 (S3): A Battle of Wits

9.5/10:
DWM12a: The Marsh-Wains
079 (S1): The Meddling Monk

9/10:
078 (S1): The Watcher

8.5/10:
052 (L1): The Powerful Enemy
058 (N1): The Web Planet
062 (N5): Invasion
068 (Q1): The Space Museum
MA28a: Plot Devices
CC7.01b: The Birth of Ian Chesterton

8/10:
063 (N6): The Centre
CC6.02a: The Rocket Men
MA28b: Holes in the Plot
MA28d: Explaining the Plot

7.5/10:
DWMSpS 1996: Daleks versus the Martians
046 (K1): World's End
056 (M3): Conspiracy
057 (M4): Inferno
059 (N2): The Zarbi
STA2.01: 1963
081 (S4): Checkmate

7/10:
051 (K6): Flashpoint
ST4.01: Aries: The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull
CC6.02b: The Fall
077 (R6): The Planet of Decision

6.5/10:
045 (J3): Crisis
048 (K3): Day of Reckoning
DEC1.05: The Book of Shadows
070 (Q3): The Search

6/10:
044 (J2): Dangerous Journey
DWM12b: The Wissfornjarl
054 (M1): The Slave Traders
064 (P1): The Lion
DWYB 1994: A Religious Experience

5.5/10:
043 (J1): Planet of Giants
053 (L2): Desperate Measures
076 (R5): The Death of Doctor Who

5/10:
055 (M2): All Roads Lead to Rome
069 (Q2): The Dimensions of Time
ST14.12: Every Day
072 (R1): The Executioners
CC7.01a: The Cave of Five Hundred Skulls

4.5/10:
IDWPoT1: Prisoners of Time: Unnatural Selection
065 (P2): The Knight of Jaffa

4/10:
ST18.05: Set in Stone
ST2.12: Romans Cutaway
061 (N4): Crater of Needles
ST14.18: Animus, Zarbi, Menoptera
071 (Q4): The Final Phase
074 (R3): Flight Through Eternity
ST5.09: Distance

3.5/10:
050 (K5): The Waking Ally
060 (N3): Escape to Danger
073 (R2): The Death of Time

3/10:
067 (P4): The Warlords

2.5/10:
049 (K4): The End of Tomorrow

2/10:
DEC2.06: The Nine-Day Queen

1/10:
075 (R4): Journey into Terror


For TV episodes, the median score is 6.0, with a mean of 6.1, only 0.1 down on last time. There's no real visible pattern to how the good and bad episodes are arranged through the season. If we look at the different types of story, we find

Backwards (Historical): 7.1 - previously 6.3.
Sideways: 5.9 - previously 8.5.
Forwards (SF): 5.7 - no change.

In season 1 it was the sideways stories that took the crown, here these fall behind the historicals. The science fiction stories are still in third place, however. This time I also decided to look at the AIs, similarly:

Sideways: average AI 55.7.
Forwards (SF): average AI 55.7.
Backwards (Historical): average AI 51.3.

As you can clearly see, the viewers of the time didn't care what type of SF they watched, so long as it wasn't one of those boring historicals. Philistines!

We could also look at how episodes fare based on their position within a story:

Opening episodes: 7.2
2nd episodes: 5.8
3rd episodes: 6.8
4th episodes: 4.2
5th episodes: 5.8
6th episodes: 7.3
Penultimate episodes: 7.3
Closing episodes: 6.2

This tells a different tale from last time, with serials having a strong beginning and end but a dip in the middle. Given the large number of four-parters the difference between average scores for 4th episodes and final episodes is striking. This is largely down to The End of Tomorrow being the weakest episode of serial K and Crater of Needles being the second-lowest of serial N, two stories than ended strongly.

This time, with only one change of director partway through, looking at it counting the episodes from a particular director within a story makes very little difference. Speaking of directors, though, how do they stack up?

Douglas Camfield: 7.3 (s.d. 2.5).
Christopher Barry: 6.7 (s.d. 1.4) - previously 6.3.
Mervyn Pinfield: 5.9 (s.d. 1.5) - previously 4.6.
Richard Martin: 5.5 (s.d. 2.2) - previously 6.9.

There are only half as many directors taking part this season. Richard Martin takes a tumble from second place, largely because of weak middles in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Chase; everyone else who was around last time improves. Douglas Camfield's score would have been significantly higher were it not for the missing episodes of The Crusade; if these were found the story might be improved for me.

Again, we can also look at the AIs:

Mervyn Pinfield: average AI 55.7.
Richard Martin: average AI 55.2.
Christopher Barry: average AI 53.3.
Douglas Camfield: average AI 52.3.

Once again, my own opinions differ considerably from those of contemporary viewers, to the extent of almost reversing my own list of directors. Quite remarkable.

Story Rankings
10/10:
PDA75: The Time Travellers
S: The Time Meddler

9.5/10:
MA28: The Plotters

8/10:
DWM12: The Revenants
L: The Rescue

7.5/10:
PDA66: The Eleventh Tiger
CC6.02: The Rocket Men

7/10:
N: The Web Planet
CC7.01: The Time Museum

6.5/10:
M: The Romans

6/10:
J: Planet of Giants

5/10:
Q: The Space Museum

4.5/10:
K: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
MA03: Venusian Lullaby
P: The Crusade

4/10:
Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150AD
R: The Chase

2.5/10:
PDA44: Byzantium!

For TV stories, the median score is also 6.0, with a mean of 6.2.

Behind the Scenes: Handing Over Control
By the time season two finished broadcast, Verity Lambert's final five episodes were almost done and incoming producer John Wiles - who had been shadowing Lambert - was making most of the running. New script editor Donald Tosh had arrived earlier and was settled in, having already commissioned a number of stories. However, Dalekmania was in full swing, with the first movie proving very popular; and the BBC had decided that they had to capitalise on this. To Wiles' frustration, twelve episodes of season three were to be given over to a Dalek epic.

Next Time:
I'm not quite sure - if May or Isaac's reviews are ready I'll run them, otherwise something else.