Watched 'Dragonfire' at the weekend. (I had to buy it, it was the only way I could get 'The Happiness Patrol'.

Anyway, it wasn't the best episode was it? Seemed a bit more 'pantomime' than normal for the 80's episodes.

What annoyed me really though was Mel's exit.
God, it was a bit rushed wasn't it?

Basically it went like this:-

Mel - It's time to go
Dr - Yes it is, where should we go now?
Mel - No, I mean it's time for me to go.
Dr - Okay then, bye.

Very disappointing IMO.
IIRC she wasn't very popular as a companion, but I thought her ending was very poor. I think they could have handled it a lot better.

Any thoughts?

You should see Dodo's exit in the War Machines. It is just as bad. Also Liz,Leela,Peri,Ben and Polly didn't have a great exit either

Peri had one of the best exits ever! Well, at least she did in Mindwarp. The retcon in The Ultimate foe wasn't too bad, but we could've seen more of a relationship forming between her and Yrcanos, especially if they wanted us to buy the idea that they ended up together

Mel going off with Glitz is as daft an exit as there's ever been - poor Glitz... Mind you, just a year before we had Peri and Yrcanos as one the least likely pairings in Who history...

Dragonfire itself I don't think is that bad. There's loads wrong with the production, the lighting is especially awful, and the caves simply do not work at all as a studio set. But the story is good, it holds together rather better than you might think, and Kane is suitably icy as the villain. Fortunately Sophie Aldred improved enormously after her frankly poor performance here. This story especially saddles her with the most atrocious lines. As a teenager in the 1980s I can honestly say I never heard anyone my age, or any age, speak like Ace. Had the writers / production team ever met any teenage girls?

BTW trivia fans, Ronald Lacey was originally approached for the part of Kane. He had played the villain in Raiders of the Lost Ark - yes, the guy whose face melted at the end, just like Kane's does. When Lacey wasn't available, director Chris Clough seriously considered using David Jason - maybe if he'd got the part then Kane and Glitz would have joined forces as wheeler dealers and gone off around the markets of the galaxy in a three-wheeled spaceship...

Whilst quite well played and I like the "crazy paving" line, Mel leaving doesn't make any sense to me. She wants to carry on travelling, but leaves the Doctor and goes off with an untrustworthy crook. Was there a budding if unlikely romance in the air?!

Has it ever been suggested that somehow Fenric was influencing things at this point and just wanted Ace with the Doctor?

No....it really doesn't convince in any way or form does it. Bonnie's contract was up, so the character leaves.

I think Glitz was supposed to go off with Ace originally but that changed when BL decided to leave and Ace went with The Doctor instead.

It was a poor exit but expect nothing less from this Season.

Dragonfire is the better story of the run and Kane is an excellent villain.

As for Peri, I agree she and Yrcanos are not that right for each other but she did have a very good, if sad, exit, even though it was changed in later episodes.

In one of the Seventh Doctor novels, in which he is temporarily re-united with Mel, it was suggested that (in Dragonfire) his darker side was now beginning to emerge and that he needed to get rid of Mel so that Ace would be his sole companion. In order to achieve this he surreptitiously hypnotised Mel into wanting to leave with Sabalom Glitz. When Mel saw the Doctor again (in the novel) she had by now realised what he had done and was far from amused.

That makes more sense. The departure was awful!

JNT said Bonnie Langford left it very late in the day before deciding to leave, and so they used a script for her leaving scene that had previously been used (I believe) as part of McCoy's initial audition of the role of the Doctor.

Yes, that is very true.
There is a 'Making Of' documentary on the DVD that confirms it.

If only there'd been an exit to see in The War Machines! I've never liked the Dodo character but poor Jackie Lane, getting the worst companion exit ever. At least Liz's off-screen exit was left until the start of the following season. Dodo's just unceremoniously dumped two episodes in and then given a crap send-off at the end of the same story. I've often wondered why it happened like this. Maybe the production team wanted to establish Ben and Polly as the new companions from the off? Even so, though...

Mel's exit wasn't so much crap as weird. It comes right out of the blue and Sylvester McCoy expresses no surprise whatsoever. I did wonder at the time if there'd been a scene earlier on in the story that had been a prelude to the actual leaving scene but had then been cut for whatever reason.

Dragonfire is the only story in Season 24 I can actually watch. It's far from good, but it's leagues better than Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen, all of which I hated.

Ah yes, Head Games.

Personally I think Mel's exit would have been so much better if it had included a big cannon...

Only thing realy wrong with Dragonfire is the end of part one, when for no reason at all the Doctor climbs over a rail and dangles from the end of his umberella!

Yeah, took 26 years to explain that, too! Turns out he got caught by the Great Intelligence, as revealed in The Name of the Doctor.

I have an atypical amount of patience for Series 24 but I'm not delusional about it. Dragonfire is fun but it does feel like they shot it in about three days, with Bonnie announcing her plan to depart at the end of the second.

Post of the year!

S24 is fun, and I rather like Dragonfire, but it's not Talons of Weng Chiang. I was 12 when it was shown, and it was the only one of the season that I didn't hate. Now, I enjoy it. Patricia Quinn plays Patricia Quinn. Kane is excellent, and I love the freezing effect. Shirin Taylor is in it. The dragon looks great.

I thought Mel's leaving scene was the one bit of it we were allowed to like?! Also, I think it was written as an audition piece for Sylvester McCoy (I could be wrong ... it's not unheard of) and was jammed into the script when Bonnie asked for her P45.

Patricia Quinn ... Lightbulb moment.

Of course she seemed familiar to me.

She also played Sylvia Daisy Pouncer in A Box of Delights (which I tend to watch every Christmas).

Yeah, Mel's exit is weird, and very out of nowhere. Watching it, the whole thing seemed so bizarre and out of place that Mel would just run off the Glitz.

I do think that the actual exit was rather sweet. I like Mel's line about throwing a bottle into space, and that the Doctor would find it in time, and the Doctor saying his days were like crazy paving. If it wasn't so out of the blue, I would have rated rather highly.

Given we never saw Mel's first meeting with the Doctor it's possible it was very much in character?

With you on this. Recognise it's (many) flaws but think 'Delta...' is fun and sunny with a lot of heart and at least 'Paradise Towers' was *trying* to do something different and thoughtful. Can only watch 'Time...' by treating it as high camp (well, if I did watch it that's the position I'd take. Haven't for years!) As for 'Dragonfire', it's got good bits and as it's probably a bit more 'traditional' I can see why it was voted top of the DWM Season Survey poll. Personally I'd put it third *because* it was a bit more 'traditional' 'Who'...just made pretty badly and lit with flippin' floodlights most of the time.

So, Season 24? 'Delta...' is my favourite.

Season 24 really was John Nathan-Turner throwing all of his toys out of the pram. He'd been told off - very solidly - about the show becoming too dark/violent and been forced to sack an actor he thought was doing a great job (Colin Baker).

Season 24 was his attempt at giving the show a smart, abstract feel a bit more like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Only it didn't work because the writing simply wasn't clever enough.

But, as has been mentioned, season 24 is light, bright and fun if nothing else.

Mrs Chuff and I also watch Box of Delights every Christmas. And what a delight, joy and treat it is from start to finish (despite the end being a bit of a cop-out). Very sad that John Horsley (the Bishop of Tatchester) died last week, but nobody noticed cos it was the same day as Roger Lloyd Pack.

I also recently saw Pat Quinn in the magnificent 80s drama Fortunes of War (the series that made Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson into stars). Again, she's paired up with Robert Stephens. Can't imagine why she so often got roles along side him ...


I hated Time, Paradise and Delta when I was a whippersnapper. Now, as a grizzled old salt, I love them. They're fun.

TATR is textbook DW: excellent cliffhangers, decent monsters (kept offscreen and revealed in a cliffhanger), decent effects, companion gets something to do, it's got Wanda Ventham. Excellent.

Paradise Towes is clearly mental, but fun nonetheless. Tabby and Tilda are a treat.

Delta is very grown-up, dealing with love and relationships as well as beign qutie violent.

Dragonfire is "typical DW". It actually seems the most staid and least adventurous of the whole lot. Thanks, Michael Eve, for that interesting viewpoint! Everything else tries to be different that year, Dragonfire doesn't.

All of them very watchable, and Mel is a textbook companion: she's brainy when she needs to be, brave when she needs to be. She faces up to villains and gees up frightened and nervous people. She's quickthinking (telling Gavrok that Delta was on the exploded bus). She rewires the leg-bombs in TATR. Love 'er. Maybe she's such a "textbook" companion that she seems like a cliche?

Her last scene is great, but totally unlike anythign else in that season. The poetic dialogue and wistful approach are definitely a foretaste of what the next couple of years would bring.

I do too!