‘ARC OF INFINITY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Anti-Matter from Amsterdam with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan

At last! I get to update my reviews on Season 20 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. 🙂

For a long time since Season 19 of ‘Doctor Who’ came out on Blu-ray for Christmas 2018, I was looking forward to the day that Season 20 – Peter Davison’s second season as the Fifth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’ – would be released in its own lavish Blu-ray box set.

Thankfully, the box set was released in 2023, in time for ‘Doctor Who’s 60th anniversary. It couldn’t have been better, and it was very good timing since Season 20 is regarded as the 20th anniversary season of ‘Doctor Who’ when it came out in 1983. It was exciting! 🙂

Incidentally, there was a preview for one of the Blu-ray extras featuring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding on a road trip in Germany to the ‘TimeLash’ convention in Kassal in October 2019. It got shown at the ‘Gallifrey’ Los Angeles convention in 2020.

I know this because one of my friends, Mary Ellen Daughtery, who runs the Peter Davison Hub on Facebook, attended the ‘Gallifrey’ convention in February 2020, and she shared the preview with me via private e-mail whilst most of us were in lockdown. 🙂

It was a nice thing to cheer me up during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially as the ‘Bedford Who Charity Con’ that I was looking forward to in October that year was rescheduled for April 2021 before it got rescheduled again to happen in October 2021. 🙂

I had to hold back from sharing anything I’d seen in that preview featuring Peter, Sarah and Janet on that 2019 Germany road trip. Thankfully, it was worth the wait, as the Season 20 Blu-ray trailer came out on the ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel in July 2023. 🙂

The trailer was in the form of a mini-episode called ‘The Passenger’, starring Janet Fielding as Tegan and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. It was great to see the trailer as well as Janet and Sarah as Tegan and Nyssa. Please check out my review on the mini-episode. 🙂

I was looking forward to revisiting the stories in Season 20 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, along with the exclusive Blu-ray extras like the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items as well as exclusive documentaries and interviews featuring my top favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stars. 🙂

As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of the Peter Davison era of ‘Doctor Who’. I’m very pleased that I’ve had my Season 20 Blu-ray booklet signed by Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton when I saw them at the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ in November 2023. It was thrilling! 🙂

I shared with Sarah at the ‘Scarborough Comic Con’ that I hadn’t seen the Season 20 Blu-ray box set yet and was looking forward to checking it out over Christmas in December 2023. Sarah said I was in for a treat with the Blu-ray extras to look forward to.

The Blu-ray box set of Season 20 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series is an 8-disc set and contains seven stories. There’s ‘Arc of Infinity’, ‘Snakedance’, ‘Mawdryn Undead’, ‘Terminus’, ‘Enlightenment’, ‘The King’s Demons’ and ‘The Five Doctors’ (three versions).

Yes, as well as the original 1983 version and the 1995 Special Edition version, there’s a 40th anniversary edition version of ‘The Five Doctors’ to check out on Blu-ray. I have…mixed feelings about the 40th anniversary edition, which I’ll get to another time. 😐

I know it’s taken me a while to get around to updating my reviews on Season 20 of ‘Doctor Who’, as I’m sharing my updated reviews on the seven stories in 2025. I was quite busy in 2024, as I had to sort out my updated reviews on Seasons 2, 9 and 15 first.

Thankfully, the waiting paid off and I’m very glad to be getting into these updated reviews on Season 20 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, as it’s a season I’ve wanted to revisit for a long time. I hope my updated thoughts on these stories will entertain you.

As I said, Season 20 is the 20th anniversary season of ‘Doctor Who’ when it was shown in 1983. A big deal was made at the time that ‘Doctor Who’ would be celebrating a very landmark milestone of 20 years on the TV compared to celebrating 10 years of it in 1973.

The producer John Nathan-Turner wanted to make the most of the 20th anniversary celebrations of ‘Doctor Who’ at the time. And that’s not just with the 20th anniversary special shown in November 1983. This was for every story featured in Season 20 itself. 🙂

In every story of Season 20, a previous villain, monster or character(s) would return to make an appearance to celebrate the fact that it was 20 years since ‘Doctor Who’ began in 1963. It’s something I greatly admire in John Nathan-Turner’s handling of the TV show.

An aspect of the TV show’s 20-year history would be celebrated in every story building up to the 20th anniversary special being shown in November 1983. No matter how big or small, a tribute to the show’s past would be given in every story featured in Season 20. 🙂

Wow, wouldn’t that be exciting for the new TV series to do? Perhaps say on a level in Series 7B with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor building up to ‘The Day of the Doctor’. Or this could’ve been done for the 60th anniversary by having more than three TV specials.

Tim laughs ironically, before the laughter gradually dies down.

Hmm. (Pause) Regardless of how anniversaries in ‘Doctor Who’ are done nowadays, it’s very impressive that John Nathan-Turner went to the trouble of celebrating the TV show’s 20th anniversary in various forms. Not just in the stories, but the promotion too.

Yeah, John Nathan-Turner was very into the promotional side of things when it came to producing ‘Doctor Who’. This was through TV appearances featuring various actors being interviewed as well as conventions happening in the UK and the USA at that time.

Mind you, this is something that had its own drawbacks when you think about it. Whilst it must have been exciting for ‘Doctor Who’ fans to celebrate the show’s 20th anniversary on the promotional side of things, the stories can often be a lot to be desired.

Now, I’m not saying the level of storytelling in Season 20 is terrible. Far from it. There are good stories to enjoy in Season 20. Mind you, I enjoyed the first half of Season 20 more than the second half. This is down to personal tastes and I’m sure others will disagree. 😐

It also might be down to the fact that Nyssa, my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion, as played by Sarah Sutton, doesn’t appear in every story featured in Season 20. Season 19 works better for me as a ‘Doctor Who’ season, as I know Nyssa appears in every story. 🙂

I’m sure people will say that Nyssa is not the main priority in ‘Doctor Who’ compared to me, and they’re probably right. But it’s the way that Nyssa’s appearances in Season 20 are handled that gets to me, particularly in her swansong. This, we’ll get to another time.

Incidentally, and with the benefit of hindsight, I’m pleased there are plenty of stories that feature the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan as characters to slot in-between gaps of certain stories in Season 20 that allow a lot more depth to the season than it already has.

I’ve talked a lot about the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ over the years and I absolutely love the Season 19B stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa that occur between ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’. They add more depth to the Fifth Doctor era. 🙂

There are also stories considered Season 20B stories, including ones set between ‘Arc of Infinity’ and ‘Snakedance’, between ‘Snakedance’ and ‘Mawdryn Undead’, and between ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘The King’s Demons’. Again, we’ll come back to this soon.

For now, especially as I’m updating my reviews on the Season 20 stories of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, let’s talk about the stories each in turn and I’ll highlight what I consider to be extra depth to these stories and its characters supported by other media.

It should be pretty exciting and enlightening, especially in emphasising why I love the Fifth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ so much, particularly in its Season 19 and early Season 20 periods, which mean a great deal for me in terms of embracing the show’s fandom. 🙂

As I’ve established, Season 19 ended with ‘Time-Flight’ where the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa left together in the TARDIS and Tegan was left behind at Heathrow Airport. That was always considered a cliffhanger moment, since Tegan would return in Season 20. 🙂

But if we’re to take the Big Finish audios into account, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa have been travelling together for a long time. This is between the stories ‘The Land of the Dead’ and ‘Downward Spiral’ (at the time of this review), which I highly recommend hearing. 🙂

I’ve also written my own ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa where they’re joined by their friend Billy Walker in the stories between ‘The Railway of Time’ and ‘Orionis’ (the latter is yet to be released). I highly recommend my stories too. 🙂

Whether you wish to acknowledge any stories set between ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’ or not, it can’t be denied that there has been a period where the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa have travelled together in the TARDIS without Tegan, which I find very invigorating.

With that out of the way, let’s begin talking about Season 20 of ‘Doctor Who’ itself. The season begins with the four-part story ‘Arc of Infinity’ by Johnny Byrne. Johnny Byrne is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’, as he penned ‘The Keeper of Traken’ featured in Season 18.

He’s also written episodes of the original ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series as well as ‘Space: 1999’. I believe this is the first time Johnny Byrne has written for Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. This is after he wrote for Peter as Tristain in ‘All Creatures’. 🙂

‘Arc of Infinity’ is one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. I found it to be a pretty good and strong story for Nyssa’s character. Sarah agreed with me about that when I saw her at the ‘Cardiff Film and Comic Con’ in March 2014.

It’s a story that works well on so many levels, especially when you consider the juggling of the story being set on Gallifrey as well as Amsterdam on planet Earth in the year 1983. It’s also interesting to see the character relationships developed in the story itself.

By the way, I recommend checking out ‘Arc of Infinity’ with the CGI effects option switched on, whether you’re watching it on DVD and Blu-ray. The CGI effects in ‘Arc of Infinity’ on DVD and Blu-ray are very impressive compared to seeing the original effects.

‘Arc of Infinity’ was the second story in the ‘Tegan Tales’ DVD box set, which was released in August 2007. The first story was ‘Time-Flight’. I enjoyed the two stories when I saw them on holiday at a cottage in Torridon in Scotland. They were such happy times.

I’ve had my DVD cover of ‘Arc of Infinity’ signed by three people, including Peter Davison, who signed it at ‘York Unleashed’ at the York Racecourse in York, August 2017. I’ve also had it signed by Sarah Sutton at the ‘Cardiff Film and Comic Con’ back in March 2014. 🙂

And I’ve had the DVD cover signed by Colin Baker at the ‘GEEKS Salisbury Comic Con’ at City Hall in Salisbury, July 2017. You might be surprised Colin Baker signed my DVD cover, as he’s not playing the Sixth Doctor in ‘Arc of Infinity’, which I’ll get into more later.

In terms of paying tribute to the TV show’s history for the 20th anniversary, ‘Arc of Infinity’ features the return of Omega. If you don’t recall who Omega is, he made his first appearance in ‘The Three Doctors’. In that story, Omega was played by Stephen Thorne.

Omega was the stellar engineer who provided the Time Lords of Gallifrey the ability to travel in time as well as space. In ‘The Three Doctors’, Omega tried to exact his revenge on the Time Lords for being abandoned in an anti-matter universe once caught in an explosion.

Here, in ‘Arc of Infinity’, it turns out Omega survived and is now played by Ian Collier. If Ian Collier is a name you’re not familiar with, he previously played a young scientist named Stuart Hyde in ‘The Time Monster’. He’s also been in many other TV productions.

He’s been in an episode of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and an episode of ‘Jeeves & Wooster’ after he did ‘Arc of Infinity’. I enjoyed his portrayal of Omega in ‘Arc of Infinity’, especially as it’s subtle, and not so loud and shouty that Stephen Thorne’s Omega was.

In ‘Arc of Infinity’, Omega attempts to steal the Doctor’s body or at least have the Doctor’s body print in order to transfer from the anti-matter world and exist in our reality. He has help from a Time Lord traitor who sends the Doctor’s bio-data extract to Omega.

I like how in ‘Arc of Infinity’, it isn’t revealed that it’s Omega who’s the villain of this story until the end of ‘Part Three’. In ‘Parts One and Two’, Ian Collier is credited as ‘The Renegade’. I wonder if many ‘Doctor Who’ fans guessed that it was Omega all that time.

Like I said, some of this story is set in Amsterdam, which is the capital and most populated city of the Netherlands. My parents and I regard Amsterdam as where Anne Frank did her diary when she and her family hid in a house from the Nazis in the 1940s. 😐

I enjoyed the Amsterdam setting featured in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. It was John Nathan-Turner’s idea to film aboard compared to filming in the UK for ‘Arc of Infinity’. This was JNT’s attempt to have ‘Doctor Who’ being more international than what it was already. 🙂

This isn’t the first time that ‘Doctor Who’ has done a foreign location shoot for a story. In Season 17, ‘Doctor Who’ went to Paris to film ‘City of Death’, my favourite story from Tom Baker’s era of the TV show. Mind you, that story had a purpose being filmed in Paris.

As the script editor Eric Saward points out, there wasn’t much point to filming in Amsterdam unless you’re running around a lot in streets. Which is what occurs in ‘Part Four’ of the story, as the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan spend a lot of time running in Amsterdam. 😐

Then again, Johnny Byrne did his best with including the water system aspects of Amsterdam, especially the fusion booster sent to Omega from Gallifrey to achieve the transfer he needs to leave the anti-matter universe to exist in our reality. Quite decent. 🙂

I’ve chatted to Sarah Sutton as well as to Alistair Cumming, who plays Colin Frazer in this ‘Doctor Who’ story (more on him later), about their time working in Amsterdam. Sarah clearly enjoyed doing the location filming, though she didn’t enjoy running a lot.

Poor Sarah. 😀 I sympathise with how she feels since it must have been hard for her to keep up with Peter and Janet when they as their characters ran around in Amsterdam chasing after Omega. I’d had Nyssa say “Running is not my thing” in some of my stories.

It was very interesting to hear from Alistair Cumming, both from the ‘Anti-Matter From Amsterdam’ making-of documentary and meeting him at the ‘Fifth Element’ convention in February 2010, how he got to enjoy visiting Amsterdam via his acting jobs.

As established, Janet Fielding makes her return as Tegan Jovanka in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I’m surprised Johnny Byrne and Eric Saward were puzzled by Tegan’s return in ‘Arc of Infinity’ as if they didn’t know Tegan had left the TARDIS very briefly since ‘Time-Flight’.

I mean, had there been a season where the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa travelled together in the TARDIS for a bit – like the Big Finish audios have managed to create – and if Tegan returned about halfway in the season, maybe her return to the series would be justified.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s fine for Tegan to return in ‘Arc of Infinity’, especially as it’s the season opener for Season 20. Fans and viewers were probably wondering what happened to Tegan after she got left behind in ‘Time-Flight’. It’s a reasonable hook there.

The Doctor and Nyssa have one episode to themselves in ‘Part One’ before Tegan makes her return in ‘Part Two’. And maybe if Tegan returned to rejoin the Doctor and Nyssa after missing having adventures with them, I’d be okay for Tegan’s appearances in Season 20.

However, Tegan’s appearances in some stories of Season 20 have her acting like she doesn’t want to be there or that she doesn’t enjoy the travelling much. It’s something I would’ve expected to see less of in her character in Season 20 compared to Season 19.

Season 19, for all its flaws, is a season that showcased Tegan’s character journey as someone who wasn’t keen on being a TARDIS traveller at the beginning to being soft on the idea towards the end. Hence why her tears by the end of ‘Time-Flight’ are justified. 🙂

It’s fine for Tegan’s return in ‘Arc of Infinity’ to be fairly happy in seeing the Doctor and Nyssa again, especially since she tells them that she got the sack from her job. But it’s the stories following afterwards that don’t keep up with her being happy in the TARDIS. 😐

And yes, I know. Being a TARDIS traveller isn’t an easy ride. I get that. But I expected Tegan to have mellowed more compared to her fiery attitude in the stories in Season 19. This is something I’ll get into more when we examine more stories of the season itself. 🙂

With all that said, I’m glad Big Finish audios like ‘The Waters of Amsterdam’ have touched upon Tegan’s life in-between ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’ for us to know what happened to her, as well as stories about her travelling with the Doctor and Nyssa.

Janet Fielding has also written a short story for Tegan in the ‘Time-Flight’/‘Arc of Infinity’ gap for a BBC Books anthology. The story is called ‘Little Did She Know’ and it’s in the ‘Doctor Who’ collection called ‘The Adventures Before’ in case you were wondering where it is.

Incidentally, it’s quite ironic that Tegan, after all the determination to get to Heathrow Airport in Season 19, gets sacked after leaving the Doctor to become an air stewardess. I wonder if she would have lasted longer in that job had she not met the Doctor at all. 😀

In ‘Arc of Infinity’, Tegan hopes to cheer herself by seeing her cousin Colin Frazer in Amsterdam along with his friend Robin Stuart. She didn’t expect Colin to go missing, as she and Robin search for where he was last seen – a crypt under Frankendael House. 😮

It’s quite amusing that Tegan’s adventure in Amsterdam with finding her cousin Colin coincides with the business happening on Gallifrey with the Doctor and Nyssa and that it’s all because of Omega. Also, it’s nice to meet another family member of Tegan’s here.

I mean, we met Aunt Vanessa in ‘Logopolis’, who tragically got killed unfortunately. Here we meet Colin Frazer who is Tegan’s cousin and is another Australian, I believe. In the next season, we get to meet Tegan’s grandfather – Andrew Verney – in ‘The Awakening’. 🙂

It’s interesting we don’t meet Tegan’s parents in the TV series. I mean, I know this was before Russell T. Davies had Rose Tyler introduced with her family in the new TV series, but I’m surprised the TV show didn’t go the extra mile and have us meet Tegan’s parents.

As far as I’m aware, Tegan’s parents are alive in 1983. At least, Tegan would receive a phone call from her mum at the beginning of ‘The Gathering’, which takes place in 2006. Although the canonicity of that audio story is debatable these days regarding continuity.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the ‘Arc of Infinity’ boys at my very first ‘Doctor Who’ convention called ‘Fifth Element’, which took place in Chiswick, London in February 2010. The boys are Alistair Cumming as Colin Frazer and Andrew Boxer as Robin Stuart.

I recall having a very hearty chat with Alistair Cumming when I met him in February 2010. My chat with Andrew Boxer was pleasant, although it wasn’t as hearty as it was with Alistair Cumming. Plus, it was brief. I’m glad I had photos with the ‘Arc of Infinity’ boys. 🙂

In the story, Colin and Robin happen to be hitchhikers in Amsterdam. They have to sleep rough in a crypt below Frankendael House before getting their room at a youth hostel the following morning. Unfortunately, their night plans don’t quite go according to plan.

It’s unfortunate that Colin is the one who gets zapped and captured by the Ergon to do Omega’s bidding inside his TARDIS. Robin, initially keen on spending a night in the crypt, becomes anxious when Colin goes missing and he enlists Tegan to help him find his friend. 🙂

Mind you, as Alistair Cumming points out in the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary, it’s appalling that Robin left his friend in the crypt once he saw him in his hypnotised state. Surely Robin should have tried to break his friend out of the trance.

Again, as established, as well as this story being set in Amsterdam on Earth, the story also takes place on Gallifrey. It’s interesting how Gallifrey is depicted in this story compared to how it gets presented in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and ‘The Invasion of Time’. 🙂

Johnny Byrne wasn’t really impressed with how Gallifrey turned out in ‘Arc of Infinity’, according to the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary, as he says the place is reduced to ‘a few rather grey corridors’. A reasonably fair statement, I believe. 🙂

I mean, I know designers like Marjorie Pratt who worked on this story need to provide their own take on how Gallifrey looks compared to previous stories. But surely, Gallifrey in ‘Arc of Infinity’ could have matched to previous Gallifrey stories in terms of the design.

At least the Time Lord costumes from ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and ‘The Invasion of Time’ are retained. In ‘Arc of Infinity’, the Doctor and Nyssa are summoned back to Gallifrey where our intrepid hero is about to face termination to expel the anti-matter creature. 😮

It’s understandable why the Doctor and the Time Lords in general don’t get on well with each other. The Doctor’s pleas to hunt down the anti-matter creature are refuted, as the Time Lords are wishing to employ the easier option of having the Doctor killed instead. 😐

Borusa: Have you nothing further to say, Doctor?
Doctor: (angrily) I have a great deal to say!
Nyssa: You can’t do this!

It’s shocking. And it’s understandable why the Doctor and Nyssa would be angry with the Time Lords for being stuck in their mindsets of not seeing more than one option to rid a deadly threat. It’s little wonder the Doctor fled from his people as William Hartnell.

I found it amusing and pathetic when the Chancellery Guard of Gallifrey weren’t able to capture the Doctor and Nyssa in ‘Part Three’ when they were running about in the Capitol. My best mate from school Stephen found it amusing too when he saw this story.

It’s little wonder the Time Lords lost the Time War to the Daleks. 😀 I joke, of course. But sometimes when watching these stories on DVD, especially with a friend, you can easily make fun of how these TV tales work in terms of their presentation, despite loving them.

It’s also amusing to hear from Peter Davison in the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary how there were so many sofas for people to sit on in the grey corridors of Gallifrey. I can easily see people wanting to sit down after running so much.

Now there were sofas in the corridors of Gallifrey’s Capitol in ‘The Invasion of Time’, which I noticed when revisiting that story on Blu-ray, but I don’t know if it’s me. The sofas in that story seem to be smaller and less comfy compared to the ones in ‘Arc of Infinity’.

Let’s talk about Colin Baker, who makes his ‘Doctor Who’ debut as Commander Maxil, the commander of the Chancellery Guard of Gallifrey. Of course, many ‘Doctor Who’ fans would know Colin Baker for playing the role of the Sixth Doctor after Peter Davison.

It’s easy to forget that Colin Baker played a different character in ‘Doctor Who’ before he went on to play the Sixth Doctor in the TV series. And it’s not just Colin who’s been in that position of playing a supporting role in a story before going on to play a major role. 🙂

Peter Purves played Morton Dill in ‘The Chase’ before he played Steven Taylor. Ian Marter played John Andrews in ‘Carnival of Monsters’ before he went on to play Harry Sullivan. And Lalla Ward played Princess Astra in ‘The Armageddon Factor’ before she went on to portray the second Romana in the TV series.

For new TV series examples, Freema Agyeman played Adeola Oshodi in ‘Army of Ghosts’ before she played Martha Jones. Karen Gillan and Peter Capaldi played characters in ‘The Fires of Pompeii’ before they played Amy Pond and the Twelfth Doctor respectively.

It’s very amusing Colin Baker had hopes to play the Doctor even when he cast to play Maxil in ‘Arc of Infinity’. It was from this story and at a wedding party that producer John Nathan-Turner was inspired to cast Colin Baker as the Doctor after Peter Davison left. 🙂

In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best way to cast an actor in a major role in a TV series on JNT’s part, especially considering what happened during Colin’s time as the Sixth Doctor. But it’s good that Colin Baker managed to impress the producer from that.

In ‘Arc of Infinity’, Maxil is a mean and stern person when the Doctor and Nyssa meet him. Maxil is working on the orders of the High Council as well as the Castellan, especially with investigating certain mysteries like the Doctor’s termination in ‘Part Two’.

It’s pretty surreal and joyously amusing to see Colin Baker as Maxil shoot Peter Davison’s Doctor in ‘Arc of Infinity’. Almost as if there’s a metaphysical message going on to say that Colin Baker wants Peter Davison’s job and is so willing to shoot him for it. 😀

I like Colin Baker’s defence of Maxil in the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary, by saying he was simply doing his job and that he wouldn’t let anyone get in his way of doing it. He even says this to Damon when being challenged on his actions.

Damon: Commander Maxil, why are you treating the Doctor like a criminal?
Maxil: I’m simply following orders.

I’m surprised Big Finish haven’t done a ‘Doctor Who’ audio story where Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor meets Colin Baker as Maxil again. That would be surreal and amusing to hear, especially with the knowledge that Colin Baker ended up playing the Sixth Doctor.

I know Colin Baker has reprised the role of Maxil in some form in a ‘Gallifrey’ audio story called ‘Appropriation’. Mind you, I’ve not heard that audio story to find out what it’s like and I would probably need to hear the previous ‘Gallifrey’ stories to get into the series.

I have penned my own story featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy teaming up with Maxil from Gallifrey called ‘The Prime Factor’. The story takes place after the events of ‘Arc of Infinity’ for Maxil whereas for the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, it’s yet to occur to them.

I enjoyed writing Maxil’s character in ‘The Prime Factor’ and hope I’ve done him justice in matching him up to how he behaves and sounds in ‘Arc of Infinity’. I’ve at least had Maxil not wear the chicken-like helmet he wore in the TV story that made him ridiculous.

Yeah, Colin Baker had to wear a helmet containing purple feathers to indicate he oversaw security on Gallifrey. Sometimes, he had to carry the helmet under his arm since he couldn’t go through any doors without knocking the helmet off. It’s so amusing.

The helmet itself isn’t bad, but I would have done without the purple feathers. Why did there need to be purple feathers in his helmet? Andred didn’t have that problem with the helmet he wore in ‘The Invasion of Time’, so why does Maxil have to that problem in this?

I found it amusing when Colin Baker told the story in the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary and in the DVD audio commentary that he ended up doing chicken noises during rehearsals when he carried the helmet under his arm or wore it. 🙂

I’m sure it got many cast members laughing whilst rehearsing the story and it got director Ron Jones annoyed. It’s something that should have been rethought and it makes Maxil less intimidating as a result when he’s in charge of the Chancellery Guard.

Regardless, Colin Baker’s performance as Maxil is definitely a highlight to check out when watching ‘Arc of Infinity’ on DVD, Blu-ray, BBC iPlayer or ITVX. It’s a shame Colin Baker as Maxil wasn’t in the fourth episode. It would’ve been so good to see him in that.

In ‘Arc of Infinity’, there are five members of the High Council of Time Lords featured, and they’re played by some very good actors. It’s amazing that I recognise from other ‘Doctor Who’ stories they’ve been in as well as other TV productions I’ve seen them too.

There’s Leonard Sachs as President Borusa. Yes, Borusa is now the President of Gallifrey compared to when we last saw him in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and ‘The Invasion of Time’. Leonard Sachs is very well-known for presenting ‘The Good Old Days’ TV show.

Michael Gough guest stars as Councillor Hedin, who happens to be an old friend of the Doctor’s. Michael Gough was the original Toymaker in ‘The Celestial Toymaker’. He later portrayed Alfred Pennyworth in the original ‘Batman’ four-film series, which is amazing.

Elspet Gray guest stars as Chancellor Thalia, who is the only female Time Lord we see among the High Council in ‘Arc of Infinity’. It was nice to see Elspet Gray in ‘Arc of Infinity’, as I’ve seen her as Mrs. Abbot in the ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode ‘The Psychiatrist’.

Max Harvey guest stars as Councillor Zorac in the TV adventure. There’s not much to say about Zorac’s character and I’ve not seen Max Harvey in anything else, but it was fascinating to see his apprehension throughout the story as the crisis on Gallifrey occurs.

And there’s Paul Jerricho as the Castellan. Paul Jerricho would later play the Castellan for a second time in ‘The Five Doctors’. I actually saw Paul Jerricho in ‘The Five Doctors’ first before seeing his debut in ‘Arc of Infinity’. I greatly enjoyed seeing him in these stories.

I don’t believe this is Spandrell from ‘The Deadly Assassin’, nor is it Kelner from ‘The Invasion of Time’. The Castellan in ‘Arc of Infinity’ and ‘The Five Doctors’ isn’t given a name, both in TV and Target novelization/audiobook forms, which I find is a bit of shame.

I think some have referred to him as ‘Castellan Jerricho’, especially in a webcast that Paul Jerricho did for a Twitter watchalong for ‘The Five Doctors’ when we were in lockdown in 2020. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but I’m open to that name being true. 🙂

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and seeing Paul Jerricho at conventions over the years. I’ve had some pleasant chats with Paul. I tried to avoid saying his famous “No, not the mind probe” line from ‘The Five Doctors’ to him when I saw him at a Birmingham event.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry, as he mentioned it first and it was relief to talk to him about his famous line from ‘The Five Doctors’. It’s something he’ll be remembered for in the years to come, which I’ll get onto more once we’re talking about ‘The Five Doctors’. 🙂

The conventions I’ve seen at include ‘Acceptable in the 80s’ in Chiswick, London in October 2011, the ‘MCM Birmingham Comic Con’ in March 2016 and the virtual event ‘Spearhead: Day of the Time Lords’ in November 2020. It’s quite amazing I’ve met him.

In ‘Arc of Infinity’, the Castellan happens to be a control freak. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, and he’s very ruthless when he tries to solve a mystery or a crisis occurring on Gallifrey. He quickly suspects and blames the Doctor for all that’s occurring on Gallifrey.

Paul Jerricho was also in the ‘Star Wars’ film ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, didn’t you know? As well as Maxil, I’ve included the Castellan in ‘The Prime Factor’, making my prequel/sequel to ‘Arc of Infinity’ more complete. 🙂 I greatly enjoyed writing the Castellan.

The story also features Neil Daglish as Damon, a Time Lord technician who helps the Doctor and Nyssa when they’re trying to solve the mystery of the conspiracy and the anti-matter creature on Gallifrey. I like Damon especially when he befriends Nyssa here.

There’s also John D. Collins as Talor, another Time Lord technician who sadly gets killed in ‘Part One’ of the story. You might recognise John D. Collins from seeing him in TV sitcoms such as ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Them’, ‘Allo, ‘Allo’ and ‘You Rang M’Lord?’ to name a few.

In the story, Omega has a servant working for him, which happens to be called the Ergon, played by Malcolm Harvey. The Doctor describes the Ergon as ‘one of Omega’s less successful attempts at psychosynthesis’ – whatever that means. 😀 I find it baffling.

I’m afraid I found the Ergon pretty disappointing in terms of the costume and design. It looks absurd. I found myself laughing at the Ergon for the wrong reasons, as it looks like a big bird, played by a man in a rubber costume. The Ergon’s head also looks ridiculous.

According to the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary, Ian Collier described it as being something ‘out of Road Runner’ and that it was a cartoon character. Peter Davison thought that it was ‘dug up’ from a previous Jon Pertwee story. 🙂

Seriously, you could easily make fun of the Ergon when you’re watching ‘Arc of Infinity’ on DVD, Blu-ray, BBC iPlayer or ITV. I found myself doing funny voices for the Ergon whenever I saw him with Omega and whenever he was attacking Nyssa and the Doctor. 😀

Going back to Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, I absolutely love watching her in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. It’s clear that Sarah enjoyed this story, especially since it develops Nyssa’s character, and she gets to spend more time with Peter Davison’s Doctor for most of it. 🙂

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Nyssa is well-written in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially since Johnny Byrne created the character in ‘The Keeper of Traken’. It must have been a good opportunity for Johnny Byrne to pen for Nyssa again as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion.

It’s good that Nyssa gets to share her caring and compassionate nature throughout this ‘Doctor Who’ story and I really liked it when she tried to save the Doctor from termination in ‘Part Two’. Johnny Byrne’s approach to Nyssa in this story is fascinating. 🙂

The way he handled Nyssa is drawing on the fact she had been through a great ordeal. She lost her father, saw her world destroyed and kept the anger and pain concealed by transferring all of her painful emotions to the Doctor, considering him a surrogate figure.

That’s something I quite like about Nyssa’s character and the way Johnny Byrne described it in the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary. It’s something I’ve kept in mind in writing for Nyssa in the stories I’ve shared featuring her on my blog. 🙂

If we’re to take my ‘Fifth Doctor’ stories into account, the fact that Billy is no longer with Nyssa and the Doctor, and the thought of losing the Doctor too when he’s about to be terminated by the Time Lords of Gallifrey is something that would really add to her pain.

I really like how the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ have developed Nyssa’s character, especially the Season 19B stories taking place between ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’. Through those stories, Big Finish has done wonders for Nyssa’s character throughout. 🙂

Like I said, it’d be easy to not consider the Big Finish audios as part of the ‘Doctor Who’ continuity. But I consider the Big Finish audios featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in Season 19B as part of the main continuity, especially since Tegan first left in ‘Time-Flight’. 🙂

It’s through the Big Finish audios as well as the TV stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, including ‘Arc of Infinity’, that it’s inspired me to write my own series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa where they’re accompanied by Billy. 🙂

It’s also through the Big Finish audios and the TV series that I’ve enjoyed seeing Sarah Sutton at conventions. Sarah has become my best friend at ‘Doctor Who’ conventions and I greatly enjoy the opportunities of seeing her and having plenty of chats with her. 🙂

Incidentally, when Nyssa screams in ‘Doctor Who’, she really does scream. I know this occurred in ‘Part One’ of ‘Time-Flight’ when Nyssa saw the Xeraphin corpses, but Sarah Sutton isn’t holding back when she screams at the Ergon in ‘Part Four’ of ‘Arc of Infinity’.

Peter Davison is equally great to watch as the Fifth Doctor in this adventure. I’m glad he got to have some scenes with Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, who he considers his favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion. It’s clear he enjoys spending time with Sarah as Nyssa in this.

As well as the genuine concern they have for each other, it’s also good to see the comedic moments shared between Peter’s Doctor and Nyssa in the story. This is especially when they’re walking in Amsterdam and bumping into people by accident. 😀

The moment where Peter’s Doctor and Nyssa bump into a man with shopping bags on their way to Frankendael House was so funny to watch in the story. I don’t think it was in the actual script. It must have been ad-libbed by Peter and Sarah to provide comedy. 😀

I enjoyed it when watching the story how Peter’s Doctor gradually works out and unravels the mystery about what’s going on with Gallifrey and that it’s Omega who’s behind it all. The moment when the Doctor realises that it was Omega all along is good.

It was good to see the scenes where the Doctor confronts Omega in the Matrix on Gallifrey as well as in his TARDIS and in the final confrontation in Amsterdam with Nyssa and Tegan beside him. Those scenes were worth waiting for in the story’s last episode. 🙂

I enjoyed the moment in ‘Part Three’ where the Doctor tries to get into the computer room by using the presidential codes. He was the President of Gallifrey in ‘The Invasion of Time’ after all. I enjoyed Nyssa and Damon’s reactions once they saw the Doctor enter.

 

Nyssa: Doctor!
Damon: How did you manage to open the door?
Doctor: Pure luck.

Peter Davison has an opportunity to play Omega in this story once the renegade Time Lord takes on the Doctor’s form in what seems to be a ‘complete’ bonding. It was eerie to hear Ian Collier’s voice coming out from Peter Davison when he was playing Omega. 🙂

I can imagine there was a lot of lip-syncing involved, especially when watching the ‘Under Arc Lights’ behind-the-scenes studio footage. I’m sure Peter enjoyed playing Omega in ‘Part Four’ of the story, although the scene where he smiles at a boy is creepy.

The story also features Maya Woolfe and Guy Groen as the receptionists at the youth hostel where Tegan is supposed to stay in Amsterdam. Maya Woolfe appears in ‘Parts One and Four’ whilst Guy Groen is in ‘Part Four’ only. They’re both friendly in the story. 🙂

The story concludes with the Doctor defeating Omega by firing the Ergon’s matter converter on him. Whether Omega survived or not is another matter. Although Peter Davison’s Doctor did encounter him again in the Big Finish audio ‘Omega’ after this story.

I can imagine how painful it must have been for Ian Collier to have explosions going off in the costume he wore when he as Omega was being expelled from our reality and presumably back into the anti-matter world. I wouldn’t like to have been in his position.

After checking with the hospital about her cousin Colin Frazer, Tegan is reunited with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. The Doctor and Nyssa are glad to see Tegan again. Nyssa says she wishes Tegan didn’t have to go back to her job. Tegan informs them she got the sack.

It’s clear Nyssa is delighted by the news as she puts her arms around Tegan in a sort-of hug. The Doctor meanwhile is put out. Come on, Doctor! Be a little more enthusiastic, will you? 😀 It’s clear he’s unsure that having Tegan back in the TARDIS is a very good thing. 😐

Ah well, he’ll just have to lump it, I suppose. 😀 At least they have ‘The Waters of Amsterdam’ to share as an adventure next. It was funny hearing from Peter Davison in the DVD audio commentary mockingly telling Nyssa to come with him and leave Tegan. 😀

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the making-of documentary ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’, presented by Sophie Aldred and featuring behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There was ‘The Omega Factor’ featurette, which focused on the character of Omega, featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with writer Bob Baker, writer Johnny Byrne, writer Nev Fountain and Omega actors Stephen Thorne and Ian Collier. There were deleted scenes from ‘Part Four’ of the story, the ‘Under Arc Lights’ behind-the-scenes studio footage, a CGI effects option of the story to enjoy, and BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story. There was a dual mono sound audio mix option for the story, the entertaining audio commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Colin Baker, and an isolated music option of the story by Roger Limb to enjoy. There was an info-text commentary option to enjoy, a photo gallery of the story, the ‘Doctor Who Annual 1983’ PDF and a ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF of the story. There was also a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Time Warrior’, starring Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen. There was an Easter Egg to look out for on the ‘Arc of Infinity’ DVD disc, which was a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Complete Davros Collection’, which you would have to check out by going to the second Special Features DVD menu and enter the digits 1,9,7,5. Not that I’m expecting anyone to know that because I didn’t.

On Disc 1 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 20’ Blu-ray, the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary, ‘The Omega Factor’ featurette, the ‘Part Four’ deleted scenes, the ‘Under Arc Lights’ behind-the-scenes studio footage, the CGI effects option, the dual mono sound audio mix option, the DVD audio commentary and the isolated music option can be found on there. The BBC trailers and continuity announcements, the info-text commentary option and the photo gallery have been updated for 2023 on the Blu-ray. The ‘Doctor Who Annual 1983’ PDF isn’t included on the ‘Arc of Infinity’ Blu-ray disc for the Season 20 Blu-ray box set. It’s now included on Disc 8 of the Season 19 Blu-ray box set.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘Arc of Infinity’ with Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Mark Strickson (Turlough) as well as Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor) and Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor) as well as Katy Manning (Jo) and Sophie Aldred (Ace). There’s an extended and updated version of the ‘Saturday Superstore’ interview with Peter Davison, taken from the ‘Snakedance’ DVD, which also includes a brief appearance by Bonnie Langford before she was cast as Melanie Bush in ‘Doctor Who’. There’s the ‘Russell Harty’s Christmas Party’ item featuring Peter Davison and his then-wife Sandra Dickson performing a sketch based on a ‘Cinderella’ pantomime, taken from Disc 2 of the ‘Enlightenment’ 2-disc DVD. There’s a ‘Captain Zep’ item, featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, expanded behind-the-scenes studio footage of ‘Arc of Infinity’, and an audio interview with director Ron Jones.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘Arc of Infinity’, there are production documents, four rehearsal scripts, four camera scripts, four transmission scripts, a recording schedule, and costume designer Dee Robson’s costume designs for the story. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘Arc of Infinity’ is definitely one of my cherished and favourite ‘Doctor Who’ stories from the Peter Davison/Fifth Doctor era. It’s certainly a great story for Nyssa, played wonderfully well by Sarah Sutton, and it’s a great story for featuring the return of Omega.

I like that the story is set in Amsterdam on Earth as well as on Gallifrey. Johnny Byrne does well with balancing the story in two locations and keeps the pace and tension up throughout. It’s a ‘Doctor Who’ story I’m very fond of. I will cherish it for years to come. 🙂

I was on the edge of my seat when Peter Davison’s Doctor was being threatened with execution by the Time Lords on Gallifrey and I was engaged when Nyssa bravely tried to save him in ‘Part Two’ with a Chancellery Guard pistol. You don’t mess with Nyssa there! 😀

I’m pleased this story had an impact on me, especially when I wrote ‘The Prime Factor’, which features characters from ‘Arc of Infinity’ like Colin Baker as Commander Maxil and Paul Jerricho as the Castellan. It’s a great story to start off Season 20 of the classic TV series.

Out of the two stories featured in the ‘Tegan Tales’ DVD box set when released in August 2007, I consider ‘Arc of Infinity’ to be better than ‘Time-Flight’. Despite that, I still find that both stories kept me entertained, especially since Sarah Sutton as Nyssa is in them.

If you were to ask me whether I’d recommend ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’ on DVD or Blu-ray and to add them to your collection, I would definitely say, “Yes”. Even if the stories are poorly rated by the general fandom, there’s still something very worthy in both.

‘Arc of Infinity’ rating – 9.5/10

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‘ANTI-MATTER FROM AMSTERDAM’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

I’ve mentioned the ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary a lot in my updated review on ‘Arc of Infinity’, which is available on DVD and Blu-ray. An intriguing aspect about the making-of documentary is that it’s produced and directed by Keith Barnfather. 🙂

Keith Barnfather has produced and directed plenty of ‘Myth Makers’ interviews for ‘Reeltime Pictures’, which I’ve enjoyed, as well as other ‘Reeltime’-related ‘Doctor Who’ dramas. It’s nice to find he directed this very special making-of documentary for ‘Arc of Infinity’.

The documentary itself is partially shot on location in Amsterdam and is presented by Sophie Aldred, who plays Ace in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and Big Finish audios. I enjoyed seeing Sophie present this documentary and it was good to see writer Johnny Byrne in the background.

On one occasion, Sophie Aldred bumps into Johnny Byrne by accident, which I found amusing to see. It was also fascinating to see that Amsterdam hasn’t really changed much in terms of the key locations that were used to be filmed for scenes in ‘Arc of Infinity’.

I also love seeing Sarah Sutton in this making-of documentary, as she’s lovely and wonderful when being interviewed. It was lovely to hear her share her thoughts about playing Nyssa in ‘Arc of Infinity’ as well as enjoying her time filming aboard in Amsterdam.

Though it’s clear she wasn’t very keen on the running aspect of ‘Arc of Infinity’. 😀 I also found it amusing when Sarah shared when she and Peter did the scene of going downstairs behind the fountain to crypt, she ripped her trousers and Peter thought she ‘ate too much’. 😀

Other people being interviewed in the documentary include Peter Davison, Ian Collier, Alistair Cumming, Colin Baker, Paul Jerricho, script editor Eric Saward and writer Johnny Byrne. It was lovely to hear their thoughts on the making of this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure.

Peter reflects on how he didn’t understand why he as Omega changed from being himself to be played by Ian Collier towards the end of the story. I think it makes sense for Peter as Omega to be changed into Ian Collier, especially as Omega himself was disintegrating. 🙂

The ‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ making-of documentary is worth checking out, especially when getting to hear stories from Colin Baker on how he got the part of Commander Maxil as well as him having to carry the feathered hat and make chicken noises. 😀

It’s also lovely to hear Sarah Sutton share her thoughts on playing Nyssa and Peter Davison, Johnny Byrne and Eric Saward adding their thoughts on how Sarah played her and how Nyssa’s character is developed. This is a making-of documentary I’m very fond of. 🙂

‘Anti-Matter from Amsterdam’ rating – 10/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – ARC OF INFINITY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Return of Omega

For Terrance Dicks

I’ve enjoyed reading and hearing the Target novelization/audiobook of ‘Arc of Infinity’! 🙂

The first time I read the ‘Arc of Infinity’ novelization was when I was on holiday in Scotland back in August 2012. Years later in October 2021, I would read the ‘Arc of Infinity’ novelization at home with the audiobook read by Geoffrey Beevers in the background. It was a very fulfilling experience indeed. 🙂

‘Arc of Infinity’ was novelized by Terrance Dicks, adapted from the original TV scripts by Johnny Byrne. Terrance Dicks is well-known for writing plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ novelizations for the Target range. He had a knack for it. He doesn’t disappoint in transferring TV scripts into their novel forms. 🙂

The book was originally published in October 1983, ten months after the TV story was transmitted in January of that year. ‘Arc of Infinity’ is one of my favourite Nyssa stories in ‘Doctor Who’. I’m pleased that Terrance novelized this story, as he did well novelizing Nyssa’s debut story ‘The Keeper of Traken’.

I wanted to discover more about the ‘Arc of Infinity’ story. I hoped there would be more additional scenes included in the novelization, as there were from the DVD extras of the story e.g., the deleted scenes from ‘Part Four’. Sadly, that wasn’t to be found in the novelization of the story when I read it.

The plot remains the same by Terrance Dicks. I suppose that’s fair. Terrance Dicks is more straightforward in adapting TV scripts into prose. And Terrance Dick wasn’t the original author of the story. Still, I would have liked a more in-depth version of the story similar to ‘Black Orchid’s novelization.

Saying that, I’m very impressed by how Terrance tightened the story to make it stronger. He does this by making some of the characters’ dialogue sharper and less functional-sounding as it was on TV. He also does it by enhancing the character motivations compared to how they appeared on TV. 🙂

When the book was originally published in 1983, it had a cover of the Fifth Doctor facing Hedin on it. I purchased the 1992 Virgin Books reprint edition of ‘Arc of Infinity’, which had a cover of Omega and the Fifth Doctor against a backdrop of the web-like Matrix. I purchased it at ‘Regenerations 2011’. 🙂

That’s the ‘Regenerations 2011’ convention in Swansea back in September 2011. I purchased the 1992 edition of ‘Arc of Infinity’ along with the 1992 edition of ‘Mawdryn Undead’. I purchased ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’ books at ‘Regenerations 2010’, so why not do the same thing again?

As I said before, I read the ‘Arc of Infinity’ novelization whilst on holiday in Scotland, August 2012. I like to read ‘Doctor Who’ books when I’m holiday. It was good to read this one back in August 2012. I felt I could hear the characters and re-experience the events of the TV adventure whilst on holiday.

The Target book is divided into 12 chapters with 3 chapters making up for one of the four episodes. 3 chapters times 4 equals 12 chapters. I find it easy to read the Target novelizations as four episodes. Mind you, the audiobook doesn’t do it like that, since it’s a 3-disc set and not a 4-disc set. 😦

The three chapters of ‘Part One’ and the first chapter of ‘Part Two’ are on Disc 1. The second two chapters of ‘Part Two’ and the first two chapters of ‘Part Three’ are on Disc 2. And the last chapter of ‘Part Three’ and the three chapters of ‘Part Four’ are on Disc 3. It’s surreal how I know these things. 😀

I wanted there to be an audiobook of the ‘Arc of Infinity’ Target novelization made by BBC Audio. I especially wanted someone like Sarah Sutton to read it. She’s in the story after all and it’s one of Nyssa’s strongest stories in the TV series. Peter Davison and Janet Fielding could have read the story too.

In the end however, the audiobook is read by Geoffrey Beevers, who played the Master in ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and still plays him in the Big Finish audios. I can’t believe how many times I have to keep addressing this, as Geoffrey Beevers is a very odd choice to be the reader of this adventure.

That’s not to say Geoffrey is a bad narrator. On the contrary, he’s very good. But like previous Target audiobooks before this, I don’t get why BBC Audio chooses people who had no involvement in the original TV stories to read their audiobook counterparts. It baffles me every time I come across this.

It makes sense for Geoffrey Beevers to be the reader of ‘The Keeper of Traken’ audiobook since he was actually in the TV story itself, playing the Melkur and the Master. It makes sense for Peter Davison to be the reader of the ‘Time-Flight’ audiobook, since he played the Fifth Doctor in the story.

It doesn’t make sense when people like Steven Pacey read the audiobooks for ‘Terminus’ and ‘Enlightenment’ as well as Pamela Salem reading the audiobook for ‘The Hand of Fear’ when they had no involvement in the TV versions of the stories whatsoever. I just don’t get the logic behind this.

And do you know what the irony of all of this is? Peter Davison could have easily read the ‘Arc of Infinity’ audiobook after he did the ‘Time-Flight’ audiobook. How come he wasn’t asked to read both the ‘Time-Flight’ and ‘Arc of Infinity’ audiobooks? It would make sense if he was invited to do both. 😦

Mind you, that wasn’t the case when Christopher H. Bidmead read the ‘Logopolis’ audiobook and Peter Davison read the ‘Castrovalva’ audiobook. But it would have been easy to fix if BBC Audio had Janet Fielding or Sarah Sutton read the ‘Arc of Infinity’ audiobook and Peter just read ‘Time-Flight’. 😐

Was Geoffrey Beevers chosen to be the reader of the ‘Arc of Infinity’ audiobook because he read ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and it’s a Johnny Byrne story? I don’t think so, as Janet Fielding read the audiobook of the ‘Warriors of the Deep’ novelization instead of Geoffrey Beevers.

With all that said, Geoffrey Beevers does provide a decent reading of the adventure and gets across what Terrance Dicks wrote in the novelization very well. He provides good voices for characters like the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan. I enjoyed the gruff tones he provided for Commander Maxil. 🙂

I like how Terrance Dicks describes in detail the setting of scenes and atmospheres featured in ‘Arc of Infinity’. He does it well in setting up Amsterdam and what the characters are doing in the streets, e.g., Robin and Colin walking about the city and the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan running around the city.

The thing I enjoyed most about Terrance Dicks’ writing in ‘Arc of Infinity’ is when he revealed Omega. He was good in holding back the villain by describing him as ‘the alien’ before he revealed his identity by the end of Chapter 9. I got a thrill once the Doctor found out it was Omega all along. 🙂

I enjoyed the section where Terrance had the Doctor recalling his first encounter with Omega in ‘The Three Doctors’. This is something that Terrance should know very well about already, since he was the script editor on that very TV story and he’s able to know who Omega’s character is inside and out.

As I said before, I liked how Terrance changed some of the lines of dialogue for characters to make them sound better than they were on TV. One example is when Nyssa challenged the Castellan about asking questions after the Doctor’s execution, which is more effective in the book than on TV.

There are also the scenes in the Matrix between the Doctor and Omega. They’re more effective in the book compared to TV. Terrance tweaks some of the lines said by Omega and by the Doctor to make them sound more natural, including Omega explaining why the Time Lords won’t listen to him.

Terrance also adds an extra piece of dialogue for Borusa to explain to Nyssa why the Doctor must be terminated to prevent the bonding between him and the alien creature. It allows Borusa to justify the Time Lords’ actions and to make them sound reasonable compared to how they sounded on TV.

I also liked it when Terrance explained why Hedin stepped in front of the Doctor to be killed by the Castellan. Hedin didn’t want the Doctor dead and he sacrificed himself to secure the bonding between him and Omega. I thought this was better explained in the book compared to the TV story.

I enjoyed reading Nyssa’s reaction to the Time Lords’ sentence of the Doctor to death. Terrance does well in writing her story regarding her determination to save the Doctor. I wonder how that scene where Nyssa is in her TARDIS bedroom and Damon entered to check up on her could have been extended. 😐

I also like Tegan’s story in the ‘Arc of Infinity’ book. Terrance does well with depicting how Tegan is depressed with losing her job, and how she and Robin go looking for her cousin Colin in Amsterdam. I also liked it when Tegan became worried for Colin and Robin in the ‘Part Four’ section of the story. 🙂

I liked it when Terrance described how Robin got into his predicament with losing his passport in the first place in Amsterdam. It’s revealed that he lost it when at a cafe in Amsterdam. Terrance goes on to explore how Robin feels about losing his passport and being anxious about what he’s going to do.

Structurally, in the ‘Part Two’ section of the book, the scenes where Tegan and Robin are making their way to Frankendael House are omitted in Chapters 5 and 6. This allows the story to have lesser cuts that aren’t necessary in the book compared to the TV version when there are scenes set on Gallifrey.

This is true when the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are chasing Omega in the ‘Part Four’ section. In the TV version, there are cuts to Gallifrey and the Time Lords wondering what’s going on. These have been omitted in the book. There’s just one cut to Gallifrey, as our TARDIS trio chase Omega in Amsterdam.

I liked how Terrance stresses the point that Omega wants to take control of Earth as one of the worlds he wishes to conquer when he’s temporarily in our universe. This balances well with his joy of seeing the organ playing ‘Tulips from Amsterdam’ and it makes Omega a more rounded character. 🙂

The chase scenes in Amsterdam are briefly described in the book compared to the TV story. They’re straight to the point and are easy to read compared to the lengthy scenes that they are on TV. I liked how Omega slowly decayed in his new body and how Terrance describes the horror of it in the book.

The Ergon is described differently in the book compared to TV story. In the book, he’s ‘roughly man-sized and man-shaped’. He’s also described as ‘a kind of giant walking lizard’ as well as ‘thick-bodied with corrugated green skin and a narrow-skulled head that ended in a mouthful of jagged teeth’ 😀 !

He also has ‘stubby hands’ which ‘held a strange light-filled weapon’. He can also be described as ‘insectoid’-like. This is a better version of the Ergon compared to the ‘giant chicken’ or Road Runner from ‘Looney Tunes’ that we saw in the TV story. At least, the Ergon can be taken seriously in the book! 🙂

By the end of the story, the Doctor and Nyssa hear that Tegan’s got the sack. I like how Terrance has Nyssa being pleased about it whilst the Doctor doesn’t seem to mind about it. It’s a curious thing, considering how he prefers Nyssa’s company compared to Tegan’s since she can very bolshie at times.

‘Arc of Infinity’ is a great ‘Doctor Who’ novelization/audiobook to check out. It’s well-written by Terrance Dicks. I enjoyed every minute of it whilst reading the book on holiday in Scotland back in August 2012 and whilst reading and hearing the novelization and audiobook at home in October 2021.

It was nice to hear the audiobook read by Geoffrey Beevers, even though he’s an odd choice to read the story. I do enjoy checking out these ‘Doctor Who’ novelizations, especially when the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are in them. ‘Arc of Infinity’ isn’t greatly detailed, but it was a great pleasure to check out.

‘Doctor Who – Arc of Infinity’ rating – 9/10

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The previous storyFor the Fifth Doctor was ‘Orionis’ ‘The Name of the Doctor’ (TV) For Nyssa was ‘Orionis’ For Tegan was ‘Little Did She Know’ (TAB)	The next storyFor the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Name of the Doctor’ (TV) ‘The Waters of Amsterdam’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Waters of Amsterdam’ (Audio) For Tegan is ‘The Waters of Amsterdam’ (Audio)
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