The Armageddon Factor [III]

1 September 1979 [5 minutes] 

“Not the most inviting planet.”

Romana isn't impressed by the quarry. 

They step out of the TARDIS. The Doctor and Romana: he dressed as the Doctor, she dressed in a pink jacket with a long white scarf, hanging in exactly the same way that the Doctor's does. Both of them in matching maroon thigh boots. It's a good visual gag; the physical design falls into step with what was obvious last season: Romana is not a companion; she's a female analogue to the Doctor.

When Sue Lawley stood in for Sir Robin Day on Question Time, the costume department gave her a very feminine bow tie.

The boy Doctor starts to talk in TV clichés. “I've a feeling I've been here before. A pervading sense... An air of....”

The girl Doctor is for leaving. But the boy Doctor is driven on by curiosity. Pot luck brought him here, but now he is here he wants to know where “here” is. If he didn't find out, he would always be wondering. He would “never sleep again.”

Never sleep again. That's an interesting way of putting it. Does the Doctor sleep? When did he wake up? 

What the Doctors are experiencing is painful dose of dramatic irony. They have no idea where they are.  But we know. We know because it says Destiny Of The Daleks at the end of the title sequence. We know because we have read the Radio Times. We know because the Earth Dalek warned us. And the Doctor should know too. 

At the end of the episode, there will formally be a surprise. A very beaten up Dalek prop will push through a paper wall and say “do not move” seven times and “you are our prisoner” twice. We won't be surprised. And the Doctor shouldn't be surprised, either. 

He has been forewarned. 

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