Friday, October 19, 2012

Doctor Who-Frontier In Space
                                 Following it's departure from Inter Minor the TARDIS finds itself in a near collision course with an Earth cargo ship of the 26'th century moving through hyperspace. Upon arrival Jo encounters another spaceship on the viewer and,after hearing a high pitched buzzing sound  the ship changes shape to a Draconian battle cruiser. By the time the crew meet the doctor in preparations for their forthcoming battle,they too see him and Jo as Draconians. This causes confusion on Earth as their President the ambassador of Draconia,seeing as both races had been at peace after years of war,were similarly believing each other to have been responsible for the attack on the cargo ship. Still locked in the cargo ships hold the Doctor deduces the sonic hypnosis used in this process allows an adversary to hallucinate about a feared enemy. By the time the enemy attacks,the one of the crew of the ship try to use the Doctor and Jo as hostages they learn it is in face Ogrons,not Draconians they are facing.

                              Now accused of being Draconian spies,the Doctor and Jo are locked up and taken to Earth,where they appeal their case of the Ogrons sonic hypnosis device to the President of the planet. Unable to provide evidence for their case,the pair are held on Earth until they are again captured  by Draconians for the same reason. After a couple more such related mishaps the Doctor is subjected to a mind probe. When the probe,while indicating the Doctor's innocence overloads he is sent to a Lunar penal facility for political prisoners while Jo remains on Earth. The President of Earth than receives a letter proving the Doctor and Jo's guilt due to the fact their actually citizens of the neutral world Sirius IV and career criminals. The commissioner from this world doing this is none other than the doctors old nemesis The Master,whose true intention is to take the Doctor back to Gallifrey to be tried for his time meddling crimes. 

                         And this sonic hypnosis and use of the Ogrons are part of the Master's plan. After yet more escape artistry from the Master as well as Earth and Draconian pursuers the Doctor is at last able to convince the two original parties to take a journey to the Ogron home world to prove his story. Of course still with Jo in his capture,the Master is already there trying to again hypnotize Jo and this time fails. Upon the Doctors arrival with the Earth crew,the Ogrons plan an ambush while they themselves are menaced by a yellow slug like alien called The Eater. The Master later reveals himself and kills the Earth crew with the help of a group of Daleks with whom he's forged an alliance to kill the doctor. Of course the doctor uses the same sonic hypnosis device to confuse the Ogrons before leaving their home world,after which he activates the TARDIS's telepathic circuit to the time lords warning them of the new risk the Master poses to them.

                        The main thrust of this particular story would be the latin term Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges,basically meaning "for among times of arms,the  law falls mute". Even when aware of the deception involving the Ogrons,both human and Draconian distrust between each other doesn't enable them to see past their mutual acrimony to the actual source of the problem. The fact the the Doctor and Jo are captured over and over again,to the point of the Doctor himself actually becoming a literal political prisoner,showcases the how much of a dissident character the Doctor really is.  Again The Master is prepared to manipulated the political wranglings and  racial tensions he is dealing with in order to facilitate his single minded goal of taking over the universe and killing the Doctor,the one person who truly stands in his way. That quality makes this one of the Doctor Who serials that truly qualifies as one of the serial's most well written political thrillers.

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