Who Review #157 - Battlefield

After a long break (since the Android Invasion), UNIT return as does the retired Brigadier and the Doctor's vintage roadster, Bessie.

There are some elements in the story which were later to become commonplace in New Who: the new Brigadier is a black women (mirroring the greater opportunities for people in society) and a UNIT soldier tells Brig. Bambera that whenever the Doctor appears, all hell breaks loose.

The story plays with Arthurian legend, which is fun I suppose, but it does relapse more often than not into sci-fi pantomime as Knights wander around the British countryside like extras from Monty Python's Holy Grail. The incidental music is dreadfully intrusive and doesn't fit the scenes or action.

Jean Marsh is the evil Morgaine and quite good in the part. Just think, Nick Courtney and Jean made their first Who appearance in the Daleks Masterplan.

Classic Brigadier
we finally see Doris!

The story is actually heavy on nuclear armegeddon; the Destroyer is well made and has been argued by some to be a metaphor for a nuclear device.

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