Doctor Who (TV Series) Timelash: Part One (1985) User Reviews

A waste of Time-lash

[zotwot · 5/10 · 8 July 2014]

After a dire start I was really beginning to enjoy the Sixth Doctor's era and then I watched this story. OK, so it's not as bad as The Twin Dilemma but it is pretty bad.

The main reason was this is simply lack of budget. The Borad looks great but the Morlox and all the sets look fake and drab and more than anything else, cheap. It's clear the epics that make up much of the rest of the series blew the budget.

The story itself isn't great either. There's not masses wrong with it really but the big problem is it doesn't feel very original. Mad scientist who looks weird because of an accident is nothing unusual, and neither is a futuristic society with a dictator. Nor are monsters in the caves. There's just not many things which are inspiring here.

The idea of shoving HG Wells into the mix is one of the best things about the story but even that doesn't quite work. For one thing 'Herbert' doesn't seem very Victorian (in voice and details like looking at the screens in the TARDIS) and the other is apart from the Morlox' name the events of this story have pretty much nothing to do with The Time Machine.

I can't end this without mentioning the fact that the Doctor and Herbert are about to be blown up in the TARDIS yet miraculously survive yet the Doctor only ever says "I'll explain later". You just can't bat off such a major plot point with that line, it's just poor writing, like much of this story.

Attack of the Bee keepers

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 22 September 2015]

The TARDIS flies through a time corridor and ends up in trouble. Meanwhile on the Planet Karfel, their evil leader, The Borad is experimenting with time, and sending rebels through the time corridor, into the Timelash. War looks likely between Karfel and neighbours the Bandril. Karfel's leader, the Maylin is killed, and power is seized by Tekker. Vena accidentally falls into the Timelash clutching an amulet that's the secret to the Borad's power, and the TARDIS lands on Karfel. Peri falls into the hands of the The Borad. Vena lands on Earth, 1885 in the house of HC Wells. The Doctor collects her, and Wells sneaks on board. The amulet is returned to Tekker and the Doctor is set to be thrown into the Timelash.

Often classed as one of the worst serials in the show's history, for good reason I guess, it's a bit tacky, the script isn't really up to much, and I find some of the acting is rather bad, Paul Darrow in particular is shocking, he's so over the top, it's an even more theatrical Avon, in a smock.

You can see that money was cut to the series, the sets are so cheap looking and drab, there is no imagination in any of them, The Two Doctors had looked so slick and well produced, this was a real downturn. The machinery looks like it was made by Valerie Singleton on Blue Peter. The Androids look and sound awful, I mean what were they thinking? The guards in bee keeper suits look so bad.

Peri's speech 'so dull, it lacks sparkle, no reflection, it's all so matt and lifeless, even the goblets don't shine.' It could be used word to word to describe my feelings about this episode.

The talk of Pertwee and Jo's previous appearances there make it at least minutely interesting.

Poor script, dodgy acting, low production values, 3/10

The Fact It's So Dreadfully Bad Is The Reason I Enjoyed It

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 17 February 2014]

Refers To Both Episodes . Suggestive Spoilers

Caught up in a time corridor the Tardis materialises upon the Planet Karfel , a planet he previously visited ( Untelevised ) in his third incarnation and finds it under the influence of the Borad who is provoking a war with another planet populated by the Bandril

This is one of those stories that is a contender for the worst story ever made and came second bottom in an all time series poll just ahead of The Twin Dilemma in DWM but I think this is being slightly harsh . Yes it's absolutely abysmal but is one of those rare stories that are so bad it's highly entertaining . I lost count at the number of times I laughed out loud at the on screen events and every element was consistently bad that I genuinely thought the production team were having a laugh at the audiences expense . There is a train of thought in fandom that the worst crime a DOCTOR WHO story can commit is to be boring . I promise you that you will not be bored watching this tale

" Okay Theo . You've intrigued me . Sell this pantomime to me "

Oh where do I begin ? Paul Darrow the legendary anti-hero Avon from BLAKES 7 gives one of the most idiosyncratic performances television has ever seen , a sort of cross between a Shakespearean role and a pantomime dame and can barely disguise his laughter which to be fair is entirely infectious . We have androids which are people with blue painted faces , yellow hair and sing song voices . We have guards who are dressed as bee keepers . The eponymous Time Lash a much feared device is something that looks like an entrance to Santa's Grotto . We also have an appearance from HG Wells in a supporting role but is written and played by a production team who have no knowledge what so ever as to what the real HG Wells was like and the scenes at the climax on board the Tardis where even the Docor grows tired of him and resorts to murderous sarcasm are comedy gold . If none of this piques your curiosity then let me tell you about the scene where a Bandril - something that resembles a rubber cobra - comes up on a monitor screen and declares war on the Planet Karfel while lisping its declaration of war

I'm not making any of this up and Timelash is one of the most deranged experiences the production team has served up to the audience . It gives the impression it's being written as it goes along and that the production designer was off his head on drugs . Again one can't help thinking that there might be a strong element of post modernism going on there somewhere . After all it's well known in fandom that Timelash is an anagram of " lame sh*t " so that type of sophisticated sublime humour does seem deliberate

As a footnote it marks an early and small role for a young Steven Macintosh who'd go on to become a highly regarded and prolific actor . .If I was Macintosh and bumped in to Daniel Day Lewis I would say " You might be the greatest method actor the world has ever seen Daniel but when was the last time an android threw you in to a time lash ? " Sometimes several Oscar wins can't compensate for something . Daniel Day Lewis must be kicking himself

"You don't seem to realise the effect that time particles colliding within a multi-dimensional implosion field can have." I liked Peri's new hair-do & boots but not much else.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 20 July 2007]

Doctor Who: Timelash: Part 1 starts as the TARDIS enters a time corridor & ends up on the planet Karfel which is being run by someone or something called the Borad (Robert Ashby). The Borad crushes all resistance to him by throwing rebels & all those who oppose him into the inescapable Timelash, the name given to the time tunnel the TARDIS arrived at Karfel through. As the Doctor (Colin Baker) & Peri (Nicola Bryant) step out of the TARDIS they are greeted by the evil Maylin Tekker (Paul Darrow) who manages to separate the two, he then blackmails the Doctor with Peri's life into using the TARDIS to locate a Timelash victim called Vena (Jeananne Crowley) who jumped into the Timelash with an important amulet needed by Borad for it's power. Meanwhile Peri has gotten herself into trouble in some caves & after nearly being eaten by a monster has met up with some Karfelon rebels...

Episode 10 from season 22 this Doctor Who adventure was originally aired here in the UK during March 1985, directed by Pennant Roberts I have to say this is a pretty awful episode of the popular sci-fi series. This two 45 minute part story was written by Glen McCoy & was originally conceived as a Dalek story but was rejected & then rewritten without them, I have to say Timelash is a pretty poor three quarters of an hour even by Doctor Who standards. I'm a fan of the show & I generally overlook a lot of it's faults but there comes a point where you have to say enough is enough & this is just plain terrible, Timelash is that point. The character's & dialogue are poor, lines like 'we will rule this side of the universe with the power of a giant ocean' are just too ridiculous for words & don't make a whole load of sense. Apparently a lot of the original dialogue was rewritten to soften the antagonistic relation between the Doctor & Peri. There also comes a point where I stop laughing with it & start laughing at it, this is just silly, poorly realised & there are many frankly embarrassing scenes here. The plot it boring as well, not much has happened, the story opened with some dull politics & there's not really much here to enjoy I'm afraid.

I'll say it right now, I have the hots for Peri & always have & I'll always find any Doctor Who episode with her in watchable in a strange perverted kind of way & her presence raises Timelash: Part 1 to 3 stars out of 10, I particularly liked her new hair-do & sexy high heeled boots. That's where the praise ends though, the scene in the TARDIS where they strap themselves to the console with what looks like mountain climbing gear is hilarious, the production design is dull without a shred of imagination, the Timelash seems to be decorated with Christmas tree tinsel, the flashing wall panels in the background look daft, bits of the set clearly wobble, the Karfel's seem to be wearing bedsheets, the direction is terribly flat (how does Peri run in those heels?) with people just standing around even when they are in danger, there's a terrible looking dinosaur puppet, there's a stupid looking blue faced, yellow haired android who speaks in a ridiculous voice & every special effect has been rubbish so far including pathetic looking laser beams. I really liked The Two Doctors (1985) the previous story but this just sucks. Apart from Peri.

Timelash: Part 1 has a bad reputation & I can see why, it's pretty bog standard evil tyrannical alien leader taking over a planet type nonsense done in a very dull, predictable & boring way. Thank god for Peri & her, ahem, natural charms...

Timelash

[londoncity · 4/10 · 26 September 2008]

This episode is cited for being one of the series worst stories, and so far from part one, I can see why. The opening scenes of Peri and the Doctor in the TARDIS is painful to watch with their arguing and dull dialogue. The Two Doctors had ended on such a high with the TARDIS crew being much warmer, and as the series progressed, it should have built up on that, not going back to square 0.

In this episode the planet Karfel is plagued by the dictatorship of the Borad, who throws people into the terrible Timelash. The characters we meet are quite boring, with no stand-out characteristics. The robot servants of the Borad are quite rubbish with the high pitched talking which sounds like it fell out of the 80's. In this case it was.

One of the best bits of this episode is David Chandler as 'Herbert' Wells.

I hope the episode gets better....

Time Trash

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 4/10 · 15 December 2018]

Review of parts 1 & 2:

One of the worst Doctor Who TV stories. This has very few plus points - a couple of decent moments and a bit of campy fun here and there - but is basically pretty lame in every respect.

The story is that a society on the planet Karfel which we are told was visited and saved once by the 3rd Doctor (although this was not from any existing story just an added plot point) is ruled over by a dictator known as the Borad who has become a mutated monster after an experiment which went wrong so hides his appearance by having an android of an old man as his public face. The world is at war with an alien race called the Bandrils and the Karfel official Maylin Tekker is throwing anyone in the way of his and the Borad's evil plans into the Timelash which loses them in a time tunnel which leads to Earth history. When The Doctor travels through this time tunnel he also meets real life historical figure H.G. Wells as a young man and is therefore shown to influence Wells' science fiction writing.

Acting wise Colin Baker is fine but the 6th Doctor is showing the same argumentative, pompous and patriarchal behaviour that he showed in his first story (equally poor The Twin Dilemma) and not having an endearing Doctor is a big minus. Peri is as annoying and unsatisfactorily portrayed as usual and Herbert (young H.G. Wells) is not awful but pretty unimpressive. Paul Darrow is over the top camp as the Maylin but is fun and a highlight among all the other Karfelons who are almost entirely dull and wooden. Denis Carey is a magnificent actor as proved in his role in Shada but in Timelash he is completely wasted. Robert Ashby puts in a perfectly decent performance as the Borad but delivers cliched villainous dialogue.

The dialogue in general is very underwhelming and includes unnecessary meanness and grating superior attitude from The Doctor, particularly towards Peri. The sets and costumes are cheap looking and cheesy, the Morlox are pathetic rubber creatures and many effects look bad. The makeup of the Borad is OK but that is the only thing that looks sufficiently good quality. The Timelash itself is an embarrassing arrangement of tinsel and the Bandrils are equally embarrassing silly puppets.

The plot development is equally silly with most of the whole story making little sense and culminating in a dreadful twist as the Borad is ludicrously and inexplicably revealed to have not only had an android old man as a front but also a cloned version of himself with the same disfigured features who was able to engage in the full confrontation with the Doctor only to turn out to be 'not the real Borad'! Then he is defeated and pushed towards the Timelash simply by showing him a mirror despite him proclaiming his form as a wonderful improvement which he intends duplicating in an entire race - an odd choice if he finds it so unbearable to see! It all really beggars belief and is the worst revelation in Doctor Who history as well as the most pathetic defeat of a villain! How anyone can rate this as OK and harshly criticise the relatively miniscule flaws in plots or 'too easy' defeats of villains in new episodes grading them with lower scores than this nonsense is beyond my understanding. This is easily one of the bottom 5 TV stories in Doctor Who history.

Part 1 - 3.5/10, Part 2 - 3/10