Written by Terence Dudley, Sydney Newman, and Donald Wilson
Directed by John Black

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series that has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a TARDIS, which is disguised as a British Police booth. 

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this story-arc, the Doctor is portrayed by Peter Davison. He is traveling with three companions.  Tegan (portrayed by Janet Fielding) is a flight attendant from Earth who sort of accidentally ended up in the TARDIS with him.  Nyssa (portrayed by Sarah Sutton) is from the planet Traken and decided to join the Doctor on his adventures. Adric (portrayed by Matthew Waterhouse) is a wunderkind from a parallel universe known as E-Space.

The Doctor intended to drop Tegan off at Heathrow Airport, but somehow misses and the TARDIS materializes in an Earth-bound freighter.  In a typical plot device, the four of them become separated, with the Doctor and Tegan managing to make their way to the bridge.  The ship is commanded by Monarch, the leader of the Urbanka (portrayed by Stratford Johns) along with his Ministers of Enlightenment and Persuasion (portrayed by Annie Lambert and Paul Shelley).  Monarch has visited Earth on something of a regular basis and has a collection of humans on the ship from various eras.  Something doesn’t seem quite right, but the Doctor is fine to go along with it all until they soon learn the ship is also headed for Earth with the mission of destroying humanity and taking over the Earth to rape it of its resources.

This was the first complete story-arc with Peter Davison as the Doctor and only the second for Janet Fielding, which might explain some truly horrid acting on her part.  It’s not all her fault, though; it’s the way Tegan is written.  She seems completely self-centered, worrying about getting back to Earth and her job, then going off all shrill when the nefarious plans of Monarch are revealed.  As usual, Sarah Sutton isn’t given nearly enough to do, while Adric misjudges Monarch’s intentions.

Peter Davison is actually pretty darn good as the Doctor.  It’s perhaps his strongest appearance in the role as he has an air of confidence and assuredness about himself that seemed to dissipate as time went on.  Four to Doomsday was the first Doctor Who story-arc filmed with Davison, although Castrovalva actually aired first.  The real difference we see between Davison’s Doctor and how Baker would have portrayed him comes in the interaction with the rest of the TARDIS crew.  Where Baker would have had no compunction about taking them down a notch or two, Davison hesitates.  Adric’s assertion that they are all misunderstanding Monarch’s intentions seems to result in a counseling session rather than his comeuppance when the truth is revealed.  Whether that’s a new direction in the writing or picking up on how Davison differs from Baker can be debated, but it’s a sign of the differences between the Fourth Doctor and the Fifth.

The guest cast actually does a great job in this one, really adding to the story. In many ways, Monarch is a typical villain, but the acting here keeps him from being forgettable.  Stratford Johns’ performance is excellent and really gives the story that noir edge that was present in many of the Tom Baker/Elisabeth Sladen era stories.

The DVD has a good number of extras.  There’s the commentary with the Doctor and all three of his companions (although I do wish that Fielding would shut up after a while) and some featurettes, including Davison’s first day on the set.
Four to Doomsday marks a turning point from the tired era of Tom Baker to a new era.  The promise here is good, and unfortunately, it was also prescient of what would be troubling about Davison’s reign: too many companions had the TARDIS feeling more like a soap opera setting than a science fiction show.  There are definite hints of that here, and watching it again now after having seen the entire run, I really wish Tegan had been jettisoned early on.  Still, Four to Doomsday is worth watching for series fans, although I wouldn’t choose it as the place to introduce a non-fan to the series.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, Director John Black
• Studio Recording
• Saturday Night at the Mill
• Theme Music Video
• Photo Gallery
• Information Text
• Radio Times Listing