Receiving a garbled Time-Space distress call, the Doctor returns to Earth, in 1986 – but all is not as it should be! The Doctor and Ria find themselves in peril on a Moon base which should not exist, and in a version of November 5th 1605 which is all wrong.
We now begin a very long story arc with SECOND SOLUTION.
Blurb Receiving a garbled Time-Space distress call, the Doctor returns to Earth, in 1986 – but all is not as it should be! The Doctor and Ria find themselves in peril on a Moon base which should not exist, and in a version of November 5th 1605 which is all wrong.
We start with the Doctor singing to himself in the bathtub. Ria calls to tell him that he has received an emergency audio message. There’s a lot of distortion, and all they can make out is that they called for the Doctor by name and that the Earth would be destroyed. The Doctor notes that message was broadcast on a special Gallifreyan emergency frequency. So it was either a Time Lord, or someone who knows a lot about Time Lords.
So what of Ria’s twin and her impending death? Ummm, hey, look over there! *runs away*
The Tardis appears to have materialized back in the Doctor’s old laboratory at UNIT Headquarters (see the 70’s). But when he opens the doors, he finds that he has actually materialized in space. The coordinates say they are in the right place. The Doctor thinks that Earth may have been destroyed.
CUE MUSIC – Wow, long pre titles sequence!
Part 1
The date is November 1986. The Doctor is trying to pinpoint the source of the distress signal. He decides to make a stop off around earth’s moon. They discover a building in the middle of a crater. They land the Tardis and examine the crater on foot. It’s very clean, as though the crater is regularly swept. The building itself is huge, and the Doctor notes that it is almost deliberately conspicuous. Despite his concerns, the Doctor decides to try to open the door. There is a huge energy buildup, and the Doctor and Ria run inside for cover. They hear a Tardis materialize in the distance and the Doctor goes to investigate. He spots a couple of people, but they disappear before he can get to them. Meanwhile, Ria spots someone whom she thinks is the Doctor, but is actually… another Doctor! He tells Ria that she and the Doctor should do nothing. Elsewhere, the Doctor has triggered a recorded message, telling him that he has arrived too late and the earth has been destroyed in a great war. Just then, a duplicate Ria appears and also says to do nothing. The actual Doctor and actual Ria meet up and decide to run for the Tardis before it’s too late. Once they are safely aboard, the Doctor tells Ria that they must travel to 17th Century England, because according to the computer on the moon, Guy Fawkes’ plan to blow up Parliament has succeeded. The Doctor decides to defuse Fawkes’ himself. Shortly afterward they arrive, Ria is captured by Fawkes himself. The Doctor does no better, as he is caught by Sir Thomas Knevet, who thinks that he is Guy Fawkes. Unfortunately, he is caught before he can extinguish all of the fuses, and the explosion goes off.
CUE MUSIC
Part 2
The Fawkes conspirators gloat to themselves about their success. Fawkes comes in with Ria his prisoner. They give her the choice of being drowned or shot. Knevet is about to run the Doctor through when a prostitute saves him. They outrun the King’s men in a cabby. It turns out the she is Catherine, the sister of one of the conspirators. Before they can kill the Doctor and Ria, they escape. They make it back to the Tardis and return to 1986. There they find that the continents are shifting – the result of the earth’s core and water and something something something. It’s bad, OK? The Doctor blames his own interference in time. They decide to return to the moon to warn themselves about getting involved in the first place. You see where this is headed, don’t you? This kind of twisty involvement in your own timeline is better if you can include a song by Huey Lewis and the News, but we’ll make due. The Doctor and Ria become the other Doctor and Ria encountered by the Doctor and Ria at the very beginning of the story. The Doctor decides to send himself a message via the Tardis (thumps head). Remember that message the Doctor gets at the beginning of the story? Yeah. But then Ria tells the Doctor not to send it, thus breaking the time cycle. The paradox resolves itself and the Earth survives. They are supposed to forget everything that happened as a result, but for some reason they both remember everything. The Doctor decides to get back in the tub and play with his rubber ducks. A sting of ominous music indicates that things may not have gone as smoothly as the Doctor thinks.
CUE MUSIC
Evaluation
This is an interesting little story. And I have to say it, the end of Blood Circuit, where the Doctor and Ria must return to Ria’s twin and save both their lives is completely dropped. No mention of if they have already done this or anything. I guess we’re supposed to assume that it’s been taken care of. As for Second Solution, it’s a little bit scattered around. It spends a good chunk of its first episode on the moon, then goes to 17th Century England, then goes back to the moon. The longer stories may have been spoiling me, but this just moves around too quickly. You never get any depth to the characters. They’re there, they yell, then they’re gone. But speaking of yelling, and doing a very good job of it, you can’t discuss Second Solution without discussing its guest star, Nabil Shaban, better known as Sil the Mentor. He plays a couple of roles here, but his main part is that of Sir Knevet. And boy does he light a fire under his characterization. If you like hearing Shaban throw a huge fit as much as I do, you’ll love his performance here. There’s a little anecdote in the liner notes for the story that I have to quote:
“In particular, Nabil Shaban (guest starring as Bates and Sir Knevet) certainly entered into the spirit of things. Screaming and shouting at the top of his voice, he even provided realistic sound effects by dismantling most of his wheelchair and bashing the metal parts together. He was so caught up in his antics that he missed the cry of ‘Cut!’ from the director, only giving up his ‘battle’ when he realized he was the only one left fighting it!”
I didn’t know a great deal about Guy Fawkes before hearing this story. Sorry, I never saw V for Vendetta, OK? It startled me to see the connection that Nabil Shaban actually had to the conspirators!
Overall 7 out of 10
It needed to be longer.
NEXT TIME
The Doctor gains a new companion, Truman Crouch, in THE SECRET OF NEMATODA.