The year is 1981. It is the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister, and Ronald Regan had won the Republican nomination for president and is on his way to the White House. But most importantly, Tom Baker is nearing his outgoing regeneration at the end of his run as the fourth Doctor. It is series 18, the final season of his tenure, and the serials are strong. Romana has regenerated, and is just as smart if not smarter than the Doctor himself. Many of the great episodes were this Doctor’s: “The Sontaran Experiment,” “The Pyramids of Mars,” “The Talons of Weng Chiang,” and “Genesis of the Daleks” have all aired with Baker as the Doctor. This Doctor has gone from the creation of the Dalek race to another dimension and even to Victorian London. This time the fourth Doctor has found himself having to escape being sacrificed, and defeat space pirates and a sentient cactus. Now Doctor Who – Meglos is available on DVD!

In “Meglos”, The Doctor, Romana, and K-9 ate asked to come to the planet Tigella by the leader of the scientific caste from the two castes of the planet’s society, Zastor to help figure out the cause of fluctuations in the Tigellans power source, the Dodecahedron. On the way to Tigella, they are captured in a Chronic Historesis, or a small time loop by an intergalactic space cactus, named Meglos who is the last of his race, the Zolfa-Thurans. He summons the Gaztaks, space pirates, to do his bidding in a plan to steal the Dodecahedron, which was originally a Zolfa-Thuran energy source. With this, Meglos uses an earthling that the Gaztaks have stolen for him to impersonate anyone he chooses, and he chooses the Doctor!

As The Doctor and Romana are trapped within the Chronic Historesis, Meglos goes with the Gaztaks to Tigella as the Doctor in order to enact his sinister plan. On Tigella, Meglos is easily able to infiltate the city as Zastor greets him with open arms, as if he was really the Doctor. It is here when the Doctor and Romana are able to escape the Chronic Historesis, by throwing it out of phase, and safely land in the jungle on the surface of Targella. By this time, however, Meglos has had time enough to shrink the Dodecahedron and steal it. As the Doctor arrives at the Tigellan city, he is captured for the theft of the Dodecahedron, and readied for sacrifice in order to create its spontaneous return…

Special Features:

• Audio Commentary featuring Lalla Ward who plays Romana, Christopher Owen who plays the earthling shat Meglos shifts into, co-writer of the serial John Flanagan, and composers Padd Kingsland and Peter Howell.
• “Meglos Men”, a featurette where the serial’s writers, John Flanagan, and Andrew Mc Cullogh meet with series 18’s script editor Christopher H. Bidmead.
• “The Scene Sync Story” is a featurette that details the creation of a device that used new blue screen techniques to create
• “Jacqueline Hill: A Life in Pictures”
• “Entropy Explained” in this featurette entropy is explained in a way that anyone can understand it.
• A photo gallery showing various photos from production.
• An isolated music score audio option.
• A production notes subtitle option.
• A downloadable PDF copy of its Radio Timeslistings.

“Meglos” is a good example of the fourth Doctor’s tenure. This is during his last season, as the writers were fully used to his personality, knew what to do with him, and how to react. Early on in Tom Baker’s run as the Doctor, it was evident that his personality hadn’t been figured out, and a lot of Tom Baker’s personality ended up going into the role to flesh out what wasn’t there yet. This left a lot of awkward variances from scene to scene in each serial at first. By the time “Meglos” was written and filmed the character had been fully established, and his wit, charm, and intelligence were fully entrenched in the character. This gave a character that was leagues better at the end than the beginning. The writing of the serial was a smart, serious piece of work that really helped to define the end of the fourth Doctor’s run, and the beginning of the fifth Doctor’s. This is a serial that is really fun to watch, and keeps the viewer’s interest throughout each episode. A casual viewer of Doctor Who won’t enjoy the episode as much as a hardcore fan, but will enjoy seeing one of the doctors widely touted as the best at his best. When the character kicked into full gear, Tom Baker always gave it his all at playing the Doctor. This one is well worth a watch for all levels of Doctor Who fans.

ComicsOnline gives Doctor Who – Meglos 4.5 Dodecahedrons out of 5.

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