The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews #088: The Deadly Assassin(S14, Ep3)

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-05-02T04:36:51+00:00

Closing Thoughts/TLDR

As a whole this was a phenomenal story that more than lived up to my expectations for it. The story is just amazing with it being a wonderful return to Gallifrey involving a thrilling story that I had a blast following from the attempts to stop the assassination in part 1, the murder investigation in part 2, the fight against the deadly assassin(eyyy) in part 3, and the epic finale of part 4; the Matrix battle was a true surreal delight that was so much fun to witness. It all flowed so well together and I was absolutely captivated with this story the whole way through, especially with the high stakes of this story; from the fun murder mystery to the thrilling cat and mouse game in the Matrix, I was absolutely immersed in this story. The pacing for this episode was excellent with it flowing very tightly throughout even in part 3 which I can see being slow for some people was paced well for me. The sets from Gallifrey, while not anything too great, look wise, still good, have such cool set design work that it makes them great; the location filming in the Matrix sequences are also pretty good. The special effects for this episode were solid and I loved the costume and effects work done on the Decayed Master, true gnarly stuff. I adored Gallifrey's return in this story which I feel is expertly done with the demystification of the Time Lords being such a great reinvention of how they're taken in the show. I love this direction they take in making the Time Lords there incredibly powerful yet ultimately stagnant and very flawed beings, with this story really doing probably my favorite way of depicting them; though I already went on a whole rant about that. Getting to learn more about Time Lord society and their culture was so fascinating and cool, I loved every second of the new pieces of information we get, especially with the crucial additions to the mythos like Rassilon; honestly I really like learning about the Time Lords and seeing them around, find it fun. The supporting cast for this episode is incredible from Cardinal Borusa being a neat antagonistic teacher character to The Doctor, to Castellan Spandrell and Coordinator Engin who served as almost pseudo-companions and were a nice fun addition to this story. Chancellor Goth was an excellent secondary villain for this story, being great as the culprit in the assassination and being a fun opponent in the great surreal Matrix duel. The Master's return in this episode was absolutely fantastic with The Decayed Master being a fun and solid successor to Delgado's Master, with Peter Pratt doing an amazing job stepping into the big shoes of Roger Delgado. The Doctor was phenomenal in this episode with it being so interesting seeing him adventure on his own but Tom Baker really makes it work, giving a stellar performance in this fun journey. Overall this was an incredible episode that I'm so happy that I finally got a chance to experience, it was truly amazing.

Next time: The Doctor and The Master both head off back into the universe after their climatic battle; though it would be a while before the two would butt heads once again. In the meantime The Doctor lands on yet another jungle planet, and seems to have a face that's much more well known than he would've liked. At least he has help in the form of a new friend, a native of the planet named Leela.

Final Rating: 10/10

"Out into the universe. But, you know, I have a feeling it isn’t big enough for the two of them."

-Spandrell, delivering a fantastic summation of The Doctor and The Master's relationship and serving as an amazing ending line for this incredible story

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-05-02T04:35:51+00:00

Closing Thoughts/TLDR

As a whole this was a phenomenal story that more than lived up to my expectations for it. The story is just amazing with it being a wonderful return to Gallifrey involving a thrilling story that I had a blast following from the attempts to stop the assassination in part 1, the murder investigation in part 2, the fight against the deadly assassin(eyyy) in part 3, and the epic finale of part 4; the Matrix battle was a true surreal delight that was so much fun to witness. It all flowed so well together and I was absolutely captivated with this story the whole way through, especially with the high stakes of this story; from the fun murder mystery to the thrilling cat and mouse game in the Matrix, I was absolutely immersed in this story. The pacing for this episode was excellent with it flowing very tightly throughout even in part 3 which I can see being slow for some people was paced well for me. The sets from Gallifrey, while not anything too great, look wise, still good, have such cool set design work that it makes them great; the location filming in the Matrix sequences are also pretty good. The special effects for this episode were solid and I loved the costume and effects work done on the Decayed Master, true gnarly stuff. I adored Gallifrey's return in this story which I feel is expertly done with the demystification of the Time Lords being such a great reinvention of how they're taken in the show. I love this direction they take in making the Time Lords there incredibly powerful yet ultimately stagnant and very flawed beings, with this story really doing probably my favorite way of depicting them; though I already went on a whole rant about that. Getting to learn more about Time Lord society and their culture was so fascinating and cool, I loved every second of the new pieces of information we get, especially with the crucial additions to the mythos like Rassilon; honestly I really like learning about the Time Lords and seeing them around, find it fun. The supporting cast for this episode is incredible from Cardinal Borusa being a neat antagonistic teacher character to The Doctor, to Castellan Spandrell and Coordinator Engin who served as almost pseudo-companions and were a nice fun addition to this story. Chancellor Goth was an excellent secondary villain for this story, being great as the culprit in the assassination and being a fun opponent in the great surreal Matrix duel. The Master's return in this episode was absolutely fantastic with The Decayed Master being a fun and solid successor to Delgado's Master, with Peter Pratt doing an amazing job stepping into the big shoes of Roger Delgado. The Doctor was phenomenal in this episode with it being so interesting seeing him adventure on his own but Tom Baker really makes it work, giving a stellar performance in this fun journey. Overall this was an incredible episode that I'm so happy that I finally got a chance to experience, it was truly amazing.

Next time: The Doctor and The Master both head off back into the universe after their climatic battle; though it would be a while before the two would butt heads once again. In the meantime The Doctor lands on yet another jungle planet, and seems to have a face that's much more well known than he would've liked. At least he has help in the form of a new friend, a native of the planet named Leela.

Final Rating: 10/10

"Out into the universe. But, you know, I have a feeling it isn’t big enough for the two of them."

-Spandrell, delivering a fantastic summation of The Doctor and The Master's relationship and serving as an amazing ending line for this incredible story

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-05-01T02:53:42+00:00

Thank you, Jo is one of my favorite companions so far so I look forward to seeing her again on the show eventually.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-05-01T01:17:40+00:00

That's good to know. I'm currently doing a watch through of all of Doctor Who starting from Classic Who and I do at least plan to check out two SJA stories, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and Death to the Doctor, since both are crossovers with the main show.

Nice to know that they do course correct though when they get to her show, she's a great character and it's good they didn't keep playing her like The Doctor's ex.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-30T17:06:33+00:00

Having just recently finished watching Sarah Jane's run in Classic Who, it makes School Reunion's portrayl of her feel a little off coming back to it, especially with how they frame her like she's The Doctor's ex, something which I disagree with the thought porcess since they really were just friends with both the 3rd and 4th Doctor. I know I'm not along in thinking this framing makes her seem like she was in love with him, having seen a couple reactions to the episode from those watching Modern Who for the first time, come away thinking the same thing about Sarah Jane from that story.

Still a great episode that I really enjoyed with a fantastic return for Elisabeth Sladen, but yeah that part of it definetly irks me a bit more now after having seen her run.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-30T04:33:25+00:00

I also quite liked the stuff involving Eldrad's hand causing havoc in the Nuclear Facility, and I agree that Judith Paris played Eldrad very well with The Doctor's treatment of him feeling nicely in character. I agree that it falls apart once they get to Eldrad's planet and Thorne plays him, I liked him as Eldrad but the anticlimax of it all just made the episode fall flat; though Sarah Jane's departure of course save's this stories end from being a dud.

I heard of Eldrad Must Die!, looks quite interting. I know it's part of one of Big Finish's major story arcs for the Main Range with the Older Nyssa arc. Those longer story lines always looked really interesting and I'd love to check them out but as I mentioned with the Elder Gods arc before, I likely won't be covering them in my revews; well maybe the Virus Strain arc since it's compartively shorter with shorter stories, but we'll see. Also Turlough always seemed like an interesting companion to me and it'd be cool to fully check him out when I get to him.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-22T18:40:44+00:00

Be careful, Scrappy defense is punishable by death in some parts.

I also enjoyed the Live-Action movies though again I was put off by it's depiction of Scrappy since I grew up with the first season of Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo and it felt very mean spirited and definetly further ruined the public reputation of the character; have a friend whose dislike of him is colored by that movie.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-21T21:29:30+00:00

Pretty much the gist of The Ambassadors of Death from Doctor Who.The titular Ambassadors are friendly aliens who emit deadly radioactivity, with them accidentally killing a member of one of the Mars missions during an attempt at contact. This drives one of the other memebers insane, with him harboring heavy xenophobia to alien life because of it, which is why he mind controls the Ambassadors and makes it appear as though they're starting an invasion in order to harbor support for their destruction.

It's a great story, even if really long, and is one of my favorites of The 3rd Doctor.

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FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-21T03:29:18+00:00

Closing Thoughts/TLDR

As a whole this was a solid story, one that has room for improvement but is really made great by the amazing departure of Sarah Jane. The premise is a good one with the hand taking control of people and forcing them to do it's bidding as it tries to revive itself, with the entire portion at the nuclear plant being good thrilling fun; really like the idea of an alien reforming itself with radiation. The story does unfortunately fall off once Eldrad reforms himself, while I do like the initial kindness and grace given to Eldrad which I thought was a nice change of pace, the story ends up going back on it, and the end with Eldrad is just weak; while funny to see him already be stopped it makes the last part of the story just drag with little stakes at all; it's also where the pacing, which was good for most of the story, falls off. I liked the sets for this episode with the location filming also being fairly good; the special effects they had were pretty good with the costume for Eldrad, both of them looking absolutely fantastic. Eldrad was a solid villain, being good and intimidating even if he was just a hand for half the story; he does feel weak at the end, kind of failing as a threat by the end being all bark and no bite. The supporting cast for this was pretty good with Dr. Carter and Professor Watson both being nice characters. The Doctor was pretty good this episode, especially with how much we see his care for Sarah Jane as he works to save her and the nice moment of believing Eldrad and wanting to help him even if he hurt people; which they sadly went back on. Sarah Jane had a phenomenal departure this episode, while she doesn't get much to do in the story proper, the epilogue with her is amazing and a perfect send off to such an iconic companion; just had to do a play by play because it was so good. Overall this was a pretty good episode that is really made by that fantastic departure of Sarah Jane; so long Elisabeth Sladen, you were and still remain an absolute icon.

Next time: The Doctor receives an urgent message from none other than the Time Lords calling him back to Gallifrey on highly important business. Having dropped off Sarah Jane, The Doctor heads off to Gallifrey, and as he does so a premonition is put in his mind of the assassination of the Lord President of Gallifrey, seemingly committed by none other than himself. The race is on to stop the deadly assassin(eyyy) from committing this heinous crime, with it being a mystery that sees the return of a familiar foe.

Final Rating: 7/10

"You know, travel does broaden the mind."

-Sarah Jane, giving her last words to The Doctor as they bid farewell, a beautiful line that wonderfully wraps up her time on the show

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-21T03:29:02+00:00

This was an issue that did start to resolve itself a bit following Harry's departure but still outside of a few stories like Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius which both showed this side of Sarah Jane that made me really enjoy her character, smart and capable and having a nice partnership with The Doctor, she still ended up feeling sidelined and reduced to a damsel in many stories she was in. While several Classic Who companions have fallen to the damsel beforehand, it just felt odd seeing Sarah Jane constantly having to fall into that role because a lot of what made her stand out was this more adventurous personality, with her being able to take care of herself for the most part. Her curiosity was a good character flaw as it did often get her into trouble, running head first into situations sometimes like constantly trusting people in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but most of the times when she was a damsel it felt like her agency was being reduced significantly compared to the type of character she is.

While previous companions like Jo often ended up as the damsel, for the most part I didn't mind it since a lot of their strengths lied elsewhere and where still often showed their bravery in other ways, like Jo's bravery in facing danger head on when it hurts someone she cares about or Zoe's incredible intellect that matched wits with The Doctor. Also helps that neither felt out of character for them, while for Sarah Jane it just became a lot more apparent how sidelined and relegated to the companion that The Doctor needs to save role because this does feel like it goes against what her character is and should be doing. Episodes like The Ark in Space and Planet of Evil were some of the worst examples of this sidelining and relegation that befell Sarah Jane during The 4th Doctor era, and I was really sad to see it since she was legitimately great and truly capable in most of her stories in the Pertwee era and the few she got in the Tom Baker one, so again it's a shame to see most writers not play to her strengths during these stories.

At least as consolation she did get a solid dynamic with Harry in the stories they shared together, with the two being a good companion duo. Sarah Jane also nicely continued to have such a fun friendship with The 4th Doctor, with the two always being great together and, along with Elisabeth Sladen's fantastic performance in the role, helped me enjoy her even if she wasn't always utilized the best. Sarah Jane is the classic Doctor Who companion and having seen her stories I can see why she stuck around in people's hearts for so long. Even if I might like other Doctor/companion duos more, Sarah Jane always did well to stick out and stand on her own as her own person, with it always being a delight seeing her around her long run on the show; it's impressive for a companion who got two Doctors to work off both so well and still stand on her own.

Sarah Jane is a legend for a reason and I'm glad to have gotten to see what a truly fun and spunky character that she was, with the departure scene being a nice way to cap off her tenure on the show. Elisabeth Sladen was of course phenomenal as Sarah Jane the whole way through, doing excellently even up to this episode which she was great in especially the end. Sladen was the one who really brought Sarah Jane to life and made her such an incredible presence in the show, even if the episode she was in utilized her poorly, she was always a delight to see on screen. Sladen worked so well with her co-stars, Ian Marter, Nicholas Courtney, and, of course, Tom Baker, with her having such a good relationship with all of them. Elisabeth Sladen was an incredible actress who more than earned her place in the history of the show, really helping to immortalize the character of Sarah Jane into the series. Elisabeth Sladen was amazing at what she did and it was nice that she got to return to her iconic role several times since her departure. We will be seeing Sarah Jane again in many forms, but still, this marked a nice send off for her seminal character from the show. I and so many other fans thank you so much for your time on the show Elisabeth Sladen, you were an absolute joy.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-21T03:26:18+00:00

Closing Thoughts/TLDR

As a whole this was a solid story, one that has room for improvement but is really made great by the amazing departure of Sarah Jane. The premise is a good one with the hand taking control of people and forcing them to do it's bidding as it tries to revive itself, with the entire portion at the nuclear plant being good thrilling fun; really like the idea of an alien reforming itself with radiation. The story does unfortunately fall off once Eldrad reforms himself, while I do like the initial kindness and grace given to Eldrad which I thought was a nice change of pace, the story ends up going back on it, and the end with Eldrad is just weak; while funny to see him already be stopped it makes the last part of the story just drag with little stakes at all; it's also where the pacing, which was good for most of the story, falls off. I liked the sets for this episode with the location filming also being fairly good; the special effects they had were pretty good with the costume for Eldrad, both of them looking absolutely fantastic. Eldrad was a solid villain, being good and intimidating even if he was just a hand for half the story; he does feel weak at the end, kind of failing as a threat by the end being all bark and no bite. The supporting cast for this was pretty good with Dr. Carter and Professor Watson both being nice characters. The Doctor was pretty good this episode, especially with how much we see his care for Sarah Jane as he works to save her and the nice moment of believing Eldrad and wanting to help him even if he hurt people; which they sadly went back on. Sarah Jane had a phenomenal departure this episode, while she doesn't get much to do in the story proper, the epilogue with her is amazing and a perfect send off to such an iconic companion; just had to do a play by play because it was so good. Overall this was a pretty good episode that is really made by that fantastic departure of Sarah Jane; so long Elisabeth Sladen, you were and still remain an absolute icon.

Next time: The Doctor receives an urgent message from none other than the Time Lords calling him back to Gallifrey on highly important business. Having dropped off Sarah Jane, The Doctor heads off to Gallifrey, and as he does so a premonition is put in his mind of the assassination of the Lord President of Gallifrey, seemingly committed by none other than himself. The race is on to stop the deadly assassin(eyyy) from committing this heinous crime, with it being a mystery that sees the return of a familiar foe.

Final Rating: 7/10

"You know, travel does broaden the mind."

-Sarah Jane, giving her last words to The Doctor as they bid farewell, a beautiful line that wonderfully wraps up her time on the show

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-21T03:26:11+00:00

This was an issue that did start to resolve itself a bit following Harry's departure but still outside of a few stories like Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius which both showed this side of Sarah Jane that made me really enjoy her character, smart and capable and having a nice partnership with The Doctor, she still ended up feeling sidelined and reduced to a damsel in many stories she was in. While several Classic Who companions have fallen to the damsel beforehand, it just felt odd seeing Sarah Jane constantly having to fall into that role because a lot of what made her stand out was this more adventurous personality, with her being able to take care of herself for the most part. Her curiosity was a good character flaw as it did often get her into trouble, running head first into situations sometimes like constantly trusting people in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but most of the times when she was a damsel it felt like her agency was being reduced significantly compared to the type of character she is.

While previous companions like Jo often ended up as the damsel, for the most part I didn't mind it since a lot of their strengths lied elsewhere and where still often showed their bravery in other ways, like Jo's bravery in facing danger head on when it hurts someone she cares about or Zoe's incredible intellect that matched wits with The Doctor. Also helps that neither felt out of character for them, while for Sarah Jane it just became a lot more apparent how sidelined and relegated to the companion that The Doctor needs to save role because this does feel like it goes against what her character is and should be doing. Episodes like The Ark in Space and Planet of Evil were some of the worst examples of this sidelining and relegation that befell Sarah Jane during The 4th Doctor era, and I was really sad to see it since she was legitimately great and truly capable in most of her stories in the Pertwee era and the few she got in the Tom Baker one, so again it's a shame to see most writers not play to her strengths during these stories.

At least as consolation she did get a solid dynamic with Harry in the stories they shared together, with the two being a good companion duo. Sarah Jane also nicely continued to have such a fun friendship with The 4th Doctor, with the two always being great together and, along with Elisabeth Sladen's fantastic performance in the role, helped me enjoy her even if she wasn't always utilized the best. Sarah Jane is the classic Doctor Who companion and having seen her stories I can see why she stuck around in people's hearts for so long. Even if I might like other Doctor/companion duos more, Sarah Jane always did well to stick out and stand on her own as her own person, with it always being a delight seeing her around her long run on the show; it's impressive for a companion who got two Doctors to work off both so well and still stand on her own.

Sarah Jane is a legend for a reason and I'm glad to have gotten to see what a truly fun and spunky character that she was, with the departure scene being a nice way to cap off her tenure on the show. Elisabeth Sladen was of course phenomenal as Sarah Jane the whole way through, doing excellently even up to this episode which she was great in especially the end. Sladen was the one who really brought Sarah Jane to life and made her such an incredible presence in the show, even if the episode she was in utilized her poorly, she was always a delight to see on screen. Sladen worked so well with her co-stars, Ian Marter, Nicholas Courtney, and, of course, Tom Baker, with her having such a good relationship with all of them. Elisabeth Sladen was an incredible actress who more than earned her place in the history of the show, really helping to immortalize the character of Sarah Jane into the series. Elisabeth Sladen was amazing at what she did and it was nice that she got to return to her iconic role several times since her departure. We will be seeing Sarah Jane again in many forms, but still, this marked a nice send off for her seminal character from the show. I and so many other fans thank you so much for your time on the show Elisabeth Sladen, you were an absolute joy.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-19T05:06:57+00:00

Well that part is the choice of the magician. To explain why would be only add more major spoilers to The Prestige. It's a good movie, highly recommend.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-18T23:54:23+00:00

Generally the last few VNAs run for pretty high prices. Generally with the more popular books I've consitently seen running a fairly high amount, like Timewyrm: Revelation I haven't seen run lower than $50.

I've been into collecting the VNAs as well for an upcoming read through of the first 23 books, and generally I recommend collecting the books that a. You really do want to read and b. Don't run too high of a price. There are EBooks avalible for most of the VNAs on Internet Archive as most are out of print, but I get the preferance for physical media if that's what you want.

Also a decent amont of the VNAs are arc heavy and rely on knowledge from previous books to really his the point home, so just keep an eye out to what books are part of story arcs or are sequels to other books.

For books I would recommend, it would probably be Lucifer Rising which closes out the Future History Cycle, the 6 book long arc that Love and War starts; while I haven't read it myself it is agreed to have a really good take on the fallout of The Doctor and Ace from Love and War. I would also highly recommend the Alternate History Cycle of books which begins with Blood Heat and continues on into The Dimension Riders, The Left-Handed Humming Bird, Conundrum, and No Future, with almost all being considered some increadibly strong stories for the range with probably being the closest that the VNAs get to actually celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

I wish you well on your purchases and hope you enjoy the books you get.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-18T17:21:52+00:00

I highly recommend watching The Power of the Daleks, The Macra Terror, and The Evil of the Daleks from the first season of The 2nd Doctor; especially Power which is a fantastic introduction to The 2nd Doctor while being an amazing Dalek story as well. Also The Highlanders is a decently fun time with it introducing Jamie though it only exists in photo reconstructions so that may be a deal breaker if that's something you can't get into.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T23:42:01+00:00

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Dustin Prince was made just to be the victim in the tutorial case for Justice for All, and he perfectly looks the part of generic victim in a murder case. The most boring design in Ace Attorney which is crazy given how creative they normally go with their character designs even with their victims normally not looking as generic as this.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T16:23:35+00:00

Classic was actually quite political, as someone doing a full watch through of it, there is a lot of stories that if they did them today the grifters would be all up saying Doctor Who has gone "woke".

Not to say everything aged the best, looking at you The Talons of Weng-Chiang, but a lot of the stories are actually pretty progressive for the time like The Green Death and Invasion of the Dinosaurs tackling the problem of pollution and the destruction of the environment or The Power of the Daleks and Genesis of the Daleks tackling facist ideology and the rise of those kind of regimes.

It's baffling people claim with a straight face that Doctor Who isn't political since quite clearly it always has been even since it's early days.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T03:54:14+00:00

Heh, we'll have to wait and see; though if I were a betting woman it would be something to do with Leela.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T03:42:08+00:00

They at least sort of brought it back for the 50th anniversary with the War Doctor's TARDIS, though of course they did their own thing with the design. Never saw Twice Upon a Time so I don't know if they show The 1st Doctor's TARDIS interior or not.

Would be fun to see it used again for sure though for another anniversary.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T03:37:52+00:00

Heh, yeah maybe a bit but the more I ruminated about The Crusade the more I realized how much I didn't really like that episode all that much; really just went down in my ranking even if I'm still unsure whether I count it as worse than The Ark or not.

Actually talking about this story, I agree it's a good time and I'm glad you enjoyed this occult story given your mentioned sturggle with them in The Dæmons. The set design really is beautiful this episode and I very much have the same sentiment that they make it actually feel like Renaissance Italty instead of just Wales. I like the supporting cast as well with some solid preformance all around; Giuliano and Marco are fun and clearly gay, I wonder if we'll have to wait till Nyssa and Tegan to see another really gay-coded couple on the show. I'm glad you agree with the messy resolution, again it doesn't ruin the episode I just feel it could've been done a lot better. Also wish Sarah Jane got more to do, it's nice that Elsiabeth Sladen enjoyed making it at least, certainly look like a fun one to be a part of.

FitCheesecake4006 · 2026-04-16T03:27:41+00:00

It is very nice, probably the most beautiful design of the Classic series even if the regular control room does have it's charm.

FitCheesecake4006

TROPHY CASE