There are plenty of changes to the series as the 18th season opens. The new music, title sequence and logo are the first thing you notice. Behind the screen producer Gareth Williams was gone and John Nathan-Turner was promoted from Production Unit Manager to Producer. He brought in a lot of changes and not all of them were popular with just about everyone. He would remain as the show's producer until the end of the classic era. Barry Letts was back as Executive Producer and there was a new Script Editor called Christopher H. Bidmead.
Tom Baker and Lalla Ward return as the Doctor and Romana. John Leeson is back as the voice of K-9 but that would be a short lived return as the powers to be are plotting to get rid of him. The BBC spent a bunch of cash on rebuilding K-9, so he could move about better, and the thought was to use him more. In his first scene in the serial poor K-9 has to be pulled by a string because his new treads don't work too well on the rocks of Brighton Beach. The Doctor's costume changed, he got a new burgundy colored outfit. The first story of the 18th season opens in a long tracking shot of some beach chairs with the Doc snoozing in the last one.
The Leisure Hive is the 110th serial, if you follow the numbering of the Region 1 dvds, and not the Wikipedia where it's 109. The delay of Shada really screwed things up. David Fisher is the writer of TLH and Lovett Brickford is the director. The story first aired August 30 and the 4 parts ran through September 20 1980. We find the Doctor and Romana on the beach at Brighton. It's cold and windy and the beach is empty because it's off season. K-9 wanders into the water and blows something. They decide to move their holiday to the Leisure Hive of Argolis. Of course they get mixed in with mystery and murder. The people of Argolis live in a sealed up city because the surface of the planet has been destroyed by radiation from a 20 minute war.
The whole plot hinges around a hostile take over by the son of the current leader. He's got a special tachyon device that he's developed with some Earth men who are really alien's in disguise. The Doctor and Romana get busy and set things right. At one point the Doctor gets all aged up and spends part of the story as a really old and hairy Time Lord. Everyone liked the aged Doctor but Tom Baker. He complained about a lot of the changes that had happened but it did little good. Tom would leave the series at the end of the season and Lalla wouldn't last that long. I didn't find the story to be much more than average. Another story of family infighting and political intrigue. I'd seen plenty like it. Much of what I read online has mentions of the series going downhill over the last few years. Not much to look forward too, you know, unless all those writers are wrong.
The commentary has Lalla Ward joined by Lovett Brickford and Christopher H Bidmead. I grow tired of Lalla's Tom Baker bashing. The featurettes cover some of the changes to the behind the scenes with interviews and the like.
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