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When the Doctor and Mel visit the National Foundation for
Scientific Research as it celebrates its centenary, Mel expects
only to catch up with her uncle, John Hallam. She doesn't
expect to meet her own ancestors. What secret has Henry Hallam
kept from his descendants for more than two hundred years?
And can Mel escape her past...?
Though it begins pleasantly enough, with the Doctor (Colin
Baker) and Mel (Bonnie Langford) exhibiting the kind of cosy
companionship that they did on television during The Trial
of a Time Lord, it soon becomes apparent that Alison Lawson's
story is sluggish and slight on plot.
In
fact, its pace is more akin to the average William Hartnell
serial. I was reminded in particular of The Time Meddler,
which takes three episodes to get to its major plot twist,
that the Monk possesses his own TARDIS. Though nowadays we
are blasé about the fact that there are other time-travellers
out there just like the Doctor, back in 1965 this was a major
revelation. The end of Part Three of Catch-1782 is
similar in that it could have been shocking or even awe-inspiring
back in the 1960s, when audience expectations weren't as sophisticated
as they are now, but heard today, when we are all used to
such things as time paradoxes and extended side trips through
history, its "revelation" is rather predictable. A vital clue
is given away by the very fact that Mel initially finds herself
in 1781, a year earlier than the story's title.
The
other two episode endings don't fare too well either. Perhaps
the instalments weren't running to length and their conclusions
had to be moved in order to make the episodes equal in duration,
because Parts One and Two just seem to end in not particularly
"cliffhanger-ish" ways.
On the plus side, Derek Benfield provides amiable support
as Mel's Uncle John, while Keith Drinkel is suitably creepy
as her ancestor Henry Hallam.
My
advice would be to catch this one later rather than sooner.
Richard
McGinlay
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