It’s a tiny TARDIS
The Doctor (Tom Baker) has decided to fix his TARDIS and repair the chameleon circuit which keeps his TARDIS as a police box. Travelling to Earth with Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), the Doctor accidentally envelops the TARDIS of the Master (Anthony Ainley). When a young girl named Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) wanders into the TARDIS, she’s whisked away with the Doctor and Adric to Logopolis to fix the problem. Finding Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) there, the Doctor, Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa learn that the Master has plans for Logopolis and that the threat of entropy could destroy the entire universe…and a mysterious watcher could determine the Doctor’s future.
Doctor Who: Logopolis was the final serial of the eighteenth season of Doctor Who. It aired in four parts from February 28, 1981 to March 21, 1981. Following Doctor Who: The Keeper of Traken, Doctor Who: Logopolis is the last outing of the Fourth Doctor Tom Baker and the premiere of the Fifth Doctor Peter Davison along with new companion Tegan Jovanka. It has been collected as part of The Tom Bake Years as Story #115 (or #116 depending on how you count Doctor Who: Shada).
Am I dying? Why am I surrounded by annoying kids?
Tom Baker was always “my Doctor”. He is the Doctor I grew up seeing (rerun on Saturdays on our PBS station) and the Doctor I imaged when people talked about Doctor Who and it is sad to finally reach his last voyage. From his first appearance in Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders (and his first full adventure in Doctor Who: Robot), Baker made the Doctor his own. It is unfortunate what the Doctor was becoming at this point because I’m not a big fan of his last few adventures.
Almost whole season had a “decay” theme and to end the Doctor’s life in a season about decay and entropy is appropriate. It is an interesting concept, and some of the stories are good. Logopolis itself seems to be all over the place with the initial adventure on Earth, the Logopolis portion, and the ending portion at the satellite dish. It felt like too many shortened series mixed together.
I’m so confused…do I have to wear this scarf?
The next problem with Doctor Who in general at this point is that I don’t really like any of the companions. The show was looking for a younger, “hipper” look and begin to morph during Baker’s run. Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan were a lot younger than many of the previous companions and Davison also was a younger Doctor. I just still found it weird that the Doctor ran around with a bunch of kids and didn’t find any of them very interesting (in this one, Tegan is particularly irritating).
Doctor Who: Logopolis represents the end of something good in Doctor Who. Baker shied away from Doctor Who once he left (footage from Doctor Who: Shada was used for his part of Doctor Who: The Five Doctors…but he did appear in the Dimensions in Time charity special). Doctor Who: Logopolis is followed by Doctor Who: Castrovalva where Peter Davison officially takes the reigns.
Preceded By:
Doctor Who: The Keeper of Traken (Story #114)
Followed By:
