The Ambassadors of Death

Dear Gary—

“My dear fellow, I simply don’t happen to have a pass . . . . Because I don’t believe in them, that’s why.”

The smug self-righteousness of Doctor Who and the Silurians has mellowed into brusque rudeness here in The Ambassadors of Death.

“The man’s a fool,” the Doctor says of the extremely bright, capable, and professional Professor Ralph Cornish (not to mention extremely patient and tolerant), and he goes on, “Let me explain this to you in very simple terms.”

Later he crashes in demanding, “If I’m to help you people I need full cooperation.” This new Doctor needs to learn a little tact and understanding before he can expect such full and complete cooperation.

Luckily the Brigadier is on hand to temper the Doctor’s disrespect. “He is trying to help you know,” the Brigadier explains to Cornish, and to the Doctor of Cornish he says, “He is in charge here.”

So far Jon Pertwee as the Doctor has been more caustic than William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. The first and second Doctors certainly had their gruff moments, but they never lashed out unprovoked.

Once the action takes over, however, and the Doctor gets down to business he calms down; perhaps he is just settling into this new persona of his and I will afford him the benefit of the doubt.

 I have to say that The Ambassadors of Death has a certain urgency and relevancy to the times. These first three stories of the Earth-bound Doctor Who have dealt with the new constricted format quite cleverly and diversely so that I don’t feel the claustrophobic air outside of the TARDIS doors as much as I thought I would.

The TARDIS does make a brief appearance in our story, or at least the TARDIS console does, as the Doctor works to reactivate the time generator vector. He only succeeds in so far as to transport first Liz and then himself a few seconds into the future, allowing for a brief and much needed humorous interlude to soften the harsh edges this new Doctor has been exhibiting.

But it is the space probe; the tense moments of lost contact and attempted reentry; the mysterious disappearance of the astronauts and their equally mysterious reappearance as something not quite themselves; and the preparations, takeoff, and journey of yet another space probe that provide the taut, nervous energy of the script.

And then we get Reegan as the thug of the piece, Lennox and Taltalian as the traitorous scientists, and Carrington as the unbalanced General to propel the action.

The stories have gone to seven episodes in length here in the early going of the third Doctor. This demands quite a few twists and turns before we come to our finale. In Doctor Who and the Silurians this resulted in the fast acting virus that was infecting the world; in The Ambassadors of Death this results in the kidnapping of Liz Shaw and Reegan’s attempts to communicate more fully with the three aliens so he can coerce them to his own murderous ends.

We are also treated to several escape attempts, raids on bases and isotope factories, rigging up of mechanisms and devices with multiple switches and gauges, gun fights and chases, not to mention political red tape, murders, and a worldwide television hookup.

And in the midst of all this chaos we have the Doctor getting to the calm center of it all. The Doctor (who can withstand considerably more G Force than humans) mans a probe to hook up with the missing capsule only to discover an alien space ship where the three missing astronauts are genially passing the time in a peaceful little lounge as they wait out what they believe to be a period of quarantine back on Earth.

It is here that the Doctor amiably discusses the situation over with the alien being, getting to the heart of the matter. The three human astronauts, the Doctor learns, are being held awaiting the return of the three alien ambassadors who had been sent down to Earth in peace.

It is on Earth where chaos is reigning: kidnappings, raids, murders, battles, panic. All engineered by Reegan and Carrington who have co-opted the alien ambassadors for their own ends.

“There is only one hope left to us—that the Doctor is still alive.”

Of course the Doctor is still alive and returns in triumph; Reegan and the crazy general are dealt with; the astronaut for ambassador switch takes place; and we have our successful, if a bit hasty, end to the bedlam.

The Doctor has come through, Gary. Despite his brash beginning, Jon Pertwee is becoming acclimated to the role. And the TARDIS may be lost to him, but at least he has Bessie to tinker with (outfitted with a handy force field of an anti theft device in this story) and who takes him where he wants to go in this constrained new world of his.

Yes, “there is only one hope left to us,” and that hope is the Doctor. The Doctor will always come through. No matter William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, or Jon Pertwee, “the Doctor is still alive.”