"Doctor Who"
Time-Flight: Part 1 (1982)

Director:

Ron Jones

Writer:

Peter Grimwade (writer)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (1963)

Original Air Date:

22 March 1982 (Season 19, Episode 23)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Australian | Master | Space Hero | Multiple Actors For One Character | Scientist Hero

Cast

Peter Davison	...	The Doctor
Sarah Sutton	...	Nyssa
Janet Fielding	...	Tegan Jovanka
Richard Easton	...	Captain Stapley
Keith Drinkel	...	Flight Engineer Scobie
Michael Cashman	...	First Officer Bilton
Peter Dahlsen	...	Horton
Brian McDermott	...	Sheard
John Flint	...	Captain Urquhart
Peter Cellier	...	Andrews
Judith Byfield	...	Angela Clifford
Anthony Ainley	...	Kalid (as Leon Ny Taiy)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Heathrow Airport, London, England, UK

Trivia:

The first time a drama production had been allowed to film on board an actual Concorde.

Quotes:

Captain Stapley: I thought you were going with the Doctor.
Tegan Jovanka: So did I...

What the hell did I just watch?

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Doctor Who: Time-Flight: Part One starts as Concorde 192 from New York suddenly disappears from radar on it's approach to London Heathrow, the air traffic control are stumped. Meanwhile the Doctor (Peter Davison) decides to try & cheer Tegan (Janet Fielding) & Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) up after the death of Adric by taking them to London 1851 & the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, however due to problems the Doctor is forced to materialise the TARDIS sooner than he had expected & ends up at Heathrow shortly after the disappearance of the Concorde. Questioned by airport security the Doctor insists they contact Department C19 & Sir John Sudbury of UNIT, the airport authorities are then ordered to inform the Doctor about the missing Concorde & he has theories that it has entered a time vortex...

Episode 23 from season 19 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1982 & was the seventh & final story from Peter Davison's first season playing the Doctor, directed by Ron Jones one has to say I'm not quite sure what to make of Time-Flight. Originally called Zanadin & then Xeraphin the script for Time-Flight by Peter Grimwade has been stark raving mad so far & one could maybe say far too ambitious for the meagre budget & resources the production team had. The whole notion of an entire Concorde along with it's passengers & crew having been abducted through time back 140 million years to the Pleistocene period through a time corridor is a little hard to swallow & then the idea that Heathrow & British Airways would quite literally give the Doctor, Nyssa & Tegan another Concorde complete with flight crew to investigate the disappearance of the first is just taking things that little bit too far. I'm a sci-fi, horror, cult, trash, exploitation fan but there comes a time when even I cannot suspend my disbelief long enough not to see all the gaping plot holes, inconsistencies & downright silliness that's going on here. Time-Flight is one of those programs you have to see to believe & words simply cannot do it justice. This opening episode at least tries to present the missing Concorde as a mystery which works until British Airways gives the Doctor a Concorde of his own (I mean like yeah, I am sure British Airways has loads of the things just lying around to hand out), once Time-Flight goes back 140 million years in the past it gets even sillier with some awful dialogue, odd behaviour (the cabin crew take the situation very well, Tegan just running off into the distance, Nyssa disobeying the Doctor for no reason) & a poor cliffhanger ending.

One aspect of Time-Flight which the production team could never succeed with are the special effects, from awkward looking stock footage of Heathrow & Concorde to some truly dire CSO (colour separation overlay) that is as bad as anything from the Jon Pertwee era. The sets are cheap looking as well with a grounded Concorde represented by the Doctor standing next to it's front wheel & don't even get me started on those hysterically bad looking Plasmaton creatures that resemble a block of cement on legs! Amazingly producer John Nathan-Turner managed to persuade British Airways to allow them to film on their back-up Concorde which is probably the highlight of Time-Flight so far. I also noticed a goof here, when the TARDIS is above Heathrow looking down the ground is clear yet when the Doctor, Nyssa & Tegan board Concorde there's snow everywhere!

Time-Flight: Part One is a bit of a mess, the production is really poor on all fronts & the story is just plain convoluted & bizarre. It's entertaining in a so bad it's good sort of way but at the same time this is the sort of Doctor Who that makes you feel embarrassed for liking the show.