History Recap / DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis

* [[Foreshadowing]]: The novelization of this serial gives an early clue as to who the Watcher is. When the Doctor sends Adric and Nyssa away from Logopolis, he entrusts them to the Watcher. Aboard the TARDIS, he silently summons Adric alone and apparently has a dialogue with him. Afterward, Adric claims that he can't remember what the Watcher's voice sounded like but it sounded familiar.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: John Nathan-Turner was keen to reintroduce a familiar companion to the regular cast to ease the transition from Tom Baker to Peter Davison after the former's seven year tenure in the lead role, and approached both Elisabeth Sladen and Louise Jameson to ask if they would like to reprise their parts as Sarah-Jane Smith and Leela respectively. Neither were interested in going back to the programme, so Tegan was created instead.

* DidntSeeThatOneComing: Oops. The Master didn't actually ''intend'' to destroy so much of the universe... including Nyssa's homeworld.

* [[{{Ptitle7xno8ayw}} Didn't See That One Coming]]: Oops. The Master didn't actually ''intend'' to destroy so much of the universe... including Nyssa's homeworld.

The Doctor and Adric make a pit stop in 1981 Britain, so that the Doctor can materialize right on top of a real police box and make hyper-precise multi-dimensional measurements of it, which he needs to take to the math nerds of Logopolis so they can fix the chameleon circuit. (Just nod along, OK?) Oddly enough, though, when they try to materialise, a police box shows up in the console room! A police box that is a TARDIS! With ''its'' own TARDIS in the control room! Doctor and Adric investigate the string of [=TARDISes=], all identical except for being progressively less well-lit.

* [=~You're Insane!~=]: Before their final confrontation, as The Master reveals his endgame, the Doctor utters with dread:

* SpannerInTheWorks: The Master doesn't actually ''plan'' on wiping out part of the universe or destroying Logopolis.

* [[{{Ptitle7xno8ayw}} Didn't See That One Coming]]: Oops. He didn't actually ''intend'' to destroy so much of the universe... including Nyssa's homeworld.

Like any good computer installation, Logopolis has a backup system: it's on Earth, at a giant radio telescope called the Pharos Project. So back to Earth we go, with the TARDIS landing perfectly for once. But it turns out the Master has double-crossed the Doctor (which has [[IdiotBall never happened before]]) and is holding the universe hostage to his demands by threatening to knock out the backup system. To show he's serious, he lets a fair chunk of the universe dissolve into chaos... including Nyssa's home world, Traken. While she watches. No class, Master.

* GrandFinale: For TomBaker's era as The Doctor

* DidNotDoTheResearch: The episode gives the right basic description of how heat death would work, but depicts the actual process as a magical energy field that disintegrates anything in its path. In fact, the actual concept behind heat death is that all energy in the universe would be gradually exhausted, until nothing more can ever happen again (more like what we later see in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E11Utopia Utopia]]", actually). The writer seems to have gotten heat death muddled up with the "Big Rip" theory, which is much more akin to what happens in this episode.

* InferredHolocaust: Of lots and lots and lots and lots of people, the entire populations of Logopolis and Nyssa's homeworld included.
* MagnificentBastard: Guess who.

* [[{{Ptitle7xno8ayw}} Didn't See That One Coming]]: Oops. He didn't actually ''intend'' to destroy 1/10th of the universe... including Nyssa's homeworld.

* GoodWithNumbers: Logopolis is this trope in ''city-form''.

Of course, it's time for the Master to show up and start mucking about with things. He starts small, with such pranks as shrinking the TARDIS (with the Doctor inside and throwing a [[SpannerInTheWorks spanner into the endless work of Logopolis]]. Unfortunately, Logopolis can't be restarted once it's stopped, resulting in a rather ''large'' problem for those who still want to, you know, ''exist.''

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/watcher_1809.jpg

his plan. [[{{Understatement}} It didn't work out very well at all]].
* Main/WetwareCPU

Of course, it's time for the Master to show up and start mucking about with things. He starts small, with such pranks as shrinking the TARDIS (with the Doctor inside[[hottip:*:The production team missed a golden opportunity to dub the miniaturized Doctor with a squeaky version of TomBaker's voice, but then again maybe they didn't find that as funny as [[@/{{Nightsky}} this troper]] would have.]]) and throwing a [[SpannerInTheWorks spanner into the endless work of Logopolis]]. Unfortunately, Logopolis can't be restarted once it's stopped, resulting in a rather ''large'' problem for those who still want to, you know, ''exist.''

* Main/DidNotDoTheResearch: The episode gives the right basic description of how heat death would work, but depicts the actual process as a magical energy field that disintegrates anything in its path. In fact, the actual concept behind heat death is that all energy in the universe would be gradually exhausted, until nothing more can ever happen again (more like what we later see in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E11Utopia Utopia]]", actually). The writer seems to have gotten heat death muddled up with the "Big Rip" theory, which is much more akin to what happens in this episode.

* DullSurprise: Nyssa's reaction (or lack thereof) to the destruction of her homeworld will give you a whole new appreciation for just how good Matthew Waterhouse's acting is by comparison.
** On the other hand, Sarah Sutton's restrained sadness is actually an effective approach, considering that Nyssa's probably in shock at such mass destruction.
* Main/EvilHand: Nyssa's bracelet
* Main/GoodWithNumbers: Logopolis is this trope in ''city-form''.
* Main/GrandFinale: For TomBaker's era as The Doctor
* Main/HeroicSacrifice: The Doctor. Actually a realistic one, as his death isn't a direct cause of saving the day, but because he pulls off an incredibly risky stunt that he doesn't recover from.
* Main/MagnificentBastard: Guess who.
* TearJerker: Yup.
* Main/TheMaster
* Main/MyBrainIsBig
* Main/ShownTheirWork: Writer Christopher H. Bidmead seems to have done more reading up on computers than on entropy. The monks of Logopolis work and communicate in hexadecimal (base 16), just like real computers. At one point, the Doctor mentions "bubble memory"--which is real, and was the subject of a lot of research in 1981.
* Main/SpannerInTheWorks: The Master doesn't actually ''plan'' on wiping out part of the universe or destroying Logopolis.
* Main/TheStarsAreGoingOut: the entropy spreads and consumes part of the universe.
* Main/WallBanger: The Doctor's plan to flush the Master's TARDIS out of his own TARDIS by, wait for it, draining the River Thames into it. Amazingly enough, the writer insists to this day that it really was a good idea.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride The Runaway Bride]], the Thames really was drained, although not into a TARDIS.
** StevenMoffat later wrote a short story for ''DoctorWhoMagazine'' depicting what would have happened if the Doctor actually did go through with his plan. [[{{Understatement}} It didn't work out very well at all]].

* [[Main/YoureInsane You're Insane]]: Before their final confrontation, as The Master reveals his endgame, the Doctor utters with dread:

-->'''The Doctor'''

Of course, it's time for the Master to show up and start mucking about with things. He starts small, with such pranks as shrinking the TARDIS (with the Doctor inside[[hottip:*:The production team missed a golden opportunity to dub the miniaturized Doctor with a squeaky version of TomBaker's voice, but then again maybe they didn't find that as funny as [[@/{{Nightsky}} this troper]] would have.]]) and throwing a [[SpannerInTheWorks spanner into the endless work of Logopolis]]. Unfortunately, Logopolis can't be restarted once it's stopped,resulting in a rather ''large'' problem for those who still want to, you know, ''exist.''

!Tropes

<<|Recap/DoctorWho|>>

* Main/ShownTheirWork: The monks of Logopolis work and communicate in hexadecimal (base 16), just like real computers. At one point, the Doctor mentions "bubble memory"--which is real, and was the subject of a lot of research in 1981.

The Doctor and Adric make a pit stop in 1981 Britain, so that the Doctor can materialise right on top of a real police box and make hyper-precise multi-dimensional measurements of it, which he needs to take to the math nerds of Logopolis so they can fix the chameleon circuit. (Just nod along, OK?) Oddly enough, though, when they try to materialise, a police box shows up in the console room! A police box that is a TARDIS! With ''its'' own TARDIS in the control room! Doctor and Adric investigate the string of [=TARDISes=], all identical except for being progressively less well-lit.

The sonorous ''bong'' of the TARDIS's cloister bell (its OhCrap signal) makes itself heard, so the Doctor and Adric retrace their steps through the nesting [=TARDISes=] back to the outermost one. The Doctor suspects that the multiple [=TARDISes=] thing is yet another devious trick of the Master, and dematerialises at once, bound for Logopolis. Tegan, by now extremely confused, finds her way back to the control room and demands to know what the hell is going on and to be put back in 1981 ''right now'', please--rather shrilly, true, but then again "Sorry I'm late, I accidentally stepped into a spacetimeship that looked exactly like a police box and ended up at either MIT or a Buddhist monastery or possibly both at once, in the company of an alien with an enormous scarf and a swotty maths geek from another dimension" is, as excuses go, pretty lousy. Especially for one's first day on the job.

Anyway. The TARDIS soon materialises on the dusty, cave-pocked planet of Logopolis, home of the maths monks. It is, we learn, an enormous analogue of a computer: a task is broken down into a series of calculations; each monk performs a single calculation and passes the result on to the next monk over. Operations are overseen by the Monitor (get it?) in a sort of large workroom. After reuniting with Nyssa, who is here for no very good reason, the TARDIS crew finds the Monitor. He explains that the universe is actually well past its sell-by date, and is kept from flying apart into chaos only by the power of their mighty minds, as they do... something mathematical... to keep the universe together.

* Main/DidNotDoTheResearch: The episode depicts heat death as a magical energy field that disintegrates anything in its path, when in fact the concept behind heat death is that all energy in the universe would be gradually exhausted, until nothing more can ever happen again. The writer seems to have gotten heat death muddled up with the "Big Rip" theory, which is much more like what the episode is depicted.