History Recap / DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetofFire

* BeachEpisode: (at least at the start) providing an excuse for high levels of FanService from Nicola Bryant and [[ShirtlessScene Mark]] [[ShowSomeLeg Strickson]]. Actor DavidTennant and producer Phil Collinson reminisce fondly about this episode in the hidden commentary on "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]". Even PeterDavison's usual cover-all outfits are somewhat relaxed.

* HamToHamCombat: This adventure features a particularly hammy PeterDavison taking on an even hammier Anthony Ainley. And it is ''glorious.''

** WordOfGod has it that she was just reliving a childhood nightmare of being afraid of the dark, inspired by the author's own kid. The (non-canon) DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, however, took those lines and ran with them, including a reveal that Peri's step father molested her as a child.

* FakeAmerican: Nicola Bryant's "American" accent is... unfortunate, to say the least. Same goes for Howard; the accent's American, but the grammar is far too British to make it convincing.

** Becomes significantly less hot when you find out what kind of person he was

* MaleGaze: This is the ''very first shot'' of Peri, setting the stage for pretty much her entire tenure on the show.

* FakeAmerican: Nicola Bryant's "American" accent is... unfortunate, to say the least.

** It goes further in the ExpandedUniverse. Peri's step father molested her as a child.

Well, it turns out that Kamelion has somehow tired of [[strike:the wild and awesome adventures he's been having with the Doctor]] sitting around doing jack shit and decided to off himself. Or he's accidentally plugged himself into the wrong part of the TARDIS. Or something. All it looks like is that the Kamelion prop is laying on the ground sparking as a cable stretches into a wall of the TARDIS set. But the Doctor isn't especially worried, as ''he just leaves the guy laying there on the ground to, apparently, die.''

Over on Earth, the same double-triangle is mysteriously found engraved on what looks like an ancient golden dumbbell on an island nation off the coast of Africa by an American archaeologist and his stepdaughter - college student Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown. Peri demands that they go off to Morocco instead, but her stepfather refuses. Peri, being of completely sound mind and judgment of course, decides to take the rather huge artifact with her as she leaps off the boat(!) they've been traveling on and tries to swim to shore. Of course, she nearly drowns. Welcome to the 'D' [[strike:cups]] plot!

* FanService: This episode is pretty much the apotheosis of John Nathan-Turner's "something for the dads" policy. Although the costumes of some of the male characters are more revealing than usual, making it more equal opportunity.

Then Kamelion!Master shows up and promptly takes over the role of "the Outsider" in the local religion, which basically means he gets to run around and tell people what to do. As silly as this seems on paper, in action it just means that Anthony Ainley gets to be awesomely hammy - throwing his arms around like a preacher on Christmas morning. And that's something few fans can complain about, especially when Ainley does it all in a really nice three-piece suit[[hottip:*:seriously, it's a huge improvement on the black velvet doublet that the BBC costume department stole from a production of ''Richard III'']] as well. It's soon revealed that what the Doctor assumes is the Master is really Kamelion, so the Doctor starts... acting like a complete and utter asshole to Kamelion, claiming he's trying to free the distressed droid. Then the Doctor is thrown in jail.

* BrainySpecs: They're baaaack!

With the Master supposedly dead ''(again)'', the Doctor and Turlough part ways while Peri begs to follow the Doctor along on more adventures. The Doctor agrees, hesitantly, and welcomes her to the TARDIS. The TARDIS, for its part, shudders violently. We're not sure if it's trying to warn her of her [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp ultimate fate]] or how psychotically rocky the show will be while she's on it, but it's certainly not a good sign.

Really, this was a wonderfully nonsensical tale. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad... but it was a solid sendoff for Vislor Turlough. It's just a shame he couldn't get this level of development during the rest of his time in the TARDIS... but hey, now we have Nicola Bryant to drool over, right?

Finally, it should be noted that the main reason Kamelion was killed off is that the prop that was supposed to be his main body... well, no one but the creator could properly operate it. [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup And then the creator went and died in a boating accident without creating actual instructions or telling anyone else how to run it.]] Further, this episode just explains how... predictable any story with Kamelion in it would actually become as well. Let's quickly think about this...
# He has a weak will. Blatantly weak, in that the Master makes this guy his puppet in seconds. And the Master's will is continually interrupted by Peri's bizarre will at the same time when she's in close proximity. Kamelion apparently has the backbone of a wet noodle.
# You could not go two or three serial adventures in PeterDavison's Era without hitting the Master.
# Kamelion's prop was rubbish.
# Kamelion, like K9, is a potential walking DeusExMachina.

So yeah, we're lucky he only appeared in two adventures. Or unlucky, depending on your interpretation.

* BeachEpisode: (at least at the start) providing an excuse for high levels of FanService from [[MostCommonSuperpower Nicola Bryant]] and [[ShirtlessScene Mark]] [[ShowSomeLeg Strickson]]. Actor DavidTennant and producer Phil Collinson reminisce fondly about this episode in the hidden commentary on "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]". Even PeterDavison's usual cover-all outfits are somewhat relaxed.

* HarsherInHindsight: The part where Kamelion - who looks like the Master - is given the equivalent of a heart attack got a hell of a lot worse after 2004, when Anthony Ainley died of a heart attack

Over on Earth, the same double-triangle is mysteriously found engraved on what looks like an ancient golden dumbbell on an island nation off the coast of Africa by an American archaeologist and his stepdaughter - college student Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown. Peri demands that they go off to Morocco instead, but her stepfather refuses. Peri, being of completely sound mind and judgment of course, decides to take the rather huge artifact with her as she leaps off the boat(!) they've been traveling on and tries to swim to shore. Of course, she nearly drowns.

* MoralDissonance: The Doctor deciding to light the mortally wounded on fire. Because, you know, a little BBQ sauce really helps those laser wounds. Not to mention how the bastard treated the robot Kamelion...[[hottip:*:Sure, these things make some sense in context, but where's the fun in that?]]

** Not to mention ''burning the Master alive''. For a guy who's supposed to be fixated on saving people, he pretty much kicks back, lets the Master burn, shrugs, and walks away. Talk about MoralDissonance.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/master_leer_1246.jpg

Well, it turns out that Kamelion has somehow tired of [[strike:the wild and awesome adventures he's been having with the Doctor]] sitting around doing jack shit and decided to off himself. Or he's accidentally plugged himself into the wrong part of the TARDIS. Or something. All it looks like is that the Kamelion prop is laying on the ground sparking as a cable stretches into a wall of the TARDIS set. But the Doctor isn't especially worried, as ''he just leaves the guy laying there on the ground to, apparently, die.'' [[WhatTheHellHero Wow.]]

* AbusiveParents: While sleeping in the TARDIS, Peri has a [[BadDreams nightmare]] about her stepfather, begging him "I-I'm sorry Howard. I didn't mean it. No Howard, p-please don't leave me alone! Do-don't turn out the lights! HOWWAAAARD!". The fans have come to some [[{{squick}} unpleasant conclusions]].
** Confirmed in the ExpandedUniverse. Peri's step father molested her as a child.
* AlasPoorScrappy: Kamelion

* DamselScrappy: Peri is about equal parts this and PluckyGirl. Both aspects are given to yelling.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The Mini-Master's adventures... but it adds charm to the episode, really.
* TearJerker: "Look after him, won't you? He gets into the most terrible trouble."
** Also Timanov's final scene. The guy may have been kind of an ass, [[spoiler:believing that some guy wearing a thermal protection suit was in fact a god, but it's kind of heartbreaking watching him come to terms with the fact that he probably wasted his life and led the other survivors down a blind alley]].
* VillainDecay: Shrunk by his own TCE? No wonder this was supposed to be Anthony Ainley's last serial (before he signed another contract).

Things generally hit the fan, as it turns out that Sarn is an old colonization attempt by Turlough's people, and it just so happened to be a prison world. Turlough is also a criminal-by-relation, his father having lead a failed coup d'etat. Seriously. Meanwhile, Peri is taken to the Master's TARDIS by Kamelion and she's forced into labor. Looking inside the Master's "control box," she quickly sees why the Master needed Kamelion... he's now doll-sized. So he runs around his TARDIS while Peri tries to crush him like one would an errant cockroach for the next 10 minutes. ''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer We can't make this stuff up, people.]]''

...until the blue flames that represent the gasses turn to real flames and burn the Master to death as the Doctor stares on in DullSurprise. Again, I ''cannot'' make this stuff up, people.

* RobotBuddy: Good ol' Kamelion. Good riddance to bad props.

* PerversePuppet: Ditto.

* TheXOfY
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* UnfunnyAneurysmMoment: The part where Kamelion - who looks like the Master - is given the equivalent of a heart attack got a hell of a lot worse after 2004, when Anthony Ainley died of a heart attack.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: the Trion brothers

Peri is immediately jumped by Kamelion, who has now taken the shape of... Peri's... step... father. Honestly, most viewers weren't sure what the devil was going on there, but [[strike:everything was explained]] nothing makes sense once the face fades away to reveal... the Master! Of course! But it's not really the Master either, it's... Kamelion being controlled by the Master. Oh, no. The robot made to be a slave to the Master is now a slave to the Master. Again. And no one cares.

With the Master supposedly dead ''(again)'', the Doctor and Turlough part ways while Peri begs to follow the Doctor along on more adventures. The Doctor agrees, hesitantly, and welcomes her to the TARDIS. The TARDIS, for it's part, decides to shudder violently. We're not sure if it's trying to warn her of her [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp ultimate fate]] or how psychotically rocky the show will be while she's on it, but it's certainly not a good sign.

Our story begins by focusing on a random group of desert dwellers on the planet of Sarn. There isn't a whole lot to know about these guys, outside the fact that they worship a god named Logar and they have a Chosen One, named Malkon, who is declared so because of a special double-triangle symbol burned into his flesh. A lot of the opening of this episode, and indeed a lot of the serial, generally contains two groups of these people bickering on if their god really exists or not... and it generally goes nowhere, seeing how it's a 'C' plot in a Doctor Who story that's got a rather busy 'A' and 'B' plot running.

Off in the TARDIS, The Doctor hasn't taken [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E4ResurrectionOfTheDaleks Tegan's decision to leave]] all that well. He curses the Daleks for a bit before Turlough tells him to snap out of it. However, before either of them can get any more lines in, a random scream pierces the TARDIS control room. Why, that must be Kamelion, and he's in danger! You remember Kamelion, right? He showed up at [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheKingsDemons the tail end]] of the last season and vowed he'd be a loyal companion of the Doctor! And then he never bothered to show up again until this episode! Boy, what a [[strike:useless character]] great friend that guy is.

Over on Earth, the same double-triangle is mysteriously found engraved on what looks like an ancient golden dumbbell on an island nation off the coast of Africa by an American archaeologist and his stepdaughter - college student Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown. Peri demands that they go off to Morocco instead, but her stepfather refuses. Peri, being of completely sound mind and judgement of course, decides to take the rather huge artifact with her as she leaps off the boat(!) they've been traveling on and tries to swim to shore. Of course, she nearly drowns.

Then Kamelion!Master shows up and promptly takes over the role of "the Oustider" in the local religion, which basically means he gets to run around and tell people what to do. As silly as this seems on paper, in action it just means that Anthony Ainley gets to be awesomely hammy - throwing his arms around like a preacher on Christmas morning. And that's something few fans can complain about, especially when Ainley does it all in a really nice three-piece suit[[hottip:*:seriously, it's a huge improvement on the black velvet doublet that the BBC costume department stole from a production of ''Richard III'']] as well. It's soon revealed that what the Doctor assumes is the Master is really Kamelion, so the Doctor starts... acting like a complete and utter asshole to Kamelion, claiming he's trying to free the distressed droid. Then the Doctor is thrown in jail.

** Confirmed in the ExpandedUniverse. Peri's step father molested her as a child. This troper didn't een used to LIKE Peri (Until Nicola Bryant's excellent performance in the Big Finish audios) But they still felt sorry for the poor girl.

*HamToHamCombat: This adventure features a particularly hammy PeterDavison taking on an even hammier AnthonyAinley. And it is ''glorious.''

*NoOneCouldSurviveThat:...well, unless they had [[spoiler: JokerImmunity]], anyway.