History Recap / DoctorWhoS19E4TheVisitation

* CanonImmigrant: Writer Eric Saward had created the character Richard Mace years before, in some of his plays.

This serial marks the final appearance and the destruction of the sonic screwdriver in the classic series, as producer John Nathan-Turner thought it was too much of a [[DeusExMachina convenience]] for the Doctor, much like K9 was when he was around. The screwdriver wouldn't return onscreen until the [[Recap/DoctorWhoTVMTheTVMovie TV Movie]] in 1996.

* [[LovableRogue Lovable]] [[TheHighwayman Highwayman]]: Richard Mace.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/visitation_1479.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:344: A terileptil finds Tegan's off switch.]]

* [[Main/{{ptitleukqnnj0yvqci}} Can't Argue With Elves]]: The Doctor rolls his eyes at the silly humans and their foibles. Twice. In fact, the Doctor's kind of a dick in this story, which is such a change from Five's usual befuddled niceness that it is wonderful to behold.

The Doctor lands the TARDIS at exactly the right spot to drop Tegan off at her job, and even has her there a bit early!

315 years early.

----

Tegan snarks her way through her interrogation, but ends up mind-controlled by the Tereleptil anyway, and the Doctor shows up just in time to watch her very nearly release some rats infected with an extra-''extra''-deadly variant of ''Yersinia pestis'', the Black Plague. Eventually Tegan backs off, but the crew is powerless to prevent it from being picked up by a henchperson and delivered to a certain bakery on Pudding Lane.

This serial marks the final appearance of the sonic screwdriver in the classic series, as producer John Nathan-Turner thought it made it too easy for the Doctor to get out of snags.

* MarkOfShame: The Tereleptil has face markings that mean if he goes back to his home planet he'll be killed.
* PaperThinDisguise: The Tereleptil hides himself under a BlackCloak that completely fails to cover his reptilian snout.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: the Tereleptil
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: the Tereleptil
* ShutUpKirk: The Tereleptil gets a pretty nice retort to the Doctor's request for diplomacy.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Adric's usually insufferable behavior is revealed to be due to intense insecurity.

In walks the glammest android ever seen in ''DoctorWho'', and laser blasts start firing. Tegan and Adric are taken away for interrogation. The Doctor, Nyssa, and--reluctantly--Richard explore the woods and discover... a shipping container. That is, it ''looks'' like a shipping container, but the soundtrack has a synthgasm when Richard points it out, so it's probably something important. Like a spaceship!

* [=~Can't Argue With Elves~=]: The Doctor rolls his eyes at the silly humans and their foibles. Twice. In fact, the Doctor's kind of a dick in this story, which is such a change from Five's usual befuddled niceness that it is wonderful to behold.

* MoralDissonance: Yeah, as if setting London on fire isn't enough, he tends to be a royal dick to everyone in the story who isn't named "Doctor."

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/visitation_1479.jpg

* Main/AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Adric's usually insufferable behavior is revealed to be due to intense insecurity.
* Main/CanonImmigrant: Writer Eric Saward had created the character Richard Mace years before, in some of his plays.

** Although to this Troper, the Doctor comes across more of a grump than a dick to her, as though he didn't get enough sleep. It could also be that the Doctor's nerves are getting shot from Tegan's endless complaining and Adric's annoyance.
* Main/CometOfDoom
* Main/FetishFuel: Peter Davison handcuffed and kneeling. Hell Yeah!
* Main/HistoricalInJoke: The final shot of the serial is a flaming sign reading "Pudding Lane". Pudding Lane is the site where the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London Great Fire of London]] began in 1666.
* Main/IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: Part 3 cliffhanger
* Main/JamesBondage: Man, this is the third time the Doctor's been captured this season--he gets handcuffed too!
* Main/KillItWithFire
* Main/MarkOfShame: The Tereleptil has face markings that mean if he goes back to his home planet he'll be killed.
* Main/MoralDissonance: Yeah, as if setting London on fire isn't enough, he tends to be a royal dick to everyone in the story who isn't named "Doctor."
** I'll agree on the Doctor Dickery, but the Great Fire of London is probably one of those pesky fixed event things that all of his incarnations from "Not One Line" Hartnell-Doc all the way to AGodAmI Ten-Doc got worked up about so we can cut him some slack on that.
* Main/PaperThinDisguise: The Tereleptil hides himself under a BlackCloak that completely fails to cover his reptilian snout.
* Main/ProudWarriorRaceGuy: the Tereleptil
* Main/ReptilesAreAbhorrent: the Tereleptil

* I'll agree on the Doctor Dickery, but the Great Fire of London is probably one of those pesky fixed event things that all of his incarnations from "Not One Line" Hartnell-Doc all the way to AGodAmI Ten-Doc got worked up about so we can cut him some slack on that.

Which it is. Doctor, Nyssa, and Richard investigate, and hole up inside to fend off a hilariously futile attack by guys with axes and arrows. They blow the escape hatch and... escape. Nyssa is sent back to the TARDIS to build a remote android jamming device out of spare parts. Which she does. Because she is awesome. Not that she gets any thanks--or even acknowledgment--from the Doctor for her MacGyvering, because the Doctor's a bit of a dick in this story.

<<|Recap/DoctorWho|>>

->'''Adric:''' "What would the Doctor do?"
->'''Nyssa:''' "He'd probably get angry."