History Recap / DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid

'''Production code:''' 6A

This two-episode serial first aired from March 1--2, 1982.

* AnimalMotifs: The dresses Nyssa and Ann wear.

* GenteelInterbellumSetting

* MasqueradeBall

* SceneryPorn

[[caption-width-right:350:Once again... no comment...]]

-->-- '''The Doctor''' is going {{Meta Fiction}}al

The one where the Doctor wears a velvet bathrobe and proves to be ''fantastic'' at cricket.

* TooDumbToLive: An almost hilarious example as the butler comes to Ann's rescue. As George is manhandling Ann, the butler runs ''past'' them to set down a metal pot he could easily have used to brain George, then runs over to rescue the girl and is promptly strangled. WhatAnIdiot[[invoked]]!

* ObviousStuntDouble: There's a moment where Ann steps into view along with Nyssa and the others. No split screen is used, and the other woman looks nothing like Sarah Sutton.

Ha. Of course, they don't believe him... until the Doctor gets them to walk into his TARDIS, which proves that he '''is''' a time-travelling alien and therefore exonerates him of the murder. (Look, we ''did'' say the plot didn't make sense.) Then everything's fine, until someone remembers that the ''real'' killer is back at the mansion. Oh no!

Mystery Killer, now dressed in slacks and and a nice sweater, kidnaps Ann, kills a few more people and is then temporarily subdued while everyone tries to politely ignore the fact that a murder interrupted their pleasant summer banquet and dance. Then Mystery Killer escapes, grabs Nyssa and runs off -- apparently having set the entire house on fire to break down a simple door. At this point, Lady Cranleigh decides to confess that the murdering psychopath is her ''other'' son, who was hideously mutilated and driven insane during the course of his search for the black orchid; and, no longer being one of TheBeautifulElite, was [[MadwomanInTheAttic shut away in the disused corridor]]. But it's all good, as the Doctor and Lord Cranleigh decide to go up and rescue Nyssa -- and in doing so, cause our "misunderstood" villain to hurl himself from the roof to his death.

* ChekhovsGun: Never fired. The mole Ann Talbot has on her shoulder (Nyssa doesn't have one) is set up to be a plot point and then is never mentioned again.

** After the cricket match, Cranleigh says the Doctor's performance was "worthy of the Master". Cue a concerned look from the Doctor. Cranleigh is actually referring to the famous cricketer W G Grace, who was in real life nicknamed "the Master".

The second serial by writer Terence Dudley, "Black Orchid" is nine-tenths SceneryPorn and FanService and one-tenth the plot for said SceneryPorn and FanService. Also, it's the first two-part story in ''Series/DoctorWho'' since [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment "The Sontaran Experiment"]] in 1975: much like how that one's length was the result of a staff effort to pare down the amount of stories over four parts, this one was the result of Creator/JohnNathanTurner doing away with longer stories almost completely. He wasn't a fan of six-parters even after they were limited to one per season during Creator/TomBaker's run, and wholly did away with them once he took over as producer (coincidentally one season after the six-part [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada "Shada"]] was scrapped due to a workers' strike), choosing to instead experiment with different story lengths. The two-part structure of both this and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E2TheAwakening "The Awakening"]] would be products of those experiments.

The second serial by writer Terence Dudley, "Black Orchid" is nine-tenths SceneryPorn and FanService and one-tenth the plot for said SceneryPorn and FanService. Also, it's the first two-part story in ''Series/DoctorWho'' since 1975: producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner didn't like the six-part stories that had been common up until this point, and was experimenting with different story lengths.

This serial first aired March 1-2, 1982.