Doctor Who: Time-Flight

They find the answer in the Jurassic Period, which is where the time contour that hijacked them ends. The crew and passengers of the other flight are under some hypnotic influence, all that is except for a Professor Hayter, a university scientist specializing in hypnotism who was unaffected. He thinks that the plane was hijacked by the Soviets and that they are behind the iron curtain.

The sight of a crashed spaceship, a citadel, and a grotesque-looking Oriental magician named Kalid, leads the travellers to believe there's more to their predicament.

Nyssa plays a larger role by acting as a medium for some aliens divided into good and evil halves, and there's a kind of sixth sense about her, which may come from her being from Traken. And at least Tegan finally gets to be a stewardess, having worn her uniform all throughout the season.

I can't tell more without spoiling the rest. Paleontology seems to be a weak case in Doctor Who (q.v. The Silurians, The Sea Devils). 140 million years ago is indeed the close of the Jurassic Period, but then the Doctor says they must be near the Pleistocene Era. Two goofs: he must have meant the Cretaceous Era, and second, it should be the Pleistocene Epoch, which wouldn't occur for another 138 million years after.

Some credit should be given to British Airways giving producer John Nathan-Turner permission to feature the Concorde and airport authorities giving him the go-ahead to film at Heathrow.

Occasionally, the series has some stories that don't cut the mustard, and sadly, Timeflight is one of them. The regulars come out good as usual, with worthy performances from Richard Easton (Stapley) and Nigel Stock (Hayter). The main problem, though, is the concept of two Concordes being hijacked to the end of the Jurassic Period and the bad story idea and execution.


Watchable, but nothing special   May 14, 2002
Illumination (Beds, UK)
The Doctor and his assistants track a Concorde which has been transported back to prehistoric times. This is a story which is quite watchable, but ultimately isn't anything to write home about. The story has an interesting central idea, there are some haunting moments of halucinations and feeling oppressed by a stark wilderness, and the scenes at the airport have an almost documentary-like feel to them. But the whole thing is let down by a lack of explanations later on. What exactly is the Master trying to do? And why does he need a disguise when nobody is actually there to see him anyway? Overall this is worth watching, but has no real replay value.


Forgettable   November 19, 2001
Ian D. Smith (Bangor, ME United States)
...
Lately I've tried very hard to enjoy the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who. I remember liking the flashy, stylized look when I was very young, I had no qualms with Peter Davison's Doctor or Anthony Ainley's Master, and to this day I still like Nyssa and even Tegan (to a point). But 'Time-Flight' is one of the many Davison era stories that has not stood the test of time well at all. The Doctor and crew investigate the mystery of a missing Concorde jet and find a devious plot is afoot. An excuse to film some shots at Heathrow Airport, the acting in this outing is mediocre, the story plodding and uncompelling and the visual effects and sets are too pathetic to ignore this time.
The strain of having filmed an entire season of the show before this finale is obvious as the main cast rather feebly o through the motions. References to the death of Adric are a nice touch, but cannot distract the viewer from the unexciting tasks the various characters get to perform. The guest cast fare no better, with the faceless airline crew and passengers suffering from lifeless writing as well as mediocre acting, and Ainley's Master has quite a few absurd scenes and scenery to chew embarrassingly.
The Plasmatons are unusually laughable monsters, looking like unmenacing masses of plastic sandwich bags that get to lumber and sometimes hover over Sarah Sutton. The model FX of the Concorde blend unsuccessfully with stock footage of the real McCoy, but they complement the shoestring budget wasteland sets perfectly (obviously there wasn't even money to go to a quarry this time). There are a few points of merit in the look of the 4 episodes - the early location filming at Heathrow is very good, as is much of the footage actually shot on the Concorde (which makes the transition to the studios all the more jarring). The cliffhanger ending is unexpected if odd.
Overall it's really hard to recommend 'Time-Flight' even to a die-hard Who fan. The writing is sloppy and dull, the story is highly prolonged and padded, the acting is unremarkable and location filming aside, the production values are easily the worst of the season. As a Doctor Who story 'Time-Flight' disappoints, as a season finale it does little to get the viewer wanting more, thank goodness most of the other stories from season 19 are far more interesting.


Not the best but worthwhile   September 26, 2001
Alan D. Patten III (Taylors (Greenville), SC United States)
Time-Flight may not be the best Dr. Who story ever, but it holds up better than I remembered. The main problems with it are the pretty bad special effects and the rather obvious villian which is not much of a surprise when we find out his real identity.Still it's not totaaly horrible and is good enought to earn 3 stars.


One of Who's all-time worst stories   August 14, 2001
Michael Hickerson (Augusta, GA)
If you're a fan of Doctor Who, you know to look past the often-times dodgy special effects and to look at the story within. It's the writing that often times saves Who from being a typical run-of-the-mill sci-fi TV show with bad special effects. So it's a shame really when not only the effects are bad, but also the story.

And Time-Flight is just a plain bad story.

Of course, it had some big shoes to fill--following up on the rather emotionally draining story EarthShock that featured the first death of a companion since the late 60s. EarthShock, while not classic Who by any stretch of the imagination, was very memorable Who and that made it a tough act to follow. Time-Flight failed on virutally every account. Part of it is that the story looks cheaper than usual. The story was filmed on a shoe-string budget when EarthShock ran over budget and it shows. There are some truly laughable sequences. This is one of those stories where having a good quality print and the quality of a VHS release do not help in any way.

But as I've said before--good storytelling has more often than not rescued sub-part effects in Who. Not the case here. The story is laughable at best. The plot is full of gaping holes. At one point a character is killed only to show up a few scenes later with no apparent explanation offered or attepted. In addition, the villain of the piece is painfully transparent and badly done.

Add to this that the regular cast seem bored or embarassed to be working and it all adds up to one of the bottom of the barrel Who stories. If you're a completist then go for it. But if you want to see the fifth Doctor at his best, try something like Mawydrn Undead or Caves of Androzani. Both show the fifth Doctor and Who at it's best....