Doctor Who “Survival Part One”

Well, here I am with the final serial of the original series, a three-parter that features, among other things, an obvious cat puppet.

Well, let’s see how the Doctor tortures Ace to help her this time…

The TARDIS is back in Ace’s old suburban neighborhood because she was curious what her old gang was up to and the Doctor was curious what the place she grew up in was like.  However, it’s apparently the worst day of the week for that, even with there being nothing good on the telly, and there’s an issue where people in the neighborhood, many of them Ace’s friends, are vanishing without a trace.

And then the Doctor spots…a black cat.

And someone else, a man with eyes that occasionally glows green watches all this.

So, what happens is the Doctor tries to catch this cat, Ace tries to catch up with whomever she can find, and the cat sometimes is a real cat for some shots and other times is an obvious puppet whose eyes glow a bit.  We see some more people disappear, and some ex-military fitness fanatic named Patterson is bugging the Doctor and Ace about staying in shape.

However, the Doctor is so pre-occupied with the cat, he doesn’t notice Ace disappears when she is attacked by…a bipedal cheetah-person on horseback.

Planet of the Cheetahs perhaps?

And then Ace is zapped to another world from the looks of things, where that Cheetah Person is still chasing her.  One recent victim jumps in to save her, and another, a young woman Ace knows, shows up to get her out of there.

Well, this is all well and good, but can the Doctor catch that cat?  He’s sure the cat knows things somehow, and he’s the Doctor, so he’s obviously right.  He’s right enough that he gets zapped to the mystery world as well, dragging that fitness nutter Patterson along for the ride.  And since this is the final serial, we should see who the Big Bad is since there’s only two episodes left.

Yes, the man with the glowing green eyes is…the Master!

That guy never knows when to quit, does he?