Doctor Who (TV Series) Survival: Part Three (1989) User Reviews

Unfinished business.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 18 October 2019]

Back on Earth, The Doctor must showdown with The Master one last time.

I can't share the glowing positive reviews of others here I'm afraid, I find this a pretty ordinary send off for the great show. Midge has turned into a yuppy, and along with The Master is terrorising all and sundry.

There are a few good scenes, the bike showdown, The final scene between The Master and Doctor, and of course the final scene ever of classic Who.

Sophie Aldred is excellent as Ace, she really did go on a journey of discovery in this final season. It's such a shame her story didn't conclude.

This has been the first time I have watched Survival in years, overall I have to say it's better then I remember it being. I feel it compares less favourably with the two previous stories, Fenric and Ghostlight.

1963-1989. Did a British institution such as this deserve a better send off, I would have argued yes. 6/10

A Fine Send Off for the Classic Series

[beatnick49 · 8/10 · 15 January 2017]

As a child I grew up watching the Classic series; a combination of Sylvester McCoy originals and Tom Baker repeats. I was growing up in a lousy town at the time and to watch Doctor Who with my Dad was a great way to escape it all. To meet McCoy this year was my chance to tell him how he was an important part of my childhood. I used the chance and it felt great to do it. The DVD for this series was what I took for him to sign.

This is a fine send off for the Classic Series. It has a lot going for it. It's back to basics approach for one. This story-line is a simple horror-mystery. Just as what Doctor Who started as. Aliens making havoc on "present" day earth like many episodes of the Third and Fourth Doctors. It avoids journeys into Ace's past like the previous two story-lines. This is about solving what's making trouble and rectifying the problem.

The SFX are back to basics a well. People in Cheetah costumes and warrior clothes riding on horseback. The final confrontation between The Doctor and The Master is a simple lighting effect. That's another strength of the episode. Doctor Who was never about trying to reach the SFX heights of Star Wars or Star Trek. Sadly a number of episodes throughout the series tried to dazzle us with effects that were beyond it's reach and it showed poorly. This storyline doesn't do that. It's a Down-To-Earth approach. This puts the emphasis back on the characters and mystery. The outdoor shooting works too. If the story is going to be in a town or suburb, film it in a town or suburb. It's fitting.

It also has the Seventh maintain his opposition to violence, no matter what. It's good continuity. They established it early in his run, reminded us, kept it going, and finished with it. Anti-violence right to the end. True to character. No sudden changes. As a personal opponent of violence, I like it further.'

It also benefits from bringing back The Master as well. If you're going to finish, why not do it with a much "loved" foe. Enemies right to the end. Plus, if it's going to finish close to anniversary of the premiere, do it with a character who helped define it.

The only bad points. The use of actual horses. I'm an opponent of using animals in entertainment. Plain and simple. Was there any alternative? I don't know. Do I pretend to have one? My criticism still stands. Also, even though this is Ace's home, she doesn't have a lot to do. She mainly has short reunions with mates and calls after the Doctor.

That said this is a good farewell for the Classic Series. This story-line went back to what made Doctor Who great. There's much to love and not much to dislike. A winner.

"How fast can you run?"

[profh-1 · 8/10 · 15 November 2008]

Ace casually comments that she'd like to know what her old mates are up to, but then finds The Doctor decides to take her back to visit her old town Perivale-- where "NOTHING ever happens." But true to form, no sooner does HE show up, and he walks into the middle of a mystery that's been building for at least a month involving people disappearing-- off the face of the Earth. Before long, they find themselves on the planet of the Cheetah People, and facing not only horse-riding carnivores, but his oldest, deadliest enemy as well-- The Master. "Don't you know any nice people?"

*****SPOILERS!!!!!*****

Just watched "SURVIVAL" again tonight. Wow. I've always loved this one. My best friend once commented that it "wasn't the kind of story you'd expect to end a series with", but that never bothered me. To me, it's one of the few Sylvester stories that they kept SIMPLE enough that it didn't feel like there was a lot missing, and it actually worked well in only 3 episodes. Following 2 stories of personal "trauma", Ace for the first time looks like she's all grown up. And for the first time, Anthony Ainley was allowed to act without going completely over-the-top. He FINALLY got to do The Master "right"! --and the guy isn't even completely himself, as he spends most of the story fighting off the "possession" of the cheetah planet.

There's so many great moments in here, like when Ace finds her friends on the cheetah planet, and says, "It's good I'm here to sort you out then!" They've been stuck there for weeks, falling to pieces, she's there one minute and already decides to take charge! Even better is when The Sergeant and The Doctor fall into their trap, and she sees him hanging upside-down. Her first words to him: "What KEPT you?" The smile on her face is so big right then, it speaks volumes. She has little use for most people, but him, she really cares about.

The 2nd half of the story, it only gets better, as The Doctor realizes the danger everyone faces of becoming possessed by the planet. Everyone's on edge, wondering who'll be next-- and when Karra rides up, Ace sees her and is so happy that she's alright-- then turns, and we see SHE's become possessed! Yikes!

The Doctor follows... Ace gets more and more into what's going on, without even realizing it, until she looks at her reflection in the water, and suddenly asks, "Where'd the Doctor?" --her link with who she really is. Sophie Aldred did such a great job on this story. When he arrives, and she torn between going off with Karra or staying, you can see the conflict building up in her face. When she regains her composure, and a sadness comes across her face, then she runs to him and they hug, it always tugs at me emotionally. While it could be seen that he's "using" her, it seems to me more like he sees her real potential, when nobody else ever did, and he's been able to direct her and guide her to use her particular skills in a positive way. And it's also clear, if it hasn't been before, that he really looks on her as if she were his daughter.

Back home, I thought the little girl who lost her cat was adorable. She's so upset about "the bad cat", but somehow immediately trusts Ace and the Doctor-- even when Ace "turns" again! I think a lot of parents these days would get hysterical about their kids trusting ANY strangers that way!

When Midge turns up in black leather, it hit me, The Master's got himself a protégé! But the difference is so clear, when he tosses the guy away at the first hint of trouble. What a B******!

More conflict when The Doctor has to tell Ace to fight every instinct within her, to STAY OUT of the fight, or it could mean her life (and soul). I love how after, the first thing The Master does is once again try to steal The Doctor's TARDIS. We never find out what happened to his! Maybe it was left on some other planet, and he wants to get back there? After spending the entire story fighting NOT to be possessed, he finally gives into it completely, eagerly, even if it means his own destruction, so insane is his hatred for The Doctor. And The Doctor falls victim to it, too... good thing, it was the only thing that got him back to Earth. Perhaps before the planet broke up, The Master was able to teleport back to his own TARDIS as well?

I love the ending as they walk away, and he says, "Come on, Ace, there's WORK to do!" This is no longer the aimless wanderer who kept accidentally finding himself in trouble spots-- this is a guy who actually lives up to his title, as "Doctor" for a sick universe who goes around deliberately helping people and stopping evil. It's CRIMINAL the BBC yanked the show off the air exactly at this point.

I loved the acoustic guitar music on the cheetah planet. Really set this apart from every other WHO story. Once again, I'd have liked if somebody had done a better sound mix. There's too much dialogue that's almost impossible to make out. How can anybody screw up something so basic as that??

Maybe you can tell-- this is my FAVORITE Ace story. She started out as a character who seemed to have no hope. By her 2nd story, I'd gotten to like her. By her 4th story, I'd gotten to REALLY like her. And here, I think I can say I finally fell for her. (sigh) She deserved a LOT more stories than she got-- as did McCoy's Doctor.

Its time to stop running

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 22 June 2010]

Reunited with old chums 'Karra' ( Lisa Bowerman ) and 'Midge' ( Will Barton ), Ace becomes a kind of unelected leader for the Perivale Gang. But she too is undergoing a feline transformation. One of the pleasures of this story is the sight of La Aldred running about in slow motion, her busty substances jiggling about like...ahem...kittens in a sack. The Doctor does not know how to deal with the problem. Ace seems happy with the change-over. "I felt like I could run forever!", she tells him, a line which tempted fate and probably inspired Peter Cregeen to dump the show.

Everyone winds up back on Earth, and the Doctor challenges Midge to a jousting duel on motorbikes ( obviously a big fan of George A.Romero's cult 1980 flick 'Knightriders' ), and back on Cheetah World, both he and the Master fight it out, until the Time Lord cries: "We fight like animals, we die like animals!". That does the trick. The menace is defeated. Then it is time to go home. Ace dutifully follows the Doctor back to the Tardis, and he gives a touching little speech ( written by Andrew Cartmel ) about how 'somewhere the tea's getting cold!" followed by "C'mon Ace, we've got work to do!". Well, yes, but it turned out to be fronting a B.B.C. schools science programme.

I do not think that many viewers thought that the show would be back next year. Though no official announcement was ever made, you sensed somehow the public had had enough. These things happen. In 1990, B.B.C.-2 premiered 'Star Trek - The Next Generation'. 'The Sun' reported gleefully that 'Dr.Who' had been 'exterminated' by 'Coronation Street' ( oh ha-ha ). It would take fifteen years before it found a new home on B.B.C. Wales. 'Survival' can now be seen as the template for a lot of the Earth-based episodes such as 'Rose' and 'Fear Her' in which an ordinary world is disrupted by the arrival of an alien threat. Nowhere near as bombastic as today's season finales, 'Survival' is nevertheless a decent enough climax to '80's Who, though Keff McCulloch's music still sounds naff, that question mark umbrella questionable in itself, and La Aldred still cute.

Survival: Part Three

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 19 November 2023]

Midge takes the Master back to Perivale. With Ace slowly transforming, the Doctor sees a way to bring the rest back to London.

Only with Midge now citing the Survival of the Fittest mantra in the boxing gym. It seems the Master is aiming to make a killing in the stock exchange.

Of course the Master will use Midge to kill off the Doctor. He wants to get his hands on the Tardis. So a showdown is arranged by motorbikes.

As for Ace, she finds a soulmate in Karra. Someone who transforms into a human when Karra is killed by the Master.

It was an underwhelming finale, it was a bit of a mess actually. The Yuppie elements seemed crowbarred in just as they were going out of fashion.

The duel on motorcycles was inspired by Romero's movie Knightriders.

Even the final confrontation between the Doctor and the Master in the dying Cheetah planet was a disappointment.

With John Nathan Turner sensing that a new series would not be commissioned. Sylvester McCoy was later drafted in to give a hastily written closing speech before the end credits.

That was that. A television legend goes out on a whimper and falling ratings because of indifference from BBC executives. They never did find that next big sci fi show in the 1990s.

They had one under their noses all that time. It took a new breed of television executives and writers to mine that sci fi gold. It was called Doctor Who and it went on to become a worldwide hit!

The end of an era

[InfiniteJesterII · 8/10 · 24 June 2022]

---Review of overall serial --- Doctor Who: Survival was the last story of Sylvester McCoy's tv outing as the doctor, save for the appearances he made in the 1996 tv movie, which largely starred Paul McGann as the 8th Doctor. I have heard people liken this episode to the modern Doctor Who in style, and I kind of agree, though it still maintains the classic doctor who format and atmosphere.

This story begins in Perivale, the home of Ace, where all her friends are. We learn that there is evil here in this town, as people are strangely disappearing. The Doctor, sensing something is off about this town, and, in particular, the cats which live there, tries to trap a certain black cat, who we later learn is being controlled by the Master, being used as a set of eyes.

It turns out that the master has an allegiance with an alien race of intelligent feline carnivores, the Cheetah-People, and that the people who are disappearing are in fact being transported to their planet. On the planet, they must evade the crafty Cheetah People, or be ensnared by the hunt.

We then learn that the planet itself transforms its inhabitants, metamorphosing the people who have committed violence, and that the planet is unstable do to its nature. After Ace and one of her friends respectively hurt and kill Cheetah-People, they both begin to transform, her friend transforming fully. He is used by the Master as a link to Earth, which everyone else stranded on the planet uses. The Master then, in a climactic battle, clashes with the Doctor back on the planet, but due to his mercy and unwillingness to commit violence, he is transported back to Earth, the master seemingly left for dead on the decaying planet.

This episode is, more or less, a fitting conclusion to the show, ending with a touching monologue by the Doctor as himself and Ace walk off into the distance. Considering the people working on the episode did not know in advance that the show was ending, they did a pretty good job creating a satisfactory ending.