53. Ambassadors of Death

Doctor Who does political thriller! If any episode was influenced by James Bond, it was this one. As the last two stories presented radically new formats for Doctor Who, Ambassadors of Death presents another. This time, we see the Doctor embroiled in a modern day political drama with aliens only coming in at the end. While the situation at hand is about lost astronauts, it is the machinations of humans that are the antagonist of the story.

Picking up from the end of last story, the Doctor is still smarting from the Brigadier's betrayal. We see the TARDIS console outside of the TARDIS for the first time, as the Doctor works on repairing it. Liz Shaw has another great part in this story, going toe to toe with the Doctor in the lead.

The VHS release of this story was in black and white, as that was the only format that still existed. For this special DVD release, the 7 episodes were painstakingly recolored and it looks great. As the DVD was only recently released, I haven't seen this story in several years. So it was a real treat to see this again with fresh eyes. Another classic in a classic era!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ambassadors_of_Death