The Twin Dilemma (TV story)

The Twin Dilemma was the seventh and final story of Season 21 of Doctor Who. It was the first full story to feature Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. It was also the last story to feature half-hour episodes until Season 23.

Unfortunately, this story has received an especially bad track record for criticism. Three polls in 1998, 2009, and 2014 voted it the worst Doctor Who television story ever. (DWM 265, DWM 413, DWM 474) The poll in 2003 used a different voting system and The Twin Dilemma was not among the twenty-five stories which received no votes, placing it higher than last place. (DWMSE 6)

Synopsis

A race of giant Gastropods has taken over the planet Jaconda. Their leader, Mestor, now intends to cause an enormous explosion in order to spread his people's eggs throughout the galaxy, and he kidnaps juvenile twin geniuses from Earth to work out the necessary mathematical equations. Space fighters led by Lieutenant Hugo Lang are dispatched to get the twins back, but they come under attack and Lang is the sole survivor when his ship crashes on the asteroid Titan III.

A newly regenerated Doctor and Peri become involved and help Jaconda's elderly former ruler Professor Edgeworth, who is really a Time Lord named Azmael, to defeat Mestor and free the planet's bird-like indigenous people from the gastropods' reign of terror. Azmael, however, sacrifices his life in the process.

Plot

Part one

After his regeneration following the events on Androzani Major and Minor (TV: The Caves of Androzani), the new Doctor starts behaving erratically. Peri is still shocked by the Doctor's change and has him look at his reflection in her compact mirror. The Doctor is happy with his new features and decides that he must change out of his predecessor's clothing and find a new outfit fitting his new persona. He goes to the wardrobe and starts looking for a new outfit, finding a glaring, mismatched, brightly coloured coat, to which he immediately takes a shine. Peri tells him that he could not possibly go outside wearing such an awful garb, to which the Doctor takes offence.

The two twins, Romulus and Remus Sylvest, receive a visitation from a mysterious old man called Professor Edgeworth. They question how he managed to get inside their house; he tells them he will return when their father is there, then proceeds to take control of their minds, and the trio disappear. They arrive on a spacecraft in deep space. Edgeworth then communicates with his superior, a slug-like creature called Mestor, who instructs Edgeworth to take the twins to Titan III.

In the console room, the Doctor is working at the console after dressing terribly in a mismatched outfit. Peri enters in a new blue outfit similar to her old one and asks how it looks. The Doctor responds, "Yuck", to her as she had done so to his choice in clothing. He then quotes a poem about a peri — a good and beautiful fairy in Persian mythology, but one which used to be evil. The Doctor then accuses Peri of being evil, and of being an alien spy, before rushing toward her and throttling her. He catches a sight of his own manic face in a mirror and collapses in a heap, releasing Peri. When she tells him that he tried to kill her, he initially denies he could be capable of such an act unless it is in self defence, but seeing how terrified of him she is, decides he must become a hermit on the desolate asteroid Titan III as his punishment until he is properly humiliated.

The twins' father contacts the authorities; he found Zanium in their room — a sure sign of intergalactic kidnap. Lieutenant Lang begins the pursuit and soon finds a suspicious ship previously reported missing. He tries to contact it, but it enters warp drive, something that class of ship is not designed to do.

On Titan III, as the Doctor contemplates a thousand years of solitude and Peri expresses her disapproval, they hear the crash landing of a craft. Examining its wreckage, they find the concussed body of Lang. They take him back to the TARDIS where he reveals his whole squadron has been destroyed. Believing the Doctor to be responsible, he points his gun at the Time Lord and threatens to kill him...

Part two

Peri pleads with Lang, telling him that the Doctor had in fact saved him, but he faints away. The Doctor is not keen to treat Lang, more concerned for his own life, but eventually agrees to Peri's persuasion.

Edgeworth argues with Romulus and Remus, making them do Mestor's work. He scolds them for setting up a distress signal, so they are not allowed to use electronic equipment to solve the equations they have been set. An image of Mestor appears and gives the twins a more blunt threat — work for him or have their minds destroyed.

On the TARDIS scanner, the Doctor and Peri see a building — something which has no place on an uninhabited asteroid. Leaving Lang behind, they find a tunnel which may lead to the building, but on exploring find two aliens wielding guns. The Doctor cowers in fear and pleads with them not to shoot him. They are led off and are brought before Edgeworth. The Doctor claims to be a pilgrim to Titan III, but Noma, one of the aliens, says they are spies and should be shot. The Doctor suddenly recognises Edgeworth as an old friend - Azmael, master of Jaconda, whom he last saw during his fourth incarnation. When the Doctor sees Romulus and Remus and discovers it is Azmael who has abducted them, he is disgusted. Azmael teleports away with the twins and the aliens, leaving the Doctor and Peri locked in the building. The Doctor starts to break the lock's combination, but Peri discovers Noma has set the base to self-destruct. The Doctor improvises a solution to teleport them back to the TARDIS. Peri makes a successful return, but the Doctor has not appeared when she sees the base explode on the scanner...

Part three

A glimpse of the Doctor is seen appearing in the TARDIS; he was delayed returning because he was using Peri's watch to synchronise their arrival, but the watch had stopped. The Doctor is surprised at Peri's compassion when she thought he had died.

On Jaconda, Mestor is seen putting one of the bird-like Jacondans to death for the petty offence of stealing a few vegetables. Soon, the TARDIS arrives, but instead of the expected beautiful planet the Doctor is expecting, he, Peri and Lang find a desolate wasteland covered with giant Gastropod trails. The Doctor is reluctant to go to the palace, scared for his own life, but is persuaded to take Lang there in the TARDIS. In the palace corridors they see murals depicting Jaconda's history, depicting the slugs of myth - but it appears that they are now all too real. After avoiding some Gastropods, Lang gets stuck in their slime trail.

Azmael takes the twins to his laboratory and shows them a store room full of Gastropod eggs. Mestor arrives and tries to persuade them that his aims are benevolent. Azmael begs him to stop reading his thoughts and stop Noma watching his every move. He agrees and leaves. Azmael explains to the twins that Mestor usurped him as leader of Jaconda and outlines a plan to draw two outlying planets into the same orbit as Jaconda. The twins' genius is required to stabilise those planets in their new orbit. The Doctor, leaving Peri and Lang behind, finds Azmael's lab. In a manic fit of pique, he attacks Azmael, but is restrained by a Jacondan and the twins. The Doctor apologises to Azmael but demands to know what is going on.

Meanwhile, Peri is captured by Jacondan guards and brought before Mestor. When Lang escapes to Azmael's lab and informs them what has happened, the Doctor finally shows compassion for her when he thinks she might die...

Part four

Mestor refrains from killing Peri immediately, finding her appearance pleasing. Jacondan guards arrive in Azmael's lab and seize the Doctor. The Doctor tells Mestor that he ought to allow him to assist with the dangerous operation of moving the planets, as a single mistake could blow a hole in that corner of the universe. Back in the laboratory, Azmael informs the Doctor the details of the plan to bring the planets into the same orbit — they will be placed in different time zones using time travel technology that Mestor stole from Azmael. The Doctor realises that, as the other planets are smaller than Jaconda, bringing them closer to Jaconda's sun will lead to catastrophe. The Doctor enters the egg storeroom, and is disturbed that they have no nutritional mucus. He tries to cut one open with a laser cutter; the shell is impenetrable, but the egg reacts slightly to the heat. The Doctor realises they have been designed to withstand the heat of an exploding sun — the explosion of the Jacondan sun will scatter the eggs throughout the universe. When they hatch, the Gastropods will conquer the universe.

The one remaining Jacondan in the lab collapses dead, his mind burnt out. Mestor had been using him as a monitor, and knows the full details of what has been discussed. Peri, Lang and the twins return to the TARDIS, whilst the Doctor and Azmael go to confront Mestor. When Mestor refuses to abandon his plans, the Doctor hurls a vial of acid taken from the lab at him, but a force field protects Mestor from any harm. Mestor threatens to possess the Doctor's mind and body, and demonstrates by taking control of Azmael's body. Azmael tells the Doctor to destroy Mestor's body before he can return to it, which he does with a further vial. Then Azmael, in his last regeneration, forces himself to regenerate — killing himself — and in doing so destroys Mestor. Dying, Azmael says he has no regrets and that one of his fondest memories was a time spent with the Doctor by a fountain.

The Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS. Lang has no family back on Earth, and decides to stay behind on Jaconda to assist with their rebuilding. When Peri tells the Doctor off for being rude, he reminds her that he is an alien, with alien sensibilities: "I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not!"

Cast

The Doctor - Colin Baker
Peri Brown - Nicola Bryant
Professor Edgeworth / Azmael - Maurice Denham
Hugo Lang - Kevin McNally
Mestor - Edwin Richfield
Romulus Sylvest - Gavin Conrad
Remus Sylvest - Andrew Conrad
Sylvest - Dennis Chinnery
Noma - Barry Stanton
Drak - Oliver Smith
Fabian - Helen Blatch
Elena - Dione Inman
Chamberlain - Seymour Green
Prisoner - Roger Nott
Jacondan Guard - John Wilson

Crew

Assistant Floor Manager - Stephen Jeffery-Poulter, Beth Millward
Costumes - Pat Godfrey
Designer - Valerie Warrender
Film Cameraman - John Baker, John Walker
Film Editor - Ian McKendrick
Incidental Music - Malcolm Clarke
Make-Up - Denise Baron
Producer - John Nathan-Turner
Production Assistant - Christine Fawcett
Production Associate - June Collins
Script Editor - Eric Saward
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Lighting - Don Babbage
Studio Sound - Scott Talbott
Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Title Sequence - Sid Sutton and Terry Handley
Visual Effects - Stuart Brisdon

References

Cultural references to real world

To defend himself from the criticism about his new outfit, the Sixth Doctor reminded Peri Brown that Beau Brummell was also criticised because of his look. According to the companion, Brummell had "taste, a feeling for style", unlike the Doctor. (cfr. TV: The Sensorites)
The Doctor declaims a poem whose American author - Longfellow - he explicitly mentions.

Elements

Zanium on the floor of the twins' room is an evidence for an extraterrestrial kidnap.

The Doctor

The Doctor calls the regeneration "renewal" and shows its side effects, such as violent fits.
The Sixth Doctor dismisses his previous incarnation by saying "It had a sort of feckless charm, which simply wasn't me".

Medicine

The Doctor mocks Noma about having fowl pest.
The Doctor cures the wounds of Hugo Lang with a healing beam and says it works better than the laser scalpel.

Mythology

A Jacondian myth tells that the Sun God was offended by a queen and sent the Gastropods to the planet.

Planets

Fiesta 95 is a holiday planet.
Titan III is a deserted asteroid.

Individuals

Azmael last met the Doctor in the Doctor's fourth incarnation. On that occasion, Azmael got drunk.
The Doctor states that Azmael was the best teacher the Doctor had ever had.
Hugo Lang is an officer of the Interplanetary Pursuit.

Technology

Warp drive was installed on the freighter XV773 by the kidnappers of Romulus and Remus Sylvest, since the XV class of freighter was never built for it.
Professor Edgeworth uses transmat technology.
Mestor is able to open the TARDIS' door with a green ray.
Azmael attaches green circles on the wrists of the twins, causing a selective amnesia and a form of mind control.
Azmael intends to use a tractor beam to move two planets in the same orbit with Jaconda.
Azmael subjects himself to a revitalising modulator. The Doctor reprogrammes it to work as a limited time machine.
Mestor executes disagreeable people with a green ray which wreaks embolism.

Story notes

This story had working titles of A Stitch In Time and A Switch In Time.
New opening and closing title sequences make their debut a more colourful version than the previous one, incorporating Colin Baker's face rather than Peter Davison's designed by Sid Sutton and Terry Handley. It used two different photos of the Doctor's face.
If The Trial of a Time Lord is counted as one 14-part story, Twin Dilemma is in fact, the only Sixth Doctor to feature the (at the time) traditional four part format.
The cat badge worn by the Doctor in his lapel for this story was hand-made and painted by Suzie Trevor, and purchased for the programme from a specialist badge shop in central London.
Fabian was originally envisaged as a male character, and the Jacondan Chamberlain as a female one.
The Doctor attempting to strangle Peri marks the first (and to date only) time on television that the Doctor has attempted to kill a companion (if you don't count his destruction of Kamelion as he was a robot, and Kamelion had requested he do so).
When in 2009 readers of Doctor Who Magazine readers voted on their favourite story, The Twin Dilemma came in at 200, making it readers' least favourite Doctor Who story. This dubious honour was achieved at about the same time the story was released to DVD in the UK, completing the DVD releases of the Sixth Doctor era. The previous story The Caves of Androzani was voted number 1.
While the date this story occurs is not stated in the story itself, dialogue in AUDIO: Daleks Among Us firmly places it in the year 2310.

Ratings

Part 1 - 7.6 million viewers
Part 2 - 7.4 million viewers
Part 3 - 7.0 million viewers
Part 4 - 6.3 million viewers

Myths

The Edgeworth character was originally intended to be the First Doctor. (He wasn't.)

Filming locations

Springwell Quarry, Springwell Lane, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire
Gerrards Cross Sand and Gravel Quarry, Gerrards Cross
BBC Television Centre (TC3 & TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

The uncredited person providing the service of wardrobe continuity makes an error in the first bit of episode one. After the Doctor regenerates, a smudge of mud disappeared from his sweater.
The director commits a sin of blocking. Because of where he has Gavin and Andrew Conrad sit in one scene, the actors must be awkwardly repositioned in another. When the twins are playing equations, they suddenly move about a metre apart so that they have room to turn around and face each other.
The silver computer terminal in the safe house on Titan 3 is prone to wobbling - most obviously when Peri spots the bomb and the Doctor walks away to have a look.
In Part Three, when the TARDIS arrives on the supposedly decimated Jaconda, grass and trees can be seen in the background.

Continuity

This story follows straight from TV: The Caves of Androzani.
The Doctor says, "Brave Heart, Tegan." He is addressing Peri at the time, who is confused by the injunction.
The Doctor shows towards Peri a similar distaste of the colloquial "Doc" as the First Doctor had showed towards Tegan when she used it; he even expresses it the same way: "Kindly refrain from addressing me as 'Doc'". (TV: The Five Doctors)
Seen in the Doctor's wardrobe room are:
- The Second Doctor's trousers, suspenders and coat (TV: The Five Doctors)
- The Third Doctor's velvet jacket and checked cape (TV: The Five Doctors)
- Tegan Jovanka's coat (TV: The Five Doctors) and her shirt (TV: Warriors of the Deep)
- A farcical-looking coat with many mismatched colours and patterns that the Sixth Doctor decides will be part of his new outfit, along with a cat brooch, which he starts rubbing for good luck. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos)
- Peri Brown's outfit that she would wear a short time later.
The Doctor wants to take Peri to the Eye of Orion, but he has trouble remembering the co-ordinates. (TV: The Five Doctors)
The Doctor paraphrases Sarah Jane Smith when he says "I don't know if I'm coming or gone or even been" (TV: The Hand of Fear)

Home video and audio releases

VHS Release

The Twin Dilemma was released on VHS video in May 1992, available exclusively from branches of Woolworths to tie-in with a special promotion. It was given a full release the following year.

The Twin Dilemma was released on DVD on September 7th, 2009 in the UK, 3rd December 2009 in Australia, and 5th January 2010 in North America. This was the last Colin Baker story to be released on DVD.

UK VHS cover
US VHS cover
AUS VHS cover

DVD Release

Special features

Audio commentary by actors Colin Baker (the Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri) and Kevin McNally (Hugo)
The Star Man - discussion with Sid Sutton about the making of the revised opening credits
Looking 100 Years Younger - Colin Baker discusses the Doctor's choice of fashion over the years with comedian Amy Lame, ending with a digitally altered image of what the Sixth Doctor could have looked like had they followed Baker's original idea.
Stripped for Action: The Sixth Doctor - retrospective about the Sixth Doctor comic strips
Breakfast Time: March 1984 TV interview with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant
Blue Peter: 1984 appearance by Colin Baker
BBC continuity announcements
Easter Egg- On the first page of the Special Features menu, scroll down to the "Breakfast Time" option, then hit left to highlight a hidden Doctor Who logo. Press play to see silent film rushes from the location recording of the story.
Photo Gallery - Includes unreleased incidental music by Malcolm Clarke.
Radio Times listings (PDF)

Region 2 cover
Region 1 cover
Region 4 cover

External links

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