Holistic Review: Not a spectacular story, but it's consistently enjoyable thanks to the Dutch location filming, an unexpectedly sympathetic villain, and a star turn for Nyssa.

When I think about Arc of Infinity, I actually get a kind of warm fuzzy. Sometimes I can't even believe this story just happened to get made, because it fulfilled one of my deepest Who-related desires. You see, overall, I'm not hugely fond of most of Davison's companions. I don't want that to be taken the wrong way - there are no companions I actually dislike, it's just that I don't get excited about the thought of a novel featuring Tegan, a comic strip with Adric, a Turlough action figure or a piece of Kamelion artwork. I like them all, but I don't eagerly anticipate things featuring them as much as I do with Davison's other two companions: Nyssa and Peri. I think the fifth Doctor works really well with these two women, and I've always been sad that his time with each of them was abbreviated, in a way. We never got to see him travel much with Peri, and during most of his time with Nyssa, Tegan dominated the TARDIS. So I'm just amazed that the production team decided to pretend Tegan was leaving, only to bring her back in the following story. And I'm even more surprised that, having chosen this course of action, they don't then immediately reunite Tegan with her friends by the middle of part 1. Instead, we get a blissful three and a half episodes of the Doctor and Nyssa travelling on their own; Tegan doesn't even show up until episode 2, after which she spends all her time in the Amsterdam subplot.

And it just gets better. Nyssa's creator, Johnny Byrne, comes back to write for her (possibly explaining why she gets to take center stage), but rather than continuing to write just her original Traken persona - which was admittedly rather more meek than Nyssa has by this point grown - he builds on the character development that Nyssa has undergone since. Here we have the same old Nyssa - sweet, considerate, composed, and willing to bend rules or even shoot people to rescue her friends - but she's been augmented with an even greater backbone, independence, authority, sense of diplomacy, and inner strength. I realized during this episode that it's very interesting to look at how self-reliant Nyssa is when she's confronted with tragedy. When the Master destroyed her father and then her entire planet, Nyssa was upset but composed and pragmatic - she had nobody in the universe to count on any more, only herself, and therefore she couldn't let herself fall apart. Instead, she squared her shoulders and got on with the business at hand. But by Earthshock, things were different - with her close friends, the Doctor and Tegan, by her side, she was free to unleash her emotions when Adric was killed. Here, Tegan is gone and Nyssa is stranded on an alien planet, forced to do nothing as her closest friend is executed for no good reason. She stoically sheds a few tears, and exhibits signs of depression, but again, she pragmatically focuses her grief into what needs to be done, rather than what she can't change.

Sarah Sutton is just superb in this story. Her only (moderately) low point is when Nyssa sees the Ergon and shrieks... as screams go, this one is somewhat woeful. Otherwise, she's given lots of good bits - Nyssa gets to shove a guard over, and then, apparently finding that unsatisfactory, she shoots three more guards with a Gallifreyan staser, uses it to threaten the entire High Council, and then does in the Ergon with its own matter converter. And she doesn't get left behind in the TARDIS. Sarah gets a fantastic handful of scenes when Nyssa decides to purloin one of the stasers and try to persuade the High Council to let the Doctor go free, by whatever means necessary, and she gives it her all to convey a rare moment when Nyssa nearly loses her composure. Her facial expressions are also great throughout, particularly when she reveals a quiet smile of pleasure (mostly related to Tegan's situation).

So, to put it succinctly, it's wonderful to finally have almost a complete story to show the potential that the fifth Doctor and Nyssa had, rather than just an isolated scene here or there. And the even better thing is that, thanks entirely to the gap between Time-Flight and Arc, we get not only short stories featuring the fifth Doctor and Nyssa, but some wonderful Big Finish audio plays. Oh, what a delight it is to hear more adventures with this pair. As much as I'd love for Janet Fielding to do some plays for Big Finish, I'm so glad that she has thus far been resistant, because it's opened the door wide for Davison to get a whole slew of adventures teaming him with his best companions.

It is nice to have Tegan back too - although I wouldn't have minded her return being delayed for a few stories! (Maybe it would have given them some time to rethink her haircut - far too short! - and new costume - far too uncharacteristic!) And as long as I'm talking about the regulars at the beginning of this review, let's discuss Davison, whose even-more-breathless-than-usual portrayal of the Doctor (which I love, in case there's any doubt) contrasts really nicely with his portrayal of Omega. As Omega, he runs the gamut from threatening to highly sympathetic, almost entirely by facial expression alone. It's a great performance. I also really like his beaming smile when he declares his entrance into the control room to be "pure luck!"

There are really a lot of good effects in this story. The effect used for the transmission between Hedin and Omega (and later for the moving column of light in the TARDIS) is interesting. I love the negative-positive effect of the Ergon's matter converter. The practical effects people and editors do an amazing job of making the Doctor's vaporization look seamless. The silvery strands of the Matrix look very cool, and seem very appropriate when you consider that the Matrix is, in its own way, a sort of web of time. The makeup folks do a great job with the gradually spreading breakdown of Omega's body.

Can I count the Ergon as an effect? It's fairly peripheral to the story (why was it even included, I wonder, aside from the standard "we must have a monster" clause?), so I feel justified in doing so. To be honest, it looks a little ridiculous (and, yes, chickeny), but I really like the multiple eyes and the ribcage-style front, so it's sort of... ridiculous in a creepy way. Or perhaps I should consider it to be costume design... in which case I will now mention Thalia's dress, which looks quite medieval, and Damon's uniform, which nicely mirrors the design on the Doctor's sweater. The only other effect that isn't entirely successful is when the Doctor and Nyssa's slo-mo run from the console room is sped up to normal speed (because the actors have to start interacting with the video effect, and that would look silly in slo-mo). Because the image hasn't actually frozen, Davison and Sutton must pretend to be competely still, which unfortunately results in both of them wobbling a little bit.

Sound effects fare well, notably the awesome blippy noise of the matter converter that perfectly matches the visual effect. I'm not effusively fond of the incidental music... it's nice enough, but not really distinctive or especially complementary with the story. There is an interesting bit, though, when we spot Tegan at the airport. It's a nice little joyful melody in amongst the sinister parts, and amazingly, it's not Tegan's theme! Hooray for inventiveness (although themes do have their place).

A couple of directorial touches that I liked - the handheld camerawork when Talor is killed (eerie) and the shot composition when the Castellan reveals his suspicion about the traitor to the members of the High Council (visually interesting). So, some kudos to Ron Jones there.

In the villain corner, we have Omega, who goes through most of the story as blah-blah-bluster-blah, but at the end he's quite a revelation. The whole idea behind the story is an interesting one - a Time Lord sympathetic to Omega's cause, feeling that Gallifrey has abandoned him, agrees to help him gain corporeal existence in the normal universe. It's all done for the noblest of reasons, but through very ignoble means. When Omega finally succeeds, does he set out to conquer the universe? No. He kills a man - so he is a psychopath and therefore a danger to the universe - but he spends his first hour of life smiling at children, watching puppet shows, and admiring the beautiful scenery of Amsterdam. Granted, there's no guarantee that he would not eventually have tired of ordinary life and developed greater, and deadly, ambitions - but there's equally no guarantee that he would have used his newfound existence for evil. It makes him almost likeable, and certainly piteous. It's really only his instability that makes his execution unavoidable, and that doesn't make it any less of a shame. So, I have to say that this was a really excellent use of a returning character, and a great way to honor a classic villain - Omega was really used to much greater effect here than in The Three Doctors. Ian Collier turns in a good performance, but it's really Peter Davison who's responsable for Omega's most successful moments. It turns this story from what could be a soulless runaround into one with a surprisingly human center.

As for other characters, well, that's where this story kind of falls flat. Most of them, alas, just aren't all that remarkable. Happily, there are a number of very competent actors - it's always nice to see Michael Gough, who makes Hedin likeable and sympathetic, and I enjoyed Elspet Gray as Thalia. Andrew Boxer made Robin memorable, although I think a lot of that is due to his distinctive voice (which sounds perfectly unremarkable when he's yelling, interestingly enough). And then of course there's the startling (in retrospect) performance by Colin Baker as Maxil, who seems just like the sixth Doctor, only less lighthearted. I half wonder if the sixth Doctor wasn't doing undercover work on Gallifrey, except it's probably not very likely that he would have been able to assume a completely new identity on Gallifrey, of all places, where everyone has known everyone for multiple regenerations. There is one guest actor in this story who really stands out for me, though, and that's Maya Woolfe as the receptionist. Her performance is so completely naturalistic and so well-nuanced that she almost seems to be in a different league from the rest of the guest actors, who are all pretty clearly acting.

Of course, this story is noteworthy for its use of location footage. Distressingly, I don't think it was done anywhere near as well as the last time, in City of Death. All we really get to see of Amsterdam are some generic streets and some generic (albeit lovely) canal bridges. I can't say that I really got a sense of the local culture, unless puppet shows are an integral part of Dutch society. Still, the foreign filming does add a nice touch of atmosphere, and as long as it wasn't any great expense, sure, why not film in the Netherlands? It's an interesting choice of locale. And, the more I think about it, it really would have been a little odd if the Doctor had raced past all sorts of major Amsterdam landmarks. Setting it in the side streets of the city actually makes it seem a little more realistic. It's not like the Doctor's always fighting battles around landmarks in England, or alien planets. Still wouldn't have minded seeing more varied scenery, though.

One thing that does disappoint me a bit is that the first two cliffhangers in Arc of Infinity aren't all that great. I mean, they're not bad, and the cliffhanger to episode 2 does give Sarah Sutton a chance to out-act everybody by looking desperately pitiful, but the first two cliffhangers both rest on our assumption that the production team will actually kill the Doctor, and of course we're not going to fall for that. Happily, thanks to the intrigue involving Hedin and the villain's unmasking (not literally, of course), the third cliffhanger does get a bit of a lift, but I have the feeling that more could have been done here. But this is a minor point.

It's a shame the title is so peripherally related to the story. It's a very cool title, but the Arc of Infinity has practically nothing of any relevance to do with the actual goings-on. Nevertheless, I think the basic idea of the story is a great one, and one that in the context of the series really deserved to be told.

Minor points:

• Let's start things off with a quote that made me go "huh?!":

  Colin: "The Dutch are a very civilized race! They don't put people into prison just for losing a passport."

  The Dutch race?!

• The first of my mishearings in this story. Robin actually says "central".

  Robin: (re: the night's accommodations) "Not the most appealing, but sensual and very cheap."

• It's kind of sad that, if you pay close attention, you can figure out in the very next scene who the traitor is. From the light showing through his collar, he's clearly wearing orange robes. How many Time Lords do we see in this story wearing orange robes? Exactly one: Hedin. But what's up with the voice modulation? Was it a side-effect of the transmission into the anti-matter universe?

• "We're spending the night there?!" wails Colin, as Robin points to what appears to be a large and lovely house.

• A quote that receives a lot of mocking criticism:

  Talor: "Good evening." (A weapon is pointed at him; he regards it curiously.) "Impulse laser?"
  Impulse laser: "Zap!"
  Talor: (dies)

  Sure, yeah, you don't ordinarily spend the last moment of your life speculating about the type of weapon that's about to kill you. But I think it's pretty clear from John Collins' performance that Talor doesn't expect to be shot. He probably just thinks Hedin is holding up some gun he found discarded in the corridor, or something.

• From the "committee against naturalistic dialogue" file:

  Colin: "I find this place spooky."

  He's right, though; the crypt scenes are pretty freaky.

• I know I'm being influenced here by a tongue-in-cheek review I read someplace, but it is kind of funny how obsessed Robin is with getting Colin to strip down before going to bed. (a "sensual" place to sleep, indeed!) But, oh, Colin, those chartreuse socks? Please, no! Robin should have asked you to take those off.

• The glass of juice that Nyssa brings the Doctor is very cool, with the straw winding around the outside - but why doesn't he drink from it? He just studies it for a moment, then sets it on the TARDIS bedside. That wasn't very thoughtful, after Nyssa went to all the trouble of getting it for him.

• In the airport, Tegan asks how Colin is, and Robin gives her a very evasive answer, implying that Colin is in fact not all right. Amazingly, rather than getting worried or suspicious, Tegan just looks a bit confused, then shrugs it off and picks up her luggage!

• I'm pleased that Nyssa gets to visit Gallifrey - I always appreciate it when a companion that I really like gets to be involved in something iconic from the series (which is why it's also nice that, for example, both Nyssa and Mel have now officially met the Daleks, thanks to Big Finish).

• The situation on Gallifrey really does seem terribly unfair. The Doctor hasn't done a single thing wrong, but he's being sacrificed just because the Time Lords can't think of another way out of their situation. I suppose it's understandable, but it still feels incredibly unjust.

• It's interesting that Hedin appears to be the Doctor's only real ally on the High Council. While this makes him more likeable, it should also make him more suspicious - after all, it wouldn't be such a great shock if the Castellan or Thalia turned out to be the traitor. But Hedin?! So we should have seen it coming a mile away.

• Yay, talk of both Leela and Romana! I always find this sort of thing immensely gratifying, although I'm sorry there wasn't a way to work Leela into the plot. Then again, maybe I'm not. It probably would have made people dislike this story (even more?).

• It's kind of funny that Nyssa really isn't a very good actor. When Maxil bursts into the room as they're discussing plans, the Doctor abruptly switches tack and remonstrates Nyssa: "Well, Nyssa, that's my final word. No appeals. We must accept the decision of the High Council. Understood?" Instead of playing along, or getting teary-eyed, or at least giving him some sort of answer, Nyssa just stares at him!

• The Castellan says that "the destruction of a Time Lord" has only happened once before - but what on earth is he talking about? What Time Lord was destroyed? Is this supposed to be a veiled reference to Omega? Or is he talking about Morbius? Or someone else?

• I love how, when Nyssa bursts into the termination chamber armed with a staser, she first points it at the Doctor, before realizing her mistake and swinging it to cover the entire High Council! Ha! But why does the Doctor tell her he doesn't want any blood spilled in his name? The gun's on stun! (right?)

• Why is it that, when villains are eavesdropping on someone else's communication, they always turn it off before the conversation ends, no matter how pertinent it is? In this instance, Hedin has just learned that Maxil is aware that the Doctor's bioscan was transmitted from Gallifrey - but rather than wait and find out exactly how much he knows, Hedin seems to think he's learned enough, and turns off his surveillance device. For all he knew, Maxil was just about to say that he knew who had done it!

• Nyssa gets stroppy with the Castellan (woohoo!):

  Nyssa: "It's a pity you weren't so concerned when the Doctor was alive!"

• The image of Tegan in the matrix, screaming in agony and then fading away, is quite frightful.

• I'm amused that the Castellan locks Nyssa up again... in the room with the stasers! Isn't that just asking for trouble? (Those Time Lords really should learn to be more afraid of sweet, meek Trakenites with gentle dispositions.)

• I always think the Doctor is done typing in the Presidential code after the first three digits, the way he declares "4 - 5 - ...4, 5... 5!" And I think "What kind of hard-to-crack Presidential code is that?!" And then he keeps going, and I feel better.

• It's also amusing that when Nyssa finds out that Tegan is involved, she looks quietly pleased - no matter that the Doctor has just informed her that Tegan is in the clutches of a horrific maniac! It's as if she's thinking "Oh, dear Tegan - if she's around, well, it must mean that we're going to save her and she'll rejoin the crew. How nice that will be, in two episodes' time."

• I like the disappointment the Doctor shows when he discovers that Nyssa's taken to carrying a weapon. It's very much in keeping with him, and understandable that he would be so surprised - of all the Doctor's companions, Nyssa's pretty much the last one you'd ever expect to start waving a gun around. (And that's why we love it so much!)

• I appreciate that when a guard fires at Nyssa, the shot only just misses, partly thanks to the Doctor's quick reflexes. It makes a nice change from villains who fire ten shots that all go wild.

• I hate that Nyssa is forced to throw away the gun. It was such a nice partnership while it lasted. It makes an amusing sound when it hits the ground, too - doesn't sound very much like a sturdy Gallifrey staser, more like a flimsy prop that breaks apart the moment it hits the studio floor.

• It's interesting, in this story - and possibly only this story? - neither Nyssa nor Tegan shows much inclination to cry out "Doctor, look!" Instead, it's replaced by the similar - but fundamentally different - "Doctor!" So, Arc of Infinity narrowly escapes a massive entry in my quotefile.

• It's surprising how often the Doctor loses his temper with Nyssa in this story, first when he asks her to "quickly!" fetch his indent kit from the TARDIS workbench, and then later when Nyssa objects to his entering the Matrix. I guess he's just extra stressed out, poor guy. I'm glad that they get more solo time later in the season so that we get more of an opportunity to see how well they really do work together.

• Tegan's very brave to risk her life and tell the Doctor so much about where they're located. How did she know Omega wasn't going to wave a hand and snuff her out? And then where would they be?

• After all these years, and all these rewatchings, and even having known about it the last few times I've seen it, I still can't find John Nathan-Turner's accidental cameo. This time I even rewound a couple of times and I still can't find it!

• I love the scene of the Doctor and Nyssa racing through the street and running into the woman with the basket of oranges. It's so nice how they both want to stop and help, and they just keep apologizing, but they know they really don't have the time to spare.

• The Ergon's gun reminds me of something... but for the life of me, I haven't been able to work out what. The only thing I can think of is one of those handheld tape label makers, but I don't think that's it. How's that for a non-comment?

• The Doctor says that if Omega reverts back to anti-matter, the result will be "the biggest explosion this part of the universe is ever likely to witness." Has he already forgotten about Castrovalva, then?

• In the crowd of people watching the puppet show, there seems to be an American boy! (either that, or a Dutch boy who really likes to wear the American flag.) That doesn't seem right. We're supposed to be showing the culture of Holland, people, Holland!

• As much running as the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan do, I'm surprised they're not panting! I suppose the Doctor really did train them to be a ship-shape crew. Do you think he knew this day would come? "One more lap around the Lake of Despair! You never know, one of these days we might have to race up and down Amsterdam, and you don't want to be winded then, do you!"

• The lovely orange-basket scene gets repeated to good effect, with Nyssa and Tegan apparently spending far too long ascertaining the well-being of a man they knock over in their headlong flight down the Amsterdam alleyways. ("He'll be all right."

• I very much like the fact that the story helps itself along here with no need to resort to technobabble or contrived circumstances. It's a fact that the Doctor and company would have completely lost Omega in the side-streets, if not for the fact that his decomposing face attracts attention, which consequently attracts the Doctor. Nicely done. And also nice in that by this point, they can use Ian Collier to play Omega again.

• The effect that the gun has on Omega is rather weird - it seems to burn him, and then he fizzes and sparks like a damaged android (apparently causing him a lot of pain), and then he just fades away altogether? Was that meant to show him utterly dissolving, or was he perhaps being returned to his antimatter universe, where he would be quite healthy again? The Doctor does mention that expelling him is an option. And it's nice that they do leave open the possibility that Omega's still alive.

• One last misheard line of dialogue: I thought Tegan said that Colin was "on his way home to prison" rather than Brisbane! Hoo boy.

• An absolutely superb quote - and a great moment in general - as the Doctor and Nyssa prepare to say goodbye to Tegan for the second time. (or, well, the first, actually.)

  Nyssa: "And what about you?"
  Tegan: "Oh, I'm indestructible. I'm fine."
  Doctor: (please go away now) "It's been marvellous to see you again."
  Nyssa: "Indeed. I've missed you. I wish you didn't have to go back to your job."
  Tegan: "What job? Didn't I tell you? I got the sack!"
  Nyssa beams and gives Tegan a delighted hug, apparently anticipating her next line.
  Tegan: "So you're stuck with me, aren't you?"
  Doctor: (oh great) "So it seems."

  Two things to love. First, the Doctor is not happy to have Tegan back - that reluctant delivery, and that more-than-just-a-hint of a frown after his last line! Ha! Oh, he's really not happy about having Tegan back on board the TARDIS, and I just love the idea that he far prefers travelling with Nyssa alone and would rather not have a loud and bossy Australian disrupting the peace of his ship. I wonder what Peter Davison's motivation for this delivery was? Was it the writer's idea? JN-T's? Or his own? And second, there's the lovely foreshadowing of Nyssa's eventual departure, when she reassures Tegan that she's indestructible too. (sniff sniff) I never even noticed that line until this viewing. Very sweet.

This is one of those stories that, surprisingly, seems to elicit a broad range of opinions - some think it's great, some think it's rubbish. I'm definitely in the former camp, if for no other reason than that the rare pairing of the Doctor and Nyssa, written in truly fine form, make this a thoroughly entertaining adventure.