‘NIGHT FLIGHT TO NOWHERE’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Heathrow Airport and the Master with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan… Wait!
Yeah! The final story of the 1983 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ is the most bizarre and intriguing entry of all. It features the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan going to Heathrow Airport where they confront the Master and stop his evil plans. That sounds remarkably familiar to the Season 19 finale ‘Time-Flight’.
There is a difference in this story though. The Master doesn’t transport the plane back in time to the prehistoric age. Instead, he tries to send the plane into a bright red gash in the sky. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan save every passenger by getting them in the TARDIS before they all leave the plane.
The Master also uses androids disguised as stewardesses. One of them happens to be Tegan’s friend Julie Harris. The Master also looks a lot like Roger Delgado instead of Anthony Ainley in the pictures for this annual story. I’m not sure why this Master was chosen for this story, but it is intriguing to see.
The biggest concern of this story is that Tegan returns to Heathrow Airport a second time after TV audiences have seen her return in ‘Time-Flight’. This confused me, since I don’t know whether this story takes place before or after ‘Time-Flight’. No clarity is given concerning the story’s placement. 😐
Mind you, Nyssa did meet Rutans in ‘Prisoners of Time’ before she met them in ‘Castle of Fear’. And Tegan met Sontarans in ‘Prisoners of Time’ before meeting them in ‘Heroes of Sontar’ and ‘A Fix with Sontarans’. Nyssa also rode a train in ‘Empire of Death’ before she rode one in ‘The Railway of Time’.
So, I’m going to take a guess and say that this annual story is set before ‘Time-Flight’ and a retcon occurred. I’m sure there are other stories I would need to check to confirm that, but it’s the best theory for me to go along with. Mind you, ‘Doctor Who’ continuity gets messed up a lot in all its forms.
In the ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’ audio collection, there’s an audiobook version of this story read by Geoffrey Beevers, who plays the Master in ‘Doctor Who’. I enjoyed Geoffrey Beevers’ reading of the tale. Mind you, he doesn’t exactly recreate Roger Delgado’s Master in this adventure.
A thing I’ve noticed when revisiting ‘Night Flight to Nowhere’ on audio is that Nyssa and Tegan don’t comment on the Master looking different compared to how they see him as Anthony Ainley. I wonder if Anthony Ainley was meant to be the Master here before Roger Delgado was used instead.
After ‘Night Flight to Nowhere’ in the 1983 ‘Doctor Who Annual’, there’s a feature about ‘Black Holes’. It’s interesting how these ‘Doctor Who Annuals’ present scientific features in-between stories. I don’t think they’re as intriguing as the stories themselves, but they offer educational value.
Overall, the 1983 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ has been an enjoyable and intriguing mixed bag for me. The stories ‘On the Planet Isopterus’ and ‘The Haven’ stand out for me. The continuity is vague in terms of the stories’ placements, but like any ‘Doctor Who’ story in any medium, they’re open to interpretation.
I’m glad I’ve read the 1983 ‘Doctor Who Annual’ with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan, as well as Adric in the one comic story it has. The annual isn’t the best collection of stories for me, but I’m glad I braved through it. I’m hopeful the stories’ placements in ‘Doctor Who’ will be clarified someday. 😀
‘Night Flight to Nowhere’ rating – 7/10
‘Doctor Who Annual 1983’ rating – 7/10
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