Indrid Mercury wrote:More focus on the after effects of Adric's death (Not have it dominate the episode like NuWho but not have it crassly dismissed as it was).
Have Khalid NOT be the Master in disguise.
Tegan leaves for good at the end.
I would pretty much agree with all of that.
It strikes me as very odd that the aftermath of Adric's death wasn't even played into the adventure in the most obvious way. Namely a mourning Tegan being so upset that it becomes the catalyst for the Doctor to bring her home and land them at Heathrow as she wishes, because she's not sure she wants to go on with the adventure. Why there was even the talk of visiting the Great Exhibition instead baffles me, since it doesn't even play into the plot we got.
RTD actually suggested they could've just done a brief visit to prehistoric Earth, to the crash site and built a little monument to him, if they wanted to do something practical and affordable. And that actually got me thinking how cool it would be if at the end of the ceremony, suddenly they look up in the sky and see Concorde descending.
I would likewise definitely have preferred them not to bring back the Master here, and for Khalid to have been his own original villain. If Ainley was contractually obliged to be here somewhere, I would just have used him as one of the cameo illusions Tegan and Nyssa have to face. The Master should've either remained vanquished for good in Castrovalva, or he should've only been brought back for the special occasion that was The Five Doctors (where at least there would be an explanation for his return via time scoop).
But if he really *had* to be here, I would want at least some decent explanation of how he survived Castrovalva. Maybe even a flashback in which it's revealed that the Master we thought we saw being torn to shreds was just another illusion like the Castrovalvans. Otherwise it just feels like anything can happen or unhappen on the producer's whim, any resolution can be undone, and so there's no reason to care.
Likewise I would want his final defeat and the victory and liberation of the Xeraphin to be something we actually got to see rather than being simply assumed and exposited by the Doctor. And it would've been easy enough. Just a scene in the Master's Tardis after he's hit with the Doctor's time ram, in which the Master's floored by the impact, his weapon scatters out of his grip and then we get a POV shot as the Xeraphin starts to emerge and tower over him.
Corny perhaps, but it would've at least been something.
One other headache I would definitely change is that I would at least have had one line explaining that it was the Plasmatons that helped guide Concorde's flight down safely and cushioned their landing. At least that wouldn't be as insulting as we got.
Also, it might've helped if during the scenes of the brainwashed passengers and crew, we actually occasionally were made privy to their perspective and they shared illusion, and show them in the airport bar or lounge like they believe, whilst their co-workers are trying to convince them otherwise and to snap them out of the spell.
Tegan should've stayed gone, I agree. Apart from being a headache of a character, I don't think the show could really do both the death of Adric, and follow it up with a companion being given the option to leave for good and return to a normal life, and decide she wants to come back to that dangerous life anyway.
It seemed no-one in charge was even thinking of whether those two creative decisions could go together without being at loggerheads.
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