The Deadly Assassin Vs The Invasion Of Time

Which of Tom Baker's two trips to Gallifrey gets your vote?

Is this even a competition? The Deadly Assassin is one of the finest stories ever made, whilst The Invasion of Time is a plodding and badly realised follow up with none of the psychological urgency, air-tight direction or superlative world building of its predecessor.

That, and episode 3 of The Deadly Assassin is utterly superb, and exceeds everything in Invasion of Time.

Deadly Assassin. Darker with excellent performances all round. Tom was well on form in this one as were Peter Pratt and Bernard Horsfall.
I never quite understood why Sarah-Jane was forbidden from going to Gallifrey but Leela could with no-one raising an eyebrow. Change in immigration policy maybe. Or maybe I am being a petty minded geeky anorak.

Bernard Marx wrote:Is this even a competition?.

Well, there are a lot of contrary bastards out there....

Or maybe I'm in an evil mood today and just want to see TIOT get the piss ripped out of it.

stengos wrote:I never quite understood why Sarah-Jane was forbidden from going to Gallifrey but Leela could with no-one raising an eyebrow. Change in immigration policy maybe. Or maybe I am being a petty minded geeky anorak.

Well I suppose the established presidency was still in effect in The Hand of Fear, until the Master & Goth sowed something of a power vacuum by killing the President without a named successor. So the rules might've been a bit in flux already before the Doctor came along, claiming the right to presidency and lording it over.

Which meant he could bring Leela because he was ostensibly in charge now, and then after the chaos of the invasion I imagine the rules were left even more in flux. The fact they were endebted to Leela and the outcasts, probably made them reverse that policy a bit at the end too.

Duh.