First Impressions: Logopolis & Dragonfire
Let’s revisit Tegan’s first look in 1981’s ‘Logopolis’. Brimming with self esteem and dressed impeccably, Tegan’s first day in her dream cabin crew function is rudely disrupted, firstly by a damaged down automotive, and secondly by a murderous megalomaniac intent on holding the universe to ransom. Whereas her Aunt is decreased to the dimensions of an motion determine, Tegan stumbles upon a blue police field and her life isn’t the identical. A voice of motive within the insanity that follows, with its entropy and block commutations – Tegan is a crucial perspective character for viewers who don’t perceive a phrase of ‘Logopolis’ both.
Whereas Tom Baker’s swansong is probably going remembered for the ‘epic’ closing confrontation between the Physician and the Grasp, earlier than the ethereal Watcher arrives to ease in Peter Davison‘s Fifth Physician, its influence is all of the higher due to the recognisable and reassuring presence of Tegan – it’s her world and the others merely exist to intervene with it.
Eight years later, Ace made her debut in 1987’s ‘Dragonfire’. Whisked away from her humdrum existence on Earth through the looks of a time-storm in her bed room, she finds herself simply as unfulfilled and dealing as soon as once more as a waitress within the buying and selling colony of Iceworld. That’s, till she crosses paths with the Physician, Mel, and intergalactic huge boy Sabalom Glitz. After dropping her job in spectacular trend, Ace turns into embroiled within the Physician’s quest for a fabled treasure buried beneath the decrease ranges of Iceworld.
The stark distinction between Ace and the pc programmer from Pease Cottage she’s going to change is highlighted nearly instantly. Whereas Bonnie Langford’s Melanie screams her lungs uncooked on cue because the monster of the story is revealed, Ace merely stares the creature down with an incredulous look on her face. Related bravado is displayed in a implausible scene the place Ace resists the temptations positioned earlier than her by the lead villain, earlier than escaping with Mel and holding off their pursuers with an explosive can of deodorant.
The prospect of this younger tearaway teaming up with an more and more mysterious Seventh Physician is just too good to withstand, and as soon as Mel calls time on her travels with the Physician, Ace seizes the chance to affix him for a visit across the twelve galaxies after which again to Perivale in time for tea.
Tegan’s Journeys within the TARDIS
It’s honest to say, throughout their time aboard the TARDIS, each characters had been put by way of the wringer by their respective incarnations of the Time Lord. Because the Fifth Physician suffers from the after-effects of his regeneration, and with Adric underneath the clutches of the Grasp, Tegan proves that if you’d like a job doing correctly… you ask a lady to do it. Or two of them in reality, as each she and Nyssa present themselves to be adept at commandeering ambulances, escaping the creation of the universe, and lugging a post-regeneration Physician round in a makeshift zero cupboard. Assuming her function as coordinator with nice gusto, and regardless of the Physician’s denial – I’d wager it was Tegan who landed the TARDIS on Castrovalva all alongside.
