They always have a cunning kind of plan, to recover and extract the soul of man, eyes and ears are everywhere, place a foot out if you dare, don't be fooled, because they really do not care.
3 Reviews
The P45 Return Route...
Xstal5 July 2022
Death and Taxes
A_Kind_Of_CineMagic13 January 2015
Review of all 4 episodes:
This story is an adventure which is a political satire of tax, greedy capitalism and bureaucracy. It is full of comedic moments and underlying witty observation. It is written by the great Robert Holmes and this is also very sadly his last story as Script Editor. His time in that role saw the most consistently great quality of any era and his talent as both writer and script editor are second to none. Despite the push to move the series towards lighter, more comedic content and away from horror and darkness, Holmes cleverly manages to make this story comedic whilst maintaining some darkness and intelligent, sharp witted edge.
I agree with many observations I have read over the years that this story is an attack on greedy capitalist extreme right-wing politics and on bureaucracy. This is shown in the obsequious Gatherer and the clear extreme capitalism of the villainous wealthy overlords with oppressed workers paying taxes to fund the sheer greed of the elite until the downtrodden workers unite against them. It works very well indeed both as sheer fun entertainment and as an amusing satire.
The Doctor, Leela and K-9 arrive in a future Pluto colony controlled by wicked tax collectors who control and oppress the hard working population, exploiting them completely and secretly sending the profits to their unknown alien masters. The Doctor shakes things up.
There are numerous clever tax linked jokes such as names of corridors being tax form titles and the silliness and cruelty of aspects of the system are successfully made fun of. There is much enjoyment to be had in this adventure and there are some serious points made too. The first two parts are excellent and slightly stronger than the final two parts but it is all high quality and good fun. An example of when humorous stories can work very well. I cannot say the same for the adventure which followed next when the departure of Holmes was made immediately noticeable. It is such a shame he left. Thankfully he wrote stories from time to time but his loss at the helm hurt the series consistency and diminished its grown up qualities.
Parts 1 & 2 - 9.5/10, Parts 3 & 4 - 9/10. Overall - 9.25/10.
This story is an adventure which is a political satire of tax, greedy capitalism and bureaucracy. It is full of comedic moments and underlying witty observation. It is written by the great Robert Holmes and this is also very sadly his last story as Script Editor. His time in that role saw the most consistently great quality of any era and his talent as both writer and script editor are second to none. Despite the push to move the series towards lighter, more comedic content and away from horror and darkness, Holmes cleverly manages to make this story comedic whilst maintaining some darkness and intelligent, sharp witted edge.
I agree with many observations I have read over the years that this story is an attack on greedy capitalist extreme right-wing politics and on bureaucracy. This is shown in the obsequious Gatherer and the clear extreme capitalism of the villainous wealthy overlords with oppressed workers paying taxes to fund the sheer greed of the elite until the downtrodden workers unite against them. It works very well indeed both as sheer fun entertainment and as an amusing satire.
The Doctor, Leela and K-9 arrive in a future Pluto colony controlled by wicked tax collectors who control and oppress the hard working population, exploiting them completely and secretly sending the profits to their unknown alien masters. The Doctor shakes things up.
There are numerous clever tax linked jokes such as names of corridors being tax form titles and the silliness and cruelty of aspects of the system are successfully made fun of. There is much enjoyment to be had in this adventure and there are some serious points made too. The first two parts are excellent and slightly stronger than the final two parts but it is all high quality and good fun. An example of when humorous stories can work very well. I cannot say the same for the adventure which followed next when the departure of Holmes was made immediately noticeable. It is such a shame he left. Thankfully he wrote stories from time to time but his loss at the helm hurt the series consistency and diminished its grown up qualities.
Parts 1 & 2 - 9.5/10, Parts 3 & 4 - 9/10. Overall - 9.25/10.
A poor attempt at satire.
Sleepin_Dragon14 October 2019
The Doctor is in the hands of the security services, leaving Leela to fend for herself against the band of rebels.
Richard Leech and Henry Woolfe as so irritating as the collector and Gatherer. I don't care for either, or any of the guest cast, not because the performances are bad, or that anyone is anywhere near a bad performer, it's the writing that's at fault. The show is at its best when it's horror or action, this is pure political satire, that poked fun at the economic state of the country at the time, it feels like an in joke, that would have alienated many viewers. If it was well done, it would have helped, but it feels like some are sending the show up.
I, personally don't like it, but I know that many fans love it, I will say I think Louise Jameson is awesome, I know it's a story she loves, and rightly so, she's commanding, trouble is she's badly supported.
Lots of jokes about the tax man and p45's, I just don't enjoy it, I wish I could. 4/10
Richard Leech and Henry Woolfe as so irritating as the collector and Gatherer. I don't care for either, or any of the guest cast, not because the performances are bad, or that anyone is anywhere near a bad performer, it's the writing that's at fault. The show is at its best when it's horror or action, this is pure political satire, that poked fun at the economic state of the country at the time, it feels like an in joke, that would have alienated many viewers. If it was well done, it would have helped, but it feels like some are sending the show up.
I, personally don't like it, but I know that many fans love it, I will say I think Louise Jameson is awesome, I know it's a story she loves, and rightly so, she's commanding, trouble is she's badly supported.
Lots of jokes about the tax man and p45's, I just don't enjoy it, I wish I could. 4/10
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