Part of the "lost" season 23, "The Nightmare Fair" is a story that might have worked a lot better on television. I've read the novelizations of the story years ago, but it faded in my memory. So hearing this was almost like a new story though with a big of nagging feeling that I'd heard bits of it before.

Picking up right after "Revelation of the Daleks," "Fair" finds the Doctor and Peri heading to Blackpool for some recreation. But since this is the Doctor, things don't go entirely as planned and the Doctor meets an old foe who's been waiting for him with a new trap.

Written by Graham Williams, the story tries a bit hard to be funny and that may be its weakest point. Also, a lot of the second episode is various people locked in a room and debating things. There's a reason that the production team decided to start over when season 23 was finally given the green light and I can't help but feel that a lot of it was the limitations that "Fair" has. It's an interesting return of an old foe (though one that would have thrown most viewers for a loop since it was a call back of 20 plus years), but it feels padded even at two 45-minute episodes. ( )

the plot doesn't make a lot of sense, the Toymaker's own problems are puzzling and his fate rather incomprehensible, and I just couldn't really care what was going on. ( )

3,0 ( )