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 In the life of every series, there comes a point where the production team decides to put on an "event episode." There are two kinds of "event episodes." The first, and most common, usually involves some kind of gimmick. You know the type: big-name guest stars, format changes, maybe a musical. But far more satisfying is the second type: the episodes that reveal new information, that open up the universe of the series and change it forever. These are the true "event episodes."
From the opening seconds of The Deadly Assassin, as exposition and backstory roll up the screen in the form of a Roman-style scroll, it is clear that writer/script editor Robert Holmes, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and director David Maloney fully intend this serial to be a true event.
This attempt easily could have backfired. The Deadly Assassin has several potential strikes against it from the outset. It is self-serious in a way good Doctor Who rarely is, and the script is laden with more continuity and technobabble than John Nathan-Turner's entire run. It would only have taken a few missteps, and the story would be remembered as a disaster.
But Hinchcliffe, Maloney, and Holmes have focused all their energies into milking as much suspense and spectacle from this tale as their resources will allow. It doesn't quite hold up to the end. Nevertheless, for the bulk of its running time The Deadly Assassin transcends the series' usual limitations and delivers on its early promise that "nothing will ever be the same again."
THE GOOD
Writer Robert Holmes sets a grim tone from the start, and he structures the story in such a way as to protract several sequences to their breaking point. The goal clearly is to draw these scenes out to elicit that last drop of sweat, that last thrill of tension from the viewer, before moving on.
The first episode is almost entirely made up of an extended chase scene. The Gallifreyan guards spend the entire episode attempting to apprehend The Doctor; The Doctor, in turn, spends the entire episode evading them while at the same time racing the clock to prevent an assassination.
We are also given information that both sides lack. We are told almost from the first that The Doctor is walking into a trap. Then, having been told of the trap, we are left to watch over the course of an entire episode as The Doctor falls right into it. It's a positively Hitchockian situation, and the execution of it is brilliant.
The second episode is far more standard fare, as The Doctor befriends The Castellan and puzzles out the identity of the villain and the nature of his trap. But once this exposition has been dealt with, the episode ends with The Doctor entering "The Matrix" to face his foe. Picking up from there, Episode Three becomes the story's second episode-long suspense sequence, with the whole half hour acting as a remake of The Most Dangerous Game, with The Doctor as the prey.
In this episode, in particular, Tom Baker delivers his most focused performance since Pyramids of Mars. In fact, I would have to say this one episode showcases Baker's finest performance in the series. His confusion, pain, and raw desperation are palpable. The Doctor is no all-powerful Time Lord, here. He's just a man: injured, alone, and hunted across a surreal landscape under the control of an enemy who wants to destroy him. As the chase goes on, we see Baker's face grow colder and grimmer, as he is forced to draw on the most violent part of his nature. The episode cliffhanger--featuring a freeze-frame on an attempted drowning--is only a small part of the most chilling and brutal sequence Doctor Who ever witnessed.
On the technical side, director David Maloney uses every trick in the book to stretch the thin BBC resources to keep the visual part of the story on a par with the acting and script. Dim lighting always helps disguise cheap sets, but Maloney doesn't stop by keeping it dark; he actually uses color, light, and shadow to create genuinely arresting visuals. He pays careful attention to camera placement. And in Episode 3, he transforms a typical series quarry into a surreal landscape by inventive and judicious use of quick cuts, sound effects, and camera focus and angle tricks.
There are still moments where the cheapness peeks through, of course. Technical wizardry can only stretch a tight budget so far. But in this story, these moments are few and far between.
THE BAD
For the first three episodes, I was ready to hail The Deadly Assassin as the series' masterpiece. This was obviously the production team's goal, and they worked hard to pull it off. But, as I noted at the start of this review, the story just doesn't quite hold up to the end.
After the virtuoso episode-long "Matrix" hunt in Episode 3, Holmes, Maloney, and Hinchcliffe are stuck back on Gallifrey for the final episode. They are stuck with a villain in need of a proper motive, and a story in need of an explanation.
It's all executed with the utmost competence; still, this last episode lacks the sense of real excitement possessed by the first three episodes. Episode Four is pure mechanics, rushing through exposition, plot, and explanation in order to get to the end. The sense I got from watching it was that the bits Holmes and Hinchcliffe were interested in had passed, and now they were just trying to get out of the story as fast as possible. As a result, the serial adds up to being less than the sum of its parts.
Despite my reservations about the final episode, however, The Deadly Assassin remains one of the series' best science-fiction tales. Grim, spare, and sometimes shockingly violent, this is one "Event" story that lives up to its hype.
For the most part.
Rating: 
» Review by J. Paul Halt, Copyright 2003.
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