Let's turn the clock back to 1973 for a moment. Doctor Who is in its tenth season and all is going swimmingly. Yes, Producer Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks are trying to move on to other things (because it just wouldn't be Doctor Who any time prior to 2005 if the producer actually wanted his job). Yes, Roger Delgado (the Master, if you needed to be told) was trying to get his character killed off (tragically...)
Anyway, Whoville's resident Communist, Malcolm Hulke, was asked to come up with another Cold War parable wherein the Doctor tries to prevent Humans and reptiles from killing each other (cf. Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils). What he gives us is an abject lesson about not letting fear get the better of us. In fact, as with Silurians, the only real weak point of this serial is the ending, which was crafted as a lead-in to Terry Nation's "newest" Dalek story.
This differs from Hulke's previous work in one very important way: the introduction of a third party. Well, okay, Colony in Space and The Sea Devils both had the Master around to raise further hell, but in both cases the trouble was already started without him. This time around, he's the main instigator, which means that the reptiles are actually decent people.
And this is where the Cold War parable falls to itty bitty bits because with hindsight we know that the Soviets weren't exactly decent people. Then again, it's the Humans who have the political prisons (on the moon!) while the Draconians start a fight with almost no provocation (Viet-something-or-other, perhaps?) Given what previous directors have done with Hulke's scripts - note how both Silurians and Sea Devils are shot (and scored) as though reptilian life is the norm and these apes are just an intrusion - it's not unthinkable that Hulke, whose sympathies lay with the East anyway, cast the Soviets as the Humans this time around. And in this perspective, the age-old left-wing comment about Soviet Russia, that it was a good idea executed by very bad men, definitely applies to General Williams.
But rather than accuse Hulke of anything other than idealism about peaceful coexistence between East and West, let's divorce the serial from the context in which it was made and examine it in a modern light. Yes, the effects work is shoddy but above-average for Doctor Who. Gerry Anderson's models make all the difference. The script does seem to be oddly focused on keeping the Doctor and Jo locked up forever, but Hulke was making the point that in any situation, peaceniks are going to be sidelined by warmongers. Again, the only major complaint I have with the script involves the ending, which isn't Hulke's fault; he was told how it had to end, and the director and effects team couldn't realize it properly. A slightly minor quibble is the Doctor suddenly revealing that he's a noble of Draconia in Episode Five, which seems perfectly in keeping with Pertwee's version but no other. And when exactly did the Doctor go to a peace conference with a giant rabbit, a pink elephant, and a yellow horse with purple spots? It clearly wasn't Pertwee, who's been stuck on Earth up until now, Hartnell wouldn't have done it before the show started, and it seems somewhat out of character for the mischievous Troughton.
Whatever. The entire cast is on form here (special props to Delgado in what was unfortunately his last turn ever as the Master) and the direction, which has to shoot through prison bars and awful lot, is competent. All in all it's hard, given the logistical constraints of this story and the unfortunate benefit of hindsight, not to rank it anything lower than a 8, which as you'll see is high for a six-parter. And frankly, it's watchable. Going on to Planet of the Daleks after this is a major drag, because that story's boring. With this one, you actually want to know what happens next, which is why this is one of only three 6-parters (the other being Genesis of the Daleks and The Talons of Weng-Chiang) to get a 9.
What kicks it up into 9/10 territory for me is, again, that the lizardmen aren't actually evil. It's much easier to believe that the Draconians are sincere in their professed love of peace than it is to believe the same of the Earth-reptiles, who go around mucking things up for an episode or two before revealing themselves. The ending, of course, is a letdown. You can't blame Hulke for that, but you can blame Terry Nation, who told him to end it with the Doctor unconscious and heading for Spiridon, and the director, for making such a hash of the Ogron pillow-god that the producer elected not to use it in the final sequence, thus depriving it of a whole lot of sense.
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