When I first saw Masque of Mandragora twenty-plus years ago, I have to admit the resolution of the story confused me a bit. Part of it was the week before I hadn’t set my tape long enough and I’d underrun taping Seeds of Doom so I was suddenly vitally aware that Doctor Who stories could run up to six-parts and was always on the look out for the next six-part story. (This was pre-Internet and before I’d found my copy of The Programme Guide).

So, I have to admit as I watched episode four and the scene shifted to Mandragora consuming the moon, I figured we were in for another six-part story because I had no idea how the Doctor could disperse the Helix energy and defeat the cult in just six minutes. I watched it all unfold and when it wrapped up with the Doctor revealing he’d taken Hironymous’s place, I was a bit confused. But I was much younger than I am now and figured I’d just missed something.

Twenty years later, I’m still looking for that something.

Watching Masque again, I’m always impressed by how good the first three episodes are, but how rushed and disappointing the final episode turns out to be. The story is an interesting blend of historical drama with sci-fi elements. It’s at its best when concentrating on the period elements, especially the court drama of Guiliani and his uncle. The struggle for power and the back and forth is nicely done over the course of the first three episodes. As usual, Doctor Who shines when its re-creating an historical period.

The elements that don’t work are the Helix energy’s plan and why it’s chosen this time in history. The script tries to give us some idea as to why this time and place were chosen, but it never seems authentic. It feels almost forced at times and like the writing staff couldn’t find a good way to tie this whole thing together, so here’s the best explanation we could come up with. And from a script editor of Robert Holmes’ calibre, this gaping plot hole is too huge to overlook.

Also, the fourth episode makes little sense in how the energy is defeated. The Doctor uses some wire to do… what exactly? He uses the armor because…? He defeats Hironymous how exactly? And then the final scene with the energy… huh?

Like I said, a shame really. Because before all of this, the story was quite good.

It’s interesting to see Masque as the start to what is (arguably) one of the greatest seasons in Who’s run and probably the greatest season by this production staff. The show is finding a stride here and it’s obvious in Mandragora. Looking back, this is the start of a ramp-up to greatness the show will experience in the later stages of the season. It’s not a stumble, but you can see the show slowly getting up to speed.

So, taken for what it’s worth Masque is good but not great. It’s worth seeing and it’s got the production crew working like a well-oiled machine. It’s just the script itself that is lacking…