Episode One starts off well enough, with a spectacular special effects sequence showing a fleet of alien space craft in flight through space. One ship then lands, introducing the Dominators of the story title to the planet Dulkis and "The Island of Death", from which they drain all radiation. The Dominators make an initial threatening impression, thanks mostly in part to the costume design by Martin Baugh - a lot of harsh looking fabrics and dominating padding. In contrast, the scenes with Dulcians show that they live up their name - they are DULL, the costume design is bland; and with the exception of Arthur Cox who plays Cully, the acting is rather pedestrian.

The TARDIS lands, and the TARDIS crew emerge, with the Doctor talking up how peaceful (and dull) the planet is; thankfully they then come across a War Museum which reveals an interesting past to the Dulkans, but now that past is studied to show how far (and dull) the Dulkans have become, before getting dragged off to a research base. The Dominators discover the War Museum, and the TARDIS; the Doctor and Jamie discover the Dominator's space craft, and are confronted by the Quarks... The Quarks up until this point have only been shown through what they can see, so this appearance is rather dramatic, with their design looking rather formidable. Their 'voices', based on the laughter of Sheila Grant, are rather bizzare and memorable.

The Dominators take the Doctor and Jamie prisoner in Episode Two, and perform a medical examination of Jamie. Meanwhile, the Dulcians (bar Cully) are under the impression that the TARDIS crew are (oh boy) Dulcians themselves. It seems that the majority of Dulcians believe that there is no life on other planets (the fools). The Dominators subject the Doctor to intellgence tests, allowing the Doctor to fool them into thinking he is an idiot and therefore harmless. Any sequence where the Dulcians make up the majority of characters is rather dull and boring; I found my attention wavering on many occasions.

The Dulcians from the research base come across the Dominator craft, and are too subjected to the same tests. While the Doctor and Jamie are allowed to leave the Dominator craft and are sent to the capital, Cully and Zoe escape back to the research base just as it is being fired on by Quarks... By this stage the morals of the Dominators and Dulcians are painfully obvious - the Dominators are war-like and the Dulcians are pacifists, something they have taken to the level of being completely dull and boring.

Episode Three opens with Cully and Zoe being captured by the Quarks, while at the capital the Doctor and Jamie face the same idioticy Cully and Zoe faced in the previous episode, but finally convince them to contact the research base, seeing on the communications screen a Quark. There's no incidental music for any of the episodes of The Dominators, not even stock music, something that would have livened up the story no end.

The Dulcians and Zoe have been put to work as slave labour, as the Doctor manages to gain manual control of the transport capsule. An emergencies expert recommends that the Dulcians sit tight and wait to see what happens next (not much at all, if the Dulcians have their way - maybe the Dominators could bring excitment back to Dulkis by blowing up the planet...). The Doctor manages to land the transport capsule out of sight, and it seems that Cully cannot escape the Dulcian way, losing his chance to use a weapon and fire on a Quark. Jamie manages to destroy a Quark, in retaliation the Quarks are ordered to destroy the War Museum... At this point I'm starting to lose the will to watch The Dominators, even with Cully, Quarks, Dominators and the TARDIS crew livening up the story - it's that dull. This has to be one of those stories to watch the 'traditional' way; one episode at a time, with a break between episodes.

Rago berates Toba for his actions at the beginning of Episode Four, leading to a clash between the two. Jamie and Cully survived the attack, managing to get into an old atomic shelter. Rago prepares to visit the capital with a Quark, while Toba instructs two Quarks to start drilling - it finally looks like The Dominators is going to start moving forward, having spent the majority of the last three episodes running on the spot. Jamie and Cully escape from the shelter and successfully destroy a Quark. The Doctor finally gets an ideas as to what the Dominators are doing on Dulkis, as Rago invades the Council and issues his demands. Toba gets trigger happy in his search for Jamie, and the Doctor is next on his list... It looks like things are finally reaching a climax, which should have occured two episodes ago.

Episode Five opens with Rago returning in time to stop the Doctor being killed, and finally the reasons for the Dominator's activities on Dulkis is revealed - they plan on turning Dulkis into a lifeless, radioactive mass, ready for Dominator vessels to land on and refuel. Having escaped the Dominators (and in the process once more raising Rago's ire at Toba's impulsiveness), the Doctor is stuck for ideas until Jamie comes up with a rather neat solution - drill a hole and catch the seed device before it reaches the bottom of the bore hole. We get a run of quite impressive location sequences as Cully and Jamie conduct hit-and-run missions on Quarks in order to provide the Doctor and the others with time to drill into the bore hole.

The Doctor successfully catches the seed device, which turns out to be sealed; he sends the surviving Dulcians back to the capital, before running to the Dominator craft and placing it on board. The device explodes, destroying the Dominator craft and causing a small volcanic eruption on the island, which the TARDIS crew haven't left yet... At last we hit some solid action sequences in an otherwise dull and rather talky story, but it shouldn't been left until the final episode for things to finally get interesting and involving.

The Dominators is a rather poor start to Season Six. The script could have been cut back to three episodes without ill effect, and could have made a rather thrilling two part story if the Council aspects of the plot were dropped completely. I dread to think what a six part version of The Dominators would have been like. Director Morris Barry put together some stunning looking location sequences, and made some suitable casting with large actors for the Dominators, and some dull actors as the Dulcians. One of the worst Patrick Troughton stories, not even livened up by Troughton's brilliant performance.

4.9/10

Next time: The TARDIS takes a trip outside reality...