Adrian Sherlock 2004-05-12

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

The Fifth Doctor is the best, by a country mile, and this is a fairly solid story from his era. The fact that Gallifrey is involved always conjurs comaparison with Deadly Assassin, but apart from THAT one, most Gallifey stories are terrible! Considering the rambling tin foil epic of Invasion of Time, this is an improvement. The story also features Omega, last seen in Three Doctors. A close inspection of Three Doctors reveals that, apart from the titular trio of Doctors, the rest was pretty poor with Omega a ranting, raving loony villain in a mask.
Here, Johnny Byrne (Space:1999) contributes a story where Omega is treated in similar fashion to the space probe pilot in his screenplay for the 1999 episode "Matter of Life and Death", who also becomes anti-matter. In both cases, Byrne paints them as sympathetic characters, unable to return to their own world now they're anti-matter.
In this case Byrne evokes the classic teen horror movie with tourists encountering a monster while spending a night in a crypt. Tegan (left on Earth at the end of Time Flight), is just a regular human who is related to one of the young men and gets involved, ultimately meeting the Doctor a second time, this time joining the crew of the Tardis voluntarily and in good spirits!
Nyssa is allowed to be the solo companion (and since Tegan's possessed in the next story Snakedance, she remians so for a while, really)for most of the story and she and Davison are a great duo. The middle episodes, set on Gallifrey, are pretty standard, nothing spectacular but not terrible either. The final episode is very good, with much location film material. Omega succeeds in creating a new body and lo and behold, its a copy of the Doctor's! This allows Davison a chance to shine brightly, evoking the sympathetic side of Omega. Suddenly, joy turns to horror as the new body begins to decay in the manner of the Quatermass Experiment and Davison hunts him down, gun in hand, to do what must be done. Overall, much better than it's reputation. Not a classic, but a good honest Dr.Who story!

2003-11-29

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Considering this was made a little over 20 years ago this story remains engaging and tense. Ignoring the slightly laughable acting from the lads in Amsterdam, the supporting cast of Time Lords is impressive and the special effects are not so overpowering as to be too distracting. Definitely worth watching.

paul.nash2@btinternet.com 2000-11-08

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Arc of Infinity features good performances from the regular actors as you would expect, an excellent guest appearance by Michael Gough and the rare treat of overseas location work, on this occasion in Holland. However, some of the guest performances are a bit below par (particularly the students). For the best of Davison Doctor Who, I would recommend Earthshock or Resurrection of the Daleks first. Arc of Infinity is still quite good though, with Michael Gough making it worthwhile in particular.

2000-09-27

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Another great Davidson story. Once again the doctor returns to Gallifrey and faces Omega. This is a welcome return for Omega as we last seen him in the The Three Doctors. Excellent a must buy for Davidson fans.

2000-06-03

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

The concept for the story may have been interesting on paper: An old enemy, a return to Gallifrey, a location in Amsterdam. However, the final result is anything but interesting! The initial episode is intriguing and the interaction between the Doctor and the much underused Nyssa is refreshing, however by episode two things are going down hill fast. The return of Tegan is pointless and silly and completely ludicrous. The plot becomes increasingly tiresome climaxing in a ridiculous run around Amsterdam for most of the final episode! This could have been such an interesting story but in the end it falls well and truely flat on its face.