Directed by Michael Ferguson
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Liz - Caroline John
The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
Sergeant Benton - John Levene
Main Guest Cast-
General Carrington - John Abineri
Ralph Cornish - Ronald Allen
Reegan - William Dysart
Lennox - Cyril Shaps
Synopsis-
The Brigadier is monitoring the return of a Mars probe upon its return to Earth. No contact has been made with the craft for months. After docking with the probe, Space control loses contact with the astronaut aboard the recovery craft. Shortly after losing contact, an unexplained siren-like noise is heard at Space control.
The Doctor deduces that this is a communications signal. A reply is sent by someone on Earth, which the Brigadier and UNIT are able to track. The device used to make the reply is destroyed, however by those using it.
The recovery probe is returned to Earth via remote control. Three astronauts are aboard, but are kidnapped by Reegan and his henchmen. These astronauts are taken to a remote location, where they are kept prisoner. The astronauts, however, feed off of radioactivity in order to survive.
Cornish, the head of Space Control, makes plans to send up yet another recovery ship, this time with The Doctor aboard despite the objections of General Carrington, who is head of space security. Having arrived at the Mars probe, The Doctor discovers an alien ship as well. The Doctor boards the alien craft and meets with the aliens, who demand the return of their ambassadors in exchange for the three astronauts, who are just fine aboard the alien ship.
Meanwhile, Liz has been kidnapped by Reegan and is forced to help with monitoring the "ambassadors" in the astronauts suits. Liz is able to arrange for a fellow scientist named Lennox to escape under the pretense of needing more radioactive isotopes for the "ambassadors". Lennox makes his way to UNIT, but is killed while at UNIT headquarters.
The Doctor returns to Earth, but is kidnapped by Reegan. The Doctor is taken to where the ambassadors and Liz are being held. We learn that Reegan is working for General Carrington, who made contact with the aliens on an earlier Mars mission. Carrington fears the aliens and want to destroy the alien ship, feeling that it is his "moral duty". Carrington intends to make a worldwide broadcast, where he intends to reveal the alien's true identity. The Doctor and Liz, however, are rescued by the Brigadier and UNIT.
With the help of the ambassadors, the Doctor foils Carrington's plans. Cornish is then able to arrange for the ambassadors to return to the alien ship, in exchange for the astronauts.
Review-
One of the problems is trying to deal with present-day, or near-future stories is that the real future nevers works out quite like what's imagined. One example of this is Back to the Future Part II. In that film, it was presented that we would have flying cars by 2015. While we haven't quite reached 2015 yet, the likelihood that we will have flying cars is unlikely (not to mention the Cubs winning the World Series, though I suppose that's still possible).
The Ambassadors of Death also has to be taken with a grain of salt, because according to Ambassadors the UK had a space program in the 1970's that was able to get manned missions to and from Mars. Since we still haven't sent a manned mission to Mars as of 2013, this makes the story pretty far-fetched. Then again, some of the events of the New Series, had they happened in real life would have been front-page news around the world.
The best way to look at present-day Doctor Who is to assume that the Earth of the Doctor Who universe is similar but not quite the same as the real world universe. In the Earth of the Doctor Who universe, the UK did have a space program and was able to arrange manned probes to Mars in the 1970's.
I have read from various sources that the Ambassadors of Death was originally written as a Second Doctor story that was adapted to fit the Third Doctor and UNIT. I can see this, this time with Space Control taking the place of what would have been the usual remote base that would have appeared in the typical Second Doctor story and the "ambassador" astronauts filling the role of monster of the week.
Because it was originally intended to be a Second Doctor story, the Ambassadors of Death simply doesn't make for a great Third Doctor/UNIT type story. Ambassadors of Death has its moments, especially watching The Doctor, Liz and even the Brigadier outwit General Carrington and his itchy trigger finger. For the Brigadier, this is quite a change, since in the previous story with the Silurians, it was the Brigadier who had the itchy trigger finger.
The color restoration that was done on the episodes for the DVD is a bit of a mixed bag. The first time I watched this, I wasn't aware that a color restoration had been done since I had never seen this episode until the release of the DVD in 2012. I had a suspicion while watching Ambassadors for the first time that the color was done via restoration of some sort, and after watching the story, I checked and my suspicions were confirmed. One can tell that it's restored color but it does look miles better than some color restorations that I've seen, which is saying something since I'm generally not a fan of color restorations.
Ambassadors was an improvement over Doctor Who and the Silurians, and the Brigadier makes a much more sympathetic character in this story. The biggest issue, I think, for many modern day viewers is the need to suspend ones' beliefs and accept that the United Kingdom had a viable space program in the 1970's and that such a program was also capable of launching successful manned Mars missions. If one is able to get past this issue, the Ambassadors of Death can be quite entertaining.
