Doctor Who (TV Series) Dragonfire: Part One (1987) User Reviews

Doctor Who is on fire!

[wetmars · 6/10 · 20 April 2020]

In Iceworld, a trading port on the dark side of planet Svartos, the Doctor chances across Sabalom Glitz and joins him on a treasure hunt in the frozen caverns of the planet where a dragon is rumored to resides. Meanwhile Mel and a recently fired waitress named Ace run afoul of Kane, the icy director of Iceworld, whose frozen touch means death.

This episode was okay, what I like about this episode is that Ace is totally a badass! What I don't like about this episode is just the damn writing..

A Story of Ice and Fire

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 7/10 · 6 August 2022]

Review of all 3 episodes:

Dragonfire is, in my opinion, easily the best story of Season 24.

It introduces the much admired new companion, Ace. She is a fun, strong, young, female character and is a good role model for young fans. It also is a decent little story overall, much better than the rest of the season for my taste.

We get the return of Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz and he is a charming addition. We also get Sylvester McCoy who is, as usual, entertaining and we say goodbye to Bonnie Langford as Mel.

The villain, Kane, and other cast are ok and there are no major problems really. It is still hampered by the cheesy style of this era (for example the literal cliffhanger in Part One and some over the top costumes and dialogue) so it doesn't reach the level of earlier glory years of the show in my opinion but it is mainly just a bit of fun.

It is a decent effort for this era.

My overall rating: 6.5/10.

Reasonably entertaining

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 13 November 2023]

DRAGONFIRE is a reasonably entertaining serial from Sylvester McCoy's time as the Doctor. It feels heavily indebted to STAR WARS throughout, not least in the presence of Tony Selby who plays a supporting character distinctly reminiscent of Han Solo. One scene in the first episode is a direct copy of the famous canteen sequence in the Lucas film. Otherwise, this is pretty imaginative stuff, with plenty of action and incident to stop it becoming boring. The dragon itself is disappointingly mundane, but sympathetic with it. Langford proves an irritation but the introduction of Ace is well handled, with all of the spirit we've come to expect from the character.

Dragonfire: Part One

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 18 July 2022]

The Doctor and Mel arrive at Iceworld and quickly get reacquainted with Sabalom Glitz who has a map that could lead to treasure and a dragon.

The Doctor also meets a girl called Ace who wants to shake things up with her fondness for nitro.

Iceworld seems to be run by the nefarious Kane who has a cold touch.

Despite season 24 being universally panned. The first episode of Dragonfire shows signs of a upturn in quality. There is life in the old Doctor yet.

There are nice touches such as the animatronic creature (from the makers of Spitting Image.)

Ace was a breath of fresh air and Edward Peel was sinister as Kane.

However some of the shots look cheap, it is overlit. That pointless and literal cliffhanger was a let down. Once again McCoy's acting switches to gurning.

Interesting concept, but goes downhill in a hurry...

[pfr1685 · 6/10 · 22 December 2021]

No idea why Ace and Mel would be arrested, except to provide a vehicle for their delivery to meet Kane. And the cliffhanger is literally a cliffhanger, but completely senseless. Why is the Doctor hanging over the cliff from his umbrella? No explanation what he's doing or what he's looking for. And it doesn't get cleared up in the second episode either. Could have been much better, possibly if the whole thing was a two-parter without the useless padding.

It's garish, isn't it bog brain!

[Sleepin_Dragon · 4/10 · 18 April 2018]

My journey continues, exploring the show's universally hated stories, and see if they really are that bad, here goes........

Part one, as soon as it starts, my initial memories of it looking horrendous are justified, it's tacky, garish, cheap looking and poorly lit, so before the story even begins, it's up against it. The story, somehow feels like it's wanting to be from the Black and White era, a story that would perhaps have worked with Patrick Troughton, in black and white. I think the concept is pretty good, but the execution is poor, it seems like, a frozen man who owns a fridge shop, with a dodgy cafe attached is freezing people, to build up his empire of fridge shops. That unfortunately is how it comes across, whereas the reality is somewhat different.

Ace arrives, a companion as time went on I grew to really like, in her final episodes she was complex, interesting and rather dynamic. In this opening episode she suffers badly from poor writing, in the same way that poor Bonnie did. All that 'bilge bag' and 'dog brain' stuff is just silly. The cliffhanger ranks as one of the worst, absolute tosh, made worse by the cheap set.

It's not totally without merit, and it is definitely an improvement over Delta and The Bannermen, Edward Peel is rather good as Kane, reminding me again of a villain that would have been suited to Patrick Troughton's time.

It is marginally better then I remember, but if I had to some it up in one word it would be 'tacky.'

"This milkshake, it isn't adequately shaken." Totally crap pantomime.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 24 July 2007]

Doctor Who: Dragonfire: Part 1 starts as the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) & his companion Mel (Bonnie Langford) arrive on Iceworld in the TARDIS, an intergalactic trading colony on the dark side of the planet Svartos. There they meet up with Sabalom Glitz (Tony Selby) last seen by the Doctors previous incarnation during The Trial of a Time Lord (1986) & he has a treasure map which he & the Doctor decide to follow, meanwhile Mel has hooked with with disgruntled waitress Ace (Sophie Aldred) who both promptly get arrested for blowing things up & taken to the evil ice blooded Kane (Edward Peel), back with the Doctor & he's become separated from Glitz & left quite literally 'hanging' around on his own...

Episode 12 from season 24 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during November 1987 & was the fourth & final story from Sylvester McCoy's first season as the Doctor, directed by Chris Clough this is really bad & despite being named the seasons best story in both the Doctor Who Magazine & by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society I thought it was almost unwatchable crap. This three part story was written by Ian Briggs & is even worse than Delta and the Benermen because at least that was sort of fun while this tries to be more serious & ends up being just plain embarrassing. The dialogue here is terrible especially Ace's who goes around saying things like 'wicked' & 'ace' & they really make me cringe, she of course would become the Doctors permanent companion & I think she's awful but then so was Bonnie Langford as Mel, talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire! Then there's that hilariously crap literal cliffhanger where the Doctor just decides to climb down an ice cliff with his umbrella for no apparent reason! There was meant to be a shot of him reaching a dead end but the show by this point was so poorly put together & edited that no one seemed to care that it made no sense on screen whatsoever. The character's are awful, the dialogue is terrible, virtually nothing has happened at all & the humour is just lame like an Iceworld that has a fridge freezer section, please.

Director Clough has to be blamed for what is maybe the worst cliffhanger ending in the entire series & there's no imagination here at all. There's no style, there's no energy & the whole thing is just so poorly made from the sets to the costumes to the special effects. This is just totally lifeless & not much fun at all.

Dragonfire: Part 1 is an embarrassment as there is only so much you can forgive. The whole story sucks, the character's are awful with two of Doctor Who's most irritating companions Ace & Mel in the same story (aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!) & it has the production values of a cheap end of season pantomime. So far one for die hard fans only I'm afraid.