User Reviews

Review of both parts:

I don't think this story is particularly popular among fans and I can understand why as it is rather strange and in some ways less convincing than it should be with various things seeming not to make sense. However, I personally feel it has a very enjoyable dark, magical feel and the acting, production values and the monster all are really good.

The Malus is an effective, menacing evil entity and its appearance is really well achieved. The plot of it influencing events in a village turning Civil War re-enactments to become real in order to gain psychic energy is kind of silly but somehow it does not cross the line for me and remains possible for me to thoroughly enjoy and suspend any disbelief. The story is entertaining with costumes, locations and music which add quality. The acting and characters are mostly really good with Glyn Houston, Polly James, Denis Lill etc all good standard guest stars. The dialogue is often strong and interesting.

Peter Davison is excellent and Mark Strickson is good as Turlough. There is a nicely sinister element involving Tegan that feels rather like The Wicker Man as they want to make her the May Queen. It is a rich and fascinating story, if abit flawed. I like it.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Part 2 - 8.5/10. Overall - 8.25/10.

I have to admit to being a bit of a fan of The Awakening, I get that it's flawed, but it's so weird and wonderful, that it's true off the wall sci fi. There are so many seemingly random events, the appearance of Will, the randomly appearing ghostly figures, and the bizarre behaviour of the angered natives.

The location work is terrific, it has a quality look to it, the costumes are exceptional too.

It has a much, much darker feel then any other episode this series, the scene where Tegan is made to wear the Queen of the May costume is really rather sinister in tone, and some of the dialogue from the men folk also has a more adult tone.

I love the Malus too, and all the jargon surrounding it.

A guilty pleasure. 8/10

The Doctor takes the Tardis to the sleepy English village of Little Hodcombe in order for Tegan to meet her grandfather . The village likes to celebrate The English Civil War by having a re-enactment though some people fear the re-enactments are taken too seriously . What is certain is that there's something mysterious about the Church building in the village

This is a strange mixture of good and bad . It's an inconsequential story that features some very good location filming and the idea of having an re-enactment of a historical event pushes the show in to the realms of meta-fiction . That said because it's two episodes the whole structure of the story feels compressed and rushed , a problem we often see in NuWho and in many ways you could remake this shot for shot in the new show without altering anything . We'd also get much better production values because there's nothing more certain to destroy an illusion in DOCTOR WHO than seeing giant polystyrene blocks acting as rubble in a story climax

There's also another problem and that is if you're a fan then it's impossible not to compare The Awakening to the 1971 story The Deamons since both premises revolve around a malignant dormant power at the local church reasserting itself .In 1984 The Deamons was undoubtedly considered the greatest Pertwee adventure if not the greatest DOCTOR WHO story ever so this story was on a hiding to nothing from the outset

One interesting point is a scene where Tegan is forced to change in to period dress by one of the heavies " Change in to this ....unless you want me to help you " which jars because their seems to have a very obvious innuendo behind it . . We're used to seeing the undercurrent of sex in NuWho but is certainly wasn't the case in the classic series so this scene sticks out in an otherwise unmemorable story