Doctor Who The Happiness Patrol: Part Three (1963–1989) Online

Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol: Part Three starts as the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) heads off to the Forum in an attempt to save Ace (Sophie Aldred) & Susan Q (Lesley Dunlop), meanwhile the rebellion against Helen A (Sheila Hancock) & her happiness patrol grows in both size & momentum. After saving Ace the Doctor decides to take care of the Kandyman in his quest to free the people of Terra Alpha as Helen A's empire crumbles around her...

Episode 7 from season 25 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during November 1988, directed by Chris Clough I've enjoyed all three parts of The Happiness Patrol despite it's bad reputation. The script by Graeme Curry has been a pretty standard morality tale in which a repressed society rebels against it's leaders in an attempt to gain freedom of speech, emotion & thought. It's a scenario that has been used many times in the sci-fi genre & surely it's never been quite as silly as it is here but it makes for good fun entertainment & that's sometimes all your looking for in something. With a combined running time of just over 70 minutes each episode moves along at a good pace, there are some interesting ideas if not totally successful & there's even a fitting end which tries to follow up on & use the issues that it has raised. I was also a bit premature in my comment for Part Two as Fifi the mutant poodle actually survived! All three episodes apparently overran & one scene which was cut from Part Three was the actual death of the Kandyman which is a bit disappointing since he was easily the best villain here & a satisfying death scene would rounded things of nicely but another factor was that legend has it director Clough didn't actually like the scene & so didn't mind it being cut.

The Kandyman is a great Doctor Who monster & one of the better ones from the McCoy era, stop laughing I'm being serious. His costume is good & he's quite a creepy monster, surprisingly the mutant poodle Fifi for what could be called a minor character is also a nice special effect. The pipe people's mask's aren't the best though particularly their eye-sockets which obviously aren't attached to the actor's face & they end up looking like large black holes. The acting has been OK, I did like Sheila Hancock as the villainous Helen H who realises that there is no happiness without sadness the hard way. I wouldn't call The Happiness Patrol scary but there's a few horror type moments, some decent monsters & special effects while there's some nice humour.

The Happiness Patrol: Part Three is a good solid & fitting end to an enjoyable if camp & silly Doctor Who story, I doubt many people will like The Happiness Patrol but I did & that's all that matters to me. Overall I'll give The Happiness Patrol an impressive 7 stars out of 10 across it's three episodes.

The Doctor of course sets out to put things right, he deals with The Kandyman, and forces Helen A to face up to the realities of her.own absurdities.

I am a big fan of this one, as I say it's probably the story that got me into Doctor Who. Unlike many, which often seemed too long, I thought this could have done with being a 4 parter.

Hancock has stolen it from start to finish, with her fabulous mock up of Margaret Thatcher, she has two terrific scenes in Particular, the first with Georgina Hale, where she glazes over the fact that everything's gone wrong, 'everything's fine,' and the second where she discovers the death of her beloved Fifi.

The music wasn't always terrific during this spell, but they got it spot on, it fits the tone and shift in the story beautifully, it plays a big part.

It's clunky, The kandyman's death is a bit silly, but overall I think the storyline and realisation are both excellent. 8/10