Doctor Who

[GordonD]

1 hour ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

The Edge of Destruction - nobody's favourite story but nobody's least favourite either, this is a textbook example of a "let's string another couple of episodes out without spending any money" story and is set entirely in the TARDIS. At two episodes long, it's a perfectly reasonable way to pass the time, but if you only want a flavour of early Who, you can probably skip this one.

This story was two parts long because the initial agreement was for thirteen episodes and this brought up that number. But after the Dalek story was a huge hit they kept going... for another 35 years.

[scottsdad]

Finished Terror of the Zygons yesterday. 

Bugbears right from the start. It's set in Scotland. How can we tell?

This, the Brigadier in a kilt, Nessie and much more. Not set in actual Scotland, but the shortbread tin type. Even finished with a joke about the Brigadier not saving money on a train ticket..."and you call yourself a Scotsman". 

So, a fair bit of cringe throughout. The middle two episodes were very good however. Sorry to see Harry go. I looked on wikipedia and it turns out the actor went on to write some novelisations of stories, before dying suddenly on his 42nd birthday. Real shame. 

Anyway, I've been watching this with Scott and last night he said that he much prefers the old stories to the new ones. 

[Guest]

I'm miles behind. Only on the three doctors. Not much of a story. Felt really sorry for Bill Hartnell. Glad he was involved at all but obviously really struggling

[scottsdad]

Finished a further 2 Tom Baker stories. 

The Planet of Evil was very creepy. This could easily have been a Hartnell story, a few parallels to The Rescue but much more fleshed out. Highly enjoyable. 

The Pyramids of Mars was a fun adventure storyline. The name "Mars" made me think this would be the ice warriors again but it wasn't, which is refreshing. 

[Bully Wee Villa]

On to Jon Pertwee...

Spearhead from Space – confession: I’ve never been the biggest Pertwee fan, but consider his early episodes to be almost universally excellent. This starter is possibly the best new Doctor first story ever. The Autons work really was a creepy emotionless baddie and even their guns sound iconic. Pertwee is doing the now-traditional disorientated new Doctor act, but when he’s on screen he’s fun to watch, and Liz Shaw and the Brigadier settle into their roles instantly, The plot is compelling and, at a breezy four episodes, always races along and this is pretty much the perfect story to introduce a new incarnation. 9/10

Doctor Who and The Silurians – okay, the title, caused by a production error, is shite. Nothing else is, though, and the early run of JP3 (as he would be known if he was a 2020s footballer on TikTok rather than a 1970s scarecrow/Time Lord impersonator) continues to impress. The Silurians maybe look a bit too obviously rubber, if you’re looking to complain, but… I’m not. This is Doctor Who at its darkest, and I’m always happy with that. This goes extremely grim and is basically “Threads” at times. It introduces a genuinely interesting new species, is driven by a plot that asks questions and never spoonfeeds the audience the answers, and The Doctor vs Brigadier (here much more sinister than he would be later on) is a great dynamic. This is ace. Get it watched if you haven’t already done so. 10/10

The Ambassadors of Death – that this would be one of the stronger stories in some series but is easily the weakest in this tells you all you need to know about the other instalments thus far. It isn’t really bad and has its moments, but I still find myself looking forward to “Inferno” starting whenever I watch it. It’s fine, but nothing more than that. I’m pretty much struggling to remember what happened already, and I’ve seen it at least three times. Still, I think I’d be much more generous if I’d watched this after some of the shite that’s to come. 6/10

Inferno – negative points: the monsters look terrible and the plot doesn’t make even the vaguest sense if you actually think about it. We are supposed to believe that The Doctor lands in a parallel universe where everybody works in exactly the same place doing exactly the same thing in exactly the same job at exactly the same time but… Nazi? You can just about believe it of the Brigadier at this point, but Nazi Liz? No chance. Positive points: it is so much fun from start to finish that I don’t care about the negative ones. It’s pretty surprising that a sci-fi show of nearly a thousand episodes hasn’t done alternative realities more often. If they can write stories even half as good as this, they can do it all the time if they like. Eye-Patched b*****d Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart is in my top five baddies ever and the whole story is an absolute classic – just don’t think about it too much. This concludes the greatest series in Doctor Who’s history. Shame it is mostly downhill for Pertwee from here and poor Liz never gets a proper send-off… but, still… 10/10

[Ewanandmoreagain]

On 30/01/2023 at 11:12, scottsdad said:

Finished Terror of the Zygons yesterday. 

Bugbears right from the start. It's set in Scotland. How can we tell?

This, the Brigadier in a kilt, Nessie and much more. Not set in actual Scotland, but the shortbread tin type. Even finished with a joke about the Brigadier not saving money on a train ticket..."and you call yourself a Scotsman". 

So, a fair bit of cringe throughout. The middle two episodes were very good however. Sorry to see Harry go. I looked on wikipedia and it turns out the actor went on to write some novelisations of stories, before dying suddenly on his 42nd birthday. Real shame. 

Anyway, I've been watching this with Scott and last night he said that he much prefers the old stories to the new ones. 

I used to think I preferred the old stories to the new , but then I watched some e.g. Sea Devils

[Bully Wee Villa]

Tom Baker up next…

Robot – a benign but uneventful introduction to a weird new Doctor, doing the standard weird new Doctor shtick. The robot is more cute than scary, and the bit where it channels King Kong and Fay Wray is enjoyably ridiculous. I can’t be bothered to dislike this story, but it’s nothing to write home about. 6/10

The Ark in Space – this is more like it. I enjoy Doctor Who best when it’s bleakest and you can’t beat the fun of a flesh-eating parasites story. After the silliness of “Robot”, Tom Baker is pretty much doing “his” Doctor already. This is well worth watching. 8/10

The Sontaran Experiment – and… this is less like it again. Struggling to think of much to say about it. Nothing happens in episode one. Sontaran turns up in episode two. He’s completely useless. The end. 3/10

Genesis of the Daleks – well, it’s Genesis of the Daleks, innit? If you’ve got this far down this post you’ve probably seen this many times, as have I. It never gets old. Coincidence that arguably the best Dalek story ever doesn’t, when you think about it, have many actual Daleks in it? Probably not. If Disney are up for spin-off ideas, I could watch a Davros series. Davros at his best, Baker at his best. A contender for the best ever. “Do I have the right…” to give this nine or fewer? No. 10/10

Revenge of the Cybermen – the pattern so far has been meh story, great story, meh story, great story and it continues here. It isn’t really bad but just an anti-climax after Davros n’ Pals. The Gold Planet is supposedly lethal to Cybermen but them still being happy to land and prance about on it makes no sense, and their design look shitter here than ever before or since. A wasted opportunity for the first Cyberadventure in seven years. 5/10

[scottsdad]

39 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

Tom Baker up next…

Robot – a benign but uneventful introduction to a weird new Doctor, doing the standard weird new Doctor shtick. The robot is more cute than scary, and the bit where it channels King Kong and Fay Wray is enjoyably ridiculous. I can’t be bothered to dislike this story, but it’s nothing to write home about. 6/10

The Ark in Space – this is more like it. I enjoy Doctor Who best when it’s bleakest and you can’t beat the fun of a flesh-eating parasites story. After the silliness of “Robot”, Tom Baker is pretty much doing “his” Doctor already. This is well worth watching. 8/10

The Sontaran Experiment – and… this is less like it again. Struggling to think of much to say about it. Nothing happens in episode one. Sontaran turns up in episode two. He’s completely useless. The end. 3/10

Genesis of the Daleks – well, it’s Genesis of the Daleks, innit? If you’ve got this far down this post you’ve probably seen this many times, as have I. It never gets old. Coincidence that arguably the best Dalek story ever doesn’t, when you think about it, have many actual Daleks in it? Probably not. If Disney are up for spin-off ideas, I could watch a Davros series. Davros at his best, Baker at his best. A contender for the best ever. “Do I have the right…” to give this nine or fewer? No. 10/10

Revenge of the Cybermen – the pattern so far has been meh story, great story, meh story, great story and it continues here. It isn’t really bad but just an anti-climax after Davros n’ Pals. The Gold Planet is supposedly lethal to Cybermen but them still being happy to land and prance about on it makes no sense, and their design look shitter here than ever before or since. A wasted opportunity for the first Cyberadventure in seven years. 5/10

The Sontaran one was a bit rubbish. His head deflating at the end was just naff.

Finished The Android Invasion last night. A decent idea badly executed for me. Could have been much better than it was.

[GordonD]

18 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

The Gold Planet is supposedly lethal to Cybermen but them still being happy to land and prance about on it makes no sense,

The original idea behind gold being lethal to Cybermen was that gold dust clogged their chest units, which made a twisted kind of sense. But gradually gold itself became their weakness, until it got to the point where they could be chased away by Mr. T.

[scottsdad]

2 more Tom Baker stories done. 

The Brain of Morbius was very good, very creepy. And it contained a return to my favourite trope of the classic Doctor, the Brain In A Jar. 

The only downside was the finish. After building up this huge baddie who was a genius, he was killed off by being shoved off a cliff by the sisters. 

Then The Seeds of Doom. Roycey from Only Fools and Horses as a baddie was very good. Very interesting concept and well executed but the ending was somewhat brutal. A UNIT sergeant was knocked unconscious and fed into a machine that ground him to compost. I can see why some folk might have thought this was too violent. 

Enjoyed them both. 

[tamthebam]

Some of the "Gothic" Tom Baker episodes are really good- Brain of Morbius as mentioned above, Talons of Weng Chiang, Horror of Fang Rock, Image of the Fendahl. 

I saw Horror of Fang Rock on UK Gold as a student- while she looks good in leather I thought Leela was quite fetching in a jersey but that's just me..

Gonnae no dae that... 

[Bully Wee Villa]

Peter Davison…

Castrovalva – it’s a new Doctor story so, of course, he has to be useless and weird. This is taken to extremes here as Davison is hardly involved, being basically bed-ridden, in the first three of the four episodes. The city itself looks fairly cool and there may have been an interesting story to tell, but this wasn’t it. First impressions of the Ainsley Master aren’t great either. He’s… not very good, is he? You don’t really notice the problem of too many companions in this one as the Doctor is out of commission for much of it, but it will become noticeable as the series goes on. A generous 5/10

Four to Doomsday – I confess that I had basically forgotten this one, and the fandom seems to regard it as absolutely shite, but I liked it more than I expected. Sure, there’s a load that, as usual, makes no sense. Tegan speaks the exact Ancient Aboriginal language required here? Adric is a twat for most of the story, but… it’s Adric, so, to be expected. Despite the drawbacks, I quite enjoyed the central concept of an invading species travelling back and forth to Earth over thousands of years readying themselves for its conquest. The series rarely deals with the actual time involved in travelling through space and it’s an interesting, if flawed, investigation here. Hardly a classic, but quite watchable. 6/10

Kinda – one of the better-known Davison stories, I think. This is where Tegan first encounters the The Mara and spends most of the story tripping her face off in a David Bowie video before a giant snake turns up at the end. This also has one of the better realised utter-lunatic-for-the-sake-of-being-an utter-lunatics that proliferate in Dr Who history in the form of Hindle. He’s a complete arsehole throughout and all the better for it. Davison has settled into the role now, and this is good fun. I can’t even remember being particularly irritated by Adric though I have probably just forgotten his bits. 7/10

[Bully Wee Villa]

Colin Baker, then…

The Twin Dilemma – Jesus fucking Christ. The “story” is awful, the Doctor is awful, that stupid coat is awful. Virtually no redeeming features whatsoever. Peri isn’t bad, so I’ll give it a 1/10 just for her. Surely it can’t get any worse?

[Bully Wee Villa]

McCoy...

Time and the Rani – spoke too soon. This is just as bad but multiplied by the presence of Mel who is more annoying here than any assistant has been before or since. She just screams throughout the story, she should be grateful she isn’t having to watch this shite. That’s two successive Doctors who have had diabolically bad first stories, it’s no wonder lots of people stopped watching. 0/10

Paradise Towers – when writing up the first Pertwee series I said that “The Ambassadors of Death” suffers in comparison to the brilliant episodes before it. Here, we have the opposite effect. Nobody would have Paradise Towers as one of their all-time favourites, but having just watched The Twin Dilemma and Time and the sodding Rani, it’s like meeting Morgan Freeman in Mexico having just got through that tunnel of shit at the end of The Shawshank Redemption. The Doctor and Mel arrive in the middle of a (very eighties) gang war between a bunch of women that all look a bit like Cyndi Lauper... with added cannibals. If that sounds like fun, it is. Sadly, Mel doesn’t get eaten but she has calmed down a lot since TATR and is not too bad here, to be fair. McCoy is much better here after whatever weird slapstick thing he was trying in the previous adventure. Let’s just pretend the last story never existed and say the McCoy Era starts here. 7/10

Edited February 7, 2023 by Bully Wee Villa

[Guest]

Pertwee done. Didn't think I liked him but having gone through it from start to finish he is really good. I enjoyed the Earth bound stories far more than I thought I would. Onto some weirdo called Bomb Taker or something...

[scottsdad]

Another two Tom Baker ones done. 

The Masque of Mandragora - a but dull for me. I just didn't get into this very much at all. 

The Hand of Fear - the first 3 episodes could well have been from a Jon Pertwee story. But then it switches direction very well. Judith Paris as Eldrad was excellent but then regenerated into a guy who was pretty dreadful. It all felt a bit disjointed. 

No more Sarah Jane for now. That's her gone. I do like very much the wooden TARDIS control room. 

[Ewanandmoreagain]

10 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Another two Tom Baker ones done. 

The Masque of Mandragora - a but dull for me. I just didn't get into this very much at all. 

The Hand of Fear - the first 3 episodes could well have been from a Jon Pertwee story. But then it switches direction very well. Judith Paris as Eldrad was excellent but then regenerated into a guy who was pretty dreadful. It all felt a bit disjointed. 

No more Sarah Jane for now. That's her gone. I do like very much the wooden TARDIS control room. 

I am really enjoying your reviews. Cheers

[scottsdad]

Another two Baker stories done. 

The Deadly Assassin. I was looking forward to this one - back to Gallifrey. And I wasn't disappointed, got more of the Time Lords here than I think we have before. That said, the Master being a sort of Skeletor took away some of the menace for me. That, and episode 3 (fighting in the matrix) was just a bit nuts. I didn't like that one so much. 

The Face of Evil had a very interesting premise. Savages and technicians, ruled over by an evil supercomputer who was accidentally imprinted with the Doctor's personality. It unfolded very well, though at times I was trying to think if this was referring back to a past episode. 

And now a new companion. Having had scientists, reporters and UNIT staff recently, we've gone down the scantily clad savage route with Leela. I'm not saying it's wrong, just that they probably wouldn't do this today. Also, she was the only woman on the planet, apparently. Looking forward to seeing how she compares to the other recent companions. 

I think Jo Grant is still my favourite so far. 

[Bully Wee Villa]

As I said, I am counting McGann’s movie as a Seventh Doctor story for the purposes of this rewatch, so we move onto the Ninth Doctor. But not that Ninth Doctor…

Scream of the Shalka – the mostly-forgotten Fortieth Anniversary Story. Well, there’s a DVD of it and there aren’t many Ninth Doctor stories, so may as well review this. A brief background: as of 2003, the show was still off-air.. But with fans keen to have the 40^th anniversary marked somehow, this six-part serial consisting of 15-minute animated episodes was released on the BBC’s Doctor Who website. With no plans to bring the programme back, the new Doctor, Richard E Grant, was made the canonical “Ninth Doctor”. For a few weeks, that is. Two months after its release, Russell T Davies confirmed that the programme was coming back after all, and ever since then Grant has been relegated to an alternate Doctor (“the Shalka Doctor”) who doesn’t count in the numbering. As for the story, it’s sort of alright, I suppose, but I’m struggling to see who the target audience would have been. This wouldn’t appeal to many existing Doctor Who fans, and I can’t see it bringing in any new converts as a potential pilot for a new animated series either. So it’s all a bit pointless, especially once Eccleston's impending occupation of the TARDIS was announced. The plot is invasion-by-numbers, by a relatively easily defeated alien menace. The Master, played for the first time by a criminally underused Derek Jacobi, is in it but he doesn’t do much. I confess that I’ve never been much of a Richard E Grant fan, and he does little to change my opinion here. Admittedly, it’s hard to convey a range of emotion via animation but he seems to have not bothered even trying and just exudes a tedious smugness. Sophie Okonedo, as companion, is the best thing in it. She will be back, as will Grant, Jacobi and a little-known extra called David Tennant. This is may be worth checking out as a historical curiosity for the completists if you can get it free, but I wouldn’t be rushing to buy the DVD. Another generous 5/10

Rose – okay, the first proper Ninth Doctor story. No new Doctor weirdness here as Eccleston settles into the role straight away. As does Billie Piper, who I foolishly thought would be rubbish because she was a pop star. They have an immediate rapport and the show takes no time to re-establish itself. The Autons are well-realised, the plot is fairly basic but confidently fulfils its dual purpose of reintroducing the programme along with its new cast while maintaining a pacey story. I could do without the burping bin but I’m guessing that was aimed at a younger demographic. I doubt anyone has this as their favourite ever story, but it’s an excellent reboot which sets the programme up again for the next eighteen years… and counting. 7/10

[Guest]

12 hours ago, scottsdad said:

I think Jo Grant is still my favourite so far

I'm on Genesis just now. Always loved Sarah Jane because the Sarah Jane adventures was probably how I first got into Doctor Who (I was a later bloomer with it). Totally agree though, Jo Grant (and Liz Shaw) is brilliant and actually offers something. Sarah so far has been a bit screamy, damsel is distress pish. I've seen a few of her later ones before so know she grows into it