kieran
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Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Mar 22, 2021 21:15:55 GMT
I just found out about 5 minutes ago that Christopher Ecclestone did not flounce out of Dr Who after one series fearing he'd be 'typecast' but because his relationship with the showrunner, producer and co-producer broke down. And that the 'typecast' reason was a lie put out by the BBC. Sadly I'd believed this lie until just now. Wikipedia says he felt he'd been overworked and that he didn't like the environment that the cast and crew worked in. I hadn't heard that, interesting. I always thought the press were really unfair to Ecclestone. Whatever his reasons for leaving, it was his business - if he wasn't enjoying the role or he felt it was bad for his career, he had no moral duty to keep it on.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Mar 25, 2021 22:18:58 GMT
I just found out about 5 minutes ago that Christopher Ecclestone did not flounce out of Dr Who after one series fearing he'd be 'typecast' but because his relationship with the showrunner, producer and co-producer broke down. And that the 'typecast' reason was a lie put out by the BBC. Sadly I'd believed this lie until just now. Wikipedia says he felt he'd been overworked and that he didn't like the environment that the cast and crew worked in. Does anyone here know the full details? edit: apologies, this ought to have been in the Dr. 2005 onwards thread. Potential repliers, answer there if you like. I’ve heard it was he didn’t like how the director - of the first 3 episodes that were shot (Keith Boak - eps 1, 4 & 5) - treated the people working under him and how the senior staff above the director (Producers etc.) didn’t do enough to fix this. Boak never worked on the series again and Producer Phil Collinson is on record as saying that the modern BBC hadn’t shot an ambitious sci-fi series like DW before that they grossly over-estimated how quickly they could get the shooting done. They were like two weeks behind schedule by the end of the first week of shooting. I imagine things were pretty tense those first few weeks.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Mar 25, 2021 22:19:37 GMT
Well, Series 4 was a lot better than Series 3 thankfully. The Tenth Planet - The Cybermen were great villains. I love their sing-song voice, the way they play emphasis in quite the wrong places really gives them an inhuman feeling. Their origin, cold dispassionate logic and their 'resistance is useless' makes me think a lot of Star Trek's Borg - I wonder if they were an influence? The General is also an entertaining villain, even if he's a bit of a "military guy who wants to nuke everything" type. How was he even able to launch Z Bombs on his own if they're so devastating? Ben actually proves to be quite a likeable and resourceful character. Unfortunately Polly and the Doctor don't have much to do. In fact, the Doctor goes for a nap for the entirety of the third episode! Bit of a poor swan-song for Hartnell. I did like how his death was done to the sound effect of the Tardis moving on - nice touch. Power of the Daleks - By far my favourite Dalek story yet. Troughton is entertaining with his quirky riddles, funny hat, recorder playing and conversations with himself. I like that he largely ignores Polly and Ben's confusion about who he is. Even the viewer doesn't really get things explained. The Daleks are used very effectively here too, I finally get why people used to consider them scary - the "I AM YOUR SERVANT" is particularly chilling. But the best bit about this story is how it keeps you guessing, the factions are not black and white. I genuinely wasn't sure where Janley's loyalties lay for instance and her death was quite affecting. And the ending where the Dalek's thirst to generate power was used to overload them was very clever. Not too sure about the damp squib of everyone being very ungrateful though! And Polly is once again fairly pointless. The Underwater Menace - So somewhere along the way, a new companion has been picked up: Jamie. He's kinda just there to be confused and do some heavy lifting when Ben is doing something else. Polly is also yet again fairly pointless and reduced to a damsel in distress. The Doctor is a bit more bland here, but that's maybe because he can't compete with the scenery chewing of Zaroff, an awful mad scientist cliche who likes announcing his plans at the top of his voice. There is some good set design here and the music is for some reason much better than normal - I really liked the sequence of the fish people going on strike. But overall wasn't fussed on this one - admittedly the fact that 2 episodes were just stills with an audio track didn't do it any favours. The Moonbase - The Cybermen are back but now they talk with generic robot monotones - boooo! But this is a fine story, nothing really stands out about it bad or good. The first episode was quite creepy and it's a pity the villains were revealed quite early on. I felt the Doctor was again a bit bland here and the Cybermen were quite easily beaten in the end. Polly does something useful here in coming up with the acetone idea, even if she needs Ben to fill in the details and handle the action. Once again I'm not sure of the point of Jamie. The Macra Terror - My favourite story yet. Troughton is back on good form and Ben gets a slightly different role than usual. Polly and Jamie are still largely pointless but at least Jamie gets to dance in one of the funniest scenes thus far. The totalitarian society has so many details - the worldbuilding in just 4 episodes is very impressive and there's great use of sound again - between the announcement noise of the Controller and the Propaganda songs. The Macras are also great villains - as South Park has taught us, it's always the Crab People behind everything! The Pilot was also an interesting character - I like that he wasn't convinced too easily, but he was reasonable. Oddly, the totalitarian apparatus seems to be intact at the end of it all, just without the Macra being in control. Series 4 ranking: 1. The Macra Terror 2. Power of the Daleks 3. The Tenth Planet 4. The Moonbase 5. The Underwater Menace Did you watch the rest of Season 4 (Faceless Ones & Evil of the Daleks)?
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kieran
Baron
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Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Mar 25, 2021 23:46:21 GMT
Did you watch the rest of Season 4 (Faceless Ones & Evil of the Daleks)? No, just watching the ones on Britbox, which seem to be the ones that are either complete or have animated versions. The only exception seems to be The Underwater Menace which has 2 episodes of stills. There are also a few orphaned episodes on it, but I haven't been watching those. So, moved on to Series 5 now. Currently 2 episodes into the Ice Warriors.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Mar 26, 2021 20:51:19 GMT
Ah, well you’re almost out of the missing episode briar patch!
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Apr 19, 2021 11:07:55 GMT
With one exception, Series 5 was a bit by-the-numbers. Troughton seems to have lost most of his quirks and offbeat sense of humour from Series 4, leaving him a bit of a bland scientist, albeit a very capable one (except when it comes to working the Tardis of course!)
Tomb of the Cybermen - So, Ben's gone which is a pity because despite my initial misgivings he was easily the best companion since Ian and Barbara. Polly has also gone, replaced by this Victoria character who seems to alternate between capable and useless. And speaking of useless, Jamie is still here! Anyway this story starts off pretty fun. Exploring the tomb and its traps was quite exciting as was the friction between the characters (though did they have to be such stereotypes? Stuffy Brits, Plucky Americans, Sneaky Eastern Europeans, Subservient Black Guy). Unfortunately when the Cybermen come into it, it falls apart a bit, relying on characters being easily distracted time and time again to move the plot along. The ending was quite touching though.
The Ice Warriors - This was like a better version of Series 4's Moonbase. I liked the rivalry between Penley (a youngish Peter Sallis!) and Clent even though the idea scientists would be anti-computer felt pretty dated and one trope I hate in sci-fi is the "computer blows up due to a logical dilemma". There was a good build up of tension throughout though I wasn't overly fond of the Ice Warriors themselves with their lego hands and perpetual whispering. The Scottish guy was very annoying and for once I don't mean Jamie.
The Enemy of the World - This was absolutely nuts - and I loved it! Troughton has a field day playing the villainous Salamander and I genuinely didn't see the twists coming - the idea that Salamander was fibbing to a whole underground community for the sake of his political career was so delightfully evil. And then it turned out Kent was just as villainous. I also liked Bruce as a character, though I imagine he should have seen through Salamander much sooner. Benik was a great henchman too. Sure, there's issues: there's no explanation as to why Salamnder and the Doctor look so alike; the subplot with Jamie and Victoria infiltrating Salamander's operation doesn't really go anywhere (though I'll forgive that for the hilarious scenes with the chef) and Fariah's character is a bit too serious amongst all the craziness. But this was easily my pick of the series.
The Web of Fear - a solid follow-up to a story I haven't seen. Not too sure I liked the design of the yetis, but the firefight between them and the soldiers was pretty good and the story had some nice tension throughout - I was genuinely surprised that the Colonel didn't turn out to be the Intelligence agent. I quite liked that actor's performance as a whole. Jamie does something useful for once - and it turns out to be exactly the wrong thing!
The Wheel in Space - Another story of the Moonbase/Ice Warriors type, but probably the best of the bunch with all the characters managing to make an impact despite the sheer number of them. Bennett rather than being the standard "stubborn controller" ends up having a nervous breakdown which was a nice twist on a stock character. I also thought Dr Corwyn was a likeable character, her death was quite sad. The Cybermen are a bit bland though and I absolutely could not stand Zoe - I had a horrible feeling that she would be the new companion and sadly it proved right. And speaking of annoying companions, with all the futuristic worlds Jamie has visited, why is he still blown away by every piece of technology he comes across?
Hard to do a ranking as apart from Enemy of the World, none of the stories really stand out for good or ill. I'll go with:
1. The Enemy of the World 2. The Web of Fear 3. Tomb of the Cybermen 4. The Wheel in Space 5. The Ice Warriors
Let's hope Series 6 sees the Doctor regain some personality, get some decent companions and encounter fewer base stories.
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Post by a moderator on Apr 19, 2021 17:34:29 GMT
I remember the days when Tomb and Ice Warriors were completely missing from the BBC archives, and only single episodes of Enemy and Web survived.
Back then, Tomb was considered the holy grail of missing stories, and fandom didn't think much of Enemy. Prevailing opinions have changed a fair bit since the missing episodes were recovered.
Your lack of familiarity with the series has benefited you in one regard. I won't give any spoilers, but anyone who's seen certain later episodes would not have been able to react to one of those stories in the way that you did.
Season 6 has a lot more variety (though a couple of the stories are longer than any you've yet seen - which I don't consider a problem, because their scripts change things up enough along the way that there's surprisingly little repetition). And Zoe does get better.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 20, 2021 8:56:17 GMT
With one exception, Series 5 was a bit by-the-numbers. Troughton seems to have lost most of his quirks and offbeat sense of humour from Series 4, leaving him a bit of a bland scientist, albeit a very capable one (except when it comes to working the Tardis of course!) Tomb of the Cybermen - So, Ben's gone which is a pity because despite my initial misgivings he was easily the best companion since Ian and Barbara. Polly has also gone, replaced by this Victoria character who seems to alternate between capable and useless. And speaking of useless, Jamie is still here! Anyway this story starts off pretty fun. Exploring the tomb and its traps was quite exciting as was the friction between the characters (though did they have to be such stereotypes? Stuffy Brits, Plucky Americans, Sneaky Eastern Europeans, Subservient Black Guy). Unfortunately when the Cybermen come into it, it falls apart a bit, relying on characters being easily distracted time and time again to move the plot along. The ending was quite touching though. The Ice Warriors - This was like a better version of Series 4's Moonbase. I liked the rivalry between Penley (a youngish Peter Sallis!) and Clent even though the idea scientists would be anti-computer felt pretty dated and one trope I hate in sci-fi is the "computer blows up due to a logical dilemma". There was a good build up of tension throughout though I wasn't overly fond of the Ice Warriors themselves with their lego hands and perpetual whispering. The Scottish guy was very annoying and for once I don't mean Jamie. The Enemy of the World - This was absolutely nuts - and I loved it! Troughton has a field day playing the villainous Salamander and I genuinely didn't see the twists coming - the idea that Salamander was fibbing to a whole underground community for the sake of his political career was so delightfully evil. And then it turned out Kent was just as villainous. I also liked Bruce as a character, though I imagine he should have seen through Salamander much sooner. Benik was a great henchman too. Sure, there's issues: there's no explanation as to why Salamnder and the Doctor look so alike; the subplot with Jamie and Victoria infiltrating Salamander's operation doesn't really go anywhere (though I'll forgive that for the hilarious scenes with the chef) and Fariah's character is a bit too serious amongst all the craziness. But this was easily my pick of the series. The Web of Fear - a solid follow-up to a story I haven't seen. Not too sure I liked the design of the yetis, but the firefight between them and the soldiers was pretty good and the story had some nice tension throughout - I was genuinely surprised that the Colonel didn't turn out to be the Intelligence agent. I quite liked that actor's performance as a whole. Jamie does something useful for once - and it turns out to be exactly the wrong thing! The Wheel in Space - Another story of the Moonbase/Ice Warriors type, but probably the best of the bunch with all the characters managing to make an impact despite the sheer number of them. Bennett rather than being the standard "stubborn controller" ends up having a nervous breakdown which was a nice twist on a stock character. I also thought Dr Corwyn was a likeable character, her death was quite sad. The Cybermen are a bit bland though and I absolutely could not stand Zoe - I had a horrible feeling that she would be the new companion and sadly it proved right. And speaking of annoying companions, with all the futuristic worlds Jamie has visited, why is he still blown away by every piece of technology he comes across? Hard to do a ranking as apart from Enemy of the World, none of the stories really stand out for good or ill. I'll go with: 1. The Enemy of the World 2. The Web of Fear 3. Tomb of the Cybermen 4. The Wheel in Space 5. The Ice Warriors Let's hope Series 6 sees the Doctor regain some personality, get some decent companions and encounter fewer base stories. Glad you’re still at it. I’m up to Season 23 (from 1986).
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Jun 11, 2021 14:33:58 GMT
Well, Series 6 was mostly an improvement on Series 5:
The Dominators - The Doctor's companions are actually really helpful! And the Doctor has rediscovered his comic touch! And there's no bases being infiltrated! All this really helped me appreciate what was ultimately quite a slight story stretched over perhaps one episode too many. Good supporting performances, set and costume design (I love the contrast between the Dominators' costume that accentuates the shoulders and the Dulcans' which minimises them) and what seems a higher budget in general also help. It's a pity the Dominators seemed a bit stupid (they were taken in far too easily by the Doctor and Jamie playing dumb) and the Quarks are maybe a bit too cutesy to be threatening - also if the idea is that using them as weapons drains their power too much to use them for drilling, why don't the Dominators just carry personal firearms? Those niggles aside, a strong start to Series 6.
The Mind Robber - no idea why but the episodes of this story seem to all be much shorter than usual - under 20 minutes. At any rate, this is another decent story. There's some pretty disturbing imagery in Episode 2 and I was all set for something quite freaky and mind-bending, but it turned into something more light-hearted and quirky with fictional characters coming to life. I liked the guy playing Gulliver and the concept is quite fun, but it's a bit disappointing it didn't try to maintain the freaky atmosphere. Also, everything was resolved far too easily in the end.
The Invasion - At this point, Jamie is now the longest serving companion to the Doctor. The most memorable thing he does here is make some sexist comments. Despite that, this is a very good story and the best use of the Cybermen since their first appearance. Like the Power of the Daleks, it uses a recurring (and arguably stale) enemy in an unconventional way and it pays dividends. There's a good slow build here, at first it seems like it's going to be more of a corporate espionage story and then it gradually reveals its sci-fi elements to the point it gets to Russian missiles blowing up spacecrafts and firefights between the army and Cybermen. Vaughn is quite an entertaining villain - I like that he has two modes of emotion - unflappable and screaming his head off. Speaking of emotion, using that against the Cybermen was a good use of an established characteristic. It had its downsides: while it was good to see the Colonel from Web of Fear back, it's a pity he joins in with the sexism; Packer was a thoroughly useless henchman; Sally and the Captain were dull verging on annoying; and it was perhaps one episode too long. But overall, one of the best stories so far.
The Krotons - Not something you eat with soup, but alien robots who gain power from smart folk. I thought this was quite a good concept for an episode - villains who enslave an undeveloped culture, training their minds to feed off the most intelligent - but the execution was a bit... dull. The Gonds were fairly uninteresting and their story seemed quite disconnected from that of the Doctor and his companions. I also didn't feel terribly convinced that they had lived this way for 1000 years. The Krotons felt like a cross between the Daleks and Cybermen - maybe the robotic look was the wrong choice here. There was some good humour with the Doctor and Zoe getting competitive over the test and Jamie being rejected for being too dumb. But overall, this was pretty forgettable and despite the short length, I was glad to be done with it.
The Seeds of Death - I wasn't a huge fan of the Ice Warriors in their last appearance and I'm still not a fan of them here. What makes matters worse is we're firmly in S5-esque "base under siege" territory once more. There's some interesting ideas with Earth being reliant on teleportation for moving goods around and this being used to shut Earth down and then distribute the deadly seeds, but it's a bit silly to think this essential system is so vulnerable - with no control from Earth or alternative methods of transportation. Also the seeds being nullified by water reduces them to pointlessness pretty quickly. Most of the characters are dull, with the one exception of Fewsham where it's not overly clear at first whether he's a coward or a traitor or attempting something more heroic.
The War Games - What I thought would be a story about the Doctor and pals gadding about the Battle of the Somme, turned into something much more interesting. While there have been hints about the Doctor's origin before, this is the first story that really delves into his backstory. But even before it gets into all that, it's a lot of fun with great villains and good supporting characters - even Jamie and Zoe manage to be pretty entertaining (Jamie acting like a leader was good comic value). It's not perfect - the War Lord/ War Chief thing is a bit confusing (and the latter is a much better villain than the former who seems to be a Steve Jobs lookalike before Steve jobs was a thing), Lady Jennifer just kinda gets forgotten about, the villains put way too much trust in the Doctor and I'm not sure their plan really made any sense - it probably would have been better to say the villains were just doing a Real Life Risk than some convoluted plan of galactic domination. Still, this was highly entertaining from start to finish.
And so we say goodbye to Patrick Troughton (as well as Jamie and Zoe who grew on me a bit in this series but overall I'm not too upset about). I think his stories were better than Hartnell's and he had great comic timing, but overall I don't think he had much of a personality to him beyond his quirks. It seems that the premise is getting a bit of a shake-up in next series. Not too sure how I feel about being permanently stuck in 20th Century Earth (and I suspect 20th Century Britain at that), but I shall go into it with an open mind.
Series 6 ranking: 1. The War Games 2. The Invasion 3. The Dominators 4. The Mind Robber 5. The Seeds of Death 6. The Krotons
And because why not:
Doctor ranking so far: 1. William Hartnell 2. Patrick Troughton
Companion ranking so far: 1. Ian 2. Barbara 3. Ben 4. Vikki 5. Steven 6. Victoria 7. Zoe 8. Jamie 9. Polly 10. Susan 11. Dodo
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jun 12, 2021 1:00:20 GMT
The Dominators - All this really helped me appreciate what was ultimately quite a slight story stretched over perhaps one episode too many. It was originally meant to be 6 episodes in length but the script editor trimmed it to five (the writers got pissed off at this and left the series, killing the planned 3rd Yeti adventure). Fans play a game of trying to pick at which moment in the story you can see Troughton decide to give up the role. Those niggles aside, a strong start to Series 6. That's why I'm liking your reviews, Kieran, they're sometimes the polar opposite of mainstream fan opinion! The Mind Robber - no idea why but the episodes of this story seem to all be much shorter than usual - under 20 minutes. This and "The Dominators" before it were the final two stories of the fifth production block and were held over to launch the sixth season (see also "The Tomb of the Cybermen" (filmed 4th block, aired 5th season), "The Smugglers" (filmed 3rd block, aired 4th season) etc. - The last time this happens is Tom Baker's debut story which was filmed as part of the 11th block but opened the 12th season). Anyway, the result is Troughton was pretty much running on fumes at this point and demanded that the regulars have less work to do, especially in light of the first episode being essentially just the 3 of them. So the other four episodes were trimmed back as you noticed - it is actually the length of a 4 part story in the end. Oh, and the first episode was a late addition when "The Dominators" was cut to 5 episodes, the script writer putting it together at the last minute (hence no writer credit as script editors weren't allowed to commission scripts from themselves). Fraser Hines also came down with Chicken Pox during the filming, hence why he is replaced for a couple of episodes by a different actor! The Invasion - But overall, one of the best stories so far. This story was a test run and template for the Pertwee era. The Krotons - But overall, this was pretty forgettable and despite the short length, I was glad to be done with it. Ha! I love "The Krotons". So there!
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Jun 12, 2021 10:17:48 GMT
That's why I'm liking your reviews, Kieran, they're sometimes the polar opposite of mainstream fan opinion! Haha, I purposefully don't read any reviews until after I have written my own - been a bit surprised upon reading the fan consensus afterwards. I don't think The Dominators was anything special but it just seemed like a breath of fresh air after Series 5. I'm a bit surprised that it and the Mind Robber were holdovers. I did wonder about that! Yeah, now I'm a few episodes into Series 7, I can definitely see that with the Doctor working with Unit and Brigadier Thingy-Wotsit. If it's of the same quality as The Invasion I won't be complaining. Haha, fair enough. I think I was maybe suffering a bit with Who Fatigue when I got to the Krotons.
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Post by a moderator on Jun 12, 2021 15:10:15 GMT
Glad you enjoyed season 6. I wonder if that could be a consequence of his having been partially cyber-converted - his emotions suppressed for the most part, but when they get too intense, they can't be contained, leading to his outbursts of rage. Given your dislike of Jamie and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's chauvinistic attitudes in The Invasion, you might appreciate The Krotons a bit more if you knew about what it averted. There was a severe shortage of usable scripts available (which is why The Invasion and The War Games were expanded to 8 and 10 episodes respectively), and at the time The Krotons was submitted, the only other script anywhere near ready for being filmed was The Prison in Space, a particularly misogynistic take on the 'dystopian matriarchy' plot. The script editor and the director scheduled to make the story following The Invasion both welcomed The Krotons because it was such an improvement on what they'd have had to make otherwise. The Prison in Space was to include Zoe getting brainwashed into becoming a female supremacist, and at the end Jamie would have broken her conditioning by spanking her. I was pleased to see that you didn't include The War Games among the stories you thought would have benefited from losing an episode. It's probably my favourite Troughton-era story, and I think part of that is because the writers paced it so well, gradually widening the scope and spacing out the big revelations to make it a slow burner.
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kieran
Baron
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Post by kieran on Jun 12, 2021 18:10:38 GMT
I wonder if that could be a consequence of his having been partially cyber-converted - his emotions suppressed for the most part, but when they get too intense, they can't be contained, leading to his outbursts of rage. Didn't consider that, but it makes a lot of sense. Oh wow, that sounds like something John Norman would write. Yes, the Krotons sounds much better by comparison. Agree completely. Even the bits that were arguably flabby were entertaining - I loved them returning to the Roman Zone to be faced with the exact same footage of the chariot that they encountered last time - good way to make a positive out of a limited budget.
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kieran
Baron
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Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jul 2, 2021 13:36:51 GMT
A decent, but not an amazing start for Pertwee in Series 7 though nice to be in full colour and the budget of each episode seems increased, balanced by the overall amount of episodes being lowered.
Spearhead from Space - A nice start to the series that does a good job in introducing the new Doctor and his new setup. Pertwee's Doctor seems much more self-assured than the more bumbling Hartnell and Troughton, and his escape from the hospital is highly entertaining. Liz has potential as a companion, her seemingly sceptical nature bringing back fond memories of Barbara, and I generally like the Brigadier character. And then the evil mannequins are probably the creepiest villains yet. Unfortunately, the last episode feels extremely rushed, the Doctor just inventing some doohickey that saves the day almost effortlessly. Pretty rare so far for a Doctor Who story to be too short, but this is definitely a case of that. Also, how do none of the soldiers notice the general has a plastic face?
Doctor Who and the Silurians What's with that title? Surely pretty much every story could be called 'Doctor Who and the...'? And why is the Doctor still wearing the clothes of that consultant - did he keep those he stole or buy a matching set? Not sure which would be stranger. These oddities aside, this is a very good story, once it gets going. The first couple of episodes are very slow with a few subplots that don't really add anything (take out all that stuff with Dr Quinn and nothing would really change) and characters bickering with one another. Once the Silurians come into it properly, it really picks up though. I like their design (though they look more like amphibians than reptiles to me) and the different personalities between the three and there's an interesting moral dimension to the conflict here - should the pursuit of peace be allowed to endanger innocents? I like that the Doctor doesn't automatically side with the humans here, but treats both sides equally. It's that kind of impartiality that was missing from Series 3's The Ark. Then the plot takes a bit of a left turn with a pandemic that gets out of control when those in power don't take it seriously enough and refuse to lock down in time (hmm, sounds oddly familiar), but it's pretty effective, even if it's all too quickly resolved. The biggest downside though is the Doctor's companions. Liz isn't too bad, she just doesn't have much to do aside from assisting the Doctor with his experiments, but the Brigadier is very unlikeable here. In the early stages, he's a constant obstacle to the Doctor, disagreeing with him on everything, biting his head off etc. And then at the end he commits genocide (albeit under orders) in one of the grimmest and effecting endings to a story so far. Not too sure how the character can recover in my estimation after this
- The Ambassadors of Death Love the cheesy title sequence for this one, even though the title itself casts the ambassadors in a bit of an undeserved light. I guess "The Ambassadors Who Would Be Quite Nice But Are Being Blackmailed Into Violence Due To Their Dependence On Radioactive Isotopes" isn't quite as catchy. Anyway, this was a bit of a slow one. While there is a mystery to unravel, it's not particularly compelling given it's made clear who the enemies are very early on and all we're waiting on is for their motivations to be made clear. And then when that revelation happens, they're not very convincing motivations anyway. There's a lot of firefights between UNIT soldiers we'll never see again with thugs who would look more at home in The Sweeney - it's pretty hard to be engaged. Throw in some dull scenes of people talking into microphones in control rooms and I did find my mind wandering quite a bit. The ambassadors themselves are also pretty uninteresting, being essentially three guys in spacesuits. And if they're so radioactive that a mere touch can kill someone, it seems a bit strange that they can be within inches of people without harming them in any way. It's not all bad though. Reegan is a likeable henchman/opportunist and the highlight of the story is his scenes with Liz and Dr Lennox. I also liked that reference was made to the Brigadier massacring the Silurians and the Doctor being distinctly frosty with him as a result. But yeah, not a great story overall.
- Inferno Wow, this story was all over the place. It feels like it combines three different abandoned stories (blue werewolves, hard-headed professor drilling too far into the Earth's crust, and alternate universe hijinks) and they just don't work all that well together and they all feel a bit underexplored. Why did Stalhman have such a stick up his backside anyway? Why did this super lava turn people into blue werewolves? Why does everyone seem much the same in the alternate universe apart from the Brigadier/ Brigade Leader who is completely different? Messy as it is though, it's actually pretty entertaining, particularly the Doctor sparring with both versions of Stalhman and the Brigadier. I also liked alternative Liz's arc though I felt they were all a bit quick to accept the Doctor couldn't take them back to his universe - I mean, he was able to travel between universes without destroying the space time continuum so why can't they? I did like the Doctor's attempts to escape the time period- showing his increasing contempt for the Brigadier. I wonder if this will be built on in Series 8? One dubious aspect was the relationship between Sutton and Petra which in both universes seems to consist of him alternating between belittling her and creeping on her - definitely didn't come across as the positive romance I assume they were going for.
Series 7 Ranking: 1. Doctor Who and the Silurians 2. Spearhead from Space 3. Inferno 4. The Ambassadors of Death
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 3, 2021 2:11:27 GMT
Doctor Who and the Silurians What's with that title? Surely pretty much every story could be called 'Doctor Who and the...'? At the time (1963-70) on all the internal BBC paperwork each story was referred to as "Doctor Who and..." but the staff in charge to making the credits knew to drop that bit. But on this occasion whoever was in charge of the credits either didn't know or forgot, hence the "Doctor Who - Doctor Who and the Silurians". I'm not sure why they weren't corrected at the time as in the following season one story is recorded with the credits reflecting a name that was then changed. My guess would be the cost. The same reason why they were doing 7-part stories. It stretched the costs of props/costumes/sets over more episodes. Anyway, the upshot of this goof is that all the paperwork for the rest of the season had the "Doctor Who and..." bit scrubbed out and it was never a part of the paperwork again.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 3, 2021 2:16:42 GMT
Inferno Wow, this story was all over the place. It feels like it combines three different abandoned stories (blue werewolves, hard-headed professor drilling too far into the Earth's crust, and alternate universe hijinks) and they just don't work all that well together and they all feel a bit underexplored. The Primords (the "blue werewolves") were added to the original story pitch at the behest of the production team either to pad the story out to 7 episodes or because "it's not Doctor Who without monsters".
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 3, 2021 2:18:20 GMT
Inferno One dubious aspect was the relationship between Sutton and Petra which in both universes seems to consist of him alternating between belittling her and creeping on her - definitely didn't come across as the positive romance I assume they were going for. It's the 70s? [sarcasm]How else is your little woman supposed to know her place if you don't routinely belittle and dismiss her?![/sarcasm]
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 3, 2021 10:06:07 GMT
It's the 70s? [sarcasm]How else is your little woman supposed to know her place if you don't routinely belittle and dismiss her?![/sarcasm] Definitely has not aged well. A pity as otherwise I liked Sutton. Makes sense about the Primords being crowbarred in, the story probably would have been better without them.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 4, 2021 1:26:48 GMT
It's the 70s? [sarcasm]How else is your little woman supposed to know her place if you don't routinely belittle and dismiss her?![/sarcasm] Definitely has not aged well. A pity as otherwise I liked Sutton. Makes sense about the Primords being crowbarred in, the story probably would have been better without them. Agreed. Petra is played by the first director’s wife. Douglas Camfield directed the location footage and the first 2 episodes before having a heart attack. Producer Barry Letts had to step in a direct the last 5 studio sessions.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 13, 2021 21:52:24 GMT
I've now finished Season 23, so that is the Colin Baker era done and dusted. Luckily my blu-ray copy of Season 24 should arrive within days so I can begin the Sylvester McCoy era.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 13, 2021 22:32:10 GMT
I've now finished Season 23, so that is the Colin Baker era done and dusted. Luckily my blu-ray copy of Season 24 should arrive within days so I can begin the Sylvester McCoy era. Would you consider the Colin Baker era deserving of its bad reputation?
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 16, 2021 1:09:01 GMT
Yes and no. Colin is giving it all, Nicola Bryant has improved from Season 21. Overall the show generally looks good, but at times it is clear that the budget just isn’t meeting the needs of the stories. As far as stories go, there are good ideas, nice scenes and some neat dialogue. Just a shame that the stories tend to 1) be very keen on violence for the sake of violence and 2) sideline the 6th Doctor.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 28, 2021 10:47:36 GMT
Series 8 was pretty solid, an improvement on 7. The Master was a good addition to the series, though I don't think he really needed to appear in every story. My biggest gripe is I don't really like Pertwee's Doctor who completely lacks the warmth of Hartnell or Troughton's.
Terror of the Autons This improves in many ways on the Autons' first appearance in Spearhead From Space. The Doctor has to use far more ingenuity to beat them here and much more is made of the dangerous implications of a foe that can manipulate plastics however they wish - even plastic flowers, a chair and telephone lines are a danger. That little plastic troll man is very creepy and it's a pity he's killed relatively quickly. We also see the Master introduced. It was a bit of an understated introduction given my understanding that he is the Doctor's arch-nemesis, but an entertaining one. I like that he and the Doctor are both very good at recognising each other's weaknesses but less so at recognising their own. The only real disappointment with the character is how quickly he goes from helping the Nestenes to siding with the Doctor against them. Another disappointment is Liz is gone. The character never quite came into her own but I felt she had potential. Her replacement Jo seems less the cerebral assistant and more the plucky but incompetent type that reminds me of Jamie. She's not quite as annoying as I feared she would be - for now at least.
The Mind of Evil Like Inferno from the previous series, this ties together a few different plots - a peace summit being sabotaged, an alien/machine that feels on evil impulses and the Master trying to steal a rocket. While the latter two kinda work together, the first is pretty much abandoned after the first two episodes, feeling utterly pointless. A creature feeding on evil impulses being used to correct criminals is an interesting concept but doesn't really get developed enough - it would have been more interesting if the concept was used to reflect on issues like justice, retribution, prisoners' rights and free will, but instead the Keller Machine is basically just another foe to be overcome. I know Doctor Who is a family adventure show, but I wish it would have the courage to explore more of the thoughtful part of sci-fi rather than falling back on action and cliffhangers. The action is fine so far as it goes and there's a couple of likeable scenes: the Master's worst fear being the Doctor mocking him is quite amusing, revealing a bit of insecurity behind the character's arrogance; and it turns out the Doctor is good pals with Chairman Mao - who'd a thunk?. Jo was much more likeable here and I really enjoyed her relationship with Barnham. Using Barnham as the means of turning the Keller Machine against the Master was a nice idea, but the execution was sloppy - it would have been just as easy for Jo to just sneak out of the van and shoot the Master.
The Claws of Axos A lot of good concepts in this one. I really like the idea of Axos being a single organism that can take the shape of humanoids, monster or organic spaceships. I also like that they supposedly rely on greed to take over planets though it is somewhat at odds with their request that the Axonite be shared amongst the planet - Chinn's greed to keep it for Britain actually makes their plan less effective so they seem to rely on greed only up to a point. Either way, I thought the reactions of the characters to Axonite was very believable. Even the Doctor sees in it a potential way of getting off-planet and is temporarily blinded to the Axons having any ulterior motive. This is also my favourite use of the Master thus far, a sort of third party rather than the main villain, who can help or hinder as his purposes change. While the ending doesn't quite convince that the Doctor is really going to abandon Earth, it certainly comes pretty close, building on the growing dislike between the Doctor and the Brigadier. I didn't feel the Doctor was lying when he said Jo was the only one he would miss and while it turns out he was not going to abandon Earth to Axos, he was certainly going to try to escape once it was dealt with. Aside from some dull and underdeveloped supporting characters and a bit too much hand-waving about temporal mechanics at the end, I thought this was a very effective story.
Colony in Space Well, this definitely wins the prize for most boring story title. Thankfully the story itself is very, very good. Like some of the previous stories, this has a few different storylines going on, but here they interweave perfectly. The conflict between the colonists and the miners comes across as very realistic and, unusually for Dr Who, it's pretty multilayered. The miners are ruthless capitalists who will terrorise and even kill for profit, but they are also the only means of getting a much needed mineral to Earth which the colonists are preventing. It's also questionable whether the colonists really have a right to the planet considering they are trying to take it from the "primitives". The relationships between the colonists themselves are also good: Ashe and Winton could have been textbook coolhead and hothead characters but instead they are shown to respect one another while disagreeing and Winton seems genuinely moved by Ashe's self-sacrifice. Caldwell is also an excellent character, his conflict coming across as very believable without being overwrought. When he tells the colonists the rocket is safe, you can tell he's lying to himself more than them - he wants to believe it's safe so he doesn't have to commit to one side or another. Meanwhile we have the Doctor and Jo exploring the intriguing "primitive" culture and the Master up to his usual hijinks - he really seems to relish the Arbiter role. A subplot about one colonist being an agent for the miners doesn't really work for me, but otherwise I can't fault this story at all. Also - Gail Platt!
The Daemons Back in the mid 90s, the Paul McGann TV special sparked a bit of a Doctor Who fad in me. Of course, the videos of the show were way too expensive so this fad largely consisted of taping one of the Peter Cushing movies from the TV, borrowing a few of the books from the library (only one of which I actually finished - I'll bring it up when i get to the story in question) and buying the script of a Doctor Who story at a school book fair. That script was for the Daemons. After about 5 pages, I realised I didn't like reading scripts and stuck it in a bookshelf in my parents' house (where I think it remains to this day). Shortly after, the Paul McGann series never materialised, and I moved on to other things. Anyway, the tone of this one is very odd, both compared to other stories and even in itself with scenes of Satanist rites are interspersed with comedy Morris dancers and the Doctor posing as the Great White Wizard Qui Quae Quod. I feel the Master was misused here - it might have been better to have the villain be a conventional Satanist, he just seems a bit out of character here, performing all those rituals while dressed in robes. I also didn't really buy that the villagers would so readily throw themselves into the occult, even allowing for the Master hypnotising and blackmailing them. Quibbles aside, this is a fun enough horror story with some good and genuinely creepy imagery - I imagine this sparked a few complaints back in the day which I suppose the writers were trying to forestall (as well as to retain the show's sci-fi credentials) by saying the enemies aren't really demons. Although I'm kinda inclined to agree with Miss Hawthorne that psionic power which is controlled and strengthened by arcane rituals is pretty much magic disguised by some pseudo-scientific language. As for the daemons themselves, I liked Bok, whose capering gave him an odd mix of malevolence and innocence and the firefight with the UNIT soldiers at the end was good. Azal was very intimidating and the idea that he's a sort of logical scientist whose experiments have been the root of evil in the world had some potential, but why-oh-why did he have to be destroyed by the horrible "illogic causing self destruction" cliche? You would think someone who's been manipulating humans for countless millennia would have witnessed self-sacrifice before and surely a supremely intelligent being would be able to appreciate different stances to egoism without imploding? A horrible end to the story and a waste of a good villain. Some more minor observations: this story is the first to really make use of Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton, but they're fairly dull characters in my opinion. Also what was with the Doctor biting Jo's head off for criticising her superior officer?
Series 8 ranking:
1. Colony in Space 2. The Claws of Axos 3. Terror of the Autons 4. The Daemons 5. The Mind of Evil
And since it looks like she's gone for good, I'll add Liz to the companion ranking - between Ben and Vikki seems fair for a good but underutilised character: 1. Ian 2. Barbara 3. Ben 4. Liz 5. Vikki 6. Steven 7. Victoria 8. Zoe 9. Jamie 10. Polly 11. Susan 12. Dodo
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Post by a moderator on Jul 28, 2021 13:47:08 GMT
Some of the stories in season 8 didn't originally have the Master in, but they had villains generic enough that it took very little effort to replace them with him. The production team did subsequently conclude that they'd gone overboard with the character, and cut down on his appearances in later seasons.
I think Colony in Space benefits a lot from being viewed in context. It often gets dismissed as dull by fans (partly because, until quite recently, the most common way of getting to know the story was via the novelisation, which has lots of world-building and character insight, and the broadcast version suffers by comparison), but coming after a year and a half of present-day Earth (and three consecutive takes on 'the Master joins up with an alien species to try and take over the world'), it brings some welcome variety.
Many of the fans who label Colony dull also rate The Dæmons as the best story of the Pertwee era, or even of the series' entire run. Personally, I've always found it overrated - it's one of the better 'the Master joins up with an alien species to try and take over the world' variants, but it wouldn't make my top five Pertwee stories. It's another one that is improved upon by the novelisation - notably the climax, which makes more sense thanks to some additional dialogue about magical principles from Miss Hawthorne.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 28, 2021 14:33:53 GMT
Some of the stories in season 8 didn't originally have the Master in, but they had villains generic enough that it took very little effort to replace them with him. The production team did subsequently conclude that they'd gone overboard with the character, and cut down on his appearances in later seasons. Yeah, probably for the best! The only story where I found his inclusion very odd was The Daemons, but it was a very odd story all round. I saw that it has a poor reputation amongst fans - I guess like with The Macra Terror this is one where I completely go against the consensus. But yes, I did enjoy that it was back to basics after hanging round England with UNIT for so long. It's certainly memorable, but not necessarily for all the right reasons.
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Post by The Count on Aug 2, 2021 22:43:38 GMT
I remember very little about the actual series beyond Bonnie Langford screaming at some walking cabbages, Ace smacking floating Daleks with a baseball bat and a few scant episodes, and reading a couple of novels that probably had nothing to do with what was shown on screen, so I am enjoying reading these reviews.
Though anything beyond the McCoy era is rightly referred to as Dr POO.
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Post by Charles X. on Aug 3, 2021 6:13:26 GMT
I remember very little about the actual series beyond Bonnie Langford screaming at some walking cabbages, Ace smacking floating Daleks with a baseball bat and a few scant episodes, and reading a couple of novels that probably had nothing to do with what was shown on screen, so I am enjoying reading these reviews. Though anything beyond the McCoy era is rightly referred to as Dr POO. I dislike the McGann + era, though I like the Smith era because Karen Gillan is gorgeous. Fans consistently vote David Tennant as one of the best doctors, if not the best, but I definitely don't see it. It was always quite a cheesy series, but the newer episodes cranked up the PC and the unfunny. Them getting Catherine Tate as a companion was like the earth getting hit by an asteroid.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Aug 30, 2021 2:32:27 GMT
I remember very little about the actual series beyond Bonnie Langford screaming at some walking cabbages, Ace smacking floating Daleks with a baseball bat and a few scant episodes, and reading a couple of novels that probably had nothing to do with what was shown on screen, so I am enjoying reading these reviews. "Walking cabbages" is the Vervoids from The Trial of a Time Lord (Parts 9-12) in 1986 and Ace hitting Daleks is from Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988. Original novels based on the series would only show up from 1991 onwards, anything you read before then was most likely a novelisation of a TV story.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Sept 23, 2021 8:50:46 GMT
Series 9 was definitely a mixed bag with some stories that were great and others... less so. The most noteworthy thing about it though is how much more likeable Pertwee's Doctor becomes, perhaps because the UNIT folk are largely absent this time so he spends less time butting heads. He has some great interactions with Jo (who is fast becoming my favourite companion thus far despite my initial misgivings) that really show the warmth and humour that he's been a bit lacking up till now.
Day of the Daleks Hey, the Daleks are back - it's been a while, Anyway, there's a lot crammed into four episodes here, but it just about works. It might have been more fun to play up the ghost angle at the start (of course that would have required changing the story title as well so as not to give the game away), but I have no issues with the direction it took. The dystopian nature of the future manages to come across despite the tiny amount of screen time devoted to it and the guerillas make the most of their limited character development. The most interesting character however is the Controller, someone who has given up any hope in defeating the Daleks and has resigned himself to trying to mitigate their harsher impulses - his turnabout and self sacrifice were very convincing. The Ogrons are quite cool too - reminded me of the Uruk Hai from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Of course, there are problems with the plot - the story implies you cannot change history until it turns out you can, the guerillas' absolute certainty that Styles is a villain is odd given how little is known about the incident, and wouldn't an attempted murder of delegates be almost as damaging to international relations as a successful one? But all in all, a good start to the series.
The Curse of Peladon This had the potential to be an interesting mystery if the writers hadn't decided to make the villains so obvious. As it is, it's more the tedious "we know who the villains are and are just waiting for the Doctor to work it all out and foil them" approach of Series 7's Ambassadors of Death. There's some good stuff - Jo impersonating a princess raises the odd chuckle, there's a decent arena combat, the Doctor actually gets to show a bit of his tender side and having the Ice Warriors as good guys was a nice twist even if it was revealed a bit too early. But the "wet fish" king (who looks like Christoper Walken playing David Bowie), a fairly leaden pace despite being only four episodes, a half-hearted attempt at making Hepesh seem somewhat well-intentioned, nonsensical plot points (Hepesh is worried about the Federation taking the planet's resources so makes a deal with Arcturus which allows the latter to take the planet's resources) a disappointing monster and the supremely annoying Alpha Centauri mean this is the worst story in a while.
The Sea Devils The Silurians have had a bit of a redesign, waved away by these Silurians being a different subspecies from those that appeared in Series 7 (though oddly the Doctor is confident that these will have the exact same personalities and goals as their distant cousins - and to be fair to him, they pretty much do). Even though it was pretty rubbery, I quite liked their old "Creature from the Black Lagoon" look. This new design, coupled with them being seemingly amphibious, makes them come across even less reptilian. Anyway, this story was very good - up to a point. I liked the early scenes in the prison, the banter between the Doctor and the Master (though I don't really buy this new frenemy angle - doesn't really fit with the Master wanting to eradicate humanity out of spite), Jo's rescue attempt, Trenchard and Walker's exaggerated "Good Old Boy" characters, little humorous touches like the Doctor stealing Jo's sandwiches and the Master watching The Clangers, and the Doctor's attempts to broker a peace between the Silurians where he failed before. There's some interesting questions raised here: even though he has his own ulterior motives, is the Master actually right to say the Silurians cannot trust humanity? After all, both in this story and the previous, humans repeatedly choose aggression over peace. Maybe the Doctor should be siding with the Silurians? Unfortunately, this interesting question is largely ignored in the last episode. In fact, everything pretty much falls apart in this episode. The Doctor and the Master both forget everything they know about each other, the Silurians go from formidable foes to pushovers, there's a pointless speedboat chase and the Doctor just gives up on a peaceful solution to side with the more aggressive humans. It's also a pity Jo was barely used in the second half of the story, after being so capable in the first. Pity as up until the last episode, this was shaping up to be my favourite Pertwee story thus far.
The Mutants This kind of reminded me of Series 2's The Space Museum where 4 or 5 people are subjugating a planet of another 4 or 5 people. I know this is a budget limitation, but it always makes it hard to get into stories like this. It also suffers from a leaden pace, a textbook villain, unconvincing action scenes and some of the worst acting I've seen so far in the show. Jo is also once again barely used here, a pity as I feel her character has gone from strength to strength since her introduction. It's not all bad, there's some interesting points about colonisation and brutality being excused as 'civilising', and the initial episode has some good cynicism in Earth presenting its abandonment of an unprofitable colony as 'liberating' it. I also quite liked the idea of an alien race that cycles through higher lifeforms and environmental experiments messing with this process though it just wasn't all that engaging a story as told here. Also if the cycle is only 500 years (and the process had actually been sped up in this instance), you would think the Solonians would have some sort of oral tradition about it rather than viewing it as a sickness. The investigators being quite fair-minded also seemed at odds with the callous way humans viewed the colony in the earlier episodes. And to top it all off, it's another of these stories resolved by the Doctor twiddling with a wire while no-one is looking which is fast becoming my least favourite Dr Who trope. All in all, it's neither particularly fun nor particularly interesting and I found myself struggling to find anything much to say about it.
The Time Monster This is more like it! The early stages reminded me of Series 8's The Daemons with the Master trying to summon a powerful entity, but I think it feels more in character here, as it's more like a scientific experiment than an occult ritual. I also enjoyed the Master's interactions with the faculty staff and the UNIT people. It does feel like Stuart and Dr Ingram are being set up to be major players in this story and they then kinda fall by the wayside later on - also maybe I misheard, but I could have sworn the first episode said they were brother and sister and yet they appear to be unrelated later on. Probably my misunderstanding and I don't suppose it matters anyway! The middle chunk of the story is great fun with the Doctor and the Master trying to out-think each other in temporal mechanics. Not sure any of it made any sense but it was highly enjoyable nonetheless. And then the final parts of the story were my favourite, where they end up in Atlantis. The costumes and set design are astonishing considering they're only really used in just two episodes and the script does a great job of displaying a lot of political depth in Atlantean society in so short a time. And although it was silly, I loved the Doctor fighting the minotaur like a matador. The resolution in the end is a complete deus ex machina, but I thought it was quite a cool one at least, Kronos appearing very different from the flappy birdman of earlier. I also like how little she cares about the Master escaping in the end - you really get a sense that she is beyond normal concerns. My favourite moment though is when the Doctor and Jo have their conversation about daisies, it really made the Doctor seem so much more human. If I was to pick up on any negatives to the story, Krasis was quite annoying and didn't really add all that much to the story anyway and I didn't like Kronos' flappy birdman design. Also if I were to be really nitpicky, the story confuses Cronus the Titan with Chronos the personification of time who were two different figures in Greek mythology. But these are minor points and this is easily one of my favourite Doctor Who stories thus far.
Series 9 ranking: 1. The Time Monster 2. The Sea Devils 3. Day of the Daleks 4. The Curse of Peladon 5. The Mutants
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 23, 2021 21:43:51 GMT
The Pertwee era was largely confined to Earth, with a hundred aliens trying to conquer Earth as though it were a Lost In Space episode. The Eccleston era reboot has had a lot of episodes on either Earth or Earth colonies, although without the 'Tardis can't leave Earth' justification of the 3rd Doctor. But then, the target audience seems to be a couple of years younger these days - the tone is definitely lighter. My favourites were always the Master episodes, particularly in classic Who. I thought the Cybermen were higher than the Daleks - they were more calculating and hating.
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