kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Jul 3, 2022 14:15:26 GMT
Yikes, no wonder Series 15 looked so cheap!
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jul 8, 2022 10:21:08 GMT
I’ve finished Series 3 (2007). Break for the school holidays before going into Tennant’s final season & specials.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Sept 1, 2022 9:29:20 GMT
Well, after one of the worst series, we now get one of the best. It's interesting to have a series long arc for a change, even if it's a pretty slight arc and it's basically just a more grand version of Series 1's The Keys of Marinus.
The Ribos Operation Ok, this is a bit of a return to form. The story is a bit all over the place but it's fun in spite of that (and possibly a little because of that). It's great to have the Doctor deal with a companion who's (almost) as intelligent and condescending as he is. Since a lot of his interaction with Leela and Sarah-Jane felt close to bullying, it's nice to see someone who can hold their own. I especially liked Garron the con artist who made every scene he was in extremely funny; I wouldn't mind seeing him return again . I was less fond of the Graff Vynda-K who was plain obnoxious. His descent into madness was badly written - not so much a steady decline as falling off a cliff. The scenes with Unstoffe with Binro were nice. I did wonder if Binro might turn out to be secretly serving the Black Guardian but apparently not. The Seeker didn't really have enough screentime to serve much of a purpose - probably would have been better saved for a different story. As with every good con story, it finishes with friends trying to swindle one another.
The Pirate Planet This one took a while to grab me but it did eventually. I think the main barrier for me was the annoying, buffoonish Captain, but I liked the revelation that this was a bit of an act and, while he was by no means a good guy, he was being dominated by the true villain. I especially liked him getting sad over Mr Fibuli's death after threatening to kill him constantly throughout the story. His robo-parrot was pretty goofy though I did like K-9 dropping it at the Doctor's feet. There was good humour in general in this one - The Doctor and Romana continue to have good banter, although she feels less his equal this time. The other supporting characters were incredibly dull however and although the idea of a gestalt psychic entity was interesting, the Mentiads are pretty underwhelming, the strongest use of their power being to lift a spanner. Better realised sci-fi concepts were a planet that cannibalises other planets and Xanxia using huge amounts of energy to make a projection something more. I also liked the idea that this segment of the time key turned out to be a planet. Unfortunately, it all gets a bit heavy in the technobabble in places - I certainly couldn't follow it towards the end and I'm not overly convinced the writers could either. But ultimately I found things to like here even if it was a bit of a struggle.
The Stones of Blood Wow, this story really didn't go how I expected it to! It looked like this would be one of those 'Doctor tangles with an ancient cult' stories and while there is an element of that, the cultists gets killed off very early and then we end up in Hyperpsace with the Doctor being tried by justice robots! This could border on the incoherent, but the humorous exchanges with the hilarious Professor Rumford keep the audience informed as to what's going on without feeling info-dumpy. This is a great K9 story too - I loved him deleting his knowledge of tennis! The Doctor is once again on good form, having great banter with pretty much everyone. Romana feels even less his equal again but I still like their chemistry together. I'm beginning to wonder if she, perhaps unwittingly, is serving the Black Guardian - that would certainly be an interesting twist on the Doctor Who companion. Vivien/Cessair is a great villain, radiating smugness - it struck me there haven't been many female villains thus far. While the Ogri are a bit goofy, the fairly graphic killing of the two unhappy campers does give them an air of the horrific. Really just an excellent story from start to finish - possibly my favourite Baker so far.
The Androids of Tara 'Messy' is the word that best sums up this one. We have a sort of Middle Ages planet which seems to have developed laser swords (that don't do much more of use than regular swords) and incredibly sophisticated androids. I don't really know what sort of technological development would lead to having these pieces of technology while everyone lives in draughty castles but I can kind of go along with it for the sake of the story. The thing is the story doesn't really seem to know what to do with the androids either - occasionally one will show up to impersonate another character but they never really feel all that important to the plot. Romana also (incredibly) turns out to be a double of a princess which again you would think would have more bearing on the plot than it actually does. Speaking of Romana, she's reduced to a literal damsel-in-distress for this entire story. At one stage, she escapes captivity (where she can ride a horse pretty well considering when she sat on it she didn't even know how to get it going) only to be recaptured immediately off-screen. As for the Doctor, he's back to being a childish grump after a good run of episodes. There's some decent action scenes but, bar a solid swordfight, they rely way too much on K9 doing all the work (while the Doctor criticises him constantly). Having said all that, this story is very very funny, almost bordering on sitcom-level writing at times. This might annoy some fans I guess but it saved this story for me. It also has two very good villains in Grendel and Lamia. So despite my long list of reservations about this one, I'm going to give it a pass as I was definitely entertained throughout.
The Power of Kroll If I though Romana had been reduced to a damsel-in-distress before, she does a Fay Wray impression in this one. That coupled with the Doctor escaping from a deathtrap by screeching at just the right pitch to break a window would make you think we're in for another cheesefest, but this is easily the most serious and sombre story of Series 16 so far. We have a group of people (the Swampies) who have been forced out of their previous planet to its moon and are now likely to face the same again or worse because they stand in the way of 'progress' (ie the extraction of large methane deposits from the planet) - the Swampies are a diverse bunch, some mired in superstition, some more rational, some more bloodthirsty. On the other side, some sympathise with them, others plan to exploit them further, others want them wiped from existence, others have more mixed feelings - all these views are represented by the team there to extract the methane. Thawn is particularly loathsome while I thought Fenner was an interesting character, the actor portrays his inner turmoil very subtly compared to his more black-and-white colleagues - it's a bit odd that the Doctor and Romana leave him to get torn apart by the Swampies at the end but I suppose it's fair that the Swampies should be the arbiters of justice rather than the Doctor. We also have a pretty cool monster in Kroll - I liked the twist that his large size was due to him having swallowed a piece of the time key. Having said, all that, I feel while all the parts were there, this story just wasn't told all that engagingly. While the characters were well realised, I wouldn't say I really liked any of them and a lot of issues are solved by the Doctor tinkering with things, almost like we're back to the Troughton era. And that high pitched note is something the 60s Batman TV show writers would have been embarrassed by. I feel Series 8's Colony in Space did a similar story much more entertaingly.
The Armageddon Factor Wow, there's a lot going on in this one. I loved the trick played on the viewer that what we think is going to be Atrios turns out to be a soap opera people watch while undergoing bombardment. The early episodes with the Marshall are decent, he makes quite a hissable villain and I like that while he is serving the Shadow, his belligerency is quite genuine. There's also a nice little observation that an AI with a simple program is no more likely to bring about total destruction than a human commander - the titular Armageddon Factor. When things shift more to the Shadow being the antagonist, the stakes feel a lot greater and I really like the visual contrast between his dark realm and Romana's white dress. Speaking of Romana, this is her best story so far, proving herself to be the Doctor's equal - I like that she was able to show a bit of her moral side when she was voiced disapproval about using Princess Astra as part of the key. It seems I was wrong that she was an inadvertent servant of the Black Guardian - turns out the Doctor was instead! I thought this was quite clever - why not put two capable people to the same purpose and let them think they're competing against one another to spur them on? I wish the Doctor had been fooled for a bit longer though - he rumbles the Black Guardian almost immediately (ironically, if the Black Guardian had just left things completely up to the Shadow, his plan probably would have succeeded). Still, I did laugh at the Doctor pretending to be drunk with power. I feel the introduction of Time Lord/ White Van Man Drax was maybe an element too many - he's a good character but probably should have been saved for a less cluttered story. The revelation that Princess Astra was a part of the key was also a bit from nowhere. Still, very good story, nice climax to a great series.
Series 16 Ranking 1. The Stones of Blood 2. The Armageddon Factor 3. The Ribos Operation 4. The Androids of Tara 5. The Power of Kroll 6. The Pirate Planet
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 1, 2022 14:21:40 GMT
Well, after one of the worst series, we now get one of the best. It's interesting to have a series long arc for a change, even if it's a pretty slight arc and it's basically just a more grand version of Series 1's The Keys of Marinus. The Ribos Operation Ok, this is a bit of a return to form. The story is a bit all over the place but it's fun in spite of that (and possibly a little because of that). It's great to have the Doctor deal with a companion who's (almost) as intelligent and condescending as he is. Since a lot of his interaction with Leela and Sarah-Jane felt close to bullying, it's nice to see someone who can hold their own. I especially liked Garron the con artist who made every scene he was in extremely funny; I wouldn't mind seeing him return again . I was less fond of the Graff Vynda-K who was plain obnoxious. His descent into madness was badly written - not so much a steady decline as falling off a cliff. The scenes with Unstoffe with Binro were nice. I did wonder if Binro might turn out to be secretly serving the Black Guardian but apparently not. The Seeker didn't really have enough screentime to serve much of a purpose - probably would have been better saved for a different story. As with every good con story, it finishes with friends trying to swindle one another. The Pirate Planet This one took a while to grab me but it did eventually. I think the main barrier for me was the annoying, buffoonish Captain, but I liked the revelation that this was a bit of an act and, while he was by no means a good guy, he was being dominated by the true villain. I especially liked him getting sad over Mr Fibuli's death after threatening to kill him constantly throughout the story. His robo-parrot was pretty goofy though I did like K-9 dropping it at the Doctor's feet. There was good humour in general in this one - The Doctor and Romana continue to have good banter, although she feels less his equal this time. The other supporting characters were incredibly dull however and although the idea of a gestalt psychic entity was interesting, the Mentiads are pretty underwhelming, the strongest use of their power being to lift a spanner. Better realised sci-fi concepts were a planet that cannibalises other planets and Xanxia using huge amounts of energy to make a projection something more. I also liked the idea that this segment of the time key turned out to be a planet. Unfortunately, it all gets a bit heavy in the technobabble in places - I certainly couldn't follow it towards the end and I'm not overly convinced the writers could either. But ultimately I found things to like here even if it was a bit of a struggle. The Stones of Blood Wow, this story really didn't go how I expected it to! It looked like this would be one of those 'Doctor tangles with an ancient cult' stories and while there is an element of that, the cultists gets killed off very early and then we end up in Hyperpsace with the Doctor being tried by justice robots! This could border on the incoherent, but the humorous exchanges with the hilarious Professor Rumford keep the audience informed as to what's going on without feeling info-dumpy. This is a great K9 story too - I loved him deleting his knowledge of tennis! The Doctor is once again on good form, having great banter with pretty much everyone. Romana feels even less his equal again but I still like their chemistry together. I'm beginning to wonder if she, perhaps unwittingly, is serving the Black Guardian - that would certainly be an interesting twist on the Doctor Who companion. Vivien/Cessair is a great villain, radiating smugness - it struck me there haven't been many female villains thus far. While the Ogri are a bit goofy, the fairly graphic killing of the two unhappy campers does give them an air of the horrific. Really just an excellent story from start to finish - possibly my favourite Baker so far. The Androids of Tara 'Messy' is the word that best sums up this one. We have a sort of Middle Ages planet which seems to have developed laser swords (that don't do much more of use than regular swords) and incredibly sophisticated androids. I don't really know what sort of technological development would lead to having these pieces of technology while everyone lives in draughty castles but I can kind of go along with it for the sake of the story. My feelings about this is it's slightly reminiscent of Genesis Of The Daleks, where a long war not entirely implausibly leaves a world fighting with bows and arrows and lasers at once, or of the Star Trek story where a planet has the technology of the present-day but the ideology of Rome, because of mix-ups in their understanding of industry and entertainment. As you say it's a rather fantastic, ambitious story which meshes several storylines together and isn't always successful in doing so.
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 21, 2022 15:37:24 GMT
Series 17 was a decent enough series. Not quite as good as previous, but no real stinkers and some pretty good ones.
Destiny of the Daleks This one starts with Romana trying out a few new incarnations, kinda similar to the Doctor trying new costumes way back in Series 12. Not sure she quite comes across as being the same character, but then I suppose the Doctor's personality changes with each incarnation so fair enough. Once the story proper gets going, it's a bit ho-hum. I get what they're going for with the whole logical impasse, but it just makes both the Daleks and the Movellans look a bit stupid rather than 'too logical' (the Movellans really couldn't work out how to beat the Doctor at Rock-Paper-Scissors?). I'm also not sure if there was meant to be a contrast with the Daleks deriding self-sacrifice as illogical early on before becoming suicide bombers by the end so not sure whether to criticise or praise that aspect. Davros is back, but he feels a bit less fun this time, having little more to do than declare his superiority despite all evidence to the contrary. The Movellans turning out to be robots was a nice twist and I liked their androgynous look though was less fond of the mops on their heads. A couple of good lines from the Doctor and Romana aside, I felt pretty 'meh' about this one.
City of Death What's with the title for this one? I assume Paris was the City but there isn't much Death about. And what's with the musical cues? Every line or gesture is accompanied by a playful little tune. A lot of the first episode is just characters walking around Paris while quirky music plays. In fact 'quirky' is definitely the word for this one. Despite the pretty momentous plot (an alien essentially created life on Earth and shaped its entire destiny), the whole thing is played with its tongue firmly in its cheek - John Cleese even shows up at one stage. I liked the concept of a being existing in several timezones at once and the Count was a magnificently smug villain. I also thought New Romana made more of an impact this time out, feeling more like the Time Lord she is supposed to be. I was less fond of the annoying detective who was there just to be confused and punch people - I was very relieved he didn't turn out to be a companion. The professor was also a bit too cartoonish, particularly his death scene. Still, a more entertaining story than the previous, even if the whole thing feels like it's strayed a bit too far into comedy territory. It brought up vague memories of a kids show about spies I used to watch on CBBC called Uncle Jack which I'll now have to see if Britbox has.
The Creature from the Pit This was a bit of return to form. I liked the titular creature turning out to be a more sophisticated being than any of its tormentors and the plot revolving around maintaining a monopoly on metals was refreshingly down-to-earth. I also liked the idea of whipping up weeds to use as attack dogs even if it wasn't all that convincing looking. K-9 is also a bit more integral to the plot than usual without the story falling into the trap of him doing all the work. There was also some good comedy with the astronomer who is silly without going as far as the characters in the previous story. The scavengers were good fun too, particularly their oddly homoerotic leader. On the downside, Lady Adrasta is a good villain ruined by overacting - does she need to shout every single line? And I could probably have done without the final episode which didn't make a lot of sense (the Tythonians decide to blow up an entire planet when their ambassador fails to report rather than investigating? Even aside from the moral implications, they'd wipe out a resource they're supposedly in desperate need of. And it's such a silly coincidence that the neutron star is due to arrive the very day the Tythonian is freed) and it's all solved by dull technobabble anyway. Also it probably would have been more entertaining if the Doctor hadn't seen it all coming. I know the Doctor is meant to be brilliant but it's so boring when he predicts everything correctly. Pity, because up to the second half of the last episode I was very much enjoying this one.
Nightmare of Eden It's almost like someone is taking note of my previous complaint because here's a story where the Doctor has to really put work into figuring out what's going on and is frequently misled or taken by surprise. It really makes for an engaging story and it's helped by a great sci-fi concept with the CET. It's interesting that, between the CET and phasing spaceships, this appears to be an era where human technology seems to be coming close to Time Lord level - the Doctor even mentions flippantly that he will be born sometime soon. Often the far future stories feel pretty unconnected to one another so it's nice to see a bit of a connection there. Tryst is a decent villain, coming across at first quite amicable and gradually becoming more sinister. I liked the way the Doctor just shuts down his justification at the end - the Doctor can never be convinced that innocent lives should ever be sacrificed for scientific progress. There's also good turns from the previously competent captain turned junkie and Don Brennan from Corrie has a decent turn as an incompetent cop who just wants to close this case as soon as possible. If there is a weakness, it's the Mandrels who are a bit silly looking. The scene where the captain can't stop laughing as they murder all his passengers would probably have been a lot more disturbing if they didn't look so comical (some terrible overacting from extras doesn't help in this regard). Still, I liked the idea of them being the source of the drugs and I laughed at the Doctor's 'Oh, my fingers, my arms, my legs! Ah! My everything!'. It was also good to see Romana getting to show her competence as a Time Lord, revealing she's more skilled than even the Doctor in some respects. Great story all-in-all.
The Horns of Nimon A while ago, I mentioned that during my short-lived Doctor Who obsession in 1996, I got a whole load of Doctor Who books from the school library and only actually finished one of them. Well, that one was the novelization of The Horns of Nimon which I enjoyed a lot. Shortly after, I stumbled across an interview with Tom Baker where he said he disliked this one because it was just the Doctor following K-9 along endless corridors and that somewhat dampened my enthusiasm. Turns out it's not the most accurate description of this story, but I can see why it's Baker's only real memory of it because the Doctor has nothing much to do beyond that and some tinkering with machines. This is very much a Romana-led story as she takes charge of the young sacrifices and leads them through the complex like a teacher taking her students on a field trip before travelling across the universe to zap some Nimons. It's interesting from this perspective and I wouldn't mind seeing more stories where the companion takes the lead - it's something that happened more in the Hartnell years, but had mostly fallen by the wayside up to now. Apart from that, it's not a terribly engaging story. The similarities to the Theseus myth, which were part of the appeal to me as an 11 year old, now just seem odd - what kind of crazy coincidence would lead to Theseus in Space coming about? While there are some twists to the tale, they're not overly successful, the Theseus stand-in is too bland for the revelation that he is a bit of a fraud to be of any interest (though I loved the Doctor patting him on the head). The Nimons look even more rubbish than the Mandrels - like someone took a conventional minotaur and applied the 'Big Head' cheat from Goldeneye. It's obvious the actors playing the Nimons can barely see or cope with the top-heavy costumes - at one stage one nearly topples over when he's just standing around talking. They looked much cooler on the cover of the novelization I have to say. As for their plan, it's kinda interesting and the revelation that there is more than one of them is well-handled. I also liked Romana finding the ruins of a previous planet where a previous Soldeed-esque figure now chooses to help her to stop other planets suffering the same fate. Which brings us on to the actual Soldeed: this is the worst performance I've seen on Doctor Who so far. I thought the actress playing Lady Adrasta was guilty of overacting, but she's not even in the same league as this guy. He's kinda like an evil Gyles Brandreth, every over-articulated word accompanied by crazy staring eyes and an overly intense grin. A pity because he's not a bad character on paper, but, Sweet Lord, that performance...
Shada Mr. Loverman (Shada!). Sorry. Anyway, this is a bit of an oddity. A feature length episode where half the scenes are animated like we're suddenly back in the Troughton era. Except there they used the original soundtrack while here it seems lines have been re-recorded, meaning the actors sound older in the animated parts. And then old Tom Baker appears at the end for some reason (having now looked it up, apparently it was a story that could not be completed at the time due to a strike). Anyway, forgive it these oddities and it's very good. In some ways, the moves from animated to non-animated sequences actually improve things as the animated sequences are mostly confined to the outer space elements, making them seem more other-worldly. The feature length approach also helps the story build gradually as we don't get the easily-resolved cliffhangers the episodic stories can sometimes suffer from. We also get a very good, threatening villain with an interesting scheme and an amusing supporting character in Salyavin/Professor Chronotis (although, why would he join the Doctor in confronting Skagra if he knew the risk in doing so?). I was more indifferent to Clare and found Chris just plain annoying. There's also some limp action and weak plotting in places - that whole thing about the Doctor claiming to be dead was stupid for instance. But on the whole I really thought this created a sense of the epic. The music helps in this regard. It's noticeable without being distracting as in City of Death or <shudder> The Gunfighters. Again Romana comes across well too. I wasn't sure about the change of actresses, but I feel this second incarnation has much more of interest to do, between sparring with villains and outclassing the Doctor when it comes to machine tinkering. Finally, I liked the ending for Skagra - he goes from coming close to being the whole universe to stuck in a room with a computer with a Doctor fetish.
1. Nightmare of Eden 2. Shada 3. The Creature from the Pit 4. City of Death 5. The Horns of Nimon 6. Destiny of the Daleks
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 21, 2022 16:29:42 GMT
Thanks for these as usual, Kieran. City Of Death has always been one of my favourites - it has a very slightly smug tone (maybe light rather than smug) which I think has been overemphasized by reviewers who don't go for Douglas Adams. As a fan of Adams, Da Vinci and Cleese for that matter (who shines in his minute cameo) I thought City Of Death was great!
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 21, 2022 17:24:51 GMT
Thanks for these as usual, Kieran. City Of Death has always been one of my favourites - it has a very slightly smug tone (maybe light rather than smug) which I think has been overemphasized by reviewers who don't go for Douglas Adams. As a fan of Adams, Da Vinci and Cleese for that matter (who shines in his minute cameo) I thought City Of Death was great! It's one I found more tricky to rate than most. If it was just a story about an alien wanting to steal the Mona Lisa, I probably would have liked it better. As it was, the epic scope felt kind of at odds with the jokey vibe, silly musical cues and 'ooh isn't Paris pretty?' moments. Still, I can't deny I was entertained.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 22, 2022 13:48:43 GMT
It has been suggested that the title City of Death is a bilingual pun. One nickname for Paris is 'cité de l'amour' (city of love), and 'l'amour' sounds similar to 'la mort' (death).
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Nov 22, 2022 14:24:12 GMT
It has been suggested that the title City of Death is a bilingual pun. One nickname for Paris is 'cité de l'amour' (city of love), and 'l'amour' sounds similar to 'la mort' (death). That would make sense, but I can't imagine too many people got the joke.
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 22, 2022 14:40:13 GMT
It has been suggested that the title City of Death is a bilingual pun. One nickname for Paris is 'cité de l'amour' (city of love), and 'l'amour' sounds similar to 'la mort' (death). That would make sense, but I can't imagine too many people got the joke. It's just the sort of Cambridge humour Douglas Adams does. I seem to recall a rather less subtle one where The Doctor is trapped under a pillar or something and reads a Douglas Adams novel.
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Post by a moderator on Nov 23, 2022 2:16:59 GMT
That would make sense, but I can't imagine too many people got the joke. It's just the sort of Cambridge humour Douglas Adams does. I seem to recall a rather less subtle one where The Doctor is trapped under a pillar or something and reads a Douglas Adams novel. Not quite. The book is attributed to 'Oolon Calluphid', mentioned (with a slightly different spelling) as the author of several controversial books in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 23, 2022 10:16:16 GMT
It's just the sort of Cambridge humour Douglas Adams does. I seem to recall a rather less subtle one where The Doctor is trapped under a pillar or something and reads a Douglas Adams novel. Not quite. The book is attributed to 'Oolon Calluphid', mentioned (with a slightly different spelling) as the author of several controversial books in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Very good tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Oolon_Colluphid it was still a clever-clever reference drop for a kid audience even if he hadn't written his Hitch-Hiker at the time (one not helped by Tom Baker's star-power take on the role).
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kieran
Baron
Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Dec 29, 2022 9:58:15 GMT
Series 18 was a very mixed bunch, including two contenders for Worst Story Ever.
The Leisure Hive The title sequence has had a bit of a revamp - the theme now has a heavier guitar and shooting stars have replaced the iconic blue swirly tunnel and the logo has changed into some sort of seedy nightclub sign. The incidental music also sounds more sci-fi-ey. I wonder was all this an attempt to appeal to the Star Wars crowd? Anyway, this story starts a bit oddly with the Doctor sunning himself, apparently on the run from the Black Guardian, which made me wonder if I had accidentally skipped a story. Most strangely at all, it has Romana inadvertently blowing K-9 up. She's initially distraught about this before suddenly acting like it doesn't matter in the slightest. One would think K-9 would know he's not waterproof anyway. Once all this nonsense is dispensed with, the story gets going properly and it's very good. After the crap costumes of Series 17, we get the much better costumed Argolins though admittedly, the Foamasi look a lot sillier (particularly in that scene where they are stripped of their human disguises). Costumes aside, I liked the mystery to this one - it's clear there are quite a few characters up to no good, but it's not clear what exactly they're up to and how their plans all fit together. I also liked the idea of tachyonics as an abandoned form of technology that our two Time Lords have only a fairly sketchy knowledge of, leading them to be a bit less sure of themselves than normal. I thought the show did quite well in avoiding technobabble in showing how tachyonics is implemented and its consequences - the army of Doctor clones was a nice twist but pretty well signposted for instance as was Pangol attempting to resurrect his race via multiple clones of himself. I also thought the supporting characters were strong, particularly the Chairwoman and the scientists committing fraud for arguably noble reasons. On the downside, there probably should have been more of the supposed leisure aspects of the Hive on display and I didn't think the Doctor being made old added much to the story. Though this did nicely set up Pangol being turned into a baby at the end - one of the funniest endings so far I think.
Meglos The problem with this story is everyone's an idiot. The Doctor takes forever to work out he has a doppelganger, Lexa assumes her god has taken up the dodecahedron based on basically nothing and Meglos is way too trusting of his henchmen. Said henchmen really take the crown for absolute idiocy however. They have no idea who Romana is even though they saw her on the viewscreen with the Doctor; they get taken in by her (admittedly very amusing) assertion that the anticlockwise movement of the planet has caused her to get lost; they do little more than shrug when they notice two jackets floating about even though they know that Meglos and the Doctor look the same and the Doctor doesn't do a terribly convincing job at playing Meglos (this is definitely overthinking, but if Meglos's appearance as the Doctor is a projection from having absorbed the Earthling, should he even be able to take his jacket off? Shouldn't it disappear or something?); and they think it's a good idea to betray Meglos before he's finished setting up a machine that can blow up planets. Apart from that, it's a so-so story I guess. Meglos is quite gruesome whenever he starts to lose control of his Earthling though I feel he's just too normal otherwise - I think a plant creature should struggle more with human mannerisms etc - as it is he's more convincing as the Doctor than the other way around! Baker has fun playing both parts, even though I don't think it's up there with Hartnell and Troughton playing villains. As already mentioned the scenes with Romana in the jungle are funny if ludicrous. Wasn't fussed about the vicious plants and poor old K-9 gets unceremoniously taken out of the action yet again - last time he didn't realise he's not waterproof, this time he forgets to charge his batteries. I did quite like the time loop sequence, but I don't think how they got out of it made any real sense. There's some science vs religion stuff at the start, but not much comes of it as the religious element led by Lexa soon takes the upper hand. Her self-sacrifice was badly handled - I couldn't care less about the death of a pretty odious character and she had next to zero interaction with Romana at this point to really make me buy into the scene. It seems pretty much everything decent about this one comes with a caveat. Baker does at least look pretty damn cool strolling around Zolfa-Thura in his fancy waistcoat and shirt - is it heresy that I think I prefer this ensemble to his old scruffy look?
Full Circle There's some interesting ideas in this, but the execution is frankly awful. A lot of it is spent with some rebellious (and annoying) teens who don't think much of the Deciders' commands. Their acts of rebellion are essentially pointless and have no real bearing on the plot. One of the group is the daughter of a character named Login who becomes the latest Decider (poor old George Baker trying to make the best of an underwritten role). Their relationship again has no bearing on anything - Login still becomes a Decider, she still hangs round with her disruptive chums. In fact they barely interact at all bar a one-minute sequence where it turns out she's not dead. The rebellious youths have a reluctant recruit in Adric, who is just all over the place as a character. At one stage, the youths flee into the Tardis. Adric follows them, closing the door behind him, then tells the others off for shutting Romana out - they didn't, Adric, you did! It looks like he's going to be a new companion so I hope he improves. As for Login, he gets bombarded by sinister revelation after sinister revelation - does this impact his decision to become a Decider or change his mind on how society should be run? Not really, he just gets on with things. It's just hard to get behind these characters when their reactions don't seem to reflect what's going on in the plot. Romana fares a bit better. Like in The Horns of Nimon, she finds herself acting as a school mistress for the first half, in the second half she gets bitten by some really rubbish looking spiders (the show was doing more convincing creatures than this in the 60s!) and gets all mind-controlled. It's a plot point that the show has used a lot before and does nothing interesting with here bar one mildly creepy scene where she starts screaming when a marsh creature gets dissected live by a scientist. The marsh creatures look ok but they're too easily vanquished and the show can't seem to decide if we should be on their side or not. The revelation that the 'humans' evolved from these creatures is kinda interesting, but I don't really buy it - how did these amphibious creatures who hate oxygen turn into creatures who look identical to humans bar having the ability to heal a bit faster? And the spiders are also part of that evolutionary chain? I also don't buy that the Deciders could maintain this society built on lies for countless millenia. There's some questions about whether the Deciders are villains or whether their lies are noble, but they're not explored at all; the Doctor basically just shrugs when he finds out the reason for their lies and then helps them on their way. Finally, what have this series' writers got against K-9? Blown up in the first story, runs out of batteries in the second and this time he gets decapitated!
State of Decay I absolutely loved this one. The plot is definitely pretty out there, but it's played with utter conviction so you can just accept using a rocket to stake a giant vampire. I really liked the idea of a rocket gradually morphing into a spooky medieval tower and the ship's crew becoming ravenous vampires. The vampire crew were great villains, you can tell the actors are really relishing the roles with their over-stylised movements - coupled with the excellent set design and lighting, this feels like a Hammer Horror with a sci-fi twist. The supporting characters are good too, I particularly liked Tarak. It was interesting that the villagers were more keen to rebel in the end than those who had been making preparations for fighting back for so long - after so many years of patient planning I imagine it would be quite hard to decide whether you've done enough to stand a chance. There's also some amusing banter between the Doctor and Romana and even Adric has a few amusing moments - I almost bought him wanting to become a vampire, and who can blame him really with Romana just tiptoeing away when Camilla decides to feast on him? It's also nice to see my bro K-9 actually being useful again even if his role is fairly small. The only real negative is how did the Doctor know where the great vampire would be to aim the rocket at his heart? Not really a biggy though. Speaking of the great vampire, probably wise that no more was shown of him than his arm as seeing him in his entirety would have undoubtedly been a disappointment.
Warriors' Gate This one borders on incoherent, being filled with technobabble, confusing imagery and characters speaking in riddles. I'm not even too sure what exactly happened at the end. Despite that, I found myself quite liking it, the more fluid approach to time with characters phasing in and out of different periods gave it a fun, trippy feel. The characters were solid too, the crew of the stranded ship being poster boys for the banality of evil - they just want to get the job done and in doing so they will methodically carry out any cruelty. Meanwhile the Tharils are one of the more interesting aliens in a while - their interaction with time is more analogue than that of the Time Lords, but in a way they seem to get it more than the Doctor and Romana. I also like the moral stance of the show in regards to their treatment - that they were slavers once does not excuse them being enslaved now; that they are being enslaved now does not excuse their past cruelties. Less successfully, a lot of the comedy in this one falls flat, particularly the banter between the two technicians. K-9 gets more screen time here than in the previous four stories put together, but the absue of him certainly doesn't let up - at one stage he declares himself to be less than useless. It turns out to be his and Romana's swansong - I'll miss them both. Meanwhile without Romana to keep him in check, the Doctor is back to snapping at people. Poor Adric.
The Keeper of Traken This is another of those potentially interesting stories ruined by everyone being very silly. If The Keeper had just told everyone what was going on rather than ranting vaguely about 'evil', everything could have been sorted in five minutes. And why do two of the consuls completely trust Kassia over Tremas when the former is the one who's been obsessed with the evil entity now trying to take over since she was a child? The consuls as a whole are weak characters: one gets killed early on, two of them are utterly useless, Tremas almost develops a bit of character where he has to choose between his honour and his people... and then immediately chooses his people after one jibe from the Doctor. As for Kassia, the story can't really decide how devoted to Melkur she is and how much she is being coerced so she just doesn't work as either villain or victim. I also think not enough was made of what is supposed to be a perfectly good society - certainly their police force seem corrupt and weak. Perhaps this was to show the rot in society caused by Melkur's presence over the decades but since we never saw what it was like pre-rot, it feels no different from any other society the Doctor has travelled to before. On the more positive side, I liked the window dressing for this one - the sets, costumes and music were all pretty good. I also really liked the look of Melkur and the revelation that he was a humanoid TARDIS was actually pretty clever though this was definitely a very long-term plan from the Master! Interesting that the idea Time Lords only get 12 incarnations is repeated here, even if the Master gets round it in an anticlimactic epilogue. The ending as a whole was poor, the Master being foiled by Adric and Tremas' bland daughter tinkering with stuff in the background, unchallenged by anyone. Once the day is saved, Adric just says 'Ok, we're off to Gallifrey now. Goodbye.' - hardly a great sign off, but kinda sums up the overall 'meh' feeling of this story. Adric as a whole just seems pretty boring. He appears to be a very capable assistant, but he could do with a bit more personality.
Logopolis All sci-fi enthusiasts love a gripping storyline about two Australians having car trouble - will one of them make it to the airport to start her exciting career as a flight attendant, or will her aunt's lacklustre motoring skills mean doom for her calling before it's even started? And to keep the excitement at what can only be described as fever pitch, these scenes are interspersed with the Doctor and Adric quoting figures and theoretical physics at one another as they pore over computer screens. Some bamboozled policemen later and we find ourselves on Logopolis, a whole planet of people who quote numbers at one another in order to keep the whole universe going. The Doctor gets shrunk but it's nothing some more poring over numbers can't fix. The whole thing builds to an explosive climax where our heroes jog slowly across a field and once again bamboozle the same policemen. The Master betrays everyone, but it's nothing that a limp scuffle can't solve. The Doctor decides he can't take any more excitement and drops himself to his death, but it's ok because he very handily had a back-up copy of himself for just this eventuality, even if it does turn him into Peter Davidson. Ok, I'll stop it with the sarcasm now. What an utterly dreadful story - dull scenes, crap action, leaden script, a Master who feels like diet Roger Delgado, boring companions, an unimaginative death scene with zero build-up (even Hartnell got better than this), poor sets and a plot that stretches credulity to its very limit. To finish on some minor positives - it was interesting to see more of the TARDIS than usual, the Master turning people into small dolls was a good call-back to his alliance with the Autons and it was nice seeing a recap of the Fourth Doctor's enemies and companions at the end.
1. State of Decay 2. The Leisure Hive 3. Warriors' Gate 4. Meglos 5. The Keeper of Traken 6. Full Circle 7. Logopolis
Now that the Fourth Doctor done with, I guess I'd better rank him. Baker gave an energetic and charismatic performance, but I never really got a sense of anything much below the surface. His only real prevailing tendency was putting down all his companions apart from Romana. He seemed to have no real warmth to him. So sadly I'll have to put him at the bottom of the list for now:
1. William Hartnell 2. Patrick Troughton 3. Jon Pertwee 4. Tom Baker
And I'll add Romana and K-9 to the companion ranking. Romana suffered a bit from having two actresses but in general I thought she was a solid character who brought out the best in the Fourth Doctor. I never really felt there was all that much of an emotional connection there though so she doesn't quite make it into the Top 5. K-9 was a bit of a smart-arse and he could be used as a bit of a deus ex-machina, but in general I really liked the little guy. I'll stick him below Ben, but above Liz.
1. Jo 2. Leela 3. Ian 4. Sarah-Jane 5. Barbara 6. Romana 7. Ben 8. K-9 9. Liz 10. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart 11. Vikki 12. Steven 13. Victoria 14. Harry 15. Zoe 16. Jamie 17. Polly 18. Susan 19. Dodo
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 29, 2022 10:15:37 GMT
Love these kieran please continue. As you say pre-Rose Who could be nuanced, particularly compared to some later Who episodes (the 'orphan planet' episode in Jodie Whittaker's Who ). Ranking Tom Baker as the worst Who so far is probably controversial & would land you in a flame war on any Whovian forum - he is iconic for being the longest-serving Doctor and giving the BBC ratings as high as Eastenders! However, I agree he seemed to take the role for granted in spite of definitely fitting it.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Dec 29, 2022 10:45:36 GMT
Ranking Tom Baker as the worst Who so far is probably controversial & would land you in a flame war on any Whovian forum - he is iconic for being the longest-serving Doctor and giving the BBC ratings as high as Eastenders! However, I agree he seemed to take the role for granted in spite of definitely fitting it. Don't think it was really Baker's fault, he just never seemed to get anything more to work with than 'quirky grump'. Which he played very well to be fair to him.
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Post by scouserob on Dec 29, 2022 12:52:42 GMT
Loving these. (I’ve read them all.) As it seems like a big waypoint I’ll give my rankings:
1. State of Decay 2. Keeper of Traken 3. Meglos 4. The Leisure Hive 5. Full Circle 6. Logopolis 7. Warriors' Gate
1. Patrick Troughton 2. Jon Pertwee 3. Tom Baker 4. William Hartnell
1. Jo 2. Ian/Barbera 3. Romana 4. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart 5. Ben/Polly 6. Jamie 7. Zoe 8. Vikki 9. Sarah-Jane 10. Steven 11. Victoria 12. Leela 13. Susan 14. Liz 15. Harry 16. K-9 17. Dodo 🦤
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Dec 29, 2022 14:43:20 GMT
I can definitely understand people not liking this one. If I had been in a different mood when I saw it, I may well have agreed with you. After reviewing a story, I generally look it up on Wikipedia to check character names and to see what the fan consensus is on the story. Series 18 is unusual in that respect because most of the Wikipedia entries for the stories had no information on fan consensus (State of Decay being the only exception). So no idea how out of step my views are this time. Also good to see another Jo fan despite you placing Jamie worryingly high!
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Post by scouserob on Dec 29, 2022 17:37:09 GMT
Also good to see another Jo fan despite you placing Jamie worryingly high! Poor Jamie 😂. He grew on me. He didn't work with Ben and Polly very well and was an intrusive third wheel for half a season or so. I liked him most as the caring brother figure for Victoria and also as the contrast to the futuristic more intelligent Zoe. He was a perfect companion to my favourite Doctor and I couldn't really see him as a companion to any of the others. (Perhaps the 7th Doctor? The other 5 classic Doctors were a bit too serious and he doesn't have a contemporary family he can visit, which would rule such a character out of NuWho.)
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 29, 2022 18:06:41 GMT
Late Elizabeth Sladen / Sarah-Jane who you've placed average was a huge favourite of mine - although I can't think why, because she was just a 'strong woman' (perhaps a precursor to Amy Pond), I guess I liked the well-written, UNIT K-9 4th Doctor stories she was in. Harry was a terrible, charmless companion, mainly there to be an idiot who would cause trouble which the Doctor would spend pieces of the story fixing.
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Post by scouserob on Dec 29, 2022 21:13:50 GMT
Late Elizabeth Sladen / Sarah-Jane who you've placed average was a huge favourite of mine - although I can't think why, because she was just a 'strong woman' (perhaps a precursor to Amy Pond), I guess I liked the well-written, UNIT K-9 4th Doctor stories she was in. Harry was a terrible, charmless companion, mainly there to be an idiot who would cause trouble which the Doctor would spend pieces of the story fixing.
Amy and Rory are by far my favourite modern companions. I don't think Sarah-Jane was a bad companion, I'd probably only bestow that dishonour to Susan downward on my list and a further 3 classic companions to come. I think she suffers a bit due to following Jo Grant. She also never really struck up a great rapport with either of her Doctors. (Though the Fourth Doctor only seemed to gel well with the second Romana.) It doesn't help that her departure is the most dismissive on screen brush off of any companion I can remember, barely eliciting any emotion from the Doctor as he calls her bluff about being sick of it all and shoves her out of the TARDIS door. Harry was a bit of a buffoon. 😂 I always forget that he was even in Genesis of the Daleks. (I did think he was good in Ark in Space.) As for K-9, it isn't really his fault, I just generally dislike the prissy or superior artificial intelligence archetype. K-9, Orac, C3PO, even Data are just not my cup of tea.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Mar 8, 2023 10:24:04 GMT
Series 19 was decent, some good ideas in there though not really the most thrilling series. Not really loving Davison in the role so far but maybe he'll grow on me. Castrovalva Quite a slow story this one, at least for the first 3 episodes. It works reasonably well though since, as we've got a new Doctor and two newish companions, it gives the audience a bit of time to get to know them. It helps in this respect that the more established Adric is largely absent from proceedings. It's hard to judge Davison's Doctor at this stage since he spends most of the story unsure of who he is (loads of nice references to previous Doctors). Tegan comes into her own here as a ballsy risk-taker - loved her disappointment when she found out she hadn't actually been flying the TARDIS. Nyssa is still a bit bland, but she's pleasant enough I guess - I think she could benefit from a better costume, she looks so uncomfortable in that heavy dress. Interesting that rather than the companions being hangers-on or vaguely defined 'assistants', here they've actually been given specific crew positions. Coupled with a lot of the early stages of the story involving piloting the TARDIS, maybe we're going to see a more Star Trek approach from here on? [After finishing the series, the answer to this question is 'no'.] As for the story itself, the early stages reminded me of the Series 1 story The Edge of Destruction with grappling with the TARDIS controls and nearly destroying everyone in the process. When things move on to Castrovalva, it does manage to come across quite peaceful especially with some great music and cinematography. The hunting custom does feel inserted to add some fake peril in order to get a second episode cliffhanger, otherwise it just exists to throw some suspicion on the Librarian. I liked the Doctor trying to explain how the dimensions of Castrovalva made no sense to the inhabitants who could kinda see what he meant but just couldn't wrap their heads around it. The Portreeve turning out to be the Master was a surprise as the Master seemed to be all but forgotten at this stage. It seemed a needlessly elaborate scheme to trap the Doctor but I thought it was handled deftly enough that it seemed less ridiculous than it was. The Master being pulled into oblivion by his own creations was a great ending for him, though of course I'm sure he'll be back soon enough. Ultimately, I think this was a good story somewhat hampered by the show's format where the need for each episode to have a dramatic ending is ill-suited to a slow-burning, character-focused mystery. Still, overall I would say I liked it. Oh and I finally get this reference! Four to Doomsday Another slow mystery though more focused than previously. I really liked the concept of this one, the show does well in gradually letting the surreality wash over the viewer before revealing that the characters are microchips within artificial constructs. It was fun seeing the characters gradually unravel what was going on. The almost genial Monarch makes for an interesting villain - he makes his diabolical goals seem almost reasonable. I also liked how he keeps Bigon around to criticise him in order that he doesn't slip into overconfidence. However, he's perhaps a bit too accommodating - I get that he doesn't want to come down too hard on the Doctor, but he gives him way too much freedom even after he knows the Doctor is trying to bring him down. Persuasion and Enlightenment are quite chilling henchpeople, but they don't seem to do much but glower - the final action scenes aren't very exciting. The companions are a mixed bag, there's a bit of conflict between them but it's not very convincing. Tegan seems a bit too hysterical compared to her more level-headed disposition in Logopolis and Castrovalva. Worse though is Adric who acts like a sexist know-it-all and then falls way too easily for Monarch buttering him up a bit. This is a character who outfoxed The Master and the vampires, yet he's completely taken in by Monarch even while Nyssa is right next to him warning him he's being manipulated? Speaking of Nyssa, this is her best story so far, she comes across as capable and resourceful. They've also finally given her some trousers! She and Adric being repeatedly referred to as 'the children' is a bit odd - apparently they were 19/20 when this was filmed. The Doctor sadly lapses into Baker-esque snapping a bit too much but as it's directed at Adric and Tegan when they're both being very annoying, I can maybe let it slide. Reading this back, it seems like I do have a fair amount of niggles, but they're all fairly minor - I definitely enjoyed this one. Plus it has Burt Kwouk which is always going to give it a thumbs-up from me. Kinda Thankfully not the 'Doctor does mumblecore' story that title promised. Also anyone expecting much of a resolution to the cliffhanger from the previous story will be pretty disappointed: Nyssa just takes it easy and sits out this one. Given this established drowsiness, it probably would have made more sense for her to be the person who falls alseep and has her dreams invaded rather than Tegan. Anyway, this is an odd little story. The stuff with Tegan's dreams is very freaky and sits at odds with the other plot of the Doctor and Adric dealing with a buffoonishly crazy colonist. Yet again Adric ends up cosying up to the villain though at least he's not actually taken in by him this time. These two stories come together when the entity that possesses Tegan ends up taking over one of the Kinda and leading them against the colonists, but the stakes never really feel all that high. The colonists are pretty much unaware of the threat as two of them are basically living in their own fantasy worlds at this stage and the third has already ditched them. Meanwhile, the Kinda accept Aris as their chosen one with little more than a shrug and then abandon him in much the same way. Still, the giant snake was quite cool and I found the colonist commander who gets magicked into a kindly uncle-type pretty entertaining. Possessed Tegan is quite fun too. Definitely good elements here, but it just doesn't quite come together. Perhaps it should have been split into two different stories. The Visitation Nice idea this one, dealing with the Great Plague and a group of aliens trying to accelerate it to wipe out the planet. The lead alien has some good dialogue with the Doctor and his android henchman is pretty cool looking, especially when he's disguised as the Grim Reaper. There's also a highly entertaining sidekick in the thespian-turned-highwayman. But sadly, this story is just a bit dull. The Doctor and his companions spend a lot of time apart from one another and when they are together they're generally carping at each other. The Doctor in particular comes across pretty unlikeable here, grumping at Adric for rescuing him with the TARDIS (the ease of navigating with the TARDIS seems to vary wildly) and being completely indifferent to Nyssa succeeding in destroying the android. A lot of scenes involve people being captured and imprisoned and most of the action scenes are utterly limp. Some annoying villagers show up every now and again - oddly they don't seem to even know one another's names. A bit like Series 2's The Romans, this ends with the Doctor being pleased about starting a devastating historical fire - not sure if in this case the writers subscribe to the largely discredited idea that the Great Fire of London cleansed the plague, or if it's just the Doctor is a bit of a pyromaniac. Black Orchid This is by my reckoning the third time there's been a story where one of the characters encounters an inexplicable lookalike. I feel if the writers are going to go for something so implausible, they should do something interesting with it, but here it's even more pointless than it was in The Androids of Tara - the only impact on the plot is George takes Nyssa to the roof mistaking her for Ann, but it would play out exactly the same if he had just grabbed the real Ann; Nyssa does nothing more than scream a bit. Apart from that, doing a sort of Miss Marple-esque story isn't a bad idea, but the mystery isn't very engaging and the characters aren't very sympathetic - not sure why the Doctor was so forgiving of Lady Cranleigh giving her rough treatment of her son and then framing the Doctor for murder. The aforementioned rooftop climax is also pretty bungled with George essentially getting hugged to death. There are though some nice character moments from the companions (it's funny how Tegan can relate easier with intergalactic species than she can with some poshos from a couple of decades before she was born). I also liked the inspector's childlike amazement with the TARDIS - just showing him the thing certainly wrapped things up quicker. But all in all, this is pretty meh. Earthshock This one doesn't start off great with Adric and the Doctor trying to outmope one another then moving to a cavern full of dinosaur fossils which seem to have no bearing on the plot - until they actually kinda do. This was a well set-up twist that I didn't see coming. Having some tough commando characters was also an interesting break from the norm, even if the acton scenes were pretty limp. I was less fond of the freighter crew - I feel we've seen these bickering crews who only care about the bottom line too many times before. I also didn't really buy Ringway turning traitor considering he seemed to be the only one concerned about people going missing. This was a good outing for the Cybermen, I'm glad they have their sing-song voices back (helps distinguish them from the Daleks) and there's some good debate between their leader and the Doctor on the advantages and disadvantages of emotion. It also (eventually) becomes a good story for Adric, allowing him to act the hero and with a pretty effecting ending. Granted, there's a lot of silliness - why would the Cybermen allow their mechanism to be disarmed by logic puzzles and then why would they leave people with it who might solve said puzzles? It was though a nice twist that we ended up hoping Adric would fail. You also really have to wonder why the supposedly unemotional Cybermen are so slow to kill their enemies and repeatedly take the opportunity to gloat. Still, fun story if you just go with it. I particularly liked the Episode 3 cliffhanger with the Cybermen marching towards the screen. Time-Flight I actually expected this story to be about rescuing Adric, but it turns out he is really, truly dead, the Doctor stamping down on any suggestion of changing what's happened. This is a nice little bit of continuity from Series 1 where the Doctor said something similar to Barbara. Speaking of continuity, there's also a shout out to the Brigadier and UNIT here, though none of them pop up. Anyway, this story is kinda interesting on paper - I liked the concept of a race of creatues pouring their psyches into one lifeform - but I don't think it's handled all that well. A lot of the dialogue is dull exposition (Nyssa is particularly bad for this). Tegan meanwhile doesn't do much except get a brief opportunity to show off her stewardessing skills. This appears to be her swansong though I would have preferred if she'd chosen to go back to stewardessing rather than considering it briefly before being ditched. A lot of focus is on the airplane crew and skeptic-turned-believer Professor Hayter. They're fairly likeble characters who have some decent banter. I did like the contrast between the Doctor fixing the TARDIS with his sci-fi mumbo-jumbo while the crew fix the Concorde with some more grounded physics. I also generally quite like stories where the TARDIS' capabilities are put to good use though I could have done without the Doctor biting Nyssa's head off when he erroneously thought she'd sabotaged the TARDIS and then congratulating Stapley for actually doing so - probably not intentional but it felt sexist. What really didn't work for me was the whole Kalid thing - why did the Master bother pretending to be some weird sorceror? It just didn't work on either a narrative or dramatic level. 1. Four to Doomsday 2. Castrovalva 3. Earthshock 4. Kinda 5. Time-Flight 6. The Visitation 7. Black Orchid So it seems I have a further 2 companions to add to the list. Adric was a bit like Zoe - a young know-it-all who was generally quite helpful. But he could be whiney and condescending. The writers also used the idea of him working with the bad guys way too much. Still, his exit was very well done. So I'll put him below Zoe but above Jamie. Tegan was pretty likeable but she often didn't have a lot to do. Kinda was probably her best story but even in that she becomes unimportant in the second half. She did have some good banter with other characters though and she had a bit of spunkiness to her - maybe the Aussie accent helped there. I'll place her below Steven but above Victoria. 1. Jo 2. Leela 3. Ian 4. Sarah-Jane 5. Barbara 6. Romana 7. Ben 8. K-9 9. Liz 10. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart 11. Vikki 12. Steven 13. Tegan 14. Victoria 15. Harry 16. Zoe 17. Adric 18. Jamie 19. Polly 20. Susan 21. Dodo
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Post by CharlesX on Mar 8, 2023 11:58:45 GMT
Earthshock has always been one of my favourite Who stories in spite of its inconsistencies (digressing a touch, I find it hard to understand Who-haters like Micheal Grade who don't warm to the action and acting especially by Peter Davison, in these stories but focus 100% on the non-American-budget special effects). Did you have any special feelings about Adric's death? I thought it was well-written and touching (as opposed to forced), unlike the Doctor Who movie death:
The seventh Doctor steps out the TARDIS in modern day America and is shot down instantly by some gang gunfire. All too true!
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Post by Pete Byrdie on Mar 8, 2023 12:03:41 GMT
Earthshock has always been one of my favourite Who stories in spite of its inconsistencies (digressing a touch, I find it hard to understand Who-haters like Micheal Grade who don't warm to the action and acting especially by Peter Davison, in these stories but focus 100% on the non-American-budget special effects). Did you have any special feelings about Adric's death? I thought it was well-written and touching (as opposed to forced), unlike the Doctor Who movie death:
The seventh Doctor steps out the TARDIS in modern day America and is shot down instantly by some gang gunfire. All too true!
I've only watched Who sporadically over the years, and have little investment in it, but I vividly remember and was affected by Adric's death.
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Post by scouserob on Mar 8, 2023 12:40:22 GMT
Great stuff.
I find the 5th Doctor rather cold compered to the previous 4. I was also uncomfortable with his treatment of his female companions (especially Tegan) towards whom he is often excessively critical and unkind. Yet despite this I have his stories rated second highest out of all 13 doctors on average. 🤷🏻♂️
Three companions was probably too much for this series and it is usually the perpetually underutilised Nyssa who suffers, whilst possibly my least favourite classic companion, Adric, usually dominates proceedings. Though he does have a cracking send off.
Anthony Ainley’s Master becomes a true pantomime villain in this season after the more quiet and sophisticated previous iteration. (Though when Ainley does dial it back a bit I like his version of the Master.) Unfortunately it is this portrayal of the Master that became the template for the maniacal modern Who Masters. The Master’s disguise and silly voice in Time-Flight is ludicrous. As far as I can remember it achieves nothing from his perspective (isn’t he alone in a room both prior to and during the unmasking?) and its only purpose is to provide a surprise for the viewer.
That is enough grumpy old man style moaning about the beginning of the Davison era, time for some positives:
When they were allowed to get involved both Nyssa and Tegan were engaging and worked well, especially when they were paired. I liked the contrast of Tegan who is all loud, emotional and instinctive to Nyssa’s quiet, reserved and considered approach to the dangers they find themselves in.
I found this to be a very strong season.
I loved the trippy take on a base under siege in Kinda, and Black Orchid is both a great little short story and a chance for everyone to relax a little in a more gentle story.
Four to Doomsday is a great concept with a good trio of villains but those interminable dance scenes paired with Adric going all Long John Silver and changing sides (again) move it down to 5th for me below the less ambitious but more successfully realised science fiction of Earthshock and The Visitation.
My rankings: 1. Kinda 2. Black Orchid 3. Earthshock 4. The Visitation 5. Four to Doomsday 6. Castrovalva 7. Time-Flight
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Mar 8, 2023 13:36:54 GMT
Did you have any special feelings about Adric's death? I thought it was very well handled - it probably would have hit me harder if I didn't (as it turns out, wrongly) suspect they would just save him next story. Still, he got to go out a hero and the silent credits made it quite poignant.
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Post by a moderator on Mar 8, 2023 13:45:39 GMT
AIUI, Nyssa's absence from the bulk of Kinda was because of some weirdness with Sarah Sutton's contract that meant she was only booked to appear in 24 of the 26 episodes of the season.
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kieran
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Posts: 2,547
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy
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Post by kieran on Mar 8, 2023 13:48:37 GMT
The Master’s disguise and silly voice in Time-Flight is ludicrous. As far as I can remember it achieves nothing from his perspective (isn’t he alone in a room both prior to and during the unmasking?) and its only purpose is to provide a surprise for the viewer.
Yep, it makes zero sense. I wonder if Kaled was conceived as a separate character originally and some bright spark decided to make him the Master rather than just get rid of him completely. Even before the revelation, Kaled was a terrible character with a silly (and arguably racist) voice and design.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 1, 2023 22:47:13 GMT
it was still a clever-clever reference drop for a kid audience even if he hadn't written his Hitch-Hiker at the time The serial that name drops this ("Destiny of the Daleks") aired in September 1979, the book version of "Hiker's" was published in October 1979. But this is by-the-by, the radio version the book was a novelisation of had aired on BBC radio in 1978.
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 1, 2023 23:01:27 GMT
Series 18 was a very mixed bunch, including two contenders for Worst Story Ever. The Leisure Hive The director on this took longer than allocated to the story - trying to shoot it single camera (As movies and all dramas are essentially done today) at a time when DW was shot multi-camera (like a sitcom). He was not asked back to direct again. Besides The Mind Robber way back in Season 6 (which has the excuses of being the final story recorded of that production block, Fraser Hines getting measles, and an extra episode having to be tacked onto the start of the story), this story has some of the shortest episodes (duration-wise), with Part 4 clocking in at 19 minutes (instead of the usual 24 1/2). Originally meant to open Season 15 (producer Graham William's first season back in 1977/78) till the BBC management said no to anything that might look like a parody of their expensive, prestige Dracula adaptation in production at the same time. Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead stripped all the gothic horror out of the scripts and director Peter Moffat put it all back in again before shooting began. This is the story where you can see Tom & Lalla's on-again/of-again non-working relationship on screen. In the location material that was shot on film at the beginning of production, Tom won't even look her in the face. He's much happier a couple of weeks later when they shoot the studio material on videotape. It didn't help that Tom was quite ill during production (his hair was permed for the only time in the series as it had gone limp from the illness). Steven Gallagher is an acclaimed sci-fi author (I've not read any of his works). It apparently took a lot to wrangle this into something the production team could actually get on screen. If you want to get an idea of what it might have been like, the BBC (books & audio) have recently released his novelisation of the story in its original form (as opposed to the one published in 1981). Reputedly the director was fired from the story. I know people personally for which this is their favourite DW story of the classic era. This wasn't originally going to feature the Master. Always fun to see you trash my favourite classic era DW story!
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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Apr 1, 2023 23:16:46 GMT
Series 19 was decent, some good ideas in there though not really the most thrilling series. Not really loving Davison in the role so far but maybe he'll grow on me. Davison is my fav classic era Doctor, but I do wonder if that is influenced by him being the Doctor on screen at the time I became a fan rather than just a casual viewer. At this point DW moved from airing once a week on a Saturday teatime slot, where the first half of Season 18 was soundly thrashed in the ratings by the then new Buck Rogers TV series (soon to be cancelled in the US as all those expensive, brainless series usually were*), to airing twice a week (usually Monday & Tuesday) later in the evening. This had an effect on cliffhangers - those for Parts 1 & 3 weren't quite so important as the one for Part 2, which had to get you back a week later as opposed to 24hrs later. As a result some writers spilt their stories in half, often moving to a new main location for the second half of each story (eg. Earthshock move from the caves to the freighter, Castrovalva from the TARDIS to Castrovala). This story was a late replacement for a script from the Meglos authors that got (thankfully, based on the supposed plot description) dropped, hence it was shot 4th in the season after Four to Doomsday, The Visitation, and Kinda. *After the original Twilight Zone (1959), I don't think any US sci-fi fantasy series beats more than 3 seasons till Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) does in 1990 with its fourth season. Written by an old BBC writer/director (he directed Meglos don't you know!) who I think hadn't watched DW since the Hartnell era, hence the 1960s feel of exploring the ship at the beginning. For whatever reason, Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) was only contracted for 2 of the 26 episodes and hence she feel asleep or 2 in the middle of this story. For the longest time, because no one had interviewed author Chris Bailey, there was rumour the story was written by the likes of Kate Bush under a pseudonym! Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead has left at the end of Season 18, and Antony Root was only filling in for 3 months. This is the script that got Eric Saward the job as Script Editor (a post he'll hold till all hell breaks loose in 1986). DW production at this point in time meant you couldn't swap stories around near the end of the season as post-production time would preclude the final story shot being ready to air if not scheduled last in the season. As with the Graham Williams era, strikes will cause issues for the end of the coming seasons (20-21). Otherwise it might have been better to have Time-Flight first and end stronger on Earthshock.
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