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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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Mary Tamm for the eye candy, Lalla Ward for everything else.

Yeah, I knew you'd find Planet of the Spiders disappointing. You picked up on a lot of the criticisms that are usually levelled at it, especially the drawn out chase sequence. As with the Green Death though, this is often fondly remembered by 40 somethings as "That one with the Spiders in it", and it is a strong image. It's a shame though, the Master would have been perfect for Pertwee's final story.

Are you going to do a write up of your impressions of the Pertwee era overall?

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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Enjoying Spare Parts so far, although it's hard not to feel like you're listening to a sci fi version of The Archers, but why oh why have they not got the right theme music? Along with the lack of incidental music and the Hartnell era Cybermen voices it doesn't do a great job of making it feel like a Davidson era story.

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davidcotton

davidcotton

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Enjoying Spare Parts so far, although it's hard not to feel like you're listening to a sci fi version of The Archers, but why oh why have they not got the right theme music? Along with the lack of incidental music and the Hartnell era Cybermen voices it doesn't do a great job of making it feel like a Davidson era story.

This was still fairly early on in the BF run and they didn't want to pay for the rights for each version of the theme tune. They had to pick one for the early releases so went with the one that most associated with the show, hence that particular one. I forget which release it started but they do eventually get the correct era's theme.

Cheers

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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The Third Doctor - Summary + Best Episodes

Colour picture wasn't the only change to Doctor Who for its seventh season. In fact, far bigger was the change to Earth-based stories and a stronger emphasis on story arcs and recurring characters. Some of these quite successfully showed that you could still have exciting adventures and alien threats without actually leaving home, while others demanded a larger canvas to work and suffered as a result. Still, one benefit to the Earth-based stories was the regular presence of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, the most entertaining recurring character to appear on the show so far. The arrival of the Master also did a lot to improve the eighth and ninth seasons, although he did become overused and something of a crutch.

I think the third Doctor's era started to get quite stale. The rota of companions didn't really change enough, with the rather bland Jo Grant sticking around for too long. Even when his exile was ended, the Doctor still stayed with UNIT. Another problem I had with some of these was the sheer length of some of the serials. The four-parters were mostly fine, but some of the six-(or seven!)parters were just drawn out tedium, particularly in the early serials where every story seemed to feature the same setup (science facility goes wrong, creatures appear, corrupt leader denies everything, etcetera, etcetera.). Really, it fell to the Doctor himself to carry these stories, and this was done with mixed success.

Thoughts on the Third Doctor

I would have to describe Jon Pertwee's Doctor as predominantly "grumpy". This is partly down to the situation the character found himself in, exiled and surrounded by fools, and thankfully his character loosened up a bit once he had free reign again. But even then, he was not a joyful, playful type at all. He was very stern, very authoritative, overly confident in his abilities to the point of arrogance, and often quite patronising. Even when he was trying to be nice, he had this way of making his friends feel like children who couldn't possibly understand.

There were some superficial similarities with the previous incarnation, and in 'Spearhead from Space', he was actually quite funny and nice but then he did spend much of that story unconscious. There were also moments throughout his five seasons where he opened up a little. Jo certainly brought out the lighter side in him now and again, when he might reminisce and tell a little story, or say something inspirational. There's no doubt this was a clever man, burdened with centuries of knowledge and feeling rather weary for it, but he just wasn't alien enough. He was, basically, a normal grumpy man, but he knew how to fight. Venusian Akido very useful.

There were very few moments of comic relief or silliness on the Doctor's part, and I think that's a shame, because when it did happen, Jon Pertwee was very good at it. Even so, I thought his acting in general was good and convincing, and for that reason I would still put his character above William Hartnell's version. So, if we're going to do one of those order of preference things, so far mine is as follows:

Patrick Troughton > Jon Pertwee > William Hartnell.

Episode Highlights

Picking out my favourite serials from Jon Pertwee's run has been pretty easy, really. The quality of stories is not as consistent as with previous series, so the good ones spring to mind quite readily. Also, there are no more missing episodes to worry about, everything is complete and on equal footing (some missing colour aside). These are my top picks:

Spearhead from Space (4 parts)

A short story with a fresh style, and the best of the third doctor's character.

Inferno (7 parts)

A little long, but plays with the parallel universe concept to excellent effect.

Day of the Daleks (4 parts)

A thought-provoking time travel story that uses the Daleks well.

The Time Monster (6 parts)

Potentially hokey but goes full-on insane brilliant.

The Three Doctors (4 parts)

Contrived setup but easily excusable because it's lots of fun and Troughton is a delight.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs (6 parts)

Ropey effects aside, this is a really good plot, well thought out.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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Pretty much agree with all of that, although I'd expected Carnival of Monsters and The Time Warrior to make the favourites list.

I hope we haven't hyped Tom Baker's era too much. As far as most people are concerned it's the classic era of the show, the most popular at the time for viewing figures, and the definitive portrayal of The Doctor. But it was still mostly produced in the seventies on a shoestring!

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AceAceBaby

AceAceBaby

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Alex Kingston, eh. Hello, Sweetie.

So far I've struggled to feel anything about Clara as a character. She seems to be a complete non-entity, a cipher. Amy had more character development in her first episode than Clara has had in this season. This is the second half of the season but I don't see anything going on with her besides hanging some kind of reincarnation/persistent soul on her. Hopefully this is leading to some kind of ZOMG moment at the end. Also hopefully without cementing the NuDoctor trope of the Universal Destiny Woman.

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El Pibe

El Pibe

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Oh shit. I missed that when I looked at it on my iPhone.

FUCKING FUCK OFF WITH RIVER FUCKING SONG.

FUCK.

What is wrong with him? Everyone is sick to death of her.

Fucking hell. Stop ruining Who.

I really thought that we'd finally seen the back of her.

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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Considering the title of the episode and the fact that Smith may very well be calling it quits after Christmas, it may very well be the last we ever see of River Song. Don't worry lads, only one more episode to go!

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FishyFish

FishyFish

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I let out a groan when I heard that River Song would be returning. Her character exemplifies one of the things I dislike about the new Who; the fact that all the companions seemingly have to be smart-ass, wise-cracking, sassy types.

With hindsight, my favourite companion since the show returned is probably Mickey, for the simple reason that he was flawed, fucked stuff up, and seemed genuinely frightened by some of the things he encountered, which in turn made him feel more human. With the exception of Rory (and to some extent Donna) the rest all come across immediately as over-confident to the point of annoyance, like they've just stepped out of The Apprentice or something.

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