Doctor Who

[Davros sock drawer]

Can't believe Sprite's only got two more Baker stories left to watch.

[HarMGM]

I'm actually looking forward to the mixture of awfullness and utter despair that Sprite will find himself in when he gets to Colin Baker's run. Watched the Twin Dilemma recently and after that I tried watching some of Trials of a Timelord.

Oh dear.

[Harsin]

On the upside: Boobs

[davidcotton]

Thing is though Big Finish has shown how right Colin Baker would have been for the role on telly given a proper chance. Still getting ahead a bit here.

I'm actually looking forward to the mixture of awfullness and utter despair that Sprite will find himself in when he gets to Colin Baker's run. Watched the Twin Dilemma recently and after that I tried watching some of Trials of a Timelord.

Oh dear.

[Zio]

The worst thing about Colin Baker was that fucking ridiculous costume they had him wear. It's impossible to get past the fact you're watching a man dressed as a clown. His actual portrayal isn't that bad once you get past the visual part of it.

[Davros sock drawer]

At least Davidson's run has some great stories. I have to be feeling very generous to like even a single Colin Baker or McCoy story.

[Zio]

At least Davidson's run has some great stories. I have to be feeling very generous to like even a single Colin Baker or McCoy story.

Rememberance of the Daleks man, surely?! It's one of my all-time faves!

[MrPogo]

Michael Jackson

I'm sure I read somewhere that Michael Jackson was actually signed up to play The Doctor in a late 80s Hollywood movie version, but the project (obviously) stumbled at some point before filming began.

[Davros sock drawer]

Rememberance of the Daleks man, surely?! It's one of my all-time faves!

It has a couple of memorable bits, but it's generally pretty CBBC.

[Sprite Machine]

The Keeper of Traken

(Blog has pictures)

With the E-Space 'trilogy' behind me, I am now very much aware that I am coming to the end of an era, as I watch the last of Tom Baker's episodes as the Doctor. I figure things are going to end for him one way or another on Gallifrey, but before they get there, there is first an urgent matter to deal with on a peaceful little planet, whose leader (Keeper) is coming to the end of his life and reign.

[Picture: The power of the Traken empire and its 'source' is implied early on, as the eldery Keeper is able to appear within the Tardis to ask the Doctor for help.]

This story could have been pretty boring, consisting as it does of a woman talking to a statue for much of it. But then the unmistakable sound of another Tardis materialising transforms it into an intriguing reunion between the Doctor and an old nemesis. The Master hasn't been seen since his appearance in 'The Deadly Assassin', and I totally didn't expect him to turn up again here. It's funny how dropping an old face into a story can make all the difference, rather than cooking up a brand new villain, the all-powerful 'source' being an ideal goal for his huge ambition, as he seeks a way to escape death yet again.

[Picture: The Master attempts to steal the Doctor's body. Freaky.]

Unlike his previous appearance, the Master's face is a little more human here, albeit disfigured and burned, so he is able to have some decent banter with the Doctor without having to talk through a mask. I guess it's a shame that it doesn't last very long, as with Adric's help, the source is disrupted and the Master's power is lost, but I was pleased that he assumes a new body at the end and escapes. As a symbol of relentless determination across time and space, the Master is undoubtedly one of the best adversaries in this series. Using him sparingly like this, and without announcement, works very well.

[Picture: The statue design is kind of cool, I suppose.]

Otherwise, yeah, the story was okay. Nothing special, a bit too much po-faced ritual, melodrama and blandness. If it wasn't for the Master turning up, I would have been pretty bored. Tom Baker's Doctor continues to elevate everything to a pleasingly watchable level, and Adric actually did something useful this time.

[NEG]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Michael Jackson was actually signed up to play The Doctor in a late 80s Hollywood movie version, but the project (obviously) stumbled at some point before filming began.

That...that...wow.

[FishyFish]

I know that they're re-issues, but it still triggers a pang of nostalgia when I see these...

[Harsin]

And they're a better read than that godawful Guillermo del Toro vampire novel.

[Davros sock drawer]

Lovely lovely Target books.

More childhood nightmares for me in The Keeper of Traken. I have a very vivid memory of The Master stealing Tremas's body at the end of the story, the line "A new body at last!" especially. Creeped me the hell out!

Anthony Ainley certainly plays the Master with gusto, as you'll discover!

[Davros sock drawer]

Oh and I agree, the Melkur is a cool and weird looking "statue". What's even more weird is that you can now buy one in the shops:

[kensei]

It has a couple of memorable bits, but it's generally pretty CBBC.

Rememberance is my earliest Doctor Who memory. Loved it, think it holds up ok. Silver Nemesis less so.

Ghost Light, Curse of Fenric and Survival were all pretty decent. The show was definitely on the up when they killed it.

[Davros sock drawer]

Oh I agree there, it was definitely getting better, but...I dunno. It has an am dram feel thanks to Sophie Aldred, and the music and so on is pretty awful. I do like Fenric and Ghost Light though, although if Sprite found Warrior's Gate impenetrable, Christ knows what he'll think of that!

[davidcotton]

At least Davidson's run has some great stories. I have to be feeling very generous to like even a single Colin Baker or McCoy story.

That was my era of the show. I was just a bit too young for the majority of the Baker stories, and can remember fragments of the odd pertwee here and there.

[Teabag]

Ghost Light is brilliant. Though if you zone out when everything gets explained at the start of part three you're fucked.

[Davros sock drawer]

The actress playing Control annoys me though. "Laaaaadeeeeliiiiike!". Ok love, we'll let you know.

[AceAceBaby]

Ace was/is my favourite companion.

[Davros sock drawer]

She was one of the worst IMO. All that "Wicked Prof!" down wiv da kidz stuff was embarrassing, and the performance was terrible. They tried to do some interesting stuff with her character in Ghost Light and Fenric, but I still found her completely unbelievable.

[kensei]

I thought she was amazing at the time. Then again, I was 8.

It's hard for the show to balance competing audiences at times I think.

[AceAceBaby]

I'm sure my age at the time had a lot to do with it.

[Davros sock drawer]

Oh, don't get my wrong - I didn't even have a problem with Adric when I was 6!

[Davros sock drawer]

Make with the logopolis review Sprite!

[Sprite Machine]

Haven't finished watching it yet!

[Sprite Machine]

Logopolis

(Blog has pictures)

The second law of thermodynamics states that entropy will always increase within isolated systems. Doctor Who states that the Universe reached the point of total breakdown some time ago, and it's only thanks to the race of Logopolitans opening up the Universe to outside pockets of spacetime using the computational power of their minds, that we're all still here to talk about it. Now, I've been a fan of sci-fi since my teens, but I must confess, I've never known a TV show to tackle such big ideas on such a regular basis. Granted, it makes mistakes and it's often a bit silly, but I applaud the effort.

[Picture: That neon logo is so outrageous it could get arrested by the Logopolice. (Sorry.)]

It's also remarkable how it portrays these Universe-shattering events through a lens of the ordinary. This serial does look a bit cheaply made, in part due to half of it being set on Earth, on the side of a road, inside the Tardis, or in an alien facility that just happens to have been modelled on an exact duplicate of a radio telescope control room on Earth. But, for what it's worth, I enjoyed the down-to-Earth nature of it and felt it was a fitting conclusion to the season. In particular, visiting the site of one of the last blue police boxes in the country in 1981 feels appropriate.

[Picture: A nice model of the Logopolis landscape.]

It's also amusing how such a big event type story has such innocent beginnings, as the Doctor only intends to take his Tardis for a spruce-up, having spent much of the first episode talking to Adric about entropy, the chameleon circuit and police boxes. The Master preempts his plans by disguising his Tardis as another police box, leading to another brilliant Tardis-inside-Tardis sequence, and in the process picking up another stowaway in Tegan, the aussie air-stewardess.

[Picture: The Doctor forms a temporary alliance with the Master, as portrayed by Anthony Ainley. Hints of Roger Delgado, but much more subdued.]

With Nyssa returning from Traken, we have an excess of companions now. They don't play much of a part in this story and feel superfluous, but I guess the foundations are being laid for the new Doctor's stories.

[Picture: Of the three companions, Tegan is potentially the most interesting, or at least the most human (literally), although her introduction slows the early pace of the story.]

Speaking of the new Doctor, this is of course Tom Baker's final serial. While I will shortly lay down some thoughts on his epic run of seven seasons, for now I will say that his exit was dignified and without theatrics. Interestingly, he knew it was coming. So did I, of course, but the presence of the 'Watcher' was an unexpected twist on the regeneration process. Admittedly, I did twig early on that he was probably a future incarnation of the Doctor, but I expected a scooby-doo "mask reveal" scene, not what actually turned out to be a sort of ghostly extra life that absorbed into him. Thinking about it, that doesn't really make much sense.

[Picture: The actual regeneration sequence is elaborate, going from Tom Baker's face to a mask, to a made-up face and finally to a smiling Peter Davison.]

And won't somebody please think of the entropy? Did the giant satellite dish fix the Universe? Will Logopolis rebuild itself? Is it necessary any more? Don't get me wrong, if there is a place for Universe-ending storylines, a season finale is probably it - but please don't set up something that you can't resolve before the time's up. Then again, maybe the new fresh-faced fifth Doctor will clean up the Master's mess. Here’s hoping!

[Don Wiskerando]

And onto my favourite doctor. All I wanted for Christmas was a replica of that jumper, and when Santa delivered I wore it to destruction.

Thanks for all these updates by the way Sprite. I love reading your impressions.

[SeanR]

http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/doctor-who-mr-potato-head-mashup-released