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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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Huz

Huz

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Posted

12 Oct - Hartnell - The Aztecs

13 Oct - Troughton - Tomb of the Cybermen

19 Oct - Pertwee - Spearhead from Space

20 Oct - T,Baker - Pyramids of Mars

26 Oct - Davidson - Earthshock

27 Oct - C.Baker - Vengeance on Varos

2 Nov - McCoy - Battlefield

3 Nov - McGann - The Movie

9 Nov - Eccleston - Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

10 Nov - Tennant - Stolen Earth/Journey's End

16 Nov - Smith - Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

Eartthshock? Battlefield? Meh. Otherwise, I approve of that selection of stories. (Vengance on Varos is a bit dodgy but what Colin Baker story isn't?)

I've been enjoying The Web of Fear (I'll be getting The Enemy of the World on DVD since that one's released first). I like the fact that episodes from the Troughton era are much less reliant on the Doctor actually being there, so they feel more like an anthology-style series than more recent Doctor Who. Troughton isn't even in one episode of this story! It's a shame Episode 3 is still missing, but the reconstruction based on photographs and audio recordings works pretty well - much better than I expected.

Anyway, I've just finished off Episode 4 and the story is bubbling along nicely. Really enjoying the opportunity to see a completely new (to me) original story!

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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For Hartnell the very first episode (An Unearthly Child) is a must see, and I even like the three episodes that follow (One Million Years BC) but it's not essential. I really like The Aztecs and The Time Meddler as well.

For Troughton the choice is much more limited, but I would go for a double bill of Tomb of the Cybermen and The Invasion.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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So, watching Web of Fear has prompted me to watch some more of the Hartnell and Troughton era stories.

Which of them are "must see" and which can I safely ignore?

My favourite Hartnell serial is The Ark. It's a 'generational' sci-fi story.

I also enjoyed The Time Meddler, The War Machines and The Tenth Planet.

I found most of the 'historical' stories to be frightfully dull, but I suppose the Aztecs is the best of a bad bunch.

It's harder to recommend the best Troughton stories 'cos so many of his are missing/reconstructed. If recons don't bother you, there are some good ones for Power of the Daleks, my personal favourite Dalek story so far, and Patrick Troughton's first serial.

I also like Tomb of the Cybermen, Web of Fear, The Invasion and The War Games. The latter is a very long but very good finale for the second Doctor. Feels kinda epic, end of an era stuff.

Blog links:

http://doctorwhofromthestart.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/the-first-doctor-summary-best-episodes/

http://doctorwhofromthestart.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/the-second-doctor-summary-best-episodes/

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Zio

Zio

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Thanks.

I've got the DVD of An Unearthly Child and the next few but that's it.

I'll try and get the others.

You can find pretty much all classic Who on Daily Motion if you have a little search around. I finally got round to watching Caves of Androzani this weekend courtesy of DM.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Are you tempted to "re" watch The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear now Sprite?

I might watch Web of Fear again, but it'll be after I've finished my marathon first run. :)

EDIT: I was also tempted to re-watch Spearhead from Space now that's it's remastered on Blu-ray but, again, not until I've finished.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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He's diacussing how he came up with the idea, not the plot, because he isn't going to give the plot away six weeks before. You are determined to be negative Davros. Is it a lowering expectations strategy?

No, I just don't really like the show at the moment, nor Moffat's vision for it.

And obviously I wasn't talking about the story of this episode - I was talking about how he seems to be more keen on adding lore to the series, at the expense of good stories.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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^ As I understand it, John Hurt plays

the "eighth Doctor", which means McGann was actually the ninth, Eccleston the tenth, Tennant the Eleventh and Smith the Twelfth.

---

Anyway, back to the eighties...

The Trial of a Time Lord (The Mysterious Planet)

(Blog has pictures)

Sometimes you need to take a break to recharge your creative batteries. After more than twenty years on the air, Doctor Who takes its first "hiatus", coming back fresh after an eighteen month gap. Colin Baker returns, along with his scary smiling face in the title sequence, but the music has been changed to a more subdued and bassy version of the theme. Season 23 has one further change: the entire season is one story arc, encompassing multiple stories that tie into a narrative framing device, namely a courtroom trial. The Doctor is facing charges from his own people, for meddling in the affairs of others. Past attempts to bring together multiple writers' stories into an arc have not been successful, so I remain sceptical for now.

[Picture: The Time Lord courtroom. Surely putting the screen BEHIND everyone is just going to cause neck aches, no?]

Things certainly get off to a good start, as the story opens with the single most ambitious visual effect the show has ever attempted so far. A fantastically complex motion-controlled sequence sees a Time Lord space vessel pull the Doctor's Tardis into its glowing tractor beam hatch, the camera swerving and swooping around to cinematically capture the event. It's seriously impressive. Sadly, that's where most of the budget went, as the rest of the story is set within the usual low-budget BBC sets or out in a forest, and film has been swapped for cheaper outdoor video again. Oh well!

[Picture: The incredible opening sequence is not just technically accomplished, it's superbly composed too.]

The courtroom side of the story has the Doctor face off against his prosecutor, the Valeyard. As you would expect, he doesn't take the situation seriously, and gets increasingly irrate. This is actually quite a suitable situation for this version of the Doctor and provides some comedic moments ("I object!" "What now?" "Yes, now!") and some epic rants. All the while, the court is watching one of the Doctor's adventures on the screen, set on a mysterious planet that closely resembles Earth...

[Picture: Seeing the remains of Marble Arch underground station, Peri is understandably upset at seeing what Earth will eventually become. The Doctor merely sees it as a statistic. All worlds come to an end eventually.]

Well, it's two billion years in the future and Earth isn't where it's supposed to be; in fact, the Doctor confuses it for planet Ravolox. Something is going on here but it's a mystery for another time. The story features a fairly typical social dichotomy setup, with a primitive tribe above ground and the technologically advanced society sealed below. In a classic role reversal, the poor humans down there are slaves to their robot "god" and the Doctor has to lecture it about the value of life, which it obviously fails to grasp.

[Picture: The Doctor confronts the robot, Drathro.]

There are certain similarities with Robert Holmes' first Doctor Who script, 'The Krotons', which is fitting as this was his last one before he sadly died the following year. He has undoubtedly made some of the best contributions to this show over the years, and this remains evident even in his final story. Take the two mercenaries, Glitz and Dibber. Another writer might have ignored any characterisation of two fairly inconsequential characters, but Holmes fleshes out his villains with quirks, gives them humour and personality that breathes such fun into their scenes that I was actually glad that they got away at the end.

[Picture: Glitz and Dibber plan to breach the control room.]

Where the writing kind of fails is where it uses wishy washy space terms without much thought. Glitz and Dibber are from "the constellation of Andromeda", apparently. Now, let's ignore for a moment the fact that you can't strictly be "from" a constellation, since it's merely a representation of many stellar bodies as seen from Earth; one such body would be the Andromeda galaxy, which is such an astronomical distance from our own that it renders any interest in Earth trivial. These two characters noticing that Earth is a couple of lightyears off of its position is, to put this into perspective, like somebody in Australia noticing that a grain of sand on Brighton beach has moved a couple of millimetres to the left. A couple of lightyears isn't even as far as Earth's nearest star, Promixa Centauri! Where is this mysterious planet getting its sunlight from?!

Anyway, niggles aside, I thought the Mysterious Planet was rather good. I'm certainly intrigued by the courtroom side of things, but I found the actual story presented to be strong in its own right. We're off to a good start, let's hope it continues.

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Darren

Darren

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^ As I understand it, John Hurt plays

the "eighth Doctor", which means McGann was actually the ninth, Eccleston the tenth, Tennant the Eleventh and Smith the Twelfth.

That can't be right, because we saw McCoy regenerate into McGann in the movie.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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The Mysterious Planet is probably the best of the season, but to me the entirety of Trial of a Timelord, plus the entirety of the next season, represent the absolute nadir of the show. An unappealing (and now rather lardy) lead actor, an increasingly pantomine feel, no scares, and a nonsensical plot.

But yeah, the special FX at the start are pretty jaw-dropping. I think they were trying to disprove the BBC's then view of the show as being rather silly and cheap (athough of course that was BBC management's fault), but the knives were still out for it, and this was the smallest number of episodes to be broadcast in a Doctor Who season at the time.

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Darren

Darren

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I'd long stopped watching Doctor Who by this time but I do remember the controversy over it being "axed" and then "brought back". It even got mentioned in the sleeve notes of the cassette single (remember those!) of Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Frankie's version of Get It On was from a Radio 1 session and was included as "our attempt to persuade the BBC to bring back Doctor Who" (or something along those lines).

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Teabag

Teabag

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I remember thinking the Mysterious Planet was pretty solid, and wishing it was standalone rather than being bogged down by the trial.

The survey robot busting through the hut wall to kidnap the Doctor was also pretty good effects-wise.

I'm relatively underwhelmed by what I've been able to infer about the 50th too. I'm hoping my lowered expectations mean I'll really enjoy it.

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Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

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I'm so unenthused about the 50th anniversay special.

What concerns me about the 50th is that it should be a one-off, a real celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who. Instead it features all of two Doctors and has been slapped right in the middle of one of Moffat's convoluted story arcs.

I'm not even sure it'll make much sense on broadcast to anyone who hasn't seen The Name of the Doctor (I know for a fact I'll have to spend about ten minutes beforehand trying to recap for the benefit of my wife, who skipped the last few episodes "because it's rubbish now" but will be keen to see this because Tennant is in it) and I'll be very surprised if it stands up as good entertainment in thirty years time in the same way The Five Doctors does.

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davidcotton

davidcotton

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No, I just don't really like the show at the moment, nor Moffat's vision for it.

And obviously I wasn't talking about the story of this episode - I was talking about how he seems to be more keen on adding lore to the series, at the expense of good stories.

Don't worry, there's always Big Finish's The Light At The End to look forward to for a proper multi doc story!

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