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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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Teabag

Teabag

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Posted

I like the gold coins catapult chase scene through the warehouse and I don't care who knows it.

Having said that I cringed as a teenager when Richard and Lady Peinforte got picked up by the weird Texan lady in the limo. I cringed a lot back then though so I might quite like it if I saw it now.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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It does make the Cybermen very unthreatening though. They fell a long way from Tomb to this. And even further in the new series I think.

Whilst I didn't think Spare Parts was the amazing story that I'd expected, it's at least a good treatment of the concept. If they'd gone with that angle during Tennant's run things could have been so much better.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

(Blog has pictures)

Circuses are kind of creepy, but if I had watched this serial when I was six years old, I would NEVER want to go to one ever again. The most memorable Doctor Who episodes have a way of taking something ordinary and twisting it into something terrifying, giving kids nightmares in the process, and this does exactly that.

[Picture: I could have done without the rapping.]

Even now, as a grown adult, I have to admit that many of the scenes in this serial verge on the disturbing, such as when Ace is locked inside the workshop, and the bits of robot clowns start moving behind her. Brrr!! And those audience members with their lifeless faces and glowing eyes! And Mags turning into a werewolf! It's got some good direction and lighting, and makes excellent use of some very limited sets.

[Picture: Wonderfully creepy.]

But it's also full of really great performances. Ian Reddington as the 'chief clown' does so much with so little. A simple hand gesture, a creepy smile, and he's created a frightening foe. T. P. McKenna as 'Captain Cook' is a scary look into what might happen to the Doctor if he ever became selfish and complacent enough, putting others' lives, even his own travelling companion, before his own. The other circus performers are a varied bunch and you really feel for their plight. And as for the Doctor, he is very quickly rising up the ranks of my favourites. He's brilliant in this, and if those magic tricks at the end of part 4 are really all performed by him, I have a newfound respect for Mr. McCoy.

[Picture: Cook and Mags, galactic travellers. Like holding up a mirror into a dark alternate universe.]

There are still hints of hokiness, some of the characters don't quite work, and some of the production can't avoid looking too cheap for what it's trying to portray, but what this serial manages to do is turn its recent silly elements into creepy ones. Lighthearted humour becomes dark and twisted menace, and it succeeds by showing just enough to set the imagination at work. Its combination of direction, performance and production doesn't have many of the weak links I usually expect from Doctor Who, and the musical score manages to maintain the creepy mood throughout.

[Picture: Who let Harry Potter onto the show?]

While it's not the greatest show in the galaxy, it's easily the best serial since... oh, 'Caves of Androzani', certainly. That deserves a round of applause at least.

8
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Teabag

Teabag

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This is a really good one. Full of great moments and imagery. Love the half buried robot in part one that comes to life and grabs Ace, and of course McCoy's legendary stroll out of the exploding tent at the end. Mags's transformation is proper scary too, at least in my memory.

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davidcotton

davidcotton

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This is a really good one. Full of great moments and imagery. Love the half buried robot in part one that comes to life and grabs Ace, and of course McCoy's legendary stroll out of the exploding tent at the end. Mags's transformation is proper scary too, at least in my memory.

As with the Dalek one a while back, apparantly the effects team had used a bit more explosive than they had meant to. If you look closely at mccoy you can see him flinch a bit.

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Huz

Huz

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As with the Dalek one a while back, apparantly the effects team had used a bit more explosive than they had meant to. If you look closely at mccoy you can see him flinch a bit.

I heard somewhere that "too much explosive" was a recurring theme in the late McCoy era, which certainly seemed to make more frequent use of big explosions than in earlier stories. The budget couldn't stretch to a second take on a failed explosion, so the effects team erred on the side of, er, "caution" and made absolutely sure they got a nice big bang.

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Teabag

Teabag

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I heard somewhere that "too much explosive" was a recurring theme in the late McCoy era, which certainly seemed to make more frequent use of big explosions than in earlier stories. The budget couldn't stretch to a second take on a failed explosion, so the effects team erred on the side of, er, "caution" and made absolutely sure they got a nice big bang.

That reminds me, isn't there a bit in Curse of Fenric when they were supposed to blow out a door and some windows, but they accidentally blew the whole (presumably plywood) building up and the cast all wet themselves?

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Bought three tickets and it ended up costing me nearly £50 once you add in the 3D premium. It had better be good.

Wow, cost me half that for twice as many people! Four quid per ticket at my local "small" cinema. :)

I wouldn't have bothered otherwise, but what other chance will I get to watch Doctor Who in 3D, ever? Should be a fun night.

----

Battlefield

(Blog has pictures)

It's the final season and it would seem intent on going out with a bang. The use of explosives is becoming a bit of a joke now, but Battlefield is the show's attempt at doing an "epic", with transdimensional medieval knights facing off against UNIT's military forces in a large-scale skirmish, while an evil sorceress summons an all-consuming demon. Granted, it ends up looking like a strange war reinactment documentary, but for a BBC show recorded on video in 1989, it's not bad going.

[Picture: Morgaine and Mordred study the land. Only one can be the hammiest!]

Battlefield certainly isn't bad but when the premise is that the legend of King Arthur is from a parallel dimension and a thousand year old war is brought to Earth, you have to expect a bit of hokiness. Larger than life characters speaking of glory and honour in olde worlde tongues, evil cackling laughs and technology dressed up as magic. It's sometimes a bit much to take seriously, however I do like Mordred and Ancelyn - they have a certain charm to them; it's like watching a scene from Thor. The Destroyer is your typical overblown world-destroying monster, but it is an impressive piece of puppetry and costuming.

[Picture: The Destroyer, entrapped by silver shackles.]

While archeologists dig up old fossils, another fossil is dug up out of retirement and squeezed back into uniform for one last hurrah. The Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has a way of enhancing any story he's in, and he has some great moments in this too, particularly reminiscing with the Doctor. Despite the change of actor, the Doctor and the Brig have good screen chemistry. There could have been a bit more friction between him and the new Brigadier (played by Angela Bruce). I particularly liked the exchange in which he confesses to not understanding women, in which the Doctor replies "don't worry, people will be shooting at you soon". I half-expected him to die by the end of the story, going out in a blaze of glory, but found myself relieved that he survived the ordeal. It's a good end for him.

[Picture: The Brigadier threatens to kill Morgaine's son Mordred. Unlike the Doctor, his threat is not an empty one.]

Battlefield also stirs up some nostalgia with the surprise return of Bessie the car, but what I wasn't expecting was a memory dug up from my own childhood. I have a recollection of the "chalk circle" scene; I have definitely seen it before. My mind has mangled that up with memories of 'Remembrance of the Daleks' but I wasn't entirely sure this scene was also from Doctor Who. Now I know it was. It makes me wonder what else I saw at age six that has been burned into my impressionable mind, before the show finally went off the air. Not much, probably.

[Picture: It's funny what sticks in your head as a child. I have no memory of the Destroyer, but I definitely remember this.]

The idea of the Doctor being Merlin is handled with a slight twist: it's not a case of mistaken identity, rather it's something he hasn't done yet. A future incarnation of the Doctor was Merlin, and he even leaves himself a note. That's quite clever. For a time-traveller, there ought to be this sort of thing happening more often. Speaking of the future, the whole story is a few years ahead of the 'present', as evidenced by the pub charging five pounds for a lemonade, and their telephone being voice-activated. We're not far off that now, are we?

[Picture: Ace rises from the water holding Excalibur. Oh-ho, I see what they did there!]

Battlefield is nothing special, but it's perfectly fine. It's got some elements of the show's dafter past, with mad villains and monsters, but it's good fun.

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Huz

Huz

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I'm jealous. Nothing but stone cold classics from now until the end of the original series run.

Yeah, I'm calling Survival a stone cold classic. Deal with it!

"Interesting" fact about Battlefield: there was a potentially serious accident during recording of the cliffhanger where

Ace is trapped inside a glass case filling up with water

. The glass cracked and Sophie Aldred could have been pretty messed up if she'd been dragged towards the crack and the glass had broken entirely. Luckily someone spotted the danger and she was pulled out in time, but they still ended up with a TV studio floor covered in an unhealthy combination of water and high-voltage cables. Not ideal!

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davidcotton

davidcotton

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Wow, cost me half that for twice as many people! Four quid per ticket at my local "small" cinema. :)

I wouldn't have bothered otherwise, but what other chance will I get to watch Doctor Who in 3D, ever? Should be a fun night.

----

Battlefield

(Blog has pictures)

It's the final season and it would seem intent on going out with a bang. The use of explosives is becoming a bit of a joke now, but Battlefield is the show's attempt at doing an "epic", with transdimensional medieval knights facing off against UNIT's military forces in a large-scale skirmish, while an evil sorceress summons an all-consuming demon. Granted, it ends up looking like a strange war reinactment documentary, but for a BBC show recorded on video in 1989, it's not bad going.

[Picture: Morgaine and Mordred study the land. Only one can be the hammiest!]

Battlefield certainly isn't bad but when the premise is that the legend of King Arthur is from a parallel dimension and a thousand year old war is brought to Earth, you have to expect a bit of hokiness. Larger than life characters speaking of glory and honour in olde worlde tongues, evil cackling laughs and technology dressed up as magic. It's sometimes a bit much to take seriously, however I do like Mordred and Ancelyn - they have a certain charm to them; it's like watching a scene from Thor. The Destroyer is your typical overblown world-destroying monster, but it is an impressive piece of puppetry and costuming.

[Picture: The Destroyer, entrapped by silver shackles.]

While archeologists dig up old fossils, another fossil is dug up out of retirement and squeezed back into uniform for one last hurrah. The Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has a way of enhancing any story he's in, and he has some great moments in this too, particularly reminiscing with the Doctor. Despite the change of actor, the Doctor and the Brig have good screen chemistry. There could have been a bit more friction between him and the new Brigadier (played by Angela Bruce). I particularly liked the exchange in which he confesses to not understanding women, in which the Doctor replies "don't worry, people will be shooting at you soon". I half-expected him to die by the end of the story, going out in a blaze of glory, but found myself relieved that he survived the ordeal. It's a good end for him.

[Picture: The Brigadier threatens to kill Morgaine's son Mordred. Unlike the Doctor, his threat is not an empty one.]

Battlefield also stirs up some nostalgia with the surprise return of Bessie the car, but what I wasn't expecting was a memory dug up from my own childhood. I have a recollection of the "chalk circle" scene; I have definitely seen it before. My mind has mangled that up with memories of 'Remembrance of the Daleks' but I wasn't entirely sure this scene was also from Doctor Who. Now I know it was. It makes me wonder what else I saw at age six that has been burned into my impressionable mind, before the show finally went off the air. Not much, probably.

[Picture: It's funny what sticks in your head as a child. I have no memory of the Destroyer, but I definitely remember this.]

The idea of the Doctor being Merlin is handled with a slight twist: it's not a case of mistaken identity, rather it's something he hasn't done yet. A future incarnation of the Doctor was Merlin, and he even leaves himself a note. That's quite clever. For a time-traveller, there ought to be this sort of thing happening more often. Speaking of the future, the whole story is a few years ahead of the 'present', as evidenced by the pub charging five pounds for a lemonade, and their telephone being voice-activated. We're not far off that now, are we?

[Picture: Ace rises from the water holding Excalibur. Oh-ho, I see what they did there!]

Battlefield is nothing special, but it's perfectly fine. It's got some elements of the show's dafter past, with mad villains and monsters, but it's good fun.

This happened to be on Watch last weekend as part of the anniversary celebrations (shame bbc couldn't of done something along the same lines, a serial from each Doctor). I've come to reevaluate Mccoy's Doctor as I've got older. Whilst he'll never be one of my favourites I can appreciate a lot more what he brought to the role. What was also interesting was thanks to the extra time in the story how much more room there was to breath so to speak. It wasn't a mad 45 minute dash to the end. Think my favourite part in Battlefield was Mordred and Ancelyn's sword fight with the doctor calmly strolling through the middle of it.

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kensei

kensei

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Posted

The circle stayed with me too, though I thought it was from Fenric. It scared the crap put of me, which links the only other bits I really remember: the Doctor being trapped by a Dalek in Remembrance, and what starts happening to people in Survival.

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