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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Please keep posting your impressions :)

Right, general impressions on 'Marco Polo'. It's a shame the footage was lost, as from the looks of it, it was one of the more extravagent serials in terms of sets and costumes, etc. Colour photos exist (and others have been digitally coloured) to produce the reconstruction. There are a surprising amount of photos taken from the actual scenes. You do get a bit sick of seeing the same photos reused again and again but it's enough to show what's happening. It's done well, all things considered!

I wasn't a big fan of the story. There's no sci-fi element to it that I like. I'm used to modern Who where they arrive somewhere in history and conveniently stop an alien invasion or something, so it takes some getting used to just watching what is basically a historical drama that happens to feature some people from the future. It drags on, simply because the Doctor isn't allowed his Tardis back. I suspect this will become something of a theme.

Moving on, the next episodes start with the 'Sea of Death'. I've just watched part five of this story and so far this is much better. Once again, the Tardis is held captive until the Doctor and co can go on some quest to find some sci-fi magic keys. Each story is set somewhere new, but still a part of the overall 'quest'. I enjoyed part 2, with the illusions and the brains in jars (Star Trek borrowed this, didn't it?). Then a couple of episodes don't have the Doctor in it at all, which is weird, but then he comes back for a pretty neat murder mystery double.

You could probably call Chesterton the main character at this point. I find him quite likable and the best acted of the group. I have to say, I'm not won over by Hartnell; I don't find his acting all that believable. And then there's Susan, who just spends her time screaming at things and talkingreallyfast. I guess this is partly the style of drama of the era, but some of it is better than others. The guest actors have been pretty good I suppose, even if some of their costumes are ridiculous!

I find it strange that neither Ian or Barbara spend much time talking about going home any more. There's been a mention of fixing the time circuits or something but it's generally brushed away as they go on another adventure. Won't people back home be wondering where they disappeared to? Friends, family? Their school? No mention at all. No-one's even asked what the Doctor's name is yet, or where he's from, or anything! They just go along with it!

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Flub

Flub

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Moving on, the next episodes start with the 'Sea of Death'. I've just watched part five of this story and so far this is much better. Once again, the Tardis is held captive until the Doctor and co can go on some quest to find some sci-fi magic keys. Each story is set somewhere new, but still a part of the overall 'quest'. I enjoyed part 2, with the illusions and the brains in jars (Star Trek borrowed this, didn't it?). Then a couple of episodes don't have the Doctor in it at all, which is weird, but then he comes back for a pretty neat murder mystery double.

The Keys of Marinus. I love that story. There's a great Target novelization of it that fills in the bits the budget couldn't reach in the TV version. They tried some really ambitious stuff back in the early days. Real pioneer stuff.

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Madness

Madness

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I find it strange that neither Ian or Barbara spend much time talking about going home any more. There's been a mention of fixing the time circuits or something but it's generally brushed away as they go on another adventure. Won't people back home be wondering where they disappeared to? Friends, family? Their school? No mention at all. No-one's even asked what the Doctor's name is yet, or where he's from, or anything! They just go along with it!

They're in a freakin time machine! They can go back and it'll be as if they never left.

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bulletzen

bulletzen

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Mary Tamm who played the first Romana has sadly passed away.

tamm04a.jpg

Doctor Who star Mary Tamm, who played companion Romana alongside Tom Baker, has died aged 62.

The actress, who was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, fought a long battle with cancer and died in hospital in London.

Agent Barry Langford, who confirmed the news, said she had a “zest for life”.

Tamm’s stage and screen career also included films The Odessa File and The Likely Lads, as well as recurring roles in EastEnders and Brookside.

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Yartek

Yartek

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Maybe it was a reference to the creators of the astounding charity single Doctor In Distress, recorded to protest the 18-month in 1985?

http://youtu.be/s1yW8FrrXAA

anyways, moving away from crimes against music, picked up one of the new sound fx Daleks from Argos today, they only had the Power and Revelation ones, was looking for Power and/or Planet versions, so nabbed it, brilliant wee thing.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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So, next on Classic Who, The Aztecs!

This was an enjoyable enough four-parter in which the characters all get to stretch their legs and have a bit of fun. Barbara becoming a goddess, Ian becoming a soldier, the Doctor getting engaged (lolwut?!). Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and taking the whole situation rather lightly, but then of course people start getting sacrificed and it all gets a bit scary. And it is yet another "we can't get to the Tardis until we do x, y and z" story, which is predictable, but they wrap up quickly enough, so whatever.

As for the extra cast, the bad dudes were bad, good dudes were good, and they were all surprisingly watchable with a minimum of cringe. The action, as ever, was a bit laughable.

The sets were pretty good in this one. They had this massive landscape painting behind them which looked excellent, and all the costumes were ridiculously extravagant.

So far, then, we've had historical > alien > historical > alien > historial. I'm guessing the next one will be alien again?

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Mogster

Mogster

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So far, then, we've had historical > alien > historical > alien > historial. I'm guessing the next one will be alien again?

I believe that was intentional. Doctor Who was originally intended to be something of an educational show, using its futuristic episodes to teach kids about science, and the historical episodes to teach them history. :)

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c-cat114

c-cat114

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Ironically enough family and I were just watching the Unicorn and the wasp and, as hackneyed and clumsy as RTD era eps were it was good fun with some very good dialogue. Donna remains one of the better assistants and all in all it was very likeable. What wasn't good was when any of the 'this weeks alien' turned up and we all agreed that if it had been the story of the unicorn stealing an alien artefact it would have been a much better episode. The rote nature of turn up, battle an alien, make a quip and go it pretty tedious on a watchthroigh of series 3 and 4.

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Meh

Meh

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Seriously - it was that stupidly terrible. None of it made a bit of sense - which is generally the case with Who, but oh good lord, all logic was thrown out the window.

It's worse than anything RTD wrote.

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c-cat114

c-cat114

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I found the majority of the second half of the series a hit dissapointing but ne'er once was it worse than the RTD era. Wife daughter and I are watching series 1-now at the moment and oh boy I'd forgotten how poor anything with Rose/marfa in was. Also it looked so poor, like children's tv drama. Moffat at his epic angled overblown worst is >>> RTD.

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scottcr

scottcr

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While I enjoyed every episode last season - it really did feel as though it was tying itself in knots to get itself out of problems of its own doing. I really couldn't care for River Song and didn't find her that interesting a character - which is probably the biggest problem. Matt Smith is still an utter joy as the doctor and if, as I hope, this season returns to more individual adventures and not having to bother with any of the nonsense that RTD came up with (given that most of that timeline seems to have been done away with completely) - we can have proper cybermen, proper daleks and proper Who again...

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