And a well chosen writer: writing the occasional Doctor Who was effectively Louis Marks' third job; job number two was producing the BBC's Play of the Month series, which did productions of Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Strindberg, lightweight stuff like that. Job number one was as a professor of Renaissance History, whose PhD was the definitive text on the economics of the era where Mandragora is set...
I've just finished watching Doctor Who and the Silurians. First time I’ve seen it in over a decade I think. It really is rather good, and the fact it's 7 episodes never makes it feel too drawn out. It really does throw everything but he kitchen sink at you; alien invasion, mistrustful humans, nuclear annihilation, biological warfare, UNIT, good aliens, bad aliens, Whitehall bureaucrats, action, adventure, Liz Shaw in go go boots…all this plus Avon!! Pertwee is extremely confident in the role given its only his second adventure (am I right in thinking they were filmed in order back then as well?)
^^ And the sequel is this big, dumb, fantastic action movie, which is, in my opinion, equally excellent.
Oh that'll be next on my list. I inherited the Silurian box set a month or two back. I am right in assuming The Sea Devils features The Master/clangers moment?
You are right. Now if we're talking about the Silurian box set, maybe don't expect too much from "Warriors of the Deep".
Warriors is probably the one I'm most familiar with, not so long ago that I saw it. It has its moments but the director should have done a better job, just turn the lights down! (and the least said about Ingrid Pitt trying to drop kick the Myrka the better...)
Recently I watched several selected serials of Troughton and McCoy era. Certainly very different Doctors. While I liked Troughton almost right away I am still warming up to McCoy a bit. Right now I am watching Silver Nemesis in which he kinda won me over a bit more when he suddenly wore a fez and mob for a second!
There's sort of a theory by fans that "Warriors" was one of the reasons Michael Grade axed the show. Mainly that he was watching and saw the Myrka and felt Doctor Who couldn't compete with "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind". Which makes no sense because both were fairly high-budgeted movies compared to a TV show. Might have as well not have done I, Claudius because it didn't have the budget of the 50's sword and sandel epics. Rumor has it that Danny Cohen has similar issues with WHO, hence why the Matt Smith seasons were split up.
The Armageddon Factor. A little padded, but that's Classic Who for you. It started strong, but I lost interest in the second half.
The Sea Devils also has that great sword fight with the Master where the Doctor stole and ate his sandwhich during the fight.
Colony in Space wasn't very good. The Doctor, Joe and The Master were as good as always, but the story (while having some good points), felt slow and repetitive. They could have easily cut out probably two episodes worth of padding and it would have really helped the story. As it is, this wasn't terrible, but the good doesn't out weight the bad.
Yeah, apart from the Pertwee/Delgado stuff Colony In Space is really one of the lesser Pertwees IMO. Some interesting facts though, the whole IMC/Adjucater stuff was followed up on in the New Adventures novels, and the Doctor saying that he wants to see the universe and not own it to the Master was stated again in The End Of Time.
Yes that was great I have now watched the Sea Devils. My favourite bit was when one of the Sea Devils, when shot, does a crazy forward somersault! It was great, and crikey how much did the Royal Navy spend helping the show out? You can just imagine the Daily Mail headline thesedays
I wonder if we'll ever see the sea devils again apart from the stock footage from the atraxi hologram in eleventh hour and the masters mention of them. Although the current Silurian design does utilize some of their looks-the mask and armor in particular.
I just watched The Daemons, and it was very good. From beginning to end it kept my attention. The fake demon style was interesting, the main characters were as great as they always were, and there was a lot of entertaining stuff, like the Helicopter chase. The gargoyle thing was a bit goofy, but not in a bad way. The May Day stuff was weird, and I think this serial probably had the weirdest ending for a serial I've seen in Doctor Who Overall I enjoyed this serial, and it was a good way to end the season. Next up will be Day of the Daleks, whenever I get to it.
Warriors of the Deep... You know, maybe I was just in the right mood for it, but I quite enjoyed it this time around. It's pacy and has a lot of good things going for it, in particular Davison's wonderful, the last look on the Doctor's face...has a Timelord ever looked that broken and soul destroyed? Yeah the sets are overlit, the Myrka a bit silly (but it's hardly the worst monster in Who's history) and the Sea Devil costumes are a bit odd (unless their heads are supposed to loll at a bad angle due to the effects are their long suspension of course!) but I think its far from the disaster its sometimes painted as.
I need to watch that again. Actually the 5'ish Doctors actually more proper Doctors in it than the Five Doctors did!