Finished Dragonfire, Farewell Mel (And good riddance to ya). Though, I think I'm becoming immuned to her, I barely wanted to scream at all this run
You have to love the Doctor leaving her with a man who'll likely sell her to slavers within about a week!
He's not stupid, he saw his chance and jumped on it And the Audios didn't treat her even worse in the Unbound story with the Valleyard
Finished The Ark in Space. This was a great story. I don't care about bad effects in TV shows/movies if the story is good, and this was good. The characters were good, and of course the Doctor continues to be great. I'd say that I'm officially a fan of the Fourth Doctor now. I'll probably just keep going through his serials in order until I'm done. Next up is The Sontaran Experiment, then Genesis of the Daleks)
I got The Ark in Space SE and Revenge of the Cybermen the other day, so I finally have a full season of the classic series! (Yes, I'm a bit behind in my collecting. ) So with that, I'm going to go through Season 12 in order. Just watched Robot. I love Tom's first couple of scenes (especially when he's jumping rope with Harry). The whole story is quite good, especially for Sarah, at least until the last 10 minutes. The giant robot really sent it into over-the-top silliness.
Genesis of the Daleks is often voted up near the very best of Classic Who by fans (though most of sarahJane's Stories are top notch, IMHO). If you watch NuWho, Genesis of the Daleks has been unofficially dubbed as the first strike in the Time War.
That was the season that got me hooked, and it's immensely heart-warming to hear it still works for someone (I guess) both younger and older than myself - in that I turned eight halfway through Sontaran Experiment. As Sindatur says, Genesis is... well, even people who can't stomach the mid-70s production values still tend to like Genesis. As you can, the only danger is that we'll overhype it for you!
The Reign of Terror (First Doctor). I've always liked the Hartnell era historical serials and this one continues the tradition though The Romans and The Aztecs were better. Like most six part stories from the 60's, it tends to drag in the middle before picking up in the end. The animation for episodes 4 and 5 ranged from good to mediocre. Some of the character models were excellent, other were poor and the animation was stilted here and there. I think the simpler character models in The Invasion worked better. True, the animation could be just as stilted but it didn't take me out of the show as much. Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Enlightenment (Fifth Doctor). Although known as the Black Guardian trilogy, the guardian had little to nothing to do in these three serials. That said, I enjoyed each story with Enlightenment taking the prize as the best of the lot. It was good to see the Brig in action again but I think he was underutilized. It was also odd to see him retired despite the fact that he appears to have been re-activated in Modern Who. Terminus was probably the least of the three but still had a good story. The fact that Terminus caused the Big Bang is something that could have been explored more. Right now, it just feels as though it were dropped in. At least Nyssa was given a decent reason for leaving thought I wish she had stuck around. Enlightenment actually gave Turlough something to do besides look like an idiot while failing to kill the Doctor. The Eternals are an interesting concept that I'd like to see again. Then again, I wouldn't mind seeing the White and Black Guardians again either.
Finished The Sontaran Experiment. It was a good two part story, and it introduced me to the Sontarans. The Sontarans kind of remind me of the Vogons from the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy 6 episode series from the 80's (not really the way they act, but their appearance). Next up, Genesis of the Daleks.
Sontaran Experiment is a good Sontaran Story, IMHO. SarahJane's first story (Last season of the Previous Doctor Jon Pertwee) is the first Sontaran story, so, Sontaran Experiment was only their second appearance. Their heads look different in just about every story, I believe.
Yep. Best explained by saying that, while they're a clone species, each 'regiment' was cloned from a different original, pre-cloning Sontaran. Their equivalents of Ike, Monty, Storming Norman, etc, probably.
The King's Demons, The Five Doctors and Warriors of the Deep (Fifth Doctor). The King's Demons was a fun historical tale with the obligatory sci-fi twist. A great explanation of the Master's motives in preventing the signing of the Magna Carta would have helped. Was he just screwing with the Doctor's favorite planet just for the hell of it or was this just a cog in a larger scheme? While The Five Doctors told a fun story, I think The Three Doctors was a better tale overall. There were just too many characters and not enough things to do. Susan and Turlough were just left in the TARDIS and given a series of reaction shots. Despite this, I liked what interaction the various Doctors had with their companions and Richard Hurndall did well as the First Doctor. Warriors of the Deep was an excellent story completely hampered by its execution. I watched the making-of documentary on the disc and understand that there were all sorts of production problems which gives it an excuse but Solow's attempted Kung-Fu against the Myrka just made me laugh. The idea of the Silurians using the cold war between two power blocks as a means to kill humanity off was great and was the redesign of the race itself. It's too bad they went with a more standard lizard with human face approach in Modern Who.
I watched The Suds of Death, er, The Seeds of Death. It's amazing how well some of the visuals hold up given that they were never meant to be watched on a 46" TV, or maybe even rewatched at all. Having watched the German series Space Patrol (Raumpatrouille) Orion, Gia Kelly reminded me of Tamara Jagellovsk. When they showed the countdown reflected on her face it reminded me of Orion as well (not sure if they did that or I'm thinking of the intro countdown).
In my opinion Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils are so good that Warriors of the Deep suffers in comparison. It's actually not that bad.