Last Classic Who Story you watched

[Sindatur]

Lowdarzz wrote:

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The Face of Evil (Fourth Doctor).

A good introduction for the character Leela. A computer gone haywire story where the computer isn't destroyed is a new one in my experience. I also wish they had devoted more time to the backstory of Xoanon. Then again I think it would have been cool to actually film the backstory as a seperate serial and then have the doctor come back several centuries later to find out the results like he did in The Ark back in the Hartnell era.

Is that Principles of Lust, that has that running through the Background,

"Xoanon, Xoanon"

Ar-Ar-Ar-Ar [/Scooby Doo]

Yea, I too, was hoping that Xoanon's Back Story was one of the "Lost 1st and 2nd Doctor Stories" that would be recovered (When I knew very little Behind the scenes stuff, pre-Internet) when I first saw it on PBS in the early 1980s

[The Borgified Corpse]

I recently went through "The Sea Devils," "The Time Monster," "Carnival of Monsters," & the 1st 4 parts of "Frontier in Space."

"The Sea Devils" isn't as good as I remembered. Roger Delgado is good as always. But the Sea Devils themselves are hardly in it. And it feels weird to see the Doctor constantly butting heads with an incredulous military figure that isn't Lethbridge-Stewart.

"The Time Monster" was decent, although I wish more of it had taken place in Atlantis. And while the bit with the two TARDISes being inside each other has some nice echoes of Moffatt's "Space" & "Time" shorts, it makes a little bit less sense because, at one point, it seems that the exterior of the Master's TARDIS is both inside the Doctor's TARDIS and in the science lab at the same time. (Although, "Zagreus" implied that TARDISes have a back door as well, so maybe this is some kind of multi-dimensional equivalent.)

"Carnival of Monsters" is a lot of fun. No one writes conniving guest stars with their own contrary agendas like Robert Holmes. And Peter Halliday will always have a soft spot in my heart.

"Frontier in Space" has a lot to recommend it. Although it's a 6-parter, it breaks it up quite a bit by taking place in many different locations (even if half of them are just jail cells that the Doctor & Jo keep getting marched to & from for most of the story).

[The Squire of Gothos]

My daughter is now a committed Whovian (I tried Trek, she doesn't care for it as much ) and she expects some classic Who when she comes to see me. I think she likes being able to answer classic Who questions in the Who magazine.

We caught the City of Death last, in fact we'd have caught it twice in a row if she'd had her way. I'm not sure what's next on the schedule though,

I think the War Games may be longer than she might tolerate and the Caves of Androzani and Earthshock might be a tad scary for her. If there's nothing else in my back catalogue, a new story may have to be purchased, or its another viewing of The Pyramids of Mars.

[Lonemagpie]

Image Of The Fendahl as a Halloween Who...

[DWF]

Lonemagpie wrote:

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Image Of The Fendahl as a Halloween Who...

I saw it recently and not long afterward The Curse Of Fenric, both are great Halloween stories.

[Lonemagpie]

DWF wrote:

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I saw it recently and not long afterward The Curse Of Fenric, both are great Halloween stories.

Ah, did it the other way- Curse a few days earlier!

[The Borgified Corpse]

I'm currently in the midst of "Planet of the Daleks." It's actually slightly better than I remember it. Still, I wish they had done more to tie it into "Frontier in Space." Perhaps they should have had a combined Earth/Draconian fleet arrive at the end to mop up any potential Dalek stragglers. Plus, it's a shame the Master didn't pop up at the same time as the Dalek commander arrived.

[NCC-1701-B]

Castrovalva Part 1

[Lowdarzz]

Planet of Giants (First Doctor).

Broadcast version: A fun story but strictly by the numbers not counting the miniaturized crew of the Tardis. Evil corporate bad guy, whiny scientist that goes along with the plan then has a change of heart. Unlike the pacing of many of the First Doctor serials, this one was pretty tight with only three episodes and it worked to the story's advantage since it was pretty thin already.

Four Episode Reconstruction: This was a cool idea but not well executed. While I understand that the footage originally cut from the serial no longer exists, the constant reuse of the same shots, closeups of the Doctor, Forester and Smithers, started to get annoying after awhile. The added material, in addition to slowing the pace, doesn't really add anything to the story except for giving us more information about the telephone operator and the policeman.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Third Doctor).

A good story that was well executed despite the limitations of the puppet dinosaurs. Captain Yates betrayal of UNIT was something I didn't see coming but I'm glad he was able to gain some redemption in Planet of the Spiders. Malcolm Hulke was definitely one of the Third Doctor's better writers and its too bad he didn't continue to write for the Fourth Doctor.

[Pindar]

I thought Planet of the Giants worked well at 3 episodes, and agree about the reconstruction.

With a few tweaks it would have worked as a modern Who story.

[NCC-1701-B]

Arc of infinity - 5th doctor

Next up, Snakedance

[Lonemagpie]

Planet Of Evil, sort of - I was listening to the commentary rather than actually watching it, as such...

[Lowdarzz]

The Android Invasion (Fourth Doctor).

The last appearance of Harry Sullivan and Sgt. Benton and unfortunately they had little to nothing to do. The story is good, though when the first alien first appeared I thought it was a Sontaran, but resolves itself too quickly. I think it would have been interesting if the Androids had been able to establish a larger foothold on the Earth before they were defeated. It's also too bad the Brig didn't show up but he probably wouldn't have had much of a role.

The Robots of Death (Fourth Doctor).

Robots gone amuck! A fun story though once again resolved a little too easily.The captain of the mine is a fun character to hate. The idea of Poul and D84 being agents for the mining corporation was interesting but it wasn't developed enough and D84 came across as unintelligent in some scenes despite being programmed for investigation.

[Pindar]

The Sontaran Experiment.

A good little two parter, shot entirely on location. There can't be many episodes that have no studio shots.

Harry and Sarah are probably my favourite male/female companion team.

[JoeZhang]

The Tomb of the Cybermen - I forget the amount of causal racism in that story - shifty foreign types and... Toberman... yes I know nobody would have batted an eyelid at the time and the past is a distant country and all that but.. Toberman.