Last Classic Who Story you watched

[Sindatur]

Troughton, going through his entire Series.

Finised up to Evil of the Daleks Episode 5 (Got the Fan Reconstructed episodes off streaming sites)

Power of the Daleks - The Fan reconstruction isn't great, the telesnaps don't change often, and the sound quality is rough. Also, no stage directions (The Doctor grabbed a hammer, Ben entered the room, etc) and there's long gaps with no dialogue, so, it was hard to follow at times, but, in the end I enjoyed the Story as a whole

The Highlanders - I'm not a fan of most of the historicals, so, this wasn't my favorite story (Though easier to follow with Stage Directions,a nd sound was a little better). It was nice seeing Jamie's origin, but, it didn't do much more than that for me

The Underwater Menace - I enjoyed this one, sound good, stage directions, fun Mustache twirling Villian

The Moonbase - This one was as close as you can get to being the original airing. Someone took the missing episodes, and reconstructed with Telesnaps, and then animated them, so, though a bit rough, much better then standing telesnaps. Great to see a Cybermen story I'd never seen. I would happier than a pig in slop if all the missing episodes had the Animated Telesnap treatment, it's very easy to follow the story

The Macra Terror - This one didn't really do a whole lot for me. It was an alright premise but, I wasn't all that entertained

The Faceless Ones - I really liked this one, The Faceless Ones, sorta feel like a forerunner to the Autons (though diffeent MO). Nice to see Ben and Polly's exit. Previously, having only watched the complete Hartnell's (plus The 10th Planet) and a few of the Troughton complete stories, it was kinda jarring seeing Ben Polly introduced, and then only 1 or two stories, and then all of a sudden they were gone. Nice to see most of their entire run and get to know them. Ben could be a bit of a jerk often, though, LOL.

Will be finishing up last two episodes of The Evil of The Daleks tonight, and then on to The Tomb of the Cybermen, which I have seen before, but, don't remember real well. There's a character named Victoria Waterfield, which I seem to remember is the name of one of his Companions, so, if she does come with them at the end of the story, it's nice to see her introduction. Matter of fact, I seem to remember a comment about a Victorian Companion changing into a Miniskirt almost immediately upon entering the TARDIS, so, I'm thinking this must be her.

I've been wanting to get around to watching the whole Troughton era for some time, and finding out The Great Intelligence is originally from The Abiminable Snowmen and The Web Planet(?) encouragedme to jump into it.

I'll probably circle back around to Hartnell Reconstructions (That aren't the historicals) when I finish. I went through them all previously, but, wasn't as acclimated to the Reconstructions, and there are so many Historicals in the Hartnell era that didn't work for me, that I likely missed out on some cool stories

I believe these are the incomplete Hartnells, that are not Historicals, is this correct?
Galaxy 4
Mission to the Unknown
The Dalek's Master Plan
The Celestial Toymaker
The Savages

[Count Zero]

Well, there's also The Tenth Planet, but you mentioned seeing this already.

I continued watching season 15 and completed Image of the Fendahl and The Sun Makers.
The first one starts off in a really intriguing way, with a human skull that predates the first hominids. Though I'm not an anthropologist, as an archaeologist this excited me. The first two episodes are done really well and end in great cliffhangers. After that, the story falls apart somewhat and becomes a bit of a mess. We get treated to a ridiculous looking monster which we're supposed to be afraid of but which can actually be severely weakened by salt and is ultimately relatively easy to defeat. The minor characters, especially the old lady and her son, but also the scientist, were quite well depicted and entertaining.
I liked The Sun Makers much better - maybe due to the sci-fi setting. The concepts of artificial suns, a megacity spanning large parts of a planet, living underground and on several levels (in a reminiscence to Metropolis) and an almighty evil corporation appealed to me. Also, we get to see Villa from Blake's 7 (well, kind of - but it could be him). The way the villain disappeared at the end looked a bit silly but all in all a good story.
Also, the Doctor seems to have taken up channeling William Hartnell by often saying, "mmh?". Or maybe I just didn't notice that before. Anyway, I like it.

[Sindatur]

Count Zero wrote:

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Well, there's also The Tenth Planet, but you mentioned seeing this already.

Oh yea, DUH!!!

Actully, the Reconstruction on The Tenth Planet Episode 4 is so well done, and the stills change so frequently (And the episode is so engrossing), it's very to easy to forget you're not watching moving pictures, LOL

[Count Zero]

Since they found one episode of Galaxy 4 which will be released on the special edition of The Aztecs (out in March) wouldn't it be a good idea to wait until then to watch it, though?
I haven't seen it yet, either, because I chose to ignore most of the missing Hartnell serials. I read some of the books, though.

[Sindatur]

Count Zero wrote:

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Since they found one episode of Galaxy 4 which will be released on the special edition of The Aztecs (out in March) wouldn't it be a good idea to wait until then to watch it, though?
I haven't seen it yet, either, because I chose to ignore most of the missing Hartnell serials. I read some of the books, though.

I knew Galaxy 4 had an episode located, but, wasn't awae of what they were going to do with it. The Aztecs is one Historical I do like, a lot, and actually one of my all time favorite Hartnells (the other historical I like, but, not nearly as much is The Romans). My copy of The Aztecs is a TV recording burned to DVD (very watchable, but, not superior Quality), so, yea, I very well may get The Special Edition, since it's not a double dip. I'll likely watch Stargate Universe and Clone Wars S1 - S5 after Troughton, so, that'll likely put me close to March anyways, before I'm watching the Hartnells.

Boy, early 2013 is getting expensive (Definitely gotta Get Gallifrey Adventures S4)

[Sindatur]

Evil of the Daleks - I enjoyed this one all the way around. Picks up drectly from the Faceless Ones. I enjoy the way the setting kept changing (It kind of reminded me of Hartnell's The Chase in that way) from the Airport, to The Shop to The Victorian house to The Dalek facility. It was great to see Victoria's introduction

Tomb of The Cybermen - I also really enjoyed this one too. I've seen the first episode previously, but, hadn't seen the entire Serial. Great Cybermen story, did we see Cybermats prior to this, I don't recall? Anyways the Cybermats were really fun and Keeg was a great Psycho. in addition to all that, after watching 35 episodes, and only 8 of them with moving pictures (2 of them being The Talking Animated Telesnaps), I was probably even more exited to have 4 Surviving in good condition episodes in a row. So, this was Telos? This is the forerunner to Attack of The Cybermen? I always wondered what Serial that was.

Next up The Abominable Snowmen

[The Borgified Corpse]

Orac Zen wrote:

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Hartnell is very much underrated. There are some...err...ordinary serials in his era but his Doctor (along with many of his companions) is brilliant, IMO.

There's no such thing as an "ordinary" William Hartnell serial. They're all either brilliant, or they're unintentionally hilarious! "Take them to the Security Kitchen!"

Count Zero wrote:

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In enjoyed that one a lot, too. A chase through time and space is a pretty cool story idea and I loved the different places they went to. The appearance of the Beatles on the Doctor's TV thing was a nice treat for me as a fan.

Sadly, the Beatles scene was cut from the American DVD release because they couldn't get the music rights.

I was recently playing a Western themed card game called High Noon Saloon with my friends. At various points, I couldn't help but start singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" from the Hartnell story "The Gunfighters." My friends were so intrigued that we spent most of New Year's Eve watching "The Gunfighters" and making up new verses to the song.

Come to think of it, it sometimes seems that the only stories I ever show them are quirky Hartnell stories like "The Romans," "The Web Planet," & "The Gunfighters." (I also showed them "The Happiness Patrol," but that's really the only other classic story that's trippy enough that it could have been a Hartnell story.) I'm thinking of bringing over "The Chase" next time I'm there.

I just finished "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" last night. I can definately see why this story is so well liked. Jago & Litefoot are a lot of fun. Tom Baker looks perfect in his Sherlock Holmes costume. And I keep forgetting how much I love Leela. This story may be her best one of all. "Now put our prisoner to the torture!" (Trekkie note: Mr. Sin is played by Deep Roy, who would later play Keenser, Scotty's alien midget sidekick in Star Trek (2009).)

[The Borgified Corpse]

Sindatur wrote:

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I've been wanting to get around to watching the whole Troughton era for some time, and finding out The Great Intelligence is originally from The Abiminable Snowmen and The Web Planet(?) encouragedme to jump into it.

You mean "The Web of Fear." "The Web Planet" was the William Hartnell story with the giant ants & the butterfly people. (But mostly, I just remember it for the riveting tie burning scene and for Barbara & Vicki's scintilating debate on the merits of asprin.)

[diankra]

The Borgified Corpse wrote:

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Barbara & Vicki's scintilating debate on the merits of asprin.)

A major continuity issue, by the way, as according to The Mind of Evil, aspirin is lethal to Time Lords, so why does the Doctor have any in stock? Except that turns out to be a misinterpretation of the MOE scene that's taken on a fanon life of its own... it very nearly became the reason for the Doctor's 7th regeneration!

[Sindatur]

So, I watched The Abominable Snowmen and it was very disappointing. Episode 1, the Reconstruction was pretty decent, sound was fine, and it brought me into the story very well. Second episode is the surviving one, and s in good shape, and watching it made me even more excited for the story. And then in the third episode, it all fell apart, the telesnaps/stills were all bleached out and barely any details could be seen at all and the audio became garbled. I tried valiantly to watched the third episode with all my attention, but, it became even more difficult with all the sounds just kind of blending together in a mish mash of noise. I leftit playing, in case episodes 4 - 6 got any better, but, it enver improved, so, basically,I couldn't follow much of what happened beyond the 2nd episode I was so looking to forward to this one. Is the commercial Audio track any better, or has someone (like Frasier Hines did for some) redone and narrated it or maybe the script available to read? Getting to this story was one of the main things that pushed me to go through all Troughtons, including the missing epsiodes (Though, I don't regret it at all, I've gotten far more joy than pain from the experience)

So, anyway for me to be able to actually enjoy The Abominable Snowmen? Going to try giving it another shot watching on the Laptop, and listeningwith ear phones, maybe that'll help

Borgified Corpse, Oops, yea, The Web of Fear, thanks for the correction

[Mr Awe]

I've been watching quite a few lately. Not in order but here and there. It's been very enjoyable. I had seen all of the existing stories back in the 80s. I've revisted some since then but some it's been a couple of decades since the last time I've seen some of them.

I had particularly avoided seeing Hartnell and Troughton stories. Even back in the 80s, I thought they were too slow and padded. However, I've been pleasantly surprised by the ones that I've seen lately: The Arc, Invasion, The Krotons, etc.

I've avoided the pure historicals so far but I will have to give them a chance. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Davison, all hold up well for me. No real surprises there for me. I consider this the best era of Classic Who.

I was even pleasantly surprised by Colin Baker. He's still not my favorite but he seems less obnoxious than I remembered. Time Lash was still not good, but not the utter disaster that I remembered. Trial of a Time Lord was much better than I remembered. I still didn't care for the trial format, but the stories were pretty decent. I was actually sad at the end of it knowing that Colin wasn't going to return.

McCoy, I still just don't like much, other than Remembrance of the Daleks.

It was interesting to see how my tastes and perceptions have changed over time! It hasn't been a complete rewatch yet but I'm working on it!

Mr Awe

[Lowdarzz]

The Invasion (Second Doctor).

An excellent addition to the Troughton's line-up and probably my favorite Second Doctor adventure now that I've seen all his existing serials. All of the characters had something to do and none of them felt superfluous. Removing both Jamie and Zoe for an episode apiece probably helped as it allowed other characters to be fleshed out. The plot was also strong enough that it did not feel stretched out over it's eight episode run.

UNIT's introduction was excellent and I can see why the producers decided to make more extensive use of the organization during Pertwee's run. Of course major props must go to Kevin Stoney for his portrayal of Tobias Vaughn. He's perfectly calm one moment and bordering on insanity then next whenever Packer screws up. An excellent villain for the Doctor.

[Mr Awe]

Lowdarzz wrote:

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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.

Yeah, my reaction was WTF were they doing? Sure, they may not have realized that it would be there last appearances but it was nice to get them back (particularly Benton) after a break and then have them do pretty much nothing! And no Brig?! It was all very strange. Almost better to have eliminated the UNIT connection completely.

Mr Awe

[diankra]

[QUOTE=Mr Awe;7515763]

Lowdarzz wrote:

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Yeah, my reaction was WTF were they doing? Sure, they may not have realized that it would be there last appearances but it was nice to get them back (particularly Benton) after a break and then have them do pretty much nothing! And no Brig?! It was all very strange. Almost better to have eliminated the UNIT connection completely.

Mr Awe

The Brigadier would have had Colonel Faraday's role in Android Invasion if Nicholas Courtney hadn't been booked up for a stage role (though it was only 9 weeks since Terror of the Zygons onscreen, Zygons was filmed for the previous season so he'd had a longer gap since last working on the series than it looks, and couldn't pay the bills by keeping himself available just in case).
The Brigadier was to have been in the original six part version of The Hand of Fear that was then planned to end season 13 (which would have ended with his death, though it was deliberately set 10 years on from the 'normal' UNIT era so he could have still returned in stories set before that). When that fell through and was replaced by The Seeds of Doom it seems likely that Major Grierson and Sergeant Henderson were originally meant to be the Brig and Benton, though there's no proof of that that I know of (and as a sidenote, Henderson dies, so would Benton have died too?).

[Mr Awe]

^ You're an encylcopedia! Didn't know most of that! Thanks! Well, it explains why the Brig wasn't there and I suppose they suspected that Benton would've had later opportunities as well.