Caves of Androzani is self contained like just about all of the old series serials. But Caves should show you just how dangerous the Doctor can be when wants to be, be was septerated from Peri by Stotz's men, chained up, taken off of planet and at one point blindfolded. When the mercs went to sleep the Doctor freed himself, took the ship back to Androzani minor, escaped from the mercs, found Peri, got the bat's milk, carried Peri the TARDIS and left the planet. All without a sonic screwdriver or any other toy or gimmick.
In reference to the sonic screwdriver, this is why I got exasperated with the sonic screwdriver deus-ex-machina in Day of the Doctor. The Fifth Doctor's sonic screwdriver was destroyed in one of his early episodes (Four to Doomsday?), and he'd have had to make a new one.
^The Visitation Androzani has a few misteps (the dragon for example) but on the whole it's pretty fantastic, and it is still the best regeneration story for me, the Doctor 'dies', not saving the universe, not saving billions, no, he goes through hell saving one single girl, his companion he only met the story before!
I'm dreading The Twin Dilemma, and I'm sure it won't compare to The Caves of Androzani. Still, the 6th Doctor's run is pretty small, so I kind of feel like going through his stuff and then on to the 7th Doctor eventually, along with continuing watching the 4th. I'm in no rush, but 6 might get priority for a bit, when I watch Doctor Who. Honestly I'd put the 10th Doctor's regeneration as my favorite, with 11th as second, but from classic Doctors I've only seen the 5th, 7th, and 8th Doctor's regeneration, so its possible 1,3 or 4 could beat them (I don't think 2 or 6 had specific regeneration scenes, although I could be wrong about 2, I know he was forcibly regenerated but I don't think they showed a physical transition from him to 3).
Caves of Androzani is a case of brilliant storytelling, AND excellent characterization. Its almost Shakespearean in the way every character reacts to the Doctor and Peri's arrival in Androzani, best examplified by the villains of the piece, the yin and yang of the story. Its a marvelous adventure story thats action-packed and emotionally investing. Furthermore, its a more personal, smaller at stakes story. And more than anything, it did set the bar for the Peter Davison Big Finish stories - Spare Parts, The Burning Prince and The Kingmaker, at the very least, seem influenced by it in terms of pacing and tempo, and certainly the Fifth Doctor's characterization. Its impact is enormous, and is felt even on TV's Who - RTD reportedly said the Tenth Doctor's demise is evocative of the Fifth's sacrifice for Peri, and indeed I see how, in certain terms, End of Time rehashes/homages certain points of this amazing serial. There's a reason why its a fan-favorite, and has been for many years: Its just that good.
Well, I'm still trucking through the Tom Baker years. The Robots of Death I liked this one, it maintained interest throughout. Some excellent model work in this one, I really liked the sandminer and the rocks falling as it moved along. Other nice work included the Doctor being buried alive which looked quite real. Having the miners be a decadent posh lot made for a change of pace from the usual. The costuming, makeup and decor used in conveying this concept added to the visual punch. The robots themselves, being both possessed and not, and the different models added a lot of variety and ambiguity to keep things interesting. I think this one passes the Bechel test as well. EDIT: And with the red eyes and all this must have been the inspiration for the Ood. The Talons of Weng-Chiang Well-known and oft cited as a classic episode this uses the BBC's prowess with Victorian settings to good effect. (It also shows Doctor Who's struggles with visual FX with the mutant rats). It's a bit eyebrow-raising to watch these days with having a white man in Chinese makeup and the unfortunate "most..hon-or-a-ble" stereotypical accent and inscrutability (or is that in-scroot-a-bill-a-tee?). That said, it's a pretty good make-up job and you get used to it soon enough. Lots of good side characters in this one with the famous Jago and Litefoot and the creepy Mr. Sin. I've noticed there's a lot of defenestrations in this era and this time Leela gets to dive through the glass. Leela works well throughout contrasting her "savage ways" with Victorian manners. Once again, she drives a lot of the action with a lot of independent action. Horror of Fang Rock Doctor Who is many things and this is probably the most primal distillation of the base under siege story. A bunch of people trapped in a small space get picked off one by one by a monster. And that's about it, I could see where one might like the pure and singular focus of this element of Who but I needed more to keep me engaged. My favorite moment is that shot of The Doctor hanging off the window of the lighthouse. Something about the dangling seen from a medium distance was quite unusual. Not quite unlike that infamous umbrella cliffhanger from Dragonfire. The Invisible Enemy This serial could have been better served if it had better visual FX. The story isn't all that great but the spaceships, laser battles, and the Fantastic Voyage of the Doctor and Leela and the macrovirus could have distracted from it had they been better executed. Probably at the time the debut of K-9 would have been quite a fascinating wonder. I would've loved that as a child no doubt. I didn't remember that funky "tongue", I can see why they dropped (or retracted?) that. It's too bad his weapon is particularly badly rendered further killing the potential visual dazzle of this story. There's a great moment where the Doctor runs into the TARDIS and his scarf gets caught in the doors which then gets a quick tug in before the TARDIS disappears. Probably unintentional but it's a great "Indy grabs his hat" kind of moment.
The Sea Devils, a good solid follow up to The Silurians with plenty of good action, I loved sword fight and the sea chase. It was made even more real thanks to the Royal Navy who stood in for UNIT in this story.
The problem with the tickertape mouth was that it could only be refilled by taking his entire head apart. Eventually it was fited with a reverse mechanism (so they could refill it by feeding paper in through his mouth) when K-9 got a major refit between the location work for Leisure Hive and the studio work for State of Decay, but he was out of the show before anyone bothered to make use of it. It did get a mention as being one of the prop's 'tricks' in the writers' guide for K-9 and Company (the one that explains the planned arc-plot that this K-9 had actually been built by the Master, and was working under buried programming from him to make Sarah the Master's unwitting dupe... just like Mr Smith in the first season of SJA. And don't think that's a coincidence!)
Castrovalva, all in all not a bad story just alittle on the slow side but, then while it was filmed fourth it was the fifth Doctor's first story. This was after many long years of Tom Baker, even longer than his seven years for me a new first Doctor story and it was functional as being just that. People complain about how it took for David Tennant to become active in The Christmas Invasion, but here Peter Davison wasn't the Doctor til the last five minutes of the story. It was nice to have a story built around a scientific idea and it took a while to get some action and adventure, but that was worth the wait as well. Peter Davison played a more human fallible Doctor as oppsoed to Tom Baker's wild and crazy eccentric version and for most Americans used to Tom Baker it was a bit of a let down. And I didn't realize that the little girl was Caroline John's niece.
Warriors Of the Deep, it was the end of the Silurian/Sea Devil trilogy from the old series and while the story works IMO it suffers from a bad production. Production was rushed due to Thatcher's election and there was a general lack of money, the sets were overlit and painting them white only made things worse. I had read the novel years before I saw the televised version and wondered what went wrong. The Myrka was a good design for the show's budget, but badly executed like most of the problems with the production. The base under siege and cold war ideas work, but one of the complaints at the time was that it was just a reworking of Earthshock, a complaint that has some merit I think. Still the story works as an old fashioned action/adventure story, but badly flawed production wise.
Of all the things Maggie got blamed for, I never knew Warriors of the Deep was one I think really it came down to direction, another director might have toned down the lighting, which would have helped a lot! Another director might have also kept the Myrka more in the shadows, and maybe not had Ingrid Pitt try to go Bruce Lee on it!
I watched The Twin Dilemma, and I didn't hate it. Its far from a classic, and it had a lot of problems, but it kept my attention, and its problems made it kind of entertaining. If nothign else, it was interesting to see The Doctor's attack on Peri in context. He's an ass, but honestly its interesting (although they probably shouldn't have done the attack, it was pretty stupid). The twins themselves weren't great, but I've seen a bunch of bad younger actors in TV/movies, and these weren't the worst by far. The main villain was lame, and he looked stupid. His plan was also stupid, and the "science" of moving the planets was hilarious. Still, while its not a good story, I actually got some entertainment from watching it, which is more than I can say for some newer Doctor Who episodes like Love & Monsters or Fear Her. So, I'd call it an extremely flawed, but actually kind of ok story. Next up will be Attack of the Cybermen.
There's 10 Serials left for Colin Baker (The last 4 making up a Series long Arc). And I think if you got through The Twin Dilemma, without hating it, you shouldn't hate any of the rest overall (Though you may have some problems with certain elements of various episodes/Serials, and maybe this will be really strong in Revelation of the Daleks and you may find The Two Doctors, too long) I think you'll mostly like the next 4 Serials, though, and maybe all of them. *The Audios (Especially the Six/Evelyn ones) will endear you to Six [Colin Baker Doctor] even more, IMHO
Well, I have no access to the audios, but I've heard good things about them. As for The Three Doctors, I watched that a week or two ago (I wanted to watch all the Doctor team ups). Its what made me decide to go through the Sixth Doctor's stuff, so I won't need to watch it again right now. I watched Attack of the Cybermen, and I enjoyed it. I liked the little references to other Cybermen stuff (especially since I've already seen Tomb of the Cybermen, so I recognized the name telos), and seeing the TARDIS change was interesting. The Doctor and Peri did a good job in this episode, and the Cybermen were threatening. The Cryons were a bit weird, but it wasn't a big deal. Overall, this was a very entertaining story. Based off what I've seen so far, I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the 6th Doctor's run. I'm sure there is going to be problems, his run probably has its reputation for a reason, but honestly I think the Doctor is entertaining and interesting. He's definitely flawed, and I don't think he'd have a chance of being my favorite, but so far I like him. Peri is also a better companion than I expected her to be. Right now I'm planning to go through the 6th Doctor's stuff and then onto the 7th Doctor. Next up is Vengeance on Varos.
Moonbase, glad to see another Ben and Polly episode. Such a shame that so many of their stories are lost.
Vengeance on Varos was a pretty good story. It felt like it was a bit slow at times, and parts felt a bit repetitive, but the planet was different, the alien miner representative looked creepy and The Doctor and Peri were interesting. Overall, I liked it. The Mark of the Rani was a decent story. There were a few goofy moments, and the end scene in the rani's TARDIS was really, really stupid, but it kept my attention and was fairly enjoyable. I think the Rani would have worked a bit better if she hadn't had to share screen time as basically the lackey of The Master, but she was still ok. The tree mines were bizarre, and the tree "saving Peri" was ridiculous, but it wasn't a big deal. Overall it was far from perfect, but it was decent. Next up (since I've already seen The Two Doctors) is Timelash.
Watched The Moonbase and The Web Planet, as well as a rewatch of Tomb of the Cybermen, recently. Moonbase was enjoyable and seemed ahead of its time in some ways. Patrick Troughton gave a very good and different performance, which I see according to the 'making of' was thanks to the director. Web Planet was ok except I sort of fell asleep through part of one episode!
Timelash is the first 6th Doctor story that I'd describe as solidly "meh". It's story didn't keep my attention, it felt slow at times, and it didn't feel like anything more than a bland, average story at best. It wasn't outright horrible, but it wasn't very good and it was very forgettable. Its the first 6th Doctor story that I didn't get any real enjoyment from watching, although I've seen worse stories. Next up is Revelation of the Daleks.
Ya know, I had forgotten so many folks don't like Timelash. I've always enjoyed it, but, maybe that's down to Paul Darrow (Avon is just so awesome in Blake's 7, I can't help but enjoy Timelash)