Currently working through the missing episode audios...

[Allyn Gibson]

Candlelight wrote:

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MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN
8/10

Great little episode. Has always been a favourite of mine. I really believe that Terry Nation's notion - that the Daleks could maintain their own series - could probably work as indicated by this story...

There's an alternate universe, I'm absolutely certain, where NBC showed Star Trek and Daleks: The Destroyers back-to-back in the late-1960s.

[Candlelight]

GALAXY 4
6/10

Not a bad little story. I can see why Peter Purves didn't like it; he spends half the story "pretending to be asleep". I do find the old sci fi way of explanations something of a novelty - the planet will explode dead on dawn but there's no explanation whatsoever to say why - why dawn on their side of the planet? What's causing it? Why is it so precise you can boil an egg by it??

A good stab at racism, something not seen that often in early Who unless it has the word 'exterminate' attached to it.

I have to say, episode 3 'Airlock' is actually pretty good. I look forward to seeing it when it gets released.

The Myth Makers next.

[Candlelight]

THE MYTH MAKERS
9/10

I loved it, what can I say. The characters were spot on, the story moved at a decent pace, the setting was believable and the humour wasn't over the top. Paris sounded a lot like John Cleese so I couldn't get an image of him out of my head. For most of the external scenes I kept thinking of the 2004 movie with Brad Pitt, but then I remembered I had to tone down my visualisation to the budget Dr Who had.

Vicki's departure was well handled. The romance between Troilus and Vicki came out of left field in the second episode (I'm guessing visuals would have provided more clues than just the audio) but the remaining episodes built on this and it was sad to see her go. She would've been pissed if she'd stayed behind only to find him dead at the hands of Achilles.

It's "funny" how some of the historical stories (The Myth Makers, The Massacre, The Gunfighters, etc) revolve around a violent event in history, so usually the final episode of each story ends in bloodshed.

Well, I have 12 to go, 4 Hartnell and 8 Troughton. Best get back into Troughton territory so I don't get top heavy with one Doctor over another.

I'll try The Underwater Menace next. Never liked the story based on the surviving episode (and basic plot). I look forward to being surprised, and to see what TUM2 is like.

[Candlelight]

The Underwater Menace wasn't playing well at all, so will have to ditch it. At least with Galaxy 4 I was able to hear enough but this one is just damaged beyond repair.

The Moonbase it is.

[Christopher]

I recall hearing the audio-only episodes of "The Moonbase" on the Lost in Time DVD set, and it was very hard to follow the opening minutes because there wasn't a lot of dialogue to explain what I was hearing. I had to read along in the novelization while I listened in order to understand what was happening.

[Candlelight]

I'm listening to the proper BBC releases with narration by past companions. Managed to track down the original Tom Baker recordings from the 90s for Power and Evil. That was nostalgic.

[Christopher]

Well, the DVDs were from the BBC too, I think. I was disappointed that they didn't at least use production stills to accompany the audio, as they did in the truncated version of Marco Polo they had on one of the DVDs.

[The Borgified Corpse]

Christopher wrote:

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Well, the DVDs were from the BBC too, I think. I was disappointed that they didn't at least use production stills to accompany the audio, as they did in the truncated version of Marco Polo they had on one of the DVDs.

Agreed. Barring that, I wish the Lost in Time set had at least included some sort of linking narration, at least in text form, which detailed what happened in the missing episodes so that I wouldn't be going into the episodes completely cold or be left completely hanging at the end. (But then, I suppose being without any of that information does simulate the sensation of being someone who only watched the show sporadically during the 1960s. That kind of patchwork viewing is becoming a lost experience in this era of complete season sets.)

[Rarewolf]

Lost In Time was tackled far earlier on than they expected - due to the return of Day of Armageddon. Had it not been for that, who knows how the episodes would have been handled. Again the return if Underwater Menace 2 forces the issue, how to handle half the story. We know 2 episodes a time aren't too many to do, we know underwater menace and moon base have had commentaries recorded. So if both of those are rereleased, that will be 3 of the Lost In Time 18.

Wouldnt be surprised by further returns in the next three years either.

By the way, the death count in season three is staggering.

[Candlelight]

Rarewolf wrote:

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By the way, the death count in season three is staggering.

Season Four is worse:

SEASON ONE – 42 EPISODES / 9 MISSING (21%)
SEASON TWO – 39 EPISODES / 2 MISSING (5%)
SEASON THREE – 45 EPISODES / 28 MISSING (62%)
SEASON FOUR – 43 EPISODES / 33 MISSING (76%)
SEASON FIVE – 40 EPISODES / 27 MISSING (67%)
SEASON SIX – 44 EPISODES / 7 MISSING (16%)

There isn't a single complete story for season four.

I think Lost in Time was always gonna come out, just not so quickly as you say.

[Candlelight]

THE MOONBASE
(7/10)

Great little romp. I always remember watching the surviving episodes on The Cybermen Years (nearly 20 years ago!). Some of it is a little hokey (like the drinks tray plugging the hole in the dome) but overall it's a nice, compact base-under-seige story.

The Macra Terror next, a story I know next to nothing about.

[Rarewolf]

Candlelight wrote:

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Season Four is worse:

No, I mean character survival.

Bloody history.
Bloody Daleks.

[Candlelight]

Rarewolf wrote:

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No, I mean character survival.

Bloody history.
Bloody Daleks.

I was gonna ask for a clarification but thought I'd just bowl into it anyhow.

Yes, with The Myth Makers and The Massacre it wasn't a nice season for happy endings (unless you're a Greek or Catholic that is).

[The Borgified Corpse]

Well, the ones that got killed by the Greeks were Trojans, who lived in present-day Turkey. And Turkey has a pretty checkered reputation when it comes to Doctor Who.
1. Roger Delgado was on location in Turkey when he died in a car accident.
2. Turkish bombing of northern Cyprus destroyed the warehouse containing the last known copies of parts 4 & 5 of "The Reign of Terror."

[Candlelight]

The Borgified Corpse wrote:

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Well, the ones that got killed by the Greeks were Trojans, who lived in present-day Turkey. And Turkey has a pretty checkered reputation when it comes to Doctor Who.
1. Roger Delgado was on location in Turkey when he died in a car accident.
2. Turkish bombing of northern Cyprus destroyed the warehouse containing the last known copies of parts 4 & 5 of "The Reign of Terror."

Actually it was the Cyprus civil war that destroyed the archive, but I know what you mean.

Civil wars are also a bane on Dr Who - look at the now legendary Sierra Leone...