Currently working through the missing episode audios...

[Candlelight]

THE WEB OF FEAR
9.5/10

Coming into this story with little knowledge of it, I didn't expect much. Indeed I had always considered The Abominable Snowmen to be the better of the two Yeti stories, though this was based purely on the surviving episodes of each story.

Put simply this is probably the best serial Troughton ever did. The action doesn't let up from the start, Lethbridge-Stewart has a great introductory piece and the Intelligence works better here than before in that it isn't treated as an in-your-face villain, this time running things in the background (or rather, out of sight of the audience for most of it).

My only point of contention would be the Yeti. Why were they brought back from a story perspective? They worked well in Tibet because they could be interpreted as the legendary beast but in 1970s London it just seems a bit silly. The robots could've resembled something else. The fact that the G.I also put all of it's energy into a single contraption that could easily be destroyed (the pyramid in Abominable, the mind draining machine here) is a little naff, but not enough to ruin the story.

It's funny that this story would mirror the following one (Fury from the Deep) with similar storylines, such as the fungus (seaweed) in a confined area of the london underground (north sea oil rigs) protected by people under the influence of the Great Intelligence (weed creature).

Celestial Toymaker next.

[Candlelight]

Web ep1 is also very similar to the start of The Invasion; after an altercation in space, they land on near-modern day earth and meet Lethbridge-Stewart, who is trying to deal with beings underground...

[Candlelight]

...oh God... the Toymaker is so dull... I'm only part way through episode 2 and I want to claw my ears off...

[diankra]

Candlelight wrote:

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...oh God... the Toymaker is so dull... I'm only part way through episode 2 and I want to claw my ears off...

That does tend to be the standard reaction. It's been said that it looked more interesting onscreen - that's difficult to believe in view of episode four, but the suggestion is that part of its appeal at the time is that the bright, it's all fun, atmosphere of part one got darker and more menacing week by week, hence part four looking so dark you'd almost think they were trying to cover up for not being able to afford any sets...

[The Borgified Corpse]

Candlelight wrote:

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Indeed; it's been an often quoted fact that David Whittaker originally had Ben and Polly in the first two episodes of Evil, but had to remove them when they were written out in The Faceless Ones. Pity, it's the last time until the late Tom Baker era that the Doctor had three companions. It did allow adventures to be spread over 3 or even 4 storylines when everyone splits up.

I suppose splitting the companions into more storylines worked better when the actual stories were longer. But if you're just doing a 4-parter, too many companions can really bog things down. Three companions worked fine in the early years when it was Ian, Barbara, & Susan/Vicki. They clearly had it worked out what the dynamic was supposed to be between all of the characters. It doesn't work so well when you have companions that were just kinda thrown in suddenly because the characters proved popular, even if they don't mesh with the rest of the cast.

[Candlelight]

THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER
4/10

Very average. I got into the 'rhythm' of it by the end of but not my cup of tea. Probably would've been more interesting had they been better games. Episode 2 was probably the best, the one with the dolls. Dodo was unbelievably annoying. The number of times she ruined the 'games' was atrocious.

Almost finished The Smugglers.

[Candlelight]

THE SMUGGLERS
6/10

Not bad, better than The Highlanders but only just. Just average, not much more I can say.

The Invasion next.

[Christopher]

Where do you get the missing-episode audios? I've heard about them, but I don't know where they're sold.

[Phillip Culley]

Do a search for 'Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes' on Amazon and you'll find 4 box sets containing all the missing stories up to The Ice Warriors (there's a fifth box set out in the UK and likely coming out soon in the US)

The stories are also available on iTunes as audiobooks - they will come up under a search for each individual story title.

[Candlelight]

Christopher wrote:

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Where do you get the missing-episode audios? I've heard about them, but I don't know where they're sold.

As Philip said they're available on CD for purchase. I was fortunate enough to have a friend with them which he lent me, although some were ripped audio files (like the Colin Baker-narrated Macra Terror from cassette tape). I've never been through all of them like this before; in the past I've only ever focused on The Power of the Daleks & Mission to the Unknown (my two favourites), plus a couple of others.

Still have to acquire decent copies of Macra (which was a terrible transfer and would prefer to hear the Frzaer Hines version) and The Underwater Menace (the CD was badly scratched).

[Candlelight]

Phillip Culley wrote:

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The stories are also available on iTunes as audiobooks - they will come up under a search for each individual story title.

Just tried to access it; got an error saying 'the title you are looking for is not available in the New Zealand store'.

Bastards!

[Candlelight]

THE INVASION
8/10

Having seen this serial twice on VHS I opted not to listen to the existing episodes, merely 1 and 4 only. It's a pity they're missing as they're actually very good. From the shock tactics of the IE guards with the lorry driver to the Doctor's reaction to computers and Jamie and Packers banter in part 1, plus the helicopter escape in part 4, they sound very good.

As for the serial as a whole, both times I watched it I found it overly long and grew tired by the end, though I guess this can be chalked up to the scripting issues in season six and how this was originally going to be just six episodes (if it had it might've been considerably better). So a good story, just long.

The Crusade next.

[Christopher]

^Episodes 1 & 4 of "The Invasion" have been restored in animated form, so it is possible to see the whole serial after a fashion. It's Flash animation of mid-level quality, reminiscent of the limited animation of Filmation shows in the '70s (like the animated Star Trek).

[Pindar]

The animation worked pretty well, the invasion restoration was pretty good.

[Candlelight]

I've seen it, wasn't a fan of it.