Yeah, it's not a great story, although it does have John Leeson (K-9's voice) in a human role, and frequent WHO guest star Phillip Madoc as well. The Kroll puppet by itself ain't too bad, although it's poorly composited into the other footage.
I loved Tom Baker as a kid--still do, actually. But then again, as a kid I thought JNT becoming producer was a huge improvement. Rewatching, I've got to say that the 4th Doctor is downhill after about "The Horror of Fang Rock," but watchable up to "The Invasion of Time." By that point it had stopped being "Dr. Who" and become "The Tom Baker Show (With K-9)" I think it is equal parts Baker's ego, Douglas Adams' increased involvement in the show, and the general tendency for camp that the 1970s brought. Somewhere, there's an alternate reality where firing the Demat Gun caused the Doctor to regenerate.
Probably producer Graham Williams as well, who I think was asked to tone things down after the complaints about the violence/gore/scary images during the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. JNT likewise faced some controversy during the middle point of his era, especially with the Colin Baker material. It's funny though-the McCoy era, especially his last season, seemed to get away with some stuff it wasn't able to before (Such as "Curse of Fenric", although a gorier demise was meant for the Haemavore Jean and Phyllis but that was cut). Probably because the show was ending and low-rated at that point. Then again, that always seemed to be a complaint from some people about WHO. It's even cropped up a few times in the last decade.
Really? You are the first person I have heard say they liked the monster of Peladon better..I did like it as well, and I watched them back to back, so to me, it felt like a sequel, but most of my friends who are whovians say they think the Monster or Peladon was a rehash... but what the Monster of Peladon showed me was that the Ice warriors aren't all mindless and together, they tended to have corrupt individuals in their ranks as well, being the ice warrior renegades were motivated by greed being profiteers of war with galaxy 5 against the federation.. I did like Alpha Centari... I used to think he was a shrill sounding freaky alien, but, in the Monster of Peladon Alpha had a larger role, it was a good episode too in my point of view, and my word, was the Queen of Peladon a Babe!!
Agreed. I need to watch that one again. IMO, the worst Tom Baker story was "Destiny of the Daleks." I think it's Lalla Ward's listless performance that ultimately ruins it for me. The entire opening sequence lacks any genuine pace. Seriously? I hate "Delta & the Bannermen." It's even worse than "Love & Monsters."
The frustrating thing about Monster is finding out that the original idea was potentially a lot better. In Brian Hayles's original outline, the elderly King Peladon was being manipulated by his new young wife - or rather by her reactionary noble family (very Tudor). When it became clear that David Troughton wouldn't be available it was scripted to make Peladon's young daughter and successor the 'dupe'. Then (for whatever reason) Terrance Dicks rewrote the later episodes to make it more of a normal 'Doctor Who vs The Monsters' story, and less of a political intrigue. The biggest change between the two seems to be that in the Hayles version the Ice Warriors weren't actually villains: they really were Federation peacekeeping troops, just ones who went over-the-top in their attempts to reimpose order, forcing the Doctor to fight back against their brutality. But they weren't rebels against the Federation, just excessively ruthless soldiers.
Monster has alot going for it though, they expanded on the social situation and we saw all of the Peladon's cioming together against the Ice Warriors. I liked how Sarah Jane taught the Queen to stand up for herself. And since it was Pertwee's penultimate story it was an all out action/adventure story.
They actually did a 'midquel' to the Peladon adventures in audio that brought back Troughton's king Peladon: http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-prisoner-of-peladon-479
And former Pharaoh/Fifth Doctor compainon Erimem later became Queen. http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-bride-of-peladon-270 (Complete with Alpha Centauri and Ice Warriors!)
It'd be nice for the new series to return to Peladon and a proper return of the Ice Warriors. I wasn't too thrilled by Cold War, so I would love to see the Ice Warriors return instead of more Cybermen and Dalek stories. But then I'd love to see a sequel to The Masque Of Mandragora.
Well the over zealous Martian Troops is to be expected, given what we now know about the Ice Warriors.. as Peace Keepers one would expect them being a last resort of the Federation, and I can see how Earth would want their strongest ally to perform such actions. I think the story worked better making the Ice Warriors part of a plot as renegades then overlords under the Feds.. being that the Curse of Peladon set up the Ice Warriors as peaceful and only responsive to attacks versus the Agressors.. that kinda makes the whole story work better IMHO, and because of that, it felt very real, and made me like the notion of the Earth Federation, a concept I would very much like to see come back in the future in Doctor Who, especially if we do get to see more Ice Warriors with some actually cool and intelligent and skilled Earth defense forces we have heard so much about in the comics and novels. I hate it when the Earth characters of the future are portrayed as idiots or biggots in Doctor who.. I want to see something that shows a positive human space fleet and this time one that doesn't always carry bullet weapons.. the human crew hiding from the Daleks was a good start in the Capaldi Into the Dalek epi... but I would like to see them Tackle an Alpha centari alien with new effects, and also bring us some more Ice Warriors as Good allies of Earth either fighting against the Daleks as a unified Federation, or the Cybermen.. if nothing else, the Peladon episodes gave us a glimpse of a great potential and seldom used plot that is quite intriguing and has a ton of potential.
Delta & the Bannermen was the best 7th Doctor story from before he basically became The Master with a lower body count. The Doctor was a nice, eccentric guy who seemed like he genuinely cared about people. The story wasn't amazing, but I thought it was decent, and the tourists were likeable. It also wasn't some contrived adventure designed to torture his companion, although I will admit if any companion deserved the evil 7th Doctor, it would have been Mel Its the second best 7th Doctor story for me after Battlefield, which had the evil 7th Doctor but was well written and not focused on him torturing Ace. As for comparing it to Love & Monsters, I'd point to The Time of the Rani or The Greatest Show in the Galaxy as the 7th Doctor stories that made me wish I was watching L&M.
I just can not agree on the Destiny of the Daleks.. Aside from the Genesis story, being that Destiny was the last great Terry nation story about his pepper pots.. I just can't agree there. I absolutely love Destiny.. Tom was so tru to form, and Davros was amazingly well played. The Dalek Base was excellent in set design, the beginning was funny, I loved Romana's parody of the Doctor, and her choice to ultimately go with a pink version of his costume, complete with scarf really was quite cool. The Movellans were a favorite for me, and the story line of two logical armies at war, and stalemated was a brilliant storyline. I am sorry, I just can not get on board.. You of course are entitled to your opinons, but as for 4th doctor stories, Destiny of the Daleks ranks really high on my list..
Mel was greatly tortured and threatened during Paradise Towers even a pool cleaning machine threatened her life in that story. The seventh Doctor was rather aimless in his first season. And it's really hard to complain about the body count around the seventh Doctor, at least his stories had survivors which is more than I can saw for many Tom Baker and Peter Davison stories. But then it's not uncommon for there to be many deaths in a Doctor Who story.
There's a nice Eleventh Doctor/Amy/Rory novel by Dan Abnett, called The Silent Stars Go By which features the Ice Warriors in a more traditional way, and is almost in a kind of way a Christmas special story too. Speaking of good ice Warrior novels, There's also the Dying Days by Lance Parkin, which was the last Doctor-centric "New Adventures" novel (The others would focus on Benny Summerfield since the Doctor Who novels were moving to the BBC) and the first Eighth Doctor novel (unless of course you count the TV movie adaptation). It's somewhat hard and probably expensive to track down a print copy but I think it was offered as an E-book not long ago (and with a lot of the old books getting reprinted, might at some point be easier to find). There's also Godengine (which ties together the Dalek invasion of Earth with the ice Warriors and also Pyramid Of Mars) and Legacy (set on Peladon). Both feature the Seventh Doctor.
The Ark I don't know if this will stand up with repeated viewings, but I enjoyed it, at least on the level that just about every H.G. Wells concept is in this one. This is one of those stories that seems to have a bad reputation, but there plenty a lot worse than this. And the Ark concept reappears in "Ark in Space" and "Dinosaurs on a Space Ship". But for this first outing the script is solid and that 700 year jump was nifty. Of course the Monoids are silly but perhaps that works in their favor. If they were menacing then it would be too obvious. Their inept look kinda makes one sympathetic to their cause; could something so silly really kill the last humans or are they just chest beating? I think I'm gonna watch Eccelston's "End of the World" and see how well these two stories fit together (if at all).
The Ark In Space and Belly Of The Beast deal with the aftermath of the same solar flair hitting the earth. Dinosaurs On A Spaceship referes back to the reason why the Silurians and Sea Devils went to sleep in the first place. Although if they could build spaceships they could've just left earth. The Ark and Frontios IMO happen long before The End Of The World.
I wasn't referencing an actual body count by the 7th Doctor. I was trying to say that his evil version acts like The Master, if The Master didn't actually outright kill people. The amount of people that died around the 7th Doctor was probably similar to how many die around any of the Doctors. I really didn't find the 7th Doctor aimless in his first season. He was doing what every Doctor does, going around having adventures (with probably the worst Classic Who companion). Yeah, the good 7th Doctor had one good story, but the evil version only had one good one (Battlefield), although he did have two other tolerable ones (Silver Nemesis and Remembrance of the Daleks). Still, I wish we got more of the good guy 7th Doctor. I'd have liked to see him with ace. A 7th Doctor who just traveled with Ace, and didn't use her for evil psychological experiments, was probably the biggest missed opportunity of Classic who. The 7th Doctor was just let down by the writing. When he was good, he had a horrible companion. When he had a great companion, he became a psycho. Anyway, back on topic, I'm still trying to get through The Androids of Tara. Its just so lame and generic. I'd rather be watching an outright horrible story, because then at least it wouldn't be so boring. Hopefully I'll be able to bring myself to finish it soon.
Neither Battlefield nor Silver Nemesis are generally considered to be good stories. And really with all the plot holes in Silver Nemesis I do find it odd that you'd like it. The Androids Of Tara however is a great story I don't think it's generic at all. Mary Tamm looked great in it and had a double role. Count Grandel is IMO one of the better one off villains in the history of the show. And I loved the swordfight at the end.