Last Classic Who Story you watched

[kirk55555]

I'd argue that Season 15 didn't. It had a few good stories, but nothing on the same level as Genesis or Talons. It was at least half junk (Fendahl, and Invasion of Time were outright bad, and Sunmakers was annoying and pretty worthless, although it wasn't outright painful to sit through).

I enjoyed Image of the Fendahl, and The Sunmakers was also very good - that one was a "social commentary" story and got its point across quite nicely even to people who weren't familiar with the then-economic conditions in the UK.

Well, it definitely comes across (regardless of where you come from) as a writer who got annoyed by Tax Collectors and decided to shove it into a script. I'd say its the weakest Robert Holmes story I've seen, but it wasn't remarkably bad, just boring and irritating. Its like The Happiness Patrol. The story isn't hard to follow, but its probably more relevant if you're from the UK.

 

[Mr Awe]

A bit off topic (but it came to my mind as I was typing this) its kind of hard to decide my favorite 4th Doctor story, but I'd say its a tie between The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Genesis of the Daleks. Both of them were 6 episodes, but they still moved fairly fast and weren't held back by a lot of padding. Plus, they were just good stories, too.

As far as I'm concerned, Genesis of the Daleks is the Whovian equivalent of Star Trek's City on the Edge of Forever. The best Doctor Who story, period.

(YMMV and probably does)...

For me, it would be Caves of Androzani and The Doomsday Machine.

Mr Awe

 

[Volpone]

Oh, and on topic, "The Daleks." Amazing, how menacing and creepy they are in their first story.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I think its safe to put Genesis of the Daleks, Talons of Weing-Chiang and Caves of Androzani as the top echelon of DW stories.

 

[DarthPipes]

The Mind of Evil. Second story for both the Master and Jo and both do great in it, particulary the Master. His plotting is elaborate to say the least in this one but still a really good story.

 

[Volpone]

I don't get the love for "Caves of Adrozani." To me it isn't terrible, but it certainly isn't a classic in my book. Off the top of my head, for 5th Doctor stories, I'd take "Black Orchid" or "The Visitation." That said, I realize the majority of the fandom disagree with me. *shrug*

 

[The Four Doctor]

I hate the Hinchliffe love. It doesn't line up with the facts. The fanboys orgasmed over him, but most parents of young children did not. He made DW unsafe for younger children and caused the show to lose its' focus and purpose as a *family* show, safe for all ages. Eventually the BBC got tired of his loose cannon, overspending, parent alienating ways and deservedly sacked him.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Hinchcliffe era was the best. Wish he'd stay for more - him and Holmes.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Hinchcliffe era was the best. Wish he'd stay for more - him and Holmes.

They were good writers..

Also Terry Nation didn't do nearly enough who. Did he write any actual stories or was he only responsible for creating The Daleks?

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Well, he did write Keys of Marinus.... which I'm not really fond of, so anyway.

Really, I wish he had either written one more, non-Daleks story to go out on, or not have written Destiny of the Daleks at all. That one was easily his worst Dalek script ever.

 

[Mr Awe]

^ Nation also wrote The Android Invasion, which was a very poor, non-Dalek story.

Mr Awe

 

[DarthPipes]

^ Nation also wrote The Android Invasion, which was a very poor, non-Dalek story.

Mr Awe

Yeah, The Android Invasion was a poor story and it felt like a poor rehash of Terror of the Zygons. It features the return of Harry Sullivan but frustratingly he and Benton are completely wasted in what turned out to be their final appearances on the show. The Brigadier was also supposed to appear but couldn't, which is for the best becaue he likely would have been wasted in this episode too.

I actually liked The Keys of Marinus.

 

[Sindatur]

^ Nation also wrote The Android Invasion, which was a very poor, non-Dalek story.

Mr Awe

Yeah, The Android Invasion was a poor story and it felt like a poor rehash of Terror of the Zygons. It features the return of Harry Sullivan but frustratingly he and Benton are completely wasted in what turned out to be their final appearances on the show. The Brigadier was also supposed to appear but couldn't, which is for the best becaue he likely would have been wasted in this episode too.

I actually liked The Keys of Marinus.

Heh, so much of a rehash, for years, I remembered them ass both being the same story

I too have always liked Keys of Marinus, though, I know it's not well liked (maybe because there were so few Hartnells available when I first saw it)

 

[Volpone]

I'm watching it right now. I don't dislike it. It is clunky and awkward in some bits--a bit like "The Chase, in that it's like they threw together a bunch of half hour stories that weren't long enough to actually be their own serials with a bridge story, but it holds up overall. For some reason it reminds me a bit of the later episode, "The Dominators" too, although I can't really put my finger on why. Truth be told, it is probably closer to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" than it is to "The Dominators."

 

[Timewalker]

I'd argue that Season 15 didn't. It had a few good stories, but nothing on the same level as Genesis or Talons. It was at least half junk (Fendahl, and Invasion of Time were outright bad, and Sunmakers was annoying and pretty worthless, although it wasn't outright painful to sit through).

I enjoyed Image of the Fendahl, and The Sunmakers was also very good - that one was a "social commentary" story and got its point across quite nicely even to people who weren't familiar with the then-economic conditions in the UK.

Well, it definitely comes across (regardless of where you come from) as a writer who got annoyed by Tax Collectors and decided to shove it into a script. I'd say its the weakest Robert Holmes story I've seen, but it wasn't remarkably bad, just boring and irritating. Its like The Happiness Patrol. The story isn't hard to follow, but its probably more relevant if you're from the UK.

Well, as someone who has been in the position of an attempted fleecing by a funeral director, I can honestly understand the frustration and despair of the character whose father died and he couldn't pay the fees.

 

[diankra]

I'm watching it right now. I don't dislike it. It is clunky and awkward in some bits--a bit like "The Chase, in that it's like they threw together a bunch of half hour stories that weren't long enough to actually be their own serials with a bridge story, but it holds up overall. For some reason it reminds me a bit of the later episode, "The Dominators" too, although I can't really put my finger on why. Truth be told, it is probably closer to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" than it is to "The Dominators."

Reading between the lines, Keys of Marinus seems to have been rush-written to a) fill gaps left by abandoned scripts; b) have another story ready when the success of the Daleks meant Doctor Who didn't end after 13 weeks; and c) try to pick up on the success of The Daleks.

Whereas The Dominators... well, the script editor wasn't happy a few episodes in, so he cancelled the commission for the last two episodes and wrote the quickest finale he could think of to get it done with. Then the writers tried to sue the BBC to stop it going out, and took their name off, and also took their toys (meaning the Yeti) away.
If you're about to ask why they didn't simply drop it altogether, it's because the 1968 Olympics meant they had to get two stories in the can early for the next season, and there were no other workable scripts around.

 

[DWF]

I'm watching it right now. I don't dislike it. It is clunky and awkward in some bits--a bit like "The Chase, in that it's like they threw together a bunch of half hour stories that weren't long enough to actually be their own serials with a bridge story, but it holds up overall. For some reason it reminds me a bit of the later episode, "The Dominators" too, although I can't really put my finger on why. Truth be told, it is probably closer to Shakespeare's "The Tempest" than it is to "The Dominators."

Reading between the lines, Keys of Marinus seems to have been rush-written to a) fill gaps left by abandoned scripts; b) have another story ready when the success of the Daleks meant Doctor Who didn't end after 13 weeks; and c) try to pick up on the success of The Daleks.

Whereas The Dominators... well, the script editor wasn't happy a few episodes in, so he cancelled the commission for the last two episodes and wrote the quickest finale he could think of to get it done with. Then the writers tried to sue the BBC to stop it going out, and took their name off, and also took their toys (meaning the Yeti) away.
If you're about to ask why they didn't simply drop it altogether, it's because the 1968 Olympics meant they had to get two stories in the can early for the next season, and there were no other workable scripts around.

Indeed The Keys Of Marinus does havea storied path to television.

Meanwhile, on September 24th, 1963, Terry Nation -- who had just completed work on The Daleks -- was commissioned to write a seven-part historical entitled “The Red Fort”, set during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. This was planned to be the seventh story of the season, immediately following “The Hidden Planet” at that point. Nation, however, had not particularly enjoyed writing The Daleks and it appears he did little work on “The Red Fort”. On January 21st, Whitaker met with Nation and it was agreed that “The Red Fort” should be abandoned. In its place, Nation would hastily write a six-part story to replace “The Hidden Planet”; Whitaker was aware of Nation's ability to write quickly following his prompt delivery of scripts for The Daleks. Because the serial would have to be completed in just four weeks, Whitaker offered to help Nation with ideas, and the pair agreed that the story should be made up of several small adventures to aid the process.
Nation's serial soon became known as The Keys Of Marinus. He developed more background than was made explicit onscreen in the finished production. The Voord were alien invaders who took advantage of the people of Marinus, rendered vulnerable by the pacifying effects of the Conscience. The Conscience was then deactivated to allow the Marinians to fight the Voord, and over the centuries, the time they spent on Marinus meant that the Voord, too, could now be affected by the machine. Therefore, Arbitan despatched agents to recover the keys which would reactivate the Conscience and allow him to finally defeat the invaders.

The opening and ending parts were written by Nation with Whitaker and Nation co-writing the rest of the story. Marinus is the oldest story that Peter Davison remembered watching when it first aired.

 

[The Four Doctor]

I wish Denis Carey was still alive. He's the best thing about the Shada footage. And he'd have made a much better primary villain in Timelash. He's impressive already as the Old Man android impersonating the Borad.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

The first time I watched "The Keys of Marinus," I watched it with the captions on. When Arbitan first appears, but before he is introduced by name, he helps Ian fight off a Voord. As he recovers from the fight, the captions read "(Arbitan panting)." I spent quite a few minutes trying to figure out what "arbitan panting meant." I figured it was an adjective describing the way in which Ian & the other guy were panting. Like, it had something to do with the rhythm of their panting or something.

I just forced myself to rewatch "Delta & the Bannermen." God, it's so awful! The romance between Delta & Billy is given no development at all. And then that nice bus driver is killed too suddenly. (BTW, as awful as the rest of the story is, I'm fully on board with the fan theory that the beekeeper is actually a future incarnation of the Doctor, similar to the Curator from "Day of the Doctor.")

I'm also 3 episodes into "Battlefield." It's not quite as good as I remembered but it's still solid. (And while my mother is already not much of a classic Doctor Who fan, she finds McCoy to be the most annoying of all the Doctors.)

 

[Volpone]

I'm starting my third(ish) run through RetroTV's series. I found out about it on the first weekday go-through of "Keys of Marinus," but I was working nights from 8pm on, so I could only watch the occasional episode. But I did religiously catch the Saturday afternoon cycle. Then I got promoted so I moved to days around about "Colony in Space." Saturday is up to "Revenge of the Cybermen," so I've seen all those stories twice. Now the weekday cycle has restarted and is doing..."The Sensorites." I'm a bit embarrassed to say I'm getting a bit Who'd out. I'll probably stop on the Saturday episodes not long after "The Horror of Fang Rock," (and again when the weeknight airings get that far) and at that point I'll probably just do the Saturday show and maybe eventually get so I skip Hartnell and the couple Troughton stories they have.