Last Classic Who Story you watched

[kirk55555]

It might be my pick for absolute worst Third Doctor serial - poorly written, poorly acted, and all around poor.

Yeah, its definitely not good (which is why I stopped watching the first time). Still, if I can get through The Ambassadors of Death, I can get through anything. I just have to buckle down and do it. I just finished episode three, so I'm half way through. Its still boring and I don't care about anything that's happening, and I find the villains to be uninteresting. Maybe I'll just try to finish this serial off today just so I'll be done with it.

 

[Mr Awe]

It might be my pick for absolute worst Third Doctor serial - poorly written, poorly acted, and all around poor.

I know The Mutant isn't most people's favorites, but I absolutely love it. It does a great job presenting a complex history of the Federation, the planet, the politics, how those have interacted, and even how planet's orbit is affecting events. I liked the set design, etc.

Well, everyone has their own opinion!

Mr Awe

 

[kirk55555]

I'm on episode 5 of The Mutants, and even for Classic Who the number of times the good guys have been captured then escaped then recaptured then escaped is getting ridiculous. You can feel how much they were trying to pad out this story. This feels like a mediocre four episode serial stretched to six, something that seems to be fairly common in this era of Classic who (although it wasn't nearly as common once Tom Baker's era started). I mean, I've liked a lot of the first three Doctors serials I've watched, but when something is padded out they really don't mess around. Not that there isn't padding in other eras, but its probably the most used in the first three Doctor's eras.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

It doesn't help that all the guest actors have a sheer contempt for the show they're guesting in. The black guy in particular (and in no way do I intend on sounding racist, nor am I intending this point to be seen as such) is indescribably bad.

 

[kirk55555]

Well I finished The Mutants. It was a very boring, very padded story. I think that The Ambassadors of Death was worse (and longer), but I definitely won't be watching this story again.

 

[diankra]

Ambassadors is terrific. Mutants is... proof that Barry Letts could be over ambitious. It has the usual Baker and Martin problem of them trying to cram three ideas into a single story, an experimental score from Tristan Cary, an insane amount of CSO experiments, and then...
Casting a black actor as Cotton wasn't a bad idea. Leaving the lines written for a Yorkshireman unchanged wasn't necessarily a bad idea, there were lots of British-Carribean actors who could have made it work.
Casting Rick James... means all the better actors were busy.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm two episodes into Kinda. Its really bizarre, although not bad so far. The only part I don't like are Tegan's weird dream stuff/possession. I'm not a fan of Tegan (I don't hate her, but I don't like her), so her dream stuff wasn't too interesting, and neither was possesed Tegan. As for the guest characters, Hindle is not done well, but he's so over the top crazy its entertaining. The female scientist kind of reminds me of Sarah Jane for some reason. The alien species is fairly boring, although the old lady is pretty creepy. I don't know what to think of "the Mara". I'm getting ready to start episode 3, so I'll see where that goes.

 

[kirk55555]

I finished Kinda. It was a pretty good serial, but very weird. The Mara didn't really leave an impression as a villain, except for the epic terribleness of the snake puppet. Hindle was so nutty that he was probably the most entertaining of the guest characters. The native species was boring and nothing too interesting, but they served their purpose. I liked the "survival suit", which was low budget in that charming classic Who way (just like the snake). The Tegan stuff wasn't interesting, but it didn't really go past episode 2. Adric was tolerable this episode, outside of his lame attempt to pilot the suit. The Doctor was fine. He didn't get very much to do but he was still as good as he usually is. Overall this was an entertaining serial, although one I don't really think needs a sequel (which I mention because I know that the Mara is coming back in Snakedance).

After that, I started The Power of Kroll. Its a bit similar to The Mutants (a group of bad guys trying to take a planet from the natives for its resources). Actually, Kinda had that kind of story, too. I really didn't plan on watching a trilogy of "a-hole humans steal planets from natives" stories Its ok so far. The Doctor got some good lines, and Romana is still interesting. Besides that there isn't much to say about the first episode. I do like that they at least tried to make the natives look like aliens and not just humans in less elaborate clothing. There is a bit of a King Kong vibe with the "swampies" and Kroll, I'll be interested in seeing what Kroll looks like in full (probably next episode). Overall this was a decent start to a story.

 

[Mr Soak]

After that, I started The Power of Kroll. Its a bit similar to The Mutants (a group of bad guys trying to take a planet from the natives for its resources). Actually, Kinda had that kind of story, too. I really didn't plan on watching a trilogy of "a-hole humans steal planets from natives" stories Its ok so far. The Doctor got some good lines, and Romana is still interesting. Besides that there isn't much to say about the first episode. I do like that they at least tried to make the natives look like aliens and not just humans in less elaborate clothing. There is a bit of a King Kong vibe with the "swampies" and Kroll, I'll be interested in seeing what Kroll looks like in full (probably next episode). Overall this was a decent start to a story.

Since John Leeson was contracted for all episodes of the season, and K-9 wasn't used (it's a swamp, after all), John got an onscreen role. It's nice to see him do something different.

 

[diankra]

Since John Leeson was contracted for all episodes of the season, and K-9 wasn't used (it's a swamp, after all), John got an onscreen role. It's nice to see him do something different.

Though that seems to have been a plan B when Martin Jarvis couldn't play the role.

 

[Steve Roby]

Still, if I can get through The Ambassadors of Death, I can get through anything.

I've watched Ambassadors of Death twice and it certainly is padded, but I like it a lot. It's ambitious, it's got Liz Shaw, it has some moments of genuine mystery and suspense.

 

[kirk55555]

Its been awhile since I watched it, but I remember thinking that it was a very average 4 parter done very badly as a 7 parter. Its not the worst Doctor Who story by far, but its still pretty bad and one of the most boring stories I've watched.

Anyway, I finished The Power of Kroll. Its a very average story, painfully average actually. Nothing terrible, but absolutely nothing impressive. The Doctor and Romana were fine, and Kroll was goofy in an entertaining way, but that's about it. Nothing else was particularly entertaining, and its a type of story Doctor Who had done before, and better. It didn't even have any good side characters, which might be a first for a Robert Holmes script. Overall, its a forgettable story.

Speaking of Robert Holmes, I just realized that I've seen every story he wrote, except for The Krotons and (the mostly missing) The Space Pirates. I'll have to remember that.

 

[Greysun]

The Five Doctors. The Raston Warrior Robot vs the Cybermen is a great sequence. I wish they would bring that robot back in the new series.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm not sure if this quite fits here, but I think it counts. I just watched the first episode of the 8th Doctor/Romana flash animated version of Shada. I've never experienced the story in any other format (I didn't see any of the reconstructions or read the novelization), so I'm going into the story blind. This episode was pretty good. The 8th Doctor and Romana work well together, and the performances by McGann and Ward are very good. The story is interesting, with a pretty much senile timelord losing an ancient book and some evil scientist looking for it, along with the mystery (presumably added for this version) of why the 4th Doctor and Romana never experienced this the first time they visited cambridge. I mean, the audience some of what happened (the events of The Five Doctors stuck them into stasis), but we don't know why they didn't just continue with the adventure, and why they can't remember anything else about the past events now.

I went into this knowing it was low quality Flash animation, so it didn't bother me. The only kind of weird thing is that they seemed to assume that Romana being president of Galifrey wasn't a new, unusual development, but its not like its a complicated concept so it wasn't a problem. Honestly, it sounds like something I heard Big Finish having done, so maybe thats where it came from. Overall this was an interesting first episode, and I intend to keep watching.

 

[Mr Soak]

I think Romana became president in the books before BF picked up that point.

 

[kirk55555]

I just finished the 8th Doctor animated version of Shada. I enjoyed it. The story was well done and entertaining, all the main characters were interesting, and we even got some cool time lord stuff. K9 got to do some exciting things, like fighting the monsters, and had a lot of good moments. The 8th Doctor and Romana worked well. the human characters were ok, although nothing special. The Professor/criminal was an interesting guy, and I liked the backstory for the prison planet.The main villain was a bit weak, but still decent.

My only real problem has to do with the adaptation. They set up that The Doctor and Romana don't know why they went straight back to the TARDIS without visiting the Professor after being releaed from stasis when they were in Cambridge the first time (as shown in The Five Doctors). But, the story never explains what happen to them, or the memories. Its not a huge deal, I just wish they'd explained it since the lack of memory was the entire reason The Doctor got Romana to come with him on this trip. Also, a few of the lines were really obviously Tom baker lines, and while they usually worked fine for the 8th there were a few moments that probably could have been tweaked to be slightly less obviously written for Tom Baker.

Overall this was an entertaining story, and I think I'd prefer this to be the actual events, even though I'm sure canon would have the reconstruction attempts/novelization with the 4th Doctor being the "canon" version. Still, this gives the 8th Doctor a good adventure, and one that's as close to an official third 8th Doctor story as we'll probably get (since the BBC was involved in its production, unlike, say, the Big Finish stuff).

After seeing this I have to remember to watch Scream of Shalka sometime, even though its obviously non canon. There is also Death Comes to Time and Real Time, but those are both apparently painfully non canon. Plus Real Time is just a Big Finish production with animation, complete with a non canon companion (at least Death Comes to Time uses Ace, even if it also ends with The Doctor apparently dying without regenerating), so I don't think I'll get to these two.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Evelyn Smythe is not a non-canon companion, you know.

 

[kirk55555]

Evelyn Smythe is not a non-canon companion, you know.

I'm not getting into another Big Finish argument. If she didn't appear on screen, she's not a companion. The 6th Doctor had two companions, Peri and Mel. That's it, end of story.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I was just watching "The Tomb of the Cybermen" parts 1-3. I think it's an overrated Troughton story but definitely has a lot of mood and does a decent job with Victoria & the guest stars. Jamie doesn't have much to do though, which is just criminal.

I like that the panicky scientist in "The Tomb of the Cybermen" was also the panicky scientist in "The Ambassadors of Death."

I like "The Ambassadors of Death." I don't think it feels particularly padded out for a 7-parter. It's got a few good fight scenes and chase scenes in it. Liz Shaw is an underrated companion. And I'm always up for anything with Pertwee & UNIT.

As for "The Mutants," I think Season 9 had some of the most poorly designed creatures in the series, like that weird rainbow form that the Mutants eventually evolved into or that giant white flappy bird thing in "The Time Monster."

I'm two episodes into Kinda. Its really bizarre, although not bad so far. The only part I don't like are Tegan's weird dream stuff/possession. I'm not a fan of Tegan (I don't hate her, but I don't like her), so her dream stuff wasn't too interesting, and neither was possessed Tegan. As for the guest characters, Hindle is not done well, but he's so over the top crazy its entertaining.

Hindle kinda reminds me of a more serious version of Rimmer from Red Dwarf.

I finished Kinda. It was a pretty good serial, but very weird. The Mara didn't really leave an impression as a villain, except for the epic terribleness of the snake puppet.

The DVD includes an alternate version where you can see updated CGI effects for the snake. They're quite good. (And they blend into the existing footage a lot better than some of the CGI establishing shots from the special edition of "Day of the Daleks.")

Anyway, I finished The Power of Kroll. It's a very average story, painfully average actually. Nothing terrible, but absolutely nothing impressive. The Doctor and Romana were fine, and Kroll was goofy in an entertaining way, but that's about it. Nothing else was particularly entertaining, and it's a type of story Doctor Who had done before, and better. It didn't even have any good side characters, which might be a first for a Robert Holmes script. Overall, it's a forgettable story.

Speaking of Robert Holmes, I just realized that I've seen every story he wrote, except for The Krotons and (the mostly missing) The Space Pirates. I'll have to remember that.

I don't remember "The Krotons" doing that well on the side-characters front either. Though it does have some nice interactions between the Doctor & Zoe, including Zoe's best ever line, "Of course he'll figure it out. The Doctor is almost as clever as I am."

 

[kirk55555]

The DVD includes an alternate version where you can see updated CGI effects for the snake. They're quite good. (And they blend into the existing footage a lot better than some of the CGI establishing shots from the special edition of "Day of the Daleks.")

That would be interesting to see, although I did like the existing effect. Its just the right type of "cheap" that, to me at least, comes off as goofy but entertaining instead of lame. Classic Doctor who has both entertaining cheap and lame cheap, and the snake, to me at least, was fairly entertaining because of how bad it looked.

On another topic, I just finished The Time Monster. It was an ok story, certainly better then The Mutants. The Master was as good as always, same with the regular cast. The story was mostly interesting, although I like the idea of Chronos more then the giant white chicken it spent most of its time as. I think the story really kind of drops in quality when they go to Atlantis. The whole society, as shown in this story, was fairly boring. Much like a lot of six parters, I think dropping two episodes worth of material (in this case all the Atlantis stuff) would have made for a better story. Still, overall it was decent.

Next up, I've decided that I'm finally going to finish The Key to Time season, so The Armageddon Factor will be the next classic Who story I watch.