Last Classic Who Story you watched

[CaptainCalvinCat]

Spearhead from Space complete arc legally available on YouTube.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Funnily enough: Not in Germany. I get a message: "The uploader doesn't provide this episode in your country".

Anyway: Finished "Mind of evil", watched "The Sea Devils" and now started "The Mutants" - finished episode 2, where Varan is trying to strangle the Doctor.
By the way, what I found extremely irritating during "Mind of Evil" and "Sea Devils" - the soundtrack. I thought "Okay, who played pong while creating the music?"

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Just started watching Pyramid of mars.....i forgot how good the audio was on this, music and sound effects are amazing.

 

[Turtletrekker]

The Sea Devils, complete arc, for those of us who have access. Looks like this channel is going to be dropping complete Classic Who stories on a regular basis.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[CaptainCalvinCat]

The Sea Devils, complete arc, for those of us who have access. Looks like this channel is going to be dropping complete Classic Who stories on a regular basis.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Again - not in Germany. Seems, we have to buy the DVDs. ^^

 

[Turtletrekker]

The Happiness Patrol. Looks like this is going to be a daily thing. Sorry, Germany.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[JD]

I just watched The Three Doctors, which I thought was pretty good. I decided to watch it because I started reading The Last of the Gaderene, but I did not realize until after I looked it up on the Tardis Wiki that it was set after the end of the Doctor's exile and since The Three Doctors was next up for me, and the end of his exile, I wanted to watch it before I got any farther into the book.
I liked it, the interactions between the three Doctors were a lot of fun, and Omega was a great villain.

 

[Qonundrum]

"The Invasion of Time" was just put out.

The first episode is incredibly strong, with sharp direction, acting, and the Doctor being wonderfully devious - topped by Tom Baker's perfection of acting. Indeed, for an exclusive species, the way that they get Leela to Gallifrey is pretty good.

The second episode also remains fairly strong.

The Vardans are otherwise okay at first, maybe only speaking too quickly but there's still a threat of menace. Then we finally get to see them in full form. Oops.

Part three starts to waver - especially when the Vardan popcorn tins become more prominent in scenes.

For lead-lined doors, they're opened and closed with ease despite their massive weight. According to an AI since I'm too lazy to really check, 3ft x 7ft sheet of 1/16" thick lead would weigh roughly 200 pounds. Never mind that all the lead panels are not merely 1/16" thick but have big gear adornments, so that door weights rather more than a bouncer at a bar. If nothing else, a cubic foot (12x12x12) of the stuff weights 708 pounds and is no more lickable than the thin door sheeting. I mean, you technically can do it, but it wouldn't be any more unhealthier to do and nobody should be licking lead to begin with...

By the time part 4 arrives and you're hoping it's only a 4-parter, it really gets bad as we have lots of goofy shots of things like a Vardan sitting on a chair shimmering as if it just drank way too much coffee or is trying to double as a popcorn popper but failing. The scene has to be seen to be disbelieved... so okay, we get to see more of the Shoboguns (non-Time Lord Gallifreyans), the temporal shield protecting Gallifrey, and other demystifying stuff that seems cool ate age 10 but feels less cool each time you try to rewatch the thing. Indeed, even the Doctor says, "Disappointing, aren't they!" in a 4th wall break of the sort that wouldn't have worked even if the story was cleverly working around its production issues. Also, why the Castellan assumes they're "just human" is unbecoming of a Time Lord, but by this point with Gallifrey-themed stories the duncery is everywhere. At the end, there's a needless plot twist as a cliffhanger and it's the Sontarans piggybacking on the Vardans. And that's when things really begin to get stupid, even if the incidental music at the Sontaran reveal is surprisingly good.

So with 2 parts left, the Sontarans somehow know of the Vardan plan or were they waiting in hiding hoping that some set of coincidences would ever take place? Ugh. It gets more and more plodding, complete with pointless "have you got a screwdriver?" jokes to go with some daft technobabble that proves how even the worst of 90s Star Trek did it all far better.

Pt 5 cliffhanger sounds compelling, but - go figure - a little reset button in the dumbest of places in pt 6's reprise makes everything hunkydorey again.

Never mind the TARDIS chase escapade in pt 6, which isn't anything as epic as it ought to be, and they go down the same set of stairs several times, going back up once even though the direction is so inane that the scene is shot of them walking down it again, etc.It's all a bit silly, even by season 15's standards.

Leela is simply married off in the script, which is lame. Kudos to the actors playing Leela and Andred in trying to add as much as possible as the script does little more than having them bicker incessantly. Apparently, Louise Jameson wanted Leela to be killed off as it would be more sensical for her character, but she got Andred instead.

Rating:
Parts 1 and 2: 9/10
Part 3: 5/10
Parts 4 through 6: 1/10

Overall rating: 4/10,

Maybe watch parts 1-3 then go watch a better story involving the Vardans, such as this following one that features another Vardan getting a helping hand:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Now that is compelling television!

 

[JD]

I started watching The Enemy of the World Saturday night as prep for Titan Comics' Third Doctor Miniseries.
This was my first Second Doctor story and I continue to like him after already seeing him in the Three and Five Doctors.
Only watched the first episode so far, but it's off to a pretty good start so far.
The stuff on the beach was exciting and the whole set up with Salamander is interesting, he seems like he's going to be a pretty good villain.

 

[The Lensman]

Been watching two of my favorite Doctors, 1 and 4, on YouTube lately. Currently watching "The Space Museum" from the First Doctor and "The Invasion of Time" from the Fourth Doctor. Picked up the Blu Ray of my other favorite, the Ninth Doctor and will be watching his season starting this weekend.

 

[Orac]

Just watched Doctor Who and the Silurians, I especially enjoyed the Silurians theme that sounded like it was played on a kazoo, great stuff! Then Paul Darrow shows up half way in. Best 2½ hours of telly I've seen all year.

4 thumbs up.

 

[JD]

This reminds me, I need to get back to The Enemy of The World.

 

[Qonundrum]

"Meglos", as I was hankering for a seasoned cheese sandwich, season 18, and a cheesy story.


At one point, deemed season 18's worst story in various polls, it's still weak on a narrative level and especially alongside season 18's other stories, the bulk of which don't make so many plotting goofs... But, heck, there's more to a story than mere in-story logic and use of real-life entities or ideas; it's great fun and lovely to sit back and just enjoy.

The music definitely suits the story.

Jacqueline Hill simply steals the show as Lexa. A huge fan of the Hartnell era, I'm not distracted by "BARBARA" at all, actually. That's just how good Jacqueline's range was.

Tom also excels as both the Doctor and Meglos. Would have made a fantastic Master, for which, given all the meta jokes the 21st century show has had, you know there'd be a field day aplenty with those.

Brotodac and Grugger are an excellent double-act, with some sparkling dialogue and great acting.

The two main Savants, Caris and Deedrix, are okay. But so much of the story's dialogue is biased in their direction. It really was Jacqueline who gave Lexa any depth, and it would have been easy for an actor to have made Lexa insufferable.

Edward Underdown was said to be ill at the time, so the performance is forgivable, but not knowing that, there's no way to figure out the flat performance. Considering illness, he held up well under the studio lights and a fair amount of dialogue.

The Savants, and even more so for the Deons are largely 2D stick figures.

Obviously, issues about anti-clockwise rotation being taken seriously by the Doctor and Romana when the Earth also rotates anti-clockwise*, surprisingly generic names like "Dodecahedron" when you consider the effort looking up "chronic" and "hysteresis" within a big 1202-page thesaurus of the time, and how Caris and Deedrix are babbling theories and wishing they knew the size and composition, despite already knowing the big lump can't be moved... yeah, this story deserves its low ranking in terms of loose storytelling, but the production and pace, adornments like the music, some fun dialogue from various factions, and enough good acting do help it improve that much more.

6/10

* unless they mean it rotates in the opposite direction, meaning any clock you have running will be going in the opposite way, probably. A shame we never saw an orbital shot of Tigella where the planet is rotating from east to west... or west to east, depending on which direction you're looking at, particularly if you're looking at it above from one of the poles, which is why you always look down from the North. It's all relative and every planet's got a north...

 

[diankra]

I started watching The Enemy of the World Saturday night as prep for Titan Comics' Third Doctor Miniseries.
This was my first Second Doctor story and I continue to like him after already seeing him in the Three and Five Doctors.
Only watched the first episode so far, but it's off to a pretty good start so far.
The stuff on the beach was exciting and the whole set up with Salamander is interesting, he seems like he's going to be a pretty good villain.

Probably the best Doctor. Which is saying something now there's been 15 (not counting Jo Martin, the Valeyard and John Hurt_

 

[diankra]

Just watched Doctor Who and the Silurians, I especially enjoyed the Silurians theme that sounded like it was played on a kazoo, great stuff! Then Paul Darrow shows up half way in. Best 2½ hours of telly I've seen all year.

4 thumbs up.

The composer used archaic instruments in an attempt to reference the Silurians. Even though those instruments only date back maybe 500 years..

 

[diankra]

"Meglos", as I was hankering for a seasoned cheese sandwich, season 18, and a cheesy story.


At one point, deemed season 18's worst story in various polls, it's still weak on a narrative level and especially alongside season 18's other stories, the bulk of which don't make so many plotting goofs... But, heck, there's more to a story than mere in-story logic and use of real-life entities or ideas; it's great fun and lovely to sit back and just enjoy.

The music definitely suits the story.

Jacqueline Hill simply steals the show as Lexa. A huge fan of the Hartnell era, I'm not distracted by "BARBARA" at all, actually. That's just how good Jacqueline's range was.

Tom also excels as both the Doctor and Meglos. Would have made a fantastic Master, for which, given all the meta jokes the 21st century show has had, you know there'd be a field day aplenty with those.

Brotodac and Grugger are an excellent double-act, with some sparkling dialogue and great acting.

The two main Savants, Caris and Deedrix, are okay. But so much of the story's dialogue is biased in their direction. It really was Jacqueline who gave Lexa any depth, and it would have been easy for an actor to have made Lexa insufferable.

Edward Underdown was said to be ill at the time, so the performance is forgivable, but not knowing that, there's no way to figure out the flat performance. Considering illness, he held up well under the studio lights and a fair amount of dialogue.

The Savants, and even more so for the Deons are largely 2D stick figures.

Obviously, issues about anti-clockwise rotation being taken seriously by the Doctor and Romana when the Earth also rotates anti-clockwise*, surprisingly generic names like "Dodecahedron" when you consider the effort looking up "chronic" and "hysteresis" within a big 1202-page thesaurus of the time, and how Caris and Deedrix are babbling theories and wishing they knew the size and composition, despite already knowing the big lump can't be moved... yeah, this story deserves its low ranking in terms of loose storytelling, but the production and pace, adornments like the music, some fun dialogue from various factions, and enough good acting do help it improve that much more.

6/10

* unless they mean it rotates in the opposite direction, meaning any clock you have running will be going in the opposite way, probably. A shame we never saw an orbital shot of Tigella where the planet is rotating from east to west... or west to east, depending on which direction you're looking at, particularly if you're looking at it above from one of the poles, which is why you always look down from the North. It's all relative and every planet's got a north...

Ironically, Brotadac is an anagram of Bad Actor, as the co-writer had written the part to play himself.

 

[Qonundrum]

Ironically, Brotadac is an anagram of Bad Actor, as the co-writer had written the part to play himself.

Now that's a fun plot twist!

 

[diankra]

Now that's a fun plot twist!

John Flanagan... think he did get to appear in something he rote himself eventually (Sleepers), having been one of the recurring barristers in Crown Court (alongside Richard Wilson, Terence Hardiman, Maureen Lipman and Ben Kingsley).