Last Classic Who Story you watched

[26138]

I had a vague "I think I remember this?" on ep 1 of Enlightenment (the dark TARDIS and the white guardian ghosting in), but nothing after that. Maybe I skipped the week they aired eps 3 and 4? But then I also remembered Turlough did finally break free of the Black Guardian, so I might have watched those eps anyways and just forgotten. This serial was surprisingly better than I was expecting going into it.

I did watch The King's Demons -- I don't think I've seen it since the PBS rerun days. A short little thing, and I did vividly remember Kamelion's head/neck moving about. Oh boy does Kamelion look worse than I remembered. I kind of forgot the Master was in it until the reveal, then I went "Oh, of course, that makes sense!" It ends rather abruptly.

I skipped The Five Doctors and Warriors of the Deep. I remember watching both on PBS reruns, and I have both on DVD. I also watched Warriors of the Deep recently on the official youtube channel. The Myrka was so bad!

The Awakening - another one I don't remember. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be based on the description. On to Frontios. We'll see if anything trips my memory there.

I do definitely remember seeing Planet of Fire and Caves of Androzani on PBS as a kid. I may have seen Resurrection of the Daleks, too? I know I've seen all 3 since (on DVD). I may have mentioned this before, but Caves was so good I was going to make a decision to be more diligent in watching or recording Doctor Who, then they ended up killing Davison off... And next week's The Twin Dilemma was so bad that I quit watching lol. I'd been a faithful watcher since Spearhead in Space all through Pertwee's era dnd Baker's era up to the first part of Davison's era, and hit and miss through the rest of Davison's era.

 

[26138]

I vividly remember Nyssa shedding her clothes and running around in a flimsy slip for much of the serial. It made a strong impression on me as a teenager. A few years later, I got to meet Sarah Sutton at a convention, and when my turn in the autograph line came, I told her that I'd belatedly developed a crush on Nyssa in her last story just before she left, and as soon as I said it, I abashedly realized I should avoid telling her why I developed a crush on her while watching "Terminus" and not before. (Though she could probably guess. Apparently she later described her striptease in "Terminus" as a "gift" to her male fans.)

I liked her outfit well enough prior to her stripping lol. They finally gave her something nice to wear - that original Traken maroon velour thing with the upper arm puffs was not flattering.

Tegan's dress in Enlightenment was nice. According to the wiki:

Janet Fielding struggled with the low cut ball-gown she wore during filming, as it threatened to expose her breasts on a number of occasions. At one point, Peter Davison concluded a line with the ad-lib, “Oh, and Tegan, put your boobs back in!” whereupon Fielding realised that she had accidentally exposed herself.

 

[Christopher]

I did watch The King's Demons -- I don't think I've seen it since the PBS rerun days. A short little thing, and I did vividly remember Kamelion's head/neck moving about. Oh boy does Kamelion look worse than I remembered.

It's a shame the Kamelion animatronic didn't work out, since I liked the idea of it. They could've done interesting things with a shapeshifting robot as part of the TARDIS team.

What's always bugged me about "The King's Demons" was the bit where the Doctor claimed that, contrary to popular belief, King John was actually in favor of the Magna Carta. Nothing I've read about the history of John or the Magna Carta ever since has supported that assertion, so I really wonder where it came from.

 

[26138]

It's a shame the Kamelion animatronic didn't work out, since I liked the idea of it. They could've done interesting things with a shapeshifting robot as part of the TARDIS team.

If the internet is correct, the guy who built the thing and knew how to run it died in a boating accident and didn't leave detailed instructions for its operation behind, so the crew had trouble running it, and it often broke down and ruined filming schedules.

 

[Christopher]

If the internet is correct, the guy who built the thing and knew how to run it died in a boating accident and didn't leave detailed instructions for its operation behind, so the crew had trouble running it, and it often broke down and ruined filming schedules.

They could've just built a robot suit for an actor to wear and had Kamelion say he shapeshifted into it. Heck, Red Dwarf changed Kryten's body-armor design every season (along with the set design) and never acknowledged the change in-story.

At least, they could've managed to tape a few stock shots of the Kamelion robot in the console room and just used them for a few moments before Kamelion shapeshifted into a guest actor, just long enough to establish Kamelion for the audience.

 

[diankra]

They could've just built a robot suit for an actor to wear and had Kamelion say he shapeshifted into it. Heck, Red Dwarf changed Kryten's body-armor design every season (along with the set design) and never acknowledged the change in-story.

At least, they could've managed to tape a few stock shots of the Kamelion robot in the console room and just used them for a few moments before Kamelion shapeshifted into a guest actor, just long enough to establish Kamelion for the audience.

There was a scene of Kamelion in The Awakening, but it was cut.

 

[26138]

There was a scene of Kamelion in The Awakening, but it was cut.

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[Christopher]

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Oh, that's quite interesting. I can see how problematical the puppet was, with the awkward pose and near-immobility. But the character interaction was effective. (Except, what the hell is "the eclectic quality of Turlough's voice" supposed to mean? How is Turlough's voice composed of elements drawn from a variety of different sources?)

 

[Tomalak]

The whole point of Kamelion was the robot prop itself. There was barely a character there, it was a gimmick that didn't work out.

It's also a but of an odd one for JNT, who dispensed with K9 and the sonic screwdriver partly because they made things too easy for the Doctor, to think introducing a shapeshifting robot would be a good idea.

 

[Christopher]

It's also a but of an odd one for JNT, who dispensed with K9 and the sonic screwdriver partly because they made things too easy for the Doctor, to think introducing a shapeshifting robot would be a good idea.

Judging from the deleted scene, the idea all along may have been that Kamelion was a spy for the Master whose job was to undermine the Doctor, or at least that it would've been ambiguous where Kamelion's true motives lay. JNT in the Davison era was all about making the Doctor vulnerable, particularly through his companions -- Adric who created trouble with his youthful enthusiasm and arrogance, Tegan who didn't want to be there, Turlough who was literally a mole sent to kill the Doctor, and even after that was devious and had his own agendas. So it seems likely that Kamelion was meant to be a source of tension since we weren't sure what side he was on. Unfortunately, Kamelion turned out to be unreliable in a more physical sense.