Well, you can be a failed assassin, an assassin who's just terrible at his job.
Classic Who day by day
- Thread starter OmahaStar
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and yet curiously your favourite Doctor seems to be Six, the most arrogant "aren't I brilliant!" one of the lot of them! I don't get it?
I'm less bothered about the Doctor thinking he's wonderful than I am other people thinking he's wonderful. The three cheers bit at the end of The Next Doctor made me cringe, and while I've reevaluated by hatred of The Last of the Timelords somewhat of late, I'm still very uncomfortable with the resolution. "See what humans are capable of?" Well yes Doctor I can, humans it seems are capable of doing exactly what you tell them to do. Humanity are mere pawns. Even Martha, yes her quest is wonderful and all, but again she's just doing what you tell her to do, a mindless doting drone.
One of many reasons I adore Donna as a companion so much. Because while she thinks the Doctor is wonderful and brilliant, she also clearly thinks he's a bit of a berk as well
And she isn't afraid to tell him he's wrong.
Well, I don't know, a bad cook is still a cook, right? Though I do see your point.
Yes, I was hoping you wouldn't notice how much I love the Sixth Doctor and how that may undermine my argument. I hate to invoke the notion of an exception proving a rule, or that he's just that good. But actually, I think you've hit the nail of that on the head with the second bit. If the Sixth Doctor said "I'm marvelous", aside from the fact he'd be doing in in a more bombastic and old fashioned way, instantly becoming more Doctorish compared to the skinny prancing titness of how Tennant would say it, then Peri would probably roll her eyes a bit in a "this is what I have to put up with, godluvim" kind of way. If Tennant did his usual gurning "I'm great I am" routine while inches away from breaking the fourth wall, then Rose would just nod and smile and possibly snog him as well.
and yet curiously your favourite Doctor seems to be Six, the most arrogant "aren't I brilliant!" one of the lot of them! I don't get it?
I'm less bothered about the Doctor thinking he's wonderful than I am other people thinking he's wonderful. The three cheers bit at the end of The Next Doctor made me cringe, and while I've reevaluated by hatred of The Last of the Timelords somewhat of late, I'm still very uncomfortable with the resolution. "See what humans are capable of?" Well yes Doctor I can, humans it seems are capable of doing exactly what you tell them to do. Humanity are mere pawns. Even Martha, yes her quest is wonderful and all, but again she's just doing what you tell her to do, a mindless doting drone.
One of many reasons I adore Donna as a companion so much. Because while she thinks the Doctor is wonderful and brilliant, she also clearly thinks he's a bit of a berk as well
And she isn't afraid to tell him he's wrong.
Perhaps your citing of Donna goes with this. I haven't seen any of series 4 since it aired, so my memory's not too fresh on it, but that would seem to agree with it being far more irritating when everyone joins in and tells the Doctor (and us) how great he is. After all, that's for us the audience to decide based on what we're shown, rather than having it dictated to us by the guest star of the week. It's all just part of the Mary Sueing of the Doctor.
The Deadly Assassin, episode 3
It was an illusion. The Doctor walks away. They go from one illusion-trap to another, while the Time Lords watch from outside.
Some guy working for the Master tries to kill the Doctor by drowning him.
* * *
Yep, that's it. It's one of those scripts that's hugely padded. All of the dialog from this script could have easily fit on three pages, and that's being generous. Other than that, it was walking around in what may or may not have been a real jungle, as a soundtrack plays increasingly louder "jungle sounds." It isn't bordering, it's completely obnoxious.
Yeah, I'm feeling better, and I'm able to concentrate now, but holy crap .. this is what I came back to? Blah.
It was an illusion. The Doctor walks away. They go from one illusion-trap to another, while the Time Lords watch from outside.
Some guy working for the Master tries to kill the Doctor by drowning him.
* * *
Yep, that's it. It's one of those scripts that's hugely padded. All of the dialog from this script could have easily fit on three pages, and that's being generous. Other than that, it was walking around in what may or may not have been a real jungle, as a soundtrack plays increasingly louder "jungle sounds." It isn't bordering, it's completely obnoxious.
Yeah, I'm feeling better, and I'm able to concentrate now, but holy crap .. this is what I came back to? Blah.
It's actually a pretty cool story imo and is the most Gothic of the Hinchcliffe era stories, but episode 3 could have been cut out entirely.
There is also the subtext allegory there of the Kennedy assasination(s) and the US paranoia about a 'Manchurian Candidate'.
It's a shame that Face of Evil isn't out on DVD yet, as you will soon enter the Leela episodes without her (very decent) introductory story. I recently watched this back to back with The Robots of Death and I must say Chris Boucher can certainly write well. Leela is my favourite of all the companions, and Boucher masterfully breathes life into her, gives her a brilliant backstory and makes her much more than just a 2D cut-out of a companion, imo.
There is also the subtext allegory there of the Kennedy assasination(s) and the US paranoia about a 'Manchurian Candidate'.
It's a shame that Face of Evil isn't out on DVD yet, as you will soon enter the Leela episodes without her (very decent) introductory story. I recently watched this back to back with The Robots of Death and I must say Chris Boucher can certainly write well. Leela is my favourite of all the companions, and Boucher masterfully breathes life into her, gives her a brilliant backstory and makes her much more than just a 2D cut-out of a companion, imo.
The Deadly Assassin, episode 4
The Time Lords bring the Doctor out of the Matrix.
There's some cat and mouse with the Time Lords and the Master, who they initially think is dead. Silly Time Lords.
Massive infodump on Rassilon. Here, the Doctor has no clue who he is. Later, he's a revered mythological figure.
They all fight, then the Doctor leaves in his Tardis while the Master leaves in his own.
* * *
Interesting about Rassilon here. Normally, we think of him as this huge figure in Time Lord history. The first three Doctors respect and revere him in Five Doctors. Oddly, the Fourth Doctor here has no idea who he is. So either that whole memory thing does go backwards, or the writers made a few boo-boos here and there.
Also interesting that the Time Lords seem to have no idea who the Master is. And he does like being inside the silly Matrix thingy.
The Time Lords bring the Doctor out of the Matrix.
There's some cat and mouse with the Time Lords and the Master, who they initially think is dead. Silly Time Lords.
Massive infodump on Rassilon. Here, the Doctor has no clue who he is. Later, he's a revered mythological figure.
They all fight, then the Doctor leaves in his Tardis while the Master leaves in his own.
* * *
Interesting about Rassilon here. Normally, we think of him as this huge figure in Time Lord history. The first three Doctors respect and revere him in Five Doctors. Oddly, the Fourth Doctor here has no idea who he is. So either that whole memory thing does go backwards, or the writers made a few boo-boos here and there.
Also interesting that the Time Lords seem to have no idea who the Master is. And he does like being inside the silly Matrix thingy.
Something a bit different here ... Thanks to extreme kindness on the part of another poster here, I was able to see Face of Evil tonight. That is the story set between Deadly Assassin and Robots of Death, and introduces the character of Leela. I had never seen it before, and it explains everything about the character.
This isn't going to be one of my normal reviews, and it won't count in the episode count, since it's not on dvd yet. I'll come back to it when it is.
In Face of Evil, the 89th story, the Doctor lands on a planet which he visited at some time in the past. He doesn't remember doing it, but he must have. There's a statue of him and everything.
The Doctor and his new friend, the savage Leela, go inside the statue where they are greeted by a much more advanced group of people who try to kill them both, just like Leela's savage people did.
They sort things out and Leela goes off with the Doctor as his new companion.
I'll be back tomorrow with at least one episode of Robots of Death.
This isn't going to be one of my normal reviews, and it won't count in the episode count, since it's not on dvd yet. I'll come back to it when it is.
In Face of Evil, the 89th story, the Doctor lands on a planet which he visited at some time in the past. He doesn't remember doing it, but he must have. There's a statue of him and everything.
The Doctor and his new friend, the savage Leela, go inside the statue where they are greeted by a much more advanced group of people who try to kill them both, just like Leela's savage people did.
They sort things out and Leela goes off with the Doctor as his new companion.
I'll be back tomorrow with at least one episode of Robots of Death.
Oh well done. It really helps to see that story in order to understand the companion, and it's a good story too (imo).
I'd be more inclined to say that The Brain Of Morbius and Pyramids Of Mars are the most Gothic of Hinchcliffe's tenure as producer.
Robots of Death, episodes 1 and 2
Written by Chris Boucher
Directed by Michael Briant
The Tardis lands inside something metal. It's a ship - a mining ship. The Doctor and Leela go off to investigate. There are robots everywhere, and the bodies begin to pile up, as they do.
The people inside the ship are miners, and the robots are programmed to work for them, but something is wrong.
The Doctor and Leela are separated. He is trapped in an hourglass sort of thing with sand quickly rising. One of the robots, #7, frees him.
Massive amounts of paranoia amongst the people inside the ship, all pointing fingers at each other, claiming everyone around must be the murderer.
The ship begins to break down. Something is going terribly wrong, and the Doctor is restrained when he tries to help fix the problem.
* * *
It's not the best story, but I've seen far worse. The dialog is sort of clunky in places, as if they're afraid to have any silence on the screen, so they have to fill it up with random dialog. Meh.
Something I noticed .. the different colored robots behave ... differently. They should all behave the same way, but they have a sort of class system, that's kind of interesting.
The way the Doctor treats Leela actually makes sense this time through. With Sarah Jane gone, these two are good for each other.
Why should they all behave the same? They're three different models performing different roles, as intended by their builders (so it is a caste system, but not one the robots are aware of in that sense). Would you expect an i-pod to be able to do the same job as a desktop PC?
I mean they physically move and behave different to each other. It was interesting to me.
Robots of Death 3
Within minutes, everything is fine and back to normal. Except for the dead bodies, of course.
The Doctor has a lengthy chat with one of the talking robots. Then the other robots go around killing people.
As the episode ends, one robot tries to kill the Doctor.
* * *
That's all there is to it. Nothing happens, we don't move forward, we just kind of hold on until the last episode. *shrug*
Robots of Death 4
The robot fails, the Doctor goes free.
The humans eventually band together to right the robots, who are under control of one of the other humans.
The robots and their master are defeated, and the Doctor and Leela depart.
* * *
Ok, how funny was it when the robots started walking around saying "Kill the humans, kill the humans"? Any fan of Futurama would love it.
After a rather boring third episode, the fourth episode picked it up and was pretty decent.
The robot fails, the Doctor goes free.
The humans eventually band together to right the robots, who are under control of one of the other humans.
The robots and their master are defeated, and the Doctor and Leela depart.
* * *
Ok, how funny was it when the robots started walking around saying "Kill the humans, kill the humans"? Any fan of Futurama would love it.
After a rather boring third episode, the fourth episode picked it up and was pretty decent.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang, episode 1
Written by Robert Holmes and Robert Stewart Banks
Directed by David Maloney
We open inside a theater. The performers all look Asian. There is a man who appears to be a ventriloquist. A man comes to the theater, looking for his missing wife.
The Tardis materializes. Out pops the Doctor followed by Leela, both dressed in Sherlock Holmes-style costumes.
Bodies begins to pile up. The Doctor and others begin investigating separately. Following a hunch, the Doctor and Leela go down into the sewer, where something large and spooky-sounding comes towards them.
* * *
It's mysterious and spooky, it's altogether ooky, it's the Doctor as Sherlock Holmes. Ok, that doesn't rhyme. So far, I like it. Beyond the conceit that it's science fiction because of the time travel aspect, everything about this is a period piece, and that's something the BBC always does extremely well.
One of the investigating dudes looks familiar. I *think* there is a tie-in between this and a Big Finish release with two guys as private detectives, but I only noticed one. I'll keep looking, maybe dig around a bit on the interwebs and see what pops up.
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