Silver Nemesis was ok. It had a few annoying bits, mostly when the 17th Centry villains were wandering around pointlessly (it was annoying and felt like padding). But, overall, the story was ok. The living metal was kind of interesting, and Ace fighting the Cybermen was cool. The former Nazi villain and the 17th Centry villains weren't very good, though. The Cybermen were done decently, although this story isn't as good as their last appearance before this, Attack of the Cybermen. Overall, this felt like a solidly average story. Next up is The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
One of the worst ever IMHO. Might have liked it a tiny bit better if the American tourist had been, as originally hoped, JR Ewing. Did you spot the Brigadier's tiny cameo?
I forgot about the tourist. At that point, I had mostly stopped paying much attention to the antics of the 17th century villains. The tourist was horrible, though. I didn't see the brigadier, but I looked it up. I didn't catch the cameo, but it would have been cool.
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is horrible. From beginning to end, it was one of the most painful Doctor Who stories I've ever watched, up there with stories like Fear Her, Love & Monsters, Mindwarp and Time and The Rani. It started off with the ring master rapping, which is one of the top ways to make me loathe something (and he kept doing it through out the story). It only went downhill from there. The villains were bad and super annoying. The side characters were mostly terrible. The "whizz kid" felt like the Doctor Who team whining like 5 year olds at their fans (because that's what you want to do when your show's ratings have tanked, give the finger to the only people keeping you on the air ). The circus theme wasn't used in anyway approaching interesting, and the "gods of ragnarok", while having an interesting look, were never really explained and just not really done well. Even the Doctor was an ass, berating Ace and bullying her about her dislike of clown. It felt like I was watching the very early 6th Doctor at his worst once or twice during this story. Ace was treated fairly generically. Someone called her chicken, and she responded exactly like every single young, "hot headed" character in poorly written stories do. Now, that kind of response can work, like with Marty in Back to the Future, but it just seemed lazy here. The only ok element I can think of is that Mags was an ok side character. She was also the only good side character. overall, this is easily the worst 7th Doctor story. Its even worse than Time and The Rani. Next up is Battlefield. I hope its good, it sounds interesting. So, I'm on the last season of classic Who. I'm honestly about ready to be done with the 7th Doctor. He's not bad, but honestly, at this point, he's the closest I can imagine they could get to being a "generic" Doctor. He's generally heroic, but can be petty, cruel, and a bit clueless. I heard before going in that the 7th had a reputation as a schemer/planner, which sounded interesting, but he's barely lived up to that so far. He doesn't have much that makes him feel unique, outside of his look. I've seen 8 of his stories, and don't feel like he's grabbed my attention like the other Doctors. I like his good adventures well enough, but once I'm done with him I don't see myself coming back to rewatch any of his stuff, except maybe Delta and the Bannerman. I'm hoping his last season has one or two classic episodes, because at this point his run is just kind of ok, and doesn't leave much of an impression (except for the fact that it has one of the worst Who serials I've seen).
I completely agree that The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was terrible. Battlefield is great, though (in my opinion). The Brigadier is back, and there are some interesting new characters. And U.N.I.T. is finally shown to be the multi-nation organization it was touted to be. Have you seen the Paul McGann movie? If not, you're not done with Classic Doctor Who.
I watched the movie months and months ago. My opinion (which I'm pretty sure I posted in this thread at the time) was that I didn't hate the movie, but it definately had problems. The Doctor was great (outside of the easily retconned half-human remark), the story could have been better but wasn't terrible, the companion was ok although a bit annoying at times, and Eric Roberts was a horrible, horrible Master. Also, the way the 7th Doctor died was really stupid (basically, he died of unintentional medical malpractice more than because he was randomly shot). I'd watch it again, though. Also, I'm not done with classic Who, I'm just near the end of its run. I still have most of the 1-3 and 5 Doctors to watch, and a little over half the 4th Doctor (I'll probably be getting back to the 4th when I'm done with the 7th).
We're basically in agreement, then. I loved Paul McGann's portrayal, and really wish he'd been in the 50th anniversary show. Much as I also enjoy John Hurt, McGann would have really been better. He had the part nailed perfectly, right from the get-go. The Five Doctors is a fun story, and by this time I'm sure that by now you're aware that the Fourth Doctor is my favorite. You've got a lot of good stuff to look forward to.
I meant I've got a lot to watch from Doctor's 1-3 and 5. I've seen 2 5th Doctor stories, The Five Doctors and The Caves of Androzani. Looking at it, I can see why it looks like I meant the episode The Five Doctors (Which is a good episode, although The Three Doctors is my favorite team up). Basically, this is what I've seen from all of the Doctor Who franchise: 1st Doctor: An Unearthly Child 2nd Doctor: Tomb of the Cybermen 3rd Doctor: Spearhead from Space Doctor Who and The Silurians The Three Doctors 4th Doctor: everything up to The Deadly Assassin (The Face of evil is the next one I need to see) 5th Doctor: The Five Doctors The Caves of Androzani 6th Doctor: Everything 7th Doctor: watched first 2 seasons, this is the one that's currently my priority to watch 8th Doctor: Everything (televised, so that means The Movie + Night of the Doctor) 9th: Everything 10th: Everything 11th: Everything
Battlefield was excellent. Not only is it easily the 7th's best story so far, I'd say that it probably also counts as just a classic Doctor Who story overall. Alternate dimension versions of some King Arthur related people like Mordred and Morgain come to Earth and get into a fight trying to get excalibur. UNIT gets involved, and we get to see the Brigadier again. The story is done really well, and easily kept my attention. The Doctor and Ace were great in it, although I still chuckled when the 7th did his over the top scream of terror. All the side characters did a great job, although Ace's friend (the assistant of the archeologist) was really pointless. The only thing I didn't like about the episode was that the episode randomly gives the Doctor powers we've never seen before, and never see in Doctors 6 and 8-11. He has the power to hypnotize at a glance, and he even has what I call the Gallifreyan Forehead Pinch, when he knock someone unconcious by basically pinching their forehead. Now, I can't speak for 1-5, but the 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th couldn't do that. Probably for a good reason, because its extremely stupid and feels like plot convenience. Also, The Doctor being the Merlin of another dimension was weird. I'm just assuming its not actually the case, since it really could go either way. Overall, I really enjoyed this story. Hopefully the 7th's last season will retain this level of quality, or at least remain a pretty good season. Next up is Ghost Light.
As a cute in-joke, Nicholas Courtney is an extra in a crowd scene in Silver Nemesis. That should be interesting.
Glad you liked it. It's one of the two McCoy-era stories I liked. What did you think of Brigadier Winifred Bambera? I'll have to rewatch that. Odd that during all these years, this is the first time I've heard mention of it.
She was ok for her role, although she was one of the weaker side characters. She just came off as a kind of generic military officer, trying to arrest the Doctor and generally getting huffy whenever she didn't understand something. Plus, she didn't keep her cool very well (I doubt Brigadier Stewart would have gotten into a fist fight with the knight like she did). I called her romantic feelings for the knight almost immediately. She wasn't particularly impressive, although she wasn't bad. She did what she had to do, be the background military officer in charge, like the UNIT commanders we've seen in UNIT's appearances in newer Doctor Who.
Ghost Light was very mediocre. It wasn't terrible, but I can't think of anything good to say about it. Ace was ok, I guess. The Doctor was just kind of there. The aliens were stupid and annoying, and the whole plan/motivation was stupid. By episode 3 I was mostly tuning the story out from boredom and just not aring. After the excellent Battlefield, this was very disappointing. Next up is The Curse of Fenric, and I hope its better. I'm glad that I'm almost done with McCoy's run.
Had the series not been cancelled before Battlefield aired it's very low ratings would've done it for them. Part 2's 2.6 million viewers was the lowest in the show's long history. And I while I personally like the show, it's the low point of the season for me.
I just finished watching the classic "carnival Of Monsters" epi on Netflix. It brings to the forefront a notion that in other Galaxies the Time Lords and even beings known as the Daleks are not known, and makes me wonder why there hasn't been more exploration of similar outer reaches which the technology and alien races with their own federations, or planets of origin can't become new and exciting stories, outside of the norm. Granted the aliens in Carnival of Monsters seemed tame by today's standards, but what about an entire race that invades and becomes a huge problem for the new daleks, or the new Cybermen, like the vong from Star Wars, or species 8472 from Voyager? that would be an interesting storyline to follow. the invasion of the milky way, from Andromeda, or something like that..
It's a really hard story to follow, especially while you're watching it. Unlike most Doctor Who episodes, there's never a point where they all just stop and the Doctor explains what the hell is going on. Mostly, the Doctor seems to expect Ace to figure it out on her own. However, I do like that speech from the Doctor about the things he hates. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwU4WI_V64w#aid=P-5Qc93DVOU[/yt]
It's interesting seeing your reactions to these: for me the MCCoy stories break down fairly easily into three groups... Good: Remembrance, GhostLight, Fenric and Survival. Watchable: Battlefield, Greatest Show, Dragonfire and Happiness Patrol (actually, HP is could have been great, but isn't, so it ends up as watchable as a middle ground). So God Awful That It Was Embarrassing To Be Interested in Doctor Who Back Then: Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers, Silver Nemesis and Delta (though I do quite like Delta part one). In the entire 50 year run, Time and the Rani and Silver Nemesis are the only two where I'd genuinely say I'd sooner they'd never been made. As the phrase goes, Your Mileage May Vary!