Last Classic Who Story you watched

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Pindar, Aug 29, 2012.

  1. Qonundrum

    Qonundrum Vice Admiral Admiral

    "Terror of the Vervoids" - both original edition and the new one with deleted scenes added and trial bits excised. The restoration quality is pretty great; the picture upscales fairly well considering detail is not being added as such, it lacks that nasty "cheap videotape" look seasons 23-26 were known for having, even with the bright reds that never fare very well on video tape, rendered worse with color bleed via excessive compression on the DVD release. Seriously, the palette is as robust as the restoration quality.

    The non-trial standalone edition is a really nice edit, though the revised opening sequence (with malfunctioning TARDIS noise, nice touch) still relies on the bland old vortex motif and is actually impressive in its ability to cause dizziness if you're sitting too close to the set. For more information on how to self-induce nausea, check out the following chart at the address shown after whippin' out the tape measure: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

    The non-trial edition, or even the original, both show entirely new monsters and locations with no references to the show's metatextual past - which is a nice change from "Mindwarp", and even aspects of "The Mysterious Planet".

    It's great that classic WHO (prior to McCoy's trendsetting era) doesn't drown people with loud elevator music, which probably made some of the editing easier but to my understanding they have all the original separate audio and video recordings, which is half the battle. I doubt new music was composed, but it all feels seamless and flows nicely. Granted, how vegetable and animal matter could be made into a hybrid by "an unfortunate accident" -- the scene is either quietly hinting at something far uglier than what we know of these scientists (of which the three are fleshed out with their own motivations, enough to even feel sympathy for the compassionate Lasky and newly-psychotic Bruchner despite it all!), or it's a gloss-over line. I'm going to say it's the former because the episode does strive to get viewers to actually think, it only spoon-feeds so much. Thankfully there is one unresolved issue; how did Hallet know of the Doctor to begin with and knew the TARDIS was in the area? Or was he beaming a message to the one ship that the radar located and wasn't the universe lucky any ship was there at the time? (Plot contrivance, it's inevitable for any episode of any story of any series.) When the guard tells Mel he doesn't want her killed "until--", it's not hard of a guess given the accusation of stowaways, piracy and murder being on the guard's mind, the latter of which the end result of death penalty would be considered.

    And, of course, when Doland booby-trapped the entrance to the Vervoid pod section of the hold, wouldn't there be a better way that would prevent wide spectrum lighting to be emitted in a large enough quantity to wake up their creations, or was it merely a calculated risk? The Vervoid design may have been overly done and not quite like the Venus Flytrap as envisioned (quite the inverse, which leads to an equally unintended visual double entendre -- or two!), but they're a great monster added to Doctor Who's pantheon of evil critters. Except in this case they're not evil, it's merely instinct at work. (And given all the clever aspects of the story, it's way too easy to forgive the ship's goofy room lock structure as to how the key to cabin 6 and 9 are interchangeable in more than identifying numeral since, if I recall, Professor Lasky stated her belongings weren't in her room...?)

    I also rewatched "Smile", of NuWHO fame. It's an incredibly underrated and fantastic story, which has something akin to the feel of Classic WHO albeit updated for modern audiences while exploring modern themes. People who gave up on Moffat did so a little too soon, series 10 was a genuine return to form... but this topic is about Classic WHO so I don't want to overstep... too much. :razz:
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2019
  2. Emperor-Tiberius

    Emperor-Tiberius Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I like series 10 more and more as time goes on, especially after the lacklustre series 11. Its Capaldi, as good as ever, at his Doctor's finest characterization, and Billie was a great companion! And that three-part finale was just great!
     
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  3. Jinn

    Jinn Mistress of the Chaotic Energies Rear Admiral

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    I'm doing a Classic Who rewatch with a friend of mine. So far we have watched "An Unearthly Child", "The Daleks", "The Edge of Destruction", "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" and "The Chase". Our criteria for what serials we watch is basically if there's some bigger importance to the story of the show, like companions leaving or the Doctor regenerating, or recurring villains appearing.

    So far, I find that my I have two favorites. One being "The Edge of Destruction", for being showing us how easy conflict between those characters that don't really know each-other yet.

    The other is "The Chase" which, right now, is probably my favorite First Doctor serial. It kinda got everything. The Doctor and Ian and Barbara feel like they all come a long way since "An Unearthly Child" and "The Edge of Destruction". The trio enjoys their adventures, the Doctor's inventions and most importantly each-other's company. I also find the Doctor's... well let's say reluctance to letting Ian and Barbara go to showcase a very interesting aspect of his personality, and how he almost put his own needs of being with his friends over their need to not visit random planets for another two years. But even apart from character stuff, "The Chase" is just a joy to watch. Its third (I believe) episode may just be my favorite 1960s episode. The music, while not always entirely fitting with the episodes themselves was rather memorable, and probably the first time I really noticed music in Classic Who. The whole concept of a chase through time and space is one that I find very cool, and I think it's a bit strange that it appeared so little in other Doctor Who episodes.

    The other serials didn't really give me the same level of enjoyment as "The Chase", but they still tend to be okay to good. "An Unearthly Child" starts out very well, but the final three episodes don't live up to that. As someone who sometimes enjoys a darker Doctor, the scene where the Doctors thinks its a good idea to kill a wounded person to get back to the ship more quickly is at the very least interesting.

    "The Daleks" kinda got screwed over by us, I think we spend most of the serial talking and I don't have a lot of memories from this rewatch.

    "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" is, to me, an example of a good serial that suffers from some bad elements, namely the Doctor stranding Susan on post-apocalyptic Earth. I just honestly can't find anything I like about that particular scene. But again, the rest is pretty good.

    Next up are "The Time Meddler", which is actually the only Classic Who serial (that's still available) that I haven't seen yet, and then "The Tenth Planet".
     
  4. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Time Meddler is...ok. I think I have it taped off TV in the anniversary repeat season from the nineties still. I was going to suggest you watch The Aztecs before I got to the end of of your post and realised you had already seen it xD
    It introduces the ‘no changing things’ and has the stuff with the Doctor and Cameca that feels oddly like foreshadowing for the slightly more ‘emotional’ Doctor we get in Nu-Who. Ten would have had all watery eyes while he popped the hot chocolate down XD

    Enjoy. What’s your favourite bunch of classic who?
     
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  5. John Clark

    John Clark Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think the last one I watched was Trial of a Timelord (beginning of this month) but I was going to watch The Moonbase the other night before other things popped up.
     
  6. Doctor Bombay

    Doctor Bombay Captain Captain

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    Spearhead From Space. Love me some Pertwee. :)
     
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  7. Jinn

    Jinn Mistress of the Chaotic Energies Rear Admiral

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    Now that you mention it, I probably should have included that one.

    Oh, that's a hard question. I think I could talk about Who for waaay longer than I actually have time for :D Off the top of my head "The Enemy of the World", "The Sontaran Experiment", "The City of Death", "Mawdryn Undead" (and to a lesser degree the entire Black Guardian trilogy), "The Three Doctors", "The Deadly Assassin", "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and "The Ultimate Foe".
     
  8. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Despite being a Who fan since I was knee high to an ant, I have never seen or read the Sontaran Experiment. Of those, Greatest Show is one I have great love for.
     
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  9. worf1965

    worf1965 Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I am also doing a complete rewatch from the beginning. I love all classic Who so just a few observations on things I didn't notice the first time. So far I've seen An Unearthly Child and The Daleks. In An Unearthly Child I hadn't noticed before that Susan is surprised the Tardis shows up as a police box when they arrive back in time. She said previously it had changed shape depending where they arrived. I guess it would have been too expensive to keep changing the Tardis. Also, the Doctor seems to have no control over where they're going. With other doctors (s)he does lose control at times but seems to generally be able to arrive where he wants. Susan does seem to devolve from a scientific whiz to a frightful girl very quickly.
     
  10. worf1965

    worf1965 Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    With the Daleks they appear to be totally defeated by the end but come back repeatedly. A pattern. Also, a big deal is made on their need for metal surfaces to move using static electricity but that seems to be forgotten later as well. And the Thals are all blonde. What gives?
     
  11. John Clark

    John Clark Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I remember reading it years back, but I don't (yet) have the Sontaran one.
     
  12. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yeah, they were going to have it change to blend in, but decided it was better to give it a consistent shape, both for budget and for recognizability. It was definitely the right choice.


    There was a gradual progression over the years. The First and Second Doctors had essentially no control over the TARDIS's course and were never able to take their companions back home. The Third Doctor spent a lot of time tinkering with the TARDIS to break free of exile, and once he was free, he was able to set a course but rarely wound up where he aimed. The Fourth Doctor gradually got better until he could make precise short hops, and he only occasionally went off course. The Fifth Doctor still had trouble getting Tegan back to Heathrow, but by the Sixth Doctor era and beyond, he pretty much had perfect navigational control. It makes sense, really, since he stole the TARDIS and presumably didn't know how to work it at first, and gradually learned through experience over the course of years.


    Note that in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" the Daleks have parabolic dishes that are supposed to be receiving broadcast power as a substitute for the static in the floors. So that was accounted for there, though it was forgotten afterward.

    They were supposed to have evolved to genetic perfection while the Daleks degenerated to hideousnes, and unfortunately, the culture at the time still assumed that the perfect human specimen was white and blonde. (Ironic, given that the Daleks were meant to be an allegory for the evils of Nazism.)
     
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  13. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Thals mutated into seventies glam rock bands, the Daleks into seventies cuisine.
    Daleks have wireless power transfer when next we see them. After that, batteries we presume.
     
  14. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    The Doctor's control (or lack thereof) over the TARDIS has been attributed to several factors:

    1) The Doctor is just rubbish at piloting her
    2) He lost the instructions
    3) She takes him where he needs to be rather than where he wants to be
    4) There are meant to be six pilots and he's flying solo
    5) His TARDIS has malfunctioning navigation systems
    6) The link between TARDIS and pilot is meant to be telepathic and because he stole her this took time to establish
    7) As above but he also stripped out much of the telepathic interface (until recently) because the Time Lords could hack it, so he was making do with a manual control system - akin to flying the Enterprise with a joystick... ;)

    Little jokes like River telling him the TARDIS "wheezing, groaning sound" is because he leaves the handbrake on can be dismissed as the TARDIS indulging its "child" in a bit of ribbing of him since the Master and Rani's TARDISes sounded the same too.
     
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  15. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    It's pretty much all of the above, or at least most of them. He did steal it while it was in for repairs, after all. So it was busted and he didn't know how to work it, so that left its destination pretty much in its own hands.
     
  16. Emperor-Tiberius

    Emperor-Tiberius Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    He was reasonably skilled to pilot the TARDIS by his fourth incarnation, though. Especially in the Williams era. The TARDIS not responding to the Doctor's piloting became a theme again when JNT wanted season 19 to be like the first season, of the TARDIS crew trying to get to Heathrow in 1981, just like the Doctor was trying to bring Ian and Barbara home after he took them in the pilot episode.
     
  17. Haggis and tatties

    Haggis and tatties Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Pyramids of Mars, cracking story, cracking cast and with a nice bassy pair of earphones the audio effects in this show are amazing....especially this bit....rattles the teeth out of your skull. lol
     
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  18. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Well, the Doctor jettisoned a quarter of the TARDIS's interior in "Castrovalva." Maybe some of the navigational circuits went with it. Or maybe she was just mad at him.
     
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  19. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    In The Chase the vertical slats around the shoulder were Ray Cusick's way of replacing the dishes he disliked while acknowledging the point. They then became standard, even when Power reverts to the static supply idea.
     
  20. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Oh, yeah, that's right, they were supposed to be solar panels! I should've remembered that.