Last Classic Who Story you watched

[Qonundrum]

The lead actor was always listed as "Doctor Who" in the closing credits for the first 17 series (seasons) of the show, at least until John Nathan Turner took over as producer. With "The Leisure Hive" onwards, it was changed to "The Doctor".

Uh, I think.

(I'm on the company network and as such many sites are firewall blocked, so I can't verify. Sorry.)

think you're pretty much on the money there.

Season 18 ends credits do show "Doctor Who". The "The Doctor" trend started in season 19.

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Loved that first cliffhanger... second one too... very suspenseful and refreshingly different at the time. As a story it's not one for kids - too many concepts will be so far above them, unless that kid from "When The Bough Breaks" had to learn along with advanced calculus some concepts like sterilization and nuclear war-based extinction, radiation destroying a planet, application of fiber optic, theoretical particles that travel faster than light (tachyons), and so on... it's almost too dry and clinical a story given its content...

And JNT was not wrong; the character was "The Doctor" and should be reflected accordingly in the credits since every other character's name is referenced rather than the show's title. Back then, the character wasn't the show as the Doctor was a genuinely mysterious figure. Of course "The War Machines", uniquely (and for obvious reason), calls says "Doctor Who is required" but that never caught on.

 

[diankra]

ImagineiT what it was like for me watching on PBS back in the '80s, when they'd show whole serials as movie-length cuts starting at 10 PM, which was usually my bedtime. I stayed up very late on Saturday nights sometimes. Although I think they split "The War Games" over two weeks.

The cool thing about "The War Games" is that despite its length, it manages to avoid being too repetitive, because every few episodes, the story moves into a new phase with new situations and new antagonists. So it doesn't drag the way some of the other long ones (6 or 7 parts) sometimes do.

It's maybe one episode too long: 8 plus the epilogue would be ideal. But generally, every episode features one big twist that changes your view of the situation .

 

[Qonundrum]

The last episode I'd watched was "The Brain of Morbius". Terrance Dicks wrote it under pseudonym. I sorta see why. It's not an all-time great but it's nowhere near a clunker. The homage of "Frankenstein" is more obvious than "King Kong" was for "Robot" or Dracula for "State of Decay" (originally season 15 but shelved, then remembered when scripts were needed three years later). There was an attempted arc, with "Morbius" bringing up past lives (long before the current showrunner) and "The Deadly Assassin"'s building up with a limit on regenerations, which would have seen fruition with the "4th" Doctor's own lifespan as a series finale or big plot revelation had Hinchcliffe and Holmes not leaving the show at this point. Which makes sense, the 4th Doctor's era is the first to use Time Lords and Gallifreyan lore as a demystifying staple to wring out new stories with. Graham Williams and JNT both would continue the trend, JNT to a lesser extent as he would turn to sequels with popular monsters...

 

[Qonundrum]

Imagine what it was like for me watching on PBS back in the '80s, when they'd show whole serials as movie-length cuts starting at 10 PM, which was usually my bedtime. I stayed up very late on Saturday nights sometimes. Although I think they split "The War Games" over two weeks.

The cool thing about "The War Games" is that despite its length, it manages to avoid being too repetitive, because every few episodes, the story moves into a new phase with new situations and new antagonists. So it doesn't drag the way some of the other long ones (6 or 7 parts) sometimes do.

Same here. And on Fridays and Saturdays. 6 parters or more were split down the middle and not always at a proper end of episode. It was just great to see them.

I actually watched the entirety of War Games during a lovely evening. Got very late, but it was that gripping, that exciting. They really saved Pat's best for his last. Loved it, and still really appreciate it splendidly.

The funny part is that they wrote it as they went along; each episode took two days on average to write as they were also pressed for time and numerous other scripts were dropped. Season 6 was a chaotic mess. And to think "The Prison in Space" was close to have been recorded... that episode is more appropriate for "Lost in Space" season 3 and rewritten only slightly, though having Major West spank Judy to cure her of being brainwashed-- ugh. Thankfully the episode was not produced.

 

[Christopher]

Same here. And on Fridays and Saturdays. 6 parters or more were split down the middle and not always at a proper end of episode. It was just great to see them.

Oh, 6- and 7-parters were always shown straight through on my PBS station. As I said, I often had to stay up really late. I don't recall if it's because we didn't have a VCR yet, or because I didn't trust it to work reliably, or just because I was really eager to see the show.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

The funny part is that they wrote it as they went along; each episode took two days on average to write as they were also pressed for time and numerous other scripts were dropped. Season 6 was a chaotic mess. And to think "The Prison in Space" was close to have been recorded... that episode is more appropriate for "Lost in Space" season 3 and rewritten only slightly, though having Major West spank Judy to cure her of being brainwashed-- ugh. Thankfully the episode was not produced.

Oh, but it was, eventually. Albeit as an audio drama by Big Finish, but it was realized nevertheless.

That bad, huh?

 

[Qonundrum]

Oh, 6- and 7-parters were always shown straight through on my PBS station. As I said, I often had to stay up really late. I don't recall if it's because we didn't have a VCR yet, or because I didn't trust it to work reliably, or just because I was really eager to see the show.

If I knew that back in the day I'd be envious.

 

[Qonundrum]

Oh, but it was, eventually. Albeit as an audio drama by Big Finish, but it was realized nevertheless.

That bad, huh?

The story feels like a lowbrow campy parody unworthy of the show; most of Doctor Who to this point was a bit more serious with sci-fi. Troughton added humor but it at least was somewhat sophisticated, which some audiences didn't notice the difference of but I digress. Spanking as deprogramming as a plot point is beyond pure cringe, and drag was lame and unfunny even by then. (The show would finally see an exhibit of drag thanks to a latter-end Pertwee tale but thankfully hasn't been done since then. Except for possibly Spyfall. )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmade_Doctor_Who_serials_and_films#The_Prison_in_Space

Thankfully "The Krotons" took its place; it's a vastly superior story. (not sarcasm)

I'm fairly positive Fraser Hines seemed disappointed "Prison in Space" wasn't made, though I don't recall if it was a "Behind the Sofa" featurette or documentary where he said it.

 

[diankra]

The last episode I'd watched was "The Brain of Morbius". Terrance Dicks wrote it under pseudonym. I sorta see why. It's not an all-time great but it's nowhere near a clunker. The homage of "Frankenstein" is more obvious than "King Kong" was for "Robot" or Dracula for "State of Decay" (originally season 15 but shelved, then remembered when scripts were needed three years later). There was an attempted arc, with "Morbius" bringing up past lives (long before the current showrunner) and "The Deadly Assassin"'s building up with a limit on regenerations, which would have seen fruition with the "4th" Doctor's own lifespan as a series finale or big plot revelation had Hinchcliffe and Holmes not leaving the show at this point. Which makes sense, the 4th Doctor's era is the first to use Time Lords and Gallifreyan lore as a demystifying staple to wring out new stories with. Graham Williams and JNT both would continue the trend, JNT to a lesser extent as he would turn to sequels with popular monsters...

Not quite, Terrance wrote it, and when he was rewritten by Bob Holmes he insisted that it be run 'under some bland pseudonym.'

 

[arch101]

Imagine what it was like for me watching on PBS back in the '80s, when they'd show whole serials as movie-length cuts starting at 10 PM, which was usually my bedtime. I stayed up very late on Saturday nights sometimes. Although I think they split "The War Games" over two weeks.

The cool thing about "The War Games" is that despite its length, it manages to avoid being too repetitive, because every few episodes, the story moves into a new phase with new situations and new antagonists. So it doesn't drag the way some of the other long ones (6 or 7 parts) sometimes do.

In Albany NY it was Sundays at 5pm. Used to get a big sandwich and some snacks and my Father and I would watch the DR Who movie of the week. They’d always show the whole thing, too, no matter how long. Even The War Games.

 

[JD]

I decided rather than just randomly jumping around, I'm going to just go through all of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Doctor stories in order. Since I already saw Spearhead from Space a while back, I started with Doctor Who and the Silurians. I went into it with no idea about the whole plague element in the last couple episodes, so it felt a little ironic that I ended up watching it now.
I had to kind of laugh a little bit when Lawrence started insisting that plague was a hoax, and that the Doctor and UNIT were making it all up. That whole exchange felt very familiar.

 

[Christopher]

I had to kind of laugh a little bit when Lawrence started insisting that plague was a hoax, and that the Doctor and UNIT were making it all up. That whole exchange felt very familiar.

The part where the crisis is made much worse than it needs to be through the actions of irrational extremists feels familiar too (and not just because it's a perennial trope in classic Who).

 

[diankra]

The part where the crisis is made much worse than it needs to be through the actions of irrational extremists feels familiar too (and not just because it's a perennial trope in classic Who).

Not exactly irrational; limited, insisting that events have to fit within their view of the world, and anything else is a hoax or a plot.

 

[Christopher]

Not exactly irrational; limited, insisting that events have to fit within their view of the world, and anything else is a hoax or a plot.

Expecting reality to adjust itself to fit your beliefs instead of the other way around seems plenty irrational to me.

 

[diankra]

Expecting reality to adjust itself to fit your beliefs instead of the other way around seems plenty irrational to me.

These were people who had spent ages working out how to win by the rules, so of course they have trouble accepting that the rules... aren't. Ignore the new reality, it must be wrong.
Every economist I've ever heard seems to insist that reality is as they think it should be, and evidence to the contrary must be false. They're not irrational... well, yes they are, but the key point is that they know how the world should work, and anything contradictory must be false.

 

[Christopher]

Every economist I've ever heard seems to insist that reality is as they think it should be, and evidence to the contrary must be false. They're not irrational... well, yes they are, but the key point is that they know how the world should work, and anything contradictory must be false.

I don't remember any economists in "The Silurians." I think you think I'm talking about something else.

 

[diankra]

I don't remember any economists in "The Silurians." I think you think I'm talking about something else.

Economists are often the worst case of people who insist their view of the world is right, and evidence to the contrary should be ignored. Hence Dr Lawrence.
I bet Freddie Masters was PPE. :-)

 

[Christopher]

Dr. Lawrence was the administrator of a nuclear plant. They never said he was an economist. And I wasn't just talking about him. The younger, more militant Silurian (the one named Morka in the novelization) was just as responsible for preventing a peaceful resolution. As I said, it's a common Doctor Who trope, especially in Silurian stories, for extremists on both sides to make things worse.

 

[diankra]

Dr. Lawrence was the administrator of a nuclear plant. They never said he was an economist. And I wasn't just talking about him. The younger, more militant Silurian (the one named Morka in the novelization) was just as responsible for preventing a peaceful resolution. As I said, it's a common Doctor Who trope, especially in Silurian stories, for extremists on both sides to make things worse.

I know, nobody said he was. I meant that economists can be the worst example of people insisting that their view of how things should work is reality, and evidence to the contrary should be ignored. Which is Lawrence's attitude.
My point was that it's not extremism, more narrow-mindedness, an insistence that the world must be as you think it is. Though the two tend to overlap.

 

[Christopher]

I know, nobody said he was. I meant that economists can be the worst example of people insisting that their view of how things should work is reality, and evidence to the contrary should be ignored. Which is Lawrence's attitude.

But why did you even bring up economists????? We weren't talking about that. You seem to have some private resentment of your own that has nothing to do with this conversation, and it's really confusing.