I indoctrinated Kate when we were both children. She watched Genesis when she was three.
Last Classic Who Story you watched
- Thread starter Pindar
- Start date
The CSO was as bad as it was experimental. Budget constraints (already mentioned) did risk the story getting scrapped, until someone suggested the idea. This story is the first to use a masking technique that hides the blue fringing as well. If anything, the lighting on the actors doesn't match up with the lighting of the cave photos or models used. Some shots are terrible, but others almost line up.
Now fast forward to "The Invasion of time", which - because of even tighter budget constraints - often has worse effects (especially the Vardans in the shiny tinfoil bag form) and, of course, the TARDIS interior action scenes that don't begin to feel authentic, the multiple tripes down the same set of stairs, plus the other trip down the stairs in a scene that clearly had characters saying they're going back up... "Underworld"'s worst CSO moment doesn't hold a candle and/or beer by comparison to how awful the season finale had gotten.
God, I hated "The Invasion of Time" and the clumsy attempt to pass off the interior of some old hospital as the interior of the TARDIS. And the half-assed way of writing out Leela, and the total failure to address why Leela could come to Gallifrey when Sarah Jane couldn't.
As a kid, I loved the Invasion of Time! Particularly seeing other parts of the TARDIS that we'd never seen before. Being an old weird hospital added to the charm. I really wanted to see what else existed in it.
But as an adult, the weak story is problematic. Gallifrey was downsized from Deadly Assassin. And, of course, writing Leela out the way they did.
But as an adult, the weak story is problematic. Gallifrey was downsized from Deadly Assassin. And, of course, writing Leela out the way they did.
According to the wiki, "Even though Louise Jameson was adamant that this would be her last story and a new companion had been developed, Graham Williams remained optimistic that he could persuade her to stay. As such, he gave little thought to Leela's departure because he was anticipating a last-minute rewrite to obtain her. He tried to persuade [her] right up to the studio recording, until it turned out that she'd accepted a stage role, meaning that she couldn't appear in Season 16 anyway. This resulted in Leela's exit being abrupt, much to Jameson's displeasure." https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Invasion_of_Time_(TV_story)?so=search#Story_notes
Oh, yeah... I do remember reading that somewhere some time ago. Obviously, my memory is growing faulty. Thanks for the reminder. Now it makes me wonder how different the "Key to Time" stories might have unfolded with Leela still around instead of Romana.
"The Wheel in Space" (Reconstruction on BBC Iplayer)
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Well, I always thought because of the events of The Deadly Assassin the Doctor may have felt the Time Lords wouldn't dare mess with Leela's memories like they did with Jamie and Zoe (which is also why I always thought why the Doctor really didn't take her with him - he wanted her to remember him and their travels). Also, you know, he was being Presidential and whatever.
Interesting take. I always interpreted it as the Doctor being forbidden to bring a human by Gallifreyan law, but now that I look over the transcript, all he really says is "I can't take Sarah to Gallifrey" and "I can't take you with me," without ever explaining why. Even Terrance Dicks's novelizations of "The Hand of Fear" and "The Deadly Assassin" don't elaborate any further than the dialogue does. So you could be onto something.
I doubt Holmes thought very much of The War Games and I'm sure it was as simple as "toying with the idea of a solo Tom Baker without companions series" as Hinchcliffe said. But story-wise, the Doctor's not been back to Gallifrey since his very trial in that serial. He literally was exposed there, at last, and the Time Lords manipulated his companions' memories of their travels with him. It seems reasonable to assume that, with the hindsight that the Doctor asks Sarah to "not forget him" that that would fittiingly be on his mind at that time. If he goes to Gallifrey he might lose Sarah.
Of course, he could have picked her up after, but...lets not dwell on that for now.
The novelization of The Face of Evil establishes that the Doctor arrives on Leela's planet immediately after leaving Gallifrey and has to remind himself that Sarah isn't stil with him. Then he picks up Leela, and she's a handful all by herself. He probably figured Sarah could take care of herself and Leela needed his full attention.
Although RTD has occasionally addressed why the Doctor never looks back on past companions, in Sarah Jane Adventures' "Death of the Doctor" and recently in "The Giggle." He's had to leave behind so many dear friends that he feels he just has to make a clean break and move on. He can't revisit all of them, and it wouldn't be fair to single out a few.
Yeah, but isn't Sarah Jane the first companion he left behind? When you think about it, everyone else left on their own or forcibly before then.
I'd say the first companion he left behind was Susan. She may have wanted to stay behind, but the Doctor made the decision for her by locking her out of the TARDIS, knowing she wouldn't have left him if he didn't push her out of the nest.
I just found my old oculus Go, so i think i will try some classic Petwee era to try it out, only 32 gig mind you but that is enough for 2 seasons at a time......right,classic Dr Who on cinema sized vr screen. 
The Time Monster is amazing. Top drawer.
The Invasion
The War Games
might have to sit and down re-watch it one day.
Read the novelisation many years before hand but when I actually got around to seeing, well it didn't hold my interest.
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