The one where Doctor 3 goes to Paledon was good. Poor Alpha Centauri, just a huge walking eyeball. I wish we could see that character in new who ..
Last Classic Who Story you watched
- Thread starter Pindar
- Start date
The Space Pirates
I didn't watch the Key of Time season in order, so it took me a while to get to this second part; maybe because its title seemed the most boring of the lot. I regret that now. I must say, this turned out to be a wonderful episode. I would consider it one of my top five Baker stories and definitely in my top 15 classic stories. Now I knew that Douglas Adams had written for Who but I didn't realize THIS was the first one. Humor, intrigue, a nice little twist in the story and a K9/metal parrot laser fight. Loved it.
I didn't watch the Key of Time season in order, so it took me a while to get to this second part; maybe because its title seemed the most boring of the lot. I regret that now. I must say, this turned out to be a wonderful episode. I would consider it one of my top five Baker stories and definitely in my top 15 classic stories. Now I knew that Douglas Adams had written for Who but I didn't realize THIS was the first one. Humor, intrigue, a nice little twist in the story and a K9/metal parrot laser fight. Loved it.
You mean Pirate Planet, The Space Pirates was a second Doctor story.
Interestingly enough, I'm told that the whole Krikkit robots thing from "Life the Universe & Everything" was originally written up to be a Dr. Who serial. They didn't want it, so he adapted it to Hitchhikers. And interestingly, I bet he totally ripped the bit where they're talking to the computer off from the end of "The Face of Evil."
The Cybermen are based on the hoary old Prosthetics Make You Less Human trope - which really needs to die about, yesterday. Disabled people are *not* less human because they use mobility aids. Can we dig Davis and Pedler up to kick 'em in the butt?
True....
Google Rebekah Marine. She's a model and spokesperson for Touch Bionics a US company that makes artificial arms. She's really cool. But her arm looks like it's right out of Deus Ex
Retro just did "Horror at Fang Rock" today. That is my informal benchmark of the high point of the classic series, so we'll see if I can maintain my resolve and make use of an extra 2 hours Saturday afternoons. But I missed a few episodes on the weekday rotation so I may just wimp out and watch all the way through to the "Cat People" 7th Doctor and the Master swan song--as execrable as much of it is.
And there's still some decent 4th Doctor stories. "State of Decay" is very good (although it is telling that it is a very old story that got shelved because the BBC was doing a "Dracula" movie at the time and didn't want to OD people on vampires. IIRC, it should have aired right around the time of "Horror at Fang Rock," where it would have fit in very well.
And there's still some decent 4th Doctor stories. "State of Decay" is very good (although it is telling that it is a very old story that got shelved because the BBC was doing a "Dracula" movie at the time and didn't want to OD people on vampires. IIRC, it should have aired right around the time of "Horror at Fang Rock," where it would have fit in very well.
Fang Rock was Terrance Dicks's rush-written replacement for the vampire story that was eventually resurrected as State of Decay (so they were written around the same time, but if The Vampire Mutations had been made, Fang Rock wouldn't have been).
Having said that, Louise Jameson recalls that her script for Fang Rock sometimes called her character 'Sarah', so it's possible that Fang Rock was a script Terrance already had half-written from a previous season, and pulled out of his bottom drawer in the emergency.
Having said that, Louise Jameson recalls that her script for Fang Rock sometimes called her character 'Sarah', so it's possible that Fang Rock was a script Terrance already had half-written from a previous season, and pulled out of his bottom drawer in the emergency.
Horror at Fang Rock is one of my favorite Fourth Doctor stories. It's such a minimal setting and it works out great.
I like the story but I hate the fact that all of the guest stars die!
That was, ISTR, a late suggestion from the producer, who spotted that it was already pretty close to The Ballad of Flannen Isle, so if everyone died it'd be a perfect match.
Yeah but it has the bitter taste of a Pyrrhic victory.
And sometimes that should be the only type of victory the Doctor gets. Not always (Saward over-did it), but once in a while.
After all, it's pretty common for him to save the planet without saving the people. It's just unusual for everyone to die (whereas in Robots of Death, three people survive, and one of them's gone mad, so almost as bad really - more people die aboard the Storm-mine!)
That's what I was thinking--that Fang Rock was a replacement for the vampire story. Yup. There is loads of Snope-y Internet Lore about Dr. Who--stuff everyone repeats to the point that we take it for granted, but that may or may not be true.
One of them is that they had the two coats for Tom Baker--the brown-"dark" one and the grey-"light" one and they dressed him in the darker coat for the darker stories and the lighter coat for the lighter ones. Well he wears the light coat for Fang Rock and everybody die--and I mean everybody--even the Rutans--and Leela gets temporarily blinded--and the whole story takes place at night. It doesn't get much darker than that. Kind of blows the dark coat/light coat costuming theory out the window.
On an unrelated note, I'm realizing that I don't think we see the control room after "Robots of Death." That kind of does lend credence to the story that the set was irreparably damaged. With the first K-9 story, they've dragged out the classic control room.
One of them is that they had the two coats for Tom Baker--the brown-"dark" one and the grey-"light" one and they dressed him in the darker coat for the darker stories and the lighter coat for the lighter ones. Well he wears the light coat for Fang Rock and everybody die--and I mean everybody--even the Rutans--and Leela gets temporarily blinded--and the whole story takes place at night. It doesn't get much darker than that. Kind of blows the dark coat/light coat costuming theory out the window.
On an unrelated note, I'm realizing that I don't think we see the control room after "Robots of Death." That kind of does lend credence to the story that the set was irreparably damaged. With the first K-9 story, they've dragged out the classic control room.
I love Horror and Fang Rock, sure when the Rutan turns up it the story loses some of the tension but certainly for the first three parts it’s a wonderfully atmospheric ghost story.
I’d agree it is a bit harsh that everybody dies but it’s hard to pick who you’d want to survive, aside from maybe the youngest lighthouse man? I think it does work better with a clean sweep and I always wish it’d made a slight reappearance some time, even if just a tall tale about a lighthouse where everyone vanished followed by the Doctor looking a little sheepish!
I’ve just finished watching Shada (or what was left of it) and I enjoyed it quite a lot, having Tom do the linking sections really helped, it’s just a shame there wasn’t more footage. I’m not sure it would have been a classic but it was fun and intriguing, and its nice to see another Timelord outside of Gallifrey.
I’d agree it is a bit harsh that everybody dies but it’s hard to pick who you’d want to survive, aside from maybe the youngest lighthouse man? I think it does work better with a clean sweep and I always wish it’d made a slight reappearance some time, even if just a tall tale about a lighthouse where everyone vanished followed by the Doctor looking a little sheepish!
I’ve just finished watching Shada (or what was left of it) and I enjoyed it quite a lot, having Tom do the linking sections really helped, it’s just a shame there wasn’t more footage. I’m not sure it would have been a classic but it was fun and intriguing, and its nice to see another Timelord outside of Gallifrey.
I just finished watching The Tenth Planet. It was ok. The Cybermen looked kind of goofy, but spooky at the same time. The biggest problem was the padding (most of the human astronauts in space wasn't really needed), and the America general was terrible. The regeneration scene (I was the animated version of the episode BTW, then watched the surviving regeneration footage on youtube) was ok for what it was, it was certainly mysterious and worked well for the time. Overall, this wasn't a bad serial, but its not something i'd rewatch too often, and its far from my favorite 1st Doctor serial that I've seen so far.
Way too much time is spent with the doomed astronauts in The Tenth Planet.
The first look at the Cybermen is interesting though.
The first look at the Cybermen is interesting though.
The show is good for pyrrhic victories, and I like how The Robots of Death and Voyage of the Damned have some of the more unlikeable characters survive (Commander Uvanov and Rickston Slade).
The last story I watched was Colony in Space. Frankly, it looked and felt quite cheap with Comrade Hulke's typical heavy-handed politics.
The last story I watched was Colony in Space. Frankly, it looked and felt quite cheap with Comrade Hulke's typical heavy-handed politics.
My third time in the past year on "The Monster of Peladon." It may be that the weather is affecting the TV reception and that is putting me in a sour mood but it is kind of like "Well, we've got all these cool sets with torch-operated secret doors and statues and a monster costumes. Let's slightly rewrite the script and shoot this thing all over again." But geez, they drag it out to 6 parts.
That said, Pertwee's smoking jacket in it is darned smart. Wonderfully tailored.
That said, Pertwee's smoking jacket in it is darned smart. Wonderfully tailored.
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