Last Classic Who Story you watched

[Volpone]

"The King's Demons" today. Finished up the Black Guardian arc last night. I gotta say it is getting painful to watch. The whole Black Guardian thing just makes no sense. Why is Turlow going along with him? He didn't do anything for Turlow, really. Why is he even using Turlow? He's at least theoretically powerful enough to redirect the TARDIS and hold the Doctor prisoner for as long as he wants (as the White Guardian essentially did in the beginning of the Key to Time season). And why is he wearing a chicken on his head? "The King's Demons" is a mess too. I mean, it probably isn't any worse than some of the Master's plans against the 3rd Doctor, but somehow it just doesn't compel me.

Well, Tomorrow should be "The Five Doctors," but given that story's format, it wouldn't surprise me if Retro winds up skipping it for whatever reason they just skip certain stories.

 

[Sindatur]

"The King's Demons" today. Finished up the Black Guardian arc last night. I gotta say it is getting painful to watch. The whole Black Guardian thing just makes no sense. Why is Turlow going along with him? He didn't do anything for Turlow, really. Why is he even using Turlow? He's at least theoretically powerful enough to redirect the TARDIS and hold the Doctor prisoner for as long as he wants (as the White Guardian essentially did in the beginning of the Key to Time season). And why is he wearing a chicken on his head? "The King's Demons" is a mess too. I mean, it probably isn't any worse than some of the Master's plans against the 3rd Doctor, but somehow it just doesn't compel me.

Well, Tomorrow should be "The Five Doctors," but given that story's format, it wouldn't surprise me if Retro winds up skipping it for whatever reason they just skip certain stories.

Turlough is desperate, he's stuck on Earth, and The Guardian gives him hope for a way off and doesn't know the Doctor isn't really evil before he makes the deal. Once the deal is made, he has no way out. The Black Guardian can't take direct action against the Doctor, he needs to use a pawn.

If Retro does skip The Five Doctors, you can find it in full on Youtube or Dailymotion, just Google Videos "Doctor Who The Five Doctors Playlist".

 

[DarthPipes]

Just watched The Seeds of Doom. This was the first full Serial I watched in 1980. I had seen bits and pieces of episodes prior to this,while my brother was watching it, and something in Brain of Morbius made me decide to go ahead and watch regularly. So, I started with the next Serial watching every night, and by the time The Seeds of Doom was done, I was hooked.

So, anyways, wow, I never noticed before The Doctor twists Scorby's neck. That was pretty bad for a show mostly aimed at children. Sure, it didn't kill him, but, still, not a good thing to give the impression that snapping someone's neck isn't fatal.

Also, I found Chase's hypocrisy pretty funny. There he was complaining to The Ministry Guy (Hawkins?) about the barbaric Japanese practice of Bonsai, yet, he has hedges formed into pyramids, LOL.

Scorby was one of those fun henchmen during the Fourth Doctor era and the Doctor's insults of him were pretty funny.

Chase was one of those truly batshit crazy villains.

 

[Volpone]

Yeah, they skipped "The 5 Doctors" and went straight to "Warriors of the Deep."

...and that's exactly why Chase works--he doesn't twirl his [metaphorical] moustache and go "MUWAHAHAHAHA! I'm EEEVIL!"--from his perspective, he's genuinely doing the "right" thing. The good stories are the ones where the villain thinks he's the hero. I mean, Alan Rickman had a pretty good scheme set up and he executed it perfectly, were it not for Bruce Willis showing up to be a fly in the ointment; a monkey in the wrench.

 

[The Four Doctor]

Honestly, The Curse of Fenric was just the most gigantic steaming pile. Badly written, badly acted, sluggishly paced, horrifically shot and poorly directed. It was a sort of tribute to Hammer Horror from someone who loved Hammer Horror but hadn't bothered to watch any. I don't think I'll ever get over those two '1940's' teen girls, with their 1980's permed hair, sitting chest deep in cold water in ridiculous woolen sweaters mumbling girlish vampire things in broad frigging daylight. It was anti-creepy. There was also the completely screwed decision to have the 'haemovores' waving around gigantic press on fingernails like sea anenomes but with less purpose, or how they managed to move at a pace that a crippled zombie could outrun. I watched it recently, and you know, there's not a bit of it that manages to succeed on any level. It's just wretched, utterly wretched from start to end. Really, it makes The Twin Dilemma look brilliant.

 

[kirk55555]

I got Doctor Who: The Beginning DVD a few weeks ago, so I decided to start it. Since I've already seen An Unearthly Child, I watched the pilot version of episode 1, and the commentary on episodes 1 and 4. The pilot was interesting, Susan was definitely weirder. The commentary on the two episodes (Verity Lambert, Carol anne Ford, William Russel on Episode one, with moderator Gary Russel, and all the same but Waris Hussein instead of Lambert on episode 4) was entertaining and informative. Even though I have several Classic Who DVDs, but this was the first commentary I've gotten to, and its interesting. It was cool that they managed to do it when Lambert was still alive, and they all had interesting things to say about the beginnings of Doctor Who.

I'm not sure what Who I'll watch next. I have The Daleks and Edge of Destruction to watch on the DW: The Beginnings set, the Pyramids of Mars DVD, the Trial of a Timelord DVDs I need to watch, and I just bought The Kings Demons DVD. I've read mixed things about TKD, but it has Anthony Ainley, and since the only other DVD I have with him is The Ultimate Foe, and The King's Demons was cheap, I went for it. It will also be interesting to see Kamelion. I'm definitely experiencing the 5th Doctor's stories in a weird order. First I watched The Five Doctors, then The Caves of Androzani, and the next one I'll watch is The King's Demons.

 

[kirk55555]

I just rewatched Mindwarp. It was better the second time around, although I'm still not a huge fan of The Doctor spending so much time out of his mind. The best part was probably Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos, he was entertainingly over the top. The story is ok and the bad guys are decent. I just wish we got better information on what exactly was wrong with The Doctor, or what parts of the footage might have been faked in the matrix (since both things are possible). Overall, its a decent story.

 

[Volpone]

Sweet mother of Elvis, the Davison stories are painful. Last night "Frontios" wrapped up and tonight was the Dalek one after it. Just terrible. Embarrassingly bad. Just random things happening or being introduced and then dropped for no reason.

Take Frontios. He spends a huge chunk of the story whining and worrying about what will happen if the Time Lords find out he's there, involved. I mean, pretty much in 20 years, when has the Doctor given a crap what the Time Lords thought? And after The Three Doctors, he's pretty much got carte blanche to do whatever he wants. Heck, for 3 & 4, the Time Lords fairly regularly use him to do their dirty work. And that's just the most obvious hole in a long list of them in that story.

For the Dalek one that I don't even care enough about to look up...where to begin? No really. Where? The Daleks suck. They've been beaten by the Movellans. They can't climb stairs or anything. So why are these humans readily serving as their lackeys? Obviously so they have someone to climb stairs and such during the story, but from their perspective it makes no sense. Then Turlow disappears through a time corridor--off camera, of course. Somehow, by now the Daleks already know all about the Doctor being there. And they know all about his companions. Then a bunch of Army guys show up with a civilian assistant and the Doctor for some reason doesn't play the UNIT card. Then you've got a prison ship where the prop department took a lot of time to make some kewl gas masks for the cast to wear whenever they feel like it.. You've got some people wearing the masks, some not. Some have masks, but they feel that they make better jaunty chapeaus than gas masks. Finally you get to the scene where the girl is wearing a mask and the guy doesn't even have one--sucks to be the guy since they've ACTUALLY DEPLOYED TOXIC GAS BY THIS POINT. Next scene, the girl has put the mask up on her head instead of using it. Then they spend like, 5 minutes wondering what that funny smell is. So if you're fighting someone that has deployed some kind of toxic gas and there's a funny smell in the air, what might that hint at? Hmm? Fuckit, I dunno. Of course when the guy's face is half melted off by poison gas it becomes pretty obvious. I mean, not that this means the girl puts her mask on at this point--or even feels any adverse affects.

It's just such terrible terrible writing and production that I feel sad to even have to watch it. The only consolation I have is, once I get through them, I never have to watch them again.

 

[DWF]

There was no great worry about the Time Lords, they aren't even mentioned. And in Frontios we finally got some of Turough's baskstory. It's a story was slightly let down by the production standards, but it's a very underrated story.

 

[Volpone]

Well I don't know what version of it you watched. In the one I saw, he's continually going on about how he wasn't here, don't tell anyone he was there, and if the Time Lords found out, they'd be very upset.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Come on, Frontios is OK.

 

[Mr Awe]

There was no great worry about the Time Lords, they aren't even mentioned. And in Frontios we finally got some of Turough's baskstory. It's a story was slightly let down by the production standards, but it's a very underrated story.

Agreed, and the part about being worried about being trouble was really to emphasize how very far in the future they went. To make it clear that this was much further than the typical jaunt into our future. I remember watching it in the 80s and it made an impression on me!

Anyway, I enjoyed the story but agree it was a bit let down by the production standards.

Mr Awe

 

[Starkers]

I like Frontios, and the worry about the Timelords is because they've gone so far into the future. It's Utopia/Listen before Utopia/Listen

 

[kirk55555]

I finished rewatching The Pyramid of Mars today, and its still a good story. The mummy's are a bit goofy, but not in a bad way.

I also got The King's Demons on DVD today, and it was entertaining. Anthony Ainley was his normal awesome self as The Master, and The Doctor was ok. Tegan was a bit annoying, but not so bad that it brought the episode down. Kamelion was ridiculous, but in a good way. I kind of expected him to have a bit more movement, though. Was he really that state of the art or unusual, even for 1983? I'd expect that they could have done similar stuff with remotes before then. Overall, this was a short but fun story. The only real flaw is that The Master's plan is kind of small scale and pointless for him, but that's not a big deal for me.

 

[Volpone]

It just feeds my JNT hate. K9 wasn't that long ago. Basically a big R/C car, is a lot simpler than a humanoid with (theoretically) a fully movable face. And look what a pain in the butt K9 was; how hated he was by the crew. But not what, 3 years later, JNT goes "hey, let's add a prop to the cast!"

Watching "Caves of Adronzani" through tomorrow. It is universally held as a classic episode. I don't know. Maybe I'm in a poopy mood. Because I'm distinctly underwhelmed. I mean, it has less moments where I want to scream at the television than other late Davison stories, but there's still plenty of flaws--and it is still the standard Eeevil Corporate Fatcat story Who has been doing since at least as far back as "Planet of Giants." It gets tiresome to have a show telling you CEOs have nothing better to do than go around taking candy from babies. It doesn't even make sense. Bah.

 

[DWF]

I finished rewatching The Pyramid of Mars today, and its still a good story. The mummy's are a bit goofy, but not in a bad way.

I also got The King's Demons on DVD today, and it was entertaining. Anthony Ainley was his normal awesome self as The Master, and The Doctor was ok. Tegan was a bit annoying, but not so bad that it brought the episode down. Kamelion was ridiculous, but in a good way. I kind of expected him to have a bit more movement, though. Was he really that state of the art or unusual, even for 1983? I'd expect that they could have done similar stuff with remotes before then. Overall, this was a short but fun story. The only real flaw is that The Master's plan is kind of small scale and pointless for him, but that's not a big deal for me.

The Master's plan here echo's the Monk's plan in The Time Meddler and really disrupting the Magna Carter isn't all that small scale. Kamelion was as advanced as you could get the time, but his software designer died not long after Thee King's Demons. Peter Davison though it'd be easier for them to just make up an actor, which is what they did in Planet Of Fire.

 

[Timewalker]

I'm definitely experiencing the 5th Doctor's stories in a weird order. First I watched The Five Doctors, then The Caves of Androzani, and the next one I'll watch is The King's Demons.

As I recall, the Spokane PBS station showed The Five Doctors before they'd finished showing the Fourth Doctor stories. So all three of the main cast were new to me.

For the Dalek one that I don't even care enough about to look up...where to begin?... Then Turlow disappears through a time corridor--off camera, of course.... Finally you get to the scene where the girl is wearing a mask and the guy doesn't even have one--sucks to be the guy since they've ACTUALLY DEPLOYED TOXIC GAS BY THIS POINT. Next scene, the girl has put the mask up on her head instead of using it. Then they spend like, 5 minutes wondering what that funny smell is.

The problem with Turlough is that other than the Black Guardian story arc that involved him doing a lot of sneaking around and cringing, the writers had no idea what to do with him. He could have been a really interesting character, but after Enlightenment, he just basically took up space. Knocking him out, locking him up, having him get lost... that's all the writers could think of to do with him, and he didn't get any more decent storyline until Planet of Fire.

As for the Dalek story... yuck. Way back when it was first broadcast some people had some very disapproving things to say about the woman who was smoking in that scene you mention.

Come on, Frontios is OK.

RIP, hatstand.

Kamelion was ridiculous, but in a good way. I kind of expected him to have a bit more movement, though. Was he really that state of the art or unusual, even for 1983? I'd expect that they could have done similar stuff with remotes before then.

I saw an interview a couple of days ago that John Nathan-Turner gave some time ago, and Kamelion was mentioned. Apparently Kamelion was even more of a pain to work with than K-9 was, because it had to be programmed to speak and it was really finicky and tedious work that took an insane amount of time.

I never liked Kamelion, but I did enjoy the music in this episode.

 

[Doctorwhovian]

Technically, a shape-shifting companion could work-just don't give it a barely functional animatronic robot true form Heck, I think a guy in a robot suit ala C-3PO could've worked better!


Kamelion was also going to be in a short scene in the Awakening but I think the final scene was cut. I think he appears in some of the Fifth Doctor novels and some audios, which of course don't have to deal with the prop.

 

[Volpone]

Finished up "Twin Dilemma" tonight. Got tied up at work so I missed Part 3. I'm going to have a hard time making a point to catch it when it comes around on Saturdays. Sweet mother of Elvis...

So depressing. I mean I see what they were going for. They wanted to counter the bland niceness of the way they wrote Peter Davison (whose character started out promising in the first season--a bit of a Frodo Baggins with elements of Doctors 1-3--but pretty quickly just became a pussy) but it is so hamfisted. It is like they decided to make a stereotype of all the least likeable traits of Doctors 1-3--and then dress him like a rodeo clown. Poor Nichole Bryant and Colin Baker. They do the best they can with what they've been given, but there's really nothing to work with.

 

[Volpone]

First half of "Attack of the Cybermen" tonight. It may be partly that my standards are adjusting, but I feel like this has been a watchable story. There's still some clunky bits and the Doctor's costume is still "what were they thinking!?" cringeworthy, but I feel like I'm watching Dr. Who.