Last Classic Who Story you watched

[IMC Headquarters]

Found a dvd boxset of The Rescue and The Romans at an op shop, both stories I haven't seen
currently watching The Rescue

Wonderful introductory vehicle for Vicki. She's so cute! And Ray Cusick's rocketship is awesome!

Poor Sandy...

Check out Ian Marter's novelisation of the story if you can find it. He fleshes it out wondrously, as always.

I envy you your first viewing!

 

[kirk55555]

Watched Mawdryn Undead, and it sucked. Outside of seeing the Brigadier again there was really nothing of value to the story. The 5th Doctor and Nyssa were fine, but thats about it. Tegan is still a tedious whiner, Turlough is almost as obnoxious as Adric and if all the Black Guardian can find to try to kill The Doctor is the world's oldest schoolboy then he's really not much of a threat. A stinker of a story all around.

 

[Turbo]

Day of the Daleks (Special Edition). It was....not my favorite. I liked the Doctor and Jo's interactions, as usual, but Jo also came off as hopelessly naive. The Daleks didn't come off particularly well either; they were far too forgiving of the Controller's failures. Pertwee shined throughout, as usual. He elevated quite a bit of this.

I feel like there was more that they could have done with the time paradoxes. They could have also included some drama about the rebels agreeing to a plan that would likely remove them from existence. (And just how does the final time paradox hold up? If Shura didn't kill the delegates and the peace conference was a success, how was he there to blow up the peace conference in the first place? Dalek time travel is messy.)

I was disappointed that the peace conference was just window dressing, as it was in The Mind of Evil. Styles being at odds with the Brigadier and UNIT was also disappointingly familiar.

The Ogrons looked good makeup-wise.

The ending was shockingly abrupt, and suddenly Styles is speaking civilly to the Doctor? I don't get it. (I know that the original ending with the counterpart to the opening TARDIS scene was cut, but still.)

As to the Special Edition, some of the new effects were dodgy (especially the CGI matte paintings) but having Nick Briggs re-record the dialogue was a very good move and I couldn't tell what was original and what was reshot in the attack on Auderly House until I watched the original. Nicely done.

 

[kirk55555]

Watched Terminus and Enlightenment over the last few days, finishing up the Black Guardian Trilogy. The whole thing sucks. Its generally boring, the Black Guardian (and Turlough's mission to kill The Doctor) barely factor into the stories, and overall they just aren't very good.A very lackluster set of stories, that barely deserve to be called a set.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I would say Turlough's "efforts" to kill the Doctor are mostly inept and come off as unintentionally hilarious. But the stories are quite alright, I think, especially Enlightenment.

 

[Christopher]

I would say Turlough's "efforts" to kill the Doctor are mostly inept and come off as unintentionally hilarious. But the stories are quite alright, I think, especially Enlightenment.

It wasn't ineptitude, it was a sign that Turlough was conflicted and didn't really have it in him to kill the Doctor. The whole point was that he wasn't really a killer, that the Black Guardian failed to corrupt him.

 

[kirk55555]

I would say Turlough's "efforts" to kill the Doctor are mostly inept and come off as unintentionally hilarious. But the stories are quite alright, I think, especially Enlightenment.

Yeah, I always thought that he'd been more of a threat based off of his reputation, but really Clara got much closer to purposefully murdering The Doctor then Turlough did. That's probably because her attempt came with no hesitation while Turlough wasn't particularly enthusiastic about murder.

As for the episodes themselves, I disagree. I really disliked them, and it didn't help that the only good companion, Nyssa, left after the second story and I really don't like Teagan or Turlough.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

It wasn't ineptitude, it was a sign that Turlough was conflicted and didn't really have it in him to kill the Doctor. The whole point was that he wasn't really a killer, that the Black Guardian failed to corrupt him.

It was inept in terms of writing, I meant to say. It just felt like the writers weren't sure how to handle that particular thread at all, and it showed.

 

[Turbo]

It was inept in terms of writing, I meant to say. It just felt like the writers weren't sure how to handle that particular thread at all, and it showed.

Agreed. An "evil" companion was a good idea of JNT's, and they tried twice, but neither he nor Bidmead nor Saward knew how to pull it off. It seems very tricky to execute successfully.

 

[diankra]

A suggestion is that the Doctor realsed early on that there was something off about Turlough, but took the risk to redeem him.
That would make the Doctor reckless with Nyssa and Tegan's safety, hence he's relieved to see Nyssa out of danger when she leaves.

 

[Qonundrum]

"Meglos" - 5/10. Superficial fun, but the technobabble is thrown in and spat out like how you throw a handful of blueberries into a blender, power it up, realized you didn't put on the top right, and you don't know what to do with the mess but you and your fellow chefs in yon kitchen play it straight anyway. Tom Baker, Bill Fraser, and Jacqueline Hill do much for their respective roles - especially Tom in a dual role that's arguably the most authentic and purposeful of all the times Doctor actors did dual roles that also happens to hold up... (Runner-up is Salamander... not the lizard, the baddie in "The Enemy of the World"...))

"The Keeper of Traken" - 9.5/10. So glad they changed it from the original draft as the original draft was 85% identical to "Meglos". Then add in the return of the Master* and it's a classic, spurring JNT to reintroduce the Cybermen* **, Silurians*, and others, all to varying extents of success and/or failures. Why 1/2 point off? Because there's this bit in episode 3 where Tom Baker forgot to blow his nose and - oops - the cameraman and director didn't notice at the time either despite the massive close-up of his face... it's all good. Achoo!!

"The Time Monster" - 7/10. Parts 1-4 are slow and sometimes incredibly naff, but midway into 4 do things finally get going and improve the story quite a lot.

"The Dominators" - 6/10. One of Troughton's weakest and it's a rehash of the pacifism and other related arguments as extoled by "The Daleks" six years earlier, it does use a different take, there are some fun moments, and, come on, you all really were cheering on the Dominators and even making headcanon that the fleet came back to plop in another seed device and whip out the marshmallow toasting kits when Dulkis went boom-boom, weren't you?

* Examples of many villains who spout the exclamation "Excellent!", often with glee

** "Earthshock" is an 80% redo of."Revenge of the Cybermen" when you think into it, which might unintentionally explain the "Earthshock"-style Cyberman on the appearance of its VHS release... or someone doing the design somehow adored both stories and went for an in-joke. But no worries, "The Moonbase" is 90% the same as "The Tenth Planet" only they change the location and the technobabble gizmo involved, "The Caves of Androzani" is nigh on the same as "The Power of Kroll", "42" is a pastiche of "Planet of Evil" only with bits changed, "Rose" is another redo of "Spearhead from Space" only almost as much so as "Terror of the Autuons" the moment you remove the Master - or even then, all he is is the role of Channing but with more interesting dialogue and an actor quick to relish the part more than any sane being should. But I sorta like them all, even "Revenge" - the worst of the bunch by far. But I digress. (p.s. I do not have a fancy keyboard when those programmable macro keys to repeat any oft-used keystrokes, which is a shame because some of them can incorporate dozens or thousands of characters bytes letters...)

 

[diankra]

Time Monster is six good ideas smashed into a single story.

 

[Marc]

Time Monster is six good ideas smashed into a single story.

didn't even know that one existed until the was a clip used in "More than 30 Years in the TARDIS).

 

[Christopher]

Time Monster is six good ideas smashed into a single story.

I can't tell whether you mean that as a criticism or a compliment...

 

[Mr Awe]

Curse of Peladon. 9/10.

It's a good story that I remembered liking. However, it's not a visually impressive story. It's entirely studio bound . . . and a bit dull looking to be honest. The sets give the idea of being in an old castle but they're not super impressive, just serviceable.

Fortunately, there's lots going on in this story to keep things interesting. A new king wants his primitive planet to join an intergalactic Federation. There's a debate over modernization vs traditionalism. Plenty of politics. Jo gets to play a role in the negotiations and have a love story of sorts that affects the plot. The Ice Warriors are a rare for DW alien species that goes from bad to good. There were several good action sequences--a death match and a coup that involves a big sword fight. A mystery of whodunit. And a mythical beast!

There's a a bunch of things that works together well as a story. You just have to use your imagination because it's told using a BBC sized budget! This story is much better than it's sequel two seasons later featuring Sarah Jane Smith.

Alpha Centauri, the delegate, is still a WTF were they thinking though!

 

[diankra]

I can't tell whether you mean that as a criticism or a compliment...

Bit of both. Immensely enjoyed it on first viewing , but suspect that was surprise, as it was one of four Pertwees not then novelised. Liked it less everytime since.

 

[Qonundrum]

"BATTLEFIELD" - season 26 blu-ray. Special edition with extended scenes and new f/x, of which most of the latter are pretty great...

Amazing how well the story holds up. Yes, some acting is uneven, and for being parallel dimension Earth critters, Mordred an Ancelyn arrive on Earth via spaceships (so they're chasing each other through space for a jaunt and the latter's ship is damaged upon returning home? Meh, roll with it.) The scabbard isn't put to much use despite the great emphasis placed on it. The underwater ship is made to look like it's down several hundred feet, but what we see in the explosion aftermath took place 25 feet away - that lake must have one heck of a drop-off and in the most bizarre point, but it's all good. Some of the new CGI atop a restored deleted scene's stairwell is instantly recognizable (lack of light glow from the characters as well as odd blurriness are giveaways - still A- for overall implementation, it is good!) and some added sound effects weren't always needed, never mind when Ace and Shou are in the chalk circle and for whatever reason they added whispering (as if the audience was too thick to figure it out?! But I digress.), though the scene itself is great. And a lot of incidental music is better than the reputation. Shou Yuing and Ace make a great and fun pairing. Bambara and Ancelyn grow on me more and more, and if they ever wanted a third, but I digress -- but when Morgaine kills the soldier for information earlier on, she pulls the same stunt on Bambara, who walks right up and right on cue. It's a bit of a plotting cheat and seems odd for Ben Aaronovitch's style of the time. Lastly, note how the Doctor seemed to know Ace would bring the silver bullets, but roll with it.

And how could I forget: Mordred's cackling scene being reduced for the special edition was a big plus. For Ace's infamous "BOOOM!" scene, they should have cut it after her first utterance or not cut it at all. The removal of "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" ends up being far more jarring, and the story is so loaded with uneven acting from so many at times that removing this one instance isn't convincing of very much.

Score: 8/10 - 1989 started on a high note, even with its picky nits and nitted picks. So much better than 1987.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"DRAGONFIRE". Season 24 blu-ray. In 1987, it was lauded as the best of the season. I don't know why. It's the least intentionally campy, yes, and that's probably why people at the time liked it. The season was made so campy to distract from the violence that Michael Grade wanted less of. But the story is a lame rehash of "Alien", "Superman ", amd "The Wizard of Oz". Ace's story for ending up there is as bad as Mel's reason for staying with Glitz for not reason.

The less said about part one's cliffhanger is better. yes, the novelization fixes it. The TV version needed a re-edit.

Kane is well-written, and not given the same plot beats as General Zod so that's a start. His bed buddy Ursa, I mean Xana, is also a nice change of plotting structure. Kane is well-acted and a humanoid alien that requires cold temperatures is also indeed a very welcome change, though notice only McCoy slips on ice (maybe too much, to compensate for how everyone else is just walking around without realizing they're actors on an ice planet and stuff.)

Ace's origin fluff aside, she and Mel make a great team. Why she had to be written out was myopic.

Is Kane's ship really the size of a continent?? And why is its main navigational console a lame and possible inspiration for all TARDIS consoles circa 1996 onward?

6/10. Paradise Towers and Time and the Rani do more for me as complete stories, and both of those are mixed bags. Even Delta, as bad as a lot of it is, had the Doctor treated better than in a lot of this one. But season 24 was rife with production problems and Cartmel was a very late addition to the team as only in the second half of "Delta" does 7's iconic nature begin to appear. What he would later bring to the show would be the best overall stuff in a very long time. And yet, knowing what 1990 was allegedly going to put out, I'm not so sure. But Tom's own era broke its own rules (e.g. forbidden for Sarah to go to Gallifrey and the Doctor happily hauls Leela over being a quick and easy example, though some headcanon can explain the difference - if one really cares about "The Invasion of Time".. )

 

[Christopher]

My favorite part of "Battlefield" is the Brigadier and Morgaine coming to an understanding over the "remembrance ceremony for the dead of our World Wars, a cease-fire to remain in force for the duration of said ceremony." That part always makes me misty-eyed.

 

[Qonundrum]

"GHOST LIGHT" - season 26 blu-ray, extended cut.

The story is driven by pure atmosphere, and proving one can sell a mystery atmosphere in limited time (see "Black Orchid" for how not to do it, as it's all exposition-dump.) Indeed, considering the darker tone and style of season 26, combined with JNT's ramming into overdrive his penchant for late-80s WHO to be as trendy as anything could get, I'm amazed the theme tune wasn't re-scored. The logo, which I do like, is too whimsy compared to the tone and styles of seasons 25 and 26, and yet is iconic (in good ways.) But the theme tune is definitely "1987". Then again, pop music in 1989 still used the same garish style, so it wasn't dated yet. More on that later...

It's nice to see the TARDIS in its proper shade of blue. "The Happiness Patrol", the last story recorded for season 25, saw it painted by the patrol as a gag. Obviously it would be re-painted for 26, and yet "The Curse of Fenric" was the first to be recorded for season 26. The still photos I saw online show it being the proper blue for "Fenric" and "Light", yet in "Battlefield" it's that unique and mismatched greenish-blue that still remains a headscratcher. Unless they filmed the TARDIS scene last, and by then they had seen the flaw during "Battlefield" and fixed it. Looks like they gave it a single coat, but who cares - they could paint it bright orange and nobody would question it. But that's another story...

Setting it in the 1800s was a great way to save on budget limitations, as the BBC already has quite the warehouse filled with 1800s-style costumes, props, and sets, and after "Battlefield" with the Destroyer's elaborate animatronics, they had to do something. Either which way, the director certainly did much with this story and it is something of a feast, in terms of style. "Style over substance."

The extended scenes help more than you'd think. What boggles the mind is, how come this story only has the unused footage as VHS workprint copy as opposed to all the other stories in this season having all of their footage available on the master 1" tapes? Oh well.

The story was recorded under such dark lighting that the grain makes the differences between both sources less noticeable than you'd think; the main difference being the timecode bar being shrouded and that's not too jarring. A double shame, since those extra bits really help out a lot. Still not enough to be a four-parter in net length, but enough to add some contextual detail, as well as some great character moments.

The story is more a gaggle of interesting set-pieces, of which part three is easily the strongest. The plot, about some crazy glowy alien trying to catalog all species but goes nuts over this thing called "evolution" makes no sense because evolution is in a constant state of flux.

Why was this story accorded three parts and not four? Battlefield was stretched from three to four, possibly because of the budget needed to whip up the Destroyer.

The casting of villain Light - he has the right look, but the voice is all wrong. Like Sheldon Cooper on valium. Not sure it's intentional, since the makers of the show got off on Whizz Kid already from last year (as well as playfully knocking everyone else involved in the making of the show)...

Actually, the actual acting is pretty top notch, for Light and for all involved. And note that one of the actors was also in "Black Orchid". So much the better; "Ghost Light" is far more watchable.

The incidental music is exceptional, helping when the dialogue and/or acting can't hold up. Late-80s WHO had a habit of overdoing the music (and starting a trend that's only worsened to this day), but for this story it's needed.

While "Silver Nemesis" featured cut footage where Ace sees a portrait of her in the castle, which she hadn't posed for yet but they're in the past, may have been inspiration for a key arc in this story: The exploration of Ace's present in a building in the past, which - in her past but in present day circa her timeline (1983ish) that she burned down out of angst - is rather clever, and - best of all - there's no flanderization or baby babble involved. It's pure mature science fiction, of the sort that - as with Christopher H Bidmead's era nigh on a decade earlier - is missed, so it's nice to see some innovations and creative liberties taken with "real science". And better than what "Meglos" put out.

Score: 8/10. The ideas are uncoordinated, but refreshingly different and what works works pretty great. At the same time, the atmosphere is great but that alone can't make or save a story. Rewatches only have an effect if you'd forgotten every last fiddly detail. It's also clear that the cast, who are almost constantly exceptional, are notedly confused in one or two scenes. Like who isn't, LOL, as the story seems to have evolved as it went along. Thankfully, I hadn't seen this one since the DVD release. A shame; with 4 full episodes and maybe a rewrite to smooth out some issues, and this would have been an easy 10.

So back to the over-the-top trendy styles o' t' late-80s:

1987:

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(The CGI is dated, with the "asteroids" being by far the worst offending aspect, but the conceptual design of the big bang turning into the galaxy, with the TARDIS traveling in a time bubble is easily the most original design since the 1963 howlround effect. That holds up immensely and never gets old. Even with its late-80s neon purple and blue. It just looks cohesive. And done on a Commodore Amiga with Video Toaster, if memory serves... )

1989:

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Yes folks, Keff really was a trendsetter and on the leading edge. Also, "Through the Storm" is rather a bit of an underrated album and I adore most of the tracks in it, though the remake of "Think" is definitely a different thing this time 'round-- but it is definitely "of its time" and definitely late-80s... and here it is!

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Here's the 1968 original, it's fun to decide which is better in each category (composition, musical instruments, etc...)

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A shame the mastertapes are gone; at least the song is in this good level of audio quality. Given the dissolution and depolarization of magnetic media and a slew of other factors, there's a limit to how much can be collected from the original recording's audio tape to be remastered anyway. They probably used industry-standard 30ips tape, but that's just a sheer guess...

 

[Qonundrum]

"THE CURSE OF FENRIC"

(spoilers follow, of course, but it's a 34 year-old story.)

Not since season 18 has there been a series of running themes. Season 26 seems to be flirting with, among other things, evolution and faith.

As usual for the season, the story is a bit of a jumble - but loaded with lots of set-pieces and a slick production that make it rise above its nitpicks. Nitpicks that would be fewer if this were a 6-part story, but the special edition's inclusion of deleted footage (from the master tapes since those existed) allays these issues somewhat. Even then, I just sat through the televised 4-parter and not the special edition and enough of the story makes sense, though the editing was clearly quite tight.

The last time I saw this, which was rather a long time ago, I wasn't any more enamored with "Oh look, it's Ace's mommy" than I was on initial viewing, though I still loved the story for other reasons. This time around, I was paying attention to different things as the narrative. Even if half-corny, the revelation still makes a bit of an impact. At the same time, note that - earlier in the story - she yells "I'm sorry mom!" with the firing squad about ready to shoot, so there is some character complexity going on and I wonder how the alleged season 27 would have delved into that before her supposedly being dropped off in Gallifrey university. She still has no clue she's been chumming to granny who's coddling her infant mom by this point. Knowing Ace's backstory and personality (which is nothing like Rose, a parallel oddly made time and again), her yelling to mom really hits home. She did gnash teeth in past stories in saying how she had no mom and dad, and now we are told why. At least for her mom. We know her granddad did not survive the war.

The location recording is amazing. Behind the scenes, the original intent was to have studio work done, but they found a place that would be more suitable for far more location work, allowing more budget to be used on things like the animatronic costume that The Great One had.

The closure of Ace's arc - which seemingly came about via a cheap "Wizard of Oz" parallel in season 24, definitely had this patchwork written around it, starting with "Silver Nemesis"'s inclusion of the chess set as a po-faced nod/wink and foreshadowing, even if it didn't quite feel like it at the time. This patchwork is stitched in beautifully.

One other tidbit - back in the day, detractors of the show (I miss the bookstore I hung out at) had fans griping "This is 'Ace Who'! and they weren't entirely wrong. But at the same time, season 26 properly re-mystifies the Doctor, something season 25 hanfistedly attempts time and again. to the point that even JNT demanded scenes be cut or srcipts completely changed ("Remembrance", "Silver Nemesis") as a result. What was cut was lame exposition. And what was redrafted was the writer equating the Doctor as a god (now look at what more recent eras did, but I digress.) JNT clearly still had mojo as a producer, especially for managing so much with so little, and the more one looks back on all of his eight seasons, the more that two of his three script editors had actual ideas and passion for the actual show. But I digress; Season 26 nails the Doctor being re-mystified, is done so quite cleverly, and character emphasis shift likely would have been a temporary change as "Fenric" closes this arc.

The direction and music, once again, buoy this -- and then some. I love all three composers from McCoy's era, but Mark Ayres' style really one-ups everything he does. I have to find his score for "Remembrance of the Daleks", as he did a demo for one scene, that won JNT over - even if the actual story was not composed by him. He's already a legend, but then reading on how he's remastered old audios, carefully fixed audio dropouts in the 1960s TV stories, etc... much, much respect. Dude's a true genius with audio composition and production.

As usual, JNT had a knack for finding light entertainment actors and giving them a chance to shine. His record of wins vastly exceeds the misses, and Nicholas Parsons simply steals the show in this. It also helps if you're not aware of his other shows, especially if you're into typecasting. Which is easy to do.

One of Fenric's "wolves" is from the future, is sent back in time (prior to WW2) as part of a trap, and is told to go poison the water - ostensibly to create his own future, there's a lovely bit of recursion between plot themes as well. Indeed, would Fenric really allow The Great One to create his own future? Fenric is the label of nameless evil, the phrase "No, Fenric won't." comes to mind.

Ace's scene in "seducing" the soldier is still a little iffy in acting, but it's not as detracting as other critics would state.

Meanwhile, McCoy steals the show with every bit of angst that could be hit or miss in previous stories. Plus, he does a couple pratfalls - these are refreshing, and very much in-character. As with Tom Baker's humor in season 18, the careful crafted use outweighs just doing it as often as possible. But then, even when McCoy is over the top with "anger acting", it still works despite the "stageyness". It's very Doctorish, and as much a trait of Seven as Captain Kirk's cadence is to his, and as much as Picard's theatrical pauses are to his.

Score: an easy 9/10.