Last Classic Who Story you watched

[diankra]

As a side note, Gawn Grainger, who played Stephenson in Mark, is reported to have died.

I know Colin (rightfully, in my opinion) refused to film a regeneration story, but was that story what Time and The rani became? I just don't see how it would work, would 6 have had the same semi amnesia the whole story until something causes him to regenerate at the end, or would the story have played out more like a normal Doctor vs Bad Guy story without doing the "Rani messes with The Doctors head" bit?

Regardless I'm glad he wasn't there, bad enough he had the worst first story of any doctor, I'd have hated for 6 to go out on such an awful story (even if it would have been different then what 7 got, I doubt anything would have saved the story).

The original idea was that the Doctor rather than Beyus stayed behind and got killed at the end.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In the midst of The Mark of the Rani.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Love the Rani calling out the Master on his BS. A bit meta.

 

[kirk55555]

Currently going through The Gunfighters. Its another terrible "pure historical", I swear The Romans is the only pure historical I've seen that was any good.

Also, if I have to hear another line of that "Last Chance Saloon" song I'm going to freak out, whoever decided to put that in the episode was a complete asshole. It it had been sung once, in the beginning of the first episode, it would have been fine. But it keeps going and going and going, coming back every few minutes like someone is drilling into the viewers skull through song.

When it comes to OK Corral episodes in Sci-Fi, Star Trek definitely had the superior episode.

 

[diankra]

Pure historicals are OK (so far as we can tell). But Gunfighters isn't great, but not quite as bad as made out (my late mum generally described Dodo as 'the girl who murdered that piano'.)
The guy who directed it was the original producer of Who, before he quit and Lambert took over. If he had stayed it wouldn't have lasted long.
The book is rather good. Funny. Cotton's- scripts have a pattern of three episodes of funny (which doesn't really come across in the transmitted version of Gunfighters) followed by on episode of massacre.

 

[26138]

Currently going through The Gunfighters. Its another terrible "pure historical", I swear The Romans is the only pure historical I've seen that was any good.

Also, if I have to hear another line of that "Last Chance Saloon" song I'm going to freak out, whoever decided to put that in the episode was a complete asshole. It it had been sung once, in the beginning of the first episode, it would have been fine. But it keeps going and going and going, coming back every few minutes like someone is drilling into the viewers skull through song.

When it comes to OK Corral episodes in Sci-Fi, Star Trek definitely had the superior episode.

Generally, people say The Aztecs is really good (I agree). Have you seen that one?

 

[diankra]

Generally, people say The Aztecs is really good (I agree). Have you seen that one?

It seems that in late 67, after pure historicals had been dropped, Worldwide offered a cut-down SF on8ly package of seasons one and two. But as Mexico was the first buyer they wanted The Aztecs, as it was set in Mexico.
FWIW, at the NFT in 1983, we had sandwiches and planned to eat them during the boring historical episode. Turned out to be rather good.

 

[Redfern]

Last night, "The Daemons". First time as well. Though I watched the Pertwee era as part of a rotation of serials stretching from "Spearhead from Space" all the way through "Survival" on my PBS affiliate during the 80s, "The Daemons" was omitted. The station only played stories that had a full complement of color episodes. The serials that had some episodes missing (even if B/W versions existed) were not included as part of the package deal. So, "The Daemons" was one (of several Pertwee adventures) that the station skipped. I eventually managed to see the those "gaps", but this serial along with "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" are two that somehow slipped through the cracks for me, even after 40 odd years!

I didn't realize that Stephen Thorne (who played both Omega and the Kastrian version of Eldrad) performed Azal, at least before watching this story. But as soon as I heard that voice, I knew it could be nobody else!

 

[Christopher]

Last night, "The Daemons". First time as well. Though I watched the Pertwee era as part of a rotation of serials stretching from "Spearhead from Space" all the way through "Survival" on my PBS affiliate during the 80s, "The Daemons" was omitted. The station only played stories that had a full complement of color episodes. The serials that had some episodes missing (even if B/W versions existed) were not included as part of the package deal. So, "The Daemons" was one (of several Pertwee adventures) that the station skipped. I eventually managed to see the those "gaps", but this serial along with "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" are two that somehow slipped through the cracks for me, even after 40 odd years!

Wow. I'm grateful that my PBS station wasn't so strict. They showed all the extant Pertwees, including the ones in black-and-white and the two that each had an episode missing ("Invasion of the Dinosaurs," which jarringly began in medias res with episode 2, and "Planet of the Daleks," with an abrupt time jump midway through).

 

[kirk55555]

Generally, people say The Aztecs is really good (I agree). Have you seen that one?

I forgot about The Aztecs, that was pretty good. So, two good pure historicals and a bunch of junk.

I finished The Gunfighters, and it was a miserable experience. I'm convinced that the last thing I'll hear before I die is that awful song.

 

[26138]

I forgot about The Aztecs, that was pretty good. So, two good pure historicals and a bunch of junk.

I finished The Gunfighters, and it was a miserable experience. I'm convinced that the last thing I'll hear before I die is that awful song.

An Unearthly Child
Marco Polo
The Aztecs
The Reign of Terror (partially missing [animated])
The Romans
The Crusade (partially missing)
The Myth Makers
The Massacre
The Gunfighters
The Smugglers
The Highlanders
Black Orchid

Not a lot of choices if you want to watch pure historicals.

 

[diankra]

Last night, "The Daemons". First time as well. Though I watched the Pertwee era as part of a rotation of serials stretching from "Spearhead from Space" all the way through "Survival" on my PBS affiliate during the 80s, "The Daemons" was omitted. The station only played stories that had a full complement of color episodes. The serials that had some episodes missing (even if B/W versions existed) were not included as part of the package deal. So, "The Daemons" was one (of several Pertwee adventures) that the station skipped. I eventually managed to see the those "gaps", but this serial along with "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" are two that somehow slipped through the cracks for me, even after 40 odd years!

I didn't realize that Stephen Thorne (who played both Omega and the Kastrian version of Eldrad) performed Azal, at least before watching this story. But as soon as I heard that voice, I knew it could be nobody else!

The initial idea was that he would do the body, but Anthony Jackson (later Fred Mumford in Rentaghost. He quit when a co-star died) would do the voice. That plan changed.

 

[diankra]

Wow. I'm grateful that my PBS station wasn't so strict. They showed all the extant Pertwees, including the ones in black-and-white and the two that each had an episode missing ("Invasion of the Dinosaurs," which jarringly began in medias res with episode 2, and "Planet of the Daleks," with an abrupt time jump midway through).

Yep. That's why there are a few copies of Dinosaurs labelling it as episodes one to five.
Nice response from Barry Letts when Invasion 1 was found. "Oh dear". Terrance had the same view on Moonbase 3. Years ago he was he guest speaker at a BSFA event. I brought up Moonbase 3, and he said "I was planning to buy you a drink."

 

[Christopher]

An Unearthly Child
Marco Polo
The Aztecs
The Reign of Terror (partially missing [animated])
The Romans
The Crusade (partially missing)
The Myth Makers
The Massacre
The Gunfighters
The Smugglers
The Highlanders
Black Orchid

Not a lot of choices if you want to watch pure historicals.

The label "pure historical" doesn't really seem to fit "The Myth Makers," which is based more upon, well, myth than history. And as long as I'm being nitpicky, I suppose we'd have to call "An Unearthly Child" (or at least the "Tribe of Gum" part) a prehistorical.

And then there are the "ahistoricals," the ones that are wildly inaccurate like "The Romans" and "The Gunfighters." Though I'm not sure any of them are really all that accurate.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Generally, people say The Aztecs is really good (I agree). Have you seen that one?

The Aztecs is a fantastic serial, one of my faves.

 

[kirk55555]

An Unearthly Child
Marco Polo
The Aztecs
The Reign of Terror (partially missing [animated])
The Romans
The Crusade (partially missing)
The Myth Makers
The Massacre
The Gunfighters
The Smugglers
The Highlanders
Black Orchid

Not a lot of choices if you want to watch pure historicals.

Of that list, I just have to "watch" The Myth Makers, The Massacre, and The Smugglers. I'll probably go with the audio plus linking narration versions of those stories. I can generally tolerate recons, especially when they're in an only partially missing story, but for these historicals the recons just feel worse to me (which is why I switched from recon to audio after the first episode of The Highlanders).

 

[diankra]

The label "pure historical" doesn't really seem to fit "The Myth Makers," which is based more upon, well, myth than history. And as long as I'm being nitpicky, I suppose we'd have to call "An Unearthly Child" (or at least the "Tribe of Gum" part) a prehistorical.

And then there are the "ahistoricals," the ones that are wildly inaccurate like "The Romans" and "The Gunfighters." Though I'm not sure any of them are really all that accurate.

Of that list, I just have to "watch" The Myth Makers, The Massacre, and The Smugglers. I'll probably go with the audio plus linking narration versions of those stories. I can generally tolerate recons, especially when they're in an only partially missing story, but for these historicals the recons just feel worse to me (which is why I switched from recon to audio after the first episode of The Highlanders).

Smugglers probably works better as a recon rather than audio, as it doesn't have much music, and the visuals probably did a lot of work.

 

[Mr Awe]

Yeah it's rumored that he was kind of mad that he got overpowered by a drahvin woman (I believe it was supposed to be Barbara who got overpowered).

Not a rumor! Purves was very outspoken against Galaxy 4 during an interview included with the Blu-ray set. He didn't like it at all. As I mentioned, he specifically said that all his lines were written for Barbara!

Last night, "The Daemons". First time as well. Though I watched the Pertwee era as part of a rotation of serials stretching from "Spearhead from Space" all the way through "Survival" on my PBS affiliate during the 80s, "The Daemons" was omitted. The station only played stories that had a full complement of color episodes. The serials that had some episodes missing (even if B/W versions existed) were not included as part of the package deal. So, "The Daemons" was one (of several Pertwee adventures) that the station skipped. I eventually managed to see the those "gaps", but this serial along with "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" are two that somehow slipped through the cracks for me, even after 40 odd years!

I didn't realize that Stephen Thorne (who played both Omega and the Kastrian version of Eldrad) performed Azal, at least before watching this story. But as soon as I heard that voice, I knew it could be nobody else!

Originally, back in the 80s, the BBC only offered that limited set of complete, color serials to PBS stations. They were were worried that the B&W would scare American viewers off. That was all that was available initially.

However, the BBC quickly changed their minds and soon after offered the complete set of Pertwee stories. My PBS station first showed the limited package but then got the complete package when it was available. I remember them announcing that on air at some point that the next run through will include new (to us) stories.

 

[VDCNI]

I love the historicals. Who at its finest.

10/10
Marco Polo
The Myth Makers
The Massacre
The Romans
The Crusade

9/10
The Aztecs
The Highlanders

8/10
An Unearthly Child
The Gunfighters

7/10
The Reign of Terror
The Smugglers

I don't count Black Orchid and Unearthly Child is questionable.