Stories You've Watched Recently

[The Borgified Corpse]

Yeah, I'd definately recommend "Genesis of the Daleks." Some of my other favorite Tom Bakers include "Robot," "The Ark in Space," "The Hand of Fear," "City of Death," and several of the Key to Time stories from Season 16, especially "The Ribos Operation," "The Pirate Planet" (another Douglas Adams one), & "The Androids of Tara."

 

[Captain Pike]

I recently watched The Pyramids of Mars. This was my first time watching classic Who and was expecting it to be silly and cringworthy but it was much better than I thought it would be. I especially liked Tom Baker's take on the Doctor. I look forward to watching more of the fourth Doctor's adventures.

Baker is awesome, and my favourite doctor by far. Troughton too, is pretty good. The rest are just not in their class imo.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I randomly watched 'Robot' yesterday.

Tom Baker was wonderful; but, the effects were cringe-worthy....

(And Sarah Jane was cute, as usual).

Harry Sullivan and his 'I say' comments were funny, too.

 

[Captain Pike]

Tom Baker was wonderful; but, the effects were cringe-worthy....

The CSO in Robot is especially bad, and the use of a barbie-doll to represent SJS was the straw that breaks the camels back, and ill thought out. On the other hand though, the Robot suit itself is a thing of beauty, and particularly well done considering the show's budget.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Tom Baker was wonderful; but, the effects were cringe-worthy....

The CSO in Robot is especially bad, and the use of a barbie-doll to represent SJS was the straw that breaks the camels back, and ill thought out. On the other hand though, the Robot suit itself is a thing of beauty, and particularly well done considering the show's budget.

 

[arch101]

Watched The Talons of Weng-Chiang on Netflix recently. Really wonderful production.

 

[Anachronus]

Talons of Weng Chiang and Pyramids of Mars are two of my favorite Baker episodes.

 

[Shatnertage]

A lot of early T. Baker--cool. Those are some of my favorite stories. I love the name "Professor Kettlewell" from Robot--could that guy have turned out any other way, with a name like that? Those are the little touches that make the show for me.

 

[VDCNI]

I've been watching quite a bit of old stuff recently - trying to catch up with the recent releases.

The Dominators - Not as bad as its reputation but still very poor. It only seemed to have two episodes worth of story stretched over five (I dread to think what 6 episodes of this would have been like as originally intended). Thankfully PT keeps everything moving and elevates things just through sheer charm alone. Zoe feels a little subdued compared to usual but Jamie & Cully made a fun team.

Time & The Rani - Yes it's rubbish but I have a soft spot for it as McCoy got me back into the series as a kid after I stopped watching during the Colin Baker era. The first two episodes are worth it for Kate O'Mara's Mel impression but after that it quickly falls away. Plus has any companion ever screamed more than Mel does in this episode! The odd thing is that when she isn't screaming she's a more forceful character than Peri was.

Curse Of Peladon - I'm not a 3rd Doctor fan so I tend to take my time getting around to watching his stories. This is ok - a nice mix of supporting characters, Jo isn't that annoying and it's only 4 episodes unlike the sequel which I remember dragging horribly.

Frontier In Space - Like all 3rd Doctor 6 parters this drags and the characters seem to spend most of their time swapping prison cells but the Draconians are definitely more interesting than your average Who alien. Jo has some great moments with the Master as well particularly in stopping his attempt to take control of her mind. The Dalek twist is a bit odd - they show up, capture the Doctor and then bugger off again and overall the ending is a bit rushed but the cliffhanger into the next story is decent enough.

 

[Shatnertage]

I haven't seen any of these. I've clearly got a lot to catch up on.

 

[Saga]

watched Image of the Fendahl and The Sun Makers. didn't care so much for Sun Makers. it wasn't terrible but it just couldn't hold my attention for very long. Fendahl, on the other hand, i loved.

 

[Starkers]

Its odd, I watched Fandahl the other week and found it...bland's the wrong word but it just didn't grab me. Full Circle on the other hand I'm curretly watching and loving...one ep to go then I'll post my thoughts in full!

 

[The]

Watched the first part of Leisure Hive on Netflix Streaming last night. That was all it took to remind me how soul-crushingly bad Tom's last two years were. Save an E-Space gem here and there, Tom was so visibly miserable in the role with Lalla and Waterhouse that it destroyed any sense of pleasure, and instead was like watching an old friend die a very slow, painfully boring death. Logopolis was tragedy and relief all at once, for me.

 

[The]

Watched the first part of Leisure Hive on Netflix Streaming last night. That was all it took to remind me how inspiring and fun Tom's last two years were. It was the most logical and best written Doctor Who ever made, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a Luddite with bad breath. Logopolis was triumph and genius all at once, for everyone everywhere. The one's that are smart, anyway.

 

[Shatnertage]

Watched the first part of Leisure Hive on Netflix Streaming last night. That was all it took to remind me how soul-crushingly bad Tom's last two years were. Save an E-Space gem here and there, Tom was so visibly miserable in the role with Lalla and Waterhouse that it destroyed any sense of pleasure, and instead was like watching an old friend die a very slow, painfully boring death. Logopolis was tragedy and relief all at once, for me.

Watching it again after nearly 30 years, I found Leisure Hive to be much worse than I remembered. I can also see where Tom is running out of steam. There's that moment at the beginning of "Keeper of Traken" where the Keeper's talking about how worn out he is after so many years, and the Doctor says, "I know how he feels." Knowing what I know now, it seems pretty meta.

 

[Captain Pike]

Watched the first part of Leisure Hive on Netflix Streaming last night. That was all it took to remind me how soul-crushingly bad Tom's last two years were. Save an E-Space gem here and there, Tom was so visibly miserable in the role with Lalla and Waterhouse that it destroyed any sense of pleasure, and instead was like watching an old friend die a very slow, painfully boring death. Logopolis was tragedy and relief all at once, for me.

TLH is easily my least favourite of all Tom's stories. All the others, even the mediocre, silly or slowish ones have something to offer, something redeemable; but TLH is the only one I actively dislike..

 

[Stevil2001]

I love The Leisure Hive!

 

[Captain Pike]

I think for me it comes down to JNT's new approach to everything. While latter stories fared better, the change going from Nimon.. or Shada to TLH is quite jarring, and not in a good way - the costume design and electronic music suck, some of the camera direction & editing are a bit off (that opening pan across the beach goes on about 4x too long) and everyone seems to be taking themselves far too seriously and no one really seems to be enjoying themselves anymore.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I decided to try something classic, I've dabbled here and there, and lately have found them hard to get into with the older story pacing and things.

So I went with the E-Space trilogy. Why? I've heard E-Space mentioned at different times and so was a bit curious about it so it seemed an OK place to start.

Full Circle - Didn't really care for this one. It started off OK with outdoor photography and a sort of "Stargate" village. The later episodes seemed to be a lot of badly staged running around and the reveal/story with the elders and stuff was a bit passé.

State of Decay - Doctor Who does Hammer Horror. This was pretty fun, the vampire stuff was suitably lurid and over-the-top. Tom and Lalla had good chemistry, I thought Lalla's outfit was nice as well. There's this one part where the Doctor first meets the head vamp and starts taking the piss out of his exaggerated delivery that cracked me up. I thought it was awesome how he staked the space vamp.

Warrior's Gate - Wow, this is the most surreal I've seen Doctor Who. I don't know if I fully grasped everything on first viewing, and I'm not sure if it actually all is fully explained, but it was interesting to try to piece it together and figure out what it all means. I thought the villainous crew were effective because they weren't so much mu-ha-ha evil but rather ends justify the means types. The way they let profit drive them to do unsavory things had a ring of truth about it. Sort of the way people wear cheap shirts and nice jewels and dismiss the conditions that provide these things.

I guess the introduction of Adric should be acknowledged in this trilogy but he really doesn't have that much impact in these episodes.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Re-watched "Planet of Evil." There's nothing in particular in the story to make it stand out. It's just a really solid Tom Baker story! I love these stories set on future spaceships, like this one, "The Ark in Space," "Terror of the Vervoids," & the new series' "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit." They've all got a vibe that I just really respond to.