The Best and Worst of Jon Pertwee

[Lowdarzz]

I've been actively watching Doctor Who for the first time since early last year by borrowing episodes and series from the library. So far I've made it through what the library has of Hartnell, Troughton, Eccleston, Tennant and Smith's runs. For the past couple of months I've been watching Pertwee's run when I've had the time. Here's what I've gotten through so far:

Doctor Who and the Silurians
Terror of the Autons
Colony in Space
The Daemons
Day of the Daleks
The Curse of Peladon
The Sea Devils

I'd be hard pressed to say I actively dislike any of them. I enjoy Pertwee's verbal jousting and use of karate. His sword fight with the Master in The Sea Devils was excellent. I also much prefer Roger Delgado's Master to John Simm's. Delgado's calm portrayal is vastly superior to the camp of Simm's performance. I prefer the Master as a calculating villian rather than somebody who's been driven insane by a drumbeat in their head.

 

[Zeppster]

I think Pertwee may have influenced the writers of the last 3 doctors as much if not more than any of the doctors because he was really the original action hero type doctor. First to extensively use the sonic screwdriver for just about everything. The first 2 doctors used it but not nearly as much as Pertwee ended up using it.

For the first time the doctor was in there really fixing things a ton under Pertwee. Be it fixing his car Bessie or being doing a karate kick with an opponent. He even used guns a few times which almost all the other doctors seldom did. I would say the worst of his doctor was that he tended to be a bit of a jerk and could be really bad tempered a lot of the time. Some of this was understandable because he was written to not like that he was stuck on earth. But if you watched the first 2 doctors who were really mild mannered then watched the 3rd you would think what a jackass. But he does get better as the 5 year ran went on.

 

[VDCNI]

Hartnell, mild mannered!?

 

[Zeppster]

Good point wouldn't call him mild mannered either and in most ways wouldn't really call Troughton mild mannered either. But they weren't that condescending to their companions except maybe at the beginning some times. Hartnell wouldn't even call Ian by his correct name, but neither one was an action hero guy and both were more about letting the companions take the action roles. So that led to both being more about the science or trying to figure things out through reason. While their companions or guest stars did the dirty work.

 

[Stevil2001]

The Ambassadors of Death is my favorite. Come out on DVD!

 

[Mr Pointy Ears]

The time monster,the mutants,carnival of monsters were the worst pertwee epsiodes,day of the daleks,the 3 doctors and invasion of the dinosaurs(the dinosaurs were crap) were the good ones.

 

[Hadey]

Best - Daemons, Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Green Death. Quite fond of Time Monster too, though it has a few problems.

Worst - Monste rof Peladon is the only real dud, maybe Colony too.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Sarah Jane is just there (why is she the most popular Classic Companion?! I like her in SJA and all but she's so boring here)

I take it you've never seen her with the Fourth Doctor, otherwise you wouldn't have to ask that. Wait till you get to Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear.

"Eldrad must live!"

Sorry. I'm required to say that whenever "The Hand of Fear" is mentioned. It is the law! Moving on...

I've been collecting Jon Pertwee DVDs for a while now but I've been skipping over them, waiting for the right time to dive into a thorough Jon Pertwee marathon. (I'll probably get a running start first going through a bunch of late Troughton era stories.)

"Spearhead from Space" was actually the 1st Doctor Who story I ever saw. It was 2004 and I was visiting my aunt one day when I saw that her roommate had "Spearhead from Space," "The Robots of Death," & the complete Key to Time box set on DVD. I vaguely remembered people here mentioning Doctor Who (particularly being big fans of the 4th Doctor, the 2nd Romana, & "Logopolis"), so I decided to give it a try. Right away, I was stunned by the show's sub-TOS production values. And "Spearhead from Space" isn't a particularly logical story for the uninitiated to start with. Everyone else seems to know who the Doctor is while still being confused about why he looks different. And since the story doesn't feature time travel or a guy with a long scarf, the show doesn't match up to any of the general cultural references I had previously picked up on from The Simpsons. The Autons were an interesting villain but not exactly my cup of tea. The only thing that kept me watching was the Brigadier. Somehow, I found his calm, commanding, no-nonsense presence very compelling & reassuring.

Eventually, I finished "Spearhead from Space" and moved on to a bunch of Tom Baker stories, which had a far stronger influence on my opinions about Doctor Who. However, I'll never forget that strange first impression that the Brigadier & "Spearhead from Space" left me with. (Mostly, the impression that the Brigadier is one of the coolest customers in the universe!)

I've seen a few other Pertwee stories since then. "The Silurians" & "Inferno" are great stories, if a little long. I'm not crazy about "The Sea Devils" overall but I love Roger Delgado as the Master. (So far, it's the only Delgado Master story I've seen.) "The Three Doctors" has Patrick Troughton, which takes it to a brand new level of awesomeness. I also love the tragedy of Omega's story, when he discovers that he can't leave the anti-matter universe. "Day of the Daleks" & "The Green Death" were pretty forgettable. "The Time Warrior" has 4 great virtues: time travel to a historical era; the first appearance of Sarah Jane; the first appearance of the Sontarans; and the fact that it's only a 4-parter, not a bloated 7-parter. (Not that I'm completely against long stories. My all-time favorite is Troughton's 8-part "The Invasion." But a long story needs actual content to justify its length.)

 

[Grenrob]

I did a Reply before this, but I wanted to update it.

The only Pertwee storys I havent watched are

Mind of Evil
Mutants
Time Monster
Death to Daleks

The Rest I have watched.

FAVOURITE

1 Green Death
2 Spearhead from Space
3 Daemons
4 Monster of Peladon
5 Day of the Daleks
6 Curse of Peladon

WORST

Colony in Space and Ambassadors of Death

Top 5 Roger Degado (as master)

1 Daemons
2 Frontier in Space
3 Sea Devils
4 Terror of the Autons
5 Claws of Axos
4

 

[Grenrob]

I did a Reply before this, but I wanted to update it.

The only Pertwee storys I havent watched are

Mind of Evil
Mutants
Time Monster
Death to Daleks

The Rest I have watched.

FAVOURITE

1 Green Death
2 Spearhead from Space
3 Daemons
4 Monster of Peladon
5 Day of the Daleks
6 Curse of Peladon

WORST

Colony in Space and Ambassadors of Death

Top 5 Roger Degado (as master)

1 Daemons
2 Frontier in Space
3 Sea Devils
4 Terror of the Autons
5 Claws of Axos

I might have changed my mind a bit on my opinion before
But I still love Alpha Centuri in the Peladon Storys

 

[Valin]

my favourite doctor is jon pertwee.i became a fan when i first watched inferno

Me, too. "Inferno" and "The Daemons" are my favorite Who stories overall (not just for the Pertwee era).

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

My friend just showed me "Colony in Space." I liked it more than some of the posters here. At the very least, Roger Delgado is alwas thoroughly watchable as the Master. He was truly one of a kind! (Though I also love Anthony Ainley's more unhinged portrayal of the character.) Mostly, it's a bit of a shift for me since all of the previous Pertwee stories I've seen have been UNIT stories. This feels very much like traditional Doctor Who. Jon Pertwee is very charming & charismatic in the role, but I generally prefer a bit more eccentricity to my Doctors.

After that, I re-watched "The Three Doctors" again. I can't say this enough: I love Patrick Troughton & I love Omega!

After that, I finally took a look at the Dalek War box set. "Frontier in Space" has a lot to recommend it. It looks really good. The Draconians are awesome aliens that I would love to see show up on the new series. The Master is great, as always. It's a shame this was his final appearance. And I really like the inter-planetary political wrangling at the heart of this story. My one main gripe with it is that it feels like it should be leading into something much larger and more epic. Instead, we get...

"Planet of the Daleks." Don't get me wrong. It's not a terrible story. But after all the ominous forboding of interstellar war promised in "Frontier in Space," we get 6 episodes of the Doctor & Jo running around a jungle. I think the static nature of the setting is what spoils this story. For 6 episodes in a row we're left staring at the same jungle & the same Dalek bunker. Say what you will about "The Chase," but at least they move around enough to never let you get bored. Even in "Frontier in Space," while much of the early part of the story is just the Doctor & Jo being marched from one jail cell to another, at least they're different jail cells.

One of the major points of interest for me was the recolorization of part 3 of "Planet of the Daleks." I think they generally did a good job. Although, once you start looking for imperfections, you're bound to find some. Mostly, what comes across in the real color episodes that's missing from the colorized one is a certain level of reality in the way light hits objects. Even the gray Daleks can flare up in unexpected ways. Also, Jon Pertwee seems like a difficult actor to colorize. It seems like they can never quite capture the rosy twinkle in his cheeks or the slight touch of color that's still in his hair. They do a better job with Jo & the Thals on that front. I'd also say the colorization job is better on the film sequences than the video sequences. Overall, no colorization effort is going to be able to quite match the quality of the original color master tapes. However, I'd say that the colorized episode was 80-90% of the way there.

How have the re-colorized episodes looked on other stories like "The Daemons" & "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"?

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Oh, and by the way, what the hell is up with those "Perfect Scenario" bonus features on the Dalek War box set!?!? Some bits are pretty funny, especially when they try to make up some elaborate metaphor for the endless scenes of the Doctor & Jo in various jail cells. However, it's otherwise difficult to grasp the point.

It's also quite alarming since the "Perfect Scenario" shorts feature what I assume would be the last interviews Barry Letts did before he died. Between those interviews and the earlier ones on the regular making-of docs, he seems to have aged about 20 years.

 

[Pindar]

Im watching Terror of the Autons right now to cheer myself up. It has been many years since I have seen this one.

I like the bowler hatted time lord who can materialise without the need of a TARDIS.

 

[Pindar]

Finished up watching this yesterday. Great story, the first time we meet the Master, we get to see his chameleon circuit working, Jo is introduced.

Even over this one story you can see her starting to sand off some of the doctors spikier personality aspects.

I think thats the first time I have seen this story since it first aired as it took me a long time to bite the bullet over forking out to buy the box set.

I have now bought Spearhead from Space 3 times on DVD.

I don't approve of these collection only releases.

 

[Grenrob]

I know I did 2 replys before this but I changed my mind again and this time I am absolutely sure about my Favs and worst and in the middles...

OK! ... here it goes...

BEST

1 Green Death ( A fantastic ending for the best companion Jo and a just a Brilliant Story!)
2 Daemons ( I like how the story is based on science or magic. Just such a good story.
3 Spearhead from Space ( A good introduction for Jon and good creation of the autons .
4 Carnival of monsters (I love the drashigs and I love the adventure.
5 Inferno and Sea Devils(Inferno: the story that made me a Pertwee fan and I like the twin world idea. Sea Devils: A good return of the reptiles and even better this time because the master, also the sword fight!

MIDDLE

Silurians
Terror of the Autons
Mind of Evil
Claws of Axos
Day of the Daleks
Curse Peladon
Three Doctors
Frontier in Space
Planet of the Daleks
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Death to the Daleks
Monster Peladon
Planet of the Spiders

WORST

These Serials are just Pants

Ambassadors of Death
Colony in Space
Mutants <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< WORST OF ALL
Time Monster
Time warrior

My fav Doctors will always be the 3rd and 4th. Them 2 are just amazing.

Ninth Doctor is the worst .

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I kinda liked "Colony in Space" and I loved "The Time Warrior."

What's so bad about "The Ambassadors of Death" & "The Mutants." I haven't seen them but I think it's interesting that they have such notorious reputations.

 

[VDCNI]

Ambassadors? It's generally considered the weakest of season seven but I'm not aware of its reputation being that bad. Certainly not compared to Mutants, Time Monster & Colony. It's been an age since I saw it though so looking forward to the upcoming dvd release.

 

[Peacemaker]

Yeah, Ambassadors in color is actually one of the ones I want to see. Season 7 was very different - so different, IMO, that it stands out from the rest of Dr. Who, not just Pertwee's time, as being very adult fare. It's been a long time, and, while like all the longer stories of his time suffered from padding, the overall tone is quite eerie and spooky.

 

[sonak]

I haven't seen all of them, but I really like his era.

Favorites: Terror of the Autons, Spearhead from Space, Day of the Daleks, the Three Doctors, Inferno