The Doctor Who Thread

[Demoncrat]

Ordered U.N.I.T. Files.

Let's Kill Hitler. The title alone made me wince. Ahem. Next!!

[Gothmogxx]

Continuing with my marathon but briefly: Seasons 27-36 (yes I know its technically "Series 1-10" but its a direct continuation of Classic Who so I just refer to them as Seasons, which is more impressive anyway as it shows how long the show and the exact same storyline with the alien in the Policebox has continued since 1963) have their highs and lows. But so does almost EVERY Season from 1963-1989. There are possible exceptions (Season 7 anyone? Maybe 13 although when I watched Android Invasion in 2012 I didn't like it so we'll see when I revisit it...). Very little from 2005 onwards is as bad, for instance, as The Edge of Destruction, The Web Planet or The Highlanders (the latter two took at least 3 sittings to get through, even though Highlanders is 4 episodes, whereas I can watch all 8 episodes of The Invasion or 10 episodes of The War Games in a single sitting).

But back to Season 5.

So Tomb of the Cybermen. I'll get the dodgy stuff out the way first: Yes the the scene where the rope that’s holding up Toberman manages to exude more screen presence than Toberman is a total disaster in so many ways. WHY was this not edited out? Yes the Cybermen's plan has a lot of problems (its a good plan but why make it so hard for themselves? Why not have the revitalization unit down in the tombs with them instead of upstairs where they physically can't get to?) The Doctor is a bit weird here: I can’t stop thinking about how it’s the Doctor who caused all this grief. If he hadn’t opened those doors in the first place, those people would still be alive. His excuse is because it became impossible to leave as soon as the name Cybermen came up. Okay maybe he wants to ensure they remain safe by remaining but why then after he opens the main tomb door does he then open the hatch which even Klieg can't open? He should have left well enough alone instead of leading them right to the Cybermen: even by the end of the story nothing has changed! The tomb is still exposed from the explosion in episode 1 and people will absolutely get past the traps he set up.

BUT... Yes this is still easily worth a 9 or so out of 10. 10 year old me thought it was the best thing ever after watching it on YouTube and when I got it that Christmas on DVD, it was the very first thing I watched out of every DVD I got (followed, before we went to Gran and Papas for Christmas Dinner, by Silver Nemesis, criminally under-rated assuming its the extended version). It has atmosphere, the Cybermen leaving the Tombs is iconic, the cliffhanger to episode 2 is amazing, we learn more about the Cybermen, Victoria and the Doctor have a great chat, the cast is good and the sets are very good looking even today. Troughton is amazing here and gets some really good lines even if the Doctor's character motivations are a bit strange. It is not the best thing ever but its still great and i'll always have nostalgia for it.

Now sadly I didn't think much of The Abominable Snowmen here. Again like most recons I saw it as a teenager in 2012 but really I just think its average, both then and now. The Yeti suck here. I mean they get grief here because they look cute and cuddly but that's not the problem: They DO NOTHING. Occasionally one might smash up the monastery but they are nothing in comparison to the Cybermen from the last story (they fix them big time in Web of Fear). ... I don't really have anything to say. Its not as boring as The Highlanders but its really just average. Moving on.

The Ice Warriors: now this is an improvement. Its all out of control! Between an impending Ice Age, the staff in our base of the week at each others throats (special mention goes to Peter Barkworth who plays Leader Clent. BRILLIANT actor, easily one of the best so far. I like how he explains the plot by basically forcing the Doctor into a quiz to explain the problem. All the cast do well here as well) and of course Ice Warriors thrown into it, there is so much interesting stuff onscreen. Pity about the 2 missing episodes but at least the BBC animated them unlike Underwater Menace 1 and 4 (!!!!!!!!!!) and Web 3 (!!!!!!!!!!) and giving us horrible recons instead (!!!!!!!!). Fans have done better recons!

The Ice Warriors are an interesting monster of the month. Nice design for a start and a lot better than the Yeti: These people mean business and shoot to kill even if you volunteer to help them (poor Storr).

Nice sets as well, especially the caves. Its pretty much everything that I want in a Doctor Who story. (the only thing I found weird was when the Doctor and his companions are threatened with transportation to Africa, Victoria almost faints. What exactly has Victoria got against Africa?

Now though this is where it gets fun. Pre 2013 we couldn't watch The Enemy of the World. It has the distinction of being the outsider in this Season: the one that actually has a different kind of plot. No monsters, at least non-human ones. That may have been a bit of a turn-off for some Troughton fans, waiting all these years for a story to turn up and one of the two doesn't even have any monsters. But... This might just be the best story I've seen yet in the marathon.

Web was the story I wanted the most, specifically Episode 4 but I'll get to that. I admit I never really gave this one much thought. A pity considering how great it is. It is very much the anti-Tomb, in the sense that as opposed to getting slated after being re-discovered (I disagree strongly but it did get a backlash), its instead a story whose reputation has gone up in leaps and bounds since being found. Episode 1. The chase on the beach, action in the helicopter, the plot developing at a parid pace with Troughton being forced into pretending to be Salamander. I don’t think anyone saw that one coming in terms of the quality.

Not to get off topic but an issue a lot of films have is that you have a main villain and his second in command. Action films in particular have this. Commando or Total Recall for instance. But the main villain mainly just sits back and does nothing, while meanwhile you have Michael Ironside on the field trying to gun-down Arnold in every third scene in Total Recall or Arnold fighting Vernon Wells in Commando. The lackey upstages the master. But in Enemy? Nope. Salamander and Benik are the best human villains seen so far in the show. Benik is as nasty as they come, sadistically threatening Jamie and Victoria while being all round unpleasant to everybody except his boss. Speaking of which Salamander is amazing and is most certainly not upstaged my Benik. Its Troughtons best performance in the show as both him and the Doctor. When, for example, Troughton as the Doctor is imitating Salamander, the accent is deliberately worse. Yet when Troughton is playing Salamander, its much better. I like how the Doctor is forced into this situation and has to improvise.


It never, ever drags at all and I appreciate that more than anything: you could have made this story today actually. Great ending too, great way to get rid of a villain. And it's nice that they hold off the inevitable meet-up and split-screen for the Doctor and Salamander until the very end, having them meet half-way through would have weakened the impact gradually. An easy 10/10 and the first to get that award without any thought on my part, definitely earns it and thank god they found this one. Best from the 60's so far.

I have re-watched Web and i'm actually on Fury From the Deep Episode 2 but its currently 00:45 in the morning here and I just want to go to bed so I'll take a look at Web, Fury etc sometime very soon. Must sleep...

[gag]

Anyone know where I can buy full size Daleks and a Davros .

The kind where there replicas of the original and around eg 6ft yes I know they be a few grand .

I wouldn't mind a few life size Doctor who figures .

Cheers

[iank]

Web is awesome.
Peter Barkworth was a very busy and well known actor at the time. I just saw him the other week (along with Brian Blessed and Joss Ackland!) in the excellent season 6 Avengers episode The Morning After as a charmingly slippery crook (who's not that bad in the end, so much so that Steed actually lets him go despite having been dead set on capturing him!).

[Susan Foreman]

March 23rd: Today in WHO-story

Births
1909 - Charles Morgan (Songsten in The Abominable Snowmen and the Gold Usher in The Invasion of Time)
1918 - Anthony Jacobs (Doc Holliday in The Gunfighters; father of the TV Movie writer Matthew Jacobs)
1928 - Louis Marks (writer of Planet of Giants, Day of the Daleks, Planet of Evil and The Masque of Mandragora)

1929 - James Maxwell (Jackson in Underworld)
1958 - Chris Blatchford (post-production supervisor on Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures)

Deaths
1988 - Reg Lye (Griffin in The Enemy of the World) aged 76
2002 - James Culliford (Stewart in Frontier in Space) aged 74

Episodes
1968 - Fury from the Deep, Episode Two: 7.9 million viewers
1974 - The Monster of Peladon, Part One: 9.2 million viewers
1982 - Time-Flight, Part Two: 8.5 million viewers
1984 - The Twin Dilemma, Part Two: 7.4 million viewers
1985 - Revelation of the Daleks, Part One: 7.4 million viewers
2013 - The Bells of Saint John: A Prequel (online mini-episode)

Introductions
1989 - Launch of the stage show The Ultimate Adventure at New Wimbledon Theatre; debut of companions Jason, Crystal and Zog

Releases
1998 - Battlefield (VHS)

2013 - The Spear of Destiny (Puffin Books)
2016 - Issue 7 of Tenth Doctor Year Two (Titan Comics)

Behind-the-Scenes
2008 - Following correspondence with Doctor Who Magazine's Benjamin Cook, Russell T. Davies rewrote the final scene of Journey's End. The originally planned ending, featuring the Cybermen inside the TARDIS, was recorded but cut from the transmitted version and replaced by the Tenth Doctor upset about being once again
2009 - Recording of the Big Finish Productions audio adventure Paper Cuts took place
2013 - BBC One transmitted a Doctor Who edition of Pointless Celebrities. Playing for their nominated charities are former Doctor Who regular actors Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Bernard Cribbins, Jacqueline King, Nicola Bryant, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Frazer Hines and Louise Jameson Official

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

@Gothmogxx

I was wondering what medium you 'sat through' to find The Highlanders so tedious?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Sil from the Colin Baker story Vengeance on Varos (1985)

[Gothmogxx]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

@Gothmogxx

I was wondering what medium you 'sat through' to find The Highlanders so tedious?

Loose Cannon re-construction, found it on Daily Motion. Its not completely terrible just... Boring.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Gothmogxx

Loose Cannon re-construction, found it on Daily Motion. Its not completely terrible just... Boring.

I have the audio release from the BBC. It's just the soundtrack of course but my imagination does the rest and to be honest i think it's very good. Same goes for The Smugglers and The Massacre.

[RedEyeTheCylon]

Originally Posted by gag

Anyone know where I can buy full size Daleks and a Davros .

The kind where there replicas of the original and around eg 6ft yes I know they be a few grand .

I wouldn't mind a few life size Doctor who figures .

Cheers

this planet earth - a small dot in a big space is the only company that has the license to make replicas but they're quite expensive. You can usually find cheaper ones listed on eBay though.