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Nu-View #15: Reliving “Everybody Lives!”

The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances (Series One, Eps. 9-10; 2005)
Viewed 19 Nov 2013

Doctor/Companion: Nine, Rose Tyler
Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper
Preceding Story: Father’s Day (Nine, Rose)
Succeeding Story: Boom Town (Nine, Rose)

After seven months’ hiatus (yes, I know—dirty word), the Ladies are finally back together to watch the Ninth Doctor again. They began the evening in high spirits. “I love coming back to this season; it’s what I fell in love with,” jA declared, and jO and I gave knowing nods.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2005 BBC

Speaking of things we love, jA needed her memory jogged. “Is this where Jack comes in?”

“Oh, yeah,” came jO’s appreciative affirmation.

After that, there are surprisingly few comments; mostly we’re all more interested in watching the action unfold. Now and again, though, something will trigger a comment.

For instance, when the Doctor explains his consternation to Nancy (“It’s not a real phone; it’s not connected.”), jE quickly adds, “Neither am I.” Or when Nancy and her little band of kids settles down to someone else’s dinner, jA observes, “That’s a lot of place settings for a family of, like, four…”

Mostly, I keep my thoughts to myself, not wanting to interrupt the others’ enjoyment of the show. I can’t help thinking, though, what a minx Rose is, or how Moffat won a writers’ bet by working “Chula” into one of his scripts, or how full of British patriotism this episode it (“a mouse in front of a lion”). And even though the CG is already pretty dated, eight years down the road, Dr. Constantine’s transformation is still utterly horrifying. That’s body horror at its best.

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Retro-View #14: Taken in Stride

Earthshock (Story #122, 1982)
Viewed 22 Oct 2013

Doctor/Companion: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Black Orchid (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Time-Flight (Five, Nyssa, Tegan)

It’s been four months since G and I last sat down together to watch Doctor Who. A lot has happened both in our daily lives and in the life of the show. In our flurry of catching up, the latter got lost; I never did tell her about the amazing episode recovery announced earlier this month. I did, however, manage to explain a little bit about the Cybermen.

One of the many reasons I chose this particular serial to screen for G next is that our methodology—viewing introductory and final stories for every Doctor, with one or two “representative” stories in between—has meant that she’s missed out on the Doctor’s epic struggles with some of his most iconic foes. She only met the Daleks a few sessions ago in Genesis, and until now, she’d never come across the Cybermen. So it was predictable that the “big reveal” at the end of Part One—when it turns out the Cybermen are behind it all—didn’t get much of a reaction: “Okay, now we’re to the silver guys.”

You see, since the Cybermen are all over the DVD menu, she’d seen them ahead of time. I’d had to explain who they were, and that the Doctor had come across them often before (though it was quick). So her reaction was completely unlike any fan who watched it at the time (“Cybermen! They haven’t been seen for years!”) or even a post-Hiatus fan otherwise unfamiliar with pre-Hiatus stories watching this one without spoilers (“Hey, Cybermen! I guess the Doctor did say that one was an ‘old friend’…”). In fact, I had to remind her that these were, in fact, the Big Bad; she’d been hoping for some sort of pyramid scheme in which we’d keep finding another kind of mechanical creature behind the last, as the Cybermen had been behind the androids in Part One.

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Retro-View #13: The Celery’s Fresh, But G’s Wilting

Castrovalva (Story #116, 1981)
Viewed 24 Jun 2013

Doctor/Companion: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Logopolis (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Four to Doomsday (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

I had high hopes for this story going in. G seems ready to try a new Doctor, and despite the fact that my kids are home on summer break from school, they have plans for how to occupy themselves while the grown-ups are involved with their silly videos.

And it starts out well. The regeneration scene is recapped, and the action continues on right from that point. The guards catch up to our heroes and drag them off. Tegan huffs, “Take your hands off me. This is an official uniform!”, causing G to chuckle and declare “I like her the best.” Finally—someone who shares my fondness for the Mouth On Legs!

G asks some good basic questions, too. “Why did the Master do that?” she wonders when he materializes in middle of the fray, then seems to go running, allowing the Doctor to escape into his own TARDIS, and leaving Adric behind to be rescued. “So he’d still have a good adversary?” Now if she’d take her speculation to the next level, we might make a Fan of her yet…

I’ll admit that I still enjoy the whole regeneration regression part (as the Doctor does impressions of himself) far more than G does; I don’t even bother to pause and explain when he spouts “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” and she doesn’t laugh with me. Then again, maybe she didn’t even hear it. After several moments that I’d expected to get a reaction from her get none, I realize she’s left me.

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Retro-View #12: Melancholy Moment

Logopolis (Story #115, 1981)
Viewed 03 Jun 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: The Keeper of Traken (Four, Adric, Nyssa)
Succeeding Story: Castrovalva (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

It seems to me that by the time Logopolis rolled around, Tom Baker was more than ready to leave his role as the Doctor. He just seemed tired, pensive, and like he simply wasn’t having very much fun any more. Luckily, it fits well with the story, and doesn’t translate into any sort of loss of quality.

G is immediately intrigued by the way the police box and (Master’s) TARDIS merge, and in on alert when Tegan and Auntie Vanessa pull up next to it with their flat. “Ooh dear. And they’re by the box.” Then when the Doctor’s TARDIS turns them all into dimensionally transcendental matryoshka dolls, she catches onto the danger right away. “This is serious. It’s like he’s ingested poison by materializing that guy in there.” She proceeds to make an analogy with holding mirrors up to each other to make an infinite regression, well before the possibility is mentioned on screen. G’s all over it.

The Watcher has her fooled, though. She reads it as all first-time viewers are meant to: a slightly creepy threat. I can’t help but think of it as the precursor to Ten’s departure, though in this case it’s only the Doctor, rather than the whole audience as well, who anticipates what’s to come. We both enjoy this particular conceit, though. When the Doctor tells Adric that “nothing like this has ever happened before,” G declares that “that’s the fun part.”

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Retro-View #11: Winding Down, or Just Wound Up?

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The Keeper of Traken (Story #114, 1981)
Viewed 29 Apr 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Adric, Nyssa of Traken
Stars: Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: Warriors’ Gate (Four, Romana II, Adric)
Succeeding Story: Logopolis (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

It’s been a while since G has seen the Fourth Doctor. Not only has it been a month and a half since we were last able to sit down and watch together, but he’s cycled through a Companion or two since our last story, which was broadcast nearly two-and-a-half years before this one. So I guess I can’t blame her when her first reaction at the start of the story was, “Oh my gosh! Look at the question marks on this collar!” And later, “He’s got a new scarf!”

I have to pause and explain about Adric, too. The whole E-Space thing kind of goes over her head, but truth be told, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, and I’ve seen all the relevant trilogy. She doesn’t comment on his pajama-esque costume, though, and declares that she rather likes “the little guy.” More than once. And why, do you suppose, she thinks so highly of him? “Because when the women used to tell [the Doctor] he was full of ****, he’d get upset, but when this guy does it, he doesn’t care.”

The story is right up her alley, too. Halfway through Part One, she’s already sussed out (well before we see it happen) that “ol’ Melkur’s marching around in the nighttime.” When his presence leads to the Keeper (apparently) declaring that the Doctor and Adric are “Eviiiiiil!” she can hardly stand it. “I really hate misunderstandings.” (Somehow, I’m thinking she doesn’t watch many sitcoms…)

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Nu-View #14: Strength Through Adversity

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Father’s Day (Series One, Ep. 8; 2005)
Viewed 04 Apr 2013

Doctor/Companion: Nine, Rose Tyler
Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper
Preceding Story: The Long Game (Nine, Rose)
Succeeding Story: The Empty Child (Nine, Rose)

I know the Ninth Doctor isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (especially with last week’s frankly unsurprising news that Eccleston definitely will not be participating in the 50th), but great heavens, is he ever mine.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2005 BBC

While Father’s Day doesn’t grab me the same way that Dalek does, it serves a vital purpose in terms of character development. Of course, the “character” in this case is actually the relationship between the Doctor and Rose. (Just a heads-up, in case you haven’t seen the episode: the rest of the post is pretty spoilery.)

Rose decides she wants to see her long-dead father and the Doctor questions her motivation. When she passive-aggressively suggests he can’t do it, he responds that “I can do anything. I’m just more worried about you.” And that, effectively, is the theme of the whole piece.

But first we have to see Rose be an utter idiot (some would argue there should be an “again” in that sentence). The Doctor loves her enough (however you define that love in your own headcanon) to do something dangerous to please her. “What ever happened to the ‘you can’t cross your own timeline’ thing?” wondered jE. Of course, it all backfires. The second Rose rushes to save Pete. “Ruh roh,”says jO. The camera pans back to Nine’s furious face. “RUH roh…” (I suspect jO hasn’t seen this since I first hooked her on the show, some four years ago.)

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Retro-View #10: The Lure of an Arc

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The Ribos Operation (Story #98, 1978)
Viewed 12 Mar 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Romana I
Stars: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm
Preceding Story: The Invasion of Time (Four, Romana I)
Succeeding Story: The Pirate Planet (Four, Romana I)

Now I’ve done it. I should’ve known better than to start G on a story arc. She has a hard enough time with episodic cliffhangers that I suppose I should’ve expected her to tell me to pop in the next story of The Key to Time once we’d finished the first, but somehow I didn’t.

In the opening moments, I realize G hasn’t met K-9 yet. We pause while I explain the general concept. Then the White Guardian (who G understandably thinks looks like Colonel Sanders; “he’s even drinking a mint julep!”) begins his little chat with the Doctor. No sooner has this dialog begun, though, when I have to pause again to explain about the dog bite (see the Story Notes). It’s so much better than the herpes G had been assuming was the issue…

Once we get to Ribos, G thinks Garron and Unstoffe look like Tibetans or Mongolians (and that Romana looks like the Good Witch of the North). We get tied up enough in the story that there are barely any more comments until Romana blindly walks into the shrivenzale’s chamber. “Well look down, sweetie. Good god.” Sometimes even the most willingly suspended disbelief gets stretched too far.

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Nu-View #13: Setting the Standard

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Dalek and The Long Game
(Series One, Eps. 6-7; 2005)
Viewed 12 Mar 2013

Doctor/Companion: Nine, Rose Tyler
Stars: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper
Preceding Story: World War Three (Nine, Rose)
Succeeding Story: Father’s Day (Nine, Rose)

I distinctly remember my Original Who Mentor watching my face avidly for my reaction when the trailer for Dalek ran at the end of the previous episode. Not having grown up in the UK, and not having been one of “those people” growing up, I’d never even heard of a Dalek before. He was, needless to say, somewhat disappointed.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2005 BBC

It was an entirely different sort of expression I was anticipating on the Ladies’ faces when we watched this the other night. This episode has become one of my all-time favorites, and certainly my favorite of Series One. So I was hoping for some “oh, yeah – I remember this!” looks of pleasant surprise as the details slowly dug their way out of foggy memories.

However, things were even foggier than I’d feared. “I don’t even remember this one,” jO said confusedly as the opening credits rolled. Not that it got in the way of our enjoyment. It’s a bloody brilliant episode, and I’m not sure Eccleston’s ever better in the role. First, when he encounters the Dalek in its “cage,” the consternation and terror are plain to read on his face. Once he realizes the Dalek isn’t, shall we say, fully functional any more, he does a beautiful job going off the deep end. The Doctor really is insane in those moments, and you see it in his eyes. Later, his “I killed her. … She was nineteen years old” speech is one of the best deliveries he gives throughout his tenure. Writer Rob Shearman gave Eccleston plenty to sink his teeth into, and did he ever run with it!

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Retro-View #9: Return of the Fan

The Robots of Death (Story #90, 1977)
Viewed 07 Mar 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Leela
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story: The Face of Evil (Four, Leela)
Succeeding Story: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Four, Leela)

Regular readers may recall that when I first saw Robots, I was not particularly enamored of it. Only after repeated viewings did I come to appreciate it, and now count it among my favorites. Thus, I was particularly interested to see how G would react.

Perhaps everything just clicked properly this day – no family members or pets in ill health, no project deadlines pending – but G was back on her usual upbeat form, appreciative of everything the show had to offer. It doesn’t hurt that she’s taken quite a shine to Four.

Her first impression of Robots is one of delighted nostalgia: “Look at that computer!” The visuals continued to impress her throughout, from costuming (“Ooh, I love the hats.” and “They’ve got great costumes, don’t you think?”) to some of the directorial decisions (“We get to see from the robot’s point of view. This is kinda cool.”)

As for the new Companion and general characterizations, she loves both Leela’s and the Doctor’s evasive answers when SV7 questions them. (I love that Leela’s already figured out that discretion is the better part of valor.) She also thinks Commander Uvanov is “a bit of a boor.” When he uses someone else’s argument against a third party, huffily demanding, “Ever heard of the double bluff?” she adds (as Uvanov), “I just learned about it thirty seconds ago!”

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Retro-View #8: The Blossoming of a Fan

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Genesis of the Daleks (Story #78, 1975)
Viewed 07 Dec 2012, 26 Feb 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter
Preceding Story: The Sontaran Experiment (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)
Succeeding Story: Revenge of the Cybermen (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)

Life kind of got in the way of our little experiment. In December, G’s family suffered the loss of two loved ones while my family was juggling schedules around not only the holidays but my dad’s medical treatments. January involved both of us regaining equilibrium, and by the time G was ready to get together again, I was on my way to Gally.

Once we finally managed to mesh our schedules again, two and a half months had passed between our viewing of the first half (Episodes One through Three) and the second half of the story. Thanks to the wonders of the TARDIS Data Core (formerly TARDIS Index File), I was able to recap those vaguely remembered episodes in detail for G so we were both up to speed on where we’d left our intrepid heroes before jumping back into the tale.

And what a place into which to jump! We’re getting into the big time here. To hear many fans tell it, this early part of T. Baker’s tenure is the start of the Golden Age of Who, and Genesis in particular is often cited as a stone cold classic. While G and I both enjoyed it (“It’s a good story. A very good story,” she proclaimed at the end), I don’t think it’s quite to my Top Ten (pre-Hiatus) list. Regardless, there’s plenty to enjoy.

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