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Tag: Barbara

Nu-View #9: Less Ant-i Than Ant-icipated

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The Web Planet (Story #13, 1965)
Viewed 05, 19 Jun 2012

Doctor/Companion: One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki
Stars: William Hartnell, William Russel, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story: The Romans (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Succeeding Story: The Crusade (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)

The reactions of the uninitiated never cease to surprise me – and it’s not that long ago since I was one of them! When jA declared after The Curse of Fenric that it was the weirdest thing she’d seen, I considered the gauntlet thrown down.

I’d foolishly forgotten/not checked to see that Web Planet was six episodes long, so we ended up having to split it into two sessions. jA, jO and I were present for both, but jE missed the first time, and L missed the second. Once we got into it, though, the responses were, shall we say, rather varied.

At first, it was fairly upbeat. The Zarbi were initially well-received (“I love ’em!” “I love how they make electronic noises.”), and the exchange between Barbara and Vicki about the state of the art in medicine and schooling in their respective time zones intrigued all the Ladies. By Episode 2, though, things started to go a bit downhill.

The Menoptera elicited giggles and a “what the hell?” as well as the observation that “those [wings] are made out of shower curtains.” Vicki, though I think her personality went down pretty well, came across as “pretty helpless.” Then there’s the bit when a Zarbi runs into one of the cameras – “that was awesome!” I, for one, love how you can hear the Zarbi costumes creaking as they move (and just think about the poor saps who had to wear them – their backs must have been in absolute agony!).

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Retro-View #2: Change-Up

The Romans (Story #12, 1965)
             and
The War Games (Story #50, 1969)
Viewed 28 May 2012

Doctor/Companion:   One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki / Two, Jamie, Zoë
Stars:  William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien /
Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury
Preceding Story:  The Rescue (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki) /
The Space Pirates (Two, Jamie, Zoë)
Succeeding Story:  The Web Planet (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki) /
   Spearhead from Space (Three, Liz Shaw)
Notable Aspects:

  • Two’s final story

So far, G and I seem to be averaging about 3 episodes a session. That could make things “interesting” in the long term. For now, though, it just means we finished The Romans and barely scratched the surface of The War Games (the story that got the most votes in the what-should-we-watch poll). We also tossed in the surviving footage of the first regeneration (and the resolution of the Episode 1 cliffhanger – G’s not one for too much suspense) for good measure.

After a brief recap from last time, we jumped right back into the middle of The Romans. Right off the bat, we get Nero’s first sight of Barbara. G’s immediate reaction: “You old letch!” She proceeds to giggle at Nero’s antics, chuckle at our heroes’ repeated near misses, and chortle at the (very bad) stage fighting between a pair of gladiators. She’s thoroughly enjoying herself, and I’m enjoying that. Then she proceeds to put her finger on one reason I like this story so much: “every cliché possible is in this thing!”

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Retro-View #1: Take It From the Top

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An Unearthly Child (Story #1, 1963)
             and
The Romans (Story #12, 1965)
Viewed 30 Apr 2012

Doctor/Companion:   One, Susan, Ian, Barbara / One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki
Stars:  William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story:  None / The Rescue (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Succeeding Story:  The Daleks / The Web Planet (One, Susan, Ian, Barbara / Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Notable Aspects:

  • First ever episode

I’ve got something a little different for you this time. I have a dear friend of a slightly different generation who remembers watching Doctor Who in its early days. She would have been within the target age range when it first graced the air waves in 1963, but – as an American – didn’t really watch until college, and occasionally at that. From what she tells me, she watched off and on, but hasn’t seen it in ages – probably since Four’s tenure.

Some time over the past year, we got to talking about Who, and she said she was really interested in seeing what they’d done with it (meaning post-Hiatus). Since then, our plan has gradually morphed into a sort of variation on a theme, similar to and yet different from both my regular Nu-Views and The Experiment of Adventures with the Wife in Space. G is not a novice viewer, but neither is she someone who has followed the show religiously for decades. I’ll be showing her a sample of each Doctor and sharing with her what I love about each of them, and she’ll be telling me what she remembers and how it strikes her now.

So here we go!

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A Sense of History

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Review of The Sensorites (#7)
DVD Release Date:  14 Feb 12
Original Air Date:  20 Jun – 01 Aug 1964
Doctor/Companion:  One, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Susan Foreman
Stars:  William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford
Preceding Story:  The Aztecs (One, Ian, Barbara, Susan)
Succeeding Story:  The Reign of Terror (One, Ian, Barbara, Susan)

No one seems to have much love for The Sensorites. If I’ve heard it mentioned at all, it’s usually with some degree of distaste. Frankly, I don’t understand that reaction, since to me, Sensorites doesn’t seem any less palatable that most of One’s stories, and better than a few others (like the regrettable Web Planet).

There are actually some pretty classic literary themes here: cultural misunderstanding, political intrigues, and the TARDIS crew caught in the middle, as usual. Despite a rather… unusual creature design (oh, those floppy feet), the concept of the Sensorites themselves is fairly intriguing. I don’t remember many races across science fiction that use both telepathy and verbal communication, for example.

As the story gets rolling, I’m immediately reminded of how much I bloody love Barbara (totally with Sue here). Her absence in episodes 4 and 5 may be part of why the story seemed to drag somewhat through the middle. The plot itself has some interesting ideas woven in, but to a modern audience, anyway, it doesn’t seem terribly sophisticated. The “big surprise finish” in episode 6 (“A Desperate Venture”) is not so surprising, the rather obvious clues having been dropped for several episodes.

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