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Tag: Classic Who

Standing the Test of Time

Review of The Time Warrior (#70)

DVD Release Date: 22 Dec 20
Original Air Date: 15 Dec 1973 – 05 Jan 1974
Doctors/Companions: Three, Sarah Jane Smith
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen
Preceding Story: The Green Death (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (Three, Sarah Jane, the Brigadier)

Unlike most of the other entries in the Everything Else series, The Time Warrior is one about which I remembered quite a lot even before watching it again. Even though I’ve previously only covered it as a NuView (way back in the second month of the blog), it’s long been one of my favorite Third Doctor stories.

Among other things, it’s got a lot of firsts: the first Sarah Jane Smith story, the first appearance of a Sontaran, and the first ever mention of Gallifrey. It’s also got Jon Pertwee buckling some swash, scientists from the present day being used to nefarious purpose in the past, and an overall strong story that holds together well.

Almost as soon as I hit “Play,” further details came flooding back. To begin, writer Robert Holmes’s name showed up in the opening credits. “Ah yes,” I said to myself, “that explains the ‘strong story’ bit.”

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Two for Six

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Review of The Two Doctors (#140)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 16 Feb – 02 Mar 1985
Doctors/Companions: Six, Two, Perpugilliam Brown, Jamie McCrimmon
Stars: Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, Nicola Bryant, Frazer Hines
Preceding Story: The Mark of the Rani (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Timelash (Six, Peri)

Robert Holmes is among the most revered writers in Classic Who fandom (and rightfully so, imo), so when I fired up my DVD of The Two Doctors to refresh my memory for this review, I was utterly surprised to see his name in the credits. It’s not that I had remembered this serial as particularly bad, whereas most Holmes titles are distinctly among the good, but rather that I didn’t have a very strong sense of the story at all.

I always make a few notes for myself before a re-watch about what details of the particular adventure I actually recall, and they were pretty thin on the ground this time. Aside from the presence of the eponymous reincarnations—Two serving as support for Six—I remembered the Androgums (though not by name; all I could pull out was the final syllable), the location shooting in Spain, a lepidopterist, and Jaime trapped in some sort of matrix-y space.

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Image of Mediocrity

Review of Image of the Fendahl (#94)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 29 Oct – 19 Nov 1977
Doctors/Companions: Four, Leela
Stars: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson
Preceding Story: The Invisible Enemy (Four, Leela, K9)
Succeeding Story: The Sun Makers (Four, Leela)

Something I’ve noticed consistently as I’ve made my way through this Everything Else series, is that the stories that ended up here at the end of the line all have one thing in common: mediocrity.

That’s not to say they’re bad. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are perfectly serviceable, fine examples of the sort of thing Doctor Who is. They’re the workhorses of the series, the stories that neither soar nor stink. They’re just middling.

Since they don’t grab my attention from either a “wow, that’s good!” or a “wow, that’s bad!” perspective, they easily escape my memory. And since I also never reach for one of these middle-of-the-road stories when I’m introducing someone new to the show or just passing the time, the details of them don’t get reinforced, either, and I end up having little or no impression of them.

Case in point: before beginning my re-watch for this post, aside from the iconic image of the possessed woman on the DVD cover, the only details I could remember about Image of the Fendahl were that there was something about a cult, an old house, and a time loop. No wonder I hadn’t thought to watch it in years.

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In Pursuit of a Throughline

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Review of The Chase (#16)

DVD Release Date: 29 Jul 20
Original Air Date: 22 May – 26 Jun 1965
Doctors/Companions: One, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki
Stars: William Hartnell, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, Maureen O’Brien
Preceding Story: The Space Museum (One, Ian, Barbara, Vicki)
Succeeding Story: The Time Meddler (One, Vicki, Steven)

Who really ever talks about The Chase? It’s one of those early-era stories that neither gets fans excited nor makes them cringe, so there is once again no surprise at finding it here in the ranks of Everything Else. Sure, it’s technically a Dalek story, but it barely feels like one to me. But perhaps I’ve simply missed its hidden charms over the years.

Truth be told, it’s been long enough since I last watched this one that I had barely any recollections of it at all. Before I sat down to view the six-episode adventure this time, all I could remember was broad strokes: Daleks pursuing the TARDIS, Peter Purves as not-Steven at the top of some tower in NYC (that would be the Empire State Building; thanks, brain), the (proper) introduction of Steven, the departure of Ian & Barbara, and—last but not least—the iconic photo of producer Verity Lambert at least pretending to try to light her cigarette with a Mechonoid’s flame-thrower arm.

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The Doctor Does Dracula

Review of State of Decay (#113)

DVD Release Date: 03 Oct 16
Original Air Date: 03 – 24 Jan 1981
Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, Adric, K9
Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, John Leeson
Preceding Story: Full Circle (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9)
Succeeding Story: Warriors’ Gate (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9)

I have to say I was utterly unsurprised to find State of Decay among the titles here at the bottom of the “Everything Else” barrel. As the middle installment of the E-Space Trilogy that sees the introduction of Adric and the departure of Romana (and K9), it doesn’t seem to stand out in any particular way except one: vampires.

Given the recent popularity of the Dracula Daily email list for reading Bram Stoker’s classic in chronological (not chapter) order, it’s a fairly timely coincidence that I have the opportunity now to talk about Doctor Who‘s own take on vampiric myths. Sadly, unlike the Stoker novel, State of Decay doesn’t really give the viewer anything truly gripping or unique to hand onto.

We begin with the Doctor and Romana still looking for a way out of E-Space, initially unaware that they now have an additional crew member in the form of stowaway Adric. When they find themselves on a planet with nothing but a single village and an imposing tower, and the peasants all apparently willing to continue serving their three Lords unquestioningly, of course they need to look deeper. Nominally that’s so they can get a lead on how to get themselves back out of E-Space, but in practice it’s because the Doctor just can’t help himself.

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Sink or Swim

Review of The Sea Devils (#62)

DVD Release Date: 03 Jun 08
Original Air Date: 26 Feb – 01 Apr 1972
Doctors/Companions: Three, Jo Grant
Stars: Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning
Preceding Story: The Curse of Peladon (Three, Jo)
Succeeding Story: The Mutants (Three, Jo)

After last week’s special aired, I knew I was in for a treat when I came back to re-watch this adventure. The potential to compare and contrast the depictions of the Sea Devils in this, their initial outing with their most recent on-screen appearance with Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor felt like a golden opportunity.

And since Delgado is my favorite Master, despite his ubiquity during this era of the show, I enjoy watching what have become his “usual tricks” play out here where they can still take the Doctor by surprise. To wit, his “team up with someone else to destroy humanity in order to upset the Doctor” game.

Because that’s what this story boils down to. The Master has found these “sea devils”—who only gain that moniker from the rantings of traumatized sea fort workman—and decided to manipulate them to his own ends. The Doctor recognizes them as kin to the Silurians, and they give the same account of their reasons for going into hibernation as that other reptilian species. They also [spoilers] come to a similar end, having at one point reached a tentative peace with the humans thanks to the Doctor before the British military makes a first-strike move.

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First Arc Flat

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Review of Full Circle (#111)

DVD Release Date: 03 Oct 16
Original Air Date: 25 Oct – 15 Nov 1980
Doctors/Companions: Four, Romana II, Adric, K9
Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, John Leeson
Preceding Story: Meglos (Four, Romana II, K9)
Succeeding Story: State of Decay (Four, Romana II, Adric, K9)

I have to say I wasn’t surprised to find Full Circle among the ranks of Everything Else when I looked over all the stories I hadn’t yet reviewed. It’s one of those stories that flies easily under the radar, certainly not a “really good” story, nor an entirely awful one. And as Adric has never been one of my favorite Companions (though I don’t think I dislike him as thoroughly as some fans do), his introduction story has also not really been one I think on often.

As such, my impressions of Full Circle have been pretty minimal. I’m pleased to say, though, that I did at least remember the main conceit of the story, and knew what the big twist at the end was going to be. Being able to watch things unfold with that kind of foreknowledge is one of the fun parts of re-watching a show for me, so I appreciated being able to take advantage of that small bit of familiarity with the plot this time.

Right off the bat, we get a major plot point that will follow the Doctor and Romana through this trilogy of stories, known collectively as “the E-Space Trilogy”: the TARDIS has been pulled off course into Exo-Space, a dimension outside of “real” space where our own universe exists. Instead of having landed on Gallifrey, then, they are on a planet called Alzarius, right when an every-fifty-years event called Mistfall is beginning.

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Devils Under the Sea

Review of Warriors of the Deep (#130)

DVD Release Date: 03 Jun 08
Original Air Date: 05 – 13 Jan 1984
Doctors/Companions: Five, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough
Stars: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson
Preceding Story: The Five Doctors (Five, Tegan, Turlough)
Succeeding Story: The Awakening (Five, Tegan, Turlough)

One of the unintended benefits of this year’s “Everything Else” themed reviews is that I get to talk about the Sea Devils, who are slated to appear in the next special some time this spring. (My guess is on or around Easter, which is April 17.) In fact, I get to review both of their on-screen appearances, first this month in Warrior of the Deep and then at the end of April (presumably shortly after the aforementioned special) in their debut story The Sea Devils.

Somewhat ironically, while the Sea Devils are the eponymous warriors here, what most people remember about this story (when they bother to remember it at all) is the non-sentient monster of the piece, the Myrka. Before listening to the recent Verity! podcast episode about Warriors, I had forgotten pretty much everything else myself. But the Myrka is actually a relatively small player in the overall story, while humanity’s willingness to annihilate itself, and individual humans’ willingness to exploit each other, are more immediate threats.

Watching Warriors nearly forty years after its broadcast (which makes me feel really old), I get a strange sense both that I completely agree with Tegan’s point that very little has changed in the 100 years since her time (~60 years from now) and that things are quite different. To wit, the last time I watched it, I have a vague recollection of having felt much more sympathetic angst about the destruction of humanity.

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Now With More Terror

Review of The Macra Terror (#34)
DVD Release Date: 12 Nov 19
Original Air Date: 11 Mar – 01 Apr 1967
Doctors/Companions: Two, Jamie McCrimmon, Ben Jackson, Polly Wright
Stars: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Michael Craze, Anneke Wills
Preceding Story: The Moonbase (Two, Jamie, Ben, Polly)
Succeeding Story: The Faceless Ones (Two, Jamie, Ben, Polly)

Welcome to the first DVD review of 2022! Before I get into the actual review, I’d like to talk about themes.

For the past several years, I’ve had an overarching theme of sorts for these monthly reviews (Highs & Lows, Hidden Gems, Bad Reputation…), and so I wanted another such theme for this year. As I looked over my list of remaining stories to review, though, I realized two key things: (1) there are 17 adventures left for me to review from the Classic era (an awkward prime number at best), and (2) there is no real underlying connection among them.

My eventual conclusion was that my theme could be nothing but a catch-all. Like the final room of a museum from a favorite childhood book, I would label them “Everything Else.” And since they don’t fit nicely into a whole number of years, I’ll simply keep going until they run out.

That takes us midway through 2023. I’ve said before that I don’t know how much longer I’m likely to continue blogging here; Confessions of a Neowhovian is getting pretty long in the tooth as it begins its twelfth year. But with Classic stories still to cover through mid-2023, and a 60th anniversary special to come that November, I think I can safely commit to continuing the blog through its 13th year.

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Could’ve Been Worse

Review of Arc of Infinity (#124)

DVD Release Date: 06 Nov 07
Original Air Date: 03 – 12 Jan 1983
Doctors/Companions: Five, Nyssa of Traken, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Time-Flight (Five, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Snakedance (Five, Nyssa, Tegan)

The entries for this year’s theme of Highs & Lows end with Arc of Infinity, which is one I never know how to rank. It seems not to have left a strong impression on me one way or the other, aside from the slowly decaying “Doctor” at the end. I guess that makes it more of a personal “Meh” than either a High or a Low.

So I kind of went into my re-watch this time with an open mind. Would it be better than I thought? Worse than I thought? Who knew; I would leave myself open to any possibility.

In the end, I think I came out in roughly the same place as Charlie Jane Anders in her rankings on io9 back in 2015, where she placed Arc of Infinity at #205 of 254 entries, or roughly the 20th percentile. It wasn’t so horrific that I would flinch at the idea of watching it again, but neither did it have much to recommend it.

Primarily, I found that the plot—wherein the Doctor is forcibly recalled to Gallifrey because some as-yet-unidentified extra-dimensional entity has tried to cross dimensions by bonding with the Doctor’s physical form, and the High Council wants to prevent the entity from doing so at any cost—relied so heavily on arcane sci fi elements of Time Lord technology that it was difficult to follow.

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