Doctor Who

[scottsdad]

3 updates. 

Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet. Fair story, and they have softened Baker's Doctor a lot. The dialogue was good, as is expected of a Robert Holmes story. But, considering Holmes wrote the very best of the 70s Who, this is a bit of a downgrade. 

Trial of a Time Lord : Mindwarp. Brian Blessed chews up the scenery. Lots of running around and shouting. Quite an enjoyable story and a proper cliffhanger. 

Torchwood: Miracle Day. Just a drudge. Loasda American actors, presumably for finance reasons. Bears no resemblance to the original show. It was about 4 episodes too long. I am pleased it's over now. Aside from Children of Earth, this show just failed. 

[scottsdad]

Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids. 

Gibberish. Pure, fevered, dross. Why bother with Honour Blackman and have her spending all her time on an exercise bike? 

Mel is just introduced and we are supposed to accept her. Why? 

I don't think Colin Baker is in danger of bumping Patrick Troughton down the list of Doctors. He's fighting Jodie Whitaker for last place. 

[scottsdad]

Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe.

Sad day when you realise Robert Holmes has lost his touch. This was awful. Nothing redeeming about it at all. A real mess of a story. 

When The Master shows up and is the only sane one there, explaining all what's going on, you know it's bad. 

I think this was when Colin Baker was taken out to the shed and shot (or maybe sacked). About time, too. 

[scottsdad]

If anyone has a ouija board, send Robert Holmes my apologies. 

He was credited with writing The Ultimate Foe, but actually had died by this time and the pisspoor other writers did this monstrosity. 

[scottsdad]

The Savages. 

Nice to head back to a late Hartnell story after the horrors I have endured. 

Proper storyline, good tension, moral message. Just lovely. 

[GordonD]

30 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

The Savages. 

Nice to head back to a late Hartnell story after the horrors I have endured. 

Proper storyline, good tension, moral message. Just lovely. 

Where exactly did you see this? It's one of the missing stories.

[scottsdad]

1 hour ago, GordonD said:

Where exactly did you see this? It's one of the missing stories.

As a missing story, what you watch is the available still pictures with the dialogue and occasionally a description of the action along the bottom of the screen. Basically like watching an audiobook. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

As a missing story, what you watch is the available still pictures with the dialogue and occasionally a description of the action along the bottom of the screen. Basically like watching an audiobook. 

Daily Motion have most of the Telesnap reconstructions. I like them but they're not for everyone

[GordonD]

4 hours ago, scottsdad said:

As a missing story, what you watch is the available still pictures with the dialogue and occasionally a description of the action along the bottom of the screen. Basically like watching an audiobook. 

Ah, the telesnaps, Some missing episodes have been included like that on the DVD releases but I didn't know entire stories were available like that.

The soundtracks are all original thanks to fans recording them off-air at home.

[scottsdad]

Power of the Daleks [animated]

Fantastic. I'm not a big fan of Dalek stories generally, I find them a touch dull, but this was really good. Used all 6 episodes well, building up the tension. I hope there are more of this quality to come, this was really enjoyable. 

The only down side for me was Ben whinging a bit in the first 3 episodes. 

 

[scottsdad]

Triple Troughton! 

Hoots, Mon! I mean The Highlanders 

Not bad. Patrick Troughton must have been having a laugh with all the accents and characters. Surprising to me how heavy the English Bad / Scots Good narrative was, considering this was mid 60s BBC TV. Jamie is on board now. 

The Underwater Menace

This could have been a Bond script. Hidden underwater lab with maniac scientist in charge. Not bad at all, this one. 

The Moonbase

A classic. A stone cold classic. Fair to say nothing made after 1979 in the original run is anywhere near this. A mix of animated and live action, wonderfully made. This is the only time, for me, that cybermen have been even remotely menacing. Loved this one. 

[scottsdad]

The Macra Terror (animated) 

Another good story, well played out. Starting to appreciate the second doctor a bit more.

I quite enjoyed it, though it was animated in colour. Somehow that felt wrong. 

Also, why animate this one before, say, Marco Polo? 

[GordonD]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

The Macra Terror (animated) 

Another good story, well played out. Starting to appreciate the second doctor a bit more.

I quite enjoyed it, though it was animated in colour. Somehow that felt wrong. 

Also, why animate this one before, say, Marco Polo? 

Agree with you on the colour thing - the DVD releases have the episodes in both black & white and colour. I'd prefer just the b&w for a cheaper option.

And Marco Polo doesn't have big monsters in it.

[scottsdad]

2 hours ago, GordonD said:

Agree with you on the colour thing - the DVD releases have the episodes in both black & white and colour. I'd prefer just the b&w for a cheaper option.

And Marco Polo doesn't have big monsters in it.

Maybe not, but Marco Polo was the dog's bollocks. 

They could also animate The Daleks' Master Plan. 

 

[GordonD]

2 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Maybe not, but Marco Polo was the dog's bollocks. 

I'm sure it was but the pure historical stories were never that popular. If they made an animated version I would definitely watch it but I suspect most potential viewers would rather have one with scary monsters.

Master Plan would be good too, if only to see the Doctor wishing everybody at home a Merry Christmas.

[scottsdad]

21 minutes ago, GordonD said:

I'm sure it was but the pure historical stories were never that popular. If they made an animated version I would definitely watch it but I suspect most potential viewers would rather have one with scary monsters.

Master Plan would be good too, if only to see the Doctor wishing everybody at home a Merry Christmas.

I was thinking more of the brutal, brutal final ending. 

They'd never get away with that now - a companion (even a short lived one) being aged to death and turning to dust. It was creepy, even in still shots with the sound effects. 

[scottsdad]

The Faceless Ones [animated]

Not a bad story, all set in the horrific setting of Gatwick Airport. I guessed that Ben and Polly would be leaving as they vanished in episode 2. The Doctor and Jamie carried the rest easily. At the end they decided to leave - hey ho. I'll miss Polly but Ben isn't much of a loss. He became a bit of a whinger.

Evil of the Daleks (animated)

Oh dear. A mess of a story. The animation was markedly different (and poorer) than The Faceless Ones. The Daleks are back to being unscary and having some nonsense evil plan about "the human factor" and "the Dalek factor". Did not enjoy this one. 

[scottsdad]

The Abominable Snowmen

Giant hairy scrotums running up and down the hillside, terrifying the monastery. Each contains silver balls that give them their power. Some vague reference at the end to the Great Intelligence also. A bit nonsense but enjoyable nonetheless. 

[scottsdad]

The Ice Warriors

Very enjoyable, and interesting to see them for the first time. I have already seen The Seeds of Death, so was nice to see the thermostat being used as the ultimate weapon again. 

I enjoyed this one quite a lot. Good plot (isolated base, alien baddies, harsh conditions, etc). Good acting and characters well developed. 

[scottsdad]

The Web of fear

Back on track after a few "meh" stories. This is probably the best one since The Moonbase. The Yetis are back but the story, dialogue and characters are all much better. 

The only down side is the one animated episode. Animated by a high school kid, I think. The quality was atrocious. 

Oh, and a random SNP poster in quite a lot of it.