Welp finally saw season 11 As a season it's rather dull. The 3 companions are dull and boring, to the point that even boring gay token Bil looks interesting. They have too much of a good time to understand how dangerous going with The Doctor actually is. The writers seem to have the same problem they had with the 12th Doctor, no clear direction they want to take the 13th. Also the Doctor loses the Sonic Screwdriver they've had from at least the Time War and most of the new series. No Big Whoop. She'll just leave out in the open wild for anyone to grab? WTF. The overarching plot of the 2 companions grieving over a wife/grandma's death boring. No Classic villians, hell I would have settled weaping Angels. I can see why people complained about it. The season isn't 100% bad, for Doctor Who it is kinda Dull.
That was adorable. I'm just wrapping up my latest re-watch of the Pertwee era, so this really tickled me.
Two things... 1. Jon Pertwee was the first Doctor to be filmed in color. There are no Black and White episodes in his run. 2. Even if episodes were filmed in black and white, it would not be impossible to colorize them. Even some of Harnell's episodes have been colorized. Well, some of his more famous scenes have, not sure about any full episodes being colorized as adding color to black and white film is a very difficult and time consuming process. I've done it with photographs and even that was enough to make me never want to do that ever again... and I don't even know why that was taught in the first place when most cameras take digital colored photos now days so colorizing black and white film is kind of an ancient and useless skill.
They weren't filmed in Black and white, but they were recorded in black and white by a fan. The BBC lost the original masters or recorded over them and we only have them because of fans of the series like we do with the Troughton episodes that were animated. Those only exist because fans made cassette copies of the audios as they were watching episodes. They could easily make DVD sets of them, but it takes time and money to up the video quality for Blu-ray
Right. There were some episodes where the original broadcast versions were lost or destroyed, but other copies existed in black and white. Sometimes it was just one or two episodes, like Invasion of the Dinosaurs or Planet of the Daleks, sometimes it was the whole serial, like Ambassadors of Death. In almost every case, there was enough existing information to re-colorize the episodes. At this point, only episode 1 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs is unavailable in color, and that's just because they don't have a high quality enough tape to repair.
Man, it's been a while since I had the chance to watch something Doctor Who related. Web of Fear - I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The first two episodes were great, but then I feel like it fell apart from there and dragged on way too much. It could also just be that the third episode being boring ass photos with the audio playing disrupted the immersion. Either way, this story could have been 4 episodes and nothing of value would have been lost. It was great getting to see the introduction of Stewart. Odd that UNIT hasn't been formed yet and that he was a Colonel, at least since that's what I've known him for being. A shame the first Yeti story is missing given its connections with this one.
The Invasion - This was odd for me because I could have sworn the Cybermen were in this story a lot more than they actually were. I guess I was getting some of the scenes between this and Davison's Aftershock mixed up (with a touch of the Colin Baker ep). Nevertheless, it does suffer from some pacing issues. The first four episodes were fantastic, but then the second set of four seem to drag on quite a bit. This story would have been perfection at 6 episodes instead of 8. Vaughn was a cool villain despite making James Bond-esque dumb decisions. The dude could have been successful if he had actually killed the Doctor, Jaime, Zoe, and Isabell the moment he met them for the first time. Instead, we get these dragged out sequences of each group going into one area and hanging out for a while. I do love the scene when Zoe gets the computer to self destruct and of course the scene when the Cybermen walk down the streets is epic looking. There is a lot of great camera work and lighting. Not to mention it was nice getting to see the first appearance of UNIT now knowing what UNIT actually was (especially Stewart, who looks so young). Overall, it's a great tale, but I think I like Tomb of the Cybermen the best between the 3 Troughton Cybermen stories I have watched (I can't bring myself to watch Wheel in Space due to it being telesnaps). Regardless, it is a near solid adventure overall.
I belive this was my first Second doctor story. Instantly fell in love with Troughton and Jamie, and Zoe was a pretty cool assistant too. This was the episode I got Frazer Hines to sign a few years back at a con. A great story, and yeah, the Cybermen are only apeparing near the end, but that works to build up their threat I felt.
The first time I ever saw black and white Doctor Who was the mid-80s when PBS ran them in the afternoons, an episode per day. They only showed complete stories, with no orphan episodes and no partial stories, and this was before Tomb of the Cybermen had been returned and long before Enemy of the World and the Web of Fear were returned, so PBS jumped from The War Machines (the last complete Hartnell story) all the way to The Dominators. That was the sad state of the archive at that time, with no complete story at all from Troughton's first two seasons. Thank goodness for DVD and the ability to watch incomplete stories. Even a sampling of Evil of the Daleks is better than nothing at all.
Luckily they are all available on audio. They usually have one of the surviving companions do linking narration. In the 2nd Doctor's case it's usually Fraiser Hines.(Jamie)
Yes, I can't tell you how many times I listened to the Power of the Daleks narrated soundtrack. I love that story. The animated version is not half bad either. The Faceless Ones really makes me want to see that final few minutes with Ben and Polly from episode 6.
Yep, this was my first Troughton story. I think what really threw me off thoug is I thought we had a much more epic battle with the Cybermen, but all of the major battles pretty much happened off screen (obviously due to budget). Like there was this one scene where Stewart orders his men to retrieve Isabell's uncle and then we have Vaughn's scientist telling him what happened instead of them showing us what happened. It was a bit of a let down.
Mhmm, nice to see they’re using returning villains. Now I’d like to see a classic enemy get a redo this series. Rutans, maybe? Sea Devils? I’d like Omega, but that’s unlikely.
The Krotons - A simplistic, yet entertaining story. There's nothing utterly spectacular about it, but it was refreshing to watch a 4 parter again after having 6 and 8 parters for the last several stories I watched. The Krotons were an interesting idea and I loved how they were taking advantage of this primitive civilization. Zoe managed to have another batch of fantastic scenes full of wit and joy. Well that brings an end to what I have at my disposal of Troughton's era without leaning towards some shitty ass telesnap reconstructions (Wheel of Space). While I do think a lot of his stories are longer than necessary, I highly enjoyed the vast majority of what I watched. Troughton himself was a top notch Doctor and Jamie is one of the best male companions in the entire franchise period. If I were to rank the stories I've watched of his, it would go as this: 1. War Games 2. Tomb of the Cybermen 3. Enemy of the World 4. The Invasion 5. Power of the Daleks 6. The Ice Warriors 7. The Moonbase 8. The Krotons 9. Web of Fear 10. Underwater Menace Glad I've gotten to see nearly half of his run, especially considering how much of it is lost. Maybe one day they can animated all of the missing episodes and release his entire run either in one giant Blu-Ray set or spread out across its three seasons. With that said, aside from the K-9 special and all of the bonus features from the bonus discs of the Blu-Ray seasons, my journey into Classic Doctor Who comes to an end, at least for now. I'll step back into this realm closer to when the Pertwee season 4 set is going to hit stores in October. In the mean time, this Summer I will be revisiting all of the newer stuff through Capaldi's run. Regardless, it's been a joy to run through so much of the original DW run in such a short time span.
River song will be dealing with him and trying to not mess up the time line in an upcoming audio and the fifth had a rematch with magnus greel Fifth Fights Magnus Greel - News - Big Finish 6. The Diary of River Song Series 06 - The Diary of River Song - Big Finish
K9 and Company - You know things are going to be bad right when your ears start screaming in pain from the horrible theme song. At first, I totally expected this to be some sort of 80s parody thing due to how bad that song was. Instead, it tried to take itself way too seriously, though, all things considered, I guess it could have been worse. It was watchable. However, the village this event takes place in is clearly the same village from Hot Fuzz. All that was missing were the cultists shouting, "FOR THE GREATER GOOD." I'm being serious here, it's practically the same concept just set in the Doctor Who universe and not even remotely as well written. I do have to give them credit though as the night scenes are pretty cool as are the sets and costumes. There's a reason it never got picked up for a full series though and I have no intention of ever watching this thing again.
It's far worse, actually. Jodie might be decent if she were given some adequate material to work with. But like Capaldi before her, Jodie is being horribly served by the scriptwriters. Frankly, the show has been on a downward spiral since RTD left.
