Too bad the US is behind as The Faceless Ones comes out next week with that one sometime in March I believe. Here is a video I did on my top 10 favorite Tom Baker stories:
The War Games - Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Those 10 episodes fly by so damn quickly that it leaves me wanting more. All of the characters are at their best and the fact that this is the first time the Time Lords were ever seen must have been shocking for audiences back then. This is hands down the greatest non-Tom Baker Doctor Who story of all time. The Tomb of the Cybermen - It's like a classic Universal Mummy film, flaws and all. I love it, though I will say the acting is some times hammy (specifically from the ship captain with the accent) and I don't get why the Cybermen randomly decide to zip themselves back into their tombs at one point, but other than those, this story is a lot of fun with suspense at every corner. I will say that Victoria is no Zoe, but obviously Victoria came first. Still, after watching nearly every story from Troughton's third season in the last two weeks and coming to this one with Victoria, I can't help but compare Victoria to her. I really like Zoe. I do not like Victoria. Anyway, great story.
Victoria eventually ends up in modern time(Well Modern back then) and leaves the Tardis in Fury From the Deep staying with the scientists. She does show up one more time though in a Doctorless story from BBV with Sarah Jane and the Brigadier in an unofficial sequel to the Web of Fear. BBV could use doctor characters but not the Doctor. Eventually this would lead to BigFinish and a bunch of BBV writers and creators would go there. Which was basically two different unofficial Doctor Who Fan groups merging. Downtime (home video) Oh yeah it's also Kate Stewart's first appearance. (Though a different actress played her) Probably the best Doctor related video BBV did. As it had actual characters and eventually became cannon. They also did some pre big finish audio dramas about two time travelers Though the BBC thought this got a little too close and forced them to change characters names. They also had Romana and K-9 Adventures though she was only ever referred to as Mistress. Thy usually did stuff like that to make it hard for the BBC to sue them. Though we did get a last Rani story by the creators and the original actress Though it was pretty bad.
I like the Rani as a character, but yeah, her stories have been awful. I wish when the new series can get a proper writer on board they bring back Rani. Anyway, Black Orchid - I still really enjoyed this one, but I will say it wasn't as mind blowingly awesome as it was the first time. At least, not as far as being one of the best stories of the franchise goes. Nevertheless, it feels like a 1920s horror film that Lon Chaney Sr would have done and that makes it great in my book.
There is a sale at Big Finish on select 5th Doctor/Tegan stories in honor of Janet Fielding’s birthday.
What do you think about "The War Cheif"? Officially the the Master's first on screen appearance is with Rodger Delgado and I'm always going to consider him the first actor to play that role no matter what recons may possibly connect him to other Time Lords later on... However it was mentioned that Rodger Delgado had already used up his regenerations by that point suggesting that there were in universe 12 other Masters before him. That said... while "The War Cheif" here was I believe originally intended as a different character entirely I think it is possible that he could be an earlier incarnation of the Master. Other people seem to agree as the TARDIS wiki even mentions that "The War Cheif" felt more like a title or an alias than his actual name. Personally for me, when I watched this, I don't feel like they ever gave him a name in that story, he seemed kind of mysterious to me cause I could tell he was behind everything but had no idea who he was or what to call him. I'm only calling him the War Chief here because that's what the Wiki page calls him. His personality and appearance seems very similar to Rodger Delgado and Anthony Ainsley's Masters to the point where I think he could be an early version of the character. And as I said before, this would be a retcon if they ever decided to officially make that canon but I'm just curious... did you get "Master" vibes from this guy or did you read him as an entirely different character? What's your head canon here? What would you think if the BBC did ever retcon him into being a Master incarnation? And please keep in mind I'm not saying he is the Master, just exploring the possibility that he COULD be. I think I've only seen one story with the Rani... when Sylvester McCoy first plays the Doctor and has to wear that wig because Colin Baker refused to come back to film the regeneration scene... She also tries to pose as his companion to trick him into doing something for her... so um yeah... I agree... pretty terrible... I think the only thing I actually liked about her is that she actually has her own TARDIS... and I don't just mean in universe... I mean in the real life sense. The Master's TARDIS was usually filmed on the same set as the Doctor's TARDIS they'd just dim the lights and maybe redress it a bit so it looked different on film but really it's the same set. The Rani's TARDIS is actually a completely different set from the Doctor's... not sure about the whole pyramid theme she had going on but it's nice to see they didn't do the cheap thing of reusing the same set again. Although since Spyfall shows the Master's TARDIS is now disguised as a house and that's technically the first time his TARDIS has had a totally different interior from the Doctor's... though it's a bit weird that the interior is also part of the exterior disguise... unlike the Diner TARDIS where the console room is in one of the dinner's bathrooms rather than the front door to the dinner being the entrance to the TARDIS like the front door of O's house appears to actually be the TARDIS entrance. The console is just hidden so the Doctor and her companions don't notice it till the Master reveals himself later... but yeah... his console room is just a literal room of the house... Any way... classic era... whenever they showed the Master's TARDIS it was always the same set as the Doctor's just redressed and different lighting.
Weather the war chief is the master has always been a debate. The Rani was only ever in two live action adventures One with the 6th Doctor and the master and the 7th Doctor's first adventure.
Until they officially state otherwise, I definitely think the War Chief was the Master. Just look at the one scene in the classroom where the Doctor tries to scurry away as soon as he sees the War Chief as he cleary knew who he was. That's how the Doctor has acted in regards to the Master at other times. Not to mention the War Chief was trying to recruit the Doctor to his side just like the Master does.
well according to an old book, the war chief, the monk, the master, the Rani and Drax were all classmates at gallifrey In time lord academy under chronotis.
So that's a yes on the Master vibes thing. I would add the War Games to my list of stories I want to get on DVD because he does come off that way to me as well and I like the episode... but I would hope for a colorized version cause I have vision problems and can't handle watching the black and white episodes for long periods of time. That's my only issue is the fact that it's not in color and that wouldn't even be an issue if it didn't screw with my being able to see. I'm not sure why black and white images have that effect on me, I just know I've gone blind temporarily in the past and each time it happened the last thing I saw before it happened was a black and white image. So I try not to stare at them for extended periods and it hasn't happened again since I figure out what the cause was. I've seen the episode but every five to ten minutes I have to look away from the screen and take a break from the lack of color. I'd love a colorized version so I could actually sit and watch the whole thing in one sitting without the risk of literally going blind. I had to watch all of William Hartnell's run that way as well so it took me a lot longer to get through those episodes than it really should have. I think if it wasn't for my vision issues the War Games was a pretty well paced episode for a classic era story. I love the Master episodes, he's always been my favorite villain in the series, and he does give me those same vibes. I don't know if I'd agree with your statement about 10 episodes flying by quickly... but it didn't feel like it dragged on as some shorter stories tend to do... It's weird that a colored story that's only 4 episodes feels like it drags on too long with unnecessary scenes but a black and white story that's 10 episodes feels like it's well paced when I literally have to pause it every 5 to 10 minutes. I think it took me like a week just to get though that story but it really shouldn't have. So yeah... if they ever colorize it I'd love to get that copy. I'm just not going to spend another week trying to deal with with possible vision problems. Oh... and one of those instances where I went blind... I was watching the pilot of the original Lost in Space. This was shortly after the movie had just come out they also released the original series still in black and white... Good show but my eyes hated it. Some of the later episodes are in color but the pilot was black and white.
Oh god, that sucks because that means you can't enjoy any old film the way it is supposed to be enjoyed. Kinda - Another really solid story overall and one of Davison's best. I also have to say that the new 5.1 sound and the updated CGI snake really enhance the story.
Ironic you mention the updated CGI snake immediately after talking about me not being able to properly watch black and white film. I kind of view colorized versions of originally black and white film in the same way as replacing that ridiculous puppet. It's just a different visual effect, doesn't change anything about the over all story, and I can enjoy it more than the original version because it was cleaned up a bit... I'm not really bothered too much but not being able to properly enjoy the black white version... more so that updated versions don't seem to exist... except for a few snippets here and there that were colorized for promotional material... which is also really annoying when a movie shows colored stills on the cover but ends up being the original black and white. (Always read the fine print they usually will indicate that the movie has actually been colorized but you can't trust the stills.) Ex got a copy of the original Miracle of 34th Street, cover shows colored images but the movie is in black and white. In fine print "Original black and white only" Still haven't really seen that... I might watch it on my own at some point but I'm not going to force other people around me to pause the movie every five to ten minutes so I can take a break from looking at that. Anyway... there's also some fan videos on YouTube that show some scenes that have been digitally colorized but as far as I know there is no version of any of the black and white episodes that have been fully remade in color. There's even a colored version of the second Doctor's Regeneration scene that transitions into the 3rd Doctor's first scene that's not only colorized but they also added that orange glowing effect used for all the modern day regenerations. It's brilliant especially considering they stitched together scenes from two completely different episodes to make that updated regeneration work. It's a shame those videos aren't official. There's a "modern" version for all the classic regenerations plus an extended regeneration for John Hurt to Christopher Eccelston where they added a face morph effect and a rotoscoping tool to pull in image of the 9th Doctor from archive footage and past it over John Hurt's face. Again brilliant and shows that not being able to get the actual actor to reprise the role doesn't excuse the BBC from not actually showing the regeneration. If a FAN can do it the BCC should have no problems accomplishing the same effect... and doing it better because they actually have professionals who do these effects for a living. The only difference between those kinds of updated effects and colorization is I can still watch the original versions when they're always in color and appreciate them for what they are... a product of their time... except in the War to 9 regeneration that's just lazy editing... but I wouldn't say I enjoy them in the original format and I don't think I'd enjoy watching black and white film that much even if it wasn't a legitimate problem for me... but I'd probably actually just buy that version of the War Games anyway cause it's still a good story. The more serious issues is the only reason I'm holding out hoping the BBC will eventually release colorized versions.
David Tennant returns to Big Finish for "Doctor Who: Dalek Universe." David Tennant Returns for a Full Series of Adventures in Doctor Who: Dalek Universe! - Blogtor Who
Sounds fun he hasn't really left though, he just did one last month with Tom baker, has a bunch of audios with River coming in November, teams up with the 8th Doctor in December. then this comes out Next April, and there may be a few more surprises they are hiding with that whole Time lord triumphant thing. With Covid he's been participating far more than usual. Heck they even convinced Eccleston to finally do some. Wouldn't be surprised if we heard Matt Smith or Capaldi were announced next.
I love that the sonic screwdriver is actually used as a screwdriver. Truth in advertising! And of course, the same thing happens in "The War Games" when the Doctor uses it to remove the screw from the handle of a pistol. It's a far cry from the magic wand it's become today.
With wasn't used as anything more than a screw driver till the third doctor's run. The 2nd Doctor always just uses it as a screw driver during his run.
I wouldn't really call it a magic wand. Though it does have a lot of different functions that have nothing to do with being a screwdriver. It would really be an issue if it were called a multi-purpose tool rather than a screwdriver. It's also kind of weird that it doesn't work on wood... you know the most common thing that you would ever want to drive screws into... basically rending it useless as a screwdriver. So now days the one thing it can't do is the one thing that it's suppose to do. This is hardly new though because it's been used as everything except an actual screwdriver ever since the 3rd Doctor's run. And it was destroyed quite a few times depending on who was writing the series because some writers felt it was an over used plot device and wanted to remove it as a solution to every problem. Some writers didn't completely destroy it but just used it more sparingly rather than having the Doctor whip it out every other scene. This was many during the 5th Doctor's run the Sonic Screwdriver was either used sparingly or destroyed and removed from the story entirely. The main difference with the modern Sonic Screwdriver is it also has a light now and they almost seem to give each new Doctor their own sonic... except Eccolston and Tenant had the same one... Peter Capaldi originally kept Matt Smith's because Moffet originally felt it wasn't necessary to change the sonic but the more he saw Peter Capaldi with it the more he thought, that's Matt's... and so he decided to destroy in the second season... but then replaced it with Sunglasses for some reason... and then he finally got his own Sonic Screwdriver in his last season which I really like the design of but since it was his last season and they decided to replace it again with the Doctor... it only had one season... and then was replaced by a dildo made of spoons... The fact that design replaced the TARDIS design 12 had for one season really doesn't help. I mean if they kept something similar but removed the weird clips or whatever those things are suppose to be on the sides, the only part of 12's design I didn't like cause it makes it kinda awkward to hold... and added some extending feature like the previous sonics had that would of been a welcomed improvement but going from this nice TARDIS inspired sonic to this silver turd just felt like a huge downgrade. I like to imagine the Doctor never lost her sonic or instead of building a new one she just built a device to track 12's. Speaking of which... seeing as how it wasn't destroyed it literally just fell out of a hole in her pocket... that means 12's Sonic could still be intact some where and I really hope they bring that back at some point.
