What Doctor Who episode did you watch today?

[Alan]

I just saw Vengeance on Veros for the first time. I thought it was rather good. Sil's (small green alien) constant "motorboating" noise kept creeping me out for some reason.

I had no idea that zyton was a established element in the Whoniverse. I thought it was just something that Moffat made up for Time Crash. And I lol'd at Sil's reaction when zyton lost it's huge value, lol.

I still don't see why people don't like Colin Baker as the Doctor, aside from his costume. I've seen "The Twin Dilema", "Attack Of The Cybermen", "Vengenace on Veros" and "Timelash" and I thought those stories were quite good.

Vengeance on Varos is a great story! Interactive reality TV gone mad!

Sil is a great villain and his laugh is marvellously slimy! I'm glad they brought him back later on! Oddly enough, he's in the story I'm next due to watch and screencap!

Colin Baker played the Doctor really well and I enjoy all his stories. He was totally different from how Peter Davison played the Doctor...but to me that's what regeneration is all about. New face, new tastes, new dress sense, new everything...but still as his core Colin Baker kept everything that makes the Doctor the man he is just as the five actors before him did and the five actors that followed continued to do.

[xgirl30]

I watched Army of Ghosts and Doomsday.
It was interesting to see how different Torchwood 1 is compared to Torchwood 3.

[DigiFluid]

11.01 The Time Warrior

- ooh....new intro sequence! I like it!
- I miss Jo already
- I really like Sarah Jane already
- a Sontaran!!!
- ah back to time traveling....so much better than all that exile/UNIT business
- loved the "young girl" gag

[Alan]

11.01 The Time Warrior

- ooh....new intro sequence! I like it!
- I miss Jo already
- I really like Sarah Jane already
- a Sontaran!!!
- ah back to time traveling....so much better than all that exile/UNIT business
- loved the "young girl" gag

Thank goodness for The Time Warrior is all I can say! For introducing Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans and also being the first story to name the Doctor's homeworld as Gallifrey...its certainly earned its place in Doctor Who's history books!

[DigiFluid]

Thank goodness for The Time Warrior is all I can say! For introducing Sarah Jane Smith and the Sontarans and also being the first story to name the Doctor's homeworld as Gallifrey...its certainly earned its place in Doctor Who's history books!

I noticed that too! All in all, quite a good story. I find that, in general, I prefer 4-part stories over the more common 6-parters. 6 just seems to go on for too long, I find myself losing track of the plot (as well as my attention wandering) by about episode 5.

I'm a little sad to be approaching the end of the Pertwee years, but you can really tell that things were changing. With the UNIT years ended and fewer appearances from the Brigadier/Benton/Yates, Roger Delgado having passed away at this point, and Katy Manning's departure in the previous story, it's no wonder that JP decided it was time to call it a day.

I'm looking forward to seeing Tom Baker's Doctor though. I don't think I've seen any of his Doctor Who since I was a kid at my grandparents' house, so it'll be an entirely fresh experience for me

[DigiFluid]

11.02 Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Ehhhhhh. Not an especially strong entry IMO. Sarah Jane, who I was blown away by in the previous story, just comes across really annoying in this one. And the UNIT crew are awfully damn comfortable with her even though they've really never met her before. Goofy-ass dinosaur props (even by Doctor Who standards), the Doctor gets a ridiculous car-boat looking thing from nowhere, and an astonishingly poor send-off for poor Mike

[Alan]

I noticed that too! All in all, quite a good story. I find that, in general, I prefer 4-part stories over the more common 6-parters. 6 just seems to go on for too long, I find myself losing track of the plot (as well as my attention wandering) by about episode 5.

My goodness. How did you manage with the 10-parter The War Games? And how will you do with the 14-parts that is The Trial of a Time Lord...although...technically it is 4 separate stories with a recurring season arc so its probably easier to digest?

I'm a little sad to be approaching the end of the Pertwee years, but you can really tell that things were changing. With the UNIT years ended and fewer appearances from the Brigadier/Benton/Yates, Roger Delgado having passed away at this point, and Katy Manning's departure in the previous story, it's no wonder that JP decided it was time to call it a day.

I'm looking forward to seeing Tom Baker's Doctor though. I don't think I've seen any of his Doctor Who since I was a kid at my grandparents' house, so it'll be an entirely fresh experience for me

Wow. That should be interesting for you indeed.

[DigiFluid]

My goodness. How did you manage with the 10-parter The War Games?

I struggled a little bit. But, it was made a bit easier by the fantastic combination of Patrick Troughton's Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie. I really loved that group of travelers and was very sad to see them broken up.

And how will you do with the 14-parts that is The Trial of a Time Lord...although...technically it is 4 separate stories with a recurring season arc so its probably easier to digest?

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. It's likely not something I'll watch all in one run, but rather approach them as individual stories with an underlying arc (much like how the RTD/SM eras function)

Wow. That should be interesting for you indeed.

Yep! A bit excited, I'll admit

[Alan]

I struggled a little bit. But, it was made a bit easier by the fantastic combination of Patrick Troughton's Doctor, Zoe, and Jamie. I really loved that group of travelers and was very sad to see them broken up.

Yeah, that was a great TARDIS team. Its upsetting to think that so many of Patrick Troughton's stories are missing.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking. It's likely not something I'll watch all in one run, but rather approach them as individual stories with an underlying arc (much like how the RTD/SM eras function)

Makes sense to me.

Yep! A bit excited, I'll admit

I'll bet. Bye-bye dandy...hello teeth and curls!

[DigiFluid]

Yeah, that was a great TARDIS team. Its upsetting to think that so many of Patrick Troughton's stories are missing.

Definitely. Coming into this watch-through, I was annoyed at all the missing episodes because it aggravated the OCD in me. Having now passed that era and almost finished the next, it just makes me sad. I really loved Patrick Troughton's Doctor, and I feel like I've been robbed of enjoying his tenure to the fullest. Particularly since i'm not even close enough to old enough to have even caught them on TV lol

I'll bet. Bye-bye dandy...hello teeth and curls!

Oh the "dandy and a clown" comment in The Three Doctors, how that made me laugh Don't get me wrong, I do quite like Jon Pertwee's Doctor too. I really like how he's been able to strike a balance between severe/serious and having a very snarky, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. He may not have always had the best stories, but damned if he didn't do a great job with the role anyway.

And soon it'll be on to a scarf-wearing curly with a disturbingly deep voice



As for today: 11.03 Death to the Daleks

Okay, Sarah Jane in an oversized 70s bikini, the TARDIS door is hand-crank operated instead of just having a handle, and after two environmental serials in a row, she says "good old oil" in the first 5 minutes of this one *facepalms*

Incidentally, I also really hate Sarah Jane's hair. It's like it's not even real, there's so much hairspray in it that it doesn't even move. It looks like she's wearing a helmet! But I do really love that here, instead of just screaming and being captured like previous female companions might've, she beats the snot out of someone with the door hand crank. Go Sarah

Pretty unimpressive first part, boring locals and an undramatic and out-of-left-field appearance by the Daleks. And it only gets stranger from there....local savages with bows, a Dalek inexplicably exploding after being shaken by them for a few seconds, and dungeon mutants, oh my!

Still for all my OTT whining, there's some stuff in this one that I really enjoyed. I really liked the division between the two 'castes' of beings on Exxilon, and I particularly enjoyed the Doctor and Bellal doing puzzle problem solving in the ancient city just ahead of the Daleks that were pursuing them.

Not an especially satisfying resolution, though.

[Cold Fuzz]

Currently watching the US premiere of The Lodger.

[DigiFluid]

11.04 The Monster of Peladon

I'll admit I've been rather looking forward to this one. A full-on sequel to The Curse of Peladon, complete with representatives of the Galactic Federation and all? Even with the goofy one-eye Alpha Centauri thing, sign me up!

Neat to see things have changed so dramatically in the 50 years since the Doctor has been to Peladon. Alpha Centauri is now its own member of the Galactic Federation, they're at war with Galaxy 5 (kind of a nice reference back to Galaxy 4 IMO), and King Peladon's daughter now sits on the throne of their world.

And lots of little nice touches in this one too. There's a nice little red herring RIGHT at the beginning of the episode, the Peladonians saying "we mustn't keep our lords and masters waiting". I quite liked that. And then I just had to laugh when the Doctor gives the Peladonian Champion a whack on the stomach to encourage him not to be afraid and then shakes his hand in pain

I really like the underlying theme across the whole story of classism, the uprising of the repressed underclass against their opulent overlords. Even if they had really goofy wigs, I found it was pretty nicely handled. The women's lib thing....might've been a great second theme, but it was a bit in-your-face for my liking. It would've been better if, like the miners story, it had HAPPENED but not been quite so preachy about it.

Good of them to leave the enemy--the Ice Warriors--unrevealed until the closing hook of part 3 of the story, Left a lot to the imagination until then. And I like the selection of them as the villain, it's a good callback to The Curse of Peladon and how they were a red herring villain in that story. Except this time, they really are the belligerents. Really good nod to longer-term viewers.

[Alan]

Watched my newly arrived DVD of The Dominators today.

[Cold Fuzz]

Re-watching The Lodger.

[DigiFluid]

Watched my newly arrived DVD of The Dominators today.

Some goofy acting and costuming there



11.05 Planet of the Spiders

Lots of stuff to like here. For the last story of Jon Pertwee, I really enjoyed a number of things they decided to do here. I loved that they brought back Mike Yates one last time, after his disgraceful exit in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I really liked that finally, for once, the Doctor addressed the Brigadier by his first name. And the return of the Metebilis III crystal in a package from Jo was a lovely nod back to both The Green Death and previous years in general.

And then there was all the great Benton stuff early on in this story. I cracked right up when he walked in on the Doctor experimenting on the clairvoyant guy and he teased the Doctor about 'doing hair on the side' And then again a bit later on, when he and the Doctor got chatting about what it takes to make good coffee--much to the Brigadier's annoyance

The choice to make spiders the villain of this story was a really good one IMO. It's one of those real strokes of genius that strikes Doctor Who from time to time when they come up with a villain that's based on real-life peoples' primal fears. And with so many people terrified of spiders....well, just a great choice

All story long, I'd been wondering about how they were planning on forcing the Doctor to regenerate. Having the Doctor's old teacher and friend show up and provide the sagely advice that would lead to the Doctor's death/regeneration was....an interesting twist, one that I was not expecting. I liked it and I think that Jon Pertwee got a much nicer send-off than did either William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton.

Farewell, Jon Pertwee. Hello, Tom Baker!