Going Through Doctor Who (Spoilers all Eps aired on BBC/BBCA)

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My first real-time Doctor Who series is over(I count the Christmas special as Series 9) and it was not a happy one.
Around the end of the Matt Smith era, we were promised a new, darker and grittier Doctor who would refresh the entire show.
Instead, we got Ebenezer Scrooge, a bossy freak and a whole load of meh episodes. We are not amused.

As I've stated before, the Twelfth Doctor is a very deep and a interesting lead, but I dare say he's no darker than Smith or maybe Tennant. It's not til that Gallifrey moment that I considered him to be near Eccleston's league in terms of acting though. Currently, he's halfway into reaching my Top 5 Doctors list.

What the heck happened to Clara? In Series 7, she was bossy, but cute, in here, she spends half her time whining and half her time complaining. Put on the Awesome Coat and you'd have a female Sixth Doctor. Yuck. At least Colin Baker complained and whined with class.

Most of the episodes were boring as hell(Kill The Moon, The Caretaker, Listen, Time Heist), downright stupid(In The Forest Of The Night, the finale) or just "meh"(Deep Breath, Flatline).

I didn't like Listen at all because the Doctor's wild theories came from nowhere and went nowhere. It was a nothing episode, where Moffat just seemed to wander around the plot cluelessly. The high rating given to this one for its "psychology" sickens me. Go watch the Scrubs episode My Screw-Up for some real psychological analysis or heck, The Edge Of Destruction. At least that story had character development and purpose, no matter its other flaws.
And for horror, we always have Midnight. We don't need what we already have.

Doctor Who isn't about scaring kids, it's not. It's about teaching them. The Daleks went down in history, because it was a warning of what might happen and what did happen. Moffat's inventions are cheap tricks in comparison.

But it wasn't all bad. Robot Of Sherwood was in my eyes, a comedy classic. It had a great set-up(Robin Hood and the Doctor) and the two worlds collided with thunder just as you'd expect. It was written well, it was acted well, it had a great look about it even, the jokes were some of the best... why no one liked it, I will never know.
When I reviewed it a few months ago, I believed it'd be an instant classic and for good reason. It was brilliant.

The second hit was Mummy On The Orient Express, which was tense, interesting, clever, with great characterisation, a classic setting and a murder mystery(way better than the RTD Agatha Christie effort). There was silliness, true, but the story kept you hooked and never let go. That's all I asked for and I got that and so much more.

Notice a connection between these two episodes? Neither of them were written by Steven Moffat.

I so hate to be clichéd and I really don't like wishing ill-will and I thank him for the genuinely great stuff he's brought into the show...
but for Doctor Who to progress, Moffat must go.

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The Dominators is a return to the Hartnell-style "Flawed Race vs Evil Race" stories. It's quite creative and has more substance than many of the Troughton "classics", but it's let down by a thin plot and awful work by the clothing department.

PLOT

The crew plan to take a holiday on the pacifistic planet of Dulkis at the same time as it's being sabotaged by the eponymous Dominators, a fearsome warmonger race with some battery issues. Since the Dulcians are useless at fighting, it's up to our heroes to outwit them.

It's great stuff, to be honest. The Dominators are captivating foes with a rather unique motivation(the very clever can spot a reference to this story in Aliens In London/World War Three) and funny 1960s box-shaped robots who make Zarbi noises.
The entire story(with a few exceptions) takes place on a deserted island that was previously used for bomb testing.
As I said before, though, the costuming is the worst I've ever seen. I could have survived the Dominators' super mega ultra uber shoulder pads, but the Dulcians' skirts are... well, stupid. Criminal, if you consider the fact that Zoe is in a swimsuit.

CHARACTERS

I love the Dominators. The leader(Rago) is an overly cautious individual who doesn't understand the threat of the "primitives" while Toba(Rago's number one... guy) just wants things to go boom. They represent two extremes and play off each other in spectacular fashion.

The Doctor does a lot of comic relief, which is both endearing, but gets kind of annoying after a while(I would've loved the scene where the Doctor realises the island is about to blow up with them if they hadn't had the scene where he realises there's a Quark on the other side of the capsule trip). Troughton makes the most of this serial, but I have a nasty feeling that we've seen the last of his manipulative side. Oh well, at least he's a brilliant comedian too. I can live with that.

Jamie is extremely active in this story, which I enjoyed. He and a Dulcian, Cully team up to battle the Quarks and he manages to support the Doctor right when he needs him. See, Moff-no, no, I have to get over it.

Zoe, on the other hands, just sort of goes around and says the technobabble. Shame. She's one of my favourites already. Can't wait for her to do something. Did I mention The Mind Robber is next? I barely know what the story is, but I have heard of a famous pose on the TARDIS console...

The Dulcians themselves are... well, imagine Ashton Kutcher levels of entertaining... with the possible exception of Cully, but he's a middle-aged man in a skirt. Not a lot you can do with that.

NOTES

*Why did the Dominators think Zoe was one of the stupid ones? As far as they were concerned, she was a Dulcian!

*Hey, Arthur Cox appeared in The Eleventh Hour! That's cool.

*I'd say the Quarks were unintimidating, but I did hear the part about their power being very low. Also, at least it's an interesting design. Nice Lego legs. The costuming designer obviously had a kid, judging from this and the Ice Warriors' hands.

*To go off-topic a little, Santa Claus is coming to Doctor Who! If RTD had done that, there would've been a riot. Moffat has desensitised the public to crap like that and Listen.

*I wonder what the last episode would've been about if the BBC hadn't cut it out. Personally, I think they cut the wrong episode. The stories usually sag in the middle(like, cut out Episode 3 or 4, not 6!) and dump actual plot in the end.

BEST LINE

"Well, this goes in here, I think and it comes out of here..." The Doctor explaining how laser guns operate to Rago.

CONCLUSION

They spend most of the time running around the island, but it's a solid adventure at worst.

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The Mind Robber is a fantastic, surreal story delving quite literally into fiction, with a good moral message to boot.

PLOT

As the lava descends onto the TARDIS, its mercury fluid link breaks down for some reason, forcing the Doctor to use an emergency switch that sends the ship outside of reality. There, the crew are ensnared into a maze of fiction, controlled by a mysterious computer...

My main problem with the story is that they never explain how the computer managed to gain control over fiction to begin with. Is it even a world of fiction or simply a telepathic image created by the Master(hell yeah?)? If so, what are they doing outside of reality? And why do they want to conquer Earth for?

CHARACTERS

The TARDIS crew are all on fine form. I don't like Zoe's glittery catsuit, but that's a nitpick. And Hamish Wilson is a palatable substitute for Frazer Hines.

Bernard Horsfall(I think that's his name) does a great job as Lemuel Gulliver, being seemingly honest and mysteriously unreal at the same time.

I liked the various monsters, even the obviously Batman-based Karkus.

The Master is a pretty interesting character, appearing both kind and affable, but also menacing from the computer's influence.

NOTES

*I loved the Doctor trying to apparently scare the Master with his Salamander impression. "Rewarding, huh?"

*The first episode is overrated. It certainly catches your interest and the cliffhanger is brilliant, but the episode meanders a lot in my opinion.

*Couldn't the Doctor just have said "the robots approached and then self-destructed because of a fault! And then everyone attacked the Master!"?

*And wouldn't that have fictionalised the Master as well?

*How come Gulliver was self-aware to an extent, but Jamie and Zoe were robotic?

*Also, Gulliver had a whole novel to quote, but Jamie and Zoe(whose entire lives were fictional now) just had a few sentences?

*What sort of timey-wimey event removed Karkus from comic book history?

*The notion that The Wheel In Space takes place in the 2010s or so is ridiculous. 30 years ago we were still in Snowcap Base, now we're flying around the universe?!

*Plus, wouldn't that have made the Cybermen invasion all the more memorable?

*Wouldn't there have been precautions taken to prevent another Cyber-invasion after the first two. The Moonbase was pretty defenceless.

*Why does Jamie wear something my dad would?

*I'm positive Moffat ripped off the "forest of words" in the Library two-parter.

*What was the guy's name that the Master wrote about in London? Captain Jack Ha-?

*Did they accidentally lose the final scene or something?

*What was the point of the clockwork soldiers if they had the White Robots?

BEST LINE

Everything Gulliver said.

CONCLUSION

An imaginative and fun story, although flawed in some aspects.

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The Invasion is a horribly paced, but decent Cyberman invasion story and a great introduction to UNIT.

PLOT

The Cybermen team up with Mavic Chen's ancestor to conquer Earth whilst the TARDIS malfunctions again, forcing the Doctor to seek the help of his Yeti buddy, professor Travers.
As I said above, the story is good enough, but has the worst editing yet. Most of the early episodes are a runaround of Vaughn's facility + lots of computer trash talk(what did that poor answering machine ever did to anyone?) until suddenly lots of stuff happens in the last episodes, so much in fact that it feels whole scenes have been cut out.
We go from the Brigadier heading to destroy the radio transmitter in the middle of an army of Cyberman to him on the radio saying they won.

Show, don't tell.

The whole Russian/antimissile missile thing is also very hard to follow.

CHARACTERS

Patrick Troughton gives a terribly serious and powerful performance this time around(minus "I hate computers...") and works well with Kevin Stoney(Tobias Vaughn, Guardian Of The Apple System)

Speaking of Vaughn, I'm a bit iffy about him. He's just too repulsively sweet for me to enjoy the character fully. It's not until he's betrayed and loses his temper that I started to enjoy the clearly multifaceted performance.

I liked Packer, trying to be all macho whereas in the end, he proved out to be a scaredy cat. It's like reverse Nyder(from Genesis Of The Daleks)

Isobel was annoying and unnecessary and her(and Zoe's) treatment of Jamie calls for some kind of anti-feminism. Male-ism, if you will. Seriously, can't women not be either arrogant or weeping?

The Brigadier was brilliant. I thought the character was a touch too trusting of the Doctor, but Nicholas Courtney oozes charisma. You can't take your eyes off of him.

NOTES

*Why would the Doctor want to find Travers to help him with his TARDIS circuit? How would he know how to fix it?

*And how does the Doctor fix it anyway?

*You have to love the way Vaughn purrs when he says Packer's name.

*Vaughn's costume in the last episode really reminded me of the Twelfth Doctor's outfit.

*How did Watkins's emotion inducer machine work on the Cyber-Planner?

*No Space Adventures? Aww, it would've been perfect on the iconic scene.

*I will forever associate 1960s Who with loud blaring noises. During one episode, there's an alarm for like, five minutes.

*Why don't the Cybermen just invade the planet? What do they need Vaughn for?

*Why are the Cybermen invading 1970s Earth anyway? They're not like the Borg who just want to assimilate everything, they only worry about themselves. They could be trying to save Mondas a la Attack Of The Cybermen, but that's retconning.

*How come no one remembered the 1970s invasion during the 1986 one?

*The recorder's still kicking! The Doctor uses it as a spyglass to examine Vaughn's buildings.

*I loved that moment where the Cyberman showed up on Vaughn's camera.

*Vaughn's monitors are really tiny, aren't they?

*I see 1968 Doctor Who employed the same Skype-esque phones as 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey.

*Why did Watkins invent an emotion inducer for? And what happened to such a fantastic piece of technology?

*I like how the Cybermen sound like the Cybus Cybermen.

*What's Planet 14, I wonder...

BEST QUOTE

"I have masterminded the whole thing, from A to Z!"

CONCLUSION

A memorable invasion tale. Doesn't get close to its Dalek counterpart though. I find it overrated amongst the fandom.

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The Krotons is a crappy rip-off of The Dominators and The Enemy Of The World, without any of their charm. Indeed, it's nothing memorable.

PLOT

The power-deprived Krotons convince the Gonds(a return to this planet during the Matt Smith era would've been funny) that they're their gods. Without any questions, the Gonds(minus that ONE suspicious jerk youngster) have all their info fed to them. That is, until the TARDIS crew shows up...

CHARACTERS

The crew do their usual schtick.

Philip Madoc is deliciously malignant. I'd say irritatingly, but Philip Madoc is gonna rise to villain stardom in a few stories.

The design of the Krotons was vaguely cool, but amateur compared to the Quarks or anything from Season 5.

I kind of liked the acid guy and the old leader, but again, we've seen it all before and done much better. I call it "Goodieshoes vs Jerk Aliens", GJA for short.

NOTES

*What's with the " " at the titles? It's the second story to have those. I thought it was an anomaly for The Invasion, but I guess I was wrong.

CONCLUSION

Troughton's dumbest hits.

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Just when I get primed for Pertwee, of course I have to run into this video...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Xm26StUZVY
WARNING: Troughton rewatch guaranteed.

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The Seeds Of Death is brilliant. It's a gripping story with a sense of scale, a great blend of slapstick comedy and drama, with a moral message(don't put all your eggs into one basket) to boot.

PLOT

In the future(before or after the new Ice Age, who knows?), the Ice Warriors take over Earth's solitary transportation method, the T-Mat, which is controlled via a moonbase. The TARDIS crew arrives on Earth and as usual, hijinks ensue.

I absolutely love it. Not only does it include many trademarks of the Troughton era, it's also incredibly well done(the rocket crossing) and very entertaining, with a cool, almost realistic rendition of the future. The atmosphere is morbid in a good way. But let's get to the best part...

CHARACTERS

Terry Scully is the best guest star on classic Doctor Who so far. His character, Fewsham is both realistic to perfection and an absolute joy to behold. Every neurotic motion, every look on his face reeks of genuine desperation to escape the Ice Warriors... but not with any cost. He's an unforgettable one-off hero.

Patrick Troughton(sideburns are cool) is fantastic, giving one of his best performances of the season. I loved his interactions with Slaar, the Ice Lord(they never mention his rank on-screen btw) and the scenes with Jamie and Zoe inside the rocket.

Jamie and Zoe are relatively underused, but they do get moments to shine here and there. I loved Wendy Padbury cracking up in Episode 6.

Slaar himself is a nice, chilling bad guy whom the story needed as the face of evil. Alan Bennion is awesome. The Ice Warriors themselves though, are the weakest point of the story. To be honest, they're pathetic. Wobbling about, never firing their weapons at the right time, coming up with the most not-failproof plan since the Daleks tried scooping up the Earth's core and driving the planet around. If they were Yeti, I could live with it, but the Martians deserve so much more.

The guy playing the Grand Marshal was just lame. He didn't even try to do an Ice Warrior voice!

The Earth guys range from alright(Radnor and Kelly) to endearing(prof. Eldred).

NOTES

*How did Eldred get the First Doctor's astral map? Did he steal the Time-Space Visualiser too?

*I'm not an expert on fungi, but how exactly does it generate foam?

*Awesome Benny Hill chase.

*Why is everyone so mean to Fewsham? I wouldn't fire my employee if someone pointed a gun at him and forced him to rob a bank.

*The way he saves the day is so satisfying.

*I thought the intro looks really cool(notably, there was one on The Ice Warriors too).

*This is the second story to involve teleportation and see the Doctor travel through space via conventional methods. The first was The Daleks' Master Plan.

*Yay, no more "" on the titles!

*I'm getting really tired of the story just ending after the chaps get back inside the TARDIS. It makes the show feel a bit static, like nothing happens between going in and coming out.

*Finally, some real roundels! What's happened to the walls, it's been all paintings lately?

CONCLUSION

Troughton's greatest hits.

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In the immortal words of Ted Buckland: "It's OVER! It's finally OVER! Oh, the SWEET relief!!!"
Yes, I've just finished watching the last of those horrid slideshow-episodes and am now one step away from Doctor Who in color(and for Flyboy, one step away from UNIT).
But I digress.

The Space Pirates is a mess. It has no idea what it wants to be and seems to go in completely random directions until ending on a complete cliche(done badly): a ticking bomb.

PLOT

Sometime In The Future™, space pirates have begun threatening the Space Corps's navigational beacons, causing one particular spaceship commander, General Hermack to go all Captain Ahab on some space western cowboy called Milo Clancey, who's found out that the pirates are after the precious mineral that the aforementioned beacons are constructed out of and is also after them.

The space pirates' leader, Caven is manipulating the daughter of Clancey's ex-business partner to get the argonite and has secretly kept her father alive in his own study for three years. Also, he and Hermack, employ the Mario Bros. to manage their science-y bits even though Caven is way too lenient for a pirate and Hermack is way too in... com-petent(how he would've spelled it) for an official.

As one of the beacons is broken into pieces, the TARDIS shows up and it's revealed that the argonite is a Time Lord mineral that the Doctor planted during the events of The Seeds Of Death where he off-screen made sure Caven would become a pirate and steal it so he can randomly blow their planet up, but now Hermack is involved. Oh jeez.

Zoe also discovers candles and goes on an existential journey of discovery, realising that she is in fact not the reincarnation of Albert Einstein and also finds out Jamie used to date another girl before her and accuses him of not saying anything.

The Doctor realises that the marble Susan crafted out of the Eye Of Harmony is in fact responsible for his re-looming and possesses the consciousness of the Other so he saves it just in case he ever had to save another Time Lord artifact and use it to stop a bunch of bad guys. But that'd never happen twice in a season, right?

CHARACTERS

I thought they nicely underplayed Troughton's discovery of his Gallifreyan origins. Still, his obvious affection for the Marble of Other came through. What a scene.
Same goes for Jamie, whose relationship issues nicely reflect on the scene where he steals a tuning fork from the Doctor who's just trying to help them escape(that's a pretty Moffaty idea... well, pre-Moffat Moffat's anyway).
Nice skirt, Zoe.

The guest stars range from decent(Caven) to awful(Clancey). His accent was unforgivable, though the actor himself was decent.
I liked Issigri's switch to the good guys and Dervish's inability to do the same. It felt really realistic.

NOTES

*Some of the recon photos are just bad. Caven is smiling like an idiot all the time and Issigri isn't much better. I LOL'd when she had her mouth wide open as Caven revealed his deceptions to her though.

*The incidental music belongs in a much better story than this.

CONCLUSION

It's 1:45 AM and I'm gonna go sleep now.

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Here's the sane edition of the previous review...

I must admit, this was really hard to get through. As with The Invasion, seeing more recons just feels wrong, like re-entering a horrible phase I thought I'd left behind. The fact that The Space Pirates is all over the place doesn't help much either...

PLOT

Sometime In The Future™, space pirates are attacking navigational beacons for a rare mineral, so the Space Corps' patrol, led by the amazingly incompetent General Hermack goes to track them down i.e. blame lazy bum Milo Clancey for all his problems.
Things only... stay pretty much the same when the TARDIS crew gets mixed up with old Clancey for a Wild West-style runaround/space opera/Sherlock Holmes mystery/action thriller.

Believe it or not, it all concludes with Jamie saying: "Oh no, not again!" and everybody laughing.

CHARACTERS

Patrick Troughton is very subdued here. I presume he does his usual slapstick, but the recons don't translate it very well.

Frazer Hines gives an unusually whiny performance as Jamie. Shouldn't he know better than to disbelieve the Doctor's abilities?

The only noteworthy things about Zoe this time is that her skirt length should be elementary for all women and I liked the continuity with her not knowing about candles(someday we need a Doctor Who story that reveals how the 21st century ended up so not-futuristic).

The guest stars are all bad. Hermack is a silly-accented buffoon, Clancey's character is cliche beyond belief and Issigri's headgear has to be seen to be believed.
Caven and Dervish are kind of fun to watch, but that's about it.

NOTES

*The scene where the Doctor has to find the right sound in order to escape a cell is either an outstanding coincidence or Robert Holmes saw The Power Of The Daleks and wanted to give his own little tribute.

*Most of the dialogue in this story is so incomprehensible I'm gonna have to read a transcript before moving on. I think the last time I did that was for The Highlanders.

*Oh great, the quotation marks in the titles are back.

*Very good incidental music. Way too atmospheric for this nonsense.

*I liked the 2001: A Space Odyssey-style depiction of space.

*What pirate would kidnap his associate's father and lock him up for three years just in case he might need leverage? Imagine Jack Sparrow kidnapping Governor Swann and holding him in the bottom of The Black Pearl just in case Elizabeth was gonna turn him in one day!

*Zoe's math looked way too simple for someone projecting space trajectories and so forth.

CONCLUSION

Worthless.

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The War Games is easily one of the best Doctor Who stories ever produced. With an outstanding ten episode-length, it manages to be gripping, epic, fun, intelligent, entertaining and all the other good stuff you can think of. It's a fantastic adventure with a beautifully morbid ending.

PLOT

The TARDIS materializes in what appears to be 1917, the First World War only to discover layers upon layers of conspiracies and alien threats until it becomes just too much for them to handle...

Everything works. Just everything. The direction is the best the series has ever seen, ever. It's imaginative and fast-paced, just what this thing needed. The story has so much variety that despite its' looong length, it hardly gets boring because you constantly see new locations and discover new aspects of the overall scheme of the aliens.
Admittedly, it does lag during the American Civil War bit, but once it goes back in, man, it just never stops going. So awesome.

I might not have mentioned it before, but the whole idea of "war games" is one of my favorites in fiction because it just has so much potential to show how the characters respond to different crises. The "board" gives it claustrophobia/atmosphere and the viewer is almost given a sense of control over events. It works so well and adds so much to every story, including this one.

And of course, the cliffhangers. I, for one, believe that the cliffhanger to Episode 9(the arrival of the Time Lords) is the definitive best of the 1960s, at least. I would've loved to see the peoples' reaction back in the day.

Gallifrey looks kind of weird, but the legend has only just started and I'm cool with that. I really like the steamy set, it's just so alien it fits.
And finally... the regeneration from Troughton to Pertwee. Very odd, I must say, but not disappointing at all.

CHARACTERS

Oh, Patrick Troughton, you genius... he really nails it all. From the depressive feel throughout the story to the indignation towards the Time Lords and the Master(why would anyone question that??) to the odd moments where he still manages to charm our socks off with that giddy grin of his...

Jamie and Zoe don't really change, but did they ever? They still work together with the Doctor as a really lovable family unit and get their moments to shine(refusing to let him run away with them) and their end as companions is quite tragic. It's well written.

I love the way The War Games just stacks villains upon villains. First with the ruthless General Smythe, a monster of a military leader, secondly with the far more intelligent and insidious von Weich, thirdly with the Master(hell yeah!), fourthly with the creepy, slimy Security Chief(A guy I've known for years behaves exactly like he does, apart from the speech) and finally, with the calm, but ambitious War Lord.

They're all so different and so well characterised. But now we must flip the coin...

Although Carstairs and Lady Jennifer are both likably British, the others range from forgettable(Russell, the black "he was only there for an episode so don't call me racist" guy) to embarrassing(Villar). I thought Smythe's mustachioed assistant(the shouty one, not Ransom) was kind of funny.

Bernard Horsfall's a great Time Lord, aloof, but not robotic or heartless.

NOTES

*A final cameo from the recorder(used by the Doctor as a spyglass, just like in The Invasion). Why was it so subdued this season?

*The one real issue I have with the story is that Von Weich is inexplicably both the German commander in the 1917 Zone and the Southern commander in the American Civil War Zone. Couldn't they have gotten another actor for it, it would've made the story hang a lot better(and added even more variety. I told you the Civil War Zone part was boring).

*To be honest, I don't see why the sonic screwdriver became so popular. Operating things with sound... yay?

*How come none of the bad guys have any names whatsoever? We don't even know the name of their race! It's just "Security Chief", "home planet", "the scientist" etc.

*Some of the bad guys' tech is really funny, like the VCR-esque recording device.

*Also, what's with the psychedelic interior design? Doesn't look anything like the usual futuristic stuff. I don't have a problem with it, but what prompted this?

*The force-field used by the Time Lords looks identical to the one in the bad guys' lair.

*Speaking of the force-field, how come both an actual shield and something slowing the characters down AND the time zone barrier are all referred to by the same name?

*Are those Romans wearing T-shirts? Also, why are they randomly charging everything?

*Jamie really is spineless, isn't he? Even I could've done a better job negotiating with Villar!

*I just love that moment in Episode 7 when Smythe turns around and it plays the 1917 theme, it's like a shock return appereance within the same story.

*Nice little continuity references to Dr. John Smith(again, how the heck did the First Doctor inherit the name??) and the tuning fork escape from the last story.

*Troughton's hair is distractingly overgrown in this story.

*Who broke that dial on the TARDIS console in Episode 10? It was fine when the technicians left it.

*This is our first wide look at the TARDIS console room since, like The Web Planet or so. Why didn't we have more of them? I presume the full room is still around. During half of the era, I had the impression that they huddle around the console, surrounded only by fake walls and the door.

*I wonder who of the cast and crew got that planetary model that's been hanging around the TARDIS since the First Doctor days...

*"The controls are moving by themselves!" No, Doctor, it's just one that automatically goes up again. We've seen you use it before.

*How come the console is so dead? In the first episode of the show, it was all alive and lit up, in The Tenth Planet, the levers at least moved, but now it just looks so dead.

*The VidFIRE effect looks stunning. The whole story looks like it's just colored in black-and-white, there's no grain or anything.

*What's the story behind the Master's medallion?

*The Scottish Sock Falsetto Theater sketch on the DVD is hilarious. You have to see it.

*Did you know that the Second Doctor comics included Tenth Planet-era Cybermen on Skis and the Quarks as sentient main baddies, plus his grandchildren John and Gillian?

*The 1917 characters are bizarrely similar to characters from the WWI-set sitcom Blackadder Goes Forth. The Major=Blackadder, Carstairs=Lt. George, Smythe=General Melchett, Ransom=Captain Darling, Lady Jennifer=Bob. Or is it just me?

CONCLUSION

An undeniable classic and vital story in the overall canvas of Doctor Who as it introduces so many elements that later become increasingly important.


So that was the black-and-white era. Phew. Those were six hardcore seasons.
Now to tackle the next 20...

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It's kind of odd reviewing a story before it actually comes out, but seeing as it was supposed to be out a long time ago and no news have been given, I've decided to give this forgotten oddity a look. Devious is a fanfilm in the making since 1999, which focuses on events between the Troughton and Pertwee eras, specifically a forgotten Doctor between(gee, did Moffat see this or what?)

PLOT

Mid-regeneration, the Second Doctor is snatched up by some other Time Lords and becomes the 2.5th Doctor. He has several adventures on a forest planet, involving an emperor and Daleks, a guy called Covellitor, Polly and the Cybermen etc. and lots of people die.
Eventually, he is recaptured and forced to finish his regeneration inside the TARDIS where the spectral form of a frighteningly skeletal Jon Pertwee turns him into the Third Doctor and leads him to land on Earth in the 20th century.

Personally, I prefer season 6b.

CHARACTERS

Most of the cast and crew here are amateurs, with the obvious exception of Jon Pertwee, whose final performance still manages to be strong, despite his age and lack of anybody equal to work with.

Tony Garner is alright(and I really like the look they gave his Doctor) and he does look like a cross between Troughton and Pertwee, but his acting skills need a little refining. There's just an odd forced moment here and there. Still, he's got talent I think.

NOTES

*Why am I doing this, you may ask? Because it was on the DVD and I felt like I had to.

*What in-story reason is there for the Third Doctor to look so old or for the wristband that appears after the regeneration is complete.

*Apparently the Doctor isn't the only Time Lord who feels he has to wear glasses to look cool.

*Why does the Time Lord with the magic feather taunt the Doctor?

*I did like the scene with the TARDIS and the Doctor in limbo. Because limbo's cool. It was atmospheric and well done for what it's worth.

BEST QUOTE

"I demand to know!" God, that's so fake it cracks me up.

CONCLUSION

Meh.


Upcoming Going Through Doctor Who Christmas Special, where we drive into the colorful UNIT era!!

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Final Doctor Who Christmas Tally:

*Series 1 on DVD.
*Tenth Doctor novel.
*Eleventh Doctor novel.

Expect reviews of the latter two.

And now it's time for your present...

[rushy]

Spearhead From Space is a confident introduction to the Third Doctor era and that's about it. It manages to tell us what we'll see ahead and manages to answer the questions left by the previous story. However, besides an iconic scene(the Autons' attack), there's really not much here on its own.

PLOT

The regenerated Doctor lands on Earth and is found and hired by UNIT. Meanwhile, a plastics factory has been taken over by alien plastic that threatens to conquer the planet.

CHARACTERS

Jon Pertwee's introductory scene gave me an unexpected heartbreak - a final scene with the Second Doctor(seriously, it's him). I had no idea that would happen and it was brilliant, I just knew it was the same guy and was okay with him changing into the Third inside. Speaking of which, the cool, classy Third Doctor gets a solid thumbs up from me.

I'm also really excited about the interplay between him and the Brigadier, the two really seem to be rebuilding their working relationship from scratch. I was surprised at how little they trusted each other, even after they began working together.
One thing I didn't like was that the Doctor never explained what actually happened to him.

Liz Shaw is decent, but nothing to write home about. To be honest, I don't really see the point of a companion in an earthbound show. The Third Doctor seems to handle everything just fine.

The villains were also just okay. The Autons were creepy and well done(I was surprised at the maturity - like the blood-spattered windows), but both Channing and Hibbert were dull.

NOTES

*Why does the TARDIS have a metabolism detector on the lock when it has that thing that makes the lock melt if you turn it the wrong way - has he updated his iLock?

*The way they set up Bessie was just shoddy. They should've just had the Brigadier bring in the yellow version in the next story or have the Doctor mention he did.

*What was that wristband the Doctor wore when he stumbled out?

*What happened to the Second Doctor's clothes?

*Considering that the Doctor supposedly doesn't remember how to take off, what was the point of trying? He acted like the Time Lords just changed the password or something.

*1970s London looks like crap. It looked way, way nicer in black and white.

*I do love the early scenes where the Doctor rides the wheelchair, it was hilarious.

BEST QUOTE

"All right, all right, I suppose you want to see my pass. Yes, well, I haven't got one! And I'm not going to tell you my name either! Now you just tell Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart I want to see him! Well, don't just stand there arguing with me, man! Get on with it!"

CONCLUSION

Enjoyable, but too slow and too empty. Works as the introduction and looks visually pretty cinematic, but that's about it.

[rushy]

Last Christmas is the first half-decent Moffat script in a while. However, it's still let down by an awful first act and a horrible mainstream feeling.

PLOT

Alien dream crabs latch themselves on the Doctor, Clara and a bunch of random Londoners and send them into an ever-maddening dreamworld where anything is possible - even Santa Claus.

As I said above, the first half, which tries to convince you that Santa is real(or maybe the opposite - when it's written by the Moff, you can never tell) seems to be catering to an audience, who would actually find jokes like "Your mom and dad bought you presents? Wake up, kid." funny. They're not funny, they're sickeningly smug and self-centered. It's like the story thinks I'm an idiot because I haven't figured out what the story is before it actually tells me.

On the other side, the dreamworld works beyond expectations and I actually enjoyed the sleigh scene at the end. The Old Clara scene was a waste of time, since she ain't leaving.

CHARACTERS

Peter Capaldi did a great job with the subpar material he had to handle - again. It's like watching a Shakespearean actor in Teletubbies. It's sad. But he has his character completely figured out now and the Twelfth Doctor is on fire.

Jenna Coleman was tolerable, which is a big upgrade from last season. I didn't like her blaming the Doctor for her own lies, but the rest was actually pretty good.

For once, the "random Londoners" thing worked out. Everybody felt like real people and it was a joy to watch them interact with one another.

Nick Frost as Santa Claus suffered the worst, as most of his dialogue composed of "in your face, sucka" stuff. He was great in the sleigh scene, though. However, the annoying elves(I swear, every word they said made me want to punch them) were just bad. Pointless and bad.

NOTES

*I'm a moderate fan of My Little Pony, but that's exactly the kind of mainstream joke that disrupts the atmosphere and takes you right out of the story. In a few years, it'll be as dated as The Enemy Of The World's depiction of 2018.

*The title of the Series 9 premiere sounds really cool. I hope it's something unique and not a ripoff of Once Upon A Time.

*It's kind of funny to see the Eleventh Doctor's giant green sonic screwdriver downplayed like that. It's like using a lightsaber just as a welding tool.

*Boy, those lies from last episode were sure resolved fast.

*"Who ya gonna call?!" Nobody thought of the Ghostbusters?

*The Doctor wearing a hoodie... what's he gonna wear next, a bathrobe with Gallifreyan symbols on it? Sure, he looks fine in it, but sometimes, JNT gets it better than you do.

*Who the heck doesn't like tangerines?! I can't get enough of them.

CONCLUSION

A surprisingly decent effort, but only if you can look past its many flaws. Merry Christmas.

[rushy]

Code Of The Krillitanes is a fun, imaginative episode of the Tenth Doctor era disguised as a book. It marks the return of underused bad guys, has some great twists and is overall a lovely story.

PLOT

The Doctor investigates a virus in the internet and uncovers a secret within Brainy Crisps, a new brand of crisps that apparently makes everyone smarter...

CHARACTERS

As far as the Tenth Doctor goes, the author got him down right. I can easily imagine David Tennant delivering most of his lines.

I liked the red herring guy, Henry. Not the usual sort of companion. He doesn't admittedly have much character - or even a last name, but he's good.

The bad guys(who, for some reason, don't recognise the Doctor) are all practically the same, scarily uptight people as they were in their previous story, with Clive being a deceptive exception.

NOTES

*Miss Sark? Is that a Tron reference? The book came out the same year as Tron: Legacy.

*I loved the gentle Super-Krillitanes. They were hilarious.

*Brainy Crisps is such an inappropriate name. It's like when they called the ice cream "the Stuff" in the eponymous horror movie. Usually, they get called Lays or something weird like that.

*Seriously, why hasn't anyone brought the Krillitanes and/or the Skasis Paradigm back? Here's my story pitch: The Krillitanes have solved the Paradigm in their computers and have built a machine to harness its powers since the Paradigm is so complex that none of them can memorise it. They use the machine(which is quickly breaking down) to bring Gallifrey out of the pocket universe so that they can use the power of the Hand of Omega to create a brain that can control the Paradigm more permanently.

CONCLUSION

Nothing too brainy, but worth a one-time read.