The Classic Doctor Who Thread (1963 to 1989/1996)

[By Jove its holmes]

Fact of the Day: Tom Baker was the first DW series lead who wasn’t a veteran of the Second World War. He had the mercy of a late birth.

Topic

[Ben Saunders]

The Invasion is phenomenal. It justifies its eight parts somehow and has a terrific performance from Kevin Stoney, and his lackey Peter Halliday. I love the lampshading of the obvious set re-use with the bad guy’s two offices looking identical, and the helicopter-chase-escape they couldn’t afford to film so just describe it in dialogue. I love how horrible it is when they test out the emotion-giver on the Cyberman and it goes insane, screaming off down the sewers. I love the cliffhanger of part seven. “Is this what you wanted? To be the ruler of a dead world?” Stoney’s descent into madness and utter shock at being beaten is glorious. The music is great. It’s well directed. It’s one of the best Classic Who stories, and probably the best Cyberman story. The Tenth Planet isn’t very good, but it gets points for being first. The Moonbase is better, I enjoy it as shlock. Tomb of the Cybermen is also very good. Wheel in Space is drivel. 

[Doomitron]

Give me your cold, mainstream, agreeable takes please.

The TV movie was okay.

[Rushy]

Give me your cold, mainstream, agreeable takes please.

That Pat Troughton, jolly good, isn’t he?

[Technopeasant]

The Moonbase is so-so, but The Invasion is great! Quite frankly I’ve had enough of these blasphemous hot takes. We’re in a heatwave. Give me your cold, mainstream, agreeable takes please.

Speak for yourself, here in Alberta we are having a much appreciated hiatus from torrential rain.

…after about half a decade of drought, but still…

I think Creatures of Beauty was pretty good. I’m jumping around here.

Only BF I have properly heard as the library had it on CD (my brother played me a bit of Eccelston’s first audio play on a car ride once). Remember nothing about it other than Davison sounding like an old man (having been the youngest has drawbacks).

[Nick R]

[Technopeasant]

[Doomitron]

[Technopeasant]

[Ben Saunders]

How it feels trying to understand Arc of Infinity

[Ben Saunders]

Poor Omega. That little bit of humanisation they give him towards the end is enough to make his final death (that’s right folks, he died forever and never came back in any form) just a little tragic.

Nyssa and Tegan are so gay.

[Warbodog]

(that’s right folks, he died forever and never came back in any form)

Omega is going to be behind the Silence and played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

[Doomitron]

I hate Arc of Infinity its a contender for most boring Doctor Who episode of all time for me.

[Ben Saunders]

I hate Arc of Infinity its a contender for most boring Doctor Who episode of all time for me.

The Davison era really leans into the whole “dull and confusing” thing from time to time

[Ben Saunders]

The Doctor shares the audience’s collective reaction to Nyssa’s new outfit.

[tombow]

I’ve got a memory of seeing a 70s British TV sci-fi episode/play in the early 90s. It could have been DW/Blake’s 7 or something similar.

All I can remember is, it was about survivors of a disaster of some sort, and there was a “lord of the flies” style manipulative leader who took over, with a handful of rebels who opposed him. What I remember is a particular scene where the “rebels” were discussing what do to in a dim room, and someone says something like, “maybe he’ll be reasonable, maybe we can work with him” – and a sharp voiced, John Hurt sounding, older man snaps “He’s Hitler. He’s Hitler, and if we don’t stop him now, it will be too late”.

After searching around, I thought it was Survivors, the 1970s pandemic drama – and I’m watching through that now, and there’s a similar plot, and similar scenes where the people opposed to the bad leader meet in secret, but I’ve not heard the line I’m thinking of.

I’m sure it was the same summer (1993) I watched the then-new Girl From Tomorrow/Tomorrow’s End, which confusingly also has a sneaky figure seeming good rising to power, but I think it was 1970s. Survivors was repeated on uk gold and released on VHS that summer apparently, so it was having it’s time, but I’ve not seen the scene yet.

[Warbodog]

Were you were watching it with your grandad or something…?

Genesis of the Daleks is blatantly about Nazis, but it doesn’t outright say “Hitler.”

“If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”

[Unrumble]

“If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”

https://youtu.be/oD25zo_fTPw?si=Yc3FMuOem9ibLD-M&t=27

[Rushy]

 What I remember is a particular scene where the “rebels” were discussing what do to in a dim room, and someone says something like, “maybe he’ll be reasonable, maybe we can work with him” – and a sharp voiced, John Hurt sounding, older man snaps “He’s Hitler. He’s Hitler, and if we don’t stop him now, it will be too late”.
After searching around, I thought it was Survivors, the 1970s pandemic drama 

Survivors series 2 episode 9 has this exchange: 

“It’s a direct threat to his supremacy as leader.”

“That’s insanity.”

“So was Adolf Hitler, insane.”

[Warbodog]

“If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”

[Dave]

Have you ever seen the deleted scene from BTTF3 where he gets executed by Tannen? Dark.

[Technopeasant]

[tombow]

I just remember a dark room with characters sitting on chairs and the John Hurt figure’s warning being the catalyst to make them choose violent action and not compromise. I feel like there may have been a shipwreck element as well?

[Technopeasant]

I read slapstick element and thought “that took a turn”.

[tombow]

yeah… they come up with a plan involving banana peels and strung up buckets of fish..

[Technopeasant]

[tombow]

google thinks it might be 1990 or The Guardians, with 1990 being more likely apparently as it’s been repeated more.

[Ben Saunders]

Currently watching Terminus, just finished episode 3

[Doomitron]

Said it before but I hold firm to the belief S20 is the worst Classic Who season.

[Ben Saunders]

It’s certainly the worst so far. There has been the odd stumble up to this point but now the show is stumbling more than it’s managing to walk.

[Ben Saunders]

As unconvincing as Sarah Sutton is 80% of the time, her goodbye to Tegan is a little bit of a tearjerker, perhaps because she’s crying for real and is no longer acting.

[Ben Saunders]

Enlightenment is fantastic, a real standout. I distinctly remember the first time I saw the cliffhanger to part 2, and being utterly shocked, nearly falling off my seat at how visceral and unexpected it was. This time however it was all I was thinking about for most of the episode so when it finally happened it was a little underwhelming lol. Tegan’s dress is about the most exciting thing in all of Season 20.

[Frank Lewis]

Earthshock is not quite as engaging at 31 as it was at 11, but it’s still enjoyable. Using the fact that Adric’s star for mathematical excellence is made of gold as a weapon against the Cybermen is fantastic Chekhov’s Gun stuff, from one season and two script editors prior. I really like this Cyberman getting stuck in the door shield, and I love how it’s always been obvious that the final shot of episode 3 is just the same shot duplicated three times.

The Earthshock Cyberman design has always been my favorite. Its so charming.

Ditto. My favourite out of all the Cybermen. I’ve got a PDF’d copy of FASA’s Cyberman Sourcebook for their Dr Who RPG, which is excellent.

[Ben Saunders]

There is absolutely no attempt whatsoever made by anybody at any point to make this scene even remotely logical, they all just step on random squares, multiple at a time, basically in a straight line, and never the same ones as the person they’re trying to follow. I like The Five Doctors but surely somebody could have put a little more effort in.

[Warbodog]

[cwickham]

There is absolutely no attempt whatsoever made by anybody at any point to make this scene even remotely logical, they all just step on random squares, multiple at a time, basically in a straight line, and never the same ones as the person they’re trying to follow. I like The Five Doctors but surely somebody could have put a little more effort in.

Anthony Ainley appears to have ad-libbed moving in the pattern of a knight, so I think he deserves some credit for coming up with *something*; the script doesn’t give any indication of what the actors are meant to do.

[Rushy]

I could have sworn at least one of them tried to step in a “pi direction”. That is, third from the left, then first from the left, then fourth from the left… 

[Doomitron]

Never liked the Five Doctors myself, its got S20 disease where its just painfully dull and boring. The gimmick of seeing Pertwee and Troughton come back doesn’t do much for me either.

[Ben Saunders]

Never liked the Five Doctors myself, its got S20 disease where its just painfully dull and boring. The gimmick of seeing Pertwee and Troughton come back doesn’t do much for me either.

The last time I watched it I thought it was embarrassing drivel that should never have been televised. This time, I find myself enjoying it. It is at least very straightforward and moves quickly from set piece to set piece. A real step up from something like Arc of Infinity or Terminus.

[Ben Saunders]

I could have sworn at least one of them tried to step in a “pi direction”. That is, third from the left, then first from the left, then fourth from the left… 

Tegan starts on 3 at least.

[tombow]

Bought the Unearthly Child to Dalek boxset today

[Doomitron]

Bought the Unearthly Child to Dalek boxset today

You mean Unearthly Child to Brink of Destruction boxset?

[Professor Flibble]

You mean The Beginning DVD box set, released 30th January 2006, BBCDVD1882, containing An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction and a 30 minute reconstruction of Marco Polo? 

[MANI506]

Great sketch with Mark Gattis somewhere in the extras.

[Doomitron]

Do my eyes deceive me or did I just see “great” and “Mark Gatiss” used in the same sentence?

[Warbodog]

The League of Gentlemen were great, at least. Even if he was the third best one of the main three.

[Professor Flibble]

Do my eyes deceive me or did I just see “great” and “Mark Gatiss” used in the same sentence?

Those sketches were great tbf. I particularly like The Web of Caves.

[Doomitron]

I’m joking about Gatiss, its mainly because most of the Who episodes he’s written and acted in haven’t been pretty good (I think I only liked Sleep No More, which everyone else didn’t anyway).

[Professor Flibble]

You’d expect him to have done a lot more Hinchcliffe-lite stories given his predilection for horror but he seems to veer more towards doing campy stories celebrating British conservative historical figures

[Rushy]

I really loved Empress of Mars

[Warbodog]

Whenever I think about rewatching Capaldi, too many episodes come to mind that put me off bothering, but Sleep No More isn’t one of them. It seemed fine.

[Author]

Replies