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

[Warbodog]

She’s never been interesting.

You brought her up!

[Professor Flibble]

I just saw Frontier in Space for the first time and really enjoyed it. I’ve always had a bias against Pertwee due to my family hating him and me being expected to follow suit. But he comes across as really kind in this story, and in what I remember of his last two series in general. I have a whole new appreciation of his interpretation of the character.

He’s excellent, my only issues have been how much the exile dragged on through his era and the once or twice he acts like an arsehole (namely The Dæmons and The Sea Devils).

Frontier in Space is one I’ve always liked (I mean I like practically all of Classic Who) though it does suffer from the capture and escape thing. But then it makes good use of that for worldbuilding

[Doomitron]

Hiding under the table as I was meant to be in bed. When I got caught I said ‘what IS that?’ while pointing at the TV. My mum said ‘that’s Doctor Who’ and I said ‘oh, like the knock knock joke!’ and my tiny twenty year old mind was blown.

You were twenty and had a curfew?

[Spaceworm Jim]

I laughed at this. What did he do to earn your family’s ire?

I don’t actually know, there was a family rule that he was just Not The Doctor. My grandparents, uncles and aunties, cousins. It lasts to this day with my parents although my brother, two cousins and now me have rebelled and think he’s actually quite wonderful.

My dad is also adamant that Jodie Whittaker isn’t the Doctor either but that’s explicitly down to his sexism. ‘The Doctor needs to be eccentric and women can’t be eccentric.’

[Ben Saunders]

You were twenty and had a curfew?

Spaceworm Jim watching Planet of the Daleks at 20 years old:

[Spaceworm Jim]

Hiding under the table as I was meant to be in bed. When I got caught I said ‘what IS that?’ while pointing at the TV. My mum said ‘that’s Doctor Who’ and I said ‘oh, like the knock knock joke!’ and my tiny twenty year old mind was blown.

You were twenty and had a curfew?

I’m so happy I got away with that one. I was five, to be honest.

[Professor Flibble]

You brought her up!

True, but it’s the difference between her opinions and how she acts on them. Maybe. Oh idk, I just want to voice how how much she pisses me off.

[Spaceworm Jim]

Spaceworm Jim watching Planet of the Daleks at 20 years old:

Loved this, by the way.

[tombow]

Sandifer on Dwarf Pop Between Realities, Home in Time for Tea 44 (Red Dwarf, Discworld) – Eruditorum Press

[Technopeasant]

 I laughed at this. What did he do to earn your family’s ire?

If it was Troughton I’d have guessed it was… being his father.

[Unrumble]

I like Sandifer’s blog but I haven’t read it for a while. She’s always come across as dead pompous though, yeah. Her  book on They Might Be Giants was a bit of a wasted opportunity. 

[Unrumble]

I laughed at this. What did he do to earn your family’s ire?

I don’t actually know, there was a family rule that he was just Not The Doctor. My grandparents, uncles and aunties, cousins. It lasts to this day with my parents although my brother, two cousins and now me have rebelled and think he’s actually quite wonderful.

[tombow]

[Rushy]

It’s quite surprising how many wanted to polish the Second Doctor’s recorder

[Ian Symes]

My mother-in-law despises Jon Pertwee too. And Paul McCartney, but that’s because she picked her side in the Beatles vs Monkees debate as a young girl, and has stuck to her guns.

[Ben Saunders]

Now I’m not a teenage girl living in the 60s (or a Mars Bar, but I do live in Scotland), but I think it’s obvious which of those two came out on top in the end.

[Ben Saunders]

I hate how the descriptions on iPlayer are more often than not a description of the cliffhanger/end of the episode. I would like to watch the episodes to find out what happens actually

[Ian Symes]

[Dave]

[Ben Saunders]

Whoa, spoilers!

Before I react to those two examples and comment on them having been changed, I’m afraid I first must ask if they are real or not. Queeg one seems like it could be, Back to Reality one not so much

[Ian Symes]

[Ben Saunders]

[Unrumble]

I hate how the descriptions on iPlayer are more often than not a description of the cliffhanger/end of the episode. I would like to watch the episodes to find out what happens actually

Maybe they feel the need to compensate for the sometimes seemingly random choices of mundane thumbnails… despite the fact they have chosen them!

[Technopeasant]

Now I’m not a teenage girl living in the 60s (or a Mars Bar, but I do live in Scotland), but I think it’s obvious which of those two came out on top in the end.

The Beach Boys, or so I’ve been told.

…

[tombow]

[Professor Flibble]

Wish Back to Earth was in its 3 part version on iPlayer, or at least that the option was included 

[Professor Flibble]

I mean, it’s not literally saying it but come on

Also, *the* Kiv?

[Doomitron]

I don’t see the issue that’s fairly vague on its own, unless the next parts have Mel in the thumbnails.

[Professor Flibble]

I don’t see the issue that’s fairly vague on its own, unless the next parts have Mel in the thumbnails.

Tbf they don’t but in the context of the story, it’s a bit risky.

[Warbodog]

Another perk of dodgy streaming sites where you only get an episode title and a stock background, ideally representing a different version of a show from 20 years later.

[Ben Saunders]

My name… is Mmmmaaaaxxxxxxx

[Ben Saunders]

Exasparated Mark Kermode voice: That’s Daleks: Invasion Earth!!

The Davison era is littered with extremely unconvincing actors, including that guy ↑

I like this shot.

What a curious little story Frontios is. Funny that Bidmead’s obsession with the TARDIS is shared by the Tractators. I always really liked the Frontios worldbuilding stuff before the Tractators got involved really. Davison finally figures out how to play the part here. Strange that the Doctor never really does the whole “I can’t be seen to interfere” thing in other stories, I assume he does it now because Frontios is a very fragile/important moment in time, but we’ve seen from previous stories (The War Games, The Three/Five Doctors) that the Time Lords already know what he’s up to anyway. 

[Technopeasant]

I mean, it’s not literally saying it but come on

It doesn’t say she runs off with Brian Blessed, no. That’s the devastating result surely?

[tombow]

I’m reading John Higgs book after grabbing it in the library today. Tom Baker had a more unusual life than I was expecting.

[Ben Saunders]

[Technopeasant]

I’m reading John Higgs book after grabbing it in the library today. Tom Baker had a more unusual life than I was expecting.

The interview they did with him on one of the recent Blurays is truly fascinating.

[Ben Saunders]

Resurrection of the Daleks… a “good” story, maybe. One of the Classic Who’s I’ve watched the most, on account of it having the Daleks in it. It has its moments of tight, intelligent, engaging action, but it’s also bloated and gratuitous and has its share of plot holes. I like the Doctor going to kill Davros, I like the stuttering Dalek agent, I like Tegan’s final scene. Some of the action, like a large chunk of it since JNT took over, is pretty pony. People/Daleks stand in line waiting to get shot at.

It really isn’t what Doctor Who is about. Earthshock was a good one-off, trying to recreate it twice in one year was a mistake. Saward’s writing is genuinely effective in places but completely off the rails in others. Lytton murdering the last remaining Dalek agent in cold blood is especially unnecessary. Davros being killed by the Dalek virus is great stuff, though. He has become so much like his creations that even the virus can’t tell them apart. I like the intercontinuity of the Movellan stuff being the impetus for this story, they don’t really do that a lot on Doctor Who. But then they go on to make Attack of the Cybermen where the continuity eats itself and the whole thing is a mess. I like dropping “destiny of the Daleks” into dialogue, that’s fun. All the stuff with the duplicates and the Time Lords is nonsense. When did they find time to make duplicates of Tegan and Turlough?

The Dalek civil war stuff is pretty fun.

Please enjoy this other iconic role from Rodney Bewes that I now can’t stop thinking about while watching Resurrection (homophobic slur warning):

[Ben Saunders]

An excellent choice of thumbnail for Planet of Fire:

[Ben Saunders]

I love Peri, but man oh man is that accent diabolical. It’s worse than I remember!

[Ben Saunders]

The opening/closing credits on Planet of Fire are noticeably low quality, the end credits to Part One even have some pitch bending going on, but the rest of the episode looks absolutely fine. What the fuck?

[Doomitron]

I love Peri, but man oh man is that accent diabolical. It’s worse than I remember!

Maybe I’m brain rotted but I swear it improves overtime, Planet of Fire is where its at its worse.

[Professor Flibble]

Vengeance on Varos’ cliffhanger is where I notice it the most 

[Renegade Rob]

I love Peri, but man oh man is that accent diabolical. It’s worse than I remember!

[Technopeasant]

Earthshock was a good one-off, trying to recreate it twice in one year was a mistake.

And then they do it again in 22 and especially 25.

[tombow]

I’m wondering now, has anyone ever figured out a coherent future timeline of humanity and Earth based on what we see in future set episodes? 

[Technopeasant]

I think they try on the TARDIS Wiki.

Though they consider literally everything canon.

[Warbodog]

[Renegade Rob]

I’m wondering now, has anyone ever figured out a coherent future timeline of humanity and Earth based on what we see in future set episodes? 

I always thought it was either implied or outright stated that due to the infinite temporal flux, all points in time except for major historical events were being acted upon in real time as a living present and were subject to constant change, so I don’t think the future timeline of humanity as depicted in the show was a linear set of points. Are future-set stories canon? Sure, whatever that means for Doctor Who. But are they all canon to each other? That’s a different story. I’m not sure the Moon of “The Moonbase” exists on the same timeline as “Smith and Jones” or “Kill the Moon.” It might, or it might not. And whether those timelines are split or overriding each other, and whether or not the earlier timelines are still accessible by time travel, those are up for interpretation, though I tend to think they are, if you think of time not as a single linear “vortex” tube but the “web” or “ball” as it’s sometime’s been described. 

[tombow]

that’s pretty much was I was imagining ↑

[Technopeasant]

The deeper question is why the Doctor kept meeting the Brigadier in linear order.

[Author]

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