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]

Just had to pause Time and the Rani episode 4 because all the malapropisms are genuinely pissing me off.

[Unrumble]

Just had to pause Time and the Rani episode 4 because all the malapropisms are genuinely pissing me off.

Even “time and tide melts the snowman”?!

[Ben Saunders]

Just had to pause Time and the Rani episode 4 because all the malapropisms are genuinely pissing me off.

Even “time and tide melts the snowman”?!

[Nick R]

I think I was about 8 when I was first made aware of Inspector Gadget’s existence. Loved it as a kid.

(From https://bsky.app/profile/geekysteven.com/post/3mqwhxjwwzl2g)

[Ben Saunders]

I loved the first Inspector Gadget movie when I was a young lad. Also this:

[Ben Saunders]

Dr Who inventing slang 40 years early, part two. (The Professor in The Abominable Snowmen says “we’re cooked”).

[Ben Saunders]

Paradise Towers is alright. It feels like it’s actually about something, and the show is actually trying. A little goofy, though. I like Pex, never fails to make me a little sad at the end.

[Technopeasant]

For season 24 you kinda have to accept a little goof.

[Warbodog]

It’s J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise done camp.

[cwickham]

Gutted he never reprised the role of Duggan in Big Finish. Could’ve made him a proper companion like H.G. Wells, Ray or Mags.

ISTR that BF were asked why they hadn’t used him when Chadbon guest-starred as an unrelated character in a Fourth Doctor story, and the answer was rights issues with the Adams estate (and possibly who exactly created Duggan because of City of Death’s complicated authorship)

[Ben Saunders]

Didn’t Adams pinch most of City of Death and Shada for Dirk Gently or something, could have something to do with that.

[Ben Saunders]

Every now and then one of the cameras used to shoot this stuff is in really bad quality, all jaggedy and shit. Sometimes some shots are blurrier than others but I assume that’s because it was zoomed in during post production. The jaggedness however I don’t know. Using one of the special-effects cameras to film normal shots? Just a dodgy camera?

[Ben Saunders]

Google says it might be because I’m watching the extended editions and they had to source lower-quality material to make those up. Can I really be bothered to check the non-extended versions and compare? Not really.

[Professor Flibble]

The extended version of Time and the Rani Part Four on the Season 24 box set has an unused version of the end credits, which is pretty interesting. They repurposed it for the special editions on the Season 25 box set too.

[Ben Saunders]

Different opening credits too, I think, to match the original broadcast which accidentally used a prototype version where the bit with Sylvester’s face looks different.

[Warbodog]

[Professor Flibble]

Different opening credits too, I think, to match the original broadcast which accidentally used a prototype version where the bit with Sylvester’s face looks different.

Oh yeah, that’s also on the normal version of Part Four on both the 2010 DVD and the Season 24 box set. Apparently the VHS version replaced it with the proper version of the opening titles.

[Technopeasant]

That honestly looks half way between McCoy and McGann.

Did Admiral Software know?

[Professor Flibble]

Based on this image, I think.

[Dave]

[Ben Saunders]

McGoynn

[Ben Saunders]

Glitz loses all of his sauce when he’s not being written by Robert Holmes. Watching the interactions between Ace (sixteen) and Sabalom Glitz (age unknown, actor 49) is a little different when cursed with the knowledge that she loses her virginity to him in one of the VNAs. Apparently it’s hinted at in the original script outline and/or novelisation, according to Google.

[cwickham]

Terrance Dicks’ version of The Six Doctors and The Vampire Mutations are to be novelised next year based on newly discovered notes from his archive.

[Technopeasant]

Glitz loses all of his sauce when he’s not being written by Robert Holmes. Watching the interactions between Ace (sixteen) and Sabalom Glitz (age unknown, actor 49) is a little different when cursed with the knowledge that she loses her virginity to him in one of the VNAs. Apparently it’s hinted at in the original script outline and/or novelisation, according to Google.

Sophie Aldred was 25 if it makes you feel even a little better.

[Ben Saunders]

In this scene, a high-pitched noise is heard. Ace asks “what’s that?”, and Harmonica Man says “sounded like an A-flat to me”. But it was actually a C. I hope somebody was fired for this blunder.

[Ben Saunders]

Actually, never mind, I jumped the gun. Harmonica Man did indeed get the note wrong, and the Doctor then asks for a C. What a fool I am! I blame Harmonica Man.

[Technopeasant]

You know you’ve reached the McCoy era when there are actually Black people. Who aren’t Toberman. 

[Ben Saunders]

Hey now, be fair, there were black people in Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, in… unspeaking servitude roles. And also in uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Terror of the Autons, but that was Toberman again.

[Rushy]

There’s a black astronaut in Tenth Planet. 

[Ben Saunders]

I like the black servant lady who gets her revenge in Enemy of the World. There are plenty of Chinese people in Talons of Weng-Chiang, just not in the one role where there really ought to be one. Chinese lady in Mind of Evil too. That one guy in The Mutants.

[Technopeasant]

Hey now, be fair, there were black people in Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp, in… unspeaking servitude roles. And also in uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Terror of the Autons, but that was Toberman again.

If the show ever returns I want a running gag where Toberman is constantly randomly in the background.

[Ben Saunders]

At one point in this interview, Sylvester McCoy claims that JNT intentionally made episodes longer than they needed to be during Seven’s tenure in order to try and convince the BBC to let them air three-parters as four parts. I don’t believe him, because I’ve never heard this anywhere else and I don’t think there’s enough extra material for an entire new episode.

[Rudolph]

Sophie Aldred was 25 if it makes you feel even a little better.

And was Les Dennis’ mistress during her time on the show, to make it worse again.

[Professor Flibble]

Glitz loses all of his sauce when he’s not being written by Robert Holmes. Watching the interactions between Ace (sixteen) and Sabalom Glitz (age unknown, actor 49) is a little different when cursed with the knowledge that she loses her virginity to him in one of the VNAs. Apparently it’s hinted at in the original script outline and/or novelisation, according to Google.

I’ve never really considered any information established by Virgin books, either VNAs or VMAs to be canon, tbh. 

[Technopeasant]

I mean, the TARDIS Wiki considers everything canon, especially what contradicts the other stuff. As such, they can’t even definitively say the Doctor is a Time Lord (and no, I don’t mean the Timeless Child thing).

[Ben Saunders]

Well it’s Word of God really since it was apparently hinted at in the original script/novelisation.

And was Les Dennis’ mistress during her time on the show, to make it worse again.

This doesn’t concern me in the slightest. Her being 25 does make my urge to comment on how incredibly good looking she is more palatable, though.

[Technopeasant]

Were any companions actually played by minors?

[Ben Saunders]

Carol Ann Ford was 23, Maureen O’Brien was 21, Deborah Watling was 19, Wendy Padbury was 20, Nicola Bryant was 23. So out of that sample, no. 

[Technopeasant]

Matthew Waterhouse was 18-19 years old as Adric.

[Author]

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