Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors]
It's been a week since I watched any Doctor Who, and tbh taking a break was a good idea, if unintentional.
I both love and hate The Ice Warriors. I love it because it's well done, but I hate it because it's constant moralising is grating.
I gave it a "maybe" in my recommendations: https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/#season-5
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear]
They brought the yeti back for this story, which at first I was dubious about, but I'm liking it so far.
It's set in the London Underground, after the yeti menace has forced london to be evacutated. I love apocalyptic stuff that's centred around a train network – Metro 2033, Ghost Lines...
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Web of Fear]
The cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 could have been better, if they just cut the episode 3 seconds earlier:
The doctor is nearing some explosives, when someone presses the button to detonate.
They could have cut here, but they didn't – they cut after the explosives fail to go off properly and the Doctor is mearly knocked aside.
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing]
Something I've noticed is this: when a doctor who story is missing all but 1 episode, the surviving episode is often the most boring one.
The evil of the Daleks only has episode 2 remaining, which is mostly faffing about with a side character, and only features the Daleks in the last few seconds.
Until 2013, only one episode of The enemy of the world survived, and that was the episode with a bunch of unnecessary filler
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep]
I'm only just starting the third episode and I can tell you that this one sucks and really isn't worth watching.
I'd skip it, but I know I'd look back in a few months when I've finished watching through and be like "why did I skip those 4 episodes... I can't say I've watched every episode for the guide if I skip 4"
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep]
It took me 4 days, but I managed to get through Fury from the Deep. I'm glad I did (mostly because of the scenes about Victoria leaving the Tardis) but it still is absolutely NOT worth watching.
On a more positive note: I updated some subtle stylistic things on the page: https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/
The next story is: The Wheel in Space
I'm excited for this one, but 5 of the 6 episodes are missing so idk how enjoyable it will be
☄ Classic Doctor Who ☄
====================
Want to watch Classic Doctor Who, but don't want to slog through the boring episodes?
Check out my guide!
https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/
Now with updated recommendations for the first 5 seasons! That's 209 episodes!
Classic Doctor Who :: [ meta ]
"How long did it take you to watch each season so far?"
Season 1 — 17 days
Season 2 — 18 days
Season 3 — 29 days
Season 4 — 39 days
Season 5 — 35 days
Seasons 3, 4, and 5 were hit the worst by the missing episodes, which is why they took so much longer to watch (the reconstructions truly are a slog, and I honestly can't recommend very many of them).
Classic Doctor Who :: [ meta ]
In the next season, only 2 of the 7 stories are missing episodes, so I should get through it faster.
And the seasons after that?
Well, they stopped making ~43 episodes a season, and reduced it down to ~25
Additionally, from Season 7 onwards, there are no more missing episodes.
So these timings will most likely get shorter
Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ]
The Dominators gets a "maybe" from me – it's not awful, but also it's not great.
A tangent: The Dominators is better than The Keys of Marinus, which I gave a "Highly Recommended" rating. I consider "Highly Recommended" to answer the question "if you only watch 1 story from this season, which should you watch?", rather than say which story is the best.
Next up: The Mind Robber, which is a story I know I've seen but I remember nothing about it.
Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ]
In the second episode of the Mind Robbers, they had to add a scene at the last minute – the actor for Jamie was ill, and so they replaced him with a different actor. But they needed to explain why his face changed between episodes.
Luckily, the story is already set in a weird hallucinatory reality, so it's relatively easy to explain.
Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ]
Aside: I've stopped putting the story name in the CW, because the Content Warning was getting too long. If this site was structured more like Tumblr, where the posts are rather wide, then I'd definitely make the post title the full thing, but this UI isn't wide enough
Classic Doctor Who :: [ Season 6 ]
I'm not enjoying this season as much as I hoped I would...
If I had skipped the reconstructions, I probably would be enjoying it more, but now? It's starting to feel formulaic.
Interestingly, this matches opinion of the time – none of this season is particulary bad, it's just starting to feel same-y
💫 Classic Doctor Who 💫
====================
Want to watch Classic Doctor Who, but don't want to slog through the boring episodes?
Check out my guide!
https://averylychee.neocities.org/doctor-who/
Now with recommendations for all the first and second doctor stories!
Doctor Who | Season 7
I'm 3 stories in to season 7, and while I really like Petwee's Doctor, and the Brigadier, and liz shaw, and the concepts behind the stories...
they're really way too long and slow paced.
Spearhead from Space was great, but both The Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death are 7 episode stories that really should only be 4 episodes.
It took until Season 12 for them to realise that 4 episode stories worked much better
Doctor Who | Season 7
a 4 episode story is 1.5 hours total, which is a reasonable amount.
A 6 episode story is 2 hours and 24 minutes, so it's already longer than a feature film.
A 7 episode story is nearly 3 hours long.
Doctor Who | Season 7
I finished Season 7!
Inferno was much better than I remember it being, but still felt one episode too long.
I really enjoyed the parallel universe stuff this time around.
Thankfully: no stories after Inferno are this long (unless you count trial of a timelord as 1 story instead of 4)
We're now up to the danger zone: the last time I tried to watch through the classic series, this is where I stopped.
Doctor Who | Erasure
In the early seasons, the theme music (and much of the stock incidental music) was arranged by Delia Derbyshire.
But because Ron Grainer composed the main melody, she was not allowed to get co-writer credit "just" for coming up with the iconic sounds.
So she remained uncredited for her work on the theme until the 50th Anniversary episode.
Doctor Who | Season 8
There's so much more violence in the classic stories – in one scene from "The Mind of Evil", UNIT attacks a castle prison that's been taken over by convicted criminals.
There are 15 onscreen deaths from the firefight, and it's implied that there are more off screen.
You'd be hard pressed to find a scene in the modern series that contains more than 5 deaths*.
*that aren't like... something explodes and kills everyone
Classic Doctor Who
The BBC just released this amazing trailer:
Doctor Who | Season 7
@lizardsquid
Maybe I like these seasons so much because I spent so much effing time with the characters :p
Doctor Who | Season 7
@DialMforMara As far as I remember, I like the seasons after this one!
But this season just drags on way too much.
(Also, wouldn't we be spending basically the same amount of time with the characters if we had five 4-episode stories instead of three 7-episode stories?)
Doctor Who | Season 7
@lizardsquid I dunno, but out of all the Doctors, years after I watched any of the show, I’m most attached to Two and Three, and they had most of the 6-parters
(Also to Eight, but that’s more because he’s the handsomest of the old guard)
Doctor Who | Season 8
@lizardsquid
Ehehehe
re: Doctor Who | Season 8
re: Doctor Who | Season 8
@stjohn sure!
Doctor Who | Season 8
@lizardsquid But not racist (yet)? That'd be good at least...
Doctor Who | Season 8
@lizardsquid which story? He's in all of them this season
Doctor Who | Season 8
@DialMforMara The Colony in Space
Doctor Who | Season 8
@lizardsquid
Yeah, he really doesn't add to that one. He's really good in the others that season though.
Doctor Who | Season 8
@lizardsquid I agree that it's the least good story in that season
But that season as a whole is probably my favorite
Doctor Who | Season 8
@DialMforMara I definitely agree so far!
re: Doctor Who | Season 7
@lizardsquid
Season 8 might just be my favorite because it is the absolute shippiest thing. I hope it's kinder to you this time around.
re: Doctor Who | Season 7
@DialMforMara oh, it will be – I love season 8.
I stopped after watching Inferno last time, because the poor pacing of Season 7 was just driving me insane
Doctor Who | Season 7
The Ambassador's of Death is really a good example of why you shouldn't make a story that long – for example, there's a whole plotline where, after Liz is captured, she attempts an escape, only to be caught and re-captured just before she can get back to the Doctor.
And the story spends at least 5 minutes on these scenes, which do not progress the story at all – the situation at the end of the scenes is exactly the same as what it was at the start.