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.
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:
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Now with recommendations for the first 8 seasons!
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
The copy of Day of the Daleks that I have advertises itself as having new special effects and new dalek voices.
I was initially very concerned about the replacement of the dalek voices, but then... I heard the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4E8eI-6YM
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
(and here is the new voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxgTuhMxk14 )
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
And "Day of the Daleks" gets a Highly Recommended rating from me!
I had to remind myself that "Highly Recommended" doesn't mean "the best story of the season", it means "if you only watch one story in this season, this is the story to watch".
(Of course, now there are a couple of seasons with multiple highly recommended stories, so that idea kind of breaks down a bit... hmm)
Classic Doctor Who | The way I'm thinking about things
By default, every story gets a "Maybe" recommendation.
If it's not very good at all, then I downgrade it to "Don't watch".
If it exceeds my expectations, then it gets upgraded to "Watch".
If it exceeds my expectations AND the answer to the question "If I only watch one story from this season, should I watch this one?" is yes, then it gets upgraded to "Highly Recommended"
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
I'm really enjoying that the stories have gaps between them now.
They've moved away from what the early episodes did ("We have to show every moment!"), and are letting there be spaces of time that aren't shown, where the Doctor and companions could be doing all sorts of things
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
a "problem" for my guide:
Seasons 8 and 9 have been so much more watchable than Seasons 1–7, which means there are more recommendations for these stories.
Perhaps I need to increase my standards, to make sure I don't end up recommending basically everything from the 3rd and 4th doctor...?
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9
My favourite scene from this story was definitely this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-dXZePMOX4
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Mutants (spoilers!)
Hooray!
Cotton, the Black Character™, ends up in charge of the Sky base, and aims to do the right things and leave the native people alone.
That's much better than the previous stories with black characters, who are often the first to die.
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | The Three Doctors
The Three Doctors is so good. It's a great story in general, but it's also a great season opener and a great anniversary story.
The major conceit is that there's a problem so big that the timelords have crossed the Doctor's timelines together, so the first 3 Doctors can help out.
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | The Three Doctors
I do wonder what the scripts would have been like, if William Hartnell had been healthy enough to participate more.
(As his health had degraded significantly in the 6 years since he left the role, he was only able to sit in a chair and read a few lines for the story, he wasn't able to be active or remember too much of a script)
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 (death mention)
Yesterday, I watched Carnival of Monsters – it's fun, but it feels like it should do something more with the political plotline.
Today I'm going to watch Frontier in Space, which is the last story to feature Roger Delgado as the Master before his unfortunate death in an accident. He was intended to show up one last time in the next season, but this never came to be.
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | Frontier in Space
The Draconians are really cool aliens – they have a lot of political flexibility, unlike a lot of other non-human-shaped aliens.
My only frustration is that I was starting to headcannon them as a single gendered species, until suddenly one of them was pointlessly sexist.
Classic Doctor Who | Meta
Thinking back over Season 9, and I'm probably going to downgrade The Time Monster to a "maybe", because thinking back on it in retrospect I'm realising that it was a confused mess and lots of things didn't make much sense or were boring.
Like the Master summoning someone from atlantis to help him control Kronos, and then immediately revealing that he can already control Kronos....
Or the Doctor creating a time interference device from some cutlery and a wine bottle...
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | Planet of the Daleks
I finished Planet of the Daleks (after taking a couple of weeks off, I guess?)
I'm probably going to just give this a Maybe. It's fine, but I'm just kind of sick of 6 episode long dalek stories where the middle episodes feel like padding. This story definitely could have been told in 4 episodes, and it would have been much better.
Plus, they wouldn't have abandoned a few plotpoints partway through.
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | The Green Death
ah, what a lovely vacation to Metebelis III
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10
And that's the end of Season 10.
This season had THREE highly recommended stories. That's a lot!
Jo is almost definitely one of my favourite companions of the Doctor (and I actually have Katy Manning's signature, somewhere)
I'm excited for next season, though, as it introduces Sarah Jane Smith, a companion who I haven't seen any episodes of for years...
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Now with recommendations for 10 entire seasons!
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Mutants (spoilers!)
@lizardsquid oooh! I don’t remember that ep, but awesome! :D
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Mutants (spoilers!)
@lizardsquid hooray indeed
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Time Monster
@lizardsquid brace yourself, there'll be two Loch Ness Monsters
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Time Monster
@lizardsquid Well they kept sinking.
Classic Doctor Who | Some stats
@lizardsquid You must have started recommending a lot more of them.
(I know you recommended everything from last season, but...)
Classic Doctor Who | Some stats
@BatElite yeah, my recommendation rate before the third doctor was around 40%
Classic Doctor Who | Season 10 | Frontier in Space
@lizardsquid
Oh yeah, the dragon people
@lizardsquid The pace really did pick up after season 4, hasn't it?
@BatElite there's half as many episodes per season, and the stories are really good, and none of them are missing bits
Classic Doctor Who | Season 9 | The Time Monster
*starts watching The Time Monster*
Atlantis!
...again!?!?
this is the 3rd Atlantis!