Classic Doctor Who :: (small) feedback request
ok, I've added the different indicators for partial reconstructions (as opposed to full reconstructions) - if you've got a spare minute, could you go take a look and give me some feedback?
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 4]
choosing a rating for The Faceless Ones is so difficult...
I really really want to give it a "Highly Recommended" rating, but it's partially a reconstruction. It's still incredibly tense and incredibly creepy, and really really really good, but it still.... isn't as good as it would have been.
Some of the missing stories I don't mind being missing - The Myth Makers, for example, is not very good.
But The Faceless Ones is such a good story and so so creepy...
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 4]
The next story: The Evil of the Daleks.
This story was supposed to be the last Dalek story ever – Terry Nation wanted to pitch a Dalek spinoff show to American TV statiosn, so this was written to get rid of them.
The daleks would return, of course, but not for 5 years. (prior to this point, there had been at least 1 dalek story every year).
Classic Doctor Who, timing
hmm, I'm either going to have to watch 688 episodes before October, or.... skip ahead for a bit and then jump back
Because I haven't seen the last season of the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and I want to see that before I watch this years season, featuring the 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker)
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 4]
The Evil of the Daleks is surprisingly slow-paced so far.
It's not monotonous, but it is slow.
The reconstruction team went to a lot more effort for this one, too - they've filmed new segments, they've created a cgi version of one of the sets, in order to animate daleks in it... it's quite impressive
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 4]
I actually really liked The Evil of the Daleks, even though it's mostly missing.
I've updated my guide to have a review for this, and also to downgrade The Highlanders to a "maybe" – not because it's bad, but because it's not as good relative to the other episodes I gave a "watch" rating to in this season.
I'm somewhat worried that I've become a little gentler and forgiving on the episodes than I was in the last season, but maybe this season is just better.
☄ 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 4 seasons! That's 169 episodes!
Classic Doctor Who
I think I figured out the reason why most of the early stories start with "The"
It's because, internally, all the scripts were named "Doctor Who and <story name>"
So even though "Tomb of the Cybermen" is a perfectly good title, it would look weird to have a script called "Doctor who and Tomb of the Cybermen", so they put a "The" at the start.
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5]
The Abominable Snowmen was set in the Himalayas, and so was scheduled to be filmed on the Welsh mountain of Snowdon during a snowy period.
But the week before (and the week of) shooting, it didn't snow - it rained. So the outdoor shops are not as snowy as was desired, and the ground was muddy which made filming difficult
Classic Doctor Who, slight annoyance, fanfiction
I'd love to write fanfiction for classic doctor who.... except, I'd have to use the same companions.
For modern Doctors, there are periods of time where they are offscreen and have no companions (for example, after Rose slips into an alternate universe, the Tenth Doctor travels alone for an unspecified amount of time before finally meeting Martha).
[cont]
Classic Doctor Who, slight annoyance, fanfiction
The official novels/audio plays/comics often introduce their own characters, who go on adventures with the Doctor in these in-between times. It means the authors can write their own unique companions and have their own adventures. Fanfiction does this too, of course.
But in the classic series, the companions are always continuous
[cont]
Classic Doctor Who, slight annoyance, fanfiction
For the Second Doctor:
* Ben and Polly are companions from before
* Then, Jamie is introduced
* Then, Ben and Polly leave
* Then Victoria joins
* Then Victoria leaves
* Then Zoe joins
There's no space there for the Doctor to have a writer's own companions, because Jamie is always there!
The only time the 2nd doctor doesn't have Jamie as a companion is in the one story when Ben and Polly are the only companions
Classic Doctor Who, slight annoyance, fanfiction
heck, I just looked at this timeline:
https://www.cabletv.com/blog/doctor-who-timeline/
Aside from the revived series doctors, only the 4th doctor has a gap that you could theoretically use to put your own companions in
Classic Doctor Who (meta)
One thing I worry about with my guide is that my ratings are different to other people's.
Doctor Who fans generally want me to put more things into the "watch" category, whereas people who haven't experienced much Doctor Who generally want me to put less...
(Although, there has been one instance where I put a story into "watch" originally, because of nostalgia, but a fan was like "uhh.... no? That's one of the worst stories" and they were right)
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen]
This.… doesn't make sense?
The yeti are being controlled by The Great Intelligence, which has this really complicated plan:
1. Have the 5 items required to complete the plan.
2. Give one of them to the monestary for safekeeping
3. Set everything else up over centuries, until finally ready for the item from the monestary.
ok, makes sense so far? And they have someone at the monestary who is following their commands, so it should be easy
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen]
wait hold on, I just remembered that there were 2 spheres:
the one that the great intelligence lost in step 4, and one that Jamie stole (unintentinally) at some point.
But the one that was stolen was left in the monastery, why not just get the monk who follows orders to bring it back too?
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Abominable Snowmen]
I finished The Abominable Snowmen. Surprising no-one, my recommendation is "Don't Watch"
Next is The Ice Warriors.
Petty complaint: "Ice Warriors" and "Abominable Snowmen" are concepts that are too close together, mentally, and I keep having to take a moment to figure out which one I'm watching.
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors]
ok, this is getting really obnoxious.
I'm all for not blindly trusting computers, but at one point the Doctor does some maths on some pieces of paper, and is offended that they would double-check his results with a computer.
That's exactly the situation the doctor SHOULD be ok with – because if there's a descrepancy, then we know that either the original maths was wrong, or the computer was wrong, and from there we can fix things.
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Ice Warriors]
(Spoilers below)
Episode 3 cliffhanger:
The Ice Warriors are aiming a gun at Victoria
Ice Warrior 1: we are ready to fire
Episode 4 begins:
Ice Warrior 1: we are ready to fire
Ice Warrior 2: ... not yet.
Wow. What a great cliffhanger. Thanks. /sarcasm
Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (re-rankings)]
I went back through the first 4 seasons, and choosing to re-rank a few of them:
The Reign of Terror :: Yes → Maybe
It's really not that good, and I'm unsure why I ranked it so highly in the first place
The Crusade :: Yes → Maybe
As I was scrolling through the list, I realised that I had forgotten this story even existed - any story that forgettable is not worth a "Yes" (even if it does have one of the best acted scenes from the early show)
Classic Doctor Who :: [an aside (re-rankings)]
I'm still thinking about The Keys of Marinus.
Because in the context of "all stories told"? It's kinda bad. Like.... quite bad.
But it's also the best example of the stories being told in Season 1, so if you said "I can only watch one story from this season", I'd say "The Keys of Marinus", regardless of its many flaws
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 :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World]
@lizardsquid
♥️♥️♥️
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep]
@lizardsquid
You didn't choose this life. It chose you. Watch it.
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → Fury from the Deep]
@lizardsquid "mostly because of the scenes about Victoria leaving the Tardis"
Because it's important for the plot or because you didn't like her? :P
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing]
@lizardsquid it’s p sad that the old episodes are gone imo?
I watched the v old DW on tv and I kinda wish they’d rerun some of it :0
Hmm, perhaps it’s because the interesting ep was played more and wore out faster? I’ll admit I’m not familiar with the medium used to store v old tv shows
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing]
@Doggo the episodes are missing because they were intentionally destroyed, but a few of them have been recovered from behind bookshelves and from broadcasters outside the UK
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing]
@lizardsquid oooh, that’s like weird. Why were they distroyes if it’s ok to ask?
Like. The concept of destroying old videos like that is bizzar to me. Unless it’s just random vandalism not something purposefully tagated
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes musing]
@Doggo so the cameras at the time recorded onto tape, rather than film.
And tape is super expensive.... but you CAN erase a tape, and then record something else instead.
When Doctor Who started, pre-recorded TV was a really new idea – almost every single broadcast before then was done completely live, so the idea of re-runs didn't exist.
(continued...)
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes]
@Doggo Doctor Who tapes were only used twice:
1) for the BBC broadcast
2) to be transferred onto film for selling internationally.
After that, they were marked as "safe to erase", so they could use them for other shows.
So we still had film copies of the episodes… But the film storage areas had very very little space, and since archiving of programs was not yet a thing, a lot of film was destroyed to make space for newer (and more profitable) shows.
Classic Doctor Who :: [missing episodes]
@Doggo so we ended up with 2 departments: the tape department, which didn't want to keep anything (for money reasons), and the film department, which didn't want to keep anything (for storage reasons)
And no obligation for archival existed at the BBC (until 1978)
Classic Doctor Who :: [Season 5 → The Enemy of the World]
@lizardsquid
And partly in Australia iirc
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