Doctor Who — Page 38

Finished up 'Spearhead from space' pretty quick. I'm inserting it into my all time top 5 Doctor Who stories. The production values look fantastic and the editing and pacing is very polished, probably the best the show has ever looked (Including since the come back).

The Blu-Ray is going on my Amazon wishlist for future purchase...

...as the image quality looks very nice:

Onto 'Terror of the Autons' next.

'Terror of the Autons' was fun but flawed. The Master lays a series of schemes within schemes and traps within traps for The Doctor like a blueprint for the Batman/Joker tussle in TDK.

Having read a lot of Sherlock, I most enjoyed the three way Holmes/Watson/Moriaty dynamic that the writers had deliberately developed for The Doctor/The Brigadier/The Master in episode 3. And the seeing the first scenes between The Doctor and The Master was great. The Doctor's almost petulant irritation when The Master is first mentioned by a third Timelord was lovely. I like moments when we are reminded that despite the character's and the actor's age he is something of a rebellious teenager in Timelord terms. At one point when things aren't going his way Pertwee remarks...

"What's wrong with being childish... I like being childish"

...and has a bit of a sulk. It's one of the unique things about the character.

Onto the bad. New companion Joe is very weak and flimsy here and in a funny scene The Doctor tries to have her fired from UNIT. She obviously gets more serious later on, as she seemed totally different to the Joe from the later 'Sea Devils' and 'Day of the Daleks' serials. But the worst thing is the experimental Chroma-Key video effects. They are so bad that at times they don't just look unrealistic, they verge on the psychedelic. They are used in almost every scene, even when they don't need to be to create 'virtual sets'. I'm not sure if this is down to limited budget, an air of free experimentation of just not giving a shit. I supect it's a little of all three but whatever the reason, it's very strange. Hopefully it doesn't get used this often in many other Pertwee shows.

^ This looks pretty bad as a still (And this is one of the better shots) but in motion when the foreground and background are moving slighty out of time it's something else. And finally the ending is awful as after the thrilling cat-and-mouse games run out of steam The Master just gives in after one sentence from The Doctor. Still overall a good four episodes.

Time for some Peter Davison and Tom Baker before I watch more Pertwee I think.

Bingowings said:

Watch The Clangers instead I love nature programs.

Yes, that bit was awesome LMAO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOK1YdWalOw

Watched the brief two episode 'The King's Demons' from Peter Davison's Doctor. I used to have this in my VHS collection but unlike most of the others, I hadn't seen it in years. The production values were excellent with exciting jousting scenes and quality costumes and sets evoking medieval England.

I'd clear forgotten that it serves as the prelude to the 'Five Doctors' special and could be watched together with that as one extended Doctor vs Master story (Although the android 'Kamelion' is strangely absent from the 2nd story despite being aboard the TARDIS during the entire special).

It was great to see another duel between the two foes so soon after the one in 'The Sea Devils' with two different actors playing the parts.

I read in a magazine back in the day that the person who built the Kamelion prop had sadly died in an accident. It was a very complex mechanism for it's time. (Like a Disney audio animatronic figure.) Nobody else knew how to work it properly, and the prop frequently malfunctioned. All of this contributed to Kamelion's short time as the Doctor's second robot companion.

Maybe the new series will resurrect him someday?

News to me. Doesn't every franchise have a curse though?

When they bring The Master back I wonder if it will be Simm. If not I was thinking who would work well up against Capaldi. Going Route1 with it, perhaps somebody from 'The Thick Of It' like Roger Allam who is brilliant in everything.

He's got a decent international profile thanks to small parts in Game Of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean and V for Vendetta.

Continuing the watch through of Delgado vs Pertwee serials, I've finished 'Colony In Space'. It was fantastic not-stop thrilling entertainment with plot-twist after plot-twist across an epic 2.5 hours. I enjoyed the heavy political overtones provided by a giant unfeeling Mining Corporation's employees being so evil they make The Master (With his new plan of universal genocide (A plan that The Doctor is tempted to go along with btw!)) seem mild in comparison. It's the old western story of cowboys and Indians versus corrupt rail Barons transposed to space. Occasionally the plot relied on contrivance to satisfy the episodic structure but overall the 1st class writing was what set this serial apart.

The best thing was Bernard Kay's character, Caldwell. A basically decent guy who is on the wrong side. You really felt for him everytime he was forced to do something against his nature and rooted for him when helped the good guys in some small way. It was a rollercoaster performance that left me with a lump in my throat when Caldwell thinks he's caused the deaths of a whole group of people (It was all written on his face).

I also greatly enjoyed Pertwee busting his 'Venusian Aikido' moves at least twice in each episode.

"Hiii!"

Rented a couple of Dalek serials this week.

First was 'Death to the Daleks' with Pertwee's Doctor again. Some beautiful atmospheric location photography (With a nice alienish colour grade).

The setup was interesting focusing on an abandoneed power-draining techno-city. This causes the Tardis to have a blackout and The Daleks' rayguns to malfunction. Resulting in a funny moment when they issue their usual Dalek threats and suddenly find that the humans aren't at all scared and have no intention to "Obey!".

The Doctor and his new little friend Bellal (A great character) have to solve a series of puzzles including this boobytrapped floor...

...which had me wondering if the later "Easy as Pi" scene from 'The Five Doctors' was a homage to it...

Looks like The Enemy of the World and An Adventure in Space and Time have been out in Canada for a while, and Ebay prices are insane. When the heck do we American fans get to buy them?

SilverWook said:

Looks like The Enemy of the World and An Adventure in Space and Time have been out in Canada for a while, and Ebay prices are insane. When the heck do we American fans get to buy them?

 It's karmic payback for all the amazing 'Criterion Collection' DVDs/Blu-Rays being US region-locked and triple the price of other releases here in the UK ;-)

I suggest finding the container ship with all the imported BBC DVDs on and tipping them into Boston Harbour.

Criterion titles have always been more expensive. You should have seen their Laserdisc catalog. ;)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/Peter-Capaldi-Doctor-Who-Costume-Revealed-

Costume looks very good (I like the silk jacket lining in 'Pertwee red') but the photo is awful. It's badly lit and very awkwardly posed... sack the photographer but retain the services of the costumier. It has a slighly militaristic dress-uniform vibe to my eyes, with the navy blue frock coat and highly polished boots.

I hope they do the 'dressing up box' scene (They usually do) as it's always a lot of fun.