Last Who You Watched

I will certainly look for those as soon as I can - plus the `Faceless One's` if that one exists. I thoroughly enjoyed the two episodes on the `Lost in Time` set. `Evil of the Daleks` is another on audio I hope to get too! I believe both the Beatles and Seekers can be heard in episode one via background Juke Box Music!

Speaking of background music! One of the differences between the VHS and DVD releases of `Spearhead from Space` is the bit of music in the doll factory assembly scene! The VHS release had to omit "Oh Well" (Fleetwood Mac) but the DVD special now has it on the scene.

alanultron5 wrote:I will certainly look for those as soon as I can - plus the `Faceless One's` if that one exists.

It does. Every single missing episode has been released on CD!

That's good to know! Thanks Tony! If I don't find them at my local HMV store- I can try E.Bay. First, though, i'm after a few DVD's mostly Troughton/Pertwee era! "War Games" "Seeds of Death" "Claws of Axos" (The only story of Season 8 I really enjoy) "Three Doctors" "Green Death" and "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" My most wanted of course is `Ambassadors of Death` but 2 Entertain have yet to bring that one out!

There's a UNIT box set scheduled for release next year, but I have no idea what's in it. The early indications are that at least one story is a Tom baker (which would logically mean either Terror of the Zygons or The Android Invasion) but I can't believe they'd release a UNIT set without a Pertwee, so maybe Ambassadors will be in that.

As far as I know Tony, there is still colour restoration treatment ongoing on `Ambassadors` I might be wrong but are boxed sets of episodes only released `after` the individual stories have been on release? I could be very wrong there-but that's what I thought how they did things!

`The Krotons` is another yet to see DVD release.

No, several of the box sets are of stories which have had no individual UK release. I suspect they bolster sales of a story expected to perform less well by partnering it with a more highly anticipated one. Some of the box sets have been pretty randon; the Myths & Legends box set, for instance, contains The Time Monster, Underworld and The Horns of Nimon, while the most recent one was Earth Story, which included The Gunfighters and The Awakening. Others have been more logical combinations, like the Beneath the Surface set which contained Doctor Who & the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. None of those have been released individually.

I see! I asked as there is the `Mannaquin` set (Spearhead & Terror ) Of which "Spearhead from Space" was out on DVD before -all of ten years ago!

Someone put the `Spearhead` part on E.Bay which I got! I read in DWMonthly the 2011 release has new `extra's` not on the 2001 release!

Hence my puzzling if titles `did` get second release- wether they would have updated `extra's`

Well, all of the actual reissues-the Revisitions box sets-have had a shedload of extras...

It's Dinosaurs and Android in the UNIT box.

Saw Seeds of Doom last night. Didn't like it much this time. First 2 eps are great (if you can overlook the polysterene snow and the fact its a total rip-off of The Thing) but it goes downhill after that, going on far too long and getting rather silly by the last couple of eps.

I'm just not a fan of early Tom, I don't think.

Blasphemy! The Seeds of Doom is an excellent example of a Hinchcliffe classic, full of great perforances and all the elements that you expect in a mid seventies Who; elderly English eccentrics, country houses, shambling horrors and armed thugs among them (of course, this also sums up both Pyramids of Mars and Image of the Fendahl...). And as far as I'm concerned all of the Hinchcliffe era were classics. C'mon, John Challis alone is worth buying the DVD for!

Aside from Zygons and the last 2/3 of season 14, Hinchcliffe Who just leaves me going "Meh".

Saw The Waters of Mars this afternoon. Pretty good, actually. Tennant goes a bit OTT toward the end but the most part this is a decent stab at outer space horror, with some genuinely chilling moments. Enjoyed that.

I can watch anything from Ark in Space through to Image of the Fendahl (Fendahl and Fang Rock staying very close to the model established by the previous regime) pretty much endlessly. I don't know why. There's just something about it. The only stories that fall a bit flat for me are Mandragora and Hand of Fear.

I go for Assassin through to Warriors Gate as my fave Tom period (with only Underworld to really dislike there). The earlier stuff (again, Zygons aside) doesn't interest me much.

I know this is very much a minority opinion but then, I'm used to that!

codywillis1 wrote:I go for Assassin through to Warriors Gate as my fave Tom period (with only Underworld to really dislike there). The earlier stuff (again, Zygons aside) doesn't interest me much.

I know this is very much a minority opinion but then, I'm used to that!

You don't rate Keeper of Traken?

Not much. Feels like a different era already to me.

codywillis1 wrote:Not much. Feels like a different era already to me.

I tend to lump everything after Meglos together as one long storyline, and I think they're all quite strong, though I prefer Traken to Logopolis and Warrior's Gate to either.

Saw The Talons of Weng-Chiang again last night. What can I say? Talons is simply sublime, one of the best written, acted and produced stories of all time. Bob Holmes delivers yet another effortlessly wonderful script which is comic-sinister all the way, filled with wonderful characters, dialogue and set pieces. Tom is at the top of his game, and Leela is never funnier than when set against the mores and manners of "civilised" Victorian London. After being very disappointed with Seeds this time, I needed a reminder of why I love this era so much. I got it (though to be fair, like I said that Tom's era for me doesn't really kick off till Assassin, and this just reinforced that).

One of the best stories ever.

That last part, I would certainly agree with. Everything about Talons is perfect (well, nearly everything); the setting, the wonderful Li Hsen Chang (so what if he's not really Chinese?), the wonderfully creepy Mr Sin and even creepier greel, Tom in Holmes mode, Jago and Litefoot, Leela at the dinner table...

I don't even really mind the rat!

Over the holiday I watched "Invasion" and the "War Games" Both stories feature-possibly two of the best humanoid villians-outside of the `Master` in one season! Kevin Stoney's `Tobias Vaughn` (Invasion) and Phillip Madoc's `War Lord` (War Games) There is another good villian in the `Mind Robber` the human `Master` but he was really controlled by the computor and wasn't truly evil-but a great character though!

I reckon that The often ignored sixth season did throw up some great villians!

Yeah, but none of them can hold a candle to that master of menace, that viscount of villainy, the great Hermann Zaroff!

oh! I forgot about him (I wonder why?) Re "War Games" both Edward Brayshaw and James Bree are going at it `Hammer and Tongs` but when Phil Madoc's War Lord appears-you suddenly notice hammy` those two are!

They are enjoyable in a sort of way, but give me Madoc's performance any day!

alanultron5 wrote:oh! I forgot about him (I wonder why?) Re "War Games" both Edward Brayshaw and James Bree are going at it `Hammer and Tongs` but when Phil Madoc's War Lord appears-you suddenly notice hammy` those two are!

They are enjoyable in a sort of way, but give me Madoc's performance any day!

Brayshaw, I think, does a good job, but it's slightly spoiled for me by the fact that I can't watch him without thinking of Mr Meaker from Rentaghost. James Bree's delivery is just odd...

Yes! he was great in `Rentaghost`!! In `War Games` its only really when he's head-to-head with James Bree that Edward gets a bit OTT (in my view) in scenes with Patrick Troughton and especially Philip Madoc he gives a better performance! But with James Bree its a bit like `Bill & Ben` as Terrance Dicks said on the commentary!

It's rather a shame the War Chief never returned (on screen, anyway). He was a pretty good villain with a lot of potential. Likewise the Monk (though I wouldn't exactly count him as a villain, as such).

In one sense, the War Chief was a template for the `Master`. What if the War Chief had been played by Roger Delgado? Perhaps Barry Letts might have been able to concieve a scenario where the War Chief later became the Master!

Its acedemic now, but I think an interesting scenario! Philip Madoc mentioned on the commentary that he had heard some speculation - via fans- that his `dematerialised` `War Lord` was later reconstructed to become the Master! Not his thoughts, but something he had heard!

I've heard that, too. I tend to think, though, that the characters are too different for that to realistically be the case. I prefer to count the version of the Master's origins given by the BBC Books novels as more or less definitive.

We have just `Thoroughly` enjoyed "The Talons of Weng Chiang" over the last two evenings! I had only caught bits of it back in `77` and Charlotte had never seen it till we watched the DVD!

Only `Roland` was a bit less than superb-but a great story for us and as a six partwer it never dragged once! I hope to get the `Seeds of Doom` soon as I can and i'm definatly looking foreward to the boxed `Unit` release with `"The Android Invasion" and "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"

"Android" was one of the few Tom Baker stories I caught in full at the time and "Dinosaurs" was one of the few Pertwee (outside season 7) I really liked!

The rat was a bit unfortunate, I agree, but Talons still ranks as one of Tom's best for me. I'm amazed though by how controversial the character of Li Hsen Chang has become n recent years; apparently it was utterly deplorable of the BBC to employ a white actor to play an oriental! (even though if you actually wanted a genuine Oriental actor in Britain in 1977, you basically had no choice but to phone Burt Kwouk)

John Bennet was superb though! Sadly, the PC brigade do tend to `jump` on such things. I look at it in the context of the time! Things were done like that and I certainly don't have a problem with it! Is John Bennett good in the role, to me, he's just excellent! That's my criteria.

Old Roland wasn't too bad-he certainly doesn't affect the quality of the story much as far as we saw it! I felt the same about the `Dinosaurs` in the John Pertwee 1974 story. Yes, from today's view they aren't great-but I stil rate the story very highly.

It does puzzle me when today's viewers tend to decry the special effects on vintage shows- they seemingly don't allow for the technology of the day!

One thing lasts though - a bloomin' good story!

Oh! before I go- Tony; do you remember the "Dramarama" episode by Peter Grimwade titled "The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt"? That was a very incisive parodying window into the current (Mid 1980s) `Dr Who` production office-especially the slant on a certain Producer!

Sadly, a lot of the younger generation seem incapable of viewing vintage TV in its proper context. Many refuse to even watch black & white.

They don't know what they're missing.

alanultron5 wrote:Oh! before I go- Tony; do you remember the "Dramarama" episode by Peter Grimwade titled "The Come-Uppance of Captain Katt"? That was a very incisive parodying window into the current (Mid 1980s) `Dr Who` production office-especially the slant on a certain Producer!

I do. I used to be an avid watcher of Dramarama. I wish someone would repeat it.

Saw Talons a few weeks back. It's frickin' awesome. Horror of Fang Rock too - sublime.

Turned Fendahl off the other night, though. Pretty bad. Some of the dialogue is cringeworthily bad, which is very odd given Boucher's other stories.

codywillis1 wrote:Saw Talons a few weeks back. It's frickin' awesome. Horror of Fang Rock too - sublime.

Turned Fendahl off the other night, though. Pretty bad. Some of the dialogue is cringeworthily bad, which is very odd given Boucher's other stories.

I quite like Fendahl, though it's certainly no Talons. the only thing I can't get past is Thea's painted on eyes when she becomes the Fendahl.

Ah! the painted eyes! If I recall correctly (I hope!) didn't `Sapphire & Steel` also do a `painted eye` effect, to more success? It was in the first `S&S` story (The one with the nursery rhymes) where the children are taken to meet their mother- who is standing with back turned!

When the figure turned around, she had this `effect` which looked very effective! It scared my niece (Carleen) quite a bit! She still recalls how scary it was to this day.

I honestly can't recall, but I'm intending to rewatch Sapphire & Steel all the way through so I'll have a look...

The first "Sapphire & Steel" story is possibly the weirdest! I know it took me a couple of repeats (I videod it back then) to figure out-but it was really `Spooky`

Bieng mostly P.J Hammond penned, the whole series was very inventive-and had a similar styled mode of end to Hammond's final story to the 1970-72 series "Ace of Wands". Took viewers very much by surprise did the very final `S&S` episode!

I think the one everyone remembers was adventure two, the one with the haunted railway station and the soldier. Genuinely unnerving stuff.

It had a rather shocking ending as Steel made a pact with the `force` to take Tully's life, years ahead of when he was supposed to die in order to sate it! Morally, rather shocking-but it established how `alien` Sapphire, and particulary Steel were!

I very much enjoyed the fourth story where Phillip Bird is one of two actors portraying the faceless entity that exists in every photograph!

I was never entirely clear on what Steel did. Sapphire seemed to be the one with the powers, while Steel basically skulked about being sarcastic (something McCallum was undeniably good at). Did he ever actually exhibit any paranormal abilities at all?

Saw Remembrance of the Daleks last night. Great fun! First time I've seen it properly in about 8 years and I really enjoyed it. It's not my favourite Sylv by any means, but it's a thoroughly entertaining action romp that still looks good today, with some great effects (the shuttlecraft landing in the playground is fab, the AcevsDaleks action scene at the end of part 2 is tremendous and some of the explosions are frickin' HUGE!) and lots of cool bits. Have to laugh at Ace taunting the retreating Daleks. "Wimps!" LOL That was a lot of fun.

I like Remembrance, too. It's where Sylv really became the Doctor, for me!
(I just wish it had been where he became the Doctor for real; it would have spared us season 24)

Is season 24 the year with the lovely Bonnie Langford as companion?

alanultron5 wrote:Is season 24 the year with the lovely Bonnie Langford as companion?

It is. But Bonnie was not the full horror of that year.

I may be the only person to have-but truthfully; I did like Bonnie as Mel! Neither Peri or Ace i'm afraid I warmed to at all.

alanultron5 wrote:I may be the only person to have-but truthfully; I did like Bonnie as Mel!

OK, step away from the keyboard sir, and don't make any sudden moves. We've sent for some people who can help you...



(actually, there have been worse companions; Dodo and Adric to name two, and arguably Saint Rose. Mel was really quite inoffensive and even, at times, quite fun. But it seems to be compulsory in Who fandom to hate Bonnie Langford. I think you can have yor DWAS membership revoked for publicly admitting to liking her!)

Nice! to be back! And continuing this theme, I found on return two DVDs I won on E.Bay, "Paradise Towers" and "Delta and the Bannermen" We really enjoyed them both!

This recalls when back in about `87` I was with friends in Portmerion and we were reading some Dr Who Mags we'd brought with us!

Some American tourists spotted us and were keen to have a look at the mags as they were huge Dr Who fans as well as the Prisoner. What threw them was the previews of both stories charlotte and I just watched. The big photo of Sylvester and Richard Briars in that face-to-face `gurning` contest and a photo of Sylvester, Bonnie and Ken Dodd all together like a glee club!

The Americans wondered what had happened to Dr Who (They had only just learned that Colin Baker had `gone` and had yet to see `Trial` in the States)

Wayne Wooten and me said we hoped it would be a change from the style of season 22 which we both rather disliked!

So- to this day - for my sins i'm a fan of those `oddball` stories of seasons 24, 25 & 26 and of Bonnie Langford! Daresay me and Wayne are the only two- though he was obsessed with Janet Fielding!

Well, I was going to watch Invasion of Time last night but after 1 ep I just couldn't get into it, so I watched Ghost Light instead. Loved it. Splendid stuff! Creepy, very well made and acted (great music too), and weirder than something very weird indeed. Ah, can't beat a bit of Sylv and Soph. "The cream of Scotland Yard" lol.

Ghost Light is terrific, it's like Doctor Who meets Sapphire & Steel!

I just recieved a copy ("Ghost Light") in the post today! Will watch it tonight! For me, the more `quirky` of Sylvesters stories are the ones I enjoyed more at the time-and most certainly on DVD now!

"Paradise Towers" and "Delta" have been so great to watch again, really enjoyed them!

I remember back in `87` trying to get through on phone to BBC's "Open Air" programme when Sylvester, Bonnie & J.N.T were on to try and voice my support, but, all the `naysayers` seemed to be getting through! They were put through sheer hell by certain peoples on that show and its a wonder Sylvester felt able to carry on - but i'm glad he did!

With season 25 it wasn't the Dalek or Cybermen stories that really thrilled me (Dalek one was wasn't half bad though- but `Silver Nemesis- s0rry! No!) It was "The Happiness Patrol" and "Greatest Show in the Galaxy" that I enjoyed very much!

Re - "Ghost Light" I think (As I recall) it was the one story that Ace showed real fear and was a really good vehicle for Sophie Aldred to show more to Ace!

I'm afraid a lot of the time Ace was just too fearless to me-and becoming one dimensional until `Ghost Light`.

Mel (Bonnie) got slated for screaming - but her character was of someone very scared by monsters/events etc - but she did her best to overcome her fears and help the Doctor or whoever else was in trouble! For me, Mel was more realistic than Ace. And! Apart from Susan Foreman, Mel had no background story at all, Bonnie had to create her from scratch!