Last Who You Watched

It's almost worth it for Ingrid Pitt trying to use Karate on a giant Muppet, though...

I'm still waiting for my pet Myrka

Found the first episode of Dragonfire very enjoyable.

Lucy McGough wrote:Found the first episode of Dragonfire very enjoyable.

Restarted your marathon, then? Wicked. A Grotzit for your thoughts when you've seen it all, Donut. That's if that bilgebag Glitz don't get' cher first.

My initial thoughts are these:

• Hooray, it's Glitz again! Totally wasn't expecting that.
  
• The writer is obviously having a whale of a time with the whole vampire vibe. As a result, so am I.
  
• Oh dear, is that really how they thought young people talked? And dressed?
  
• Ace is obviously fed up of people asking her about her parents. Must get irritating, having to explain that you're an orphan over and over again.
  
• God, I love Sylvester McCoy, especially when he's resting his chin on his umbrella handle and looking fed up, or correcting people's pronunciation of 'loch'. All Who should be this fun.

"I ain't got no parents, I ain't never 'ad no parents and I don't want no parents!!!"

Wait. You mean young people didn't speak like that? No wonder I got some funny looks at sixth form...

Sadly though, people did dress like that.

tony ingram wrote:"I ain't got no parents, I ain't never 'ad no parents and I don't want no parents!!!"

Wait. You mean young people didn't speak like that? No wonder I got some funny looks at sixth form...

No, that was because the teachers frown upon forty-year-old men hanging round the front gates trying to pick up girls

Thoughts on episode two:

• Did Mel just straight-out murder Glitz's ex-crew by chucking two cans of Nitro-9 at them?
  
• I love (I'm going to be using this phrase a lot, I fear) the way this story can turn on a sixpence. Glitz's ship contains a stolen Stradivarius and has two fluffy dice dangling from the ceiling - and then you have the Doctor and Belazs with the "Was it worth it?" scene, which is terrific.
  
• "The whole of eternity has been waiting for this moment!" Shame that Kane's dead love has the face of a half-sucked jellybaby and is wearing a huge pair of incontinence pants.
  
• Nice model work on Svartos.

I can't help thinking that after all the time he's waited, Kane could have found a better sculptor. Either that, or the statue really was accurate and he just had really dodgy taste in women.

Mel's leaving scene in the last episode was really good. I think that Glitz lived happily ever after in the Nosferatu II with Mel, the posh woman, her ridiculously cute daughter and the daughter's teddy.

On today's schedule: 'Remembrance of the Daleks'.

Lucy McGough wrote:Mel's leaving scene in the last episode was really good. I think that Glitz lived happily ever after in the Nosferatu II with Mel, the posh woman, her ridiculously cute daughter and the daughter's teddy.

Not if you believe the Virgin New Adventures novel Head Games, in which Mel turns up on a run down pleasure planet where she's been stranded for months since Glitz got sick of her and did a runner.

Dragonfire is good fun. I'm watching a Sylv tonight myself - Greatest Show, for the first time in eight and a half years, thanks to the dvd!

tony ingram wrote:Not if you believe the Virgin New Adventures novel Head Games, in which Mel turns up on a run down pleasure planet where she's been stranded for months since Glitz got sick of her and did a runner.

The Virgin New Adventures books are horrible things that delight in torturing ex-companions, and they are not canon. So there

codywillis1 wrote:Dragonfire is good fun.

You are quite right

I'm only a few stories away from 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy' myself, and I must say I'm looking forward to it.

Lucy McGough wrote:

tony ingram wrote:Not if you believe the Virgin New Adventures novel Head Games, in which Mel turns up on a run down pleasure planet where she's been stranded for months since Glitz got sick of her and did a runner.

The Virgin New Adventures books are horrible things that delight in torturing ex-companions, and they are not canon. So there

Are, too. So there.

You're not canon

Lucy McGough wrote:You're not canon

No, I failed the exams (but I kept the dog collar).

Saw The Greatest Show in the Galaxy last night, first time in eight years. Very good, though perhaps not quite as good as I remembered (or perhaps I was just expecting too much after so long). I think I still prefer Fenric, Survival, and even Ghost Light and Remembrance. Still good though.

The doco was good too. It's quite remarkable how different the attitude toward JNT is on the McCoy era dvds to on Davison and Colin dvds. It's also very, very lucky that the asbestos scare at the BBC affected the studio filming of the only story in season 25 that could be saved by filming the interiors in a tent - because, of course, it's SET in a tent!

The Utterly Useless Encyclopedia remarks, not inaccurately, that the forced relocation to a tent resulted in a production "more realistic than would otherwise have been the case"...

Thoughts on the first episode of 'Remembrance of the Daleks':

• I like the cold open. Very effective.
  
• Brilliant dialogue! And the Doctor and Ace's rapport is lovely to watch. Plus, Sophie Aldred is pretty.
  
• Nice SFX on the transmat.
  
• In the time it took that Dalek to tell the Doctor he was going to be exterminated, it could've exterminated him three times. Why do they always insist on saying what they're about to do, instead of just doing it?

Thoughts on episode two:

• I love the idea that the British Army will hand over anti-tank rockets to anyone as long as they sign for them.
  
• I am probably the only person in the universe who watched this story and thought, "Ooh, those Daleks are in papal colours."
  
• Ace is really brave and resourceful. I would like to be like her.
  
• Oh, and apparently she's also a communist.
  
• That's the 1960s for you - there'd be a sign in the window saying 'No Coloureds', but it would be in really neat handwriting.

Have just watched episode three, and all these different Dalek factions are getting a bit too complicated for me

Lucy McGough wrote:I love the idea that the British Army will hand over anti-tank rockets to anyone as long as they sign for them.

I have never understood that bit. Whoever put that dipstick in charge of the supply truck deserves immediate demotion, even more so than the aforementioned dipstick does...

So... is 'The Happiness Patrol' any good?

Find out for yourself!

Put it this way: I like it a lot more now than I did when I watched it in 1988.

'The Happiness Patrol' is rather scary. I bet it caused a few nightmares back in the day.

Lucy McGough wrote:'The Happiness Patrol' is rather scary. I bet it caused a few nightmares back in the day.

It caused the BBC a few, when Bassetts threatened to sue them for copyright infringement.

Oddly, I did note t'other day that Pertwee appeared in the cerdits as 'Dr Who'. I thought he had always been listed as 'The Doctor' in the credits.

This was while watching either Planet of the Spiders or Death To The Daleks, both of which I watched this week.

Spiders is tremendous, featuring some fantastic performances from Pertwee down, though the lighting designer needs a good kicking. 'Death' i enjoyed despite the fact it looked as though all the budget had been spent on the dolly tracks for the daleks - the 800th wonder of the universe being made from polystyrene was a bit...anti-climtic. One of the better 'latter' Dalek stories, I think. I'd certainly take it over 'Destiny' and 'Resurrection'.

In fact, the lead actor was credited as 'Doctor Who' up until about 1980 if I remember right. It simply wasn't what he was called in the show itself.

•That's the 1960s for you - there'd be a sign in the window saying 'No Coloureds', but it would be in really neat handwriting.

Aaranovitch got that wrong, though he can be forgiven, as he wouldn't be old enough to remember. Sadly, that sort of sign could be seen well into the seventies and as John Lydon observed was nearly always worded the same

'No Blacks
No Dogs
No Irish'

Some things in this country really have changed for the better.

tony ingram wrote:In fact, the lead actor was credited as 'Doctor Who' up until about 1980 if I remember right. It simply wasn't what he was called in the show itself.

Fair enough. I bow to the uber-geek. I never pay that much attention to credits on the whole.

BluesShark wrote:

•That's the 1960s for you - there'd be a sign in the window saying 'No Coloureds', but it would be in really neat handwriting.

Aaranovitch got that wrong, though he can be forgiven, as he wouldn't be old enough to remember. Sadly, that sort of sign could be seen well into the seventies and as John Lydon observed was nearly always worded the same

'No Blacks
No Dogs
No Irish'

Some things in this country really have changed for the better.

Yes. These days, thankfully, it's strictly forbidden to discriminate against black people or dogs. I do think it's a bit much, extending that to the Irish, though. Any race that inflicts Bob Geldof on the world deserves all it gets.

I take your point but I think I have to point out that applying that logic we might as well all jump in the sea and leave it to mountain goats in turkey (to quote Molesworth Mjr).

Worth remembering that we (The English) gave the world Kelvin MacKenzie, Jim Davison and Michael Grade. And that's just the celebrity Charlton AFC fans...

BluesShark wrote:
Worth remembering that we (The English) gave the world Kelvin MacKenzie, Jim Davison and Michael Grade. And that's just the celebrity Charlton AFC fans...

I stand ashamed and duly chastened.

Though I am half Scots, so my guilt is diminished slightly, I think.

Frankie Boyle. The Krankies.

No One Is Innocent.

Just rewatched State of Decay, a story I love-and something's bothering me. The peasants on this benighted planet have seen no strangers for a thousand years; they are totally unprepared to deal with the concept of 'strangers', in fact.

So why do they have a word for 'stranger'?

Um, because, er.... good question.

Watching 'Battlefield'. It's very eighties

Just because there hasn't been one for thousands of years doesn't mean there wouldn't be a word for it. There hasn't been any dinosaurs for millions of years, but we've still got a word for 'em, ain't we?

codywillis1 wrote:Just because there hasn't been one for thousands of years doesn't mean there wouldn't be a word for it. There hasn't been any dinosaurs for millions of years, but we've still got a word for 'em, ain't we?

Yeah, but we've got fossils, and Hollywood. Ivo's lot didn't strike me as the type to be interested in much beyond their daily lives, so I'm not sure any word that wasn't applicable on a daily basis would remain in use.

The Time Meddler. I'll admit that although I like Hartnell's Who, I quite often struggle with some the stories, but I really, really liked this one. Great scenes with Hartnell and Peter Butterworth.

A lot of fun and very enjoyable, I thought.

Tonight I may watch Vengeance on Varos, just to see if it's improved with age. I don't have fond memories of it at all.

The Time Meddler is one of my favourite Hartnell's, up there with The War Machines, The Gunfighters, The Chase and The Ark.

I know. I'm strange.

I like all of those too (bar The Ark, which just bores me). What's not to love about the others? Classic Billy.

codywillis1 wrote:I like all of those too (bar The Ark, which just bores me). What's not to love about the others? Classic Billy.

Someone else is a fan of The Chase? I am redeemed!!

The Chase is great fun. I ADORE the haunted house episode especially lol. It's just the reactions of the regulars to the mad goings-on, so funny. I love the bit where the Frankensteins Monster sits up on the gurney, and Billy just turns round and nips off smartly back up the stairs leaving Ian standing there! :lol

Plus it's got Vicki in it.

It's a fantastic story, totally undeserving of the bashing it frequently gets from fans. I thinkthe haunted house episode is probably my favourite too, particularly the Frankenstein monster picking up the Dalek. And I love that, after the Doctor's brilliantly dramatic declaration that they are in a nightmare world "constructed from the darkest corners of human mind", it turns out to be just an amusement park attraction and they never find out.

Just watched "Robot" First time i've seen all of it! Tom B rather OTT (For me) early on; but settles down nicely after that. It's still very much like a `Pertwee` story apart from Tom, but OK!

alanultron5 wrote:Just watched "Robot" First time i've seen all of it! Tom B rather OTT (For me) early on; but settles down nicely after that. It's still very much like a `Pertwee` story apart from Tom, but OK!

Well, it was still effectively a Letts/Dicks story. I don't think the Hinchcliffe era really got going until Ark in Space. The tonal shift is instantly noticeable.

tony ingram wrote:The Time Meddler is one of my favourite Hartnell's, up there with The War Machines, The Gunfighters, The Chase and The Ark.

I know. I'm strange.

I'd need a LOT of convincing about War Machines which really, really creaked as far as I was concerned. Hartnell was claerly quite ill and with the simple abondonment of assistants (nd people think Peri got a rough deal!) I didn't care for it very much. (There has to be a story somewhere in what happened to Dodi, though.)

Enjoyed the first episode of Vengeance on Varos but it's so didactic it's a bit like being smashed in the face with a hammer. I am suprised how much I'm liking CB's doctor the second time around though.

Dodo's eventual fate (or one account of it) is revealed in the 1996 novel 'Who Killed Kennedy', the authr of which appears not to like her very much. After years in therapy following a breakdown caused by WOTAN, she is eventually murdered by the Master. Which is a little rough, even if she was annoying.

I think part of the reason I like The War Machines, quite aside from Ben and Polly (who I wish we'd had for longer) and the fact that ill or not, Billy is clearly thoroughly enjoying himself at times, is the fact that it's the story which really establishes the pattern of future Doctor Who: all that UNIT stuff in the 70s, the contemporary setting, the Doctor as the advisor to the establishment without being a part of it, all begins here in the first story (excluding Planet of Giants, in which the TARDIS team have no interaction with the guest cast) to take place on modern day Earth since An Unearthly Child. It's quite a landmark.

And yes, I like the CB era, too. Season 22 is a particular favourite.

For me, Colin's best performance was in the "Vervoids" story. I thought he was superb and it makes his `dismissal` so unfair.

I've got nothing against Mr Baker, but I can't stand the character of the Sixth Doctor, or his costume, or the things the plots make him do, or his wisecracks, or his companions.

His dismissal was grossly unfair, but my worse nature keeps thinking that if it hadn't happened we'd never have got Sylvester McCoy.

His dismissal was unfair whichever way you look at it-more a result of personal animosity on grade's part than anything else.