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Post by polly on Dec 31, 2019 19:26:19 GMT
The Sontaran Experiment - This is the first story I ever saw. It was a rerun on satellite TV. I was 10 or so, and I came in part way through and had no idea what it was. It was another couple years before I ever found the show again, but I always remembered Sarah Jane and her yellow coat.
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Post by bohnny on Jan 1, 2020 8:24:22 GMT
finished rewatching series 11 - ready for s12 now!
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Post by sherlock on Jan 1, 2020 16:46:22 GMT
Resolution
A quick rewatch to catch up with thirteen and co before Spyfall. It’s a very simple story, with some faults (Yaz is all-but forgotten about, too much of the running time is the Doctor spouting technobabble in the TARDIS, the WiFi gag does not work), but the Dalek itself is characterised and portrayed excellently which elevates it overall.
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Post by mrperson on Jan 3, 2020 0:12:03 GMT
Spyfall, later.
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Post by barnabaslives on Jan 3, 2020 6:19:28 GMT
Spyfall Part 1. I really wanted to wait for Part 2 to come out before I watched it, but I couldn't. :-)
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Post by polly on Jan 3, 2020 20:17:54 GMT
Genesis of the Daleks - One of those rare times everything is pretty much perfect.
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Post by mark687 on Jan 3, 2020 22:43:48 GMT
Spearhead for its Golden Anniversery
(Solid enough makes a similar mistake to the Eleventh Hour though, except in this instance, it undercuts a strong Companion debut, by having the Doctor have the same Scientific strength as a defining character trait, Nicholas Courtney serves as a perfect lynch pin however.)
Regards
mark687
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Post by doctorkernow on Jan 4, 2020 0:50:51 GMT
Hello again.
Snap! Mark687, really enjoyed watching Spearhead on the anniversary of its first transmission. The Autons are a great creation by Robert Holmes. I loved Channing, the actor is so creepy. He underplays it brilliantly. Caroline John is a very different type of companion,she gives the character an underlying warmth.
Nicholas Courtney as usual, is the glue that anchors everything, no matter how odd, in reality. This is a very different approach to Doctor Who. All military derring-do and creepy scientific laboratories.
Pertwee is the perfect Doctor for this new setup. Anti-authority, but quite happy to get a nice car out working for UNIT!
If this story hadn't hit the ground running as well as it did, Doctor Who would have faded away. The combination of talents involved in front and behind the camera ensured it didn't.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2020 1:09:40 GMT
Hello again. Snap! Mark687, really enjoyed watching Spearhead on the anniversary of its first transmission. The Autons are a great creation by Robert Holmes. I loved Channing, the actor is so creepy. He underplays it brilliantly. Caroline John is a very different type of companion,she gives the character an underlying warmth. Nicholas Courtney as usual, is the glue that anchors everything, no matter how odd, in reality. This is a very different approach to Doctor Who. All military derring-do and creepy scientific laboratories.Pertwee is the perfect Doctor for this new setup. Anti-authority, but quite happy to get a nice car out working for UNIT! If this story hadn't hit the ground running as well as it did, Doctor Who would have faded away. The combination of talents involved in front and behind the camera ensured it didn't. You know, if I can waffle for a bit - as usual! - mentioning the military aspect on top of the scientific is interesting to me. People always cite early Pertwee as being very, very Quatermass (to the extent Nigel Kneale was actually asked to write for Who around this era) but if anyone has ever seen a Hammer film called X: The Unknown, it's MUCH more S7 than Quatermass. It's got the science and its own version of the UNIT family (that Quatermass doesn't) including likeable squaddies you get to know and more officious but well meaning officers. X: The Unknown was made by Hammer after they asked Kneale if they could write their own Quatermass, he told them no way in hell so they made something as close as possible without being sued...but it's the military aspect that always reminds me most of S7. Quatermass works alongside soldiers sometimes, especially Colonel Breen in Quatermass And The Pit but his British Rocket Group is explicitly not military wheras Dicks and Letts decided to literally put Pertwee inside a military operation rather than an outsider who gets called in, so - and I've never heard either Dicks or Letts speak to this - I think it's X: The Unknown that inspired the concept of Season 7 more than Quatermass itself. Just my ramblings. Btw, to anyone who does watch X: The Unknown (and you should), it's the first genre script written by the legendary Jimmy Sangster and among the cast is a young boy played by a certain Frazer Hines, aged 12!
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melkur
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Post by melkur on Jan 6, 2020 18:05:53 GMT
As I've been listening to 'Primeval', Big Finish's prequel/sequel over the past few days, this evening I've been watching 'The Keeper Of Traken' (my favourite 'Classic' story as a teen) and, time allowing, I'll be following up with 'Logopolis' (& possibly 'Castrovalva') tonight...
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 6, 2020 20:29:52 GMT
Spyfall part 2. OMG. I really hope this is a lie.
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Post by polly on Jan 6, 2020 21:23:29 GMT
Capping off Season 12 with Revenge of the Cybermen. It's...not very good! But watching with a first timer in tow means you don't get to skip. I'm curious about the new effects on the BluRay version, but I can't be arsed to shell out for an upscale just yet.
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Post by sherlock on Jan 8, 2020 15:57:12 GMT
The Macra Terror
An interesting exercise in 60s brainwashing paranoia. The dystopian elements of the colony work well, the second Doctor gets served very well by the story and the companions each get a decent amount to do. I do wonder if the story would have worked slightly better with a more subtle monster, as giant crabs are somewhat at odds with the insidious mind control storyline. That said the Macra are realised well on animation (I somewhat doubt they are as effective on the original 1960s budget though).
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melkur
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Post by melkur on Jan 9, 2020 18:00:18 GMT
Yesterday I watched 'An Unearthly Child' (including the un-aired "pilot" at the BFI's Mediatechque) on what co-incidentally would have been Hartnell's birthday...
I've been having a bit of a 'lazy day', so have watched 'The Daleks' and am currently watching part 2 of 'The Edge Of Destruction' (time allowing, I'm thinking about watching the cutdown version of 'Marco Polo' before I head out to Network tonight...).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 19:55:23 GMT
Watched and enjoyed The Horns of Nimon, and amidst the wonderful silliness of it all, I noticed that the Fourth Doctor implored the Co-Pilot character to "Be kind!"
Didn't work, though, he still marched off angrily, calling his captors 'weakling SCUM' as he did so.
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Post by polly on Jan 9, 2020 22:20:42 GMT
Terror of the Zygons - Those control panels of theirs are positively obscene.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2020 10:15:58 GMT
Attack of the Cybermen
Attack holds a very special place in my heart. Right above The Daleks and The Mind of Evil as some of the first Doctor Who I ever saw. I decided to give it a rewatch today:
Successes: As someone who knew nothing of the series or its origins, it's a deceptively good primer on what the show's all about. I didn't really feel a sense of continuity lockout with Mondas, 1986 and Telos as it's all fairly well-explained as the story unfolds. Our heroes, the Doctor and Peri, feel as though they've sprung from the mould fully formed. The Cybermen... That image of them coming out of the wall will always stick with me. It's perfectly executed. Griffiths tries blowing away some... thing in the shadows, something that's been killing their people, and Lytton turns on him. The stale claustrophobia breaks like an iceberg. Cold, mechanical air. Two silver goliaths step out into the brickwork sewer with frozen, inhuman faces. Griffiths spins round -- the thing behind him -- and he shrieks.
The Doctor himself is characterised pretty well and his first scene sets the tone for this new incarnation. "A man of science! Temperament. And, passion!" His post-regenerative eccentricities are still there ("Shoot him, Peri."), but in a much more paletable and recognisably Doctor-ish form. The Cryons are a lovely little addition with their complex sign language and guerilla tactics. Telos, as well, looks pretty good throughout Bates and Stratton's escapades. I like Cyber-Control as this massive operations centre for the cyborgs. There's this real sense that the stolen time vessel has been the cause of a lot of grief in other stories (Earthshock being the most prominent). Lytton, in the conversion machine, juxtaposed with the Cyber-Controller makes for a pretty striking image. From one comes the other.
Shortcomings: There are a tonne of nice ideas here, but it feels as though by "Part Two", a few of them have fallen by the wayside for lack clarification. Of varying sizes and import. One of the bigger ones is the Doctor's realisation that the Time Lords brought him to Telos. It's probable that they were the ones that diverted the TARDIS to Halley's Comet and stopped Peri shutting the doors at the cliffhanger. All in response to the Doctor's distress signal (a causal loop). But, the story doesn't make that clear. Another is that Lytton's heel-face turn doesn't quite click. It relies on a familiarity that just didn't exist circa Resurrection of the Daleks. It might have been better bringing Maurice Colbourne back as a different character with a similar M.O.
All in all, though, it's still a fun romp. An extra layer of polish and I can see this being pointed to as Day of the Daleks for the mid-80s.
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melkur
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Post by melkur on Jan 11, 2020 22:21:04 GMT
Yesterday I watched 'The Keys Of Marinus' and 'The Aztecs' & am now winding down from a long day at work over 'The Sensorites' (though I don't think I'm going to be able to watch it all...).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2020 23:00:56 GMT
Yesterday I watched 'The Keys Of Marinus' and 'The Aztecs' & am now winding down from a long day at work over 'The Sensorites' (though I don't think I'm going to be able to watch it all...). I really like these early tales. The Sensorites is worth persevering as a whole, so I hope you just mean that you will not finish it in one sitting, as it has a twist of sorts to sustain it for the last couple of episodes (presuming you are on a first watch? though I suspect not)... With these early tales, each was a self contained drama, with just the time travellers as a point of reference. Only the Daleks presented evidence of a connected universe and consequences from their earlier adventures. Splendid, nay remarkable 60's telly, and its understandable why a few fans recorded and retained the soundtracks on expensive tape decks so early in the series run. The birth of fandom...
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melkur
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Post by melkur on Jan 12, 2020 1:01:38 GMT
Yesterday I watched 'The Keys Of Marinus' and 'The Aztecs' & am now winding down from a long day at work over 'The Sensorites' (though I don't think I'm going to be able to watch it all...). I really like these early tales. The Sensorites is worth persevering as a whole, so I hope you just mean that you will not finish it in one sitting, as it has a twist of sorts to sustain it for the last couple of episodes (presuming you are on a first watch? though I suspect not)... With these early tales, each was a self contained drama, with just the time travellers as a point of reference. Only the Daleks presented evidence of a connected universe and consequences from their earlier adventures. Splendid, nay remarkable 60's telly, and its understandable why a few fans recorded and retained the soundtracks on expensive tape decks so early in the series run. The birth of fandom... It's not my first watch, no. I think I first heard it in February 2009 on a 'snow-day' from school & remember enjoying it (Despite getting the DVD the day it came out, & having to catch a train over to Southampton to do so, I didn't start watching it until the next day, due to a uni-friend who wanted to watch it with me that evening 'no-showing'...). Whilst it can be a bit of a 'slog' to get through, I do still have a soft spot for it. In the end, I didn't watch the whole thing, no. Whilst I could have finished the whole thing, I stopped at the halfway point, as it seemed like a convenient time to pause.
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