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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2020 8:43:40 GMT
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. Yeah, I think it suffers from the same initial plotting problem as The Wheel in Space. It starts a bit too early and leaves a bit too early. I think you could easily condense the first two episodes down into one and have a more direct final confrontation between the astronauts and Sensorites. Still, there's much to recommend it. John's subplot, for instance, is fairly unusual for the time it's written. Classic Doctor Who, particularly its first season, was always interested in turning some typical villain roles inside out. He could be just dismissed as crazy, but the story spends a lot of time exploring his trauma. His loss of self-identity. Much of the power given to the Sensorites comes from him. So, it's enriching that they prove trust by giving him the option of therapy. The Sensorites themselves are also a great little simile for cultural biases. Individual ambition is considered alien to their society. Impossible. But nevertheless, it does exist. It takes an outsider's viewpoint to make that clear, which is a nice touch.
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Post by mark687 on Jan 12, 2020 13:03:34 GMT
Full Circle and State of Decay (in case the 1st 2 stories of 4DA Season 9 drop this week) I still don't get the thinking behind Adric "We've already have 3 Smart characters, so let's have another one, plus we'll make him brattish on top"!
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2020 2:09:05 GMT
Full Circle and State of Decay (in case the 1st 2 stories of 4DA Season 9 drop this week) I still don't get the thinking behind Adric "We've already have 3 Smart characters, so let's have another one, plus we'll make him brattish on top"! Regards mark687 Is there a charted history of how kid characters are portrayed in television? If there isn't, there really should be. We seem to get a lot of potrayals that can be summed up as "bratty". (I don't know what that says about us adults.) There are a few nice exceptions to the rule, though. Like itty-bitty Kurt Russell (circa his Disney years) playing Christopher in The Man from UNCLE. Polite to strangers. Inexperienced, but not naive. Just a generally nice kid. I wonder how you write a teenager? I remember it was absolute hell being one.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Jan 13, 2020 3:26:06 GMT
Full Circle and State of Decay (in case the 1st 2 stories of 4DA Season 9 drop this week) I still don't get the thinking behind Adric "We've already have 3 Smart characters, so let's have another one, plus we'll make him brattish on top"! Regards mark687 Is there a charted history of how kid characters are portrayed in television? If there isn't, there really should be. We seem to get a lot of potrayals that can be summed up as "bratty". (I don't know what that says about us adults.) There are a few nice exceptions to the rule, though. Like itty-bitty Kurt Russell (circa his Disney years) playing Christopher in The Man from UNCLE. Polite to strangers. Inexperienced, but not naive. Just a generally nice kid. I wonder how you write a teenager? I remember it was absolute hell being one. Writing kids is hard: you can’t have them know too much because they come over as unlikeable; you can’t have them too confident because nobody can relate to them; you can’t have them too confrontational because they come across as bratty... it’s a tricky one, but remembering what it was like is always a help. As a writer, though, you’ve also got to make sure that whatever they face can’t be too difficult or unbelievable for them to overcome. (And if you think it was difficult being a teenager, it’s worse being the parent of them )
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2020 6:12:22 GMT
Is there a charted history of how kid characters are portrayed in television? If there isn't, there really should be. We seem to get a lot of potrayals that can be summed up as "bratty". (I don't know what that says about us adults.) There are a few nice exceptions to the rule, though. Like itty-bitty Kurt Russell (circa his Disney years) playing Christopher in The Man from UNCLE. Polite to strangers. Inexperienced, but not naive. Just a generally nice kid. I wonder how you write a teenager? I remember it was absolute hell being one. Writing kids is hard: you can’t have them know too much because they come over as unlikeable; you can’t have them too confident because nobody can relate to them; you can’t have them too confrontational because they come across as bratty... it’s a tricky one, but remembering what it was like is always a help. As a writer, though, you’ve also got to make sure that whatever they face can’t be too difficult or unbelievable for them to overcome. (And if you think it was difficult being a teenager, it’s worse being the parent of them ) I 100% believe you. It really is. Judging the divide between realism and infantalisation is a tricky one. There's a tendency to think that anyone under the age of 20 acts like they're 5. Once you get into adolescence, it becomes that twilight between being expected to act as an adult, yet being treated still as a child. I think a lot of that time is just... endless frustration. And yet, I know a twelve-year-old who wrote a story about an assassin choosing to ending the cycle of violence he'd become trapped in. Refusing to kill. Something quite poignant and clever. I can see why a brain that comes up with such an idea could get so discouraged. For the kids, it might be a lack of articulation that's key to that state of being. Finding words for the concepts they're trying to explore. That, and the fundamental lack of control they possess over their own lives. In a very particular way that adults no longer experience. I can see that being key to stories like The Sensorites and Susan's arc there.
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Post by tuigirl on Jan 13, 2020 19:38:45 GMT
Just about ready to start watching Orphan 55.
However, let me do the dishes first.
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Jan 13, 2020 21:46:54 GMT
Last night I watched 'Orphan 55' (of course), the second half of 'The Sensorites' and part 1 of 'The Reign Of Terror'.
This afternoon I've (slowly) been making my way through the rest of 'TROT', and might finish it before bed (I've got two more episodes left)...
EDIT - I also watched part 1 of 'Planet Of Giants'
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Post by frisby78 on Jan 13, 2020 22:09:24 GMT
The Aztecs. The first season of Who really Is a thing of joy and I love the first Doctor historicals.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2020 22:18:28 GMT
The Aztecs. The first season of Who really Is a thing of joy and I love the first Doctor historicals. Pretty much everything with that first team, in fact a few stories later - everything till Ian and Barbara leave in The Chase is just my kinda Who. It's really fun watching Hartnell find the character week by week and of course Russ and Jacqueline were spot on from day one.
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Post by frisby78 on Jan 13, 2020 22:41:34 GMT
The Aztecs. The first season of Who really Is a thing of joy and I love the first Doctor historicals. Pretty much everything with that first team, in fact a few stories later - everything till Ian and Barbara leave in The Chase is just my kinda Who. It's really fun watching Hartnell find the character week by week and of course Russel and Jacqueline were spot on from day one. Totally agree. That first team is hands down my favourite. Also Ian and Barbara are very realistic in their reactions to everything going on. After that and especially since 2005 the companions take time travel and aliens in their step and are quite blasé about it all.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2020 2:46:04 GMT
Pretty much everything with that first team, in fact a few stories later - everything till Ian and Barbara leave in The Chase is just my kinda Who. It's really fun watching Hartnell find the character week by week and of course Russel and Jacqueline were spot on from day one. Totally agree. That first team is hands down my favourite. Also Ian and Barbara are very realistic in their reactions to everything going on. After that and especially since 2005 the companions take time travel and aliens in their step and are quite blasé about it all. It's that lovely John McClane principle of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. They're emblematic of that unofficial mission statement for companions -- leave them better than you found them. They were incredible people to start with, but by the end, it's difficult to imagine that Ian and Barbara wouldn't use their newfound experience to help in their time on Earth. From memory, Ian ends up at NASA as a consultant for the American lunar missions and Barbara became a university lecturer in high demand for her historical expertise. There's a nice reversal of the wide-eyed wonder we don't typically get nowadays in the comics. The Eighth Doctor's new companion, Destrii, is quite excited by all these new frontiers -- except she's an alien, exploring mid-2000s London. But, it's just as strange and fascinating to her as the reverse would be to us.
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Post by polly on Jan 14, 2020 23:31:49 GMT
The Aztecs. The first season of Who really Is a thing of joy and I love the first Doctor historicals. It's hard to beat the original TARDIS crew. It's like comfort food for me. Feels like going home every time I watch 'em.
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Jan 15, 2020 0:04:43 GMT
After work this evening I've been winding down over parts 2 & 3 of 'Planet Of Giants' (I'm really glad they condensed down parts 3 & 4 ) and am thinking about making a start on 'The Dalek Invasion Of Earth' (though, as it's already midnight, I'm probably 'only' going to watch parts 1 & 2...).
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Post by polly on Jan 15, 2020 21:30:10 GMT
Planet of Evil - This is one of the nicest planet sets the classic series ever had. I suppose keeping the lights turned out helps!
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Post by number13 on Jan 16, 2020 0:03:02 GMT
I surprised myself considerably by rewatching (for the first time since the original broadcast) Love and Monsters.
I surprised myself even more by enjoying it! *faints, calling for the zero room*
*revives with celery* I must have changed a lot since 2006 or at least my Who horizons are a lot broader than they used to be. That was a laugh and a well-made and well-acted laugh too!
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Post by mark687 on Jan 16, 2020 0:09:40 GMT
I surprised myself considerably by rewatching (for the first time since the original broadcast) Love and Monsters.
I surprised myself even more by enjoying it! *faints, calling for the zero room*
*revives with celery* I must have changed a lot since 2006 or at least my Who horizons are a lot broader than they used to be. That was a laugh and a well-made and well-acted laugh too!
Compared with: T Conundrum Rings of Akterten Fear Her Monsters is almost "Genesis" level good Regards mark687
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Post by number13 on Jan 16, 2020 0:22:42 GMT
I surprised myself considerably by rewatching (for the first time since the original broadcast) Love and Monsters.
I surprised myself even more by enjoying it! *faints, calling for the zero room*
*revives with celery* I must have changed a lot since 2006 or at least my Who horizons are a lot broader than they used to be. That was a laugh and a well-made and well-acted laugh too!
Compared with: T Conundrum Rings of Akterten Fear Her Monsters is almost "Genesis" level good Regards mark687 Now then just a minute steady on there...
But it is very good, just a very different sort of story, a sidestep from the normal run of stories, and I don't think in 2006 I was ready for that level of 'different' in 'Doctor Who'!
EDIT: Back then my Who experience was the Classic series and 1 1/2 years of New Who TV, that's it. No VNA novels / comics / etc. Now, after a few years of discovering and loving the huge variety of BF's 'Doctor Who' output, I think I'm ready for anything!
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Jan 16, 2020 2:39:46 GMT
Today I've watched the middle two episodes of 'The Dalek Invasion Of Earth' over lunch (I had planned on watching parts 5 & 6 as well before going out but didn't get round to it...).
'Hopefully I'm going to be finishing it tomorrow and, time allowing, 'The Rescue' as well (if I've found my copy of the DVD, of course, ironically it's gone missing since I watched it last week).
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Post by mrperson on Jan 16, 2020 4:25:34 GMT
Orphan 55. Big fat "meh"
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2020 10:23:53 GMT
I surprised myself considerably by rewatching (for the first time since the original broadcast) Love and Monsters.
I surprised myself even more by enjoying it! *faints, calling for the zero room*
*revives with celery* I must have changed a lot since 2006 or at least my Who horizons are a lot broader than they used to be. That was a laugh and a well-made and well-acted laugh too!
Compared with: T Conundrum Rings of Akterten Fear Her Monsters is almost "Genesis" level good Regards mark687 I'll give you Fear Her and Tsuranga Conundrum but I love Rings Of Ahkaten. Totally and utterly. Some of the best work Murray Gold ever did on the show (so good, The Long Song was reused for Matt's regeneration), Neil Cross' speech that he wrote for The Doctor facing the Sun-God and, of course, the way Matt just absolutely nails it. Not till the end of The Zygon 2-parter and Doctor Falls did we get a monologue delivered like that in New Who. Just wondrous and stunning. And it's not just the speech, the physical acting throughout it from Matt is amazing - from scratching his head to his wry smile as he's thought of a plan to his Troughton-esque hunched up handtwiddles, to the single tear as he recants his adventures, to the bravado posturing as he unleashes all his memories at the end...I miss Matt. Everyone talks about the "old man in the young body" - it's never more obvious than in this ep to me. Then there's the wide eyed wonder Jenna brings as she realises what's going on. That's something I've severely missed in Who under Chibnall, the Doctor does a remarkable thing in a remarkable place and the companion knows they've just seen something majestic and life-affirming that no other human ever has. Jenna sells it with just her reaction shots. The minute Matt says "Can you hear them....?" onwards...it's one of my all time favourite scenes. Yeah, rest of the ep isn't the best - though it is a solid space culture adventure - but that whole section is so impossibly wonderful that I could never rank it that low along with the poorer modern eps like Fear Her or Tsungra Conundrum. Though I think the Beeb knew that was the best bit as they uploaded it to YT. And you've made me wax so much about it I'm going to watch it again now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoVLhUxhdSw
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