melkur
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Post by melkur on Feb 15, 2021 2:38:57 GMT
Over the past week or so I've watched 'The Leisure Hive' and 'Meglos'. Whilst they're certainly not the 'best' stories in the world, & area little short, I've always had a soft-spot for them... (I watched an omnibus-cut of 'Leisure Hive' on the show's 50th as part of my 'a story per Doctor' watch).
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Post by mark687 on Feb 20, 2021 21:19:30 GMT
Logopolis
(On near as darn its 40th Anniversary its "its the End...")
Regards
mark687
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2021 23:41:31 GMT
Survival.For the first time in quite a long time. A good showing all round. It's curious to think that this is the same show we began with on that cold November night after Kennedy was shot or even that fateful announcement in '85 that the programme would be taking a long rest. After a couple of years in pallative care, it feels like its finally able to be what it wanted to be. It's fresh, fine-tuned and there's a good sense of both Doctor and companion. Dominic Glynn's guitar riffs bring to mind echoes of Eric Clapton two years previous and Alan Wareing's direction has little touches of genuine cinematography to them. The sun on the river, gazing at Ace's shoes on the spinning carousel, etc. Watching it with knowledge of where the series could have gone in 1990 had it continued, Survival prefigures a number of facets for a more Earth-centric series. The more explicit intermingling of the extraordinary with the mundane. The threat coming from disturbing aspects of humanity's own psyche as much as beyond our world. Incidentally, boy, can Lisa Bowerman act through all those layers of make-up. Kara is our only firsthand link to the fierce intelligence behind the Cheetah People. We only get to know her well for ten minutes at the most, but it sticks. Ainley's Master is at his best here, likewise. A vicious, manipulative background presence whose own predatory instinct for survival propels the story forward. This doesn't feel like a show on its way out. Far from it. Where Revelation of the Daleks could have felt like a final wake before a permanent hiatus, Survival shows a series that refused to go out on anything other than its own terms. It would not scrape, bow or yield and, indeed, survived.
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Post by timegirl on Feb 23, 2021 13:40:58 GMT
Torchwood Children of Earth Day 1 I have gone back and forth a lot about trying Torchwood the tv series due to hearing about the first two series sometimes less than stellar reputations, I have listened to two Torchwood BF audios, but this is my first tv episode I have tried. I picked this one since I know Children of Earth is considered the best and well, Peter Capaldi is in it. My god was that terrifying! When all the kids stop and talk in unison my whole body went completely cold! The Torchwood Team were interesting. I like Ianto. Gwen reminds me a bit of Rose for some reason. Jack is a lot less cartoony than he is on DW! I don’t like how Jack and Ianto tried to use children as bate but I can see why they did that. Capaldi as John Frobisher seems tragic already!I sense sadness in his eyes every scene he’s in. I do know where things are going because I have heard so much about this series by it’s still heartbreaking! There are still some really cheesy bits but they are welcome since it’s such a dark story! Definitely going to keep going with this!
Sidenote: On a random tangent it bothers me whenever Capaldi has that short nerdy flat hair like he does here. I keep wanting to reach through the screen and floof his hair out for him😄
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Post by constonks on Feb 24, 2021 2:52:40 GMT
I picked this one since I know Children of Earth is considered the best and well, Peter Capaldi is in it. Oh wow, you are in for a ride. It's great stuff and really, properly NOT Doctor Who.
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Post by timegirl on Feb 24, 2021 3:07:35 GMT
I picked this one since I know Children of Earth is considered the best and well, Peter Capaldi is in it. Oh wow, you are in for a ride. It's great stuff and really, properly NOT Doctor Who. I heard it’s the darkest story in the entire whoniverse! I am preparing myself!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2021 9:34:38 GMT
Funny bit of serendipity, I was looking through some of my old notes and, back in 1986/87, the ABC here in Australia aired a "season" of serials from the Pertwee/Baker years. Stories that were too violent, too grotesque, too topical to go through the censors at the time. But, with the ABC finally able to wrangle its own censorship, it could broadcast all the stories without cuts for the very first time. Stories like... - Inferno
- The Mind of Evil
- The Daemons
- The Brain of Morbius
- The Deadly Assassin
Facists, phobias, demons, fanatics and nightmare killers. All the terrors of the universe, and a new way to watch the stories in sequence. ...I think I'm going to have a lot of fun.
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,964
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Post by melkur on Feb 24, 2021 20:38:19 GMT
Over the past week or so I've been stuck in E-Space with 4 & Romana, with 'Full Circle' and 'State Of Decay'. I have a soft-spot for series 18, I must say...
Before bed tonight I'll be watching part 2 of "Warriors' Gate".
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2021 0:37:12 GMT
Over the past week or so I've been stuck in E-Space with 4 & Romana, with 'Full Circle' and 'State Of Decay'. I have a soft-spot for series 18, I must say... Before bed tonight I'll be watching part 2 of "Warriors' Gate". Snap! Been watching season 18 the past month and slotting the audios in their proper places. Certainly a lot better now than when i was a kid, a bit to slow ( alternatively, Meglos which i loved as a kid failed to grab my attention as much, there was something a bit lacking)
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
Likes: 3,964
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Post by melkur on Feb 25, 2021 2:16:28 GMT
Over the past week or so I've been stuck in E-Space with 4 & Romana, with 'Full Circle' and 'State Of Decay'. I have a soft-spot for series 18, I must say... Before bed tonight I'll be watching part 2 of "Warriors' Gate". Snap! Been watching season 18 the past month and slotting the audios in their proper places. Certainly a lot better now than when i was a kid, a bit to slow ( alternatively, Meglos which i loved as a kid failed to grab my attention as much, there was something a bit lacking) 'The Keeper Of Traken' was my favourite story growing up, and I still have a soft-spot for it today. If I had a copy of the related FDA series, I would have been listening to them too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2021 6:14:11 GMT
Snap! Been watching season 18 the past month and slotting the audios in their proper places. Certainly a lot better now than when i was a kid, a bit to slow ( alternatively, Meglos which i loved as a kid failed to grab my attention as much, there was something a bit lacking) 'The Keeper Of Traken' was my favourite story growing up, and I still have a soft-spot for it today. If I had a copy of the related FDA series, I would have been listening to them too. There's a lot to recommend Keeper. I think it might be my personal favourite of Season 18. It asks the question: "What does paradise actually look like?" The Traken Union is meant to be a perfect coalition of worlds, but it's not one it's stumbled into, the Trakenites have earned it. Slowly. Malador and his Melkur being one of the more obvious threats to the Union. They're almost Gallifreyan in that way. A society that's outgrown the violence of its past into something outwardly quite Edenic. Peaceful.
Of course... If it were really perfect, we'd have no story. Doctor Who's very good at characters who are in situations that aren't quite as straightforward as they first appear. I like Kassia a lot. She's essentially a wife and mother trying to protect her husband and adoptive daughter.
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Post by elkawho on Feb 27, 2021 15:26:08 GMT
Had two weeks of Doctor Who group viewings in a row. Last Friday was The Curse of Fenric (good stuff!) and last night was Downtime. This was my first time watching that classic ( ). I can't say that it was good, but it was fairly watchable and fun for the most part. Poor John Leeson! My big question is, why is it called Downtime?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 1:36:49 GMT
Had two weeks of Doctor Who group viewings in a row. Last Friday was The Curse of Fenric (good stuff!) and last night was Downtime. This was my first time watching that classic ( ). I can't say that it was good, but it was fairly watchable and fun for the most part. Poor John Leeson! My big question is, why is it called Downtime? It's a useful bit of lingo in IT and communications services. "Downtime" is a term used to describe the period that a network, transmitter or server goes offline. The time that those maintaining the systems can use to repair and prepare it for whatever comes next (in this case, a Great... oh, something or rather. *taps nose*). "Uptime" is the reverse, how long something has been online and active. Yeah, it's an interesting artefact of its period. The novelisation's pretty good and fleshes out some of the more ambiguous elements from the video. I think this was one of the very first times we got to see companions dealing with their lives after the Doctor. In an era where they weren't in direct contact with one another or part of an organised, well, unit. 1998's Harry Sullivan is out there somewhere with a much younger Sarah and Fourth Doctor tackling System Shock. I rather like Downtime as the "Yeti Cutaway", so to speak, for Millennial Rites with the Sixth Doctor and Mel. Contrary to what the Brigadier hopes, the Great Intelligence isn't gone. Neither is poor Anne, Professor Travers's real daughter, who survives him through to the new millennium. She blames the Doctor for her father's death. In fact, what happens here plays a large part in why Rites turns out the way it does, so the story's not quite over yet. The Doctor's yet to have his say...
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Post by mark687 on Mar 9, 2021 20:31:14 GMT
The Mind of Evil and Colony in Space
(Nice Blu-Ray upscale's with Delgado owning the show)
Regards
mark687
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 20:42:53 GMT
Reporting back on the "1986/87 uncensored ABC season", for want of a better descriptor. Featuring uncut versions of Inferno, The Mind of Evil, The Daemons, The Brain of Morbius (a rarity then) and The Deadly Assassin. Watching these stories immediately in sequence, I was struck by a few very interesting key similarities. Outside of the general intensity of the violence. All stories, bar the last, deal with a demonic depiction of fire. A pervading, mystical, if not outright malevolent presence in the story. Three of them also have to do with political killings in the murdered Chinese delegate, the execution of Morbius and the assassination of the President. Four if you include the royal family's mentioned executions in Inferno. Every story deals, in one respect or another, with a loss of control over the self due to an outside influence. Through body horror or unwilling mental manipulation.
This grouping also flows extremely well into one another thematically, beginning with The Mind of Evil's direct reference to Inferno's world of flames. The Doctor's assertion to the Daemon, Azal, that mankind is more than capable of destroying itself without outside intervention is hard to refute against the drilling project and Stangmoor prison. The "magic" in The Brain of Morbius has the same vein of ambiguity as that in Devil's End. In the last story, we get the nod to events on Karn with reference to the CIA in The Deadly Assassin.
I really enjoyed it. Odd to think that Trial of a Time Lord would've been slap-bang in the middle between the Pertwees and the (Tom) Bakers, but again, it's deceptively complimentary. There's that tip of the hat to the Third Doctor in The Mysterious Planet and the Time Lord shenanigans of The Ultimate Foe would have primed viewers for Morbius and Assassin. Anyone looking for a new twist on how to watch the old series -- I can definitely recommend this one.
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Post by timegirl on Mar 10, 2021 20:45:33 GMT
Reporting back on the "1986/87 uncensored ABC season", for want of a better descriptor. Featuring uncut versions of Inferno, The Mind of Evil, The Daemons, The Brain of Morbius (a rarity then) and The Deadly Assassin. Watching these stories immediately in sequence, I was struck by a few very interesting key similarities. Outside of the general intensity of the violence. All stories, bar the last, deal with a demonic depiction of fire. A pervading, mystical, if not outright malevolent presence in the story. Three of them also have to do with political killings in the murdered Chinese delegate, the execution of Morbius and the assassination of the President. Four if you include the royal family's mentioned executions in Inferno. Every story deals, in one respect or another, with a loss of control over the self due to an outside influence. Through body horror or unwilling mental manipulation.
This grouping also flows extremely well into one another thematically, beginning with The Mind of Evil's direct reference to Inferno's world of flames. The Doctor's assertion to the Daemon, Azal, that mankind is more than capable of destroying itself without outside intervention is hard to refute against the drilling project and Stangmoor prison. The "magic" in The Brain of Morbius has the same vein of ambiguity as that in Devil's End. In the last story, we get the nod to events on Karn with reference to the CIA in The Deadly Assassin.
I really enjoyed it. Odd to think that Trial of a Time Lord would've been slap-bang in the middle between the Pertwees and the (Tom) Bakers, but again, it's deceptively complimentary. There's that tip of the hat to the Third Doctor in The Mysterious Planet and the Time Lord shenanigans of The Ultimate Foe would have primed viewers for Morbius and Assassin. Anyone looking for a new twist on how to watch the old series -- I can definitely recommend this one.
That’s fascinating! I never realized there were so many parallels between those stories!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2021 22:13:44 GMT
Reporting back on the "1986/87 uncensored ABC season", for want of a better descriptor. Featuring uncut versions of Inferno, The Mind of Evil, The Daemons, The Brain of Morbius (a rarity then) and The Deadly Assassin. Watching these stories immediately in sequence, I was struck by a few very interesting key similarities. Outside of the general intensity of the violence. All stories, bar the last, deal with a demonic depiction of fire. A pervading, mystical, if not outright malevolent presence in the story. Three of them also have to do with political killings in the murdered Chinese delegate, the execution of Morbius and the assassination of the President. Four if you include the royal family's mentioned executions in Inferno. Every story deals, in one respect or another, with a loss of control over the self due to an outside influence. Through body horror or unwilling mental manipulation.
This grouping also flows extremely well into one another thematically, beginning with The Mind of Evil's direct reference to Inferno's world of flames. The Doctor's assertion to the Daemon, Azal, that mankind is more than capable of destroying itself without outside intervention is hard to refute against the drilling project and Stangmoor prison. The "magic" in The Brain of Morbius has the same vein of ambiguity as that in Devil's End. In the last story, we get the nod to events on Karn with reference to the CIA in The Deadly Assassin.
I really enjoyed it. Odd to think that Trial of a Time Lord would've been slap-bang in the middle between the Pertwees and the (Tom) Bakers, but again, it's deceptively complimentary. There's that tip of the hat to the Third Doctor in The Mysterious Planet and the Time Lord shenanigans of The Ultimate Foe would have primed viewers for Morbius and Assassin. Anyone looking for a new twist on how to watch the old series -- I can definitely recommend this one.
That’s fascinating! I never realized there were so many parallels between those stories! It really is, isn't it? I didn't make the connection either until I put them side-by-side.
Adaptation as a process is an endlessly fascinating to me. We've got Doctor Who in audiobooks, novelisations, but there was a time that the show was also influenced by how it was sold and broadcast overseas. I say Trial of a Time Lord was broadcast in the middle, but not as a 14-parter as originally produced. It would've aired in Australia as a fifty-minute seven-parter called -- rather ominously -- The Trial. A change made, oddly enough, after editing the 45-minute episodes of Season 22 back into 25-minutes.
There are loads of little details all over the place like that. Just to name a couple:
- During original airing, Jo Grant's final story would've been Planet of the Daleks. When she asks the Doctor to take her home to Earth, that's the last we would've seen of her with Sarah Jane arriving for The Time Warrior. Sarah doesn't return to Earth after her trip to the past until her final story Planet of the Spiders. Invasion of the Dinosaurs not being broadcast until 1984 and, even then, editing out the missing first episode.
- There was no Who aired in 1981. At all. Not even repeats. The show would return after The Horns of Nimon with a full run of stories that went from the first of the Fourth Doctor's final season, all the way through to the last of the Fifth Doctor's debut season. Logopolis/Castrovalva occupying the same sort of narrative space as Frontier in Space/Planet of the Daleks. The Leisure Hive must have come as a bit of a shock after the wait.
- The show began airing episodes in 1965 and ended its run in 1990, running every new story except The Daleks' Master Plan (and even if it had been accepted, it would have lost the Christmas episode as that didn't air outside the UK). Its debut was delayed by what was thought to be a small technical defect on the tape sent for the first Dalek story. As it turned out, the negative effect on the first episode as the titles were playing was deliberate and not a duplication error as first thought.
Small changes, comparatively speaking, but ones that would've made for some very interesting pieces of nostalgia. Imagine finding out, years after the fact, about the real final story of Jo Grant or experiencing the whirlwind change of Fourth to Fifth Doctors without any pause for breath.
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Post by mark687 on Mar 11, 2021 18:51:04 GMT
The Deamons
(Who needs a Weeping Angel when you've got a Bok and a wind machine)
Regards
mark687
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Post by mark687 on Mar 13, 2021 21:55:42 GMT
Claws of Axos
(On its Golden Anniversary still a very story with a couple of unfortunately still relevant themes.)
Regards
mark687
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Post by elkawho on Mar 14, 2021 16:15:49 GMT
Claws of Axos (On its Golden Anniversary still a very story with a couple of unfortunately still relevant themes.) Regards mark687 Watched it this past Friday with my Doctor Who club. Not one of us realized it was it's 50th this weekend. We then watched the classic Bill Filer: UNIT Operative. It was the cherry on top!
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