Adams vs Bidmead (S17 v 18)

A mid point between the two. Bidmead could be too morbid and Adams was waaaay over rated.

I'm a fan of Season 18 because of the evenness of the stories: they all felt of a similar quality and the characterisation of the regulars felt more consistent. There was also a subtle storyline progressing through much of the season that pushed the characters on which was kept on throughout Series 19 as well which gave you the idea that the characters had some kind of inner life. Aside from the regeneration in Destiny of the Daleks, Season 17 feels like the adventures could be watched in any order - not that there is a real problem with that, of course.

I would certainly lean more towards series 17.

But I agree with wolfie53 I do think that other media (books and audio) gave us the best stories from that era.

I actually think that Tom was more zany (or out-of-control) during series 16 than 17. Certainly, there's the 'my arms, my legs, my everything' nonsense in Nightmare of Eden, but for the most part, he seems to be held more in check during his stories with Lalla than with Mary Tamm. Thanks to Douglas Adams' script-editing, the level of whimsy was somewhat heightened during his tenure, and Tom felt more a part of that.

Anyway, for me, Series 18 will always be my favourite. Every story is brilliant (yes, even the maligned, magnificnent Meglos), there is a definite sombre tone of change in the air and I love the more restrined, weary Doctor. A lot of it could be down to Tom's illness and fatigue at the time (and possibly his resistence to the controls of the new regime), but the results are magical. I love that there's a trilogy at the heart of the series, adding an extra sense of jeopardy to proceedings - and also that there's another (hidden) trilogy directly after, with each story featuring the re-emergence of The Master.

Christopher Bidmead must take much credit for this. Although he has occasionally been disparaging about Who since (Doctor Who fans should 'get a life', apparently) and his two stories for Big Finish have been pretty poor, his work as script-editor and writer of three stories has been excellent. I think it was an article in DWM that cited series 17 as 'the party' and series 18 as 'the hangover'. I like that analogy, and I like series 18 more than any other.

For me (and I suspect, others too), Tom wasn't simply an actor that played The Doctor for seven years. He used that time to present three different sides to that Doctor, all of which 'coincided' with a change in the production team. Firstly, we got the bohemian, gothic Doctor with the reassuringly toothy grin. Three years later, we had the flippant, passionate and wildly eccentric side to the character before, in his final year, we saw a return to the more sombre persona - still cracking jokes and bing silly, but with an underlying and increasing weariness, a shorter temper and a kind of resigned benevolence. I loved all of that.

With BF, as an aside, we seem to get all of those things rolled into one - which is absolutely fine with me!

Agreed. It's pure joy to watch him in those stories.

Oh I do love the tone of Season 18. The sense of melancholy building, and I absolutely love Logopolis. And hey it even has something of a plot arc (the CVEs into E-Space only explained in Logopolis)

That said, I like Adams' wacky humour too. City of Death is a masterpiece. Both takes on the show are both good in their own ways. This is the thing with Who, it can be interpreted all these different ways.

It's pretty clear which season Tom enjoyed more, but his performance in Season 18 isn't bad, it's just a quieter take on the character, which fits with the sense of closing down.

I think Season 18 is much stronger, although if more of Season 17 had been like the genius City of Death, I think my opinion would be flipped. The problem with 17 isn't Adams – it's people who aren't as good as Adams trying to write like him. You have to be really good to consistently pull off that wit.
After an era that was slowly drifting into self-parody, I think Bidmead and Season 18 were a welcome and necessary change. Doctor Who is funny, but it shouldn't be a parody of itself, at least not regularly.

I enjoy them both. Of Adams' season admittedly I've only seen Destiny and City of Death (I have the Baker-inset release of Shada waiting on my shelf) but both are throughly enjoyable (Destiny was my first classic Dalek story, so I'm probably much kinder to it that others). Season 18 (of which I'm only missing Leisure Hive and Meglos) I enjoy for completely different reasons, I like the somber mood, I really love Logopolis' atmosphere.