Gavin WintersSomeone should do a running total of all the times companions in #DoctorWho have straight up murdered someone with their own hands. So far Ian’s caused that ice-soldier guy on Marinus to fall down a chasm and now he chucks Ixta off a pyramid.
Hmm, well after the brilliance of The Aztecs we now get the slow, plodding (both them and the story) The Sensorites.
Apart from The Daleks, it’s the sci-fi stories that are letting the side down in season one. The historicals are far more interesting.
Plus the cramped nature of Lime Grove studios is very obvious here. Everyone pretends that stuff happening three feet away is too distant to notice. Or they move painfully slowly down short corridors to make them seem longer. #DoctorWho
For such a supposedly advanced species, the Sensorites really are a bunch of thickies. They can’t figure out the obvious problem of the poisoned water and can’t tell each other apart if they wear different sashes. 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
I’d forgotten how grotty some of the surviving episodes of The Reign Of Terror look, like they’ve been dragged through the mud. Stands out in stark contrast to the surrounding stories. Thankfully the picture quality improves a bit by episode three.
The Doctor getting roped into the chain gang and then getting out of it is very funny. As is his impersonation of a high-ranking official. Hartnell was always so good when given a bit of comedy material. #DoctorWho
Switching to the recons for the two missing episodes rather than that hyperactive animation they released. (Seriously, what were they thinking with that??) #DoctorWho
Not the most exciting Historical (too much capturing/escaping/recapturing in that bloody prison) but the Reign Of Terror has its moments. And the jailer is a fun character.
Anyway, that’s season one done. Now hurry up Amazon and send me the Season Two Collection! #DoctorWho
Right, the Season Two box set’s arrived, so back to the #DoctorWho marathon with Planet Of Giants.
The oversized sets are very good. For the time and the budget what they achieved is near-miraculous. The DN6 plot feels like something from an early episode of The Avengers.
This is probably the prime example in the Hartnell era where, due to the tiny studio size, actors have to pretend they can’t see something that’s inches away until the camera pans over to reveal it.
“Yes, my report will financially ruin you.
By the way, I’m off on holiday by myself, sailing round France, so if anything happens to me nobody will notice my absence for quite some time and… oh you’ve pulled a gun. Bugger, I walked myself into that, didn’t I?” #DoctorWho
Only in #DoctorWho would you get cliffhangers where the thrilling scary thing that happens is:
A) a cat appearing
B) water going down a plug hole!
😁
The Dalek Invasion Of Earth: Location filming! Aliens invading Earth! Returning villains!
The Daleks coming back is the first tiny step towards broadening the scope of #DoctorWho. Giving it a bigger, more structured, universe. Rather than just aimless wandering.
Ian asks how the Daleks can be here after being destroyed on Skaro. The Doctor replies that was a million years in the future and this is “the middle period of Dalek history”, clearly bullshitting and making it up as he goes along! 😜
“What an odd sign. Still, at least it’s not product placement for Sugar Puffs.” #DoctorWho
The ‘bumper-car’ base on the Daleks in Dalek Invasion Of Earth is a good addition, especially when shooting them from a low angle. #DoctorWho
So, we get our first cast change as Susan leaves. She always has this huge iconic status as not only the first companion but also, bogglingly, A MEMBER OF THE DOCTOR’S ACTUAL FAMILY. Yet sadly the character as written doesn’t live up to any of that. What a shame.
Also, Jenny was a really good character. Should have had her come on board as the replacement! #DoctorWhoَ
“So I’m going to leave you behind here, on a devastated planet, to marry a man you’ve only known five minutes. Even though you’re only fifteen. Goodbye Susan. Goodbye my dear!” #DoctorWho
Hooray, Vicki’s arrived. Clearly they were being super-conservative with the first ever cast change and just went for the safe option of another teenage space-girl, but Vicki’s immediately a much more sparky and interesting character, and fits in well. #DoctorWho
Not much you can say about the simplicity of the plot of The Rescue. It’s just a very perfunctory story to get the new companion introduced and then move on. He would have got away with it too, if it wasn’t for these meddling time-travellers! #DoctorWho
Ah, I love The Romans. Hartnell is clearly having a ball doing all the comedy bits. His comic timing is perfection. And when he beats the crap out of the mute assassin is hilarious too. #DoctorWho
STOP LOOKING AT STOCK FOOTAGE OF LIONS AND COME PUNCH EMPEROR NERO’S LIGHTS OUT IAN
#DoctorWho
#DoctorWho
As a first attempt at trying to depict a truly alien planet in #DoctorWho , The Web Planet is a success, spending the whole first episode exploring the most bizarre environment the travellers have encountered so far. Pity they didn’t have a more exciting story to go with it.
For the first time we discover that the Doctor’s ring has special powers (stop sniggering at the back!) #DoctorWho
#DoctorWho And The Web Planet Of Men In Leather Trousers With Canoes On Their Backs
Can’t fault The Web Planet for its imagination and ambition, and I’m sure it blew kids minds at the time, but today it’s a bit of a slog to get through. I wish the Zarbi would shut up with the bloody chirruping! #DoctorWho
I’m not sure who I feel more sorry for, the actors who have to hop about in the Optera costumes or the poor sod who has to crawl along the floor as the Venom Grub. #DoctorWho
Hartnell’s wig is unusually long in this story. Get a haircut, ya hippy! #DoctorWho
#DoctorWho - The Crusade. They certainly didn’t compromise or dumb down for so-called “kids” telly back then, with dense wordy scripts like this. Richard and Joanna’s intense argument in episode three wouldn’t be out of place in some heavyweight drama.
And Barbara holding a knife while considering having to kill a young girl rather than let her be captured is pretty adult and grim too.
Right, resuming the #DoctorWho marathon after a Xmas break with The
Space Museum.
Due to some timey-wimey shenanigans, the Doctor’s (and companions’) clothes magically change. Well, let’s hope nothing as silly as that ever happens again! 😜
The first episode is great, with all the ‘jumping a time-track’, weirdness and seeing their potential future. Very Twilight Zone. Wouldn’t be out of place to see Rod Serling popping up to give an ominous intro.
Then we get the less exciting stuff with the Xerons and Moroks. The wettest group of oppressors/rebels ever! A bunch of teenagers trying to overthrow some middle-aged men with ‘50s Teddy-Boy haircuts. Thankfully Vicki sorts them out and the revolution’s quickly done. #DoctorWho
It’s been a while in this #DoctorWho marathon since some randy bloke hit on Barbara, necessitating a call for Ian to punch his lights out. So here he is beating up a couple of Morok guards, just to keep match-fit in case anyone tries it on with her again.
Onto ‘The Chase’, and Dr. Who has a huge new space telly (how did he fit that through the doors?!) that he wants to show off to the others.
I like how the Time-Space Visualiser is labelled with names of planets from our solar system. Seems a bit of a small scope! #DoctorWho
Ian’s Dad-dancing. 😆
The whole Beatles sequence would seem fairly silly now if they’d ended up a forgotten, flash-in-the-pan bit of Sixties pop-culture. #DoctorWho
Those are some impressive theme-park animatronics for 1996! Completely independent automated robots that can walk and talk and dress themselves. Amazing! 😅 That whole episode is totally mad, really. #DoctorWho
Still, despite the crapness of the robot Doctor, the way it’s shot, with Hartnell and the other actor swapping places, or two cameras either side of Hartnell so he can switch between characters in an instant, is well worked out. #DoctorWho
Some unusual Dalek interactions in The Chase, like the hesitant “Err…um…” one, or the one who keeps saying “Yes” to everything until his boss gets irritated and snaps “Well see to it then!” Also, first evidence of Dalek levitation? The one who rises out of the sand.
Kudos to the director for creating an epic final battle sequence out of just a handful of Daleks and Mechanoids in a couple of sets, with lots of quick cuts and double-images and superimposed flame and smoke. #DoctorWho
It’s detail that I think is lost today, (because we can compare them easily and see the difference) but surely the yard where Ian and Barbara return home is meant to be the same one in Totter’s Lane? Bound to be how contemporary viewers understood it, surely? #DoctorWho
#DoctorWho - The Time Meddler. Another Time Lord! With another TARDIS! The first tiny steps towards expanding the canon and lore of the show and the background of the Doctor. Can’t imagine what it must’ve been like seeing this for the first time in 1965.
Steven must think there’s loads of people flying around in TARDISes as he’s now encountered two in two consecutive stories. #DoctorWho
The Monk’s such a fun villain you can’t help rooting for him a little bit. #DoctorWho
There’s some effective use of back projection in this story, with lots of rolling clouds seen behind the characters… only ‘slightly* spoiled by their shadows occasionally falling across the “sky”! #DoctorWho
Galaxy 4: Ah, the old sci-fi trope of warning about the dangers of a society run entirely by… (GASP!)…women!
“We have a small number of men, as many as we need. The rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function.” Crikey! 😳
#DoctorWho
In the animation, Maaga grabs Steven by the throat and lifts him bodily off the ground! Surely an embellishment that wasn’t in the original episode? #DoctorWho
It’s hard to get a sense of the Rill spaceship since it’s all scaffolding and bits of perspex. Is that really meant to be the exterior wall? Of a spaceship?? #DoctorWho
Why does everyone in Galaxy 4 go on about “dawns” rather than days? I guess it makes the imminent destruction of the planet sound a bit more poetic.
Funny how Maaga spends the whole story obsessively wanting to take the Rills’ spaceship and only at the last minute thinks of commandeering the TARDIS instead.
#DoctorWho
The whole “Aha! The beautiful people are the baddies and the ugly monsters the goodies!” twist seems charmingly simplistic now, but must have been still fairly novel at the time.
And all when Star Trek was just a glint in Roddenberry’s eye… 😀 #DoctorWho
Watched the 2019 remake of Mission To The Unknown. Very good, and when watched in context with the surrounding episodes you could almost believe it was a product of the time. #DoctorWho
There’s still a lot of clumsy misuse of cosmological terms at this point. “Solar system”, “Galaxy”, “Universe”, etc, all get bandied about interchangeably. #DoctorWho
The Myth Makers: another semi-comical historical from Donald Cotton. The antics of the ruling family in Troy are part sitcom and part soap opera, with Barrie Ingram as Paris in particular being a character straight out of a farce. #DoctorWho
Our first view of the TARDIS wardrobe room apparently. Or at least it would be if the pictures weren’t missing, damnit.
Also probably the first (and only) use of the word “orgy” in #DoctorWho ! 😳
And that’s it for Vicki. One again the Doctor has an incredibly cavalier attitude towards letting a teenage girl stay in an unfamiliar time and place to marry the first bloke she got a crush on, and who she met two days ago.
Someone report him to the authorities! 🤪 #DoctorWho
The couple in episode one are arguing about what to watch on space telly - the Mars / Venus match or Mavic Chen’s speech. Disappointing to see that in the year 4000 there’s no longer any such thing as streaming/recording/catchup services. #DoctorWho
The Daleks really need better security at their conferences. The Doctor just waltzes in in a cloak and nicks the tarranium. Doh!
Should’ve had lanyards with photo ID. Though since the Delegates are all so bizarre looking it’d probably be redundant. #DoctorWho
Never mind everything else the Daleks have ever done, in the middle of The Daleks Master Plan they needlessly exterminate some mice! You bastards! 😨 #DoctorWho
CliffChapman@gavinwinters presumably wiped out in the great catastrophe that renders USB, disc and SD card technology useless, so we have to go back to magnetic tape ;)
All Of Time And Space Podcast
Gaia@gavinwinters it’s his descendant! His and saras mom was a lethbridge-Stewart or how you spell it in the 40th century
Víktor Bautista i RocaTo me, it's weird the use English speakers do of words like sun instead of star and moon instead of satellite. And, of course, then they have to find a name for the Sun and the Moon, and they call them Sol and Luna! One day they'll say Mars is an earth, not a planet, and will call the Earth Terra.
xjarlie@gavinwinters I find this use of scientific terms in older media really interesting.
In 'An Unearthly Child', Susan describes the 4th and 5th dimensions as being time and space, respectively. Nowadays, the average TV-viewer is likely to understand that the first 3 dimensions represent 'space', and some will know that time is often called the 4th dimension.
When the episode was released, however, viewers were less likely to be casually aware of this kind of scientific vocab - (1/2)
@xjarlie I think time being called the fourth dimension was fairly well-known even in 1963. The way Ian wearily says “oh, time being the fourth I suppose” in response to Susan talking about other dimensions suggests it was a pretty familiar concept even back then.
@gavinwinters Oh, that's a good point, I must have missed that - also got the order wrong in my original post lol,
All of this is a healthy reminder that I need to rewatch some classic who