Gavin WintersNever. Not. Funny. đđđ
#DoctorWho
Still, despite the crapness of the robot Doctor, the way itâs 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 âErrâŠumâŠâ one, or the one who keeps saying âYesâ to everything until his boss gets irritated and snaps âWell see to it then!â 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
Itâs 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 Totterâs 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. Canât imagine what it mustâve been like seeing this for the first time in 1965.
Steven must think thereâs loads of people flying around in TARDISes as heâs now encountered two in two consecutive stories. #DoctorWho
The Monkâs such a fun villain you canât help rooting for him a little bit. #DoctorWho
Thereâs some effective use of back projection in this story, with lots of rolling clouds seen behind the characters⊠only âslightly* spoiled by their shadows occasionally falling across the âskyâ! #DoctorWho
Galaxy 4: Ah, the old sci-fi trope of warning about the dangers of a society run entirely by⊠(GASP!)âŠwomen!
âWe have a small number of men, as many as we need. The rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function.â Crikey! đł
#DoctorWho
In the animation, Maaga grabs Steven by the throat and lifts him bodily off the ground! Surely an embellishment that wasnât in the original episode? #DoctorWho
Itâs hard to get a sense of the Rill spaceship since itâs 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 âdawnsâ 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 Rillsâ spaceship and only at the last minute thinks of commandeering the TARDIS instead.
#DoctorWho
The whole âAha! The beautiful people are the baddies and the ugly monsters the goodies!â 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 Roddenberryâs eye⊠đ #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
Thereâs still a lot of clumsy misuse of cosmological terms at this point. âSolar systemâ, âGalaxyâ, âUniverseâ, 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 werenât missing, damnit.
Also probably the first (and only) use of the word âorgyâ in #DoctorWho ! đł
And thatâs 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! đ€Ș #DoctorWho
The couple in episode one are arguing about what to watch on space telly - the Mars / Venus match or Mavic Chenâs speech. Disappointing to see that in the year 4000 thereâs 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!
Shouldâve had lanyards with photo ID. Though since the Delegates are all so bizarre looking itâd 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! đš #DoctorWho
Karlton (Chenâs No. 2) is an underrated villain. If his episodes still existed I think heâd be up there in the ranks of creepy underlings alongside Nyder from Genesis. #DoctorWho
The Feast Of Steven is properly mad, isnât it? Quite a meta gag for the Doctor to ârecogniseâ an actor from a previous role!
At one point the Doctor spells out TARDIS AS âTime And Relative DimensionS (plural) In Spaceâ. Take that pedants! #DoctorWho
The previous weekâs cliffhanger of a âtotally poisonous atmosphere!â then becoming simply some 1960s air pollution is a hilariously crap cop-out. #DoctorWho
Back to DMP and The TARDIS makes a quick stop-off on Earth on New Yearâs Day. (I timed the rewatch of this episode well)
Then itâs a welcome return for the Monk. I wish weâd seen the bit where the Doctor wraps him up like a mummy and shoves him in a sarcophagus! #DoctorWho
Towards the end the Delegates are back. Pity we didnât (apparently) get to see more of Sentreal, the Satanic Christmas Tree. Weâre all agreed heâs everyoneâs favourite, yes? đ #DoctorWho
What a surprise, the Daleks turn on Mavic Chen and exterminate him. So much for your genius plan, Space-Trump! #DoctorWho
RIP Sara, we hardly knew ya (but at least a bit more than Katarina) đ€·đ»ââïž
The Massacre (âŠâof St. Bartholomewâs Eveâ if you insist, but I prefer the short version). Just weeks since this show gave us the madcap antics of The Feast Of Steven and now we get this extremely heavy political and religious drama. Mustâve been a bit hardgoing for kids at the time. #DoctorWho
Stevenâs big argument with the Doctor before storming out, and Hartnellâs poignant monologue afterwards (mentioning his home world!), must be one of the most âI wish the visuals still existedâ moments In sixties #DoctorWho
Oh, hello Dodo, random young person with no apparent life or backstory or reason to stay on Earth and so is a ready-made companion after stumbling into the TARDIS. Thatâs pretty convenient! #DoctorWho
#DoctorWho : The Ark. They must have spent a bit of cash on this one - huge sets, loads of extras, even a bloody elephant in the studio!
The visual FX are noticeably starting to improve too, with some new tricks for merging one picture with another.
âTake them to the Security Kitchen! Where they can⊠make my breakfast! Securely!â #DoctorWho
The Monoids really are the most rubbish villains for *constantly* blurting out their evil plans and letting everyone else hear. #DoctorWho
The Celestial Toymaker: Hmm, for many years âreceived fan wisdomâ said this was an all-time classic. I always think it was just people who were kids at the time found it mind-blowing. So weird and surreal and format-breaking. But itâs all a bitâŠnothing, really. #DoctorWho
The Toymaker himself is a fun and interesting villain, and after watching this again Iâm now looking forward to his (apparent) return, but the plot is wafer-thin. Same runaround nonsense repeated for four episodes. #DoctorWho
Still, the totally-not-copyright-infringing-and-definitely-not-Billy-Bunter character of Cyril in the final episode is such an odious, annoying prick that his eventual death is one of the most satisfying in all of #DoctorWho ! đ
The complete inverse of The Celestial Toymaker, The Gunfighters had a reputation for being rubbish⊠until people actually got to see it. A perfectly enjoyable and funny story.
And yeah, I even donât mind âThe Ballad Of The Last Chance Saloonâ. So sue me. đ #DoctorWho
Hartnell once again showing how good he is when given a bit of comedy business. All the bits with the Doctorâs toothache in the dentistâs office are hilarious. #DoctorWho
River Song: âA Time Lordâs body is a miracle. There are whole empires out there whoâd rip this world apart just for one cellâŠâ
Well donât leave your bloody tooth on 19th-century Earth, Doctor!
*spaceships gather in the sky above Tombstone*
I thought Dodo had a wandering accent. Itâs nothing compared to some of the âAmericanâ accents on display here. Arizona via Yorkshire. #DoctorWho
âYour humble servant, Doctor Caligari!â
âDoctor⊠Who?â
âQuite so!â
First example of that joke? Unless you count when Ian said it in the very first episode. #DoctorWho
The Savages: a very underrated story about a parasitic ruling elite literally draining the life from the lower echelons of society. Always think this would be much more highly rated if we could see it. Hope itâs considered for these new animations at some point. #DoctorWho
The Doctor seems to be using a bulky, proto-sonic screwdriver at one point. Which he describes as âMy reacting vibrator!â
Good grief. đł
âWe can make the brave man braver, the strong man stronger, the wise man wiser!â
Just as youâre thinking, âwell donât these qualities apply to women?â he adds:
âThe beautiful girl more beautiful still!â
Oh⊠okay. đ #DoctorWho
Jano in The Savages âbecomingâ the Doctor is a nice twist, with a fun impersonation by Frederick Jaeger, but itâs sad to see that at this stage they have to write Hartnell out at every opportunity to give him a break.
Especially when he was so good in the earlier scene when the Doctor makes a furious condemnation of how their society works. #DoctorWho
The revolving door of companions in season three continues as Steven leaves for⊠no apparent reason. The only man who can help this society rebuild? Eh, really? Oh well, bye then! đ #DoctorWho
The War Machines: a return to contemporary earth, with the world under threat from a megalomaniacal computer, and the Doctor has all sorts of establishment contacts with scientists, the military, government⊠hang on, are we in the Pertwee era by mistake?? #DoctorWho
The Inferno Nightclub! The most âwith itâ, happening place in town! Where all the teenagers are at least 35! #DoctorWho
Stop calling it âVOTANâ when itâs spelled âWOTANâ! Honestly, this is gif and jif all over again. #DoctorWho
Now itâs Dodoâs turn to be unceremoniously dumped in one of the worst companion exits ever, with an offscreen goodbye.
Oh well, at least weâll now have a bit of stability for a while with Ben and Polly. #DoctorWho
The Smugglers: one of the least gripping historicals. You can see why they started phasing them out. Weâve come a long way from when The Aztecs or Marco Polo would be the highlights in a season. The sci-fi stories are now the far more interesting ones. #DoctorWho
Ah, the old convention of, when in a historical setting, put a woman in trousers and everyone immediately starts going âYou there, boy!â
Come on lads, get your eyes tested! đ #DoctorWho
The Tenth Planet: Well, after several years of attempting to come up with a creature to rival the popularity of the Daleks, through Zarbi and Mechanoids and War Machines, it finally happens almost by accident as these guys stumble through the snow⊠#DoctorWho
Twice in recent stories weâve had the modern convention of seeing news reports on the unfolding events. Long before RTD did it!
In fact everything feels subtly more modern, with the Doctor himself being the only leftover from a previous era that needs replacing⊠#DoctorWho
These early Cybermen might look cheaply knocked together with bits of tape and plastic and surgical stockings on actors faces, but theyâre still one of the most effective designs, with elements of the human being still visible. #DoctorWho
chardir@gavinwinters Yes, really good design - effectively evoking the human-kept-alive-through-technology idea.
Gaia@gavinwinters they shouldâve said that dodo was older than Steven, like katarina propably was.
Inanimate Carbon God@gavinwinters It's a quite remarkable look ahead to the show's future, isn't it? The only thing missing is UNIT and The Master being behind it all...
Juicy Cake Of Figs@gavinwinters One thing I like about this story, which I don't see why they've never done since, is having the Doctor and Companions pose as travelling players.
@datadivajf Maybe because of all the trouble it gets Steven and Dodo into when they have to perform! đ