Gavin WintersSteven 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
Karlton (Chen’s No. 2) is an underrated villain. If his episodes still existed I think he’d be up there in the ranks of creepy underlings alongside Nyder from Genesis. #DoctorWho
The Feast Of Steven is properly mad, isn’t it? Quite a meta gag for the Doctor to “recognise” an actor from a previous role!
At one point the Doctor spells out TARDIS AS ‘Time And Relative DimensionS (plural) In Space’. Take that pedants! #DoctorWho
The previous week’s cliffhanger of a “totally poisonous atmosphere!” 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 Year’s Day. (I timed the rewatch of this episode well)
Then it’s a welcome return for the Monk. I wish we’d 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 didn’t (apparently) get to see more of Sentreal, the Satanic Christmas Tree. We’re all agreed he’s everyone’s favourite, yes? 😁 #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) 🤷🏻♂️
The Massacre (…‘of St. Bartholomew’s Eve’ 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. Must’ve been a bit hardgoing for kids at the time. #DoctorWho
Steven’s big argument with the Doctor before storming out, and Hartnell’s poignant monologue afterwards (mentioning his home world!), must be one of the most “I wish the visuals still existed” 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. That’s 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.
“Take them to the Security Kitchen! Where they can… make my breakfast! Securely!” #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 ‘received fan wisdom’ 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 it’s all a bit…nothing, really. #DoctorWho
The Toymaker himself is a fun and interesting villain, and after watching this again I’m 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 ! 😄
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 don’t mind ‘The Ballad Of The Last Chance Saloon’. So sue me. 😜 #DoctorWho
Hartnell once again showing how good he is when given a bit of comedy business. All the bits with the Doctor’s toothache in the dentist’s office are hilarious. #DoctorWho
River Song: “A Time Lord’s body is a miracle. There are whole empires out there who’d rip this world apart just for one cell…”
Well don’t leave your bloody tooth on 19th-century Earth, Doctor!
*spaceships gather in the sky above Tombstone*
I thought Dodo had a wandering accent. It’s nothing compared to some of the “American” accents on display here. Arizona via Yorkshire. #DoctorWho
“Your humble servant, Doctor Caligari!”
“Doctor… Who?”
“Quite so!”
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 it’s 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 “My reacting vibrator!”
Good grief. 😳
“We can make the brave man braver, the strong man stronger, the wise man wiser!”
Just as you’re thinking, ‘well don’t these qualities apply to women?’ he adds:
“The beautiful girl more beautiful still!”
Oh… okay. 😐 #DoctorWho
Jano in The Savages “becoming” the Doctor is a nice twist, with a fun impersonation by Frederick Jaeger, but it’s 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! 😕 #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 ‘with it’, happening place in town! Where all the teenagers are at least 35! #DoctorWho
Stop calling it ‘VOTAN’ when it’s spelled ‘WOTAN’! Honestly, this is gif and jif all over again. #DoctorWho
Now it’s Dodo’s turn to be unceremoniously dumped in one of the worst companion exits ever, with an offscreen goodbye.
Oh well, at least we’ll 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. We’ve 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 “You there, boy!”
Come on lads, get your eyes tested! 😄 #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 we’ve 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 they’re still one of the most effective designs, with elements of the human being still visible. #DoctorWho
(Just kidding!)
Power Of The Daleks: …and hello Pat! Instantly likeable as the Doctor. Of course some contemporary viewers weren’t happy with the change… 😄
It’s a clever device to have people investigating the Daleks as some ancient and dead curiosity, with only the Doctor (and the viewers) aware of the danger. Immediately puts you on the side of the new Doctor. You can see why they did it again with Tomb Of The Cybermen. #DoctorWho
Is the Dalek capsule meant to be bigger on the inside? Because when we finally see the full extent of it it’s bloody enormous! With a whole Dalek factory inside. How did they drag something that big into Lesterson’s laboratory? #DoctorWho
chardir@gavinwinters Yes, really good design - effectively evoking the human-kept-alive-through-technology idea.
Gaia@gavinwinters they should’ve 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...