Gavin WintersThe 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
The rebels in Power Of The Daleks fit the gun-arms back into the disarmed Daleks to use them to overthrow the Governor (and of course the Daleks end up killing them!)
Did they not think to just try figuring out a way to operate the guns themselves? #DoctorWho
The Doctor’s clothes magically changed when he regenerated! Well, let’s hope nothing as silly as that ever happens again… #DoctorWho
Though I always assumed the intention with Troughton’s costume is that it’s a baggy oversized version of Hartnell’s, so people watching on tiny 1960s TVs would think it’s the same clothes and the Doctor’s just shrunk a bit. #DoctorWho
The Highlanders: well it’s the last of the (by now, slightly plodding) historicals. But the best thing is that Jamie’s arrived. 😀
Fair play to Frazer for getting on so well with the cast and crew they took an incidental character and turned him into a new companion! #DoctorWho
I don’t know if they could have kept up this character trait of the new Doctor being a master of disguise and accents over the long term, but it was fun while it lasted. #DoctorWho
The Underwater Menace: Hooo boy! 😆
Atlantis! Mad cults! Even madder Professors! Humans surgically-altered to become Fish-People! (!!) This is #DoctorWho at its most bonkers and comic-strip. Makes the 1960s Batman series look like I, Claudius.
Previously we’ve had “Doc-Tor Whooo isss re-quired!” and ‘Doctor Von Wer’, now he signs off as ‘Dr. W’. They were really leaning into the whole idea of Who as his surname at this point. #DoctorWho
The Moonbase: this feels like the proper debut of the ‘base-under-siege’ story, with The Tenth Planet having been a sort of practice run, before they got it down to a fine art. (Or became repetitive and predictable, if that’s how you feel about them!) #DoctorWho
Three times in about 30 minutes a Cyberman strolls into the sick bay through the back entrance, sees Polly (who screams), then casually picks up a patient and walks out.
Lock the bloody door, guys! 🤪 #DoctorWho
At least Polly gets to be proactive and clever by coming up with the idea of the ‘cocktail’ to dissolve the Cybermen’s plastic parts.
But of course she’s still given the role of making the coffee, and has to put up with Ben’s “Not you Polly, this is men’s work!” 🙄 #DoctorWho
The character of Benoit is visually distinguished as being French by his fancy cravat, in case you couldn’t tell by his Fronch ucksent. #DoctorWho
As an aside, I’d forgotten how good these early animations were. Very rich and detailed compared to the later ones, which seemed to adopt a flatter, more ‘Captain Pugwash’ style. #DoctorWho
The Macra Terror: or ‘ #DoctorWho Gets A Dose Of The Crabs’ or The One With No Villain At All, because as we all know: THERE ARE NO SUCH THING AS MACRA! MACRA DO NOT EXIST!
A similar theme to The Savages (by the same author), with an idyllic-seeming colony hiding a dark secret.
Metebelis Two PodcastDoesn't Polly basically respond to Ben saying nuts-to-that, I'm coming with you and then does though? So, yeah Ben's a chauvinist, but Polly doesn't back down.
Ben gets his coffee busboy task earlier in the story, when Benoit gives Ben the job clearing up coffee cups after Ben offers to help… maybe a draw on the coffee?
@Metebelis2 Well she doesn’t say anything, the animation just has her wrinkling her nose at him in annoyance. But yeah, she does join in with the spraying of the Cybermen.
I've not watched the animation for years, so I was looking at the transcript. Maybe this was cut from the animation?
Here's the next scene after they cut back from the control room:
BEN: Polly. I thought that I told you to stay behind.
POLLY: I'm coming with you.
JAMIE: You'll maybe get hurt. Now go back.
POLLY: I'm coming with you and that's flat! You still need someone to look after you.
BEN: There's no time for arguments. If you're coming, come on.
Gaia@gavinwinters #nyssaoftraken was the same thing! And Victoria became a #companion because Samantha Briggs wasn’t!
All Of Time And Space Podcast@gavinwinters I suppose there’s precedent with the “Dardis” seen in The Chase and The Daleks’ Master Plan…
@AOTAS Yes I was thinking it must be something along those lines.