Gavin WintersThe 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.
The Macra are comically rubbish at concealing what’s going on, broadcasting an image of a whacking great claw threatening the supposed leader. Doh!
Still, Polly’s response of screaming about how “They’re in control!!” makes a good cliffhanger. #DoctorWho
There’s an official called Officia. The poor sod must have suffered from Nominative Determinism ever since his parents lumbered him with that. #DoctorWho
The Cold War paranoia of the Sixties led to all sorts of ideas about brainwashing and mind control, cropping up everywhere in TV and film. So now it’s Ben’s turn to have his mind reprogrammed. Pretty easily, as it turns out! #DoctorWho
For a crab, the lead Macra has a very distinguished voice, with good clarity and projection.
If the whole evil plan of parasitically controlling space colonies doesn’t work out, then surely a career in the theatre beckons. #DoctorWho
The Faceless Ones: another abrupt companion departure, as Ben and Polly disappear after a couple of episodes. At least they get to come back for a goodbye at the end.
Ah, Samantha Briggs, with her crazy hat and flirting with Jamie. The great lost potential companion. #DoctorWho
The airport commandant getting increasingly frustrated with the Doctor’s antics reminds me of this guy from Airplane! #DoctorWho
Ben and Polly’s absence means that this is where the Doctor and Jamie’s relationship (with their occasional comic double-act) really starts to develop. Jamie had been a bit lost among the larger cast until now. #DoctorWho
Fairly daft of the Chameleons to leave some of their originals hidden in the car park, where they’re easily found, instead of taking them with them. A bit of a contrivance to help wrap things up at the end. #DoctorWho
Evil Of The Daleks: some very good Sherlockian deduction by the Doctor at the start, following the flimsiest of clues to find Kennedy.
And of course, this day was a huge temporal nexus in #DoctorWho , with War Machines, Chameleons and Daleks all active at the same time!
Troughton almost channeling McCoy with his manipulation of Jamie as part of the plan, risking their friendship in the process. Good on Jamie for angrily standing up for himself. I wonder if viewers at the time thought he was serious about being done with the Doctor? #DoctorWho
The middle section in Maxtible’s house (with all its Scooby-Doo style traps and secret passages) has a fair bit of padding and could do with being trimmed by an episode or two. Things pick up once we eventually reach Skaro and that great final battle. #DoctorWho
The babyish ‘human-factor’ Daleks playing and chanting is still a brilliantly bizarre concept. And slightly terrifying when you realise they’re basically toddlers armed with death-rays! #DoctorWho
Tomb Of The Cybermen: the first ever mention of the Doctor’s age. He’s officially 450 years old. Obviously I now expect this to remain perfectly consistent and accurate as we progress through the seasons. #DoctorWho
Love Troughton’s deviousness in this one. “Accidentally” giving Klieg the key to the mathematical problem, then sneakily pressing the right button to ensure the hatch is opened. #DoctorWho
Klieg is the first in a long line of egotistical dumbasses who think “Oh, but the Cybermen will respect MY intelligence, and share their power with ME! Of course they will!”
Aaaand he ends up dead. Well done genius! Weren’t clever enough to see that coming, were you? #DoctorWho
This is the second story in a row to feature a large, mute (or near-mute) black servant of limited intelligence. Great job on the progressive front there guys. 😬 #DoctorWho
The Cybermen saluting their Controller look like they’re doing the classic “fingers under nose to resemble Hitler’s moustache” gag. #DoctorWho
I like how, in this story, as the cast are bumped off one-by-one, the bodies conveniently tidy themselves away and disappear so as not to appear in subsequent shots. #DoctorWho
The Abominable Snowmen: the Yeti are a very worthy addition to the roster of monsters, but the setting of the story is not the most exciting. Can be a bit slow in parts and might have been better tightened up as a four-parter. #DoctorWho
Khrisong has some interesting character development. Starts off as the usual obstructive git who thinks the Doctor’s responsible for everything, and you assume he’ll remain that antagonistic for the duration of the story, but by the end he’s been won round. #DoctorWho
I like Victoria’s little trick with the “poisoned” water. Makes a change to see her get herself out of trouble for once, rather than needing rescuing. #DoctorWho
The possessed Padmasambhava makes a very sinister and creepy villain, conveyed for the most part through just his raspy disembodied voice.
And it ends with the now familiar trope of ‘Aha! You thought the creatures were all dead? But wait! There’s some signs of life…’ #DoctorWho
The Ice Warriors:
Futuristic base ☑️
Stressed-out Commander (older man) ☑️
More reasonable second-in-command (younger woman) ☑️
Lumbering monsters outside ☑️
Computer with weird modulated voice ☑️
Just needed someone traitorous/possessed to complete the set!
#DoctorWho
Also the debut of a trope that carries on into early Pertwee - the (very silly to modern audiences) idea that computers are TERRIBLE inventions that are ALWAYS wrong and it’s far better for a human to work things out using just their brain and a pencil and paper. #DoctorWho
Victoria spends most of this story in a state of constant panic and hysteria. You’d wonder why she actually wants to travel with the Doctor and Jamie when everything terrifies her.
(And lol at Jamie teasing her about wearing hotpants like the girls in the base 😄) #DoctorWho
“We must use the Ioniser to blow up the Ice Warriors’ ship!”
“We can’t! We might get killed too!”
“We must!”
“We can’t!”
“We must!”
“We can’t!”
“We must!”
“We can’t!”
(…etc, for six episodes)
*eventually uses Ioniser*
“Phew! We didn’t get killed after all! Hooray!”
#DoctorWho
The Enemy Of The World: we’re off to the far-flung space year 2018, where the world’s divided into ‘Zones’, rocket trips from Australia to Europe take two hours, and people still mostly use landline telephones. #DoctorWho
Landing on a beach, Jamie and Victoria are treated to the arresting sight of the Doctor stripping down to his underwear and splashing about in the sea… #DoctorWho
It’s a bit mad that those guys immediately believe he’s Salamander, when only seen through binoculars.
I mean, if you thought you saw Vladimir Putin at your local beach, having a paddle while wearing a pair of longjohns, you’d doubt what you were seeing, surely?! 😳 #DoctorWho
Metebelis Two PodcastThe Ice Warriors is the one Troughton #DoctorWho story that never resonated with me. I love the time team and the guest cast are great, but the story is repetitive as you point out and overly long. That and I think Ice Warriors are a waste of Mars.