Gavin WintersThere’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
Griff the Chef: funniest one-off character ever? Should have had his own spin-off! 😀 #DoctorWho
The Enemy Of The World really stands out as being a drastically different type of story to all the surrounding monster romps.
Troughton is completely believable in the dual role. You never see him as the Doctor when he’s Salamander and vice-versa.
#DoctorWho
Some clever use of back projection (before green screen takes over in a couple of years). I like the bit where Jame is seen approaching in the background film before appearing in the studio set. #DoctorWho
Look it’s your own fault for believing his story, you gullible prats. I mean, honestly!
(Also… er, *how* exactly are they causing worldwide natural disasters using a few machines in their underground base? The script glosses over that!)
#DoctorWho
The Web Of Fear: like the Daleks before them, for the Yetis second outing they’ve wisely placed them somewhere much more relatable to the viewers, and it works a treat. Tons of atmosphere in the Underground setting. The pinnacle of the ‘base-under-siege’ stories. #DoctorWho
So the *entire* issue of ‘UNIT dating’ stems from Travers claiming the previous Yeti story was “40 years ago” and, in a separate conversation between Victoria and Ann, that it was 1935. When there’s so many ways either statement could be wrong/misremembered/etc… 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
Neil Corry@gavinwinters It’s not just that.
@neilcorry But it’s still the foundation stone the whole idea is built on really, isn’t it?
@gavinwinters The issue isn’t Web tho. The issue is Mawdryn.
@neilcorry Yes but if one of the statements in Web is wrong, and that story is more or less contemporary, then that places Invasion and all the others neatly into the early/mid 70s, followed by Mawdryn in 77/83.
The only outlier then is Sarah Jane’s “I’m from 1980!”
@gavinwinters I’d recommend having a read of the TARDIS wiki on UNIT dating.