Gavin Winters
“Simple transmigration of object”, says the Doctor, after making a whole magnetic tape reel magically disappear and re-appear. Why the hell has he never used that skill before… or since?? #DoctorWho
Some good editing in this story, like the creepy reveal of the blue-faced alien to Liz, which is shot like something from a horror film.
And the cliffhanger to episode six, with the quick cuts of Carrington pointing his gun at the Doctor. #DoctorWho
Overall I’ve really enjoyed Ambassadors Of Death on this rewatch. It could maybe lose some of the twists and turns to be a couple of episodes shorter, but there’s an attempt at realism and an attention to detail which you never really get again in later UNIT stories. #DoctorWho
Inferno: *turns around wearing eyepatch to write this*
One of the very best Pertwees. Parallel universe stories are always fun, seeing alternate versions of the regular characters. Nick Courtney in particular makes the Brigade-Leader an utter bastard. #DoctorWho
Evil Liz in her kinky sub-Nazi getup though… 👀
#DoctorWho
#DoctorWho
The golden rule of sci-fi that no-one every obeys: Don’t touch the weird alien thing with your bare hands! Nothing good ever comes from touching the weird alien thing with your bare hands!
(Characters touch the strange green slime with their bare hands)
Behold, viewers of 1970, as Dr. Who dazzles you with his incredible futuristic invention of… a remote control garage door opener! Amazing! #DoctorWho
Greg Sutton, clearly a descendant of Za, but this time trying *not* to make fire. #DoctorWho
I love how it’s basically a glitterball used to depict the transition between universes.
Strange how they just accept the Doctor’s improbable story at the end, especially when they’re all being left to die. The Brigade-Leader’s desperation to live is more believable! #DoctorWho
It’s the comedy joke shop teeth that make Benton’s transformation into a Primord so funny… 😄 #DoctorWho
As interesting and innovative as season 7 was, with its obvious Quatermass influences, I don’t know if #DoctorWho could have continued as long as it did with that format. The pendulum inevitably had to swing back a bit to more kid-friendly adventures with monsters and chases.
And with that in mind, goodbye sensible intelligent scientist Liz and hello ditzy stumbling childlike Jo!
“We Time Lords prefer not to be conspicuous.” says the one visiting the Doctor, while hovering hundreds of feet in the air dressed as a businessman with his brolly and bowler hat. #DoctorWho
Interesting how at this stage the relationship between the Doctor and the Master is portrayed as just ‘occasional adversaries’.
No hint of the whole later backstory of childhood friends turned bitter mortal enemies duelling forever across all time and space. #DoctorWho
Barry Letts really liked experimenting with CSO, didn’t he? (Greenscreen for you under-40s!)
*Obligatory pisstake of Mrs Farrell’s CSO kitchen* #DoctorWho
The Mind Of Evil: what a surprise, it’s the Master again! Though to be fair, this probably was the one time this season that viewers may not have been expecting him.
Love seeing him as a proper Bond villain - fur-lined coat, cigars, chauffeur-driven limo, the works! #DoctorWho
The least foul-mouthed prisoners you’ll ever see on TV. Even in the middle of a riot there’s not a single utterance of a four-letter-word amongst them. 😆
Also very funny how Jo practically takes down the riot single-handedly. #DoctorWho
Lol at the Brigadier’s frustration when the Doctor ingratiates himself with the Chinese diplomats while he’s ignored.
I wish they’d continued these sort of comedy moments with the Brig’s character but *without* turning him into a complete buffoon, as they later do. #DoctorWho
The greatest psychological reveal of the Master’s character ever - his biggest fear being the Doctor looming over him and laughing(!) Well, of course it was. Of *course*! 😄 #DoctorWho
Poor old Barnham - he was a dangling loose plot thread at the end so obviously the Master just randomly bumps him off. #DoctorWho
The Claws Of Axos: ah, here come Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Hugely imaginative writers, but it often feels like their imagination stretched the show’s capabilities and budget way beyond breaking point. You would need Hollywood money to pull off some of their ideas. #DoctorWho
As much as I admire Barry Letts for everything he did with #DoctorWho, there are stories like this that have a real “Oh, that’ll do…” feel to the production.
So many little moments that could be done better with just a little more care and attention given to them. #DoctorWho
The Axons threaten the Doctor and ensure his cooperation by… ageing Jo into an old woman!
And the Doctor reacts in horror as though it’s the most revolting thing he’s ever seen… For someone claiming to be thousands of years old he can be terribly ageist! 😆 #DoctorWho
In many ways this is the most typical Pertwee era story, with all the requisite elements: UNIT, the Master, a straightforward alien invasion, pompous government bureaucrats, a nuclear power complex… it just all adds up to slightly less than the sum of its parts. #DoctorWho
Colony In Space: you’d forget that Jo hasn’t actually seen inside the TARDIS until now. And once she does she gets to say that it’s bigger on the inside - is she the first companion to use that exact phrase? #DoctorWho
What a treat for viewers of 1971 - many of whom may have got their first colour TV around this time - as #DoctorWho gives us our first alien planet in colour… and it’s the bleakest greyest muddiest shithole you’d ever have the misfortune to see. 😄
At least they try to make the Master’s involvement a bit of a surprise this time, holding his appearance back until the point where you’d think “oh, he’s not in this one.” #DoctorWho
A scene of characters actually standing around drinking and getting pissed! That’s a first. #DoctorWho
At times Colony In Space looks like an ideological battle between Colony of the Hairy Hippies vs the Company of Balding Men with Dodgy Hairstyles.
No wonder Caldwell ends up siding with the hippies, as one of the few IMC guys with a moustache. 👨🏻 #DoctorWho
Plot hole: once the colonists have definitive proof that the ‘giant lizards’ were faked, why do they not suspect Norton is an IMC plant, since he was so adamant they were real and he’d been attacked by them? #DoctorWho
“Don’t bother trying to explain it to him Jo, *he* wouldn’t understand…”
The start of the Brigadier’s character declining into being portrayed as an idiot and the butt of the joke… 😕 #DoctorWho
I’ve usually found this one a bit dull but enjoyed it more this time round. I love the aesthetic of these futuristic Pertwees - 500 years in the future and everyone’s using chunky 70s technology. 😀
A tentative first step towards a return to outer space stories. #DoctorWho
The Daemons: this one’s a bit overfamiliar to me now, having seen it many times over the years, but it’s still very enjoyable with a great atmosphere, especially in the opening episode. #DoctorWho
I wish we’d seen more of this ‘domestic’ side to UNIT, with the Brig dressed up to go off to some fancy military event, while Benton and Yates are watching telly and eating sandwiches. #DoctorWho
When the Doctor’s apparently frozen to death, they put his ‘body’ on a table in the pub with paying customers nearby.
Imagine if they’d had TripAdvisor reviews back then: “Nice rustic pub. Good beer. Quaint little village. Frozen corpse on table put us right off though. (3/5 stars)”⭐️⭐️⭐️ #DoctorWho
Lol at the Master being a gossipy drama queen and revealing all the villagers grubby little secrets. 😄 #DoctorWho
The villagers really are a gullible bunch of prats to fall for the Doctor’s ‘magic’. I know they’ve seen the Master summon Bok, but even so.
And at the end he has a jolly dance around the maypole with them, the same people who wanted to burn him to death an hour ago! #DoctorWho
Anyway, I had to slow down this marathon rewatch for a few weeks to time it so I finished season 8 just as the season 9 set was released. Now to rapidly catch up! 😬 #DoctorWho
Day Of The Daleks: wahey, the metal bastards are back at last. Even if they’re not portrayed at their best here. This is a brilliant story in and of itself, but a not-so-great Dalek story. And they seem to have forgotten how to do the voices properly. #DoctorWho
Pertwee karate-chopping an assailant to the ground then turning to take a sip of his wine is the most perfectly on-brand moment for his Doctor. #DoctorWho
“Now you’ve told me the year…” says the Controller to Jo, “but would you mind repeating it again? Loud and clear. Just to avoid fifty years of debate over UNIT dating. Cheers.” #DoctorWho
Where did the guerrillas get their cigarettes from? Can’t imagine they’re mass-produced in the Dalek-controlled 22nd century. Must’ve taken a quick detour to the nearest shop when they came back to the 20th. #DoctorWho
Love the scene where the Doctor cooly destroys every argument the Controller comes out with to justify his role in this society.
And bring back the Ogrons in the modern show! Make it happen, RTD. With no complications. #DoctorWho
The Curse Of Peladon: you can see the influence of Star Trek, with a Galactic Federation and a conference of alien delegates. But of course #DoctorWho’s version has the delegates being an array of monsters and grotesques. And all “gween” obviously. Terrance must’ve been happy. 😀
The makeup, hair and costume for Torbis and Hepesh makes them look so similar you’d have a hell of a time telling them apart for a whole story. Thankfully one of them is killed off within the first three minutes! #DoctorWho
Nice twist to have a previously established villain like the Ice Warriors turn out to be basically good guys, meaning the Doctor and the audience are immediately suspicious of them from the start. #DoctorWho
I can’t take Peladon seriously in his ‘principal boy’ pantomime outfit. You expect him to start slapping his thigh any moment.
And really, you’re asking the audience to take the piss by having him loudly proclaim “There is no plot!” 😄 #DoctorWho
The cliffhanger to part three, when one of the Ice Warriors shoots Arcturus, is a bit rushed and unclear. Must have had viewers scratching their heads for a week until we get the exposition info-dump starting with “So… Arcturus was behind everything!” #DoctorWho
The Sea Devils: I like the more matey relationship between the Doctor and the Master when he visits him in prison. Would’ve been fun if every story since his arrest had a scene like that where he pops in to see him. “Well, let me tell you all about Peladon old chap…” #DoctorWho
That yellow ‘Venetian Blind’ CSO effect used for the prison monitors doesn’t really work, does it? You’d want your money back if you bought a screen with horizontal lines across it like that! Another of Barry Letts’ experiments with the process. #DoctorWho
Like the Ice Warriors before them, the Sea Devils are named by a random minor character and then very politely allow humans to keep calling them that for the next fifty years. #DoctorWho
Why are all the prison guards dressed like French Gendarmes from a century ago? And is it a stipulation of their contract that they all *have* to grow a moustache? #DoctorWho
The Mutants:
No, I’m not going to say it. Everyone’s said it. It’s an obvious joke that’s been done a million times. I’m going to resist the temptation and will definitely not say that…
…THE OPENING SCENE IS LIKE THE “IT’S!” MAN FROM MONTY PYTHON!!
Goddamnit!
Were the Time Lords just bored one day and decided to amuse themselves by dicking about with the Doctor and sending him on this silly mission? They could have just sent the container with the stone tablets directly to where it needed to go. #DoctorWho
Like the other snore-fest of Colony In Space, I’m actually finding this one a bit more palatable this time round. It’s not the best of Pertwee’s but it’s passable. #DoctorWho
It may be unintentional, but the CSO fringing around characters when they’re in the cave helps add to the disjointed, surreal effect they were aiming for.
And I never noticed before that Sondergaard is not just bald, but also has no eyebrows… 👀 #DoctorWho
For once there’s a bit of thought and effort put into depicting a different planet, with an atmosphere difficult for humans to breathe, when most SF just has everywhere being basically Earth-like. #DoctorWho
…but then you get a lack of scientific realism when a hole is blown in the space station wall and everyone just manages to walk out of the room… oh well! 🤷🏻♂️ #DoctorWho
Neil Corry@gavinwinters You know, if it hadn’t been for the giant green phallic alien distracting me, I’d have noticed that too.
Sherri G., PhD ♿🌈@gavinwinters
I adore his time as Doctor. I called him Zaddy Doctor when I did my binge of Classics. I miss him and Bessie.
I adore his time as Doctor. I called him Zaddy Doctor when I did my binge of Classics. I miss him and Bessie.