Gavin Winters
The poor old Functionaries. The start of the story gives you the impression it’s going to be about their plight and their struggle for freedom, but by the end they’ve been totally forgotten about and are still slaves. #DoctorWho
Robert Holmes makes great use of his incredibly simple but incredibly effective trick of fleshing out the universe by just… having characters mention stuff.
All these little references to off-screen planets and people and anecdotes of Drashigs eating spaceships… #DoctorWho
The ending is slightly morally dubious though, since it looks as if Vorg is going to turn the gullible Inter Minorans into gambling addicts! #DoctorWho
Frontier In Space: this is another favourite Pertwee of mine. I love the well-thought-out world of the 26th century, with all the political intrigue between the humans and Draconians (another great alien design that stands up well and should be brought back) #DoctorWho
The mind probe they use on the Doctor shows his “memories” from the objective third-person viewpoint of the TV camera that filmed them. Amazing how mind-probes in science-fiction always tend to do that! #DoctorWho
Evening dresses are compulsory for 26th century women to wear at all times. Whether you’re the President or whether it’s your job to torture and interrogate someone. #DoctorWho
The amusing thing about the Doctor telling Jo a melodramatic account of his War Games trial (“I rang rings round that Prosecuting Counsel!”) is because the audience saw it we then realise how much his *other* anecdotes about Nelson, etc, must be exaggerated too. 😄 #DoctorWho
The Master’s stolen ship is seemingly the only one in the galaxy with a CCTV camera on board. If only the others had too, the whole scheme where the crews are hypnotised would be rumbled in no time! #DoctorWho
A rare chance to see the Master teaming up with the other big bad of the Daleks, even if they are the slightly underwhelming tinny-voiced versions here.
I love his disdain and exasperation with both them and the Ogrons. 😅 #DoctorWho
The Ogrons “god” they worship looks like an enormous pair of orange testicles. 😳 No wonder they restricted the sight of this prop to one brief shot. #DoctorWho
Speaking of a big orange bollocks, Trump’s descendants are still being a nuisance in the 26th century apparently. #DoctorWho
And that’s it for Roger Delgado, sadly last seen in a confusing and poorly-directed melee with Ogrons scattering everywhere.
We were denied seeing the proper epic final showdown between him and Pertwee that they deserved… 😕 #DoctorWho
Planet Of The Daleks: or ‘Terry Nation’s Greatest Hits’.
Old Tel was doing cut-&-paste Dalek tales at this stage - Thals, jungles, lethal plants, invisibility, viruses, underground cities, escapes up a shaft… I’m surprised the Daleks aren’t drilling the planet’s core #DoctorWho
We even get a mention of Ian, Barbara and Susan to really ram it home.
The middle part with the ice-cano and the escape up the ventilation shaft is almost entirely filler, albeit with a great cliffhanger of the Daleks burning through the door (another callback!) #DoctorWho
Funny how in the entire Pertwee era we never see beyond the TARDIS console room. Anyone who started watching here would think that’s all there was to the interior.
Even when he needs a bed to lie on it has to extend from the console room wall. #DoctorWho
Pertwee’s Doctor is particularly bossy and arrogant in this one, constantly barking orders at the Thals.
When he’s snapping at them to empty the frozen Daleks in the lake and get the casings back on land I wanted one of them to snap back “WTF DO YOU THINK I’M DOING?!” #DoctorWho
Ruthless office politics from the Daleks, as the middle-manager Dalek hysterically protests how his job has been made impossible by alien interference, which falls on deaf ears as his boss promptly exterminates him. #DoctorWho
Latep offers Jo the chance of a new life on Skaro (having known her for the traditional five minutes before asking). Unsurprisingly she doesn’t want to go with him to a miserable hellhole crawling with Daleks. Better luck next time mate! #DoctorWho
The Green Death: the most famous ‘Friends-style’ title ever applied to a #DoctorWho story, as it’s “The One with the Maggots!”
The environmental concerns this story raises have only become more relevant with every passing year.
If Professor Jones is getting as much coverage in the papers as they say, you’d think one of them would have printed his photo at some point, so Jo would recognise him when they meet. #DoctorWho
The Doctor cockblocking the Professor and practically dragging him out of the room to keep him away from Jo is hysterical. 😄 #DoctorWho
Where did BOSS come from and who built it? (Headcanon: someone made it from leftover bits of Wotan!)
For such a clever computer, it’s clearly unfamiliar with those episodes of Star Trek, The Prisoner, etc, where computers are driven mad by simple logic conundrums. #DoctorWho
So after knowing each other for a matter of days (longer than most #DoctorWho companion romances, to be fair!) Cliff decides he and Jo are getting married, without consulting her(!)
Still, it leads to Jo getting one of the best companion departure scenes ever… 🥲🌅
The Time Warrior: another brilliant little tale from Robert Holmes, and it’s like bits of the Tom Baker era are arriving early - the new titles and diamond logo obviously, but also Sontarans, the naming of Gallifrey (11 years in!) and of course… 👩🏻 😍 #DoctorWho
I quite like this specific version of the titles only seen in this season, even if the sight of full-length flared-trousered Pertwee floating down the time tunnel is a bit unintentionally funny. Not surprising they went for just a face afterwards. 😁#DoctorWho
Pity we don’t get to see Sarah’s first sight of the TARDIS interior (where exactly was she hiding that the Doctor didn’t see her?) #DoctorWho
This is our first historical story in years and Holmes is having fun with the medieval dialogue. “A long-shanked fellow with a mighty nose!” indeed! #DoctorWho
“There is not a galaxy in the universe that our spacecraft have not subjugated!” boasts Lynx.
An early example of Sontarans coming out with *absolute* bullshit. 😄 #DoctorWho
Lis Sladen is instantly a perfect fit for the show. Sarah quickly adjusting to the time period and leading the ‘commando raid’ on Irongron’s castle to nab the Doctor is a level of bravery you couldn’t quite imagine from Jo, at least not in her debut. #DoctorWho
Invasion Of The Dinosaurs: excellent opening episode, nicely building the mystery of what the hell is going on.
That brief shot of the looter with his bloodied mangled face must be one of the most gory things in #DoctorWho so far.
Of course, as everyone says, this is a fantastic story let down by the overambitious dinosaur FX.
Still hoping there’ll be some sort of CGI replacement when they get round to doing the season 11 box set. #DoctorWho
Love the bit where the Doctor’s trying to build that device and is constantly interrupted by everyone coming in asking him the same repetitive questions. 😀 #DoctorWho
I’d like to know how they managed to drag that unconscious dinosaur through the streets and into a warehouse… #DoctorWho
Fab cliffhanger to episode 3 of Invasion Of The Dinosaurs, in which we suddenly go off on a tangent to a different location, where Sarah’s apparently on a spaceship and three months have passed... #DoctorWho
The people on the “spaceship” really are staggeringly thick to have fallen for this ruse. These are supposedly the brightest and the best, chosen to populate a new world, and they’re that gullible? #DoctorWho
Christ, we fans often defend the show from accusations of “wobbly sets”, but this story doesn’t help our argument. A shutter door falls and the *entire* set shakes like it’s in an earthquake. Let’s just pretend we didn’t see that! 😬 #DoctorWho
As the Brig says: “Is everyone in on this conspiracy?”. Seems every single military/government character is, apart from him and Benton!
And crikey, actual character development that shakes up the status quo, as Mike Yates has gone mad. Blame that Metebelis crystal! #DoctorWho
Death To The Daleks: another fairly simplistic Terry Nation tale of adventures and derring-do against the Daleks. It’s all quite adequate I suppose, but there’s not really anything beyond the surface level. #DoctorWho
i_give_u_worms@gavinwinters
I liked Billal, (sp?) despite his sunken sunglass look. one of the puzzles is reused later in Pyramids of Mars, Sarah quickly but briefly calls them on it; when the Pertwee years weren't played on PBS in the US for years, even a habitual re-watcher didn't see.
I liked Billal, (sp?) despite his sunken sunglass look. one of the puzzles is reused later in Pyramids of Mars, Sarah quickly but briefly calls them on it; when the Pertwee years weren't played on PBS in the US for years, even a habitual re-watcher didn't see.
@i_give_u_worms The maze puzzle is childishly simple. You’d wonder why some of the Exxilons couldn’t figure it out and ended up as skeletons!