Gavin WintersEpisode 2’s chase sequence: okay Jon, you’ve had your fun driving and flying and, er… hoverboating, can we get back to the plot now please? #DoctorWho
Lupton must have the most banal reason ever for becoming a #DoctorWho villain. A salesman forced out of the company he worked for. How dare you! For that I will TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!
The first use of ‘regeneration’ to describe the change of a Time Lord’s body.
And also the first time that they try to build it up into a big moment and give the Doctor some significant final words. “A tear, Sarah Jane…?” 🥲 #DoctorWho
Robot: I don’t think anyone’s ever been so instantly fascinating, magical and appealing as the Doctor in their first episode as Tom Baker is here, in the scene where Harry tries to examine him and ends up jumping with him in the skipping rope… 😃 #DoctorWho
“You may have noticed Miss Smith, I’m a bit old-fashioned myself!”
“Nonsense Brigadier, you’re a swinger!”
Really Sarah Jane, I don’t think we needed to know that about the Brig’s private life. 😳 #DoctorWho
The Robot itself is a fantastic design but bloody hell you can see how it must have been a bastard for the poor actor inside to move around in. #DoctorWho
The guy they put on the reception desk of the SRS is such a swivel-eyed hateful Nazi. You’d think they’d find someone with a bit more charm and people skills to stop the organisation being “misrepresented” the way he says they’ve been. 😄 #DoctorWho
It’s really just the last ten minutes when the Robot becomes gigantic that lets it down, with the over-reliance on unconvincing CSO and tiny puppet-people.
Something that I’m sure influenced new producer Philip Hinchcliffe to try things a bit differently in future. #DoctorWho
The Ark In Space: now we’re talking. This is where the Fourth Doctor era really begins. You could just about imagine Robot with Pertwee, but this is pure Tom.
And the opening episode still works brilliantly, with no-one but the regular cast exploring for 25 minutes. #DoctorWho
Hinchcliffe’s production style immediately lifts everything. It all just feels tightened up, more focused. More effort made in getting everything absolutely right, or at least as good as it can be within the constraints of 70s production values. #DoctorWho
The soothing, hypnotic voice and music that plays when Sarah is being prepared for transfer into the cryogenic units is clearly influenced by the final moments of the euthanised people in Soylent Green. #DoctorWho
How would Vira (or whoever woke first) have got hold of the resuscitation kit and stimulated her own heart if it wasn’t for the chance presence of the Doctor and Harry? It was stored on the other side of the room! #DoctorWho
The Sontaran Experiment: probably not anyone’s favourite story of season 12, but it’s a decent enough two-parter to bridge the two tentpole classics either side of it. #DoctorWho
This is probably the best Sontaran mask ever. Having the whole bottom lip move (rather than just the middle bit) looks so much better. Something I don’t think even the modern series has managed. #DoctorWho
And speaking of the modern series, the Sontarans here are a world away from the more comical species they’re portrayed as nowadays. Sadistically torturing and maiming humans until the point of death. What laughs! #DoctorWho
Genesis Of The Daleks: well thankfully Terry Nation was prompted to write something different from his usual fare, and he delivered. You’d never think this was the same writer as some of the previous Dalek tales. Brilliantly bleak and grim in a ‘proto-Blakes-7’ way. #DoctorWho
Within the first few minutes the Doctor, Sarah and Harry have to avoid gunshots, land mines, bombs, poison gas… and have to rip gas masks off corpses to survive. No wonder Mary Whitehouse nearly had a fit.
Good! 😆 #DoctorWho
When the Doctor has to turn out his pockets, why does he have a pair of handcuffs…? 👀 #DoctorWho
The Nazi overtones are of course more blatant than ever here. And Davros is like something a kid would have feverishly imagined in a nightmare - “half-man, half-Dalek!”. I don’t think Michael Wisher’s version has ever been bettered. #DoctorWho
All praise to Peter Miles as Nyder too, what a fantastically evil bastard he is. Best henchman ever!
Though I’d love to know what he and the other few Davros loyalists were thinking at the end. Planning on living in a world with just them and Daleks and no one else? #DoctorWho
As Russell T Davies said years later - this was the first strike in the Time War…
Bloody Time Lords! #DoctorWho
Revenge Of The Cybermen: our first Cybermen story in years, but the production team seem to have forgotten the nature of the characters - with a highly emotive, irritable Cyberleader, strutting about with hands on hips making angry declarations. #DoctorWho
One unfortunate drawback of the Blu-Ray upgrade - the legions of dummies being used to represent dead bodies are now painfully obvious! #DoctorWho
The tedious infighting between the two Vogan factions is by far the dullest part of this story. We don’t care! Show us the Cybermen! #DoctorWho
This is the debut of the Cybermen’s allergy to gold. Just imagine, if in the 1980s they’d looked back at a different Cyberman story for inspiration it could now be a huge part of #DoctorWho lore that Cybermen are always defeated by nail varnish remover.
Nice of the Cyberman to have a conversation amongst themselves about vital plot information they already know, while Sarah Jane is hiding and eavesdropping. 😀 #DoctorWho
Terror Of The Zygons: this is one of the most atmospheric stories ever, complemented well by the spooky incidental music. Great reveal of a Zygon at the end of the first episode too, only flashed on screen for a second before the cliffhanger scream kicks in. #DoctorWho
The fleshy, organic design of both the Zygons and their spaceship interior is fantastic. Add to that the subdued red/green lighting and you get the most “alien” looking environment we’ve seen so far. #DoctorWho
The Brig gets a phone call from a female Prime Minister. Maybe we can use this to work out when the UNIT stories are…
Oh. On second thoughts, forget it. 😬 #DoctorWho
After the CSO disasters of dinosaurs and a giant robot, you’d think they’d be a bit wary of trying a huge monster again, but no, here comes the Skarasen! Thankfully it’s appearances are kept to a minimum. #DoctorWho
And the final regular appearance of the Brigadier and UNIT. 😕 At least they went out on a good one.
Goodbye to Harry too (even though he’s back in a bit). Despite often not having much to do or even getting many lines, Ian Marter made the character very memorable. #DoctorWho
Planet Of Evil: bit dull, this one. Following on from Daleks, Cybermen and Zygons the threat here is far too esoteric and weird to generate much interest.
At least the actors get to put their drama school training to good use, pretending to fight invisible monsters. #DoctorWho
The jungle set has been rightly praised over the years for how good it looks, but only when shot on film. #DoctorWho
They get a lot of use out of that emaciated skeleton prop, constantly re-using it for every death. 💀 #DoctorWho
One good thing is that Sarah is written as being quite intelligent, making some clever logical deductions before they’ve even occurred to the Doctor. #DoctorWho
Ultimately there’s just too much wacky science on display here: there’s a bridge from our universe to an anti-matter universe in, er, a pool of black liquid (?) that the Doctor can communicate with(??) and the anti-matter turns Sorensen into a wolfman (???) Are we sure Bob Baker and Dave Martin didn’t write this? #DoctorWho
Pyramids Of Mars: here’s where the ‘gothic horror’ period of #DoctorWho properly starts, with Hinchcliffe and Holmes deciding to make teatime versions of Hammer Horror films to scare kids witless.
The early TARDIS scene feels like a new mission statement. Tom’s developing his more alien, detached version of the character, with the Doctor brooding over being an ancient Time Lord and rejecting the idea of always going back to the Brigadier and UNIT. #DoctorWho
Sutekh is one of the biggest threats the Doctor has faced so far, and it’s a testament to the writing and Gabriel Woolf’s performance that, despite being immobile for most of the story, he comes across as so ominously powerful through just his voice and the dialogue. #DoctorWho
After inventing the name of Gallifrey previously, Holmes again just casually drops in more bits of #DoctorWho mythology that will go on to be well known: the constellation of Kasterborous… isomorphic controls… Time Lords’ respiratory bypass system…
Ken Wilson@gavinwinters in some ways doctor who lore was done early then not really moved on.. I wonder if/how RTD will or won’t stick to it with the Disney plus soft reboot!