Gavin WintersThe 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…
The Android Invasion: this has one of the best ‘Episode One mysteries’ in the entire series, with the Doctor and Sarah investigating the eerie deserted village. Shame the title of the story kind of gives a clue to what’s happening though! #DoctorWho
Sarah rolls down a slight incline but acts like it’s a life-or-death situation. Getting in some practice for The Five Doctors. #DoctorWho
This might not be one of the stories inspired by old horror movies, but it has a scene straight out of them when the whole pub falls silent as they discover Sarah in their midst. We even get a classic “We don’t get strangers round here!” #DoctorWho
The Doctor’s insistence to Crayford that he’s been brainwashed really is the only explanation for why someone who was supposedly an intelligent trained astronaut was so dumb as to never check under the eyepatch. As has often been asked, how did he wash his face?? #DoctorWho
In a story about perfect facsimiles, we get a poor man’s copy of the Brigadier in Colonel Faraday, a blustering parody of the real thing. He’s like someone in a comedy show playing the Brig in a #DoctorWho spoof.
The Brain Of Morbius: another great little gothic horror pastiche. Slightly hampered by being studio-bound, but manages to rise above those limitations. The production was firing on all cylinders at this point, making season 13 one of the best in all of classic #DoctorWho
There are some (deliberate) lapses of logic in order to give us the ‘chop-suey’ monster at the end. Why does Solon not use Condo’s head, or his entire body?
Or if a Time Lord is more suitable, why not use the Doctor’s entire body? #DoctorWho
Poor Sarah’s really put through hell in this one: blinded and terrorised and tied up. One of those stories that makes you wonder why anyone would travel with the Doctor, having to put up with this crap!
And why they don’t all have PTSD for the rest of their lives… #DoctorWho
An unfortunate double-booking at the BBC meant #DoctorWho had to share studios with Top of the Pops that week, during one of Pan’s People’s routines.
A suggestion of pre-Hartnell Doctors! Controversy! 😱
(Now imagining if the internet existed in the mid-70s, and collectively lost it’s shit over this…)
Even though it’s not seen clearly in the finished programme, I like how they’re all in costumes from different historical periods, implying the Doctor’s visited Earth chronologically for centuries, with Hartnell’s “Edwardian” outfit naturally being next. #DoctorWho
The Seeds Of Doom: one of my favourite Fourth Doctor stories. Tom’s at his peak - eccentric, alien, witty, occasionally brusque and dismissive, but always totally commanding. If his Doctor says the whole human race is in danger and the world will end, you believe him. #DoctorWho
Also surprisingly violent. No fantasy Venusian Aikido here, but actually punching henchmen in the face! And nearly snaps Scorby’s neck at one point. #DoctorWho
Harrison Chase is one of the most hilariously bonkers nutjob villains. You’ve gotta love a megalomaniac who deals with his enemies by grinding them to a pulp and using them as compost. #DoctorWho
The last lingering vestiges of the Pertwee era as some random UNIT personnel we’ve never heard of turn up at the end. The Brig’s in Geneva again, and even good old Sergeant Benton isn’t around.
Just as well maybe, as the Sergeant who replaces him gets minced! #DoctorWho
The Masque Of Mandragora: the opening TARDIS scene is the first time we get the suggestion that it’s *enormous* on the inside, beyond comprehension. Rather than just the few rooms and corridors we’d seen up to now. #DoctorWho
The studio segments are very reminiscent of the BBC’s Shakespeare adaptations of the time, nicely complemented by all the location filming in Portmeirion. (Almost expected to see Patrick McGoohan running about…) #DoctorWho
Tom using one of Pertwee’s old shirts as a duster to wipe down surfaces in the secondary control room always feels a bit cheekily disrespectful! #DoctorWho
That effect of the temple being magically restored is a bit too theatrical and stage-y to really work. Unless Mandragora knows these medieval cult followers are so dim that they’ll be impressed by some back-projected drawings. #DoctorWho
Mandragora will be in a position to try again in 500 years.
“That takes us to just about the end of the 20th century!”
“Yes, but don’t worry. The series will be cancelled by then so we won’t have to deal with it!” #DoctorWho
The Hand Of Fear: probably Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s least-mad story, but even then we get the idea of nuclear missiles being fired at a nuclear reactor, while people nearby crouch behind a jeep to hide from the potential explosion. 😳 #DoctorWho
The plot runs in circles for a bit - after Sarah is possessed, enters the reactor and nearly causes a nuclear meltdown… one of the technicians picks up the ring, gets possessed and we go through the same motions again. #DoctorWho
First mention of the “Is Gallifrey in Ireland?” joke (hooray! 😄), which Chibnall will pick up on decades later.
And once Eldrad changes sex, he says the Doctor should be familiar with the processes of bodily regeneration, so there’s the first suggestion of that too. #DoctorWho
All the bits on Kastria unfortunately look a bit cheap, and booming, ranting male Eldrad is a lot less interesting a character than female Eldrad was. As Sarah says “I quite liked her, but couldn’t stand him!” #DoctorWho
“Till we meet again, Sarah…” 😢
tptigger@gavinwinters Which episode are you watching?
@tptigger That was Part One of The Hand Of Fear.
Neil Corry@gavinwinters Solon wants to insert Morbius’ brain inside another. Condo’s head isn’t right, but the Doctor’s is. If the Doctor is killed but his head is still attached, he’d likely just regenerate. So it’s only his head Solon can use.
And Morbius was quite happy with having the lungs of a Birostrop…