Gavin WintersNice of the Cyberman to have a conversation amongst themselves about vital plot information they already know, while Sarah Jane is hiding and eavesdropping. š #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 āalienā looking environment weāve 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 areā¦
Oh. On second thoughts, forget it. š¬ #DoctorWho
After the CSO disasters of dinosaurs and a giant robot, youād think theyād be a bit wary of trying a huge monster again, but no, here comes the Skarasen! Thankfully itās appearances are kept to a minimum. #DoctorWho
And the final regular appearance of the Brigadier and UNIT. š At least they went out on a good one.
Goodbye to Harry too (even though heās 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. š #DoctorWho
One good thing is that Sarah is written as being quite intelligent, making some clever logical deductions before theyāve even occurred to the Doctor. #DoctorWho
Ultimately thereās just too much wacky science on display here: thereās 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 didnāt write this? #DoctorWho
Pyramids Of Mars: hereās where the āgothic horrorā 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. Tomās 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 itās a testament to the writing and Gabriel Woolfās 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 Kasterborousā¦ isomorphic controlsā¦ Time Lordsā respiratory bypass systemā¦
The Android Invasion: this has one of the best āEpisode One mysteriesā 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 whatās happening though! #DoctorWho
Sarah rolls down a slight incline but acts like itās 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 āWe donāt get strangers round here!ā #DoctorWho
The Doctorās insistence to Crayford that heās 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 manās copy of the Brigadier in Colonel Faraday, a blustering parody of the real thing. Heās 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 āchop-sueyā monster at the end. Why does Solon not use Condoās head, or his entire body?
Or if a Time Lord is more suitable, why not use the Doctorās entire body? #DoctorWho
Poor Sarahās 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 donāt all have PTSD for the rest of their livesā¦ #DoctorWho
An unfortunate double-booking at the BBC meant #DoctorWho had to share studios with Top of the Pops that week, during one of Panās Peopleās routines.
A suggestion of pre-Hartnell Doctors! Controversy! š±
(Now imagining if the internet existed in the mid-70s, and collectively lost itās shit over thisā¦)
Even though itās not seen clearly in the finished programme, I like how theyāre all in costumes from different historical periods, implying the Doctorās visited Earth chronologically for centuries, with Hartnellās āEdwardianā outfit naturally being next. #DoctorWho
The Seeds Of Doom: one of my favourite Fourth Doctor stories. Tomās 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 Scorbyās neck at one point. #DoctorWho
Harrison Chase is one of the most hilariously bonkers nutjob villains. Youāve 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 weāve never heard of turn up at the end. The Brigās in Geneva again, and even good old Sergeant Benton isnāt 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 itās *enormous* on the inside, beyond comprehension. Rather than just the few rooms and corridors weād seen up to now. #DoctorWho
The studio segments are very reminiscent of the BBCās Shakespeare adaptations of the time, nicely complemented by all the location filming in Portmeirion. (Almost expected to see Patrick McGoohan running aboutā¦) #DoctorWho
Tom using one of Pertweeās 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 theyāll be impressed by some back-projected drawings. #DoctorWho
Mandragora will be in a position to try again in 500 years.
āThat takes us to just about the end of the 20th century!ā
āYes, but donāt worry. The series will be cancelled by then so we wonāt have to deal with it!ā #DoctorWho
The Hand Of Fear: probably Bob Baker and Dave Martinās 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. š³ #DoctorWho
The plot runs in circles for a bit - after Sarah is possessed, enters the reactor and nearly causes a nuclear meltdownā¦ one of the technicians picks up the ring, gets possessed and we go through the same motions again. #DoctorWho
First mention of the āIs Gallifrey in Ireland?ā joke (hooray! š), 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 thereās 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 āI quite liked her, but couldnāt stand him!ā #DoctorWho
āTill we meet again, Sarahā¦ā š¢
The Deadly Assassin: well here we go with literally everything about Gallifrey and Time Lord society that will influence the show for the next 40+ years.
You can kind of see why it rankled some fans at the time, with how it destroys the Time Lords godlike status. #DoctorWho
Funny how when we get to see Gallifrey extensively in Tomās era, itās basically a planet of William Hartnells. Heād fit in well here.
Makes perfect sense that his Doctor was moulded by this society, while the subsequent ones were shaped by his companions, travels, etc. #DoctorWho
How come no one in this story regenerates when theyāre shot, stabbed, etc? All done with special weapons that can kill a Time Lord outright? #DoctorWho
Intentional or not, this is bloody hilarious. Worthy of Airplane/The Naked Gun. š #DoctorWho
Nothing much happens to further the plot during the trip to the Matrix in episode three, but itās a very entertaining nothing. #DoctorWho
So the Master was responsible for the Doctorās āsummons to Gallifreyā that he received at the end of the previous story, yes? Which means the most evil thing heās done so far is causing the separation of the Doctor and Sarah. Bastard! #DoctorWho
The Face Of Evil: this has an interesting idea at heart, but I always feel itās a bit too clever for its own good. Itās a step away from the gothic horror of the early 4th Doctor era and towards the more high-concept sci-fi weāll increasingly get in the late 70s. #DoctorWho
Leela is probably the most unusual companion weāve had since Katarina. The start of a run of TARDIS teams with no contemporary humans at all, perhaps making things a tiny bit alien and unrelatable for the audience. #DoctorWho
As much as Tom liked the idea of a solo Doctor, it does get a bit daft with him having to talk to himself at the start of the story, almost breaking the fourth wall when he seems to address the viewers directly. #DoctorWho
The only other Sevateem woman! In her blink-and-youāll-miss-her appearance in Part Two. God knows what itās going to be like for her after Leela leaves with the Doctorā¦ š³ #DoctorWho
The funny thing isā¦ the carving of the Doctorās face on the cliff isnāt that great a likeness, so people really shouldnāt be cowering in fear at the sight of āThe Evil Oneā when they see himā¦ #DoctorWho
The Robots Of Death: one of the top examples in #DoctorWho of effective, casual world-building making a story so much richer. All the backstories and stuff about Taren Capel, the Company, the robots in Kaldor Cityā¦ helps it transcend the fact weāre just seeing a few studio sets.
Does the Doctor always have those cubes on standby in the TARDIS just in case a companion asks āthe questionā? #DoctorWho
Itās nice of the robots to kill off some of the poorest actors fairly early, thus increasing the general quality of the story as it goes on. #DoctorWho
It gets increasingly obvious Dask is the one behind it all. Right from the start heās the innocuous-seeming one with no agenda, no hostility towards the othersā¦ alarm bells right there! š
And that discoloured monitor image barely disguises his face. #DoctorWho
Me every time I go out in the front garden and my video doorbell keeps alerting my phone that it sees someone in the front garden. #DoctorWho
The Talons Of Weng-Chiang: you canāt beat the BBC when it comes to lavish period dramas, especially ones set in Victorian times. This looks and feels gorgeous throughout, possibly the best theyāve made an historical setting look up to this point. #DoctorWho
Iām not gonna mentionā¦ you-know-what. Yes, we all know itās there. Yes, we all know itās bad. Canāt be arsed adding to the ādiscourseā around that. š #DoctorWho
For someone whoās supposedly mutilated and in a terrible physical condition, Greel isnāt half agile when heās doing his Phantom Of The Opera act and swinging about in the rafters. #DoctorWho
If Leela got her Victorian underwear from the TARDIS along with the rest of the outfitā¦ doesnāt that lead to the logical conclusion that the Doctorās got a room somewhere with an enormous collection of womenās underwear from throughout history?
The dirty sod! #DoctorWho
Voron@gavinwinters ohhh blow darts are cool
Simon Lucy@gavinwinters
Also memorable for the beginning of Jago and Litefoot.
Also memorable for the beginning of Jago and Litefoot.
Gaia@gavinwinters she has a strong and angry air to her, perhaps an alpha bitch type?
abcassel@gavinwinters Considering a move to the Instance of Rassilon. Mastodon of Rassilon?
@abcassel That Rassilonās such an egomaniac!