If Leela got her Victorian underwear from the TARDIS along with the rest of the outfit… doesn’t that lead to the logical conclusion that the Doctor’s got a room somewhere with an enormous collection of women’s underwear from throughout history?
The dirty sod! #DoctorWho
One minor annoying plothole: Greel claims to be the first man to travel through time, but he’s aware of “Time Agents”?
Or was the idea that the Time Agency may be some alien organisation monitoring time, nothing to do with Earth (as we all assumed since Captain Jack) #DoctorWho
Horror Of Fang Rock: following on from Talons, this seems to be basically in the same style. You wouldn’t initially know there was a new production team in charge.
A return to the classic ‘base-under-siege’ story, and done very well. #DoctorWho
Adelaide is such an annoying drip that you wish Leela had slapped her harder. 😄
And it comes as a relief when the Rutan finally bumps her off. #DoctorWho
Leela at the end of Horror Of Fang Rock: #DoctorWho
Image Of The Fendahl: this immediately seems like a bit of a throwback to the Pertwee era, with its time scanners and satanic covens. You half-expect the Brig and UNIT to burst in and arrest everyone.
(In fact… they *should* be all over this. Where are they? 😛) #DoctorWho
“You must have been sent by providence.”
“No, I were sent by the council to cut the verges…”
😄
Still not entirely sure of Max’s motivation in all of it, but he does get some hilarious bad-guy dialogue:
“It’s too late…”
*pauses, looks off-camera*
“…TOO LATE FOR ALL THE MEDDLING FOOLS!”
Jesus, Graham, what happened to the BBC edict to “tone down the violence”? Fendelman is shot in the head!
And the Doctor giving Max the gun so he can commit suicide rather than succumb to the Fendahl is quite the eyebrow-raising moment too… 👀 #DoctorWho
Underworld: oh boy, “underwhelmed” more like. 😕
To be fair, the first episode on the Minyan spaceship is passable enough, it’s only once we dive into the glorious world of full-on CSO (greenscreen for you under-40s) that it all goes to pot. #DoctorWho
Given the budgetary restraints Graham Williams was working under, it’s baffling why he always opted for so many outer-space/alien planet stories, an immediate strain on resources.
The earth-based stories like Fang Rock & Fendahl worked great. Just do more of those! #DoctorWho
Best moment is at the end when the Doctor chastises Jackson and forces him to take the escaped slaves from the planet away with him on the ship.
The only other noteworthy thing about this story is it inspired the name of the knicker-factory in Coronation Street…😄 #DoctorWho
The Chancellery Guard have never been portrayed as so stupid as they are here, almost getting to Keystone Cops levels of incompetence, with how the Doctor and everyone else run rings round them.
And the Sontarans are almost as bad when they turn up. #DoctorWho
Nice to see lots more TARDIS interior beyond the console room, but hard to buy the location as being part of the same place
And the budget may have been small, but it’s coming to something when the awesome machinery of Gallifrey is represented by…a grotty factory…😕 #DoctorWho
“DIE, SUN LOUNGERS! MORTAL ENEMY OF THE GLORIOUS SONTARAN EMPIRE!”
Leela’s departure is so bizarre and rushed, thankfully the last example of the stupid “marrying someone you’ve known 5 minutes” ending. (Peri’s is at least a bit different)
Between the public favourite of Sarah Jane and the fan-favourite of Romana, Leela was brilliant and criminally-overlooked. #DoctorWho
The Ribos Operation: after the ups and downs in quality of the previous season, things get a bit more consistent from here on.
Bob Holmes delivers the goods again, with great characters and dialogue and his usual effortless worldbuilding. #DoctorWho
I like the Doctor’s initial irritation at being lumbered with Romana(voratrelundar), and her cool psychological analysis of him.
Rodan from the previous story was so similar to Romana I that she must have been an inspiration, surely? #DoctorWho
I always enjoy a good old-fashioned mad booming villain like the Captain.
Nice twist with the Nurse being the real power behind it all, as she gets subtly more visible and prominent over the course of the four episodes. #DoctorWho
The Androids Of Tara: there’s a definite Star Wars influence starting to creep in around this point, not with space battles or anything (still far beyond #DoctorWho’s budget) but just the general idea of taking old-fashioned stories/characters/settings and giving them a sci-fi upgrade.
And in little details like the electrified swords. They must have been thinking of how to do a low-budget version of lightsabers when they came up with that, surely?
You have to feel sorry for all those poor extras, painted green and dancing around in loincloths in the middle of the night.
Fair play to John Abineri’s performance as Ranquin though, being totally committed to the part while looking ridiculous. #DoctorWho
I would get painted green and run around in a loincloth for fun.
Yikes - the bit with Tom on the ladder in the rocket silo… 😬
The ladder, the rocket, even the sodding wall behind him ALL wobble, a unique achievement in the annals of wobbly set history! #DoctorWho
Radiation… two races engaged in a bitter nuclear war…underground bunkers… TARDIS covered in rubble… are we sure Terry Nation didn’t write this??
(And the extreme radiation in the transmat room gets quickly forgotten, with everyone wandering in and out of there) #DoctorWho
After a season of entertaining villains, the Shadow is a bit rubbish. Would’ve been better if it was the Master working for the Black Guardian.
And why is his domain called a ‘planet’, full of underground tunnels… yet seen from outside looks like a space station? #DoctorWho
The final two episodes could have been just a boring runaround in dark tunnels, but the arrival of Drax perks things up. Nice for once to meet another renegade Time Lord who *isn’t* completely mad and evil.
And a Time Lord with a cockney accent! Whatever next… #DoctorWho
The ending is a bit muddled, with the Key getting scattered again without apparently being used.
The novelisation had to clarify that the White Guardian had used it during the time the Doctor had it assembled. Good old Terrance Dicks! #DoctorWho
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