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
You totally accept Lalla Ward as the new Romana as she slips easily into the role, but it’s fun to imagine the wacky parallel universes where one of the alternative incarnations became the main one…
Um, yes… crikey! 😳 #DoctorWho
There’s good parts to this but it’s a bit let down by some shabby production values, like the patched-up Dalek props, or David Gooderson trying his best but struggling with the old Davros mask.
And what’s this crap about the Daleks suddenly being robots?? FFS Terry! #DoctorWho
City Of Death: well, what can you say? Still brilliant. Still stands up as an absolute jewel in the crown of this era, if not #DoctorWho as a whole.
And it’s got Dudley Simpson’s most memorable score. Go on, you’re all humming it now while looking at this image, aren’t you?
The Randomiser’s supposed to make the TARDIS’s flight completely unpredictable, so it could end up anywhere in the universe, untraceable by the Black Guardian…
And since it’s been installed we’ve been to those rarely-seen locations of Skaro and 20th-century Earth…😄 #DoctorWho
A very timely conversation between the Doctor and Romana about the value of art created by humans versus that created by computer.
As an experiment I prompted an AI to create this. You decide! #DoctorWho
Duggan is one of the all time great supporting characters, who kind of makes me wish he’d been a companion for a bit.
Or alternatively, if, say, Harry Sullivan had been written more like this and was constantly thumping people, to the Doctor’s annoyance. #DoctorWho
And of course it’s impossible not to speculate about the exact nature of the Count and Countess’s marriage…
I mean, unless that fake skin went over his entire body and was *very* realistic… 👀 #DoctorWho
“Time Lords have 90 lives!”
“How many have you got through so far?”
“Oh, about 130!”
*a young Chris Chibnall furiously scribbles notes* #DoctorWho
Congratulations to Graham Crowden for being the only actor in the seven-year run of the Fourth Doctor who manages to give a performance even more bonkers and over-the-top than Tom himself.
“MY DREEEEEAMS OF CONQUEST…!!” 😄 #DoctorWho
Chronotis is such a brilliant creation. Like an older, more befuddled Troughton.
Another for the long list of ‘Bring them back in the modern series!’ He can just have regenerated. #DoctorWho
Right, next up - the 1980s! Neon! Synth music! Rubik cubes! Flock-of-Seagulls haircuts!
(Yes, I know technically we reached the 80s during Horns Of Nimon but you know what I mean.) #DoctorWho
The move to colour in 1970 hit you like a slap in the face, but JNT’s 1980s makeover hits you like a ten ton truck.
But here comes Bidmead to drain all the joy and life and fun out of the show, and turn it into a Very Serious Programme, for Very Serious Fans. Sigh. 🙄 #DoctorWho
The highly stylised direction, with lots of extreme closeups, means at times it’s bloody difficult to know what the hell is going on.
The Foamasi cutting into the Hive from outside is muddled enough, but the cliffhanger across episodes 3/4 is utterly unfathomable. #DoctorWho
The Foamasi in their human skinsuit disguises (that mysteriously make them smaller and thinner) must have been an influence on RTD when he came up with the Slitheen.
Not to mention we have a villain who gets regressed to a baby… #DoctorWho
I think I agree with Lalla Ward, who said that her first season was aimed at everyone, but her second season narrowed its appeal to “14 year old boys who were into maths and science and computers”.
Real-life Adrics, basically! #DoctorWho
Meglos:
Space Babs! 😃
I hope there’s a Space Ian too, in case any other Tigellan tries to chat her up and he’s ready to punch their lights out. #DoctorWho
Meglos can create a time loop to trap a TARDIS, which is an amazing level of technology for a cactus.
That’s not a sentence I ever expected to write… 😐#DoctorWho
Not really a good idea to have the Doctor and Romana stuck in the TARDIS for the whole of part one.
In fact with the episodes being so short, with long recaps, and that repeated time loop clip… there must be only about an hour of footage across this whole story. #DoctorWho
Full Circle: the location filming in part one all looks very lavish and expensive, and with loads of extras it helps to make a convincing alien society.
And with a story full of original ideas, it’s very impressive to think this was written by an 18 year old. #DoctorWho
The text on the knackered old display screen in the rebels base looks like Ceefax. 😄
Plus it appears to give the date the Hydrax left Earth as 1998(!) Let’s just put that down to it being ancient and broken and the digits messing up. #DoctorWho
Zargo kills Tarak and Camilla *instantly* complains that his blood will now be stale because he’s dead.
He’s still warm love, have a nibble. 🧛♀️ #DoctorWho
I wish at some point we’d got to see more of this epic ancient battle between the Time Lords and the Vampires. It’s a great unexplored area of #DoctorWho mythology.
Another for the list of “Dear RTD. Please, please please…”
It’s an abrupt departure for Romana and K9, as more and more of the Fourth Doctor era gets chipped away by the new production team, leaving Tom as the last man standing.
With just Adric left as the sole companion at the end, it’s all starting to look a bit… Davison… #DoctorWho
That’s a spin off series if there’s ever been one! The early Time Lords vs. the Great Vampires! Sign me up. The Wasting is such a great concept too.
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