Gavin WintersNightmare Of Eden: this is full of great concepts but we’re back to things looking cheap again, with bright overlit spaceship sets revealing too much, especially when it comes to the monster costumes with their zips up the back (!) #DoctorWho
I don’t think there’s been anything as self-consciously camp in #DoctorWho up to this point as the costume design on display here. Everybody’s uniforms have sparkly glitter sewn into them, even the ‘space cops’ who turn up. We’re truly in the era of disco.
It’s such a weird contrast to have the subplot about drug addiction (and the captain’s withdrawal leading to his desperate pleas to Romana) within this wacky story full of lumbering monsters and spandex. But maybe that’s just #DoctorWho for you. 🤷🏻♂️
The Horns Of Nimon: hmm, that’s two low-budget outer space stories in a row. And this one looks particularly cheap. This era would have looked a lot better if they’d mixed things up a bit. A couple more Earthbound stories, maybe even the odd historical setting. #DoctorWho
There’s some funny bits (Teka’s blind faith that Seth will defeat the Nimon) and some unintentionally funny - the co-pilot splitting his trousers as he dies and the poor Nimon actors trying to chase people in their enormous platform boots. #DoctorWho
The silliness gets a *teeny* bit over-indulgent when the TARDIS console goes haywire and suddenly makes all those wacky cartoon noises… 😐 #DoctorWho
At least Romana gets a lot to do during bits when the Doctor is stuck elsewhere - striding about, taking command, brandishing her own sonic screwdriver. And in the process setting the seeds for the idea of a female Doctor. #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
Shada: possibly not the long-lost all-time classic of legend, but this is still very good, and a natural partner to City Of Death. Such a shame it was never completed, as it would’ve made a great bookend to the Williams/Adams era. #DoctorWho
The punting footage is so familiar from The Five Doctors that it’s impossible to watch it and not expect that the time scoop is about to appear in the sky above Tom. #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
Why is every renegade Time Lord in #DoctorWho obsessed with reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells? I’m surprised we didn’t see the War Chief browsing through it in between bouts of bitching at the Security Chief.
It’s one thing to have a character dressed like this striding about on an alien planet or wherever, but it suddenly becomes very funny when they’re walking the streets of contemporary Earth looking camper than Christmas. #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
To be fair, some of the excesses of the previous era did need curbing, but there’s a lot of throwing the baby out with the bathwater here. What’s the point of having Tom Baker as your leading man if you’re going to mute and subdue his style of performance so much? #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
Young and foxy Lalla Ward in a story featuring a ‘science vs religion’ debate. No wonder Richard Dawkins said he was fond of this era… #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 Outlers are a wet bunch but Jesus, any of them would have been a better choice for a new companion than Adric. His brother Varsh is a vastly better actor. Kill off Adric and bring him instead! #DoctorWho
Poor old K9 is removed from the action yet again, this time by being decapitated! And just as they were starting to sort out his motors so he quietly glides across the studio floor too. #DoctorWho
The Sea Devils is remembered as “The one where the monsters come out of the sea” but this story is equally deserving of that title. Arguably done better in fact, and with more realistic masks. #DoctorWho
State Of Decay: well thank goodness for Terrance Dicks, who in a season of experimental oddities gives us a proper straightforward traditional story, with Bidmead’s high-concept sci-fi gubbins about CVEs or tachyons or whatever kept to a minimum. #DoctorWho
It’s a very #DoctorWho-y twist to give us what initially appears to be a medieval society, only for someone to then pull out a hidden communicator that’s clearly hi-tech.
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…”
Warriors’ Gate: after the previous story was the most “traditional” in season 18, the pendulum now swings wildly in the opposite direction to one of the strangest, most surreal and ‘out there’ tales in the whole history of #DoctorWho…
I can never quite make up my mind about this one. It all looks very beautiful of course, with lots of eerie dreamlike fairytale imagery (the realm made up of black and white photos) but it must have been bafflingly incomprehensible to kids (and most adults) at the time #DoctorWho
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
I’m glad something like Warriors’ Gate exists, as part of the rich and varied tapestry of #DoctorWho, and that the show is flexible enough to dip into these stranger and more experimental waters from time to time, but you wouldn’t want every story to be as opaque as this.
The Keeper Of Traken: there’s something particularly ‘BBC Shakespeare adaptation’ about this story. The costumes, the sets, the theatricality of it all. The fake exterior of the night sky adds to the feeling of stagey-ness. #DoctorWho
Gaia@gavinwinters I’ve always called it Medieval Art Nouveau.