Gavin WintersShada: 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
With no Romana or K9 to talk to, the Doctor actually seems to acknowledge Adric for the first time. Incredibly, Tom even manages to occasionally look him in the eye when speaking to him! #DoctorWho
It’s a slow, gradual build-up to the revelation that Melkur is a TARDIS with the Master inside. Though as will become typical under JNT, when he’s finally dramatically revealed there’s no (initial) explanation of who he is, the audience is expected to just know. #DoctorWho
Poor Tremas, one of the unluckiest people in the whole #DoctorWho universe to coincidentally have a name that’s anagrammatically suitable for the Master to take him over.
The coda where the Master possesses him is great though. Its unusual enough for the action to take us back to a planet after the Doctor and co have left, and then this kicker.
If this were a modern movie, it would be a mid-credits scene to tease the next sequel. #DoctorWho
Logopolis: and so the Fourth Doctor goes out with this appropriately sombre story. The ominous presence of the Watcher is a great touch, especially his mysterious conversation with the Doctor on the bridge, that neither Adric or we the viewers are allowed to hear. #DoctorWho
On a brighter note: Tegan! 😃
The first episode and a half is devoted to her intro, while the Doctor and Adric faff about measuring a police box.
Of the three recent companion additions, this is the only one that makes you think “Oh, a proper companion. At last!” #DoctorWho
The Doctor’s plan to land the TARDIS underwater and open the doors to flush out the Master is one of the maddest suggestions he’s ever come up with. #DoctorWho
There are some interesting ideas in here but unfortunately Bidmead seems to think that dialogue about mathematics and machine code and subroutines makes for *fascinating*, gripping, edge-of-the-seat drama that will stop viewers switching over to Buck Rogers… 😐 #DoctorWho
“The Watcher!”
“He was the Doctor all the time…”
Er… okay… take us through your thought processes and logical deductions there Nyssa? Because we’d all really like to know… #DoctorWho
Gaia