Gavin WintersI’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
Overall season 18 remains a curious beast, an odd transitional year as JNT remoulds the show to suit himself. There’s lots of good material, but I just wish they hadn’t felt the need to cut so much of what made the show fun and accessible over the previous six years.
However the themes of death, decay and entropy, leading eventually to renewal and rebirth are worked through the season brilliantly. This probably has the most unique identity of any season of #DoctorWho, Classic or New.
Castrovalva: once more Bidmead gives us a story with great concepts but hampered by technobabble, with no attempt to give the companions natural sounding dialogue.
And just like Logopolis, we’re TARDIS-bound for almost two episodes before we get to the titular planet. #DoctorWho
I think this story more than any other cemented fans’ idea of how the TARDIS interior should look. The location filming in Invasion Of Time didn’t really cut it, but here we finally get lots of rooms and corridors with the same roundel pattern as the console room. #DoctorWho
Tom’s boots magically regenerate into shoes for Peter. Hmm, clothes that regenerate with the Doctor… what a crazy idea, eh?
And Tom’s scarf gets unravelled - heresy! Oh, but it’s just the burgundy version, so who cares? 😄 #DoctorWho
Davison is of course immediately great, but then he would be since they filmed this fourth in order.
Could’ve done with a little less of the fan-pleasing impersonations of old Doctors. This was a particular JNT obsession - the idea of a regeneration ’failing’ somehow. #DoctorWho
Winner of the All-Time Silliest Hat In #DoctorWho award.
(He had to go one better than Samantha Briggs…)
Everyone involved in this gamely tries to get across the whole notion of Castrovalva and space folding in on itself using the sets and visual FX available at the time, but it’s one of those ideas you watch now and think: Oh, just imagine how they could do this today… #DoctorWho
Four To Doomsday: I think they were aiming for a Hartnell-style opening episode for this, with just the crew exploring a strange new environment, but it ends up more like one of those stories you’d find in the #DoctorWho annuals. There’s nothing very substantial to it at all.
There’s a TARDIS scene with the companions early on that’s pure padding, and just allows Adric to spout some outrageous sexist bollocks to Tegan and Nyssa.
Come, Cybermen, come…
I presume the ‘humans’ (androids) on Monarch’s ship have some built in defence in their software to prevent boredom, otherwise having to endure those same entertainments of dancing and wrestling and Chinese dragons for thousands of years would have driven them all mad. #DoctorWho
The problem with this one is that it’s mostly about just wallowing in sci-fi ideas, while forgetting to tell anything resembling an entertaining story that the audience can latch on to.
Particularly with the episode endings - The aliens can change form! Bigon’s a robot! Er, yes… and? 🤷🏻♂️
Only part three ends with a traditional ’Doctor-in-peril’ cliffhanger. #DoctorWho
Kinda: now this is more like it, a clever and poetic script, with one of the most well-thought-out attempts in #DoctorWho to depict a truly alien and unfathomable culture, even if they do look like humans.
The jungle set has been much maligned over the years, but looking at it now from this distance, it’s not *that* bad. Once you suspend your disbelief and accept the studio-bound VT nature of how it looks, it’s perfectly fine. #DoctorWho
Hindle’s descent into madness is undoubtedly done very well, but it’s hardly the Oscar-worthy performance that some fans would have you believe. #DoctorWho
Adric falls into his usual plot groove of siding (either deliberately or as a ruse) with this week’s nutcase.
Meanwhile Davison’s scenes with Todd show how his Doctor would really work better with a single, relatively normal and down-to-earth companion. #DoctorWho
If for no other reason, this story holds a special place in the annals of #DoctorWho history for providing fans with the term ‘Not-We’. 😁
If you know, you’re a ‘We’.
If you don’t, you’re a ‘Not-We’.
The Visitation: this has a very 1970s-style opening, with characters in a historical setting witnessing the light show caused by a spaceship descending through the atmosphere, like The Time Warrior or Horror Of Fang Rock. #DoctorWho
Nyssa is checking the Radio Times listings to make sure she’s fully in it this week. #DoctorWho
The Doctor’s taking Tegan back to Heathrow just after she left, so there “won’t be any awkward questions about where she’s been.”
Er, apart from the small matter of your Aunt being murdered and miniaturised Tegan. The police might have a few questions about that! #DoctorWho
The Terileptils claim to be a sophisticated and cultured race, but they stretch the 4:3 image on their TV into 16:9, so clearly they’re a bunch of heathens. #DoctorWho
Richard Mace is a well-written and entertaining character, but then it’s hardly surprising since he’s Saward’s own personal creation, that he’d been writing for years in other productions. #DoctorWho
The early animatronic effects in the Terileptil mask are simple but effective. Just that slight curl of the lip when he’s speaking works wonders to add a bit of realism. #DoctorWho
Headcanon: when the Fifth Doctor and crew leave at the end, the Fourth Doctor arrives seconds later, which is why he was blamed for starting the Great Fire of London (and why the Fifth knew he had to get out of there sharpish). #DoctorWho
Black Orchid: as an attempt to revive the ‘pure’ historical, this is only partially successful. Could do with a bigger threat or villain.
Someone once said that 80s fans liked this one because it’s ‘#DoctorWho you can show your mum’ and I think there’s a grain of truth in that.
To be honest, I’m just as mystified as Adric and Nyssa during the cricket bits. Oh, for a Dalek or something to come in and start blasting everything… #DoctorWho
I love how the butler makes sure to carefully put down what he’s carrying before coming to Ann’s assistance as she’s strangled. Someone’s being murdered, but we mustn’t show a lack of decorum! 😅 #DoctorWho
Bit lazy of the Doctor to just start showing people the inside of the TARDIS as a way of getting out of trouble. Though I always laugh at the constable who enters and exclaims ‘Strike me pink! #DoctorWho
Earthshock: this story’s reputation is predicated almost entirely on the two big surprises - the Cybermen’s return and the death of Adric. Watching it now outside of that context, it does slightly lose something, but it remains one of the best stories of this season. #DoctorWho
Adric’s argument with the Doctor in Part One. #DoctorWho
A lengthy conversation about the fate of the dinosaurs. I wonder if that will be relevant later on…🤔
And you can see why Davison struggled to keep a straight face with the overly macho acting of Lieutenant Scott. #DoctorWho
Ah, here we go with JNT’s bizarre stunt casting in the form of Beryl Reid…
It’s all very well wanting to cast big names in #DoctorWho, the new series does it all the time, but surely it can’t be that difficult to put them in suitable roles? Rather than “Oh, this is available!”
The return of the Cybermen brings with it the return of the “idiot who thinks he can ally himself with them”. What exactly is Ringway’s plan? Do we ever find out? His reveal as a traitor is followed by his death minutes later. Erm… okay, that was a bit pointless then. #DoctorWho
Fair play - I’ve taken the piss out of the little twerp but his death scene is still remarkably well done, and remains a hugely significant moment in the history of #DoctorWho
(Can’t help but still snigger a bit at the imposed solemnity of the silent credits though! 🤭)
Time-Flight: I alway say about this one that the opening episode is at least pretty decent, with a good mystery of the disappearing Concorde. Plus all the location filming at Heathrow looks great. It’s only once we go back in time that it all starts to fall apart. #DoctorWho
It’s almost comical - the indecent haste with which they get over Adric’s death. “Oh he wouldn’t want us to mourn! Let’s go do something fun!” 😄 #DoctorWho
Oh god… the Master’s “Arabian” disguise… 🫣
It’s bad enough that he pointlessly does this anyway (just for an “Aha! It was me all along!” reveal) but why does he remain in character even when there’s no one else about?? #DoctorWho
The tiny, cramped set, with its fake sky that looks about two feet away and it’s forced perspective view of the model citadel recalls The Keys of Marinus, nearly two decades earlier.
Add the tiny Concordes and this really stretches credulity beyond breaking point. #DoctorWho
At times it seems like every second word of Professor Hayter’s dialogue is ‘hallucination!’
Elsewhere we get a lot of rushed, garbled technobabble (and some genuine instances of “I’ll explain later!”, made famous in The Curse Of Fatal Death!)
Oh boy. Next please! #DoctorWho
Arc Of Infinity: season 20 begins with JNT’s penchant for fan-pleasing continuity now in full flow, with a Time Lord story full of mentions of Romana, E-space, Leela, Bio-data extracts, the Matrix, etc.
Unfortunately Gallifrey’s never looked so dull and beige… 🫤#DoctorWho
I like how the Time Lord have random sofas in corridors. Perhaps they occasionally need a lie down due to being overcome with the boredom of all the beigeness. #DoctorWho
While the Gallifrey sequences are a bit of a chore, at least all the Amsterdam stuff is more interesting. It’s a bit of a cosmic coincidence how Tegan gets involved and ultimately ends up back in the Doctor’s life, but we’ll let that pass. #DoctorWho
Colin Baker inadvertently livens the whole thing up, not just due to the amusement of seeing the future Sixth Doctor here, but also because of the general pompous nature of his character.
And his stupid hat. #DoctorWho
Tegan is very trusting of Robin, when you look at it objectively:
“Hello, I’m someone you’ve never met, telling you your cousin has mysteriously disappeared in this foreign country. Now if you’d just like to follow me into this creepy crypt where he was last seen…”
We get a handwave explanation from the Doctor of why this all occurs in Amsterdam: “Of course! The Arc of Infinity had to be below sea level to, er, maintain pressure for fusion conversion, or something… therefore completely justifying JNT having a little holiday!” #DoctorWho
Overall not the greatest Time Lord story, and too reliant on expecting the viewers to know the lore about Omega and so on, but it has its moments.
Plus the final shot is hilarious - the look on the Doctor’s face as he realises he’s stuck with Tegan again… 😄#DoctorWho
Snakedance: This is an excellent sequel to Kinda, just as good as the original but told in a much more accessible way.
I always get the impression this is a bit underrated in fan-opinion. A shame, as for me it’s one of Davison’s best. #DoctorWho
Nyssa finally gets a full change of clothes after two years (she must have stunk!) leading to a funny bit where the Doctor spectacularly fails to notice, despite her repeated attempts to show him. #DoctorWho
In his first TV role, Martin Clunes is great as the spoiled, arrogant Prince. Not really a villain, just misguided and taken over, but with an eminently punchable face. 😄 #DoctorWho
Ambril really must be particularly thick not to get the whole ‘six faces of delusion’ thing and need the Doctor to explain it to him. #DoctorWho
Neil Corry@gavinwinters The curtains they wear are VERY heavy.
tptigger@gavinwinters Most of them don't stand out as weird to a yank who doesn't know who they are.
(Of course YMMV as Adric is a favorite character :P)
(I had to expect seeing that post from someone when I followed the #DoctorWho tag, though, sadly :)
(Of course YMMV as Adric is a favorite character :P)
(I had to expect seeing that post from someone when I followed the #DoctorWho tag, though, sadly :)