Timelash: oh dear. š¬ Okayā¦ maybe not quite as bad as itās reputation, but still the worst of this season. Lots of clunky dialogue and painfully obvious exposition.
And the Doctor and Periās relationship has taken a backward step to Twin Dilemma levels of snappiness. #DoctorWho
Paul Darrow gives one of the most preposterous performances in the entire history of #DoctorWho. Equal parts appalling and hilarious. Really needs a hunchback or a cape or an eyepatch as the finishing touch.
Still, at least heās having fun. Iām glad someone is!
The makeup for the Borad is one of the few positive elements, which still stands up against anything youād see today.
And they show great restraint in holding back the full reveal for as long as they do. #DoctorWho
The endingās bloody awful though. After the total cop-out of āIāll explain one dayā as to how they survived the missile, the Doctor then lambasts the Borad for his āgrotesque, ugly excuse for a bodyā. (Lovely message to send the kids who are watching, Doctor. š )
And then he says that if Peri doesnāt scream when she sees the Boradās face, heāll consent to their marriage (!?!)
Jesus Christ, was this written in the 1950s?? Right, we need the Daleks as a palate cleanser after that! #DoctorWho
Bit unfortunate that we had two stories in a row where the villain is killedā¦ only for it to be revealed that it was just a decoy clone and heās really still around.
I love the black humour of Davrosā fingers scattered on the ground after his hand is shot off! #DoctorWho
The powers-that-be have now forced me to pause this #DoctorWho rewatch for a hiatus of eighteenā¦ hours.
Please do not release an ill-advised charity single to try to make me continue sooner, thanks.
The Time Lords are comically inept at covering up their dirty secret. Why include footage of Glitz saying:
āThe Sleepers found a way into theā¦ BLEEP! BLEEP! ā¦the biggest repository of knowledge in the universe!ā
If that wasnāt obvious enough, you can lipread him! š#DoctorWho
CLIFFHANGER ZOOM INTO DOCTORāS FACE!
(Weāll be seeing quite a few of thoseā¦) #DoctorWho
Even knowing how theyāll backtrack over it in a few weeks, the ending is still incredible and packs a hell of a punch, plus it gives Nicola Bryant some of the best material sheās had to work with.
Kind of glad they did change it though, and it wasnāt Periās final end. #DoctorWho
Terror Of The Vervoids: an awkward debut for Mel, just suddenly there with no proper intro, with a character whoās little more than āfitness fanaticā. And Pip & Janeās ludicrous dialogue doesnāt help.
On the plus side, they did write this seasonās best cliffhangers. #DoctorWho
The dirty towels on the spaceship are *pulverised*, in a massive machine, and ejected into space??
Donāt they have washing machines in the 30th century? #DoctorWho
The fake Mogarian not using his translator is childishly obvious. Probably only there in fact to make kids feel clever by spotting it.
At least the Valeyardās repetition of the words āarbitrary courseā is slightly subtler and easy to miss. #DoctorWho
āā¦and that concludes the evidence for the defence, in which I committed genocide against an entire species.ā
āYou did WHAT!ā
āOh buggerā¦ā
The Ultimate Foe: for a story half-written by #DoctorWhoās most revered writer (Holmes) and half by its most reviled (the Bakers), with the differing styles being clear, this ends up working incredibly well.
And given all that was happening behind the scenes, miraculously well.
These are the best ever Matrix scenes, with the creepy Victorian setting overdubbed with ghostly music, voices and laughter.
Shame Melās still not written very well, and as this was recorded first, Bonnieās still finding her way and playing it very theatrically. #DoctorWho
(Me watching this in 1986)
āWhatās that weird stuff behind him, if heās in his TARDIS?ā
(Me watching this in 2023)
āOh, heās got a funky Zoom background.ā
Is the trial being broadcast on live TV? Hence the report of Gallifrey ādescending into chaosā and the High Council being deposed immediately after their crimes have been exposed.
Maybe Runcible survived The Deadly Assassin after allā¦ #DoctorWho
And thatās it. A sad ending for Colin, whoās run was plagued with problems and setbacks throughout, but struggled on regardless. Never mind Col, Big Finish beckons!
āCarrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juiceā¦ā #DoctorWho
There was a real sense at this point of #DoctorWho now being completely out of touch, both with its own fans and the general TV audience. Stuck in a niche of JNT campness.
Thankfully Andrew Cartmel has arrived to start dragging it back down to Earth (literally and figuratively).
Paradise Towers: this is like a strange hybrid of JNTās camper vision of #DoctorWho and the influences Cartmel was trying to bring in - e.g. contemporary sci-fi novels and comic books.
And its style has echoes in the modern series. A clear ancestor of episodes like Gridlock.
Richard Briers also seems to think heās in a production aimed at very young kids, especially once he becomes zombified in part four.
McCoy on the other hand has improved a lot from the previous story and is now playing the Doctor as he will for the rest of his run. #DoctorWho
Does the TARDIS really need to pass through a toll port in space and pay a fee? Couldnāt it just, you knowā¦ dematerialise? š¤·š»āāļø
In fact youād think most regular spaceships could avoid it too. They donāt really dwell on the logic of how theyād enforce the rule! #DoctorWho
Dragonfire: by this point you had the first generation of writers whoād not only grown up with #DoctorWho, but were also influenced by movies of the 70s/80s.
So we get budget versions of the Star Wars cantinaā¦ Terminator (Aceās nitro)ā¦ Alienā¦ Raiders for Kaneās melting faceā¦
But anywayā¦ Ace! š
I like the relationship between those two, especially when she brings out the nitro-flinging anarchist in Mel. Makes me wish Mel had stayed for a longer crossover period between them.
Not something I ever thought Iād say back in 1987! š #DoctorWho
I love the philosophical guard: āWhat do you think of the assertion that the semiotic thickness of a performed text varies according to the redundancy of auxiliary performance codes?ā
(Yes, Iām sad enough to have typed that from memory!) #DoctorWho
Mel gets the weirdest departure ever, leaving forā¦ no reason whatsoever. Just as well they diluted Glitz from the psychopath he was meant to be in his first episodes, or sheād be out the nearest airlock.
Oh well, RTD will be along soon with some decent writing Mel! #DoctorWho
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