As a teen I got that Helen A was a Thatcher parody, even if I didn’t pick up on the deeper themes.

Her final scene with the Doctor is a highlight, and it’s a testament to Sheila Hancock’s acting that she manages to wring emotion out of the death of the Fifi puppet. #DoctorWho

The Doctor in a fez is an amusingly unintentional link to the modern series.

Moffat must have taken inspiration from this in other ways for the 50th and Day Of The Doctor - the different time zones, an ancient Gallifreyan artefact, a Queen Elizabeth… #DoctorWho

Honestly the Cybermen are the weakest part, being pathetically easy to dodge or kill.

The use of gold against them has lazily declined from how it previously needed to be grated into their chest units. Now it just needs a touch and they practically explode. 🙄#DoctorWho

And their lack of interest in “the secrets of the Time Lords” is baffling.

Plus the way their defeat is basically a re-run of Remembrance (acknowledged in the dialogue!) doesn’t help. This would probably be improved a lot with a different alien threat. #DoctorWho

Lady Peinforte’s hint that the Doctor’s not a Time Lord… added to Pertwee’s slip of being “thousands” of years old, plus the Morbius faces… and you see this idea has been bubbling under for decades.

Anyone who thinks Chibnall “retconned” #DoctorWho history is talking nonsense.

I like the idea that the Gods of Ragnarok represent the BBC, judging #DoctorWho on how entertaining it still is, with Captain Cook being the alternative, namely Star Trek.

Though I think people who subscribe to that theory are stretching it a bit with ‘Deadbeat = Blake’s 7’. Eh?

“I know it’s not as good as it used to be, but I’m still terribly interested!”

Subtle. 😄 #DoctorWho

Battlefield: into the final classic season (😨), but with an encore for the Brig! By now fans had built him up into this legendary figure, and as such this story thoroughly celebrates him.

And UNIT gets a bit of a makeover, with a more international flavour to it. #DoctorWho

So often in this era you have ambitious new writers with wildly imaginative ideas… that just can’t be effectively conveyed given the available time and budget.

The Target novelisation clarifies everything (especially Morgaine and Mordred’s universe) immeasurably. #DoctorWho

Sad to see the reduced circumstances of the classic TARDIS interior in its final appearance. Just the console and a few fake walls in shadow.

“Oh shame!”, as Bambera would say (ah, the momentary shock in 1989 when we all thought she was about to say shit! 😆) #DoctorWho

Who would have ever thought Nicholas Parsons would be so good in a role like this? Sometimes JNT’s “stunt casting” really worked.

Sylvester also gives the best performance of his time in the role. We’re light years away from the pratfalling of Time And The Rani. #DoctorWho

They’d worked out by now how to do decent #DoctorWho on the available budget, by making everything mostly earthbound, but still managed to give us one last believable alien planet.

And the Cheetah People makeup is easily equal to the cat nuns from nearly two decades later.

What a season. What an era. What a TARDIS team.

And what a pity so few at the time, either in fandom or in the BBC, could appreciate what they had… #DoctorWho

As always in #DoctorWho, there’s a never-ending cycle where a “disliked” era becomes more loved with the passage of time, as the kids who enjoyed it grow up and replace the grumpy adults who slagged it off. It happened before and it’ll happen again.

Every Doc has their day. 🙂