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. 🙂
The opening doesn’t make much of a concession to new viewers, launching straight into an info-dump with references to Time Lords, Daleks, Skaro, the Master, regenerations… helpfully showing RTD what *not* to do!
And what’s with the Daleks having Smurf voices? 😆#DoctorWho
I always think Grace’s whole look and character was designed to echo Scully from The X-Files, which was massive at the time.
And elsewhere they lift from Classic Who - the two hearts X-ray and the new clothes scene are obviously taken from Spearhead From Space. #DoctorWho
It’s impressive how, with little over an hour of screen time, Eric Roberts gives us one of the campest Masters ever.
No mean feat, given the competition! #DoctorWho
Night Of The Doctor: I’m now cheating slightly by jumping ahead to this minisode but, well, you have to really, don’t you?
What a brilliant surprise this was. I still remember scaring the shit out of the cat with the yell I let out when McGann appeared. 😄 #DoctorWho
I’d forgotten just how short this is. It crams in a hell of a lot into under seven minutes, with another tantalising glimpse of how McGann’s Doctor might have been.
The dialogue is noticeably Moffat. You can’t help but picture Matt saying the “bring me knitting” line. #DoctorWho
The funny thing about the Big Finish companions getting namechecked is it means he forgot to mention any that were/will be created afterwards.
No mention of Grace either! 😆 #DoctorWho
Rose: right, here we go into 21st century #DoctorWho. Honestly, going from 1989 to 1996, detouring to 2013 then back to 2005 has given me whiplash.😵💫
This was a… well, “fantastic” relaunch. Eccleston & Piper both brilliant. Wise to start with Rose as the audience POV character.
One very important point I have to make about this #DoctorWho episode is…
**TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. PLEASE STAND BY**
One curious “mistake”, if you can call it that, is the Autons still having wrist-guns, same as back in the 70s.
But these aren’t specially made Autons, as far as we know. They’re regular shop dummies animated by the Nestene signal. So… where’d the guns come from? #DoctorWho
The Unquiet Dead: this completes the initial past/present/future trilogy, showing the series’ potential.
But I like how, this early into trying to show all of space and time, they went “ah, screw it” and set an episode in Cardiff, with Welsh actors and Welsh accents.😄#DoctorWho
It only took 42 years, but finally a supporting character, Charles Dickens, asks the very sensible question about how exactly is it “goodbye” when the Doctor and companion walk into a wooden box to leave at the end of an adventure.
Why did no one ask that before?? #DoctorWho
Hello Trinity Wells!
And UNIT! Proper ‘United Nations’ UNIT too, none of yer ‘Unified’ gubbins! #DoctorWho
Dalek: now this is a textbook example of how you bring back an old enemy and make them powerful and relevant again for modern audiences.
You can tell they took delight in subverting all the tired old criticisms about sink plungers, stairs, etc, one by one. #DoctorWho
Apparently RTD told Cornell not to worry about every last detail making perfect logical sense, as long as it felt right for the story.
I think the TARDIS becoming just a Police Box might have been one of those. No real explanation as to why, but its a memorable image. #DoctorWho
“People think your wife’s messing about with the butcher, but she isn’t, is she? You are…”
Oh, the debates about that line on the old Outpost Gallifrey forum! With some *insisting* it just meant the two men were involved in black market activity together… 😅 #DoctorWho
Gavin Winters