Doctor Who: season 1

[altariel]

Since Eastercon, we've been watching Doctor Who from the start. So every morning, with our breakfast, we have a single episode (listening to the audios of the missing ones). It's a brilliant way to watch the show. We're at the end of season 1 now, so here are some capsule reviews. We've been surprised at wot we've seen. Neither of us have watched all the Hartnells before, and certainly not in order. We weren't expecting a show with such a modern feel, and one that has so many direct connections with the first season of Rusty's Reincarnation (none of which we shall talk about below). On with the motley.


An Unearthly Child
altariel: God, I love this episode. Can't be critical about it.
mraltariel: It looks great, really eerie, and Ian and Barbara have just the right amount of UST.

100,000 BC
altariel: Well, that was a surprise. I remember it being dull and stupid and in fact it's interesting and well done. Which means that when I last saw it, I must have been the dull and stupid one. I don't think it could have sustained more than three episodes though.
mraltariel: There's an enormous difference watching these stories one episode at a time and in the right order!

The Daleks
altariel: I think this drags quite a lot in places, although I believe I think it drags in the places where other people think it's good.
mraltariel: The TARDIS crew are good, but the story sucks. It looks interesting, and the music is great. But the plot is so thin anyway that when it's stretched across that many episodes it collapses. At least they killed the monsters at the end, so we won't have to see them again!

The Edge of Destruction
altariel: A story about the horrors of the nuclear family.
mraltariel: I think this is a bit odd to watch with my porridge in the morning.

Marco Polo
altariel: Triumphant. Wonderful.
mraltariel: We might actually be able to listen to all the missing episodes after all!

The Keys of Marinus
altariel: Hmm. Good in parts. I hate the episode about the trapper, but I like the proto-city from 'The Way Back' in episodes 5 and 6.
mraltariel: BRAINS IN JARS! BRAINS IN JARS! I'm surprised they've done two 'quest' stories in a row, especially given how good the first one was. This is a much better story than its reputation though.

The Aztecs
altariel: OH JOHN RINGHAM NO!
mraltariel: This one's supposed to be good. It looks good, and I can see that the idea is good, but it's got some terrible performances. And it feels even longer than most of the six parters.

The Sensorites
altariel: Everyone's fluffing their lines all the time! Do you think they rehearsed this at all? Actually, I really like the creepy build-up in the first couple of episodes; felt very 'Ambassadors of Death'. And I like that the Sensorites don't like people being noisy, because I don't like that either. Also the chunky Sensorite's reaction to swapping the sashes around is my moment of the season. It's like watching the production crew invent science fiction in front of you.
mraltariel: Wot she said.

The Reign of Terror
altariel: I wish they had spent more time on the political intrigue and less time getting captured and escaping, again. But the final episode was brilliant.
mraltariel: They get captured and escape so often they even feel the need to mention it in episode 6. Still, I'd have another series. This is starting to get quite good.

Ranking
Marco Polo
An Unearthly Child
The Reign of Terror
100,000 BC
The Sensorites
The Keys of Marinus
The Edge of Destruction
The Aztecs
The Daleks

Comments

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Interesting that you ranked "The Daleks" bottom. If you had come to it never having seen or heard of the daleks, as we did back in 1963 (yes, I'm that old!), I wonder if you would have been more impressed. The daleks made an enormous impression at the time, and were probably more responsible than anything else for turning the programme into a success.

It's interesting just how much of an anti-hero the Doctor was in those early stories: selfish, cowardly and irritable. In fact one gets the idea that they were toying with making him an out and out villain.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

How cool to have seen it all first time round. I think the low ranking for 'The Daleks' is partly a result of the fact that I've seen it before several times and some of the other stories not at all, so they had novelty on their side.

Yes, the Doctor feels dangerous: I think this is because Ian and Barbara are our POV characters (like Rose), and so we are seeing the impressions of someone mercurial and not-quite-human.