Doctor Who: season 5

[altariel]

The Troughton era rattles past at a great pace, not helped by the near-total lack of visual material. Gutting.


Tomb of the Cybermen
altariel: I remember when they found this and it was really thrilling. It forms the backdrop for us becoming sweethearts. Aw! Yes, anyway, this is very creepy, very well-designed, and Troughton is thoroughly shifty throughout. I'm really glad they found it.
mraltariel: Some of the supporting performances leave something to be desired and I'm starting to develop a profound dislike of Victoria.
altariel: Oh god, yes, she's shocking. I also wouldn't say that this story does well on the diversity front. Toberman only gets to speak as he dies for the white men.

The Abominable Snowmen
altariel: Oh my god, this was brilliant! This was so brilliant, that the lack of pictures and, indeed, INTELLIGIBLE SOUND at many points did not interfere with the atmosphere and the slow cranking of suspense. It is such a shame they binned this and we're stuck with "The Ice Warriors". Brilliant.
mraltariel: It is good. I want a cuddly Yeti!

The Ice Warriors
altariel: Fucking hell this was terrible. What did Peter Barkworth think he was doing with that performance? Panto? I think he was worse than Professor Zaroff in "The Underwater Menace", but then people are very wrong about that story. I'll admit that the music and the set design were lovely and haunting, but - oh, my dears, the plot! The acting!
mraltariel: The hot pants!

The Enemy of the World
altariel: Wasn't this very Hartnell? It was like the big old Dalek story, the Masterplan. They don't quite pull off the epic feel as well, but I like it when Who does these big almost Trek-like political stories.
mraltariel: Take that back. It is nothing like Trek!111!!! You're right, though. Funnily enough, I was going to say that it isn't really like any Doctor Who we've had before. This season feels like they are experimenting with lots of different types of story-telling, which is why they stick to the same plot for all the episodes, to see which works the best. We're about to get a Pertwee story, for example.
altariel: Not that we know what they're like yet.
mraltariel: Who's Jon Pertwee? I get these headaches...

The Web of Fear
altariel: Another cracker. Again, suspenseful - I really didn't guess the "villain", and it all depends on that.
mraltariel: Would have been even better if we hadn't recognised the Brig through our magic foreknowledge.
altariel: Did they really make them build Tube tunnels as a set?
mraltariel: Yes. And aren't they lovely? It really feels like they've got a lot of Tube tunnel.
altariel: I have to say, that even if much of this season is basically the same plot, you don't notice it, because the design and everything else is so inventive.

Fury from the Deep
altariel: Best of the season, definitely.
mraltariel: Not just because Victoria leaves.
altariel: Very naughty to have the plot resolve on the fact that she does nothing but scream.
mraltariel: There are some lovely almost supernatural bits of direction, especially the episode ending down by the sea.
altariel: Yes, that in particular was wonderful. A couple of good female characters too.
mraltariel: Plus, kudos to the people who did the reconstruction, this was particularly dynamic. I kept forgetting we didn't have the video.
altariel: This story's so brilliant you can see why they went the extra mile.

The Wheel in Space
altariel: Nowhere near as crap as I was expecting, but suffers from coming right after such a gem.
mraltariel: I don't think it's crap at all, contrary to my previous belief.
altariel: No, not crap, tho' not as memorable as, say, "Tomb". But then we do have all the pictures for that. Where did I get the idea that it was a crap one?
mraltariel: The two episodes we've got don't make much narrative sense in isolation, and you tend to mix it up with "The Moonbase", which is total shit.

Ranking
Fury from the Deep
The Web of Fear
The Abominable Snowmen
Tomb of the Cybermen
The Wheel in Space
The Enemy of the World
The Ice Warriors


altariel: What a cracking season. Do you think that we'd be disappointed with it if we actually had all the pictures? Do you think it helps that you have to make up large parts of it IN YOUR HEAD?
mraltariel: Hmm. Obviously, the stories are much less variable in quality than season 4. But they do seem a bit samey, and Victoria really is awful.
altariel: I've expunged her from my memory of these stories. Behold the power of the reader.
mraltariel: I'm beholding.

Comments

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

Tomb of the Cybermen left me with terrible mental scars. I had nightmares for years afterwards of electrified cybermen ripping their way out of cling-film-covered cupboards and chasing me around the room.

Of course I wasn't quite 2 when I saw it, which explains everything. :) It's my earliest Doctor Who-related memory.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Crikey, yes! My earliest Who memory is the 'om' chanting in "Planet of the Spiders" (I must have been about 2). mraltariel's is the axe falling on the table in "The Time Warrior" - some weeks before his first birthday!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

{blush} should I admit that one of my earliest was Victoria screaming at the frothing plants???

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm envious that you got to see it!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

We did get it a little later over here... and I'm pretty sure Mum (an SF fan from way back) watched it right from the beginning, so little fragments pop up in the clouded recesses of my poor memory (the bit from the Mind Robbers where they change Jamie's face, for another)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

(the bit from the Mind Robbers where they change Jamie's face, for another)

We just watched that episode this morning (it's actually out on DVD, a change from the usual viewing quality).

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

"Planet of the Spiders" had a huge effect at my junior school! We had circles of 8-10-year-olds sitting on the playground floor in circles chanting after watching it. I often wondered later (much later) what the staff must have thought.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm imagining them in the staff room doing the same ;-)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I don't think that I've seen any of those stories since they were first broadcast over forty years ago, so I can't remember enough about them to comment very usefully. I do remember liking The Abominable Snowmen. I also remember liking Victoria, but since I was a teenager at the time that may not have had much to do with her acting ability.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The BBC website has a wonderful archive of material, including photonovels, that I bet would bring some memories back.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Yjanks. I'll take a look at that.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Or thanks even!

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Enemy of the World is the standout story in this season for me, with its effectively-realised sense of global scale in stark contrast to the enclosed spaces of the rest of the season.

I enjoyed The Ice Warriors, and in particular Peter Barkworth's performance.

The Wheel in Space I haven't yet seen, but surely it must get points for introducing Zoe, and hence the best Tardis team since the original.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ha, our preferences are exactly opposite! What do you like about Barkworth's performance? (I didn't know there were stories you hadn't seen.)

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Ha, our preferences are exactly opposite!

What have you got against Zoe?

What do you like about Barkworth's performance?

Oo, it's a while since I've seen it, but I remember it as a very engaging and watchable performance, a cut above the usual "pompous base commander who doesn't get it". Also, his catsuit was very fetching, a bold fashion statement for an older man.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I've never caught up with the reconstructions, and never, ever taken to The Abominable Snowmen - not even Terrance Dicks's novelization helped the story to make an impression on me; but Fury from the Deep, from soundtrack alone, probably is the best of the season.

I like some things about The Ice Warriors - the 'adult' establishment of the base being subverted by the childlike Doctor, Jamie and Victoria, to begin with, though once the threat is established it seems to have nowhere really to go.

It's a pity that the scenes which set up Zoe most as a character are in the 'missing episodes', otherwise The Wheel in Space might be much better remembered than it is. Listening to the soundtrack I built up a better picture of Zoe as someone bred up as a component and not as a person; she probably has the best launch of any Troughton-era companion, and it's a pity that she was overshadowed by Victoria (many of whose stories were novelized by Target early on) for so long.

As for The Enemy of the World - telling that David Whitaker wanted to excise Victoria from the book version, really!

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

She's almost completely excised from the on-screen (or on-sound!) version, too. Which is one of many reasons it is so good.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

Chortle. I enjoyed reading that - thanks for posting.

I've no idea what any of these stories are about (and for some reason The Abominable Snowman is making me think of Basil Brush), but quite possibly it's better reading your reviews that way.

Also, awww!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I do wonder whether any of this makes any sense, but then I figure that people are likely to know: a. the stories, b. us, or c. both, and perhaps any of those works OK!