Doctor Who: season 7

[altariel]

Here be Pertwee. A brave new world of colour and extremely short skirts.


Spearhead From Space
altariel: Right. I remember loving this as we were watching it, and now I can't remember a thing about it. This happens every time I watch this.
mraltariel: I think this is the best introduction for the Doctor since 'An Unearthly Child'.
altariel: Remind me what happens.
mraltariel: There's a plot, which evolves over four episodes, and they introduce the Doctor, and they begin to introduce the set-up and supporting cast. And it looks brilliant.
altariel: Also, the lovely Liz. I know you don't like her, but I still think she's a marvellous companion and it's a lovely performance from Caroline John as someone who's a lot cleverer than most people around her but has to handle people treating her like a dolly. Can we watch PROBE next?
mraltariel: I know this was made in 1969, but it's all Jaguars, puddles, and rubbish under the railway arches. The Seventies have begun.
altariel: Also, things are brown.
mraltariel: Very brown.

Doctor Who and the Silurians
altariel: This was great! I had completely forgotten the bit about the plague that the lizard-folk let loose! There was actually enough story to fill all seven episodes. Pretty much.
mraltariel: A show not spoiled by Paul Darrow.
altariel: Aw, I like his double-Rimmers.
mraltariel: I have nothing else to say. I like this story, in an uncomplicated fashion.

The Ambassadors of Death
altariel: All right, so we had a bit of padding in this one. But I still think it's an atmospheric and pretty scary story. John Abineri manages to do military man going mad without cackling and eye-rolling. It's a very effective story.
mraltariel: Although obviously influenced by Quatermass, it's a much less silly story than that, and better realized. The spacemen are especially creepy.
altariel: It shits all over "Children of Earth". But that's not hard.
mraltariel: Do you think "Children of Earth" is based on the same type of story, then?
altariel: Absolutely, although it also riffs on "The Quatermass Conclusion".
mraltariel: Boring boring "Torchwood", more juvenile than a children's story.
altariel: You said it, sir.

Inferno
altariel: Oh man, what a waste of three stunning episodes!
mraltariel: The first three barely manage to warm the turkey up to tepid.
altariel: Gosh, you're tough. But once it goes into the alternate universe it's stellar! All the supporting cast suddenly start performing.
mraltariel: And Liz gets a better wig.
altariel: And a fascist frock.
mraltariel: Are these the worst monsters so far? The Monoids mock them for being rubbish.
altariel: The Zarbi scorn. The other thing I like is that it's doing IMAGERY and METAPHOR and stuff. With serious intent. And I think they just about get away with it, because Doomsday is so brilliant in the AU, apart from the slow fight with the Brigadier.
mraltariel: I must mention the Swarfega.
altariel: Consider it mentioned.


Ranking
Spearhead From Space
Doctor Who and the Silurians
The Ambassadors of Death
Inferno


altariel: I have always liked this season, and it did not disappoint. Apart from the bad bits of 'Inferno'.
mraltariel: The many bad bits. It's striking just how much it is like 'Web of Fear', 'The Invasion', and 'The War Games', and how obviously absent all those Hartnell throwback filler stories like 'The Krotons' and 'The Dominators' are. This is what happens when you halve the number of episodes per season, and it really benefits from it.
altariel: Thank you Barry Letts.
mraltariel: Even if you only inherited these stories and directed the crap one.
altariel: And not for 'The Sevenfold Crown'.
mraltariel: But thank you anyway.
altariel: That sounds a bit bad.
mraltariel: But we mean it in a good way.

Comments

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

We forgot to mention the monster with the massive "Stallman" badge, just so you know who he is.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was a VERY BIG BADGE INDEED.

[alcina2.livejournal.com]

I particularly like the way people climb up onto ver high bits of the oil refineryInferno Project for no good reason except that they can have exciting chases and then fall off dramatically.

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

That's the way to do it!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

"Quick! Up that tower! We have an episode to fill!"

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I remember loving this as we were watching it, and now I can't remember a thing about it. This happens every time I watch this.

I remember the Doctor getting out of the TARDIS and collapsing... and then my brain seems to flip to the arrival of the Master and Jo. Um... I think one of them may have hypnotised me.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

'Terror of the Autons' (which we're watching now) is exactly the same story as 'Spearhead', except the Doctor doesn't fall out of the TARDIS at the start. I can see why they'd get elided. Or else - yes, Jo has hypnotized you.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It never happened. It was all a dream.

Er, yes, you may be right.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I like Liz. You can tell mraltariel he's just wrong!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I have done - repeatedly!

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, Liz is great in Spearhead. And as evil-Liz in Inferno. And for her 30 second appearance in Amb.of.Death. But apart from that, she might as well not be there.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yes, sadly I think the writers didn't know what to do with her. Much of the time, the companion seems to be there for the Doctor to explain the plot to, and since Liz already understood for herself, she was just left hanging :-(

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

I LOVE Spearhead from Space. Particularly the fighting on gangways. And Liz.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It all looks great too.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Inferno is a bit naff, in a 1970s-TBO-sort-of-way, though I do like the Brigade Leader. And don't forget it's got Christopher Benjamin in it!

Meanwhile, Mrs Q has just acquired the Dalek War box set (Frontier in Space/Planet of the Daleks) so we're in Jo Grant territory :(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The Brigade Leader is awesome. These guys made him Ruler of the Universe at the Redemption convention at the start of the year: a brilliant campaign (including marching into the hustings and threatening the other candidates!). Absolutely brilliantly conceived and carried out.

I'm secretly enjoying Jo as a companion, and the whole Pertwee era so far. A wee while before we get to Frontier In Space/Planet of the Daleks: I'm not sure I've ever seen them all the way through.

Christopher Benjamin FTW!

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

mraltariel: I must mention the Swarfega.
altariel: Consider it mentioned.

This makes me very happy. This is a happy post of happiness. IMAGERY and METAPHOR and stuff, oh my.


*is still liking of Torchwood(+) though, despite its irrepressible juvenility*

(+) but not Children of Earth

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

Ah interesting! I still quite like some of season one, because its faults are to do with not knowing what it is doing, and doing it a bit badly, not a lack of imagination. Season 2 I think is much better made, but utterly devoid of interest or creativity.

We will not speak of CoE*.

* That's not the Church of England, although we won't speak of that either, probably.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

I think I liked season 1 because it fitted in with the universe of Hyperdrive in which people are cheerfully incompetent and a bit rubbish but it all kind of works out in the end. There was less of that in season 2 - that seemed to be more about individual stories than having a unifying theme. I liked Tosh's episode with Tommy, but the S2 PJ Hammond episode was not as good as the S1 one, and that's how I generally talk about S2, not that I talk that much about Torchwood. And it certainly didn't fill me with the rage that Ashes to Ashes did - Torchwood was something that I looked forward to watching, without necessarily adoring it. I found enough in it to forgive or at least cope with its flaws.

I see no need to have a conversation about the CoE right now, unless the subject of comedy vicars arises, but why would it? (Would a vicar, or vicar-in-training make an interesting companion for the Doctor?)

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

How can someone with such a sound choice of icon be so wrong about the relative merits of the different seasons of Torchwood? :)

(There ought to be Who-Noggin crossover fanfic, especially as Nogbad is clearly yet another alias for the Master.)

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

The icon does not lie. Trust the icon.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Never Children of Earth

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Never! Or possibly the first two episodes with the proper ending (the ones in our heads - the True Story!*) but not what was shown on TV.

*Mine involves Rhys releasing the information to the world, and lots of soldiers refusing to carry out their orders, and possibly the breakdown of law and order and all sorts of things. And possibly some boffins somewhere actually coming up with a solution like a better drug for the numbered alien. This may not be a happy ending - there may be a lot more rubble involved, not just the Hub.

[sugoll.livejournal.com]

I do adore these series posts. And I find myself wondering how they're written - A and MrA taking turns at the keyboard, or a conversation while A types, or a mashed up dialogue part-remembered and summarised by A or - the list goes on. I feel like I want a Making of.... post--

--but that would spoil the magic.

Oh, and colour me ignorant, but: they had an episode called Doctor Who and...!?

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's totally automated. We fed all the scripts into the computer, and all our LJ posts too. When we get to the end of each season, we press a button, the magic software pulls out all relevant phrases, formats it, and then posts straight to LJ. Trufax.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and colour me ignorant, but: they had an episode called Doctor Who and...!?

Yup - says it on screen and everything!