Doctor Who: season 22

[altariel]

Attack of the Cybermen
mraltariel: Well, that was a lot more fun than I expected. Lytton was the only good thing about "Resurrection of the Daleks", and he's equally good in this one, if not better.
altariel: I agree. Thought this would be violent and a shocker, and it does have a hard edge, but there's a decent little story going on underneath, and yes: Lytton is the high point.
mraltariel: A shout out for the Fat Controller.

Vengeance on Varos
mraltariel: The golden rule for casting directors, is "Don't cast Jason Connery." He won't be any better this time. You know it in your hearts to be true.
altariel: I concur. He's terrible. And although everyone else is very good...
mraltariel: (Yay! Stephen Yardley! He's the XYY Man, you know.)
altariel: (Yay! Martin Jarvis!)
mraltariel: (are we done with interjections?)
altariel: ...this commits the fatal sin of doing the thing it is criticizing.
mraltariel: I can't disagree there. It is nearly very good, though.
altariel: Yes.

The Mark of the Rani
mraltariel: What exactly is Peri wearing? That mustard coloured dress can only have been fashionable for 30 seconds in the 19th century.
altariel: That is neither a frock nor a dress, it is a costume. Perfidious Master! Perfidious Rani! Silly but watchable.
mraltariel: Again, lots of good bits. The plastic tree is difficult to take in an era of Renee dressed up as a tree to spy on Gruber's little tank. But apart from that...
altariel: What is it Pip & Jane do? Is it 1930s Amazing Stories? Or Flash Gordon? I like their chutzpah. "Darlings, you'll love this one...we're perverting the course of the industrial revolution with the aid of a plastic tree. And it doesn't need any rewrites."
mraltariel: Except for quality.

The Two Doctors
mraltariel: Oh, I miss you Patrick Troughton! You were great. And Colin is great in this one too. And him out of Brass. And her out of Blake's 7. And him out of "The Gunfighters". And...
altariel: Yes. I love it too.

Timelash
mraltariel: Oh, I miss you Patrick Troughton! You were great. And Colin is great too. But not him out of Blake's 7. He is not great in this.
altariel: Jesus, that was shite.
mraltariel: We haven't seen anything as bad as that since "Frontios".
altariel: Can you deal with your "Frontios" issues in private?
mraltariel: *mutters something about "Terminus"*
altariel: On the plus side... No, there was no plus side.
mraltariel: That's not fair. Wells is good, as is Denis Carey.
altariel: *sigh* Meh.
mraltariel: And I like the makeup on the Borad. It looks so strokable.
altariel: Can you deal with your Borad issues in private?

Revelation of the Daleks
mraltariel: This is one of my favourites so far. It has so much going for it. Him off The Champions for starters.
altariel: Oh, man, what a great story. I was running through the things I love about this story, and I hadn't even thought of William Gaunt!
mraltariel: I KNOW!
altariel: This story is so good, I was sure it was written by Bob Holmes.
mraltariel: But it wasn't Bob Holmes's story. That's how you could tell.
altariel: Yeah, but it's got Bob-double-acts and Bob-wit.
mraltariel: You're not wrong. And the violence supports the story rather than being overly intrusive.
altariel: Shame Saward didn't write like this all the time.


Ranking
Revelation of the Daleks
The Two Doctors
Attack of the Cybermen
Vengeance on Varos
The Mark of the Rani
Timelash

mraltariel: So, Colin's first season proper is rather a good one. Except for "Timelash".
altariel: Two brilliant, one good, one misfire, one meh, one bad. That's alright.
mraltariel: Best season since Davison's first?
altariel: Nah. I just like Davison more. But Colin has great brio!
mraltariel: Fair enough - but I think this season is both more ambitious and better executed than most of the rest of Davison.
altariel: Let's hope they keep up this momentum...

Comments

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

I remember Attack as being good first time round, but on repeated viewings it's... a mess. Like Resurrection, it's a bunch of fanwank set-pieces haphazardly tossed across the screen.

That description reads as being more icky than I thought.

Oddly, it probably works better now, given that it depends on a lot of knowledge of previous episodes, which viewers on DVD nowadays are more likely to have than casual viewers at the time did... Colbourne and Glover are great, though, and it's pretty much a guilty pleasure.

The Two Doctors is decent, but not as awesome as it should have been, and I think that's basically because it's about half an hour too long. And needed a better director.

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh, Revelation, of course... Why didn't Saward write like this all the time? Cos this story isn't actually his - it's Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One with the serial numbers filed off, and Daleks added.

Wish he'd done more book pastiches, really.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I don't mind pastiche or adaptation. Perhaps Saward showed here that if he wasn't fixating on the violence as something in its own right, and remembered that Doctor Who has a comedic edge, then he could write a smashing story.