Anthony and Whitney's Excellent Doctor Who Odyssey

[Anthony Williams]

Introduction

Back in March, my wife and I decided that it would be a good idea for us to watch our way through the entirety of Doctor Who. In order. I have seen/heard every single one of these stories before, while Whitney has only seen/heard some of them.

So, we set down three basic rules, which were as follows:

1. No skipping forward. With some exceptions - we may watch any new stories on tv, for the duration of that season and up to a month after it has ended.
2. Repeats. If we really want to, we can re-watch stories, the only proviso being that we have already watched them in our marathon.
3. We end when we get to wherever Doctor Who is when we finish. When we started, that would've been A Christmas Carol. At the time of writing, that is A Good Man Goes to War. Who knows where it'll be when we finish!

We didn't set down any time constraints on how quickly we were going to watch through these, so it was really as we felt like it. At the time of writing, we are halfway through Season 2, having just finished The Web Planet

Later today, I will post what we both thought of Season 1, and will periodically resurrect this thread every time we finish another season. Please feel free to join in and post your opinions with us

Note: I will be writing what we thought up, but will refer to both of us in the third person.

[SiHart]

I look forward to reading your opinions.

[Anthony Williams]

Season One

Both of us had seen or heard every single one of these stories before, so there was nothing overly new for either of us here. Whitney had only seen each one once or twice, while Anthony had seen most of them multiple times.

An Unearthly Child - There has seldom been a better first episode to any series. Ever. Period. We both thoroughly enjoyed all four episodes of this story. Even once we leave 1960s Britain and move into the Stone Age. What you are seeing is the beginning of a relationship and the slow building of trust between the Doctor and the two schoolteachers. Absolutely perfect. There was one thing that Whitney hadn't noticed before that she was amazed was allowed to appear on screen - the Doctor's pipe! Both of us thought that while the first episode is set in a totally different time from the rest of the story, it's still one whole story. The whole thing is about the journey, about being trapped together and the building of that relationship, which was so strained at first, when these two strangers entered the TARDIS. And that's why the Caveman part was highly important.

The Daleks - Well. Again, this is perfection in a Doctor Who story. We both loved every moment of this. We both agreed that the end of the first episode was just perfect, and it resulted in a scream from Whitney. Whitney is firmly of the belief that Doctor Who never needs to be in excess of four episodes long, but she thinks that this is an exception. Again, superbly written, and we both noted how the scenario that they were in was vital to the building of the relationship between the members of the TARDIS crew. Whitney thought that the re-entry into the Dalek City was not necessary to the actual, and that it could've been written so that Ian did have the fluid-link when he left, but that the descent back into the Dalek City was necessary for the relationship between the Doctor and his companions.

The Edge of Destruction - We both thought that this was the weakest part of the original three stories. Perhaps we were both irritated by Susan's rampant hysteria (we got more and more annoyed with her right up until she left in Season 2). There were a lot of elements that both of us liked, however. Most notably, seeing more of the TARDIS (we found out that we both have a love for seeing the TARDIS beyond the console room!). We also liked the apparent sentience of the TARDIS. We were also delighted that the outcome of the story resulted in the finalising of the relationship between The Doctor, Ian and Barbara. However, we both felt that Susan had more or less served her purpose by this point (to get Ian and Barbara into the TARDIS), and would've been better written out in the next story. Even though we thought that this was the weakest of the original three, we thought that it was nevertheless a very good story. Just not as good as the previous two.

Marco Polo - This is where our opinions began to diverge. We made the mistake of going with the audio of this story, as opposed to a reconstruction. Whitney enjoyed this, while Anthony did not. Whitney enjoyed the rich characterisation of just about every single character, while Anthony found this to be unnecessary padding. Perhaps it was Anthony's bias against most of the historical stories, but he found it dull. Whitney, on the other hand, minored in Asian Studies at University, and found the Chinese aspect of the story fascinating. Yet, there were moments that Anthony liked (and Whitney found entertaining too). Firstly, the Doctor and Kublai Khan's hobbling around together. We could just picture that, and wish that that one scene could be discovered. Anthony was also amused by Susan's relationship with Ping Cho, and was convinced that there was some sort of lesbian relationship going on there. However, we both found this story an absolute slog to get through by just listening to the audio, and agreed to go with reconstructions for the remainder of the missing stories.

The Keys of Marinus - We both found this to be a bit of a mixed bag, generally liking the segments that the other didn't. We were both mesmerised by the first episode, with it's alien environment. The glass sand, the acid sea - all great concepts. We were both highly amused by the bondage Voord. We both enjoyed the Morphoton section, particularly when the illusion was revealed, and it was briefly played for laughs, with the Doctor et. al. commenting on the beauty of certain objects, while we could see the truth of the matter. Whitney didn't particularly enjoy the Screaming Jungle segment, while Anthony did. The only downside was Susan's constant hysteria. How we wished that she'd already been written out! Ugh!

Moving on, Whitney was genuinely surprised and disturbed by the segment on the icy wasteland. While she'd seen it before, she'd forgotten Vastor's attempts to kill off Ian and rape Barbara. She was shocked that this was going on in what was undoubtedly a children's programme at the time. We both enjoyed the next segment in Millennius, particularly the Doctor being revealed. We both enjoyed the gripping murder-mystery, intrigue plot of this part, before heading back off to Arbitan's island. Oh how we chuckled at Yartek's poor disguise as Arbitan, and wondered how the TARDIS crew didn't notice. They're as unobservant as Rose was with Mickey in Rose!

Overall, this is a story that we both enjoyed. It's never going to go down as one of the best stories of all time in Doctor Who (which is ironic, given that it's probably got the longest piece in this season round up), but it was a lot of fun for the most part, while being dark in other places.

The Aztecs - Another mixed bag here. This is one of Whitney's favourite Doctor Who stories ever. However, Anthony's aversion to historicals once again shows. Whitney loved every single minute of this, while Anthony found it to be dull and plodding. The whole point of this story appears to be to show that history cannot be re-written - a principle that is problematic to say the least. If that's the case, then why can the Doctor interfere with Earth's future (which may well be his past) in stories as early as, well... the very next story. However, while Anthony struggled with this notion (thank god it seems to have been conveniently forgotten), Whitney enjoyed the rich characterisation and power struggles within the story. Whitney agreed with the general assessment of this being one of the all-time classics, while Anthony didn't particularly enjoy it.

The Sensorites - Oh dear. Both of us found this to be dull and plodding. To be fair, Anthony found it to be slightly more bearable than the last time he watched it, and watching the episodes over the course of several days made it quite entertaining. There's some nice political intrigue, along with some nice characterisation. However, this will never be a favourite of either of ours, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. At 6 episodes, it was just longer than it needed to be. Ho hum. Such is life.

The Reign of Terror - At last! A historical that Anthony enjoyed! Neither of us thought that this was the best story of the Season, but it was pretty good. There are some excellent moments - both of us imagined that if they weren't planning on renewing the series, they could've left the Doctor burning in that house, for example. What tension! This is the kind of historical that Anthony enjoys - not too serious. There were some wonderful comic moments, such as the Doctor running rings around the prison guard. We both got to the stage of "can't they get rid of her already!?" with Susan, who is at her most annoying in this story. Thank God there aren't many stories left to go...

Season Round-Up

Overall, we both felt that the first Season was a bit of a mixed-bag. It started absolutely brilliantly, but peaked pretty quickly. It had a lot of ups and downs, with both of us enjoying several stories. Whitney's favourite Doctor is the First Doctor, and she absolutely loves Hartnell's performance. This entire season was familiar ground for both of us, as is most of Season 2 (the only story Whitney hasn't seen is The Crusade), but we're looking forward to moving on and for Whitney to see new stories!

[Andrew Curnow]

A very interesting read guys, look forward to more.

[Jason Thompson]

An interesting read, thank you. Did either of you notice things like:

Hur being the only one to offer sensible, logical suggestions despite all the men posturing about women being weak and property?

The Daleks being four episodes of superb atmosphere and tension, followed by three episodes of shoddy production where we suddenly have photo blow-up Daleks, Dalek constantly knocking into things and obvious polystyrene rocks?

William Hartnell managing to give a superbly strong performance despite soeone deciding that he should spend nearly two whole episodes with an absurdly oversized stripy bandage wrapped round his head?

The clear fact that Ian was conceived as the hero of the series at this early stage being demonstrated by virtually every conversation of significance being between him and Marco Polo while the Doctor is pretty well sidelined?

The wonderful irony of the people of Morphoton searching for Barbara while she very obligingly (albeit accidentally) manages to get herself locked up anyway?

Something that seems incongruous now, but Ian, a science teacher, a) appears to have advanced combat skills, and b) does not seem remotely fazed when he kills Ixta in the final fight scene. Of course, in England in 1963, someone of Ian's age would almost certainly have been called up for National Service, and may well have seen active service in one of the many minor theatres of the post-war period.

The excruciating scene in which it takes the Doctor and Susan an age to work out the blindingly obvious: that Ian has been poisoned by the water.

[Anthony Williams]

Jason. We did notice some of those at the time, but it's been several weeks since we finished Season 1, so I'd forgotten about them. Particularly with the earlier stories!

We didn't, however, think about Ian probably having had to do national service...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmmm - good point about Ian and National Service Jason.

I think you can't really be unfair about the "photo blow up Daleks" - remembering the kind of tiny screen this was originally shot for compared to what we have now.

[Jason Thompson]

I think you can't really be unfair about the "photo blow up Daleks" - remembering the kind of tiny screen this was originally shot for compared to what we have now.

The size of the screen is irrelevant (I spotted it on my little 14 inch screen, and there were definitely larger screen than that available in 1969), and Richard Martin comitted the same sin twice. If you are going to use photo blow ups, you shoot them face on so it is not immediately obvious that they are flat pieces of card with a picture on them. Martin fails utterly to do this, shooting them from all sorts of oblique angles that make them far too obviously pictures rather than Daleks, and making it also abundantly clear that in any case the room is not deep enough to accommodate those ranks of Daleks. In The Dalek Invasion of Earth he not only shoots them from above but even has a spotlight playing over the, making it even more obvious that they are 2D and not actual Daleks.

So, either we are treated to a spectacularly bad piece of direction, or someone cut a line of dialogue indicating that the Daleks like to keep family snapshots in the workplace....

[Anthony Williams]

So, either we are treated to a spectacularly bad piece of direction, or someone cut a line of dialogue indicating that the Daleks like to keep family snapshots in the workplace....

AAAND THIS IS MY LIFE-SIZE CUT-OUT OF AUN-TIE NOR-AH!

[J.R. Southall]

Ah, Richard Martin.

Can't wait until the Williams* get to his Season Two contributions!


(* So described for reasons of pace in the sentence structure...)

[WhiteCrowNZ]

See this makes me seem like a modern day Mr Magoo. I watched Daleks first on a massive 50" University projector screen in 1990. And I didn't notice the cut-outs until someone pointed them out to me! I think I was just engrossed.

I do remember the bit I found frankly embarassing was the shot when Susan is running to the Tardis and they're doing scenery moving behind on some kind of roller to make out she's running at speed.

[Junkyard]

I watched all these as a child but only The Daleks, The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites stand out in my memory. This is probably because historical fiction was very common on the BBC in the early 60s and sci-fi much less so. I also found Susan irritating at times, and I was only 6 years old!

[Stuart Wallis]

Men in rubber, Susan being whipped with branches... and this is supposed to be a kids' show?

[Jeff]

Madison and I have been doing our own 'excellent DW adventure' (the younger two watch sometimes too, but are more easily distracted). We've been on the marathon in jumps and starts, watching a few and then taking a break until Madison shows interest again. Also, I fear too many reconstructions or audios would cause a marathon killing lack of interest, so I am only going to show recons where half or more of the story is present. For Marco Polo we watched the... 'consolidated' recon on the box set for 'The Beginnings'. We are also mainly only doing stories available on DVD, so Planet of Giants got skipped.

This week we watched The Rescue/The Romans. First time for both of us.

[Anthony Williams]

Season Two

Again, this is a season where both of us had seen most of the episodes. The exception was that Whitney hadn't seen the extant episodes of The Crusade or seen a recon of the missing episodes of that story. So, one brand new story for Whitney. Hurrah! Strangely, we found that our views on just about every story in this season matched. Which I promise won't be the case going forward!

Planet of Giants - This was an enjoyable enough little story, but it was nothing to write home about. Since we don't have a VHS player, we had to make do with a version that we downloaded, which turned out to be an old UKGold omnibus edition! So, we watched this one in one sitting. Alas, Susan continued to annoy us both, so we were both eagerly anticipating the end of the next story...

The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Daleks! In London! And Bedfordshire! We both watched this, wondering how exciting it must've been to see the Daleks return. We both noted that there's little logic behind the story in the context of the time - how the heck did the destroyed Daleks on Skaro get to 22nd Century Earth? For all they knew, this could've been the last Dalek story ever. And, of course, the idea of hollowing out the planet and piloting it around the universe is absolute codswallop. BUT, it doesn't matter to us. The story was bloody enjoyable, and how we cheered when the Doctor locked Susan out of the TARDIS at the end.

The Rescue - We both enjoyed this little story. There's not much to it, beyond introducing Vicki, but we both enjoyed the small plot with Bennett and the Dido people. Plus, there's some rather nice characterisation between Vicki and Barbara, what with Sandy and all that stuff. Again, nothing special, but very enjoyable.

The Romans - This is my favourite Hartnell story. It's just wonderful. Whitney enjoyed it too, but wouldn't quite rate it as highly as I do. Why do I like it so much? Well, it's just SO much damned fun! I love how The Doctor and Vicki keep missing Ian and Barbara in Rome. The whole thing is wonderfully debauched for children's tv, with Nero chasing after Barbara, poisonings and Nero's self-indulgent desire to re-build Rome in his own image. While not the first historical that I've enjoyed in our run (I've expressed my misgivings about pure historicals before), it has certainly been the best! It's not historically accurate, but it's just a lot of fun, giving it a stark contrast to the other pure historical of the season (two stories later). Whitney has very similar views, although not quite as strong

The Web Planet - ZAAAAAARBI! ZAAAAAAARBI! Bleep bleep bleep! Good god, who's writing this crap? We really struggled with this one. The whole thing was just ridiculous. The plot is virtually non-existant (and could have been done in half the time). Yes, it was ambitious. But ambition is no substitute for outcome. It took us about 3 weeks to get through this wretched story. We are both of the belief that this is one of the worst Doctor Who stories OF ALL TIME!

The Crusade - Oh dear God. Another dull one. Frankly, we found that we just didn't care in this story. And my special subject at undergraduate level was "Crusading in the High Middle Ages". With a story title like this, you expect a lot of excitement - fights and the like. But what you got after the one fight in the first episode is a load of dull political manoevering. Again, we both really struggled here.

The Space Museum - This was far better than either of us remember. We really enjoyed this one. The first episode is more or less perfect - what a wonderful mystery! And although the story takes a different turn after this, it's still very enjoyable. Vicki's scene with the computer is absolutely wonderful, while the Doctor's scenes while being held by the Morlocks are very well done indeed, by all parties. We were both surprised by this story!

The Chase - This story seems maligned by many. Both of us agreed that we could take or leave the first episode, but after that, we really enjoyed it. Perhaps it's just because it's a fun romp through space and time - to us, that's the very spirit of Doctor Who. Of course, some of the humour doesn't work too well (see: the stupid Dalek), and there are some notable bloopers. But this doesn't detract from the story at all. There's that fantastic fight between the Daleks and the Mechanoids - finally a robotic foe to match the Daleks! And then finally, there was the departure of Ian and Barbara, when we waved goodbye to two of the best companions of all time. And, of course, we said "hello!" to Steven Taylor, who we don't get to know that well in this story, but seemed like a nice bloke.

The Time Meddler- This story is great. So great that it's possibly Whitney's favourite Hartnell story. The whole thing is just wonderful - again, we could only imagine how exciting that this must've been at the time, what with someone else of the Doctor's [yet] unnamed race turning up, another TARDIS and the first pseudo-historical! Peter Butterworth is wonderful as the Monk, and we both agreed that Hartnell was absolutely on the top of his game in this story. The setting really interested Whitney (she's always been very interested in 1066 and the struggles between the three powers for control of England), while I chuckled at the stereotypical Vikings (one of them's called Sven, for God's sake!) Finally, while we'd met Steven at the end of The Chase, we both enjoyed getting to know him better, particularly his scepticism over time travel. Overall, a fantastic way to end the Season.

Season Round-up

Season two has been a bit of a mixed-bag, with some really fantastic stories (The Romans, The Time Meddler) and some truly dreadful stories (The Web Planet, The Crusade). We cheered as Susan left, and shed a tear at the departure of Ian and Barbara. We thought that the TARDIS crew of The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki was one of the best of all time. We said hello to Steven, who, based on our early opinions, we rather like.

So, next season, we're moving into recon-land, as we really hit Missing Stories-ville. This could take a while!

[Rob McCow]

Glad to hear you're still going with this, Ant! No-one fatigued out yet.

And why would you be when you've got such enjoyable stories? I can't believe you didn't enjoy The Crusades though. It's chock full of fabulous dialogue, wonderfully acted!

[Anthony Williams]

I can't believe you didn't enjoy The Crusades though. It's chock full of fabulous dialogue, wonderfully acted!

While that may be the case, we just found it dull. There's virtually nothing in terms of action. It just didn't quite click for either of us, sadly

[Stuart Wallis]

while the Doctor's scenes while being held by the Morlocks are very well done indeed, by all parties.

I defy out critics to read something into that!

[Anthony Williams]

Season 3

So, we moved onto Season 3 - the first season with significant amounts of stories that Whitney had never seen or heard, and a couple that I just didn't remember terribly well. We also found that this was the season that our views began to diverge.

Galaxy 4 - It had been a while since I'd heard this one, and Whitney had never seen it. We used the Loose Canon recon, as we do with most of this season. Frankly, Whitney did not enjoy this one at all, finding the constant beeping of the Chumblies to be highly irritating. However, I really enjoyed it, finding the storyline to be fascinating, particularly during the first episode. By the end, my interest was beginning to wane slightly, but I can easily imagine having been more excited had this existed in its entirity.

Mission to the Unknown - A nice little cutaway here, hinting at things to come. As with a lot of recons, Whitney found it difficult to concentrate with this. However, I really enjoyed it. It would've been nice to see some more of Marc Cory, but this served as a good teaser for DMP, two stories later.

The Myth Makers - To be honest, this was the first recon that we'd done that had been able to hold Whitney's attention for any significant period of time. Combined with my general love of Classics, this story was a sure-fire winner. Some great and amusing dialogue, along with what we could easily imagine being some great fight scenes meant that we really enjoyed this story. We both giggled at some of the music, which didn't seem to be too tuneful in parts. This was also the first really good recon that we'd seen - clear pictures, clear audio and really well put together. Overall, this was a great little story, and fit in quite nicely before the behemoth that we were about to watch...

The Daleks' Master Plan - What a fantastic story! Whitney had never seen this before, but she enjoyed it. While she found it difficult to stay tuned for all twelve episodes (she particularly zoned out during The Feast of Steven), she enjoyed most of it. We watched this over three sittings, and at the beginning of the third sitting, Whitney's reaction was "Wow! This story is epic!" - another recon that she really enjoyed. Those existing episodes gave us both a tantalising preview of what must've been an amazing story to watch at the time. Whitney was particularly pleased to see the return of The Meddling Monk, who is one of her all-time favourite Doctor Who villains. We both loved the scheming of Mavic Chen, as well as the wonderful delegates! We both cheered when Katarina was sucked out of that airlock, and were sad at the death of Bret Vyon. We both thought that Sara Kingdom had potential, and are both disappointed by the fact that she wasn't in more Who. Throughout the story, Whitney was convinced that the Daleks were after some geraniums - she kept mishearing terranium! The Daleks were just wonderful throughout this story. However, by the end of twelve episodes, we were both a bit Dalek'd out!

The Massacre - After the magnificent story that came before, we both really struggled with this one. There was so little that was good about it. The Doctor was barely in it, which disappointed both of us. Further, Steven's attempts to find the Doctor/save Anne didn't engage either of us at all. It just wasn't a good story. The fact that it doesn't exist does it no favours - the lack of movement in the recon is to the story's detriment. This is a recon that we really won't be in a hurry to watch again any time soon.

The Ark - Whitney had seen this one before, and so promptly fell asleep during it. However, she remembered that she particularly enjoyed this one the last time she saw it, and that it reminded her of The Ark in Space and The End of the World. Both fair observations, I think! Frankly, I just didn't enjoy this. We both commented on Dodo's magical changing accent, to much hilarity. In the meantime, the whole plot with the Monoids, the Humans and the Refusians captivated Whitney, while I found it thoroughly unexciting. I guess we had the reverse syndrome of Galaxy 4 for us.

The Celestial Toymaker - We watched this the same day as Let's Kill Hitler. And we found it more entertaining and enjoyable than it, in every way. Which, to be honest, wasn't saying much at all. Overall, we found this story to be nothing special. The Doctor is invisible for most of it (clearly, Hartnell's off on holidays again!), while many of the supporting characters (especially Cyril) are highly annoying. One big plus point for both of us was just how superb Michael Sheard was as the Toymaker through the entire thing. Truly excellent. It's a shame that he never came back. But beyond that, we found this a relatively dull and uneventful story.

The Gunfighters - Oh dear. We really had to watch this in one go. We both found the atrocious American accents to be so hilariously bad that we just wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible. Oh, and that bloody song! Of course, this story was utterly farcical, but neither of us enjoyed it very much. This was another story that we were both glad to see over.

The Savages - Now, this is more like it! Yet another superb recon that tantalises us as to what the story would be like if it existed. The story consistently comes across as tense and dramatic. This has got to be one of only a few recons that I would be able to get Whitney to willingly re-watch. Based on the various screenshots and the like, we could only imagine that the direction must've been superb. We both commented that, when the Doctor decided to actively interfere, this was one of the first times where he was so forthright in that belief. And we both felt that he was right in it. By the end, we were unsurprised that Steven ended up staying, given how supportive he had been of the Savages' revolution. One comical thing that came out of it, is that Whitney decided that she wants a Reacting Vibrator.

The War Machines - Hurrah! The end of the season. We both thoroughly enjoyed this one. It has always been one of my favourite Hartnell stories, and one that Whitney vaguely remembered watching. We were both amused by the way in which the departure of Dodo was handled, and we both took an immediate like to Ben and Polly. We both loved the seting of then-contemporary London, particularly with the gags that went with it (such as the "Out of Order" sign on the TARDIS). I particularly loved the setting of the Post Office Tower, not being at all far from my stalking grounds while I was doing my MA. We both loved the concept - upon doing some research, it appears that the Who production team were very much on the ball with the science aspect of this, with the notion of a global network of computers first being properly devised a year previously. The idea of a super-intelligent computer hijacking this primitive internet and attempting to take over the world was an interesting and enjoyable concept. Hartnell was on top form, particularly as he stood his ground, defiantly, at the end of Episode 3. So, with this story, we said goodbye to Dodo and hello to Ben and Polly - as well as goodbye to Hartnell's last full season.

Season round-up

So, we ended the season with very mixed feelings. For the first real time, we found that we had significantly different opinions on a number of stories. We laughed, we cried, we cheered and we signed. We both realise that we are coming to the end of an era, and that we only have two more Hartnell stories to come - something that Whitney is rather sad about. Despite the sheer number of recons, we really quite enjoyed this majority of this season, and we look forward to continuing our Doctor Who odyssey with Season Four.

[Dirk Gently]

Excellent reviews, Ant.

The Doctor is invisible for most of it (clearly, Hartnell's off on holidays again!)

I may be wrong but I believe Hartnell was ill for these episodes & the script had to be re-written to have Steven & Dodo doing the games & the Doctor reduced to a mute hand playing that trilogic game.

[Jason Thompson]

As usual, a nice set of mini-reviews.

[QUOTE=Anthony Williams;266826]

Galaxy 4

Galaxy 4 suffers from having a vaguely interesting selling point (the beautiful ones are evil and the hideous ones are nice) bedly executed. The Drahvins are so obviously the bad guys from the moment they arrive, and the regulars have already worked out that the Rills are probably quite nice, so the whole premise is blown in episode 1. It also unforgivably has a re-write that requires Steven, an astronaut, to forget what an airlock is when he tries to hide in one.

Mission to the Unknown

I quite like this one, and its tautological Dalek. 'Destroy and exterminate' indeed...

The Myth Makers

My favourite bit in this one is Steven trying to persuade Paris to capture him.

The Daleks' Master Plan

Epic and brilliant. Twelve episodes don't drag at all, and the Daleks are at pretty much their best here.

The Massacre

I like this one, but it is one you have to be in the mood for. There's next to no humour, but it is very well performed and pretty powerful stuff. I think this one, more than any other historical, suffers from being so utterly unlike what we now think of as Doctor Who, but it is still a pretty good piece of drama.

And it shows just how much of Hartnell's famous 'fluffs' are either acted or due to lack of interest. Given the Abbot of Amboise to play he nails it, and not a single missed line or 'hmm' to be heard.

The Ark

In the meantime, the whole plot with the Monoids, the Humans and the Refusians captivated Whitney, while I found it thoroughly unexciting.

The trouble with this plot is that no-one actually deduces anything, and everyone learns of the Monoids' plans because they keep talking loudly about them. I imagine you both had to laugh at the infamous 'er... no' line from one of the Monoids when asked if he was up to something.

The Celestial Toymaker

The Doctor is invisible for most of it (clearly, Hartnell's off on holidays again!)

I'm pretty sure the invisibility was written into this one as a possible way of writing Hartnell out altogether, as the producer was getting sick of him by this point. Luckily they stuck it out a bit longer, or we could have had five decades of Doctors changing at the whim of super-entities.

One big plus point for both of us was just how superb Michael Sheard was as the Toymaker

That would be Michael Gough. Michael Sheard was in The Ark...

I like the Toymaker, and he does occupy a position of some significance as Doctor Who's first extra-dimensional superbeing, and prefiguring Q in TNG by two whole decades.

I did find Dodo's refusal to accept the seriousness of the stakes of the games incredibly annoying. Just how thick is she to come so close to winning the game and then going back because Cyril, who has cheated already several times, might have hurt his foot, the big baby?

The Gunfighters

Not the best, but it does have some nice moments in it.

The Savages

An unregarded little story, and one I think would benefit greatly from being found. It's really rather good. I loved Exorse's realisation of what a git he has been coming from Nanina, the Savage he's already been unbearable horrible to in previous episodes, protecting him when he's tied up in the cave.

We both commented that, when the Doctor decided to actively interfere, this was one of the first times where he was so forthright in that belief.

Oneof them, but I believe the first time he actively decides to intervene in events in a story before he loses the option just to go back to the TARDIS and leave comes a little earlier, in The Daleks' Master Plan.

One comical thing that came out of it, is that Whitney decided that she wants a Reacting Vibrator.

Umm, OK. Let us know how that turns out. Or, on second thought... lol

The War Machines

Love this one, even if it is just a little silly. The fearsome War Machines of the title are slow, lumbering and it would seem you could escape one at any time by running past a pile of empty boxes or crates, as they seem to have a fetish for running into them (watch that one in part three not only run into a pile of fruit crates, but actively try to smash a few up with its arms, as if it is angry at them for being in its way!). The War Machine will divert to the boxes, giving you ample time to escape.

[Anthony Williams]

It also unforgivably has a re-write that requires Steven, an astronaut, to forget what an airlock is when he tries to hide in one.

Yes, I'd forgotten about that one! That's the problem with writing up these reviews a while after seeing the first stories... particularly when Whitney was barely watching a story, after having give up because of the "bleep bleep bleep"ing of the Chumblies!

My favourite bit in this one is Steven trying to persuade Paris to capture him.

Yes, that is rather fantastic! I really wish we still had this one, to be honest. It seems like SO much fun, in the vein of The Romans

And it shows just how much of Hartnell's famous 'fluffs' are either acted or due to lack of interest. Given the Abbot of Amboise to play he nails it, and not a single missed line or 'hmm' to be heard.

I would love to say acted. But you never know... it might've been due to lack of interest in playing The Doctor. I still like to think that it was brilliant acting, though

I may be wrong but I believe Hartnell was ill for these episodes & the script had to be re-written to have Steven & Dodo doing the games & the Doctor reduced to a mute hand playing that trilogic game.

I definitely read that he went on his holidays in this one, rather than that he was ill... but, either way, The Doctor's presence as a mute, disembodied hand makes for a rather disappointing story...

That would be Michael Gough. Michael Sheard was in The Ark...

And that's what happens when I write a season review after one too many glasses of wine

I did find Dodo's refusal to accept the seriousness of the stakes of the games incredibly annoying. Just how thick is she to come so close to winning the game and then going back because Cyril, who has cheated already several times, might have hurt his foot, the big baby?

Because she's a stupid bint! Good god, they really did go in for some crap female companions in S3, didn't they? First Katarina, then Dodo. Sara Kingdom had promise, and I always liked Polly, but of course, she's only in one story of this season...

An unregarded little story, and one I think would benefit greatly from being found. It's really rather good. I loved Exorse's realisation of what a git he has been coming from Nanina, the Savage he's already been unbearable horrible to in previous episodes, protecting him when he's tied up in the cave.

That's a lovely moment, isn't it?

Oneof them, but I believe the first time he actively decides to intervene in events in a story before he loses the option just to go back to the TARDIS and leave comes a little earlier, in The Daleks' Master Plan.

Mmmm, it's definitely Season 3 where we see this change happening in his character. I think I noticed it here, because he's just so forceful and determined once he's made that decision.

Umm, OK. Let us know how that turns out. Or, on second thought... lol

The fearsome War Machines of the title are slow, lumbering and it would seem you could escape one at any time by running past a pile of empty boxes or crates, as they seem to have a fetish for running into them (watch that one in part three not only run into a pile of fruit crates, but actively try to smash a few up with its arms, as if it is angry at them for being in its way!). The War Machine will divert to the boxes, giving you ample time to escape.

There's a series of health and safety-style posters to be made out of that...

[Jason Thompson]

I would love to say acted. But you never know... it might've been due to lack of interest in playing The Doctor. I still like to think that it was brilliant acting, though

I think it probably was, but it was known that around season 3 Hartnell started getting disillusioned with where the new producers wanted to take the show, so he was getting less and less happy with the scripts.

The Doctor's presence as a mute, disembodied hand makes for a rather disappointing story...

The really disappointing thing about it is that only two stories previously we had seen that Peter Purves could carry a more-or-less Doctor-free story quite well on his own. With Dodo added to the mix the result is almost unbearably awful, as he has to spend half his time telling her she's an idiot and reminding her that it's not a fun little game they're playing.

Good god, they really did go in for some crap female companions in S3, didn't they? First Katarina

Katarina is an unfortunate one really, because they dropped her having realised that someone from the past would need everything the viewers recognised as everyday explained to her and they couldn't figure out what to do with her as a result. Next season they must have figured it out as they brought in Jamie and he lasted almost three full years!

Mmmm, it's definitely Season 3 where we see this change happening in his character. I think I noticed it here, because he's just so forceful and determined once he's made that decision.

'This, sir, is protracted MURDER!'

Again, Hartnell gets a script he evidently likes and gets his teeth right into it.

[Si Hunt]

It's worth noting that Hartnell isn't actually in "The Massacre" much - so this may have contributed to him raising his game. It would be nice to think that all his fluffs as the Doctor are deliberate, but it seems unlikely in episodes like "The Sea of Death" when he sabotages a scripted joke and everyone laughs anyway.

Si.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

[The Myth Makers - To be honest, this was the first recon that we'd done that had been able to hold Whitney's attention for any significant period of time. Combined with my general love of Classics, this story was a sure-fire winner. Some great and amusing dialogue, along with what we could easily imagine being some great fight scenes meant that we really enjoyed this story. We both giggled at some of the music, which didn't seem to be too tuneful in parts. This was also the first really good recon that we'd seen - clear pictures, clear audio and really well put together. Overall, this was a great little story, and fit in quite nicely before the behemoth that we were about to watch...

You must have seen a different recon to the one I saw, which had only about 3 different photos endlessly recycled and flipped, and also had a few photos of (I think) that arctic wolf-trapper guy out of the Keys of Marinus in it, using him to represent another character. I think I'd rather stick with the audios than recons for the most part.

And I still maintain that anyone who prefers The Celestial Toymaker to The Gunfighters must be clinically insane.