The Romans 2 - All Roads lead to Rome

BUCKETS OF WATER!!!! IT'S FUCKING TISWAS!!

I have to say, so far The Romans has been pretty nothingy. Much like Spooner's last story, it just doesn't feel like anything's happening even though I know it has. The comedy starts to creep in at then end once Nero appears.

I hear episode 3 is a good laugh. God I hope so!

The Romans 1 - The Slave Traders

The TARDIS crew are on holiday. Proper holiday for once. As a result not much happens, a case of mistaken identity, a kidnapping.I guess this is par for the course for the historicals.

The Rescue 2 - Desperate Measures

The rescue is a small and easily overlooked story but it's a brilliant example of Doctor Who and shows the production team and cast starting to understand what they have and how it works.

"yes, cheer up Vicki." Yes, stop crying you silly little woman, even if one of the few living things Vicki knows has been killed, by Barbara in fact, apparently that shouldn't be anything to be upset about.

The revelation of who Kocquillion actually is is really well handled. David Whittaker did a great job with Vicki's first story, making sure we have a very early example of The Doctor being The Doctor we know and love.

Vicki's first story is great. Next is The Romans, which I've never actually seen.

The Rescue 1 - The Powerful Enemy

"Maybe we're going to see a new side to the doctor". It certainly seems that way. William is forcing himself to act with much more of an impish joy. With no Susan to reflect his darkness it was a wise decision to have him up the joy factor.

Also Maureen O'Brien is a bit of a revelation! Especially after how Carole Ann Ford was forced to play Susan, Vicki is given a performance filled with detail, and even when going "overboard" it's nowhere near as hokey. Really good, I'm looking forward to more.

Koquillium is a well defined villain with a decent spiky costume and David Whittaker serves up the goods again! Good lad!

Nice one!

Dalek Invasion of Earth 6 - Flashpoint

"We are the masters of India!" Barbara is brilliant again, a sentence I seem to have typed many times. Her use of history is superb in tricking the daleks.

How do I resolve my plot? I've got nothing... I know.. wait.. Tell the robomen to attack the daleks. Yeah, nice one Terry. At least your consistent. Stop the idiotic plot with an idiotic resolution. Not to mention that a bomb designed to blow up the Earth's core only blew up the mine.

Ah well. Not much of a final Episode for Susan, not that she gets a choice in leaving, she gets rather unceremoniously abandoned because The Doctor "knows better". We do get Hartnell's brilliant speech though so it's not all bad.

So it's goodbye to Susan. No disrespect to Carole Ann Ford but Susan wasn't much of a part and she was asked to desperate-act a bit too much, when she's much better at subtlety. Susan could have become something great but only if Carole-Ann had been allowed to properly inhabit it. As it is we'll never really know.

Dalek Invasion of Earth 5 - The Waking Ally

Ah the crones, they are classic aren't they. A-Grade backstabbing evil wenches.

Terry Nation's grip of science really is pathetic isn't it. Digging down to the magnetic core of the planet eh?
Through the lava? Digging through molten rock for thousands of miles? It makes the science of "the moon is an egg" look like Einstein. Even if they could stop the heat and lava it would still be thousands of miles of digging and with the basic tools they have.... I don't even want to guess how long it would take. Never mind then taking it out and replacing it with an engine. I mean... this is PROPERLY stupid.

But you do the the "yes they dare" speech.

Dalek Invasion of Earth 4 - The End of Tomorrow

Drills drills everywhere and Barbara rules... yet again.

This story has definitely excelled most visually when on location. The stuff on set feels staid in comparison, I wonder if a different person was in charge of the different shots. Not much else to report apart from the noise that the slither makes is genuinely creepy.

Unlike the cute little baby alligator, and the actual slither when you see it.

Dalek Invasion of Earth 3 - Day of Reckoning

The action scenes are less horrible in this episode but still... Not exactly great. But it is Doctor who's first attempt at a full on action sci-fi story. And with some of the human characters Nation is starting to show the chops he would later display in the likes of Blakes 7/The Survivors. And of course, we have those wonderful Daleks in London location shots (with added sieg-heiling).

The continual robotic repetition of the Daleks really shines halfway through this. "Stop!" seems to exhibit the idea that they never will.

Dalek Invasion of Earth 2 - The Daleks

The first speech between the Doctor and the Dalek is a perfect allegory for the Nazis vs the British wartime spirit. It's a wonderful little time bubble. The allegory continues in other ways, such as the radio broadcasts, people hiding underground etc.

Considering when this was made, it does indeed look epic, except for the battle at the end which really is pathetic. Ah well, action is clearly not this director's strong point. The pacing works really well too.

Dalek Invasion of Earth 1 - World's End

"It is forbidden to dump bodies in the river" - How dark does your society have to get that you need to put a sign up to stop people doing that?

I know this story mainly from the movie version, but I have to say, I think the moodiness of this first episode outdoes the movie, depsite the sets being clearly not as impressive, but the use of abandoned, sometimes bombed places in London is just superb.

This is the closest Doctor Who has got so far to the contemporary Earth setting, Nation's writing chops have got a lot better, especially for characterization, probably because it's closer to real life rather than the odder, more fantastical settings of his other stories. Although apparently sexism is rife in the 22nd century if Dortmun is anything to go by.

Anyway, it's a brilliantly dark first episode, and of course, the dalek coming out of the water is a classic image, even if there's no real reason for it to be there.

Planet of Giants 3 - Crisis

So episode 3 doesn't work as well as the others. PUT.... US... THROUGH... TO... POLICE....

I'm wondering if maybe due to the 60s budget and capabilities creating a full episode based on people shrunk to 1 inch wasn't possible so they aimed more at the corporate intrigue plot and the tiny TARDIS team attempting to thwart it.

That's not to say it's bad I was just hoping for more. I enjoyed it much more than the last couple of stories.

Planet of Giants 2 - Dangerous Journey

If I was an inch tall, my cat would totally eat me. No question. The fly in this is surprisingly well realised for the 60s and Forester is brilliantly cold and well played.
Not bad... Not bad...

Planet of Giants 1 - Planet of Giants

The Damage report machine's damaged? Weirdly I've never seen Planet of Giants before and I tell you what, there's some wonky as bollocks science isn't there!
But who cares, there's a giant ant, bee, a worm and gross as shite ants eggs. When it zooms out to the crazy paving it's just delightful.
And there's an interesting subplot involving pesticides and murder, I'm looking forward to how this pans out.

Thank god for this episode, I mean it, thank god. After The Sensorites and the Reign of Terror I was severely starting to flag.

The Reign of Terror 6 - Prisoners of Conciergerie

Good god it's nice to see actual people rather than cartoons again. Ok, the surprise character twist in this is handled much better than Leon. I didn't see it coming.

But Napoleon is a bit crap isn't he. Not exactly a commanding presence, they even cheat and tell people about him, which they shouldn't.

So that was Spooner's first script. It's competent and hangs together but it's a bit nothingy, considering some of the stuff he'd rattle out later it's a bit sad.

It's sad that the best compliment I can give it is "It's better than the sensorites."

The Reign of Terror 5 - A Bargain of Necessity

I don't think anyone was surprised when Leon was the spy. He might as well have had a giant neon sign attached to his head with "THIS IS THE SPY" in bright pink on it. Very obvious.

"He was a traitor to you, to his side he was a patriot". Barbara being awesome again. If only Jacqueline Hill was still alive, I'd love to see her in the new series.

The Reign of Terror 4 - The Tyrant of France

I'll not be able to comment much on performances on this missing episode. I'm watching the animated version from the DVD for information.

Sadly I don't feel there's much for me to comment on. I'm not doing plot synopses and It's just the moving of chess pieces around the board. Prison / not prison / prison. Pad pad pad. All harmless enough but emotionally nothingy.

Props for mentioning leeches of course,

The Reign of Terror 3 - A Change of Identity

I know it's been there for a while but I haven't commented on the yorkshire frenchman yet, have I?
Hooray for yorkshire frenchman, that's what I say!!

I've also not mentioned how Jules is very well cast, and the political intrigue is really starting to kick in. I'm not completely sure whether kids would have enjoyed this at the time, but it works well for me as an adult.

As time goes on I'm getting more and more impressed with Hartnell, it wasn't that I didn't like him before but I think my view of him had been slightly coloured by the billyfluffs, Now I'm just watching the episodes through he really shines.

The Reign of Terror 2 - Guests of Madame Guillotine

Ah, the famous, clearly not william hartnell walk.There's some interesting characters in this but it's not doing a lot for me, it's kind of... there.

The Reign of Terror 1 - A Land of Fear

Some good performances in this, which is a nice change after the sensorites. Other than that, sadly this isn't a period of history that interests me. However it is well done.

The Sensorites 6 - A Desperate Venture

Best thing about this is the short description of Gallifrey Susan says which, or course, gets used by RTD in the future.
Words cannot express my joy that this is now over and I don't have to watch it any more. I don't want to talk about it.

The Sensorites 5 - Kidnap

William Hartnell managed to tentpole this story a bit by delivering a performance which, despite some billyfluffs is superb, and it shows how bad the other performances are. It makes me wonder, is it the writing or the performances that make this so bad?

Who am I kidding? It's both...

Oh god! At least there's only one episode left.

The Sensorites 4 - A Race Against Death

Yay Doctor Who does a tactical chunder. So while Ian's sleeping his hangover off the great tradition of men in rubber masks arguing continues.

Apparently the sensorites had never noticed before they all use the same rubber mask so only their T-Shirts can be used to tell them apart.

WORST..

TWINS MOVIE..

EVER...

God, this story is a slog.

The Sensorites 3 - Hidden Danger

You might think the light trick is lame but putting a very obvious weakness like that in is great for the kids in the playground.

Other than that though, it's now become the sensorites I remember. Dull people talking in masks. Oh god.... three more episodes.

I'll file this under, "aim anyone who complains about the new series to this".

The Sensorites 2 - The Unwilling Warriors

Whatever you think of the sensorites you have to admit that the sensorite that's simply stood in space is really quite effective.

Generally in fact the episode is really quite tense and you can retcon in the first example of a time lord having psychic powers via Susan talking to the sensorites.

However we're only at the 2nd episode and the aliens have shown themselves to be of a peaceful nature. Sort of.

The Sensorites 1 - Strangers in Space

So, carrying on with firsts, we have the first Spaceship landing.

Weirdly the people on the spaceship simply accept that the TARDIS crew have arrived and that they're from another time. You could explain it away with the fact that their minds have been altered by the Sensorites but still... odd.

Other than this though, episode one of the Sensorites is a surprisingly good psychological horror.

The Aztecs 4 - The Day of Darkness

And now Autloc sees them as being false. And the emotion you feel from him is disappointment. He's been let down and you really feel it. This is the power of three dimensional characters, ones who are not always just good or bad, and this is the giant mirror between Terry Nation and John Lucarotti.

In Lucarottis work the events feel like they happen because of the characters but with Nation the characters feel like they merely exist to service the plot or provide some exposition.

The Doctors fiancee helps them escape, but her becoming his fiancee and then choosing to help him above her own needs in no way feels forced or simply a narrative tool.

When the TARDIS team eventually escape you get the feeling that the story continues on. That's good writing.

So... Pity it's the Sensorites next, eh?

The Aztecs 3 - The Bride of Sacrifice

I haven't yet mentioned how the high priest of sacrifice is a proto-Gene Simmons. So here we go..
*ahem*
The high priest of sacrifice, is he a proto-Gene Simmons or what?

And The doctor gets comedy married for the first time via the medium of a cup of cocoa. Think that's a new series thing? Think again!

The Aztecs 2 - The Warriors of Death

I know I keep saying this but Barbara really is brilliant. And sometimes I think this should have been called the Barbara show in the early days.

Filled with fantastic characters and information about the Aztec people the Aztecs as a whole is brilliant, and this is very clearly shown in this episodes, plans are put in place, knowledge is taught, including knowledge of the future and even The Doctor unwittingly helps Ixta in his combat with Ian.

Very good, but I knew it was.

The Aztecs 1 - The Temple of Evil

Remember I mentioned the worlds campest man in Marco Polo? Well, the priest here might just beat him. The way he says "punished" and does his little flourish for, "warriors" is rather special.

You can tell John Lucarotti is back in the writers chair, the dialogue sparkles. And of course, "not one line".

The Keys of Marinus 6 - The Keys of Marinus

Throughout this I've been wondering about all the really exaggerated shaking of heads people are doing, then i realized people would be watching this on a 6 inch TV where you wouldn't be able to pick up on small movements.

Ah technology...

This, of course has Barbara being awesome again and the bad guy is caught in a magnificently scooby doo way. However, when they get back to the machine the way the whole thing is wrapped up is less than satisfying,

He puts the crap key in, it blows up.. yawn, time to go home.

In general the keys of marinus is a bit weird, there's some great idea mixed up with some absolute crap, sadly more crap than good.

The Keys of Marinus 5 - Sentence of Death

Ok, I like this one. It's Doctor Who does mini courtroom drama, as opposed to the maxi courtroom drama we'd get later, so here we have Doctor Who does Law & Order but with meat pies for hats.

The Keys of Marinus 4 - The Snows of Terror

Yay, it's the ice warriors lady doing the singing!!

I had to say something positive about the episode with dodgy rubby-handy man in it, or the ice cave that looks like a body disposal room with the rubbish knights in it.

Blarg.

The Keys of Marinus 3 - The Screaming Jungle

"I do wish Ian wouldn't treat us like Dresden china". Barbara really is quite wonderful isn't she, I haven't really said enough about her. Strong, determined, funny and kind. The world could do with a few more Barbaras in my opinion.

Susan less so really. I can see why Carole Ann Ford decided to leave, she really is just there to scream and be enthusiastic which, given she's a Gallifreyan she could have been so much more.

There's sadly been a delay in the continuation of my blog but that's because I'm not a big fan of The Keys of Marinus. But I've managed it, statue with the blatantly-human-hands, sped up TARDIS noises for whispering and all.

Terry Nations own characters in this are so awful. Amazing to think this is the guy that would go on to create the amazing rogues gallery that was Blakes 7. At the moment they all just seen to be exposition machines or designed to make you think, "aren't these people nice." Not helped when the old man in this seems to have gone to the Garth Merenghi school of acting of course but there you go.

He does like his little puzzles though and they're quite nice and you can't fault him for being short of ideas.