Page 31 of The All New Doctor Who Thread...

I'll watch but I still need convincing to go past the first episode or two.

Snaps

So next up in my trip through classic Who was the Peter Davidson years. This was actually the first Doctor Who that I watched, after crawling out from behind the sofa, and it was okay-ish. Most of the stories were good, but I now feel as if his Doctor was overshadowed by the companions. The character wasn't as interesting either although following Tom Baker was an impossible ask. They did get this "old man in a young body" vibe right, but by making him feel like a careworn teacher taking a bunch of kids on a school outing. But generally the stories were solid, if unspectacular, even if Adric was the original Wesley Crusher, and there was a little too much of Anthony Ainley's Master being evil for the sake of being evil.

Then we come to Colin Baker... Doctor Who was flying off the rails at this point with producers trying anything to save the show from the inevitable claw of Michael Grade. It's a common complaint of good actors in the role being served with poor writing, but I guess this is the first time in Doctor Who history. Colin Baker is also served by poor costuming as well. What were they thinking! The stories weren't bad in his first season, but the characterisation was poor, with a misguided attempt to make the Doctor seem dangerous. There was some out of character violence and some James Bond style quips that just felt out of place. There was also zero chemistry with the companion, Peri. Then CB's second and final season shows up, with The Trial of the Time Lord, and the goodness in the stories vanishes as well. There are a few good ideas, but poorly executed. The final story of the season introduces a new companion also, Mel. In 1978's Just William, Bonnie Langford memorably said "I'll thcweam, and thcweam, and thcweam until I'm thick" And as Mel scream she does... constantly. So annoying.

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Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."



Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer

Carving out a niche with a pneumatic drill at Anime @ MyReviewer.com

Peter Davidson years...were OK, but he had far too many assistants for my liking.

Colin Baker years....Never did like that actor, too smamy a smile and very poor scripts over his seasons. Remember hearing he only took on the Doctors role for the money, and going by his acting I am assuming that was true.

My Doctors for the classics was Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and for some weird reason Sylvester McCoy, maybe because he was the last of the classics and had very interesting scripts and had a quirky style, not forgetting a great assistant called Ace. Like many other Doctor who fans, was sorry when it finished.

Quote:
Par Mizan says...
"Colin Baker years....Never did like that actor, too smamy a smile and very poor scripts over his seasons. Remember hearing he only took on the Doctors role for the money, and going by his acting I am assuming that was true."
Colin Baker, was far more convincing as Bayban the Butcher/Berserker... a great performance in Blakes 7

This item was edited on Wednesday, 10th April 2024, 16:55

Blake 7...now that has stirred some memories and I did like the acting in that series. Likely if I watched it again now it would be naff with the cardboard scenery, but at the time it was fine British si-fi.

It took a five month binge-watch to make it through classic Who, I thought it was just two more Doctors, but it turned out to be three, four even if you look at it a certain way. I certainly do...

Sylvester McCoy Year 1. If the last year of Colin Baker's run was bad, McCoy's first year was even worse, Doctor Who's nadir. The character regenerated into a Charlie Chaplin homage, with McCoy goofing around, randomly falling over at the drop of a hat, and delivering the worst cliffhanger of the series (ironically in the only half-decent story of the year). Incidentally, the beeb had cut the run by half, with 14 episodes a year, split into four stories, as opposed to the six or seven stories of previous seasons. And Mel keeps on screaming. What might have been good about the stories is hamstrung by stunt casting that fails to work, Ken Dodd is bad, Richard Briers is godawful.

Sylvester McCoy Years 2 and 3. At the time, I had no confidence in Doctor Who at this point, as I had first encountered McCoy and Sophie Aldred as childrens TV presenters, and got some serious cognitive dissonance seeing them as actors. But McCoy's final two years offer Doctor Who at its best. It's as if the character's personality regenerated. Gone was the bumbling clown, to be replaced by a Machiavellian, acerbic tongued schemer with a mysterious past, and Ace was the best companion since Sarah Jane, someone with agency and dramatically an equal of the Doctor. The new character dynamic presaged the modern reinvention, and there was a semblance of continuity over the stories that also felt modern. There are seven amazing stories in this final two years. Even the dodgiest looking one, The Happiness Patrol with its Bertie Bassett robot, on the surface too similar to that Richard Briers story, turns out to be Doctor Who's best satire. It's just a shame that the final story reverts back to Season 1 silliness, a weak Master Story with stunt casting (Hale and Pace); a disappointing note to go out on.

Paul McGann. A one and done TV movie, made mostly with American money. There's not a lot that I like about this one. Paul McGann was great casting as the Doctor, the production values were great; I love the Steampunk Gothic TARDIS, and the music was good. But the story was dire and utterly tropey, Eric Roberts was all over the place as The Master, and made for the US audience, it lost so much of its DNA that felt like a parody at times. But then again, there were elements (particularly the production design) that would obviously inspire Russell T Davies' reboot. McGann finally got a decent TV outing in Night of the Doctor.

Richard E. Grant. For a small period of time between its release and the reboot, The Scream of the Shalka was canon in Doctor Who and Richard E. Grant was the ninth Doctor. It's not on iPlayer, but it is still on the archive BBC site (You can DuckDuckGo for it). It's difficult to watch without Flash, but you can also download an MP4 version from the Internet Archive, albeit with burnt in French subtitles for half of it. And it's pretty good. The animation is archaic at this point, and it's a basic aliens invading Earth story, but Grant's Doctor, despite the awful character design making him look like Count Dracula, is a fascinating reinvention. Once more, presaging Eccleston and Tennant, his Doctor is damaged goods, dealing with some past trauma, and wanting to chuck it all in. Sardonic and lacking patience, he's also reminiscent of Capaldi's Doctor. He's compelled by higher forces to go to Earth and deal with the invasion, and it's only when he encounters a feisty local girl, that he begins to reengage with the world. Speaking of Tennant, this is David Tennant's first role in Doctor Who, although blink and you'll miss him.

I suppose a ranking is in order at this point.

1. Tom Baker
2. Patrick Troughton
3. Sylvester McCoy Years 2 and 3
4. Peter Davidson
5. Richard E. Grant
6. Colin Baker
7. Jon Pertwee
8. Paul McGann
9. William Hartnell
10. Sylvester McCoy Year 1






===========================
Jitendar Canth

Quote:
"I thought what I`d do was, I`d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes."

Site Reviewer at DVD Reviewer & MyReviewer

Carving out a niche with a pneumatic drill at Anime @ MyReviewer.com

Agree Sylvester McCoy Years 2 and 3 were good, and so sad to see the classics finished so soon. Ace and the doctor made a really good team.

As for Paul McGann, a highly forgettable TV movie, many fans like me never thought of an EIGHTH doctor, It just never made sense, as Movies and Series were supposed to be separated. Otherwise you would have had to include Peter Cushing fighting the Daleks in his two Doctor movies as having a number, and he never did have one.

But being Doctor Who we accept there are a lot of holes in the plot LOL.

To tide you over till May 11th,

This is surprisingly good.