Classic Who Catch Up

I have been a big fan of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005 but was too young to have watched the original series. On this blog I shall be recording my thoughts on every story from 1963 onwards!

56: The Monster of Peladon

“My dear Sarah, there’s nothing I like more than a quiet life!”

Format: 6 episodes, each 25 minutes long

Team TARDIS:

• Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
• Sarah-Jane Smith (Journalist)

Story: The Doctor returns to Peladon, only it’s 50 years since his last visit. A new Queen rules as the miners strike, refusing to work while the great beast Aggedor appears to attack them. It eventually turns out that a rogue bunch of Ice Warriors are behind it all and want to take over the planet.

What I liked: 

• Some great mirroring once again with miners being on strike.
• Ice Warriors being evil again! They are much more interesting as villains!

What I disliked:

• Alpha-Centuri is back. Stupid giant eye thing!
• The Queen is ridiculously useless.
• It suffers from six-episode syndrome- too much padding and too many episodes.

Overall thoughts: This is very much a story of two halves. The first is a direct follow-on from The Curse of Peladon, where pretty much exactly the same thing happens, but with a few miners on strike too. It’s a waste of time really but at least things eventually get more exciting when the Ice Warriors turn up and are suddenly evil again! Their menace is what saves this story from being awful but their late appearance is disappointing. It has it’s good moments, like the Ice Warriors being nasty and Sarah-Jane crying over the Doctor’s apparent death (foreshadowing if ever I saw it), but it’s a bit of a let down and is one of the worst Third Doctor stories I’ve seen. 

Best Format: DVD (as part of the Peladon Tales boxset)

Next Time: Spiders and the Doctor regenerates! I’m not ready!

You can read about all the stories I’ve seen so far on this Tumblr Page

I have been a big fan of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005 but was too young to have watched the original series. On this blog I shall be recording my thoughts on every story from 1963 onwards!

44: The Curse of Peladon

“We reject all violence… except in self-defence”

Format: 4 episodes, each 25 minutes long

Team TARDIS:

• Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
• Jo Grant (The Doctor’s Assistant)

Story: The Doctor and Jo travel in the TARDIS to the planet Peladon which is hoping to become part of the Galactic Federation. Delegates from planets which are already members, including the Ice Warriors, arrive to agree terms but there is a plot to stop the union going ahead and it comes from inside Peladon rather than from the Ice Warriors like the Doctor suspects.

What I liked: 

• Mirrors Britain joining the EU really well.
• Nice to see the return of the Ice Warriors, and reformed too. I especially liked the Ice Lord slagging off Alpha Centuri.

What I disliked:

• Alpha Centuri (the big eye thing). Looks terrible and has a ridiculous voice. 

Overall thoughts: It doesn’t feel like Doctor Who that much, more like a political thriller with aliens as delegates. I’m guessing RTD took some ideas from here for the 9th Doctor episode The End of the World. Apart from some terrible costumes it’s a great story and very different from the other stories of it’s age.

Best Format: DVD (as part of the Peladon Tales set)

Next Time: It’s time to meet the Sea Devils! And the Master is back!

You can read about all the stories I’ve seen so far on this Tumblr Page

I have been a big fan of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005 but was too young to have watched the original series. On this blog I shall be recording my thoughts on every story from 1963 onwards!

31: The Seeds of Death

Format: 6 episodes, each 25 minutes long

Team TARDIS:

• Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
• Jamie McCrimmon (Jacobite Rebel from 1746)
• Zoe Herriot (Librarian from the future)

Story: On a future Earth where T-mats transport people instantly the Ice Warriors want to invade. They do so from a moonbase, sending seeds which multiply quickly and take oxygen out of the atmosphere. The Doctor and friends must stop them but with T-mats out of action and the TARDIS useless for short range they have to use a space rocket, something which hasn’t been used in a long time.

What I liked: 

• The introduction of T-mats, sometimes called transmats, something which appears  later in the Whoniverse
• The Ice warriors have a pretty good plan and don’t tell us it like most aliens seem to.

What I disliked:

• The Ice Warriors have Lego people hands. How impracticable. 
• Another moonbase? Can’t we have bases somewhere else?

Overall thoughts:A return to form, with the Doctor and companions fighting alongside a group of humans. The format again works brilliantly and the Ice Warriors are fearsome monsters. I lost track of the number of people they actually killed but it was a lot for one story. A brilliant story!

Next Time: The reaming episodes of The Space Pirates. Pirates! In space! How exciting!

I have been a big fan of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005 but was too young to have watched the original series. On this blog I shall be recording my thoughts on every story from 1963 onwards!

25: The Ice Warriors 

Format: 6 episodes, each 25 minutes long

Team TARDIS:

• Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
• Jamie (Jacobite Rebel from 1746)
• Victoria (Lost both her parents)

Story: The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive on Earth in the far future to find that the planet is in the grip of a second ice age. Scientific outposts are scattered across the globe, fighting desperately against advancing glaciers that threaten to send the world back into prehistory. In one outpost the ice warriors’s ship is stuck inside the glacier and it’s a race against time to stop both the glacier and the ice warriors.

What I liked: 

• The TARDIS lands at an angle, which is always good.
• The idea that humans caused an ice age by inventing artificial foods and stop growing plants.
• The Doctor can make any chemical he wants and so makes water because he wants a drink!
• Peter Salis is brilliant (he’s the voice of Wallace in Wallace and Gromit these days)
• Computers cannot takes risks.

What I disliked:

• Episode 2/3 no longer exist fully. Audio and images only, though done rather well.
• Music at the beginning is horrible.

Overall thoughts:This could almost have been a New Who story. Excellently written and acted with brilliant ideas about the possible future of the Earth. The Ice Warriors are properly sinister aliens and the Doctor was his usual brilliant self. Loved every minute of it.

Next Time: I’m skipping a few of the largely incomplete stories but next I shall be watching The Web of Fear: yetis in the underground!