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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph The Longest Running Sci-Fi series: "Classic" Doctor Who [1963-1996]

Discussion in 'Community' started by Koohii, Feb 6, 2012.

  1. PirateofRohan

    PirateofRohan Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2009
    The Pre-Christmas Caves of Time double feature; basically I will watch The Fifth and Tenth Doctor's regeneration serials. Tonight is the entirety of Caves of Androzani, and tomorrow is Parts 1 and 2 of NuWho's The End of Time. Last week I did view Whofix's edit of Revelation of the Daleks. It was quite good, and I wouldn't have noticed anything was missing had I not recently watched the original. Also watched Time and the Rani, and for some reason I find it oddly endearing. Carry on.
     
  2. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Whofix? Never heard of it, but I don't spend time on the Who boards.

    Watched The War Games last night. It was 10 episodes, but so tightly written that it never seems to lag. A lot of people complain that it is 9 episodes of nothing, then the Time Lords arrive. I think that is pretty unfair. It was a great story. And the special features on disk 3 were pretty good too. I particularly liked the section on the book that Terrence Dicks and other series writers had put together as an in-universe guide to Doctor Who, which later became the show bible. It was the first to mention the Time Lords. Aspects of the book first appeared in the show during War Games.
    The only point in the show where they entirely lost the main cast.
    And what the Time Lords do... With just a thought they can create force fields. (OK, maybe they just telekineticaly flip switches or have a cybernetic interface). They erase people from time all together and block off an entire world from ever being able to leave their planet. They wipe all but the first encounter with the Doctor from Jamie and Zoe's minds. And they more or less torture the Doctor into a forced regeneration. This is a far cry from the flawed society we see later. At least the costumes improve.
    You can see the beginnings of Pertwee in aspects of Troughton's performance at the Trial.
    First use of the Sonic Screwdriver--oddly enough, it is a pocket torch/flashlight. And some silly scenery.
    The War Chief is a pretty good prototype for The Master.
    The Doctor exiled to Earth for the next 3 years (mostly).

    One of the special features is a fanfilm called Devious, which... is like a lot of fan films. The only thing to really distinguish it is that Jon Pertwee was in it--his last appearance ever as The Doctor. Snippets of his dialog were used in the Big Finish Production 40th anniversary/50th episode story Zagreus.

    Last week was The Ark. Another interesting story. Dodo is just getting her character started. She plays around with the Doctor's wardrobe. The medical treatment ideas of the time are pretty funny. And for the first time we get to really see the Doctor dealing with the consequences of interfering, as Dodo's cold mutates and threatens the entire Ark, including Steven. And this is the first, and I think only, time within a story that the Doctor revisits a place. The first 2 episodes take place 700 years before landfall, and the last two take place as the Ark reaches Refugis. Sure, later stories would go back to familiar places: Scaro several times, Paledon, The Ark in Space & Revenge of the Cybermen, but always as completely different stories, usually at least a season apart.
     
  3. PirateofRohan

    PirateofRohan Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2009
    The website is whoflix, actually. Bit of a typo in my first post. Though it's whopix on the YouTube channel.:confused: Basically the only person doing Doctor Who fanedits right now. There are some interesting choices made, and because they most of the time clock around 40 minutes, it's like NuWho-ising Classic Who. It's odd. The only reason I really looked into it was I wanted to watch a Colin Baker episode that wasn't Vengeance on Varos for the twentieth time and I wanted the Doctor to be in it all the way. Though I suppose I could have just watched the last two episodes...
    Oh, War Games. I really loved that one. I know a few War-Chief-is-the-Master and Season 6b theorists who really should re-watch it, because a lot of their points are misremembered. But yeah, that's a great serial. Another brilliant performance by Troughton too, and Wendy Padbury, and...really all around brilliant acting-wise.
     
  4. solojones

    solojones Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 27, 2000
    I have half a mind to try to watch everything before the 50th, but one must really commit to that. I just have one season 1 serial left, so uh... one down 25 to go? :p
     
  5. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    I love Caves and Revelation. Got them both on DVD, replacing the VHS recordings I made when they first aired. Revelation has some bad acting (imo), but also some great acting and a very witty script. Caves has both good acting from everyone, and an excellent script, and is only let down by the magma monster.

    The War Games is surprisingly good for something born out of necessity, but I think you could shorten it to five episodes without losing anything important.
    That was not the first use of the sonic screwdriver - Fury from the Deep was, iirc.

    I've just re-watched Invasion of the Dinosaurs - whoever thought the BBC could recreate magnificent prehistoric beasts using the standard Doctor Who budget and puppets must have been on something (the t-rex vs. brontosaurus is a low-point), but the rest of it is pretty good, imo.
     
  6. Kenneth Morgan

    Kenneth Morgan Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    May 27, 1999
    I tend to consider "Horror of Fang Rock" to be the last story in my version of the show's Golden Age. (The first being "The Ark in Space".) It also has one of the show's best cliffhangers, as part three ends with the Doctor's quiet, "I haven't locked the enemy out. I've locked it in, with us." Chilling.
     
  7. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    One fun bit about watching war games was the captain's scar. With modern tech and dvd clean-up and better TVs, a lot of effects aren't as crisp as they were. One is the scar. With the cleaned up dvd, you can see the painted line, and the hex mesh (often used when ventilating wigs) that was glued down to tug his cheek up. It is a nice distortion of his face, and looks great from a distance. Every once in a while though, the camera pulls up and you get the light at the right angle...
    Sure, you could shorten the story, but it isn't like The Invasion, where they constantly reused the same model shot or effect. This one just kept going, and while long, never felt boring. I'd say you couldn't chop more than 2 episodes. Maybe 3 tops.

    I don't know that I care for the idea of editing some of the stories. Certain ones possibly, but the ones mentioned, no. If anything, I'd add the deleted scenes back in.
     
  8. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    Oh no, I wouldn't want to edit any of the stories, I just meant that a lot of scenes didn't really need to be there. But yeah, I think it all hangs together nicely, and as you say, there are other DW serials which feel much worse in terms of being padded.

    I've just listened to The Daleks' Master Plan for the first time - weird and epic, veering from slapstick to the surprisingly brutal in places.
     
  9. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Yeah, DMP was another padded mess of a story. The christmas episode in particular was just... uhg. And the plan... Why are the other races involved? They just are... I guess it allows the conference, but it doesn't really make sense. That story was more or less slapped together from a lot of partial ideas.
     
  10. PirateofRohan

    PirateofRohan Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2009
    I'm starting to think my mental health is failing due to the fact that I just watched The Twin Dilemma and enjoyed it. Granted, I skipped through most of the first two episodes to focus on the Doctor...
     
  11. PirateofRohan

    PirateofRohan Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2009
    Unfortunately I have to double post, but I had to share my plan for the year. See, my friend George has never really gotten in to the classic series, so I left an article on his computer("In the Defense of Classic Companions" or something) and he completely flipped out over Susan. I think he's actually in love with her character. Unfortunately for him, he also agreed to watch Classic Who. Flash-forward to a few hours later, and Allan and I have hatched a plan: Starting February 3rd, we will watch it all. From An Unearthly Child to Survival. If we skip the serials we already forced George to watch, and watch around 2-3 episodes a night, possibly skipping over a few missing episodes(but maybe not), we should be able to finish all of it before the 50th Anniversary. It could possibly result in the loss of George's sanity, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.
     
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  12. soitscometothis

    soitscometothis Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2003
    I bought the Lost in Time box-set recently, spurred on by all the talk of a major find on the missing episodes front. Being as it consists of mainly orphaned episodes that offer no sense of closure, it is really only of interest to the die-hard fan, but if you are, like me, a sadly devoted fan of classic Who, it's a fascinating collection. The Crusade and The Moonbase are the exceptions to the rule of no complete stories in the collection as they have the audio from their respective missing episodes included on the DVD; I thought this was a pretty good solution and I enjoyed both of the serials more than I though I would.

    Probably my favourite single episode was episode 2 of The Abominable Snowmen - I had loved the book as a kid, but the audio I've found a little difficult to follow, and seeing an episode brought home to me how important the visuals are in some of these serials.

    There is enthusiastic speculation on Who forums that soon an announcement will be made regarding the recovery of missing episodes, perhaps even as soon as next week... however official sources still deny that any recovery has taken place. If the rumours of a recovery are true, the 2nd Doctor serial The Enemy of the World would supposedly be the first to be released on DVD; though generally not regarded as a fan-favourite, any Troughton episodes recovered would be greeted with open arms, and I am fond of the audio for this one, so I'd be pleased. But of course that's if there really has been a recovery - Who fans have been hoaxed with supposed missing episode finds in the past, and this being an anniversary year, the crazy is in full swing...
     
  13. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    The dearth of complete Troughton content is nothing short of painful, speaking as a Troughton fan. I find the fan reconstructions make a nice sort of bandage, but it'd be pretty cool if they found another of his serials.
     
  14. Random Comments

    Random Comments Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Sep 25, 2012
    Ask, and ye shall receive!
     
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