Episode One:
1)Here we have one of the "UNIT Era" stories which is somewhat legendary in people's memories. Having watched it last night, I begin to suspect that the people who find it "legendary" perhaps have not looked at it lately. It's certainly watchable, but also somewhat goofy in parts.
2)Much of this story seems to revolve around British rural wackiness, from the goofy place names - "The Devil's Hump", located near "Devil's End" (Well, it would be, wouldn't it?), and, if you look at the road sign closely, you see there's a place named "Satan" nearby, to the cast of stock British rural defectives, led by Miss Hawthorne, who might just as well have an "I'm a gently comical British eccentric" tee-shirt made up.
3)I gather that, at the time, the story's positing the existence of a "BBC3" would have been quite risible, the joke being lessened somewhat nowadays by the fact that such a thing now exists,
4)"Mr. Magister" and a pair of glasses? Oh, dear, he's not even trying anymore. Of course, this was the point in the show's history where it was always the Master behind everything - "Doctor, the UNIT canteen is out of mayonnaise." "The Master!"
5)"How infuriating can you get?" The Doctor seems particularly irritable in this story - pretty much dumping on everyone in turn.
6)"Everything that happens in life must have a scientific explanation." Tell that to Steven Moffat.
7)"Eko, eko, Azal!" Yabba, dabba, doo!
8)Cliffhanger: The Doctor has apparently had evil confetti or something blown onto him!
Episode Two"
9)Frankly all this occult stuff is kind of goofy - one half expects Britain from Axis Powers Hetalia to show up. I gather that it was sort of a "rage" at the time. It hasn't aged well.
10)Benton and Yates don't really put on a good show in this story - getting beaten up by the local rural defectives fairly regularly, and singularly failing to notice that the bartender couldn't be more obvious of a spy for the Master short of wearing an "I'm a spy for the Master" button. And later on, they let the UNIT helicopter get stolen.
11)Bok would've been a good thing for them to replace with a CGI creation, as I find his capering to be especially non-fear-inspiring.
12)"As if he has two hearts - one on each side." When was the "two hearts" thing established? I'm pretty sure it was after Hartnell.
13)"Do you know when the last Witchcraft Act was repealed in this country? 1951." This is, apparently, true.
14)"Jo, did you fail Latin as well as Science? 'Magister' is the Latin word for 'Master'." You moron.
15)Cliffhanger: Bok capers unpleasantly in front of the Doctor and Jo!
Episode Three:
16)It's funny watching this story in light of having watched "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit" not that long ago.
17)"We're smack in the middle of a sort of lethal mushroom." Ah, yes, my college days...
18)"They're Daemons from the planet Daemos." Oh, of course they are.
19)"It's a scientific experiment to them - just another laboratory rat." So, the Daemons are sort of like the Celestials?
20)Osgood the UNIT technical guy seems almost like a prototype of Malcolm from "Planet of the Dead".
21)I liked how the Brigadier's main concern was the price of the helicopter.
22)Cliffhanger: Azal menaces the Master! Don't often get "Can our villain survive?" cliffhangers. The only other one I can think of is in "Brain of Morbius" where one of the cliffhangers is that Sarah almost kills Morbius two episodes early.
Episode Four:
23)Doesn't the Master ever get tired of summoning up things he can't control?
24)Azal is voiced by Stephen Thorne, with that unmistakable voice of his.
25)"My race destroys its failures - remember Atlantis!" I thought the Chronovore destroyed Atlantis...
26)"This planet smells to me of failure!" It just needs to be aired out a bit.
27)"I sometimes wish I worked in a bank."
28)"You're an idiot." Now Yates is dumping on Jo! Everyone's tetchy in this story.
29)And now, the most awful threat the Doctor has ever faced - the Jolly Folk Dancers! If I owned a sofa, I'd hide behind it!
30)Of course the Doctor isn't a witch - he weighs more than a duck. But, "the Great Wizard Qui Quae Quod"? Seriously, lady? It's just lucky for the Doctor that these are the stupidest people on the face of the Earth. Who knew that Bugtussel had a sister city in the UK?
31)"Elemental, my dear Benton." Yuck-yuck-yuck.
32)Cliffhanger: Azal appears! And he is also extremely goofy-looking!
Episode Five:
33)"Chap with the wings there - five rounds rapid." The Brigadier's most famous line.
34)"Kill him now!" Suddenly the scene with the Doctor and the Master going back and forth with Azal reminds me of Bugs and Daffy trying each to persuade Elmer Fudd to shoot the other one. "Doc season! Fire!"
35)"What was the bounder's name? Hitler." Oh, yes, what a bounder that Hitler was. Fellow did things that positively just weren't cricket.
36)"This action does not relate." Why is Azal suddenly a Star Trek computer? He's an all-powerful alien who's been observing humanity for 100,000 years and he's never encountered the concept of self-sacrifice?
37)"Sergeant, we must do the fertility dance to celebrate." Benton's gonna score. Whether he wants to or not.
38)"Think I'd rather have a pint." I'm with you, Brigadier. Apparently, when Nicholas Courtney read this scene, he said, "So, the Brigadier's an alcoholic, and Mike Yates is gay?"
Overall:
As I said above, it's not bad - I could certainly imagine re-watching it - but it's certainly by no means the great story that legend would have it.
[Part of list of Doctor Who episodes here.]
Replies
Watched all five episodes last night and, once again, I regret not taking notes. Luckily, I’m able to use your comments as a springboard for my own.
If this one is “legendary in people’s memories” I was certainly unaware of it. Is it simply “legendary” in the post-Harry Potter world? If so I can kind of see that, but otherwise it is, as you say, “certainly watchable, but also somewhat goofy in parts.”
Tracy saw Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone’s vault in the live excavation of the tomb (and I can’t say I disagree with her).
I don’t think the Master’s “Clark Kent” glasses were supposed to be a disguise, per se. No one in the town would have recognized him regardless, and wasn’t expecting the Doctor.
The Doctor is, by turns, rude and complimentary to Jo… not as rude as his sixth incarnation would be to Peri, but his put-downs caused her to lower her eyes on more than one occasion. The line “Come now, Miss Grant, don’t tell me you failed Latin as well as science” was completely uncalled for.
Speaking of Benton, in one scene he, very mincingly (and unconvincingly) , kicks a club or a rifle or something out of his assailant’s hands, but that’s not as bad as being taken out by the Master’s cape.
Was Bok the gargoyle? I’ve got a replica of that one (from the Notre Dame Cathedral), except mine sports a little pair of doll sunglasses.
You don’t know when the Two hearts thing was established? You? the earliest Time I can think of is Spearhead from Space.
This episode doesn’t compare very favorably to "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" does it. Still, it makes an interesting comparison/contrast. I did rather like the “tunnel” through the heat field, though.
Three Third Doctor episodes left to go: one with Liz, one with Jo and one with Sarah Jane.
I think it was "legendary" amongst people that hadn't seen it in a long time. I suspect it was largely famous for the Brig's "Five rounds rapid" line.
Bok was the gargoyle.
The first time I saw this was at the rate of one episode per night (M-F @ 7:30 PM) on Philly's Channel 17. It was nice to finally have The Master thing wrapped up. At the time, because of the incompetent way 17 ran the show (they skipped the first story entirely), I had no idea The Master spanned an entire season.
As for The Doctor and Jo, it actually took me until "DAY OF THE DALEKS" before I'd gotten to like both of them. In my mind, Jo was no Liz Shaw, and Jon Pertwee was no Peter Cushing. (heehee) Stupidly, 17 ended the show abruptly with the Daleks story. (Part 3 aired on Friday, so they ran Part 4 at 10 PM that same night! Lucky I heard the announcer voice-over.) Pertwee's Doctor finally begins to mellow out at the beginning of his 3rd season, which was nice, he'd had that chip on his shoulder about being stuck on Earth long enough.
Gee, I wonder how Patrick Troughton's Doctor would have been if he hadn't been forcibly regenerated? He could be quite cranky at times, when he wasn't acting like a fool.