1)Another fun commentary track, this time with just the regulars with no one to reign them in. Again, often more fun than the story itself. Boy, Davison sure has it in for Terence Dudley, taking time to point out again that he doesn't like Dudley's
Read more…1)It's funny that I never thought about this before, but it's true that Tegan seems to be much more concerned about getting back to do her job than about her murdered aunt. I suppose you could rationalize it as a sort of deep denial - her obsessing o
Read more…1)I remember not having the least clue what was supposed to be going on in this when I first saw it. I think I pretty much get it now, but I still think it could use a good bit of editing to clear it up.
2)Of course, the fun characters in this are Ro
Read more…Part One
1)Another Dalek story by Terry Nation, one of the ones I haven't seen in a long time. For some reason, when I first saw the show on channel 2 back in the 70's, I didn't see Sladen's first season, do for a long time I thought "Genesis" was he
Read more…Back to the Troughton era for a moment, as this story was just released on DVD. This is noteworthy as the first story written for the program by the great Robert Holmes, and it also marks the first appearance by the late, great Philip Madoc in the T
Read more…This year's installment of the widely praised San Francisco Silent Film Festival (www.silentfilm.org/), held in a genuine still-standing and in operation silent-era movie theayter with a Mightu Wurlitzer organ and sufficient pit space for a full-er m
Read more…This is the famous "unfinished story" by Douglas Adams, that was never completed owing to industrial action. Scenes from this were used in "The Five Doctors" to create a presence for Tom Baker's Doctor when he refused to appear in it.
I own two vers
Read more…1)Gotta love Romana's hunting outfit.
2)Graham Crowden is indescribable (in both negative and positive ways) as Soldeed. He makes Bruce Purchase's pirate captain look subtle and nuanced. I did like his trick of repeating the last two words people s
Read more…1)This story is credited to "David Agnew". This time out, "David Agnew" stands for "David Fisher, almost completely re-written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams". One can certainly sense Adams' input to this, particularly in the dialogue. Suppos
Read more…Re-watched this last night, a few random thoughts:
1)"Romana, the dog's got laryngitis." Setting up the fact that David Brierley would be taking over for John Leeson. No offense to Brierley, but Leeson was too identified with the part for anyone else
Read more…1)Watching this again, it struck me that it reminded me a bit of some of the Pertwee era "anti-imperialism" stories like "The Mutants", with the Doctor as the "benevolent white guy" coming in and getting the "bad white guys" to stop being mean to the
Read more…1)The exteriors for this story were filmed at Leeds Castle, which, oddly enough, is in Kent.
2)Mary Tamm claims to have designed the outfit she wore in this. Not sure I'd brag on that, myself. Generally, the costumes in this were pretty good. As wit
Read more…1)A so-so story somewhat redeemed by the performance of Beatrix Lehmann as Professor Rumford. Lehmann is one of those older actreeses that the show would employ from time-to-time as the only people who seemed able to "out-eccentric" Tom Baker. Susa
Read more…1)The funny thing is, when I first saw this, I had little or no idea who Douglas Adams was. Certainly, my reaction was not the reaction that someone coming to it today might have: "The Douglas Adams?" When I was in my 20's, I read the Hitchhiker's
Read more…1)And so we come to Leela's swansong...This story is credited to "David Agnew" - this time "David Agnew" stands for "Graham Williams and Anthony Read." While it has some good points, there are some things I've never liked about this story - one is Le
Read more…1)The Bristol Boys are back again, this time doing "The Argonauts in Outer Space". It's not my favorite from this time period, but it's better than I remembered it being. We get some more revelations about TIme Lord history, here - even when I firs
Read more…1)This is the story Terrance Dicks wrote when the BBC wouldn't let him use the story that later saw daylight as "State of Decay", becasue at the time they were doing a version of Dracula with Louis Jourdan, and were afraid people would think Doctor W
Read more…1)Leela's first adventure after joining the Doctor, they do an OK job of showing her as "ignorant but intelligent".She's even occasionally a bit of a smartarse in this. "Now you're showing off."
2)The robots are, as Leela calles them "Creepy mechanic
Read more…1)Another old favorite, this one featuring an all-male cult as counterpoint to the Sisterhood from "The Brain of Morbius". This one also featured the debut of the "wooden" console room, which was my favorite of the sets they used in the old series.
Read more…