Episode One:
1)I'd forgotten that this was Jo's first trip in the TARDIS, and how freaked out she was.
2)The director confesses in one of the extras that the effect of the Doctor's (and later the Master's) TARDISes "blinking" in and out instead of fading in and out was actually a mistake on his part. While he'd worked on a number of Doctor Who stories prior to this, he'd never actually seen the TARDIS materialize or dematerialize up to that point, and didn't know he'd got it wrong. Apparently in the past, he covered up the error by claiming that the different effect was because the Time Lords were controlling the TARDIS, but had decided to 'fess up for the DVD.
3)"Doctor, come back at once." I wonder if Nick Courtney got paid for a whole epsiode for his one brief scene.
4)Another in a long line of unconvincing Doctor Who robots.
5)The natives are also unconvincing.
6)"This planet has been classified as suitable for colonization." I wonder how the natives feel about that.
7)Cliffhanger #1: The unconvincing robot unconvincingly attacks the Doctor!
Episode Two:
8)"Are you some kind of scientist?" "I'm every kind of scientist."
9)So, in the 25 Century, TV technology is worse than it is in the 21st?
10)"What's good for IMC is good for Earth." Hmm, that sounds familiar.
11)"Purely business, you understand. Nothing personal." "Tell Michael I always liked him."
12)Cliffhanger #2: The Doctor is again unconvincingly menaced by the unconvincing robot!
Episode Three:
13)"It's dark now, so they can't use their scanners." By the 25th Century, night vision technology will have been lost.
14)And reel-to-reel tape players will have made a comeback.
15)The natives are revolting! (And "revolting" is the word!)
16)Cliffhanger #3: The natives lead Jo into a cave!
Episode Four:
17)The chief aliens are even less convincing!
18)OK, we all know that the Adjudicator will turn out to be the Master. That's the one problem with this era of Doctor Who - using the Master in every story make sit impossible for him to do a "surprise appearance".
19)The boss alien is the goofiest one yet!
20)They're all standing in plain sight of each other! This gunfight shouldn't take more than two seconds.
21)"It's always the innocent bystanders who suffer."
22)Cliffhanger #4: The Master pulls a gun on the Doctor and Jo!
Episode Five:
23)Also, they're using teletypes again in the future.
24)"Still pursuing burglary, eh?"
25)Cliffhanger #5: The Master goes to press the button that will gas Jo!
Episode Six:
26)"This super race developed a Doomsday Weapon." Super races tend to do that.
27)I don't suppose it would've made things easier for the Docotr if the Time Lords had condescended to tell him what was goung on?
28)Mud wrestling!
29)Yes, we all know that no one was on board the colonists' ship.
30)"Why don't you come in with me?" Be funny if he had.
31)"I want to see the universe, not rule it." And, as late as "The End of Time", they were still having this argument.
Overall:
An OK story from Mac Hulke, let down a bit by chintzy effects and occasional awkward staging, and the odd gap in logic.
Replies
"I'd forgotten that this was Jo's first trip in the TARDIS, and how freaked out she was."
The first time I saw this, I still hadn't really gotten to like Jo yet. I missed Liz, dammit. I bet Liz wouldn't have been so freaked out.
"Are you some kind of scientist?" "I'm every kind of scientist."
Nothing conceited about HIM, is there???
"Purely business, you understand. Nothing personal."
This makes me think of Vincent Schiavelli & Pierce Brosnan in TOMORROW NEVER DIES. "It was nothing personal! I was only doing my job!!" "Same here." "BLAM!!"
"The Doctor is again unconvincingly menaced by the unconvincing robot!"
AGAIN??? But that trick never works!
"The natives lead Jo into a cave!"
I never liked this story, and by the time it got to this point, the whole thing just seemed so hopless and pointless.
"OK, we all know that the Adjudicator will turn out to be the Master. That's the one problem with this era of Doctor Who - using the Master in every story make sit impossible for him to do a "surprise appearance"."
In all fairness, the first time I saw this, I had no idea The Master would turn up. AGAIN. I mean, what were the odds? He'd been in 3 stories in a row! Imagine the NERVE of these people, actually bringing him back AGAIN. You had to sit thru more than half the story before it happened here, so they were kind of faking out the audience.
"The Master pulls a gun on the Doctor and Jo!"
So much for the brilliant scientist villain...
"I don't suppose it would've made things easier for the Doctor if the Time Lords had condescended to tell him what was going on?"
It could have been real interesting if the show had ever done a story where they actually showed, in detail, exactly WHO The Doctor was working for (against his will). According to Robert Holmes in THE DEADLY ASSASSIN 7 years later, The High Council of the Time Lords knew NOTHING about these clandestine activities. It was all the work of the "Celestial Intervention Agency" (C.I.A.-- heehee) 4 years later, in the DW comic-strip in DWMagazine, it was revealed that the C.I.A. was actually made up of DEAD Time Lords existing within the Matrix Data Bank, and the person in charge was none other than Rassilon! Of course, being just a comic, it's not "official" as far as the TV show goes...
I thought Captain Dent was one of the most rotten, viscious, cold-blooded villains in the history of the show. I mean, really , he makes The Master seem like such a NICE GUY by comparison! (The actor who played Dent, Morris Perry, later turned up as "Barrymore" in the Tom Baker HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, which was done by Barry Letts & Terrence Dicks!)
I always thought they should do a story with a character called "Monsieur LeMaitre" or "Signor Maestro" or whatever, and have the surprise twist be that it wasn't the Master.
They kind of did that with the headmaster in "School Reunion."
This story gets off to a strong start (I love glimpses into Timelord society), but frankly, for furure viewing I'd edit it the same way I edit Star Trek ("The one with the whales") IV. If the director hadn't admited the gaffe of the TARDIS blinking in and out, it being controlled by the Timelords is the explanation I would have come up with. (Still doesn't explain the Master's TARDIS, though.) Best line: "I'm every kind of doctor."
I guess now we're dry until January 10? Drat.
I'm reminded of how the TARDIS materialized in "The Brain or Morbius". It faded in slowly, as usual, but completely SILENT. And as soon as it was fully there, The Doctor burst out of the door, angry as hell, and ranting about how tired he was of having The Time Lords interfere with him and his ship and hijack him this way. Sarah, of course, suggested that the TARDIS had simply "gone wrong again", but he argued that he KNOWS the difference between a malfunction and deliberate interference! At which point he pulled out his yoyo and insisted he wasn't going to do their dirty work this time, but just stand there and play with his yoyo. So there. (For a "gothic horror" story, that thing had some really hilarious stuff in it.)
And at the end of "Morbius" the TARDIS disappeared in a puff of smoke, as I recall.
Probably shaking off the effect of being teleported by The Sisterhood.
Actually, I re-watched "The Brain of Morbius" last night, and the TARDIS doesn't fade in silently in Part One - it has the normal TARDIS materialization sound. However, the info text on the DVD says that when the story was first shown in the US, there was a screw-up, and the first part was broadcast without any music or sound effects. I remember that, it confused the heck out of me at the time.
Part of "Resurrection of the Daleks" went out that way on its first US airing, too.
This calls for an investigation.
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