The Executioners
1)The first episode is pretty much set-up, with the business of the Visualizer being used to inform the regulars that the Daleks were after them. Good thing the Doctor nabbed it from the Space Museum, or presumably the Daleks would've just zapped them the next time they landed somewhere. I don't recall the Visualizer being used much afte rthis - you'd think that sort of thing would come in handy. Same for the TARDIS magnet, really.
2)Vicki is kind of ditzy in this. Also very bored with "down time" on the TARDIS. "I am redundant around here."
3)"Awful noise? That's no way to talk about my singing!" "No, Doctor, not that awful noise, the other one!"
4)The music on this is very "1960's British TV".
5)Cliffhanger: A Dalek that sounds like it has indigestion appears out of the sand!
The Death of Time
1)The Daleks seem a little off their game, here - heck, one Dalek even has to be told an order twice! Maybe that's how the Supreme Dalek gets rid of stupid Daleks - sends them after the Doctor, knowing he'll most likely bump them off.
2)The Mire Beasts are sufficiently creepy for cheap rubber monsters.
3)The Aridians are somewhat less impressive.
4)Ian takes Barbara's sweater for the second story in a row.
5)Some fun quotes:
- "Don't just stand there and scream, you little fool! Run!"
- "Oh, don't just stand there gaping, you nit! Come on, back!"
- "Whoo-hoo, Archie!"
- "Try and get out of that hole, Fred." Wait, is the Dalek's name "Archie" or "Fred"?
- "Eradicate!" "Obliterate!" "Annihilate!" They hadn't quite settled on a battlecry, by then.
6)Cliffhanger: The Daleks declare their intention to keep chasing the TARDIS!
Flight Through Eternity
1)One Dalek on the time machine sounds drunk! Also, the Dalek that somehow contrives to go overboard on the Mary Celeste is pretty obviously holow inside! And then - Daleks in Manhattan forty years early!
2)The tour guide's accent is pretty bizarre.
3)Did Verity Lambert really see Peter Purves' performance as Morton Dill and think, "Wow, this guy we've got to have!"? Dang.
4)"Do you know Cheyenne Bodie?" I had to look that one up.
5)Cliffhanger: The Daleks are closing in!
Journey Into Terror
1)I like the idea that the Doctor thinks they've somehow wandered into the human imagination when it's really just a haunted house. Be funny if Barnabas Collins showed up. That said, I'd like to see a "Frankenstein vs. the Daleks" movie.
2)There's a Dalek prop under the archway even though they supposedly haven't arrived yet.
3"Daleks don't like stairs." "Barbarian doesn't like Flair."
4)"Festival of Ghana 1996 - Cancelled by Peking" I gather that Sino-Ghanaian relations were quite close at the time.
5)Cliffhanger: The Robo-Doctor prepares to infiltrate and kill!
The Death of Doctor Who
1)The Fungoids look like something out of a Krofft Brothers show.
2)If you look closely during the scene when VIcki was walking along the path, you can see someone's hand in shot for a second. Also, when the Daleks are preparing to attack the cave, you see a BBC camera way in the background. Perhaps the Daleks were filming the attack.
3)The "Doctor vs. Doctor" battle is OK, although it is occasionally too obvious that Edmund Warwick is playing the Robo-Doctor.
4)Cliffhanger: A Mechanoid appears!
The Planet of Decision
1)I'm not hugely surprised that the Mechanoids never became as big of a hit as the Daleks. The Mechanoid/ Dalek battle was amusing, though.
2)If Steven Moffat was doing this story, it would eventually be revealed that Morton Dill was actually Steven Taylor in disguise, for some convoluted reason.
3)Of course the big thing in this was Ian and Barbara finally getting home. I liked the bit where VIcki had to jolly the Doctor up at the end - I gather that was often O'Brien's role in real life. The bits of the two just enjoying being in London were amusing, too.
4)Some fun quotes:
- "Who won the wars?"
- "Am exterminated!"
- "Ian, do you realize, we could get home?"
- "You'll end up as a couple of burnt cinder, flying around in Spain...in space!"
- "What's two years amongst friends?"
- "How are we going to explain our absence?" Good question.
- "I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them. Silly old fusspots."
Overall:
A good farewell to two favorite characters. The Daleks were a bit uneven in this. One can't help feeling that it was the Doctor who got the Daleks interested in time travel - maybe the Time War was his fault, in the end?
[Part of list of Doctor Who episodes here.]
Replies
In episode one, the Doctor uses the visualizer to observe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a conversation between Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth (the Doctor’s future wife), and the Beatles. Unfortunately, the Beatles’ performance has been edited out of the US DVD release, but if you’re interested in seeing it (and the cast’s reactions), follow this link:
http://www.zappinternet.com/video/pisSbiFfeN/Doctor+Who+and+the+Bea...
Hmm. Work filter's blocking it. I shall check it out next time I'm at the library.
Except for Mission to the Unknown/The Daleks' Master Plan, the first parts of all Nation's Dalek stories end with the sudden appearance of one or more Daleks; even Planet of the Daleks, which starts with the Doctor in pursuit of them after their appearance at the end of Frontier in Space.
They sort of undercut the surprise by usually naming the stories "(Noun) of the Daleks".