Be Excellent To Each Other

And with those words, any hope of me not finding it amazingly irritating disappear.

The Christmas specials are usually written for viewing after several sherries, so I'm keeping an open mind.

And thanks to the Guardian posting it on their front page, I'm now aware of a huge spoiler. Grrr...

Adric is back!

Out of curiosity, I watched the first three and a bit original 'Doctor Who' stories recently ('An Unearthly Child', 'the Daleks, 'the Edge of Destruction', plus the reconstructed half hour of 'Marco Polo'. Some thoughts, that probably won't be news to anyone who hasn't has seen them:

- The first doc is a nasty, manipulative bastard. Not in a 'I've a plan' way, like 12, but in an actually threatening to kill someone and even secretly disabling the Tardis and feigning ignorance way. I'd heard he was a bit gruff, but nothing that bad.

- Susan goes from being a strong, clever, and independent teenager in episode one to a weak, pathetic, screaming ditz in episode two, and never recovers. It's shocking how poorly she's used.

- Ian looks like Nick Clegg, and is very much the star of the show.

- 'The Edge of Destruction' is a like a 'Twilight Zone' episode and surprisingly enjoyable.

- I don't really care about caveman politics. Particularly not over three episodes.

- The bit where Barbara is running through the twisty corridors before being pressed up against the wall as we are introduced to the Daleks is actually quite tense.

- The Daleks have way too much dialogue.

Probably won't continue the series for a bit, but might go and seek out other Doctors.

Those comments do match up pretty well with this

http://wifeinspace.com/2011/01/an-unearthly-child/

(If you have not read it before a fan gets his wife to watch / comment on each and every episode of 'classic' who)

I'm about halfway through the First Doctor era at the moment. There are some good stories (The Romans, The Aztecs, The Dalek Invasion of Earth) but there are some right stinkers too (The Sensorites and the Web Planet stand out as being utterly without redemption).

He mellows as it gets to season 2, although not much. He is a paternalistic knowitall. Then again 10 does come back to this and state he was trying to act all grown up and important like you do when you're young.

I'm looking forward to getting to the Second Doctor.

Heh, been a few years since I last flicked through that blog. I loved the spin-off book. Didn't realise my brainsplurge would be quite as in line with her views, but hey, 'call it please, research'.

I'm sure there's a tense, allegorical, drama to be written about the discovery of fire and leadership and suchlike, but that one isn't it. The skulls with flames in were quite scary, however.

The biggest problem with the Second Doctor is just how few of his stories survive :-(

I watched 'the Aztecs' about ten years ago and remember enjoying it. Might see what else the library has. I've seen some Troughton and he's very much the definitive portrayal of the Doc.



Ouch But so true.

Also, I listened to some 'Big Finish' on holiday. 'Spare Parts' was awesome. Go and listen to it if you haven't.

I bought the first War Doctor serial so I might get the other ones now that John Hurt has passed on.

I did a nerdy squee when I realised that the fluid link in the 'Daleks' is re-used in the most recent series finale. I then felt dirty.

Spotify link for Spare Parts :

https://play.spotify.com/album/5P3s705CiB6qOqGhUGEKol

I'm currently finding that I like 8 and Charley more than the actual stories they're in, although I've only heard the first four so far (and the less said about 'Minuet in Hell' the better).

Just out of interest, what service are you using to watch them? Have you downloaded them or are you streaming them from somewhere?

I borrowed the DVDs from the library.

My dad's DVD collection

If you want to connect via a system which shows you in another country they are all on Britbox

https://www.britbox.com/

(not available in the UK)

Demonoid torrent site used to have torrents for them grouped by Doctor (no idea if Demonoid still exists or if the torrents would still be seeded)

The Time Meddler is excellent by the way. I mean 8-9/10 good. Probably the first one I've genuinely enjoyed in its own right and not just for the time.

I'm no Whovian, but I think the prospect of Bradley Walsh in my face would really piss on my temporal chips.

People said that about Catherine Tate and she was fantastic. I'm happy to go in with an open mind.

In other news we finally got round to constructing my Lego DW set that I've had for about two years now. It's really quite clever! The exterior of the TARDIS clips on and off so you can display it as the normal box or as part of the control room.

The only minor quibbles I have are that the scales are a bit weird. The minifigs are too small for the exterior of the TARDIS and the daleks are too large compared to the people. On the whole I'm delighted though.

Looks ace.
I like the Weeping Angel figure!

Also Billie Piper.

It goes quite well with my official Doctor Who Lego rip-off set they used to do.

it is a great set.. It lives next to my Ecto 1

it is a great set.. It lives next to my Ecto 1

You have two?

I think i need a new mouse

So having watched all of the complete First Doctor stories I managed to download the entirety of the classic Who stories including reconstructions of the missing episodes (either official or fan made). So now I've got to go back and watch the 17 serials I haven't seen now.

However I'm going to crack on with the Second Doctor for now and maybe go back to them before the Third.

I'm still not sure if I can watch the Dalek 12(!) parter though.

Finished the Second Doctor now, boy does he go out with a bang. His last serial is an epic 10-parter called the War Games.

He had some terrible stories and some great ones, but he played the part very well and I much preferred him to Hartnell. Zoe and Jamie were probably his best companions.

I've just watched the first Third Doctor story (Spearhead from Space) and loved it. It's in colour and everything! I think I'm going to like Jon Pertwee a lot.

I've got that one. The plot gets wonderfully complicated over the episodes but the general idea is brilliant and Troughton is an utter joy. The American Civil War uniforms are hilariously farby.

Got the Aztecs waiting for me in the library. I enjoyed the first two and last two episodes of the Keys of Marianus: the middle bit was irritating filler.

So, I innocently clicked into the thread and this happened. Deliberate? Seems fitting:

Here's an article about cybermen and the ending of series 10 and stuff. Because it's more comforting than Brexit.

Lovely, thank you.

I fell into a rabbit hole of Den of Geek articles there. The funniest one was the theory that the Valeyard came into being during the Angels and Demons Red Dwarf episode when the two ships split (because the TARDIS is in the hanger in one of the deleted FX scenes).

Haha, Gail Platt from Corrie is in the 3rd Doctor serial Colony in Space! She's very young and putting on a posh voice as most people did back then.

A quartet for the Tardis.

Seems a good choice. I liked Walsh in Law and order UK

First picture of 13's outfit. Looks good, although the trousers seem a bit short.

They were probably made for McCoy.

I don't like it.

As a female type person, those braces are impractically placed and would just keep slipping as they are over the fullest part of her breasts or (worse) would chafe her nipples.

I am, however, grateful for the handy caption that the BBC have put on this photo, as I couldn’t see the tardis until I read the text below the picture.

Tardis? Tardis?!

I thought that, but wasn't sure if it was best to pass comment or not.

Time Lords don't have nipples.

The Doctor hasn't had to deal with that particular problem before.

I like it.

the internet seems to have imploded again

The audio drama company, Big Finish, have a 99p sale on at the moment. I listened to the first few Paul Mcgnan stories over the summer. Some were ok ('Storm Warning'; 'Sword of Orion';], one was mindblowingly amazing ['Chimes of Midnight'], and one was dire ['Minuet in Hell']. Just got the few in the Mcgann range and a Colin Baker for the hell of it.

There was a sizable chunk of the Christmas special previewed during children in need last night. Seems to feature Mark Gatiss quite heavily.

Chimes of Midnight is amazing. I'm working through through the Eighth Doctor Adventures while I work at the moment.

Currently on Neverland which is really good too. Leads up to Zagreus which features 5, 6, 7 and 8.