It probably still is in the greater fandom as a whole, that’s true. Different samples will produce different results.
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I love the Hinchcliffe era. I even like The Deadly Assassin. But I am not in love with how Gallifrey is depicted there (they kinda chose the most boring way ever to represent a planet habitated by time travelling people. Visually, I mean) and find it to be the weakest in a seasons of bangers.
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Oh the Time Lords are definitely a downgrade between The War Games and The Deadly Assassin.
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That too, but the political shanenigans compesate a bit for it. It’s the basis of Gallifrey (the audio series), even. And I like that (even though I think it feels all too human. Most of the time that’s part of the tragedy of Doctor Who - seeing the same catastrophes and mistakes happening over and over and over in very different settings, but some differences are welcome too. I really like how it’s done in the EDAs, for example).
But omg WHY have we chose Gallifrey to be a deseeeeert
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Makes the citadel cities stand out more, allows them to seem more grand and overpowering. I guess. I hadn’t considered the desert thing to be an issue.
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The problem I have with it tho is - eveytime we go back to Gallifrey it’s a lot of empty spaces or a very sterile city. We have the people living outside the citadel, but that’s it. It makes it feel very small for me. That’s why we never go outside the citadel, there is nothing there but rocks and sand.
And Gallifrey never changes. I’d like it to “regenerate” from time to time, too.
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Oh I think its stagnation is an important part of it thematically.
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Gotta say, I really adore this Season (minus Talons). But if I had to chose, probably Hand of Fear and Face of Evil for me. So much to love with those Stories, easily some of my favorites of the T. Baker Years!
As for the Topic of the Hinchcliffe Era. Personally a big fan of that Era, even if I think at times in certain Stories S14 can show off some weaker traits of that Era, which at its best is an easy win for me, probably gonna into some details with that when we reach that Era in the TV Club eventually
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I think eras do go through periods of re-evaluation with older fans and different perspectives with the new. I remember the late 90s were pretty hard on the Pertwee era. Early 90s, popular opinion was still dumping on McCoy/Cartmel/JNT. Indeed, at the time it came out, The Deadly Assassin was panned by some. What goes around, comes around as they say.
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That’s kind of the point that Holmes was making, though. He was thumbing his nose at the authoritarian grandeur of the Time Lords and how they’d been portrayed previously. He was always savagely satirical and mocking of authority. It permeates most of his work on DW. I think he does a fantastic job of showing the pettiness and bureaucracy behind the grand power (as seen in The War Games). The biggest problem for me is (and I say this as someone who is fond of The Invasion of Time and other Gallifrey stories) that no other writer of the classic series quite got where he was coming from. They copied the dullness but missed the sharp commentary Holmes was making.
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There was a recent article in DWM (I say recent, it may have been last year or even the year before!) where they published Holmes’ comments at the time about The Deadly Assassin. It made very interesting reading and it was the sort of stuff that if Chibnall or RTD or Moffat said it in the current times, the internet would be in uproar.
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I’ve been reading since 2021, and I don’t remember this.
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Please don’t tell me it was more than 3 years ago!
I’ll see if I can dig it out later.
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It might not be, I just don’t remember it.
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You are absolutely right. There’s this very toxic attitude in some parts these days, but nothing’s really changed. A certain group of very vocal people just want everyone to believe that today’s showrunners are…
..wait for it…
…ruining the show!
Yeah, right.
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1970s: Robert Holmes is ruining the show because he’s “disrespecting the Time Lords!”
2000s: RTD is ruining the show because he’s “turned it into a soap / he’s pushing a gay agenda!” (take your pick)
2010s: Moffat is ruining the show because he’s “made it too complicated to follow / not as good as my dream version of his writing from the RTD years!”
2018-2022: Chibnall is ruining the show because he’s “cast a woman / rewritten the Doctor’s backstory!”
2023: RTD is ruining the show because he’s “just repeating his greatest hits.”
2024-present: RTD is ruining the show because he’s “cast a queer black man / he’s too woke!”
Can you feel the outrage?
Nothing changes. The nasties just get louder to try and give themselves legitimacy.
We see them for what they truly are, however.
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The Deadly Assassin.
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