What’s everyone’s favorite Season 8 story or stories? Remember, you can vote for more than one.
- Day of the Daleks
- The Curse of Peladon
- The Sea Devils
- The Mutants
- The Time Monster
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voters
2 Likes
The Sea Devils holds a great degree of nostalgic value for me but Peladon is a downright banger!
7 Likes
The Curse of Peladon is one of the most impressive, ambitious, interesting, complex and intelligently written stories of the era with an incredible world, shockingly good special effects and one of the best one-off antagonists of the Classic Era.
The Time Monster, on the other hand, is just really, really, really fun.
And also just as good.
9 Likes
Curse of Peladon is a cut above all the others. All the other stories have something going for them. With the possible exception of The Mutants.
5 Likes
I’ve gone for ‘The Sea Devils’ partly because watching those amphibious, net-clad creatures striding out of the water was one of my first memories of Doctor Who. And that sliding, gurgling music! And location filming!
Watching the series more recently, I suspect the mighty ‘Curse of Peladon’ might actually be the better story. It still has a rich, almost Tolkien-like atmosphere, with powerful speeches, magical monsters and Princess Josephine of … TARDIS.
Series Nine contains such great, great memories, and is always a pleasure to revisit.
8 Likes
Remember, you can vote for more than one.
5 Likes
Time Monster haters are wrong. Fact.
9 Likes
I think this is an excellent season. I mean, I feel I have to say that as it also contains the story broadcast when I emerged into this world (The Curse of Peladon) which I shall always view with particular fondness (fortunately it’s a rollicking good story).
I’ve voted for my two stand out favourites (“Day” and “Curse”, but there isn’t a one in this season that I don’t enjoy (nope, not even “The Mutants”). Here’s my outline in a nutshell:
Day of the Daleks: I’m going to put aside the weird unDalek voices and the less than impressive assault on Auderly House and, instead, focus on the story and performances. Wow! I have always adored this story. It’s inventive, does very Moffat timey-wimey things, shows us an Earth conquered and completely under the control of the Daleks (even moreso than the shattered ‘post-war’ Earth in “Dalek Invasion”). Aubrey Woods Controller is also a fantastically realised villain, a collaborator in the truest sense but also a man who, in many ways, believes he is doing the very best he can. He’s fallible, he’s flawed, he’s also heroic in the final analysis. “Who knows? I may have helped to exterminate you!” As if that wasn’t enough, the new special edition with enhanced effects and Briggs voiced Daleks pretty much remedies all the gripes with this story and showcases just how good this story is. For me, a top tier story and one of THE great Dalek stories! 
The Curse of Peladon: I just love this. It’s only Pertwee’s second off world story but, unlike “Colony”, it’s much better realised. We get a sense of culture and history to Peladon, a feel for these people. The concerns of Hepesh are very similar to those of a certain ilk to this day, meaning this story has real staying power and just as much meaning in the 21st century as it did back in 1972. Oh, and the Ice Warriors are NOT the villains! I love Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and, of course, the marvellous Aggedor. It’s a marvellous piece of TV and is my DW birth story! 
The Sea Devils: Wow! Three stories in and STILL fantastic! This is truly and rightly iconic. The only reason I didn’t vote for it alongside my top two is because it is largely a simplified retread of “Doctor Who and the Silurians”, but that doesn’t impact much on my enjoyment. Trenchard is a genuinely tragic figure, the Master is absolutely 100% at his peak and Delgado is on scintillating form (wasn’t he always?). The scenes with the sub are genuinely tense. Also, the Sea Devils are superb! Their emergence from the sea is rightfully iconic and has been replicated again and again in the show (e.g. “Full Circle” and “The Curse of Fenric”). It’s outstanding! 
The Mutants: Yes, I know this has a bad rep and I am well aware of its several limitations (erm… Rick James, anyone?) and yet, it tackles colonialism surprisingly savagely (in fact, there’s much in this critique that resonates with our much more enlightened view of the dark history of colonialism today), it has environmental messages, explores biology in interesting ways (the whole life cycle is quite fun and different), reinforces that important trope in DW that you should not judge by appearances, attacks prejudice AND contains wonderful dialogue like this: “The slightest accident in this stage of the proceedings and we’d all reverse instantly into antimatter. Blasted out to the other side of the universe, as a flash of electromagnetic radiation. We’ll all become unpeople, undoing unthings untogether. Fascinating.”
The Time Monster: Another story with a certain reputation. Yes, it’s silly, it’s extraordinarily camp and it has a man dressed in a dodgy pigeon suit… but it’s also deeply imaginative, bonkers fun, features a delightful performance from who else other than Roger Delgado, wears its heart on its sleeve and a massive grin on its face. There was a time, way back when I was a more serious individual, that I confess to not really liking this much. Happy to report that those days are long behind me and I just love the charm of the thing. It still makes me cringe in places, but by 'eck, it makes me smile too. Lots!
So that’s my rundown of a superb season. Peak Pertwee in many ways, but I feel that, for different reasons, about season 7, much of season 8, season 9 and some big ol’ chunks of season 10 as well! 
6 Likes
Season 9 is a strange one to me because from the reign of the Third Doctor and Jo, this is either the best season or their worst one, with no in-between, and I can never decide which it is. There’s a real polarising quality to it for me.
The Curse of Peladon and Day of the Daleks are the classics for me, especially the former. Great setting, some standout stuff for Jo, bringing a whole group of new and interesting aliens, some lore expansion for the Ice Warriors, perhaps the first time this Doctor has let his vulnerability show (he seems so lost coming into that throne room!) and it’s just really well produced on the whole.
Day of the Daleks is underrated, before I saw it I always knew it as being “one of the bad ones”, and that the special edition had to save it. I still haven’t actually seen the SE, but I adore it as it was broadcast, it’s aged finely and is Pertwee’s best outing with the Daleks.
The Sea Devils and The Mutants both have their moments, The Sea Devils gives you just about everything you’d want from a Pertwee era story bar the Brigadier yet the plot threading it together is a bit dull, whilst The Mutants has some big ideas and really cool looking sequences undermined by some of the most ergregious CSO and the plot seeming to totally break down in the final stretch.
The Time Monster is so much better than people give it credit for. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a favourite because it has its issues but I could wax lyrical all day about it. It gets so, so much right and even though Frontier in Space would be his last appearance, The Time Monster feels like a swansong for the Delgado Master, taking a more comedic tone in contrast to the usually more serious Pertwee-era finales yet showing the Master at the top of his game, finally getting to run rings around the whole UNIT family for much of the story. It’s a bit of a black sheep, which I think represents the season as a whole quite well.
7 Likes
When I watched it earlier this year, I got strong Garak from DS9 vibes off him.
4 Likes
I think the best one is probably The Mutants, but The Time Monster is also deeply enjoyable. The Sea Devils, while it’s one of the first stories to give Jo Grant any degree of competence, is, apart from that, in my view, the least interesting and complex Malcolm Hulke story. I think Day of the Daleks and The Curse of Peladon both drag frustratingly. I wish I’d seen Curse without knowing its twist, as I might’ve had more appreciation for it then, but I mostly found it dull. I much prefer The Monster of Peladon, The Bride of Peladon, and Legacy when it comes to Peladon stories.
5 Likes
- Day of the Daleks is a fantastic use of a causality loop in Doctor Who.
- The Curse of Peladon is the best use of the Ice Warriors ever.
- The Sea Devils is super atmospheric and has a swordfight
- The Mutants has a great villain in the Marshall, George Pravda, and Cotton.
- The Time Monster has Ingrid Pitt in it
Jo and the Doctor are a well-oiled time travelling duo at this point, don’t sleep on season 9
8 Likes
I think Season 9 is my favorite Pertwee season. It’s just fun.
4 Likes
The Time Monster also has Baby-Benton, the TOMTIT machine and that other questionably designed machine 
It’s an extravaganza of wild ideas, some more successful than others.
4 Likes
I couldn’t possibly know which questionably designed machine you are referring to
8 Likes
All absolutely true!
Yes, I love this season (as I wrote at more length in my earlier post).
I genuinely find it difficult to say which of Pertwee’s seasons I most enjoy as 7-10 all have pretty much equal claim on my affections. 7 for me undoubtedly has the most consistent run of top quality stories, but then 8 become so much more fun and introduces the delightful Jo. 9 is peak Pertwee in many ways, and has two opening stories will forever be amongst my favourites (oh, and it has ‘The Sea Devils’ too). Then, 10 has ‘Carnival’ (blissful), ‘Frontier’ (sci fi delight) AND ‘The Green Death’ (another personal fave)! So much wonderful stuff.
11 is the weakest, but even that has the wonderful ‘Time Warrior’ and ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ (plus does something genuinely interesting with the Daleks in the, otherwise flawed, ‘Death to the Daleks’).
The Pertwee era is awesome and season 9 rocks!
7 Likes
How is there a comment on this design before one on Alpha Centuri?! 
5 Likes
Curse of Peladon. What can I say about it, what hasn’t been said? It’s great and easily Pertwee very finest (at least televised) Trip to another Planet. It also has Alpha Centauri, everything with Alpha Centauri is improved. But yeah, the World building of Peladon is just excellent.
Overall I still think it’s a very fun Season, while not cracking my personal Top 3 in terms of Pertwee Seasons, other Stories such as Sea Devils or Time Monster are lovely
5 Likes
There’s a badge for that… 
4 Likes
There are three Jon Pertwee stories I’d say I dislike. Two of them are in this season. Brings this down to my least favorite of his five. But the three I do like are good’uns.
2 Likes