This is the only story in the first season that I am not that fond of. It is a bit slow. I have now watched 4 episodes during my rewatch and this has not changed my mind. It just is not that many interesting things happening.
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Finished my rewatch of season 1!
It was a lot of fun revisiting all the stories from this fantastic first season of Doctor Who. You can really see why it got so much hype, with its great stories and performances.
I’m excited to dive into season 2 now. I’m pretty familiar with the first season, having listened to or read almost all the Target Novels. I don’t remember the second season quite as well, though.
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I have a question for @deltaandthebannermen, @Mindfog, @Doctor_Roo, all the older folk. I’ve been reading DWM #10 and in that issue is an article about Story #8. In this issue, the story is called “The French Revolution”. My question is: “When did it start being known as The Reign of Terror?” I know that thanks to home video and DVD, all the stories are pretty much locked into their specific titles. But I also know that the early Hartnell stuff (when each individual episode had its own title) often has multiple story names. So, just curious if any of those who have been around in fandom for quite a while could happen to shed any light on that. Thanks.
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Sorry, I can’t help very much. I didn’t start getting DWM until the mid-nineties and so didn’t really see the story referred to as The French Revolution. My first reference for Who stuff that occurred before I was born was the Peter Haining book 20 Years: A Celebration. It called the story The Reign of Terror and it came out in 1983. I’ve always known it as such.
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The Wiki has this to say:
The working title of this story was The French Revolution.
In a number of 1970s listing guides the story was called The French Revolution . This appears to derive from a promotional article in the BBC listings magazine Radio Times entitled “Dr. Who and the French Revolution”.
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The first reference material I ever came across for old Doctor Who listings was Radio Times’ 10th anniversary special, which called the story A Land of Fear.
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@Doctor_Roo has pre-empted me here as I was going to come in and mention the 10th Anniversary special. Back in the dark days before every fact about Doctor Who was at our fingertips there was a lot of educated guesswork. A lot of the early stories were referred to by the titles of their first episode or by whatever they were called in contemporary publications. Marco Polo was Journey to Cathay for example. Mission to the Unknown was also known as Dalek Cutaway. This is also where the ‘debate’ about what the first three serials are called. An Unearthly Child has paperwork which apparenrly supports the stance that it should properly be called 100,000 BC, The Daleks should be called The Mutants and The Edge of Destruction should be Inside the Spaceship. These are the titles DWM insists on using. Some paperwork is still inconclusive I believe with different titles appearing on different drafts and documents although in most cases fans and the BBC have settled on specific titles certainly for physical media releases.
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Thanks for the replies. The fact that a 60+ year old show is so well documented is amazing.
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A Land of Fear is the first episode of The Reign of Terror, and using the first episode title was also common with the early Hartnell era stories.
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I’d have no qualms about calling The Daleks that if it weren’t for the the fact that people might mix it up with that other story of the same name, which isn’t nearly as good…
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And what I’ve read of DWM so far, they’re calling it “The Dead Planet”.
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Yep - that’s because of the first episode rule resulting from the 10th anniversary special.
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I think they should just stop being ridiculous and just call the damn stories what everyone else does, as seen on the DVDs and Blu-Rays. Stop with the overcomplication and potential confusion.
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Ah, but I prefer 100,000 BC and Inside the Spaceship - and only use The Daleks because of the confusion with the Pertwee story.
And I am obviously the man to follow in all things.
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100,000 I guess I could see, given than An Unearthly Child only really fits the first part. The Mutants I’m indifferent to, maybe better to not have Daleks in the title, but who at this point doesn’t already know, so why not just call it The Daleks. But The Edge of Destruction is easily the superior title.
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The only non-confusing way of referring to each story is obviously production codes.
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Steven Schapansky’s long lost twin here.
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I prefer using Target novelisation titles instead 
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Production codes would get messy with Day of the Daleks
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Monster of Peladon would get the far more descriptive title of YYY, as in Y,Y,Y did they make it?
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