I’m now onto The Invasion.
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One of the best scores ever, I think!
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One of my top Troughton stories. Actually, one of my top Classic era stories.
Nah, scratch that.
‘The Invasion’. One of my top stories. Full stop.
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I remember enjoying it, but the Second Doctor is the era I am the least familiar with. I think I have only watched through this era, fully, once before. Not only that, but I think the last time I watched this serial was when it came out on DVD.
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The Android Invasion is a very boring story with unthreatening villains. Did they have a ginger pop sponsorship or something? It was mentioned like 3 times
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Yes, Pip and Jane and Cartmel talk about it in the making-of. They’re all too polite to say it, but you can tell they did not get along and did not like one another’s ideas.
That was exactly their thinking. There’s another featurette on the DVD and Blu where they talk about it and then the director basically says, “Well, I didn’t like it, so I put it in a quarry instead.” Well, to be fair, he says it was because he wanted it to look unearthly, and a forest would look too much like England. Because nothing says unearthly like a quarry!
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It’s interesting reading people’s thoughts about Meglos, Nimon, Creature etc.
I wholeheartedly believe fandom is still suffering from the groupthink of the 70s/80s/90s fandom where a small section of fans decreed which stories were good and bad. Season 17, as a whole, was labelled as subpar. Meglos was a left over from that season’s tone and stood out, negatively as far as fandom was concerned, from the serious tone that Bidmead brought to the show. These were fans who were growing up and wanting their favourite show to be mature and ‘proper’ sci fi and not the silly humour of Season 17. The same thing happened in the 80s with Season 24 being decreed as embarassing and character such as the Kandyman in Season 25 simply providing fodder for the show to be mocked.
Books written about the show told us that The Gunfighters was rubbish; Genesis of the Daleks was amazing; Enemy of the World was a lacklustre outlier in a season full of classic monster stories; Androzani was phenomenal but Twin Dilemma was horrid.
Without the ease of sharing opinions we have now, it was difficult to counter these opinions and when many of them were based not on actually watching the stories but on the memories of those writing about the stories, even those stating their opinions were on unacknowledged ‘dodgy’ ground.
Fans couldn’t just watch a story and make up their own mind. We now have every single story available at the touch of a button - even ones that don’t actually exist any more - and can all make up our own minds. The groupthink is still there because it is so entrenched in fandom but the last 10 years have seen an explosion of fans expressing their love for stories which, traditionally, we’re not supposed to like.
The groupthink, the ‘received wisdom’ of fandom is also where the hyperbolic negative reactions to any new season often stem from because that received wisdom is where the imaginary ‘ideal’ version of the show many of the older guard of fandom have invented for themselves based, in part, on that groupthink that said everything good in Doctor Who came out of Hinchcliffe/Holmes or Troughton’s Season 5 or Letts/Dicks in Season 8.
It’s marvellous that Meglos - or Paradise Towers, or Creature from the Pit, or The Web Planet or Delta and the Bannermen - now have their fans because it reminds us that Doctor Who is such a varied show and that’s why it is still here 60 years later.
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Today I’ve watched:
The Dominators (live action) 3/5
Rather a dull serial that meanders quite a bit. Unlike the previous serial, that had a similar slow start, this one just doesn’t grip me. The acting is decent throughout, but they aren’t given a lot to work with. The costume design is rather good, with some really interesting outfits throughout the serial.
The Mind Robber (live action) 4.5/5 (fav)
An acid trip of a story that is a better version of The Celestial Toymaker. The serial clips along at a decent pace. The variety of sets, and situations, make this a very engaging story. The imagination of the writers is poured into every aspect of the story. The costuming is excellent, and the set design is top-notch too.
Also, this one gets bonus points for the famous shot of Wendy Padbury hanging onto the TARDIS console.
The Invasion (live action/animated) 4.5/5 (fav)
A thoroughly engaging serial that moves along at a great pace. The intrigue is set up quickly, and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. There were enough twists and turns to keep me entertained though the entire serial. Coming so soon after another Cybermen story is a bold move, but they build upon what we have seen before, and dial in the formula that will become a staple for future Cybermen stories. The guest cast is excellent throughout, with special notice to Sally Faulkner as Isobel, and Kevin Stoney as Vaughn.
My rating system
5.0 Perfect/Fav
4.5 Excellent/Fav
4.0 Very Good
3.5 Good
3.0 Fine/Average
2.5 Meh
2.0 Bad
1.0 Very Bad
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Doctor Who is in a uniquely awkward position in this regard, as for the past two decades, the people primarily responsible for the creative direction of the show have been irretrievably influenced by certain factions of that groupthink.
It’s interesting, because it has resolved into eras that wildly differ but are still recognizably the same show. It has some sort of consistency. I think the danger comes in whenever the person at the helm begins to allow either their influences or the general unimpeachable nature of the “showrunner” position to begin to morph the show outside of that consistency.
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Watched Silence in the Library yesterday, and then Forest of the Dead today.
This is peak 10th Doctor, and the best story of his era for me.
Alex Kingston is so brilliant at conveying that River and the Doctor have a rich history and a special relationship, and David Tennant plays off of her so very well.
River says that she has never seen the Doctor this young, highlighting his eyes - so I am going to keep being stubborn with my fingers in my ears going lalalala when folks mention her meeting Doctors 1 through 9 
But, I am Mr. Thick McThickity Thick here I’ll admit. I’ve probably seen this story 6 or 7 times since I watched it initially about 12 years ago - and only on this watch realised the the third child in the bedroom at the end is Charlotte Abigail Lux… I’ve been confused about that child for over a decade 
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Ah, just imagine the episode with a jungle set like that seen in ‘Creature from the Pit’. I do think it would have made more thematic sense, and the Lakertyans would gave looked great in such a setting!
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Thankfully, I don’t believe this has ever happened.
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Finished off Underworld. I think I know why I can never seem to remember this story. There is nothing to remember.
Nothing really happens, it is just a bit of a runaround. And because there is nothing happening, I get to focus on the wildly overused CSO. There seems to have been a complete lack of understanding of the limitations of that technology.
The Oracle and it’s Minions servants are also never really fleshed out, so the threat never really becomes substantial.
Plus if you are in an elevator shaft at zero gravity, would you really just be able to push at air to get movement?
At least the Quest is over…
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Midnight.
Best thing RTD has ever written by a landslide.
A lowered stakes character piece without bombast - Molto Bene!
“The Hostess, what was her name?”
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Midnight is phenomenal and possibly the best story to come out of the RTD era.
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I love ‘Midnight’. It’s one of my all time favourites, but there are a small number of others that I feel equally positive about, namely;
Turn Left: A cynical depiction of collapsing society and the baser aspects of human nature. I just adore this story. It’s utterly different from ‘Midnight’ yet forms a perfect partner with it. Both of them explore human weakness and prejudice.
The Waters of Mars: It’s a traditional base under siege, but with a genuinely terrifying threat. What makes this really stand out, however, is the Doctor’s shifting behaviour throughout. He’s having the time of his life to start with, then gets curious. When he realises which event he’s caught up in, he becomes desperate to get away (yet keeps getting drawn back in by his own fascination). Then when he has the chance to actually leave, he’s overwhelmed by hubris and ego. The scene from where the Doctor returns them to Earth through to Adelaide’s death is bold and shocking.
73 Yards: I’ve made no secret of my love of this story. beautifully written, I applaud the deliberate ambiguity because it really does allow the imagination to play. There’s enough information given to allow the mind to fill in the gaps (and with answers that are probably more unsettling and satisfying than any scripted explanation could probably have achieved). It’s at turns, beautiful, heart rending, tragic and uplifting.
Dot and Bubble: Once again, a cynical and savage piece. Genuine gut punches and one of my favourite new monsters in a very long time. The exploration of how prejudice blinds people to the truth, of how bigotry dehumanises and also leads to the downfall of the bigots themselves. I think it’s simply stunning TV.
This handful of stories, for me, stand along the other stories (from classic to the present day) that I regard as genuine all-time greats.
And, this weekend, I’ll be rewatching ‘The Waters of Mars’. Happy days!
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Funnily enough, the other RTD stories I’ve listed as my top RTD stories are all quieter pieces, lower stakes and/or character based. I can really enjoy an epic finale, but DW often is at its peak with the smaller scale character pieces.
To cite examples from Moffat’s work; ‘Listen’, ‘Blink’, and the best bits of ‘The Big Bang’.
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Blink - yes.
Listen - self-indulgent nonsense; unrelated scenes in desperate search of a plot.
I watched it recently and really disliked it.
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See, ‘Listen’ is a low key story that has slowly but surely grown on me over the years. It’s very much a Twelve story, and the seeming lack of plot is reflective of the Doctor’s stream of consciousness flights of fancy regarding the possible existence of the creature. We all go off on tangents at times. I very much enjoy the way it explores his psyche. The only part I’m not fond of in that story is the coda at the end with Clara in the barn. The rest of it… I love it!
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Agree, it’s an episode I’ve never quite understood, and on rewatch I dislike it less, but I really do not get it at all
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