That’s how it begins! Slowly, gradually, it will worm its way into your affections.
8 Likes
Up to the Invasion of Time this time around watching Classic Who. Just saw Part 1, which is just a really good setup for a story on Gallifrey.
Milton Johns: no one does smarmy underling quite like him.
BORUSA!!!
7 Likes
Invasion of Time is great. Milton Johns is superb and Tom and Borusa play off each other brilliantly.
11 Likes
Watched The Zygon Invasion last night during supper.
11 Likes
K9. K9. K9. I was going to begin my rewatch of Series 14, but it was postponed because it is much more important to watch this gem of a spin-off.
At least it’s better than The Web Planet.
11 Likes
Now come on, there’s no need to be mean…! 
8 Likes
They work do well together. Tom always lifts his game when paired with an actor he likes/respects. John Arnatt is far and away my favourite incarnation of Borusa (yes, even moreso than Angus Mackay’s schoolmasterly turn in ‘The Deadly Assassin’).
7 Likes
Paradise Towers and Delta were both fun! Though as I said on the guide, they would have benefited from a larger budget and a fourth episode, respectively.
I’m planning on Dragonfire tonight… I don’t want Mel to leave! But at least I know she’ll be back.
She’s so underrated. She’s smart and capable despite screaming a lot - which is exactly what I’d say of the beloved Sarah Jane.
11 Likes
Have been rewatching SJA Series 2 with my eldest. Mark of the Beserker was much better than I remembered - some excellent work from Daniel Anthony and The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith was superb and rather moving.
11 Likes
I have a real soft spot for *Paradise Towers in particular. Whilst ‘Delta’ features some lovely location work, ‘Paradise Towers’ is studio bound. I imagine that, were it to be made today, the location filming would make a world of difference to the presentation of this tale of societal collapse. It’s a lovely dystopian story, with some extremely strong themes. I confess that, when I watch it these days, I always use the alternate soundtrack. Whilst I quite like Keff MucCulloch’s spin on the DW theme, I’m really not a fan of his music within the episodes themselves. Other than that, ‘Paradise Towers’ is a joy and, I feel, much underrated.
8 Likes
I’ve had SJA on pause for too long, so maybe I’ll download a few episodes on iPlayer for me to watch during my commute to and from London this weekend
9 Likes
Last night I watched a couple more episodes of The Invasion of Time, 2-4.
These first four episodes are really good! I just love stuff set on Gallifrey 
But then comes the episode 4 cliffhanger, and I know the two next episodes totally fall apart.
And this morning I continued with series 4, Turn Left.
Catherine Tate is fantastic in this, as is Bernard Cribbins, though noone beats how well Jacqueline King acts suffering from severe depression - that is incredible acting.
But, even though I can see how good Turn Left is, I can never find myself really engaging with it. From the moment we find out that the Doctor died, it is apparent that a big reset is coming, like when Kate Stewart gets dustified in the beginning of Empire of Death. Those kinds of obvious resets just saps the excitement out of stories for me, which is super annoying.
15 Likes
The reason why Turn Left is different to me is that from the start it’s presented as a kind of screwy ‘what if’, while in EoD you absolutely knos it’s going to get reversed but the story wants you to believe it’s got no way back. Which obviously you don’t.
I looove Turn Left, I think it’s such an interesting episode
17 Likes
Turn Left has got a lot of things going for it 
But the “What if?” nature of it just feels a bit fan-fic-y to me. I enjoyed it well enough, but I guess for me it is just one of those stories where I stand slightly to the side from the big love fest 
(Plus it brings back Rose…)
9 Likes
Not everyone can like everything! But I am with you on the Rose eyeroll…
9 Likes
No you can’t
Got a bit of a headache going, so I’ve had Who on and finished the last two episodes of Invasion of Time - it was so much better than I remember 
“I shall miss you too Savage”
But staying on Gallifrey because of Andred is so odd, were there scenes cut between them somewhere? They barely look at each other in those six episodes. Can someone make an edit where Leela takes Rodan’s hand instead? That would actually make sense, they had chemistry
New headcanon: Andred is Rodan’s next incarnation, when she regenerates he travels back to before the Vardans and pretends not to know anything - Leela’s heightened sense instinctively knows this and decides to stay with Androdan!
12 Likes
Per the tardis wiki, Graham Williams was trying to persuade Louise Jameson to stay on up to the point they started recording, and was confident enough he’d succeed that he didn’t give to much thought to her departure because he thought it’d get rewritten.
There was also one point where they were going to have Leela die in this serial…
11 Likes
“You speak treason!”
“Fluently!”
I always think of Series 21 of Doctor Who as being awash with alien planets and spaceships, of monsters and troopers. So The Awakening is a story I don’t often look at, and that’s a shame because it’s really quite good.
In fact, it’s a rare example of Doctor Who doing ‘folk horror’. Not quite as memorably as The Daemons, but it’s got a really good cast and a frightening adversary … if anything, it could do with another episode. For all her longing to meet him, Tegan barely spends any time with her grandfather, and neither do we. It would have been good to hear her explain where she’s been for the past couple of years. Also, things seem to be wrapped up a little too conveniently.
There’s also a quite shocking decapitation for a barely-speaking character. Not sure what he did to deserve it. The callous Joseph Willow would be more deserving of such a memorable send-off. But we have Denis Lill hamming it up enjoyably as the increasingly unstable Sir George, and it’s always good to see Glyn Houston as Wolsey. Former Liver Bird Nerys Hughes starred in Peter Davison’s first series, so it’s good to see her flatmate Polly James appear in this.
The Awakening - a bit of an underrated gem.
12 Likes
Just watched the first part of The Ribos Operation.
I’m finally at The Key to Time season again 
- Mary Tamm!!!
- Robert Holmes
- The White Guardian
- Garron and Unstoffe
- The Graff Vynda K
- Binro coming up soon
This is an immensely enjoyable story
14 Likes
Invasion of the Dinosaurs was SUCH a banger oh my goodness. It dragged on a bit and the effects were hokey, yes, but these only just hold back yet another peak Hulke script. My god, that man cannot miss.
Also wow, happy 1000th reply!
15 Likes