Ah, ok, just wanted to make sure you weren’t missing it. When you said “first episodes,” not “first episodes of the season” I thought you might have skipped over it somehow, because you’re right, IOTB is technically a pilot special.
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No problem I understand why you’d think that lol
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Finished Warriors’ Gate, and I’m finding it difficult to know what I think about it. Some of it, especially the beginning, felt like the Mind Robber, and I really love the Mind Robber, but I wasn’t that excited by the bits that felt like the Mind Robber, and I don’t know why 
There were a lot of bits I did enjoy, especially how the majority of the crew on the ship are very half hearted in everything they do, resulting in nothing getting done.
It was fairly difficult to follow what was happening in the middle with how time was working, but maybe that was the point of it.
I am sad to see Romana go, her exit does feel a bit rushed, but at least it makes somewhat more sense than Leela’s reason for staying back, and a lack of a proper goodbye does also make sense with the Doctor hating goodbyes and Romana understanding that.
Shame they got rid of K9 as well, apparently due to him being too overpowered or something.
Very difficult to rate, I found the beginning a bit too slow but there were enough good bits for the rating to be 6/10, I was considering rating it a 7 but looking at the others I have given a 7 too, I enjoyed all of them more than this one.
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I loved the Chumblies.
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Nearly at the end with Tommy B (don’t worry I’ll never call him that again) as I’ve finished The Keeper of Traken.[1]
Sure, I did know the big twist here, the Master’s back and it’s Geoffrey Beevers as the Decayed/Burnt/Crispy Master but that didn’t stop me from enjoying this one a lot. As I’ve said many times, I love stories where there’s subterfuge and secretive intrigue/politicking in the higher echelons of a society, so I definitely enjoyed all the stuff with Traken’s council. The worldbuilding here is also pretty cool and the sets look really good. Four and Adric’s solo dynamic is very good, despite Tom and Matthew not getting along IRL, and Adric finally gets a bit more to do here and it’s good. He’s smart and doesn’t really do anything annoying or stupid, pairing him up with Nyssa works well.
Oh yeah, the story introduces Nyssa which automatically means it’s the best story ever, the end. Okay not directly, but she’s definitely enjoyable here even if her role is a little restricted before she joins the TARDIS Team. Her intelligence and cunning is still shown here very well,[2] with there also being an interesting dynamic with Kassia that I wish was developed a bit further.
As for the Master, he’s done very well here but I think they keep the reveal (not to the audience but to the Doctor) for too long as it’s right during the climax and Beevers doesn’t get to interact much with Four before he’s defeated. I’m in the minority here but I prefer Pratt’s Crispy Master, mainly because of the costume and the lighting. Yes, Pratt was behind a mask in The Deadly Assassin, but that mask made him look terrifying. The make-up on Beevers does give him more range, but I just think he looks a little goofy. With the mask, the Master looked like his face was stuck in that frozen state and that made him creepier. That being said, Beevers still plays him wonderfully and I wish he featured more as himself without being in the Melkur or being shown with his back to the camera. And the lighting in Pratt’s story was darker and kept him in shadow which made him more intimidating. Beevers doesn’t have that so he doesn’t look as threatening, IMO.
The story’s biggest faults are that the start of the climax is a little unclear alongside the climax itself being a little underwhelming with the villain’s defeat. Then as said, the Master’s reveal to Four is done too late, Kassia (while played really well) felt a little flip-floppy (sometimes she’s all “please don’t make me kill Tremas” and then next she’s all “the palace will be painted with the traitors’ blood”) and also while the Master stealing Tremas’ body is definitely a cool and tense ending… how did he do that?
I think I might be overrating this story a little since the ending was a little poorly executed… but I really liked the political intrigue, the character dynamics and also it introduces Nyssa, so I’m gonna be positive.
8/10.
Okay well I am missing 7 of his stories still: the first two and final two stories of Season 15 and every Season 17 story after City of Death (not counting Shada), but I’ve nearly seen all the stories with him that I own on DVD. ↩︎
And considering how she bribes and later dispatches guards, I’m less surprised at her having the gun in Arc of Infinity. ↩︎
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I’ve literally just finished watching this one as well, I actually thought it was going to be the Black Gardian so was suprised it turned out to be the Master - I did also wonder how he managed to steal the body.
I did enjoy it more than any of the rest from this season
7/10
While I’m looking forward to finally having a Doctor change after being with Tom so long, I never got tired of him and it is sad to see him go
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I’ve got the time monster tonight, which finishes season 9
Can’t believe I’m already more than halfway through the third Doctor it’s been fun
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We are so synced up right now! I’m 2/6 through The Time Monster. (But probably won’t get to finish it until the weekend.)
The Third Doctor era really is flying by.
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Mawdryn Undead: What the heck is going on with the soundtrack in this one?! It’s all over the place, from the absurdly jaunty bit when Turlough steals the car at the beginning onwards, and it really took me out of the serial a few times. The whole production is a bit bizarre to be honest, with the tacky spaceship (at one point the Brig says something along the lines of “I’ve never seen such luxury” - I hate to break it to you Alistair, you still haven’t), the scientists who appear to be wearing the decorations from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, and Valentine Dyall strutting around with a dead crow on his head. I enjoyed most of the stuff to do with the Brig (although him calling the Milhouse -type kid disgusting at one point was very out of character), Turlough and his relationship with the Black Guardian (although I’m not sure why Matthew Waterhouse gets so much flack and Mark Strickson doesn’t, based on some of his overacting here) and the moral dilemma surrounding the Doctor’s regenerations (especially when Nyssa and Tegan get dragged in in part 4). The best individual bits were probably the various scenes with Turlough and the Black Guardian after the car crash and in the sick bay, and the discussion between the Doctor and the Brig in his hut in part 2 (the mentions of characters like Liz, Benton, Harry and the Yeti are really effective, because they genuinely feel like ancient history by Five’s era, then they hit you with one of the best executed “flashback montage from old episodes” sequences in the programme’s run and there’s a real sense of weight to the Doctor and the Brig’s relationship and history for the first time, very cleverly done). It does unfortunately degenerate into a bit of a runaround in the last two parts, but on the strength of the ideas, some of the individual scenes and Nicholas Courtney, this gets three stars.
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As much as I adore Nick Courtney in Mawdryn Undead, I’ll be forever curious about the versions we could’ve had with William Russell / Ian Marter instead.
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It’s an interesting thought - on the one hand, Ian much more naturally fits into the world of the story, but I think it would just feel wrong somehow seeing him in this era of Who, and especially this serial. It’s so opposed to the 60s run in terms of tone, production and general level of fanwankiness, I’m glad we got the Brig instead in the end. He makes the transition to the 80s a bit more smoothly than I imagine Ian would have done, plus there’s more of an established relationship to build on - he already knows about regeneration, for example, so you don’t need to waste time explaining it to him.
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I disagree, it so much feels like it was written for Ian, and I don’t think they did enough to really make the Brig work for it, simply don’t buy him becoming a math teacher. Should have been Ian all the way.
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Wrapped The Ark in Space last night, aka never has green-infused bubble-wrap aged so well.
Such a great, literal base-under-attack story. With a large number of outside factors affected by the Wirrn and parasitic take over methods, and the Doctor and crew racing to save the day. Wirrn super creepy in natural and parasitic variants.
This is one I’d watched so many times in the past (VHS and DVD) but never get tired of it. Lovely watching it with a nice clean bluray picture.
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Watched Arc of Infinity for the first time! Didn’t like it very much unfortunately.
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And is, of course, one of the main reasons UNIT dating is all over the place.
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Also true, but I’m long past the point of caring about the UNIT Dating Controversy. Damn you Grand Serpent.
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Once I get back to it, it’ll be The Space Pirates and then onto The War Games. And then I’ll be sad because I’ll have run out of TV Zoe! Guess I’ll have to read some PDAs…
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Very much enjoying The Invisible Enemy at the moment, currently three parts into it!
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Well I’ve reached the end. Logopolis.
Aaannd, well. Let me say this: the vibes are great. The white figure watching everyone, the whole theme of entropy and everything, the sense of doom is really good. You even get this from Four who knows his time is coming. He has some angry moments here (some of it probably not just acting, since Tom disliked Matthew and was just not in the best mood in general at this time) and they work, the Doctor is really being forced into a very stressful situation here. I think the worldbuilding of Logopolis is pretty interesting but not explored enough. Also haha, they did the shrinking TARDIS thing over 30 years before Flatline, so that’s funny to see.
Then we have the plot itself which… works, but feels a little confusingly written. I got the general idea of the concept of the planet itself but I’m not sure I understand what the Master’s plan was until the end when he tries to sneak it in. This is the proper debut of Ainley’s Master and… I’m mixed. He’s got a pseudo-Delgado look but is more on the smarmy and smug side rather than suave, he does have a sense of evil too him even if more on the campy side. He has some moments here of callousness that really work well and the smug grin makes you want to punch him even more, but at other times he comes across as reveling in being evil a bit too much.
We get Tegan here and Nyssa joins in via plot convenience, I like both of them but they don’t get all that much to do. Now, Tegan does shine in a number of scenes here though she kinda just accepts all the alien stuff not long after meeting Four and Adric. Nyssa gets a fantastic moment here when she sees Traken dying, and the dynamic she has with “her father” is pretty good too. Some might think she’s dumb for not realizing something’s up, but I’m willing to buy it considering her situation. Adric I think works quite well here too, even if he’s very “why? how? what’s that, Doctor?”
Unfortunately the plot is quite slow and Part 1 especially feels very empty, with too many cuts to Tegan and Vanessa doing car work. I also think the main plot on Logopolis is rather thin, even if the themes and general “vibe” is done really well. This ties into the Master’s plot too, as it feels like little happens before his plan fails, it’s just a bit abrupt. That being said, this does give us the two Time Lords teaming up. Yes this has happened before, but it does feel different here when there’s so much at stake and also this alliance begins in Part 3 so we see a lot of it, I loved the Master toying with the Doctor by acting suspicious only to not do the evil thing you’d expect while also clearly being up to no good.
This all comes together with the climax. It’s not as tense as I wish, but when we get to Four having to crawl to the cable it definitely ramps up and the Master does feel truly threatening at this point. Then there’s the fall and the end. I think a fall is fine for being Four’s way to go. The appearances of past foes and companions are also great additions. The explanation for the Watcher is a little confusing, but the idea itself works thematically.
Logopolis isn’t the best way to end Tom’s long tenure, but it is good. Most of the plot is a little whatever, but the tone and feeling of the story is mysterious and tense which helps with that. The final few minutes are worth it and definitely the highlight.
7/10.
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Terminus: Only halfway through this and it’s already in contention for my least favourite classic story. Literally nothing interesting or charming has happened for about 40 minutes. Still two parts to go, but it would have to make an incredible comeback to leave a positive impression at this point.
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