Today I rewatched “The Empty Child”, I lowered my rating to 8/10. I didn’t remember Jack and Rose’s scenes being that boring…
I had completely forgotten about Doctor Constantine and he had some really good parallels with the Doctor, I’d say this episode is probably one of the best of the first season.
Rewatched The Ribos Operation today, it’s become a sort of tradition for me to watch it after I’ve finished a major set of exams. It’s a long story as to why I do this, and it’s not even a great serial 
, 5/10
Damn 5/10 is rough 
I’m currently three parts in (gonna watch the last part later today) and it seems like a 6/10 at worst currently.
I love The Ribos Operation. The first third of Key to Time is the strongest.
I only have 5 serials left from 3rd’s era, so I made a poll in this small community about the order I’d watch them in. By the time I started “The Green Death” the order was (Axos and Green Death tied > Frontier > Planet of the Spiders > Death to the Daleks), so that’s the order I’ll follow. I’m going to watch one story per day until I finish everything I have left.
I was more in the mood for a 6 part serial, so I watched “The Green Death”, 7/10.
I liked a lot of things, first of all both Cliff and Boss were great characters, especially Boss who I think is a first-rate villain and I’d love to see more of him, I also liked Bert a lot despite his limited role.
3rd was fantastic, sadly even though this is her farewell story I feel like Jo Grant doesn’t do much outside of her romantic sub-plot, which ends with her marrying a guy she met less than a week ago…
The two main problems I have with this story are that the whole giant maggot conflict did absolutely nothing for me, I felt nothing towards it and it came across more like a secondary annoyance that doesn’t even do that much during the serial… and the second is that the rescue sections with 3rd trying to save Jo Grant dragged on way too much.
going through 7’s era, with Delta And The Bannerman, can’t believe they named a story after a tardis guide user
@deltaandthebannermen is still trying to get royalties but those darn suits at the BBC still refuse. /j
Exactly - who else can claim that?!
I’ve finished Season 21 and with it, the Fifth Doctor’s era. And what a weird, dull, uneven way to send it off, this currently stands as my least favourite season of Classic Who and, at least from memory, I don’t think there’s another season I find worse later on down the line (though Season 24 will probably be close).
Warriors of the Deep by Johnny Byrne - 3.4/10
Starting off strong here, aren’t we? The vanishing point of the “running down corridors” era of Who, an overlit set housing a stolid, contrived and downright nonsensical plot. I mean, lizard killing gas? Really? Since first watching it, this story has nearly entirely vanished from my mind, it’s mostly just a blur of repetitive scenes of action, bad special effects and the best cliff hanger of all time ("Face it Tegan! He’s drowned!). The final line is good out of context.
The Awakening by Eric Pringle - 5.3/10
Ah, yes, The Awakening. You know, The Awakening? It’s so memorable, I mean it has the… the medieval re-enactments and the… the… the big face in the church and… uhh… In all sincerity, it’s a weird, inoffensive, stopgap story that leaves next to no effect on the viewer, you couldn’t pay me to have a strong opinion on this story.
Frontios by Christopher H. Bidmead - 4.2/10
Bidmead at his most self-indulgent. A truly uninspiring plot cocooned in a thick web of technobabble nonsense that hits the mind with full force and then bounces right off. Yet another story that I simply couldn’t properly engage with, the plot is simultaneously threadbare and unengaging and convoluted beyond belief.
Resurrection of the Daleks by Eric Saward - 6.5/10
Jesus Christ! Did 80s Who hate kids that much? Grimdark misery with a Doctor Who coat of paint. I admire the sheer gall of doing an episode like this but the actual plot remains to be seen. Davros gets some fun moments and the confrontation between him and Five is a definite highlight but the rest of the episode feels like mostly impassive shootouts. Also, half of this takes place in a random warehouse the BBC found in Central London, which really isn’t the right location for a dark sci-fi epic.
Planet of Fire by Peter Grimwade - 6.8/10
The story itself is a plot structure that was overdone in the 60s but Planet of Fire does stand out from the crowd for the genuinely great character work it does. Peri is introduced well enough but Turlough truly strikes gold at the eleventh hour, he is fantastic in this. But you could watch the Master try and fail to pull off the most ludicrous plan imaginable in far better episodes.
The Caves of Androzani by Robert Holmes - 8.7/10
Yeah, it’s very good. Obviously it’s very good, it’s by far the best episode for Five as a character, it’s ridiculously immersive and large-scale for the 80s and it feels far more ambitious, competent and moving that most of its peers. That being said, you really do forget how much of this action-packed crime thriller consists of menial conversation. But Robert Holmes is as beloved as he is for a reason, this might be the best dialogue out of any Classic episode. Also my favourite Classic regeneration.
The Twin Dilemma by Anthony Steven - 2.2/10
Oh my god, what is this!? Who in their right minds thought that this would be a good way to introduce a new Doctor? I’m one of TV Six’s bigger defenders and even I can’t stomach him here (even if Baker really, really does try his best). The first part might be some of the worst TV I’ve ever watched. Nonsensical technobabble with a skewed set of morals and one of the most confounding mission statements for a piece of serialised fiction I’ve ever seen. It get’s progressively more inoffensive the more it goes on and that’s the only thing stopping me scoring this lower than I did. Shockingly bad stuff.
Overall - 5.3/10
Generous.
Rewatching the Moonbase because I feel like crap rn
I havent actually fully rewatched this since I first saw it all that time ago so im basically watching it with fresh eyes, though I know the plot cause I read the target and listened to the soundtrack a little while back.
Love how they get to be a team for 5 minutes then Jamie gets bonked on the head like an idiot /aff
In my daily 3rd story, I finished “The Claws of Axos”, 6/10.
I didn’t think it was bad but it also wasn’t anything amazing, 3rd has some really good moments, Jo Grant didn’t work for me here (and I felt like she was pushed way into the background).
I didn’t like all the political stuff, the costumes were incredible and the Master was flawless.
The way the Doctor defeats the Axons and his whole “alliance” with the Master was fantastic.
Next on the list is “Frontier in Space”.
Delgado Master being fantastic is basically a guarantee for every story he’s in.
Survivors of the Flux? More like… Survivors of the… not good episode.
Survivors of the Sux
I do like Yaz, Dan and Jericho as a trio going all Indiana Jones in the early 1900s to try and engineer a solution and I really like Yaz taking the Doctor’s role. I like the scenes with Thirteen and Tecteun. While I don’t think the reveal of what the Division is fully works out as a whole (some bits are cool), I think what we get between these two is strong. I like the Grand Serpent’s slow infiltration of UNIT, well in a vacuum, I like the return of the Sontarans. Oh and the Nepali hermit is funny.
Almost everything else is confusing or not done well. The reveal of what Swarm and Azure actually want is good, but then it’s immediately followed with Tecteun being unceremoniously killed off. So I went from “oh that’s cool I might like these two now” to “oh that’s not cool I won’t like these two now”. There’s now also too much going on, Bel and Vinder’s storyline barely moved though at least Karvanista’s back so that’s something, that’s fine. I’ve been wondering why Joseph Williamson is even in this and the reveal is clumsy to say the least. Him going through tunnels that function in a sense of crossing through both time and space isn’t an awful idea but should honestly have been revealed earlier.
I also don’t like what Yanicho’s (Yaz, Dan and Jericho) plan ends up being. First of all it seems to be based off of the saying that the Great Wall of China is the only structure visible from space which is factually incorrect and second of all, how did they know he was gonna look at that area on his spacecraft? Also that paint sticks around for 100 years and no one noticed it and was like “this is vandalism let’s get rid of it”? I did say the Grand Serpent parts were cool, but that’s on their own, unfortunately it adds to the too much-ness.
Like yeah, Flux has been a bit messy in those previous episodes too but not to this level and there was enough enjoyment there for me to look past it a bit. I do give the series some slack because it was made during COVID. This episode does not have enough to really be saved by my positivity though. I still have some excitement in me though and there’s still a finale to be had so I have my hopes for that.
2/10.
Flux has still been a fun ride for the most part.
Finished The Mind Robber last night.
Going to watch The Happiness Patrol Part 1 during lunch.