3 eps in with my 11th Doc rewatch. Victory of the Daleks is such a strange episode it simultaneously moves too quickly and not quick enough. Truly baffling
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Horror of Fang Rock[1], a fantastic slow-burning horror serial. Itās not quite as gloriously creepy as the heights of season 14, but itās about as close as any other Classic Who gets. How has no-one brought the Rutans back in NuWho yet?!
Plus, it was fun to spot Colin Douglas, aka Donald Bruce from The Enemy of the World, in this one. I love that Classic Who reuses actors, itās such a fun, fannish thing to be able to watch a story and think āthatās so-and-so from such-and-such serial!ā
Not The Horror of Fang Rock, which is what I always mistake as the title. ā©ļø
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Starting The Ice Warriors tonight, absolutely loved the scene with the TARDIS landing sideways and everyone trying to scramble out
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My first thought when seeing that was that you were posting in the wrong thread and how were you watching an audio. As my mind first read it as Horror of Glam Rock (8DA 1.3).
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I started a re-watch of the Fourth Doctor today with Robot. 
I honestly enjoy this one, even with how silly it is at times. Tom Baker is hilarious right from the start itās very funny seeing the Brigadier and Sarah trying to come to terms with this new Doctor. I feel a little sorry for Harry since you get the impression heās pretty new to UNIT and apparently no one warned him about the Doctor. 
Maybe itās a way to test new UNIT recruits, lol!
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I just finished my daily 3rd story, which was āFrontier in Spaceā, 9/10.
I loved a lot of things about it, and I can find very few bad things to say.
Going straight to the positives, I think it embraces the serial format extremely well, my biggest criticism with Classic Who is that I feel most stories couldāve been shortened and/or used their format better, here I feel like it adapts to it perfectly, with 6 completely solid parts featuring small mini-story arcs (the beginning on the spaceship, the Doctor in prison, the Masterās help, etc).
3rdās characterization is really good, the Master is incredible too, which leads me to point out that I think this works perfectly as the final story for this incarnation of the Master. I liked the Draconians quite a lot as a race, we donāt see much of their culture but it leaves a really strong impression.
Jo Grant had some good individual moments (although she doesnāt shine as much as 3rd), especially when she escapes from the Ogron prison.
The only negatives were that some parts (1 and 3) were a little slow and that I donāt like the scene where the Doctor throws a guy to the Ogrons.
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Started Warriorās Gate!
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Finished The Ark in Space. Still one of my favorites of the era. 
This is where The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry really start to come together as a Tardis team and their chemistry is excellent! I had forgotten that Harry spends pretty much the whole story in his socks and even carries his ruined shoes around for a bit, which is such a Harry thing to do. 
I give him credit for not screaming when the dead Wirrn nearly falls on him out of the cupboard. I certainly would have! Sarah Jane gets to show off how clever and brave she is and some of her eye rolls at Harry and the Doctor at various points are priceless. Guest cast is also very good. I like Rogin and his sarcasm especially.
Sorry, I do tend to ramble. All in all, a good classic story!
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The Vanquishers is better than Chapter 5, Iāll say that.
Okay so just like something like Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time, The Time of the Doctor and the last seriesā finale this is huge and crazy and I have very mixed feelings over it. I enjoy quite a lot of the first like two thirds or whatever and enjoy the climax and resolution less. Splitting the Doctor into three is really fun, allowing for a very clever way of setting up the heroesā plan against the bad guys and having two Thirteens interacting is cool, I liked that a lot and I think that even if the middle portion needed more Bel and Vinder get a good conclusion to their arc. I think this is some of the best stuff given to the Sontarans as they finally get to be villains on par with the Daleks and the Cybermen, theyāre a big threat here and are presented as being able to manipulate events to their benefit. Who cares about that corner shop scene, it was one Sontaran and theyāve always been a bit silly, that one scene doesnāt take away from the menace that they have here.
Swarm and Azure manage to win me over a bit more with the reveal of what they really want to do. Iāve come to realize theyāre entropy essentially and the idea of them doing an āEmperor Jokerā (destroying and then reviving everything over and over endlessly) is really strong and terrifying. Putting that on an intergalactic scale makes me finally be like āokay thatās coolā. I do wish though that this was made a little more clear earlier and I wish that this episode could have had Tecteun in it too, her being forced to team up with Thirteen to fight the Ravagers is a really interesting idea to me. While there are a few too many characters to keep up with, I do like that everyone comes together here for the final battle so to speak and basically everyone has something to do. I also appreciate that they did something unpredictable with Diane and Dan not getting together for completely understandable reasons, it feels less clichĆ©. That dialogue between Thirteen and Yaz also brings the arc of their relationship in this series full circle and it was neat.
Iām a sucker for spectacles and so when things get this action-packed I canāt help but enjoy myself. It also does result in some double-edged swords though. Like Jerichoās death is a well-made scene but I feel like him dying wasnāt necessary. Williamsonās whole part of the plot is finally explained and helps me understand and it connects, but it all feels like a contrived plot device. Similar with some other things. Time being something that the Ravagers want to essentially āunhookā and use to gain unimaginable power is neat but Iām not sure how I feel about it being a sentient being and itās something that needed more to it, more build-up. That goes the same for how the Flux is stopped. Not a bad solution on paper, but needed more time and build-up, thatās a major flaw with the climax.
Other things I donāt like are mostly more plot contrivances. When Thirteen manifested in front of the Sontarans, shouldnāt that have allowed for them to figure out that she was one of the people Stenck talked to, which would have breached the whole double agent plan? Why did the Daleks and Cybermen so easily accept the Sontaran request, yes obviously the situation is desperate but feels like there should have been a bit more there even if I really like that the Sontarans get to one-up both of them. How did they kill all the Lupari and also I wish we saw more of them than just Karvanista. Also aside from the scene where he reacts to learning about it, not much is done with it. Big Finish, I guess youāre free to make a Bel-der-ista box set.
Why do we need that final scene of the Grand Serpent being defeated? Yes, it does connect to Vinderās storyline but wow this villain is just so lame overall. He had those cool scenes of assassinating people in that creatively icky way but everything else about him is boring and kinda superfluous, he should have stayed only as part of Vinderās backstory.
Two final double-edged swords. The nature of the Flux means youāre a bit strained for what to do after it since everything got killed. I think they could have tweaked the solution a bit so that the Flux process could be at least partially reversed, bringing the universe back but not to its entirety. Yeah, I get that it would be a bit out there but this is Flux weāre talking about. It does leave a number of plot threads and implications that arenāt answered. Second of those swords is the fob watch and itās really difficult to make my mind up. On the one hand it does leave the series with no actual answers to the overall memories plot and kinda like the re-splitting of the Key to Time it makes one think āWell what was the point then?ā but I do like that the Doctor is taking power over her own life and doing what she wants with what belongs to her. Not only was she a victim of her adoptive mother and said motherās shadowy secret society but those two also tried to destroy an entire universe over her for eventually carving her own path. This is her saying āā ā ā ā you, this is my life and I do what I want with itā. I still think we should have gotten something from the fob watch though, at least some more of Fugitive, she out of anyone should really be in this episode. And even if it is passing the baton to someone else, at least the watch is still around, it wasnāt destroyed. Thirteen did accomplish getting a hold of whatās hers and it is still in the TARDIS so if someone finally decides to do something with that, there arenāt really any crazy hoops to jump through in order to justify it.
Itās a big mess, not everything works but it was an entertaining hour. Some of last episodeās mistakes are made up for and because I have low standards and probably objectively terrible taste this kind of epic finale canāt really fail at putting me on the edge of my seat at least a little bit.
4/10.
Flux throws a lot of stuff at the wall. Quite a lot sticks, in my dumb opinion, but some of it only sticks a little bit with bits drooping off and some parts just bounce off completely and donāt work. Itās a bit overly ambitious and needed more focus on the most important parts. It could have used some āKill your Darlingsā treatment to and cut away characters and aspects that arenāt necessary.
I appreciate what they did though to keep the show going through COVID and they still seemed to have a lot of fun with making it during a very unfun time in real life. These last two episodes peter out to varying extents but thereās still stuff to like and episodes 1-4 exist and I like all of those quite a bit.
thereās only three left
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Rewatched Flatline and itās amazing as always. One of my favorite series 8 episodes. The Boneless are fantastic and Rigsy is a great side character. Bumped it up half a star: 4 stars to 4.5
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Rewatched The Waters of Mars for the TLV Club. Looks like Iām in a minority on this one.
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Revelation of the Daleks was a great finale to season 22. I mean, is there any cooler moment in all of Doctor Who than Daleks getting blown up by a rock nā roll beam?
Was also a good season overall in my opinion. Colin Baker is really underappreciated, I think heās wonderful as the Doctor.
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In that you think Gadget Gadget should have been a companion! Yes, I quite agree!!
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Still more useful than Handles.
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I didnāt remember much about it, when I reached it on my NewWho rewatch, but itās now one of my favourites too! Absolutely brilliant episode.
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I finally got around to finishing up Ghost Light and Iāve got to say I finally āgetā this story. My first 2 or 3 watches I knew I liked it, but it really felt āout thereā in a way I couldnāt quite get my head around. It really clicked for me this rewatch and I almost feel ridiculous now for not appreciating it my first couple watches ā Iām not prepared to say itās my favorite serial now, but it certainly ranks way up there for me.
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Finished Season 22. Actually great, definitely leagues better than the stolid, bland misery of Fiveās era. We actually have personality now! The era has balls!
Colin is just electric as the Doctor, the weird turn they took with him in The Twin Dilemma has thankfully been toned down and he ends up chewing the scenery in every episode in increasingly glorious ways.
And I think the bickering with Peri isnāt too bad, unlike with the TARDIS team in Season 19, it never actually feels like they donāt like each other. Not to say there arenāt any bad episodes though, there are a few.
Attack of the Cybermen by Paula Moore - 5.9/10
Quite a boring way to kick of the season, really. Cybermen stories never wow me and 80s Cybermen stories certainly donāt (why in Godās name do they have emotions?). Muddled, poorly paced and distinctly unengaging. Baker and Bryant start off strong and Lyttonās a pretty fun character but this isnāt an episode Iāll be itching to return to.
Vengeance on Varos by Philip Martin - 8.6/10
Grimy, nasty, mean fun. You know I love it when Who goes dark with a purpose and Vengeance on Varos is certainly that. The worldbuilding is immense, the villainās are detestable, the story is a nuanced bit of satire. I wish the rest of the 80s felt this bold and daring. If only the Doctor didnāt straight up murder several people.
The Mark of the Rani by Pip & Jane Baker - 7.4/10
Actually so fun, I really wasnāt expecting this. Incredible how enjoyable the Rani is when her character actually feels distinct from the Master. Is this episode deeply stupid? Yes but itās also immensely fun and genuinely does have something to say on the long-standing relationship between the Doctor and the Master. And the T-Rex embryos? And the mines that turn people into trees? Season 22 might be the most creative season of Who.
The Two Doctors by Robert Holmes - 4.8/10
The final six parter of Classic Who, technically. Iāve never seen an episode waste an actor quite like how The Two Doctors wastes Pat Troughton. And on this weirdo, drawn-out, PETA-level allegory on vegetarianism as well? My best bagpipe boy Jamieās still great though, so thereās that. Also, the soundtrack in this episode is bizarrely some of the best from the whole Classic run.
Timelash by Glen McCoy - 5.1/10
For such a reviled episode, I was expecting something more than just deeply dull. Utterly lightweight and boring, Timelash offers literally nothing new or interesting to the viewer. I kind of like the idea of referencing an old, unseen adventure but itās barely used. Why was H.G. Wells here? The costuming is actually great thought, itās great throughout the whole season, in fact.
Revelation of the Daleks by Eric Saward - 8.1/10
Considering how bland and formulaic I found Resurrection last season, I wasnāt expecting how creative and fun this was going to be. Weird and bold like no other Dalek episode before it and far more interesting with its use of Davros than anything since Genesis. Though, if I had to spend eternity in stasis listening to that f**king DJ, I think Iād want to get turned into soylent green.
Overall - 6.7/10
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I canāt blame you for that. I can remember not liking Ghost Light as a kid because it was a little too creepy and I didnāt really understand what was happening or why. Itās still not a favorite, but I like and understand it better with age and rewatches.
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The thing I found unsettling about it was:
Itās like it was written with the Doctor and Ace responding to things naturally āwhatās this?ā āThatās a bit weirdā
And then the writer removed all those instances.
So instead the strangest stuff is happening and the Doctor and Ace donāt question it.
I found it really compelling!
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I finished āDeath to the Daleksā, 4/10.
The plot was fine, but it was terribly boring and bland, I didnāt feel any tension at any point, which is obviously a huge problem.
I think the Daleks are pretty good here and I liked them quite a bit, on the other hand all the human characters were forgettable and unnecessaryā¦
I liked the inhabitants of the planet, 3rd didnāt have that many great lines but I think Jon Pertwee gives one of his best performances, Sarah Jane was fine.
Now I only have āPlanet of the Spidersā left, which Iāll watch tomorrow and then Iāll have finished the Pertwee era.
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