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Tegan was such an awful companion, and was with 5th for all bar 2 stories.. imo a notable handicap.

I mean Nicola was an ordinary actress but at least he character wasn't a whinging tool, can you imagine Androzani with Tegan in it instead?

Lmao.

Tegan was fine. I find Nyssa to be the weak link out of that entire crew (Adric really wasn't as bad as people think)

Such a dull, drip and pointless character. Sarah Sutton was very attractive, I just am not convinced she was very good as an actor (I have the same problem with Debroah Watling as Victoria Waterfield)
 

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He turned into a 5th wheel after the guardian arc finished but I actually didn't mind Turkough.

Would've liked to shave seen him in a few eps with just him and the Doctor or even Peri.

Speaking of Peri, there is a debate on Gallifreybase as to whether her creepy step father father Howard sexually abused her (one of the few rare Telos novellas published years ago actually suggested this)

Based on the on screen events of Planet of Fire, she clearly had PTSD style nightmares/flashbacks of her Step Father after recovering from drowning by Turlough

And her rage at Howard deliberately sabotaging her attempts to go travelling with some male US students suggests he had possessive control over her.


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Terminus was probably too hard sci-fi with an setting that the budget couldn't afford to at the time

(The Target Novelisation audio book of Terminus with new material added by author and script writer Stephen Gallagher is very enjoyable and infinitely superior to the TV version)

Eric Saward commissioned a lot of scripts in the Davison era that could not possibly be done properly even if they had a Hollywood budget aka Time-Flight
Agree.

If you look at the best of classic who it’s typically set on Earth or there’s absolutely A grade scripting, directing and acting that overshadows the lack of budget for special effects.
 
I thought the performances in Terminus were pretty good. Olvir's "We're all going to diIIIIE" cliffhanger is a bit OTT but not all that bad.
I thought the Vanir weren’t great. The cliffhanger to episode two was awful. Valguard was pretty poor. Didn’t help that Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding had nothing to do given they were the better actors to Sarah Sutton (who was pretty average).
 
Agree.

If you look at the best of classic who it’s typically set on Earth or there’s absolutely A grade scripting, directing and acting that overshadows the lack of budget for special effects.

The direction of Terminus was also terribly dull and pedestrian too which was unfortunate.

In comparison, Invasion of The Dinosaurs (an underrated season 11 classic) was absolutely brilliant given their meagre budget and resources at the time (I am a massive Malcolm Hulke fan) directed by the amazing and imo very underrated Paddy Russell (whom apparently was the only director Tom Baker was scared of critiquing whilst on the show)

I still don't know how she and the rest of the production managed to pull Invasion of The Dinosaurs so successfully off, definitely a top 5 Pertwee era story for me (the strongest, most consistent era in Who history imo)
 
Season 21 is my favourite Davison season. It was him finally growing and settling in as The Doctor and all of the stories are interesting and different (yes even Twin Dilemma)

Frontios is probably my favourite 5th Doctor story, an excellent, tense story with fantastic nuanced performances from Davison and Mark Strickson.

Resurrection is a mess, but Tegan gets a very good and heartbreaking farewell scene.
I have a soft spot for Resurrection. It’s sort of what I expect a Dalek story to be given they are the most evil force in the universe in the Doctor Who landscape. It’s dark, there is mass killing, it’s realistic, the story is littered with cynical and ruthless characters; Lytton, Archer, Kiston, Styles and the Duplicate police troops. There is no positivity, hope, humour or the feeling from the beginning that there’ll be a happy ending. The only good guy is Stien and he does the honourable thing in the end.

I mean what else are Daleks supposed to define aside from death, destruction, a merciless mindset devoid of any respect for life, and pure uninhibited evil? Like the Caves of Androzani there are no winners, and that’s what life is like at times. Its good for Sci Fi to promote that and show us that our heroes can’t always save the day.
 
Terminus is awful...

Been a long time but from memory bad acting, costumes, pedestrian direction.. sets way over lit, the Garn? dog thingy giving some cheesy look of pride when he saves the day..

The disease aspect maybe a decent plot but there was also some creation of the universe part that was too ridiculous..
 
Yeah I don't have good memories of Resurrection (especially Stien, thought Bewes' performance was really poor) but it'll be interesting to see if it improves on my viewing in a few weeks. Next up is Enlightenment 4.

I want to stick up a bit for Janet though, I didn't really agree with some of the criticisms of her and her character I've read here recently but then noticed some really underwhelming acting in season 19 that made me reconsider. She's MUCH better in season 20 though IMO - a more nuanced, naturalistic performance. She's great throughout.
 

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Yeah I don't have good memories of Resurrection (especially Stien, thought Bewes' performance was really poor) but it'll be interesting to see if it improves on my viewing in a few weeks. Next up is Enlightenment 4.

I want to stick up a bit for Janet though, I didn't really agree with some of the criticisms of her and her character I've read here recently but then noticed some really underwhelming acting in season 19 that made me reconsider. She's MUCH better in season 20 though IMO - a more nuanced, naturalistic performance. She's great throughout.

Janet was amazing in esp Kinda and Snakedance.

I also really enjoyed her performance in Enlightenment, where was staked by a creepy ethereal Incel (Mariner)

A TARDIS crew of 4 regulars was/is always bound to fail (,a major reason why the Whittaker/Chibnall era bombed)
 
Resurrection is a mixture of some great stuff with some pretty awful.. along with a Saward body count.

I'd classify it as an interesting mess.

Attack of the Cybermen is my favourite Eric Saward scripted story, mainly because he was the first script writer (up until Steven Moffat) to truly expose us to how horrific and terrifying cyber-conversion is. Plus it's a cracking story in its own right
 
Attack of the Cybermen is my favourite Eric Saward scripted story, mainly because he was the first script writer (up until Steven Moffat) to truly expose us to how horrific and terrifying cyber-conversion is. Plus it's a cracking story in its own right
Agree. Saward takes some big risks but seriously, it pays off. There’s a lot of negative press re his stories, and for the stories sake, rightly so. The plots aren’t great but the thematics are raw and true to form.

Attack of the cybermen was / is known for its bloodied hand scene, whilst this is confronting it is actually a depiction of just how brutal these creatures could be. They are from the cannon fodder to the Raston Warrior Robot, but half human half machine monsters with an ice cold disposition and a disregard for anything that isn’t them.

Strong stuff.
 
Janet was amazing in esp Kinda and Snakedance.

I also really enjoyed her performance in Enlightenment, where was staked by a creepy ethereal Incel (Mariner)

A TARDIS crew of 4 regulars was/is always bound to fail (,a major reason why the Whittaker/Chibnall era bombed)
She was brilliant in Enlightenment. She was also brilliant in Earthshock.
 
Tegan was such an awful companion, and was with 5th for all bar 2 stories.. imo a notable handicap.

I mean Nicola was an ordinary actress but at least he character wasn't a whinging tool, can you imagine Androzani with Tegan in it instead?

Lmao.
I don’t think she was. She had some great stories and was able to shine when Turlough came aboard. She did a lot of babysitting with Nyssa and Adric who were the real handicaps.
 
I find the Davison era the most polarising in terms of fan opinion. For a lot Dr Who, it feels like a hive mind, the same stories are consistently rated by most. Obviously, you get the occasional person who will swear by Nightmare of Eden or Monster of Peledon, but for the most part the same stories are more highly rated by the vast majority.

The Davison era, on the other hand throws up a bunch of anomalies. Kinda and Snakedance seem to be either loved or hated. Same with Terminus and Frontios. Many consider Earthshock and Resurrection to be masterpieces, I am in the not insubstantial camp that think they are an absolute mess.

I feel like the consensus picks in the era are that Caves and Enlightenment are at the top, Timeflight and Warriors of the Deep are at the bottom, and you can find people who love or hate pretty much everything else.
Timeflight has a great first ep before jumping the shark..
 
I find the Davison era the most polarising in terms of fan opinion. For a lot Dr Who, it feels like a hive mind, the same stories are consistently rated by most. Obviously, you get the occasional person who will swear by Nightmare of Eden or Monster of Peledon, but for the most part the same stories are more highly rated by the vast majority.

The Davison era, on the other hand throws up a bunch of anomalies. Kinda and Snakedance seem to be either loved or hated. Same with Terminus and Frontios. Many consider Earthshock and Resurrection to be masterpieces, I am in the not insubstantial camp that think they are an absolute mess.

I feel like the consensus picks in the era are that Caves and Enlightenment are at the top, Timeflight and Warriors of the Deep are at the bottom, and you can find people who love or hate pretty much everything else.
I think the Pertwee era is the most consistent. Each season has bonafide classic stories which is something I can’t say for the latter Doctors.

You can basically mark Tom Bakers first 3 seasons as the best (in all of Who) with an enormous drop in the next 3 before season 18 steadies it. When I say drop it’s huge, 15-17 are bad with some ok stories in there.

I personally have never warmed to The Deadly Assassin or City of Death. I simply don’t get the fanfare on City of Death.

I agree with the anomalies on Davison. There are some duds but I really do like the majority. It has consistency in quality for the most part each season.
 
The location work for Black Orchid are its best selling points, especially when beautifully restored for the Blu-ray. But for me, that doesn't outweigh the fact that the story didn't end with Lady Cranleigh being put in the back of a divvy van on the way to the clink on a charge of wrongful imprisonment, but instead getting thanks and a wistful smile from the Doctor. It's a story about the landed gentry and how there are no consequences for them, and this story thinks that's A-OK
That’s a great take
 

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