As I said in my crap marathon blog that I originally wanted to build up to the 50th anniversary by watching my least favourite story from each Doctor followed by the best. As usually happens life got in the way and I finished the first half a little later than expected. As a result in the build up to the new season and the 12th Doctors debut I'm doing the second half of the marathon and watching my favourite stories from the previous Doctors. I can tell you to expect surprises however read on to find out what happened...
The First Doctor
For the First Doctor I'm going for The Dalek Invasion of Earth, one of my first VHS's and will always have the feel of a momentous story for me. Big things happen, we're on Earth for the first time in the future, the Daleks are at their bombastic best and for the first time the TARDIS crew changes. All the time at the centre of the story William Hartnell is firmly at the centre of proceedings. He's declaring war on the Daleks, he's leading a prisoner revolt, he's closing in on the Dalek centre of operations and he's watching his granddaughter grow away from him and fall in love.
The story goes off kilter for an episode because William is off screen and during this time the show feels so uneven. This is a story where the show is changing, The Doctor is becoming more central and we see our first invasion of Earth - one which arguably was never bettered.
The Second Doctor
We move on a few years and experience our first regeneration and change of lead actor. Its easy to undersell how much of a shock was it not only that we had a different actor in Patrick Troughton playing The Doctor but also that he was playing him differently. I tend to think that the incoming Doctor needs to contrast the leaving incarnation and Troughton is the prime example; he's scruffy, he'll happily play the fool to make enemies underestimate him, he's a schemer, prefers to direct from the sidelines and a contrast from his first incarnation. I'd decided early on I'd like to represent the different mediums I'd experienced the show over the years and chose a story I'd only experienced via the Target novelisation. This era's story would be a missing story that I would watch via the sole remaining episode and the rest via the Reconstructions from telesnaps accompanies by audio, the story being Evil of the Daleks.
This story has everything, a twisty turny plot, multiple locations, multiple times, a cunning villain, a Doctor caught on the back foot and struggling to get to grips with events, a marvellous cast and a whose who of Who on the production team. Starting off in modern time Gatwick Airport the TARDIS is stolen setting the Doctor on a hunt to track it down. The story throws many a curve ball at the viewer and the team aren't afraid to drip feed the answers as we proceed through the seven episodes.
In many ways its an alarming story, one of the constants of the series is stolen and its touch and go over weather The Doctor will or can get it back. We see the regulars travel in time without the TARDIS, again its via the Daleks but its done in a different way this time. I especially like the curve ball of sending Waterfield from the 1800's to the modern day to set the trap for the Daleks. The first episode and a half is fine as The Doctor and Jamie follow the clues to Waterfields shop and amazingly being taken through time isn't even the cliffhanger.
I want to mention the cast, Frazer Hines is superb given that he carries a mid story episode, Geoffrey Colville packs everything he can into his limited time, Waterfield is such a tragic character, Maxtible is a wonderful cad and Troughton is in firm control having got a season under his belt. Of note are the Daleks themselves who were never more scheming than in the Troughton era.
The fate of the Daleks is so well played, The Doctor tricking them to their doom with a device is associated with a later incarnation but here its so shocking because as fans we tend to forget the Second Doctor had this streak in him - earlier in the story he alarms Jamie to the extend he threatens to leave him. There we have it, a Doctor and an era not as cosy as fandom tends to think it is.
The Third Doctor
For the first time this blog we enter a new decade as we welcome in the 70's. Not only would we see a change in lead actor and the production team we get what is arguably the most drastic revamp of Doctor Who's formula of all time. As the Second Doctor exited so did the black and white era as the show moved to colour, as with the end of The War Games the incoming Doctor would spend most of his time exiled on earth - alien planets being expensive to create for colour TV. With this going on you may expect the show to lose a bit of dynamism, not so with the incoming Third Doctor being played by Jon Pertwee. Accompanied by his supporting cast of UNIT the Third Doctor would be the most dynamic thus far, an action man, man of science and a yearning urge to escape earth would see Pertwee create a dynamic characters as far away from the previous Doctors as possible.
For me theres only one story to represent the Pertwee era, way back when I was at school I noticed UK Gold were showing The Three Doctors. I asked a friend to tape it for me but instead of taping the daily episodes he decided to save time and tape the weekend omnibus which turned out to be a completely different episode. I went into this episode disappointed my friend had screwed up and taped the wrong episode, however the story he did tape completely blew me away and to this day remains a firm favourite of mine. That story was Inferno!
Inferno closed Pertwee's first season (the 7th of the show) and the whole season was perhaps the most unique in Who. The show was edgy, the first serial shot on film followed by three huge sprawling seven parters that saw The Doctor alignened with a military organisation. The era would go fluffy the next season to cater for the general viewers but this season has an edge that has kept it as a fan favourite.
Watching the show things start off with a new character arriving at the site and being introduced, its odd that this character is Greg Sutton and not The Doctor. In fact The Doctor is one of the people who he's introduced to and welcomes him as if he's been working at the Inferno site for months. As we're introduced to the regulars and the effects of the slime seeping from the drilling pipes I tend to forget I'm watching a Doctor Who story, as the cliffhanger arrives and the music hits its a bit of a shock.
With the first episode of world building behind us we get a second episode of action. Theres a brilliantly shot scene of a conversation between The Doctor and The Brig outside and before long The Doctor gets an action scene chasing a Primord over a fuel tank gantry. The head of the project professor Stahlman gets infected and ejects the Doctor from the project, out of spite The Doctor steals a power source and really sets the story off in another direction as he ends the story dematerialising the TARDIS and sliding to a parallel dimension.
The next four episodes are brilliant as The Doctor explores this world and finds a right wing totalitarian version of Earth complete with versions of the other characters. Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John look like they're having a whale of a time playing alternate versions of their characters. Also I must say the guest cast all give a good show here and nobody feels like they are rehashing their performance from the earlier episodes. Some people may say these episodes are filler and don't count as its an "alternate Earth" but for me its played so straight it feels like it matters and therefore it does.
It genuinely feels like the death of this Earth has an effect on The Doctor, he's in shock for most of the final episode and these events would be referenced in future. The story ends with one of my favourite Doctor and Brig scenes as The Doctor is firmly put in his place after a bit of arrogant behaviour with Liz giggling in the background.
The Third Doctor has arrived and he's brought a new era with him, I enjoy Jon Pertwee's performance and this story is one where he gets to show his range. He's a detective, man of action, dealing with the death of the Earth, arrogant and gets plenty of small character moments. Jon Pertwee played The Doctor as more of a leading man than most Doctors but paradoxically for me he was the most unique Doctor. There is more of an edge to him here than his later stories but for me season 7 is a snapshot in time to be treasured. Along with the regulars Nicholas Courntey, Liz Shaw, John Levene and others who would come along and join in the fun we see the start of an era that would go on to last the longest in the shows history (until the next one came along) and see the show in firm strong hands.
The Fourth Doctor
Lets not beat around the bush, for a lot of people Tom Bakers Fourth Doctor is The Doctor. Coming out of nowhere after a powerfully successful era Tom Baker had an impact on the show that few can equal. His seven years on the show are full of fantastic stories, a production team that included many a series legend and so many brilliant characters. Anyone whose read this far has probably guessed the story I chose to represent Tom is either Talons of Weng Chiang, Genesis of the Daleks or City of Death but your wrong. Four stories in and I've noticed a theme emerging on this blog entry, each story has a personal memorable story around my first viewing. This particular story I read as a target from my local library and loved every page, the following Saturday my sister headed off into town and asked if I wanted anything. I gave her some money and said if she saw a copy of "Robots of Death" on VHS to get it for me, then a few short hours she came back with the very same copy that I'm watching all these years later for this blog.
I must also add that for years the console room in this story confused me as I didn't see any of the stories around this one with TARDIS scenes for a number of years. For those of you who thought the console room started changing with the TV Movie your wrong, it started in the Tom Baker era.
Just reading the production team for this story is a Whose Who of Who, produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe, script edited by Robert Holmes, directed by Michael Briant and written by Chris Boucher. Blimey any story with one of them on would be good but all four of them is astounding. The actors are on fine form with Tom Baker and Louise Jameson at their consistently high best - these years later I can see a bit of spikiness from Tom as he wasn't to crazy about Leela as a character, some lines are thrown at Louise with venom. Of the guest cast David Collings, Gregory de Polnay, Miles Fothergill, Pamela Salem and Russell Hunter are astounding. If anything this story is so good because everything in the production is at its best from the acting to the set design.
Every aspiring writer should be made to watch this as its an excellent piece of world building. Bar a few model shots we never leave the sand miner yet we find out so much about the crew and culture that no doubt anyone who watches this can reel off facts galore. Its a whodunit and the location of the sand miner is claustrophobic and full of danger as the crew gets killed off. The Doctor and Leela accidentally land as the murders start and of course they are suspected. There's so much else going on as well, Zilda's mysterious hatred of Uvanov, Pouls reasons for signing up to the crew, the sand miners actual mission and the mysterious presence of D84.
As I watched this memories came flooding back, some of Toms one liners from this story I've been using for decades. Theres a scene with Toos shot from the robots point of view that is brilliant and her attitude to the robot makes the viewer actually feel sorry for the robot. The "I heard a cry" sequence is brilliant, D84 has some of the best dialogue a guest character was ever given. Russell Hunters Uvanov gives a powerful performance as the commander of the sand miner even though he is dwarfed by the rest of the cast - and overpowered easily in his only physical confrontation not with a robot.
All in all Toms firmly at the head of affairs, he's had a few years to perfect his performance and is able to be both sombre and comically off the cuff when required. I mentioned his memorable one liners but also of note are his description to Leela of Pouls condition and his dialogue with D84. For many this era is the height of Who and with Tom wandering the universe without a care saving every world he inadvertently lands on its easy to see why.
The Fifth Doctor
I first came across this story in the Target novelisation without know its place in the series. Its up there with the best stories in Doctor Who and so unique. The show would try to recreate this story but not successfully - its a story where things go bad at the start and keep escalating out of control until its over and almost everyone involved has met a sticky end. Such a fantastic and brave story and I can only praise all involved.
The Sixth Doctor
Moving on we find ourselves in the Sixth Doctor Era, an era which was short and chaotic. The Sixth Doctor for me was rather a blink and you'll miss him incarnation, I was about four or five when he turned up yet bar a few scenes I can remember nothing of the era at the time. Years later when I started getting the targets I could never find a Sixth Doctor story in the shops (due to there only being a few of them) and it wasn't until I got two of his stories on VHS in 1993 at the age of 13 that I finally got to properly experience him. One of those two stories makes up Sixy's entry into this blog and where most fans would go for Revelation of the Daleks my absolute favourite story from this era (and also one of my top personal favourites) is The Two Doctors.
Wow, you wait for four era's for a Robert Holmes story to appear then two show up in a row... What makes this story work for me is there is no special reason to have the Doctors meet. Its just an incarnation getting into trouble and a later incarnation rolling up to the scene of the crime and deciding since theres no one else about I'd better save him. Patrick Troughton is firmly in what I called "doing a turn" mode, he gets some wonderful dialogue with the villains, some good moments with Colin and the scenes with Jamie automatically takes one back to the late 60's. On story level this is a more innocent Doctor in Eric Sawards cynical mid 80's Whoniverse, they are completely out of there depth until Sixy and Peri turn up. However its worth noting Jamie does actually save the day, its a good reminder of a previous era with the Second Doctor and Jamie firmly helping to raise the story.
Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor is firmly the star of the show here and its worth noting how early into his run he is (forget what we know in hindsight - this is his fifth story). We're finally getting to know Sixy, the first half of the story I find excellent as Sixy and Peri penetrate the space station trying to find out what happened. Robert Holmes is mining the past and taking from his own repertoire as the first half of this story is essentially what The Ark in Spain part one did for Tom. Sixy is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and outwit the ships computer to the extent he doesn't notice how terrified Peri is. I also like the fact that Sixy shows such fondness to Jamie. Jumping into the second episode Sixy's speech about gumblejacks and the end of the universe is one of my favourite moments of the show. When the action gets going in the second half of the story the story this is certainly a Doctor of action, however he's also aloof - he thinks nothing of sending Peri into the waiting hands of a pair of cannibals and Sontarans to cause a distraction. He also side steps the audience as well as the villains, when he gives away some false information to an overhearing Sontaran all these years later the fans aren't sure which bits he was lying about.
The guest cast are also strong with John Stratton being a right scene stealer and actually pairing up quite well with Troughton. Incidentally I can't help feeling Robert Homles is lucky that Pertwee was already aware of the Sontarans in The Time Warrior. Jacqueline Pearce gives a good turn as the lead villain however bar providing bodies and muscle the Sontarans don't do much. The rest are perfectly serviceable but don't do much as Holmes is having so much fun with the Androgums and Doctors.
I come away from this story thinking its paving a way for the Sixth Doctor era, Sixy comes out of this showing a slightly mellow side not previously seen however he's still aloof. I love the way the Second Doctor gets the best of him in that final scene. On another note it feel The Doctor going from a hunter fisherman to a vegetarian at the end of this story is also a change. We're getting to know this Doctor but there are still aspects under the surface we have yet to discover - and arguably on TV never would - however in my view we have a strong entry into the series and a story showing what Sixy could have been.
The Seventh Doctor
We arrive at the Seventh Doctor era, a rather special one for me as without it I wouldn't be a fan. Yes I'm old enough to vaguely remember Peter and Colin but it was with Sylvester that I started watching on a regular basis, got hooked as a seven year old and became a fan. I actually had a bit of trouble selecting what story to represent this era, Paradise Towers was the first story I watched all the way through, I've always had a soft spot for Silver Nemesis and theres something special about Curse of Fenric. However I opted to go for Remembrance of the Daleks. The only vaguely memorable viewing fact I have on this story is that its the first on this blog entry I saw on broadcast and it was the first ever DVD I bought.
Years later I'm able to appreciate an aspect of Who I was to young to at the time, mainly actor spotting. Years later its fun recognising the likes of Pamela Salem and Michael Sheard from other Who while also now being able to recognise Simon Williams from Upstairs Downstairs. Plus due to later work Joseph Marcell from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is also a big deal as that show was huge when I was a kid. Also pretty big for the story is our first proper look at Sylvester and Sophie Aldred in action and they don't disappoint.
A lot of people view this story as a reboot for the Seventh Doctor but for me its the character growing, yes he has a plan and starts to go a bit "dark doctor" but he's still bumbling around, walking into traps and not knowing there's two Dalek factions present. If you watch this and Dragonfire back to back the character growth is outstanding.
I have to mention THAT cliffhanger, the Daleks climb stairs to catch the Doctor, a classic moment for the series and so right that it was the cliffhanger for the opening episode of the 25 anniversary season. Plus as mentioned just now despite the planning its Ace that saves him. Ace herself goes through the ringer as she deals with the opinions of the 60's, Mikes betrayal and some rather good scenes with the Daleks.
The Daleks Nazi parallel is an pronounced as its been for some time, with Daleks not acknowledging the other factor as pure. The Dalek Emperor (aka you know) makes a good appearance and the Special Weapons Dalek is cool. As well as the location and time paying respect to the start of Who, I've always thought there's a bit of homage paid to the Pertwee era with Gilmores troops acting as a surrogate UNIT, in fact the Doctor spends most of the story trying to keep them out of trouble. Doctor Jensens exasperation at the events as they progress is a joy to watch.
Also the show is pointing to the future, the Doctor starts to become more mysterious, feels more dangerous and its more apparent that the show is going in a different direction. The Doctor may be a bumbler but its obvious he's had a plan going on from before the story started which we've rarely seen before. This is a perfect example of one of my favourite era's with Sylvester's season 24 performance melding with a darker performance which he would forever be associated.
The Eighth Doctor
Human Resources is a Big Finish audio story and the finale of the first season of the Eighth Doctor range. Up till then it was one off stories in the style of the main range but at this point Paul McGanns Doctor was updated and we got stories in a similar vein to the current series. This was a story that tied up the plot of the season, had plenty of plot and showed that this incarnation of the Doctor could have carried a modern day series.
The War Doctor
One of the most enduring moments of recent Who is that moment at the end of "The Name of the Doctor" where the Eleventh Doctor addresses this stranger with contempt and has a leaves John Hurt steps out of the shadows with an on screen caption identifying him as "The Doctor"... Wow, that was indeed one hell of a cliff hanger leaving us waiting to the 50th anniversary story "The Day of the Doctor."
I must say I'd have been happy if they'd have just given us a rehashed version of "The Five Doctors" but what we got was a lovely celebration that not only celebrated the present, relished in the past but also looked forward to the future. As opposed to the first two multi Doctor TV stories instead of getting less Doctors than advertised we actually get more, for me "The Night of the Doctor" is a prologue and therefore a part of this story, we get to see Peter Capaldi's eyebrows and we get a surprise cameo near the end from you know who. Its a shame Chris didn't want to appear but quite frankly its his loss.
This is firmly The War Doctors story, he's reached a breaking point in The Time War and can see only one way out. Where 10 and 11 are surprised to see each other, The Moment is giving him the chance to see how performing this act will affect who he becomes in the future. Its worth remembering before the fun multi Doctor stuff starts happening The War Doctor isn't expecting to survive. His initial frustrations with his future selves he sees how they combat the threat of the Zygons and sees his future is in safe hands. This is an amazing scene as Smith and Tennant take the centre stage Hurt watches, but look as his expression changes from shame to absolute joy as he realises what his future incarnations are doing.
He then returns to The Moment and prepares to end the time war, he is firmly of the belief that despite the shame of what he is about to do his future incarnations will become better Doctors than he can ever be. The future Doctors arrive so he doesn't have to do it alone, however the 11th Doctor changes his mind taking things to a lovely sequence showing all of the Doctors saving Gallifrey. We arrive at the end of the story for The War Doctor and instead of dooming two races to death he has helped save Gallifrey, he says his goodbyes to his future and leaves reveling in the moment as he knows he wont remember. Perhaps sadly we see the end of The War Doctor in action for the first time he regenerates, in one story this possibly villainous character with a secret has become a heroic incarnation of that character we all know and love which is how since this story aired I have remembered him.
The Ninth Doctor
The comeback was very successful and launched the show to a new generation with a Doctor who was nursing the aftereffects of the Time War. This was the story where he started his recovery process - no one dies, Chris Eccleston at his best.
The Tenth Doctor
We move onwards, but not by much as the Tenth Doctors era was destined to start on TV the same year as the Ninths. The big question was how would todays generation of casual viewers take to regeneration, the answer was well and speaking for myself David Tennant had me at "Barcelona!" The story that represents the Tenth Doctors era for this blog came early, after the Christmas special his first season got underway and after a handful of stories one May evening up popped "The Girl in the Fireplace" to blow the previous stories out of the water.
Watching this story back it strikes me that the Tenth Doctor is very 90's, his "geek chic" look is a decade out of date, theres a lot of style over substance and he's very retro. Since the comeback The Doctor has been painted as a tourist and thats more than evident in this story. We start things out with him having set the coordinates to random and giving Mickey his first TARDIS destination at random. This story feels like a two hander as this story is mainly about The Doctor and Reinette. As the Doctor strolls from room to room on this station he traverses her life from her youth to her end.
The performance of Tennant is outstanding, one issue I have with his Doctor is that we very rarely saw beneath the facade, its not that he lacks depth its that its so well hidden. At the start of the story he's firmly in "show off" mode, then his interest is genuinely piqued, his dander is truly up when he sees what the clockwork robots (who are beautiful by the way) are trying to kill Reinette and when she sees into him its a step beyond perhaps what the viewer is expecting. Sophia Myles is also a stand out performer on this episode, with Rose & Mickey pushed to the side shes the pseudo companion this week and her reactions to what is happening are truly remarkable giving one of the best one off performances of the show.
I truly enjoy coming back to this story as nine years on it still feels fresh, 18th century France to deep space in the future - it all draws the viewer in. Its like the shows saying "if you liked the first year wait until you see what else we can do." Its a story thats flexing the formats muscles, showing us we should expect the unexpected, The Doctor doesn't always have the answers and anything can happen.
The Eleventh Doctor
We enter another new decade (its all gone a bit timey wimey) as the Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith arrives on the scene. I warmed to Matt instantly, I love the mixture of spikiness and awkwardness about him and firmly regard him as one of my firm favourites. Its a first so far this blog as for my favourite Eleventh Doctor story we head for Christmas and A Christmas Carol.
Featuring a sterling guest performance by Michael Gambon and surprisingly decent one from Katherine Jenkins this story is a joy from start to finish. Also worthy of note is director Toby Haynes in one of my favourite directorial performances in Who, I can watch the scene as Kazran watches his younger self on video with The Doctor fliting back and forth on an endless loop. Also what an entrance from The Doctor "Christmas Eve on a rooftop, I saw a chimney and my whole brain went what the hell!"
Watching it again I'm firmly of the believe that Who should be an hour for single episodes, this extra fifteen minutes changes everything. The rushing around is purely for fun - not to squeeze everything in before the show ends. I can't quite believe its only an hour, it feels longer and also it feels like a case of Who flexing itself to fit Dickens than bending Dickens to fit Who which rarely happens in the series.
Also very rare is the story isn't a part of an ongoing plot which is rare for post come back Who. Nothing is seeded, no mystery word is sneaked in plus also the regular companions are barely in it. The whole story feels like the entire production is having fun - even throwing in sharks to a Christmas story and Matt Smith would never act as big as he did here, a wonderful snapshot of an era that was to short in my opinion and one I look forward to returning to at future Christmases.
The Twelfth Doctor
I'm giving no particular story for the twelfth Doctor just an observation that in Peter Capaldi we saw a Doctor who couldn't accept that he was the Doctor and coming into the final story he couldn't deal with being anybody else. We find The Doctor felt like this oh so long ago and by examining the past we do what we've done so many times we move on and into the future...
