Doctor Who v. Patrick Troughton

[BlobVanDam]

Blob: The War Machines is pretty great and probably my favourite First Doctor story. Shame so much of Troughton's run is missing, but what is there is fantastic.

The War Machines was definitely up there, although I think the Dalek stories would be my favourites from the first Doctor (not a very original answer), and The Keys of Marinus was a clear favourite of mine from the earliest episodes. The Chase would probably be a clear winner if not for that one dud episode in the middle.

I stuck it out for The Power of the Daleks, which was a great story. It's just a shame that Troughton's first story is entirely missing, so it's hard to get a complete first impression. I'm 3 episodes into The Moon Base, which is also a good one, and the animated episodes are the best quality of the ones I've seen so far. I really like the style of them.

The Cybermen are already a lot better here than in The Tenth Planet. The new voice is a bit hard to understand, but it sounds exactly like the early digital speech synthesizers that were yet to exist, and sounds so mechanical and creepy. The costumes look good too. The Cybermen are kind of weak jobbers at this point though. They're probably allergic to peanut butter, and I bet in the next story they get defeated by unplugging them while charging.

[ariich]

I think Season 5 has much more complete or nearly-complete serials so you should be able to get into the Second Doctor a bit more at that point.

[BlobVanDam]

Looks like there are 4 mostly complete stories, which is still not great, but much better than S4. It's kind of sad that after 9 episodes, I've only seen one full episode of video of Troughton.

[Kotowboy]

That doesn't explain how holograms can hold objects though - but that can be explained easily in this type of show

" yadda yadda hard light blah de blah moving on "

Red Dwarf reference?

Yeah but it's as good as any. If i'm right - it will be a throwaway pseudoscience sounding line and then forgotten.

[BlobVanDam]

The Doctor specifically said they're not holograms.
They're some kind of magnetic creature/projection, hence the fact they disappear during the day cycle when the electromagnetic doors are cycling, and are able to interact with metal objects. They gave several clues to their nature throughout the episode, so it's not throwaway; it appears to be closely related to the entire nature and purpose of the "ghosts".

[Kotowboy]

[bout to crash]

I'm finally caught up, until tomorrow. I really liked the last two episodes. I fucking love Missy so much. I am so busy the next few weeks I'll probably have to wait a bit to see the next few episodes... so I'll be avoiding this thread again 

[James Mypetgiress]

I love Missy! Amazing character. I still don't like Peter Capaldi, though.

[Kotowboy]

I love Missy! Amazing character. I still don't like Peter Capaldi, though.

Missy is amazing and Capaldi is the best Dr of the modern "reboot" era.

[BlackInk]

I always have a tough time choosing a favorite of the new Doctors, because I think they've all been great and each done their Doctor really great in unique ways. An attempt at naming a favorite usually just leads to me talking about how good they all were.

[Kotowboy]

Matt was my least fave. But I barely watched it back then.

The episodes I caught with Matt were really bad.

[BlackInk]

If we judge them by the quality of the episodes themselves I'd probably say Eccleston is my least favorite, and Smith my favorite.

[bout to crash]

I love Capaldi. I guess if I had to, I would probably rank them Tennant, Capaldi, Eccleston then Smith. Smith grew on me but I really did not like him at first.

[Onno]

I love Smith, he's been my favourite Doctor since I saw his first episode. Capaldi is insanely good though, he's shaping up take the #1 spot for me.

That episode was another great one. Loved it!

[Kotowboy]

I really think Capaldi will be remembered as one of the great Doctors along with Tom Baker.

[Kotowboy]

Just downloading from iPlayer now

[ozzy554]

Capaldi is fantastic. He has elements of almost every doctor. I also really liked Matt Smith because he modeled his performance after Patrick Troughton.

[Kotowboy]

Capaldi is fantastic. He has elements of almost every doctor. I also really liked Matt Smith because he modeled his performance after Patrick Troughton.

Interesting. David Tennant was a bit Sylvester McCoy as well. Not just because they're both Scottish either !

[Kotowboy]

Before The Flood...


Great episode . Lots of " Timey Wimey " shit be going down.

I like paradoxes like that. 

I wasn't far off with my guess. The Doctor did copy himself and it was a hologram. And the reason the ghosts exists was explained in one line and then he immediately changed the subject

[Kotowboy]

Oh dear. Next week looks like another Robot Of Sherwood type episode

[Scorpion]

I found this episode slightly weaker than the brilliant Under the Lake, but it was still a very satisfying two-parter, all in all. I liked the timey-wimey-ness of it all and the setting of the Russian village in Scotland was great, but I found the ghosts to be a lot more interesting than the Fisher King and while I understand why it was done, it was kind of a shame that they were sidelined a little two make more time for their boss, who was neither all that interesting (standard Who-fare villain, really, as far as motivations and the evil, sonorous voice go) nor as brilliantly creepy as the ghosts were.

In terms of the characters, the Doctor and Clara were pretty good, but the other characters didn't really feel all that much more fleshed out than in the previous episode, but that wasn't all that character-driven either, so I didn't expect this one to be. Bennett was the one exception, and his portrayal was ace. I could have done the without the love story, especially between Lunn and Cass (Bennett and O'Donnell was okay imo), but it was such a small part of the story that it didn't really hinder my enjoyment either.

Also superbly directed, which is something that I don't really notice unless it's really good or really bad, so that's a compliment.

[BlobVanDam]

I agree with that, although it's hard to judge whether I consider it weaker, since it's the payoff for what was set up in the previous episode. If they're keeping the glasses, then I'm glad they're also keeping the guitar. I like the dorky fun grandpa thing they've got going on.
I love the timey wimey stuff, and they acknowledged the predestination paradox, which they usually don't in Who.

Another great episode, making a strong season so far. I'm not at all excited for next week's episode, but I said the same thing about Under the Lake, so yeah.

[Heretic]

Ugh, so good again tonight. This could easily become my favorite season of NuWho if everything remains this good.

And for those not excited about next week-- it has Maisie Williams in it! It's going to be quite the romp.

Also, did anyone love the mention of the "Minister of War" that seems to be some sort of set up for a Big Bad? Toby Whithouse is a phenomenal writer, definitely a candidate to take Moffat's place when he eventually retires.

[BlobVanDam]

I noticed the mention of the Master before that, didn't read too much into the minister of war though.
And I'm not into GoT, so Maisie Williams doesn't excite me, and neither does the setting. I'll just have to wait until next week and let the episode change my mind!

S8 is up there as one of my favourite seasons, and so far S9 is on track to be better.

[BlackInk]

Season 8 didn't impress me much, but so far season 9 is one of the best!

Great episode once again. I didn't watch the "next week" bit though, but I'm always excited for next week.

Although, the episode did tell us how it was going to end in the first scene. And the mystery on who was in the suspended animation coffin was lost a bit, since I now knew from the very start that it was the Doctor. But still, very good episode.

[Kotowboy]

I get the paradox thingy ( BTTF fan ) - but I missed the bit about why the ghosts were summoning more ghosts if the fisher king had been dead all along ?

[Scorpion]

Maybe he set the process in motion before he died?

[BlobVanDam]

I get the paradox thingy ( BTTF fan ) - but I missed the bit about why the ghosts were summoning more ghosts if the fisher king had been dead all along ?

The Fisher King was believed to be dead so he was taken for burial on Earth, but it turns out he was still alive (but weak). He creates the message that embeds itself into people's minds, then he kills some people. These dead "ghosts" are only programmed to transmit this message and kill anyone else who has seen the message, so that the signal becomes cumulatively stronger. Once the Fisher King was killed by the flood, the ghosts were still going about their business of killing endlessly, but had nobody to kill until the future when the spaceship with the message was opened up at the start of Under the Lake.
I think that covers it. Showing more of the Fisher King probably would have helped a bit with the story, and I think a lot of people wanted to see more of him.

[BlackInk]

I thought the Fisher King was a cool villain, but I'm not sure I'd want them to have shown more of him. They wisely kept him hidden for pretty long, which made him scarier. Showing him too much after he was eventually revealed would have taken away from that initial feeling a bit.

Really cool creature design though.

[Kotowboy]

Took me a few minutes to recognise it was Paul Kaye ( aka Dennis Pennis ) as Prentis.

[masterthes]

So, I think I figured out the whole Maisie Williams thing (if this has already been mentioned, I apologize). She is a new character, and that part in the trailer is from her second episode. Well played Moffat, well played

[BlobVanDam]

So, I think I figured out the whole Maisie Williams thing (if this has already been mentioned, I apologize). She is a new character, and that part in the trailer is from her second episode. Well played Moffat, well played

That's what I've expected the whole time. Not sure if Moffat edited the trailer, but obviously they had to include Maisie Williams, and taken out of context they knew it would cause speculation to run wild. But who knows, maybe there is something to it.

[Kotowboy]

Not a terrible episode.

I liked " Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow...I don't know what that means "




Also - anyone care to explain the face epiphany ? I know Capaldi played a Roman or Caesar in a David Tennant episode.. How does that ep link to this one ?

[Scorpion]

It's basically about Pompeii, and there's an alien plot behind it (you should watch it, it's pretty damn good), and in the end, the Doctor has to decide to let the destruction of Pompeii happen as history knows it. But his companion Donna tells him to, if he can't save everyone, at least save someone, and he saves the Capaldi character whose name I have forgotten - making Capaldi's face his way of telling him to never lose sight of the individual people amid the big picture, and to always save everyone that he can.

Speaking of the episode, it felt a little rushed, but I guess that's just what happens after effectively having a one-parter after so many two-parters - even the best one-parters will feel a little rushed. It was probably my least favourite from the season for that reason, but it still had plenty of things to like and I would probably give it a 7/10 or something like that. The fake Odin-Mire subplot, especially, could have used a little more development, and the pacing felt a little off, but I have a feeling that it might improve after repeat watchings.

Rankings so far:

1. Under the Lake/Before the Flood
3. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar
5. The Girl Who Died

[Kotowboy]

Still better than Robot Of Sherwood !

I want these two episodes over so we can get back to the feel of the first four episodes