"City of Death", Part 1. Tom and Lalla--it's so sweet to see them running through the streets of Paris hand in hand, bantering away like an intergalactic Bogart and Bacall. They're clearly in love, and as David Tennant and Rose have illustrated, it's perfectly fine for the Doctor to fall in love with any of his companions so long as he doesn't realise it. It is weird to see a DOCTOR WHO filmed in Europe, but there's a certain BBC-on-location charm about the episode that feels very 80s. One almost expects the Doctor and Romana to turn a corner and suddenly run into Den and Angie in Venice, or Penny and Vince in whatever romantic city it is that they went to. And there are fractured time loops (always a fave), the Mona Lisa, a bumbling detective, Catherine Schell walking around with a cigarette holder being beautiful and enigmatic, and Julian Glover, who is secretly a wobbling mass of green spaghetti.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"City of Death", Part 2. Julian Glover and Catherine Schell snatch the Doctor, Romana and the bungling detective and lock them in a cellar where they discover multiple Mona Lisas, all genuine. Then they escape. The bungling detective keeps knocking people unconscious which gets a bit tiresome. The best bit is when the Doctor nips off in the TARDIS to 16th century Florence to have a quick word with Leonardo Di Vinci, only to find Julian Glover, in a Three Musketeers wig, waiting for him. It's all quite mind bending.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"City of Death, Part 3." So Julian Glover is an alien who crash landed on the earth back in the day, before human beings were invented, and bits of him have been splintered throughout time, "all identical, none complete", which explains how he can be in C16th Florence and Paris in 1979 and umpteen other times and places simultaneously. Isn't that cool? Best of all, in order to finance his diabolical machine that will bring all his splintered bits together but at the expense of the human race, (I forget how) his C16th self has persuaded Leonardo Da Vinci to paint six extra genuine Mona Lisas which he can then hole up in a wall so that his C20th self can sell them all on the black market now that he and Catherine Schell have had the original original stolen from the Louvre! Only the Doctor, now in the C16th century, finds out his plan and scribbles "This is a fake" on all six extra canvesses and leaves a note for Leonardo (written in reverse, cos that was a Da Vinci thing, apparently) telling him to paint over them. Then he zaps back to 1979 in the TARDIS. I love it, particularly because it's quite a complicated plot told very simply so I'm made to feel quite clever for being able to follow what's going on. And I really like Lalla Ward--she's got a kind of Joanna Lumley thing going on--and her school uniform is very ooh la la. Mary who?
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"City of Death, Part 4." Fab, fab, fab all the way. The climax takes place 400,000,000 years in the past before man was invented and the sky was orange. A clever twist that makes the downfall of Julian Glover's people essential to the creation of the human race. Catherine Schell destroyed by a killer bangle. Julian Glover killed by his own time machine. John Cleese and Eleanor Bron cameoing as art critics mistaking The TARDIS for a piece of art in the Louvre. "Exquisite! Exquisite!" coos Bron as it dematerialises in front of her. A sweet, poignant ending as The Doctor and Romana skip happily away from the Eiffel Tower ("Goodbye, Duggan!"). Maybe not quite the best DOCTOR WHO ever ever that many claim it to be--I still prefer the darker, more claustrophobic Philip Hinchcliffe era ("Talons of Weng Chiang," "Horror of Fang Rock", "Robots of Death")--but definitely up there.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"The Leisure Hive, Part 1." Oh, now this is odd. This was the first episode of the eighteenth series, John Nathan Turner's first as producer, and it already feels very 80s--all that old fashioned 70s charm has gone and instead there's something clinical about the look and feel of the show. Nasty new title sequence followed by great opening scene: a very evocative, slow pan across a deserted, wintry Brighton beach. Lots of empty deckchairs flapping in the wind, then eventually we reach the Doctor snoring in a deckchair like he's Dirk Bogarde in DEATH IN VENICE. A bored Romana plays "fetch" with K9 who loses his balance, falls into the sea and explodes! Then we're up in space and everything gets very muddled. A couple of nice effects reminiscent of Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" video, but it's not very clear what's going on and the aliens all look a bit Toyah. Interesting commentary from Lalla Ward, plus the script editor and the director--one of whom (not sure which) is very critical of Tom Baker's "irreverent" performance ...
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"The Leisure Hive, Part 2." Ah, now I understand ... Lalla Ward puts her finger on it during the commentary when she tells the script editor (for it is he) that the reason he is so irritated by Tom Baker's performance is because John Nathan Turner's team were determined to make DOCTOR WHO less of a children's show (hence the elimination of "magical" elements like K9 and the sonic screwdriver) and make it more scientifically based, aimed at geeky teenage boys and middle-aged virgins. Baker was still doing what he had always done--aiming his performance at the children in the audience. Perhaps this helps explain why here is where I began to drift away from DOCTOR WHO first time around. While a more serious, adult approach to the series certainly sounds intriguing, its original sense of childlike wonder is what I grew up with, and is one of the reasons I loved the first year of the new series so much. Anyway, this episode has some good bits--the gruesome murder of a boffin for which the Doctor's scarf is blamed, and a great cliffhanger where the Doctor emerges from a time rejuvenation machine thingy, having suddenly aged, with long white hair and beard and a terribly haunted expression on his face, looking like a cross between Rasputin and Papa Smurf.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"The Leisure Hive" Part 3. Hmm, this adventure is growing on me now. I'm quite liking the lighting and the electronic score. Tom Baker as a 1200 year old Doctor works very well. Perhaps because of the make up, he doesn't smile at all and the effect is to make him seem very grave and serious (which, of course, is what the new production team wanted).
There are some surprises--a Toyah-type alien who turns out to be a clone, a human who turns out to be a chirruping green alien. More interesting titbits on the commentary and information text about the pros and cons of working with La Baker. Lalla Ward talks about how he hogs the camera, while director Lovett Bickford describes him as enormously creative and inventive, but quite impatient. Peter Davison must have seemed like a breeze in comparison.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"The Leisure Hive", Part 4. The final episode. I found it a bit confusing. Cool moments--Romana being confronted with multiple Doctors (Lalla Ward describes how she and Baker weren't on speaking terms during the filming of this scene and he refused to look her in the eye) and David Haig going bonkers as a fascist Toyah alien. Two very juicy documentaries on the DVD--Tom Baker charmingly admits to how vain and difficult he was, and how he sometimes deliberately created tension because he liked it. He and po-faced Russell Grant-alike John Nathan Turner both admit to clashing, with Baker describing Turner taking over as producer as the beginning of the end of his own run on the show. The writer and script editor both criticise the producer and the director; Turner comes off worst, as too controlling and with no idea of story.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
James and Sunshineboy, I think you'll both really like this trilogy involving The Master coming to DVD in early 2007!
http://www.purpleville.pwp.blueyonde...Beginnings.htm
"The 2007 UK DVD releases kick off with 'New Beginnings' (previously known by the working title 'The Return of the Master'), a boxset of the three stories - 'The Keeper of Traken', 'Logopolis' and 'Castrovalva' - that saw both the return of the Doctor's arch-enemy and the transition from Tom Baker's Doctor to Peter Davison's. Packed with special features, including the only DVD commentary recorded by the late Anthony Ainley and possibly Tom Baker's most enlightening interview to date, this boxset covers one of the most pivotal times in the show's history." Continue at source.
I've been drooling over the prospect of this set for months... can't wait!
Nice to see your moving on James, though I think you should of stuck with the rest of season 17 (if you had the vids)... would have loved to read your thoughts on the giant papier-mache bulls, and the big illuminous green penis!
Thanks Ewing .... I've ALWAYS wanted to say that . I havent said it , I wrote it but it still gave me a strange buzz ...
Yes I know these stories well..... I have to say Logopolis is incomprehensible and yet it's fascinating. It's on the one hand incredibly dark and on the other it's so ridiculously dense that it becomes slightly..... not boring... almost boring... .. boring is the wrong word ... it's just very odd... I will have to watch it again. I wasn't fond of Keeper but I loved Castrovalva , it's gentle and menacing at the same time .... it is a wonderful arc though and I'm really looking forward to seeing it all... the DVD looks amazing !
"If someone wants to punch me in the mouth , then stand up and do it "
FT to my disappointment Jamesnet will not be showing the Davison era just yet it will be moving backwards in time ... well forwards then back.... My memory of this season on Jamesnet is a bit murky , I remember it being very adult , very dark , vampires and E space and also awful because of Adric and Matthew Waterhouse's startlingly hopeless performance.
I must say though that at the time I though Sarah Sutton was fantastic but now I think she's pretty wooden too. Can't wait to see it all again , revisionist theories ...
"If someone wants to punch me in the mouth , then stand up and do it "
I can just about only remember some images from Logopolis when it was first broadcast. I recall a ghost following Tom Baker's Doctor and then it becomes the new old Doctor [or old new Doctor? or new new Doctor?]. There was a TARDIS within a TARDIS...now that is interesting. Anyway I'm looking forward to this DVD box set as I like stories with The Master! (If I remember correctly there was a female Master in some Doctor Who stories played by that actress who also played Alexis's sister in Dynasty.)
Yeah the Tardis within a Tardis is so cool - it's wonderful just vey dense and complex - it's also revealed that the tardis goes on forever and you can't walk round the whole thing it's too big which is fascinating...... they come across a swimming pool at one stage i think.... Oh I can't wait for the box set I must see Logopolis now !
"If someone wants to punch me in the mouth , then stand up and do it "
Thanks, E23. That looks really exciting!Originally Posted by Ewing23
Well, I've just been going with the Tom Baker ones that have been released on DVD. I guess the Green Penis box set is still to come ...
Yeah, I just watched "Rose" again, and it's just as thrilling as I remembered. On one hand, it's incredibly modern and now, and on the other, there's something of the 1970s Children's Film Foundation about it, especially in the great scene with Mickey and the plastic bin. Rose and Mickey remind me of the kids from THE DOUBLE DECKERS. They're gritty-pretty, and so is their council estate. First time around, with the excitement of 'What will the new series be like?' and 'What will Billie Piper be like?', I think Christopher Eccleston's performance as The Doctor was somewhat overlooked, certainly by me. It's only now I fully appreciate how good he is, especially when compared with David Tennant's adequate-but-lightweight version. Another bonus of watching in hindsight is that the Doctor's first encounter with Rose now feels like the beginning of a love story. At first, he tries to keep her at arm's length, ("Go home and have your lovely beans on toast") but in the final scene--in that deserted street that looks like Brixton Market but isn't--he shyly invites her to come travelling with him, and there's that tremendous moment as she runs towards the TARDIS in slow motion, laughing, as the theme tune kicks in. Rose is easily the most capable of the Doctor's companions. (Lalla Ward's Romana, for all her super-intelligence, still manages to make colossal blunders in both of the adventures I have watched her in recently.) Between them, Rose's mum and Mickey do all the screaming and getting-captured the story requires. And the roar of the TARDIS reminds me of the whale noise at the beginning of Kate Bush's 'Man With The Child In His Eyes'.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"The End of the World." Wonderful episode. They whizz forward in time and it's only when they get to the space station party to celebrate the end of the world that the realisation that she's just given up everything she knows to travel with this older man, a complete stranger, suddenly hits Rose. (Yes, it's life with Chris Evans all over again.) She calls her mum across time to say hello and then realises, "That was five billion years ago. She's dead now." "Bundle of laughs, you are," replies the Doctor. Christopher Eccleston's delighted reaction upon seeing all the various aliens teeters on the verge of gurning, but he's brilliant at playing the Doctor's anger and grief. During his conversation with the sexy tree woman, (before she catches on fire) it's revealed he is the last surviving Time Lord, and we even see him with tears in his eyes--I might be wrong, but I don't think that's happened since Jo Grant elected to stay behind and pose nude with a Dalek at the end of The One With The Maggots. The whodunnit-in-space element is reminiscent of "Robots of Death", while the use of "Tainted Love" and Britney Spears' "Toxic" takes the show to a new level of outrageousness. The moment where the earth blows up and no one notices is extraordinarily sad and lovely, and the final scene where Rose and the Doctor return to the present day and decide to have chips, is strangely celebratory. Better than TORCHWOOD, innit?
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
IT's wonderful . Davison's Doctor had tears. If I recall only once but there were tears. Or he was wincing in pain. Can't remember ....I had tears often during Colin Baker's run as the Doctor.
" Try for tears darling " said the Director to the actor.
"If someone wants to punch me in the mouth , then stand up and do it "
"The Unquiet Dead." There are vague echoes of "The Talons of Weng Chiang" here--musical halls, horse drawn carriages and plenty of undertaker action--only with Victorian zombies replacing scary chinamen and Simon Callow instead of a giant rat. Callow is brilliant as Dickens. On the commentary, writer Mark Gattis (a very nice man, who I reckon should be the Doctor) and the director, some Welsh bloke with a weird name, get all excited about the scene in the carriage where the Doctor reveals himself to be a fan of Dickens and gets all star struck. I think I prefer the Doctor when he's being nonchalant about historical figures, like his casual friendship with Leonardo da Vinci in "City of Death" and the offhand revelation that he helped Shakespeare out when he was writing Hamlet. Besides, Christopher Eccleston isn't a natural gusher. ("I don't have a camp sensibility," he says rather flatly on one of the DVD extras.) Loved Dickens' line, "What the Shakespeare is going on?" It's amazing how the actress who plays Gwyneth can be so good in a bonnet and apron and so dull as a generic 21st century action girl in TORCHWOOD. When Gwyneth gets all psychic on Billie Piper's ass, we learn that Rose's father is dead, and there is the series' first Bad Wolf reference when she says, "The things you've seen--the darkness, the big bad wolf!" Just like the sexy tree woman in "The End of the World", she sacrifices herself through fire. The end is just wonderful--Dickens asking if he'll be remembered, and then undergoing a Scrooge-like resurrection of hope, blissfully unaware that, as the Doctor tells Rose, he will die in a week's time. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"Aliens of London." How brilliantly gritty-pretty that Rose should return from travelling through time to find herself the subject of a Missing Persons enquiry. "It's been twelve months not twelve hours!" realises the Doctor, who then tries to explain himself to the police: "When you say 'companion'--is this a sexual relationship?" I'm guessing no one ever asked William Hartnell's Doctor that. The fabulousness continues--Kids spray paint "BAD WOLF" on the TARDIS. The sight of an out of control space ship destroying Big Ben manages to be majestically thrilling rather than 9/11 horrifying. A terrified pig thing is shot by UNIT soldiers. CORONATION STREET's Diggery Compton pops up as one of the farting Slitheen ("He had a wife, a mistress and a young farmer")--I now keep waiting for Tyrone's Molly to unzip her forehead. The nondescript Japanese scientist from TORCHWOOD also appears, as a nondescript Japanese scientist (possibly even the same nondescript Japanese scientist). Mickey tells Rose about life without her: "Every day I looked on every street corner wherever I went. Looking for a blue box. For a whole year." "It's only been a few days to me", she replies. (It's so Connor and Holtz in the Quorthoth Dimension on ANGEL.) The episode ends with the new series' first cliffhanger, and it's three for the price of one--Rose and Penelope Wilton MP, Jackie and the Doctor each being terrorised separately by the Slitheen.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
"World War Three." Gosh--I can't believe how much I missed the first time round--such as the non-existent "Weapons of Destruction" the Slitheen claim to have found on Earth in order to instigate an intergalactic war. Outrageous! Mickey and Jackie are really the stars of this episode. The Doctor comes up with a way toi foil the Slitheen, but there's one snag: "I could save the world but lose you," he tells Rose. It's a wonderfully emotional moment. They're locked in a nuclear bunker thingy at 10 Downing Street with Penelope Wilton MP and it's left to Mickey and Jackie to follow the Doctor's instructions over the phone. Jackie asks the Doctor repeatedly if he can guarantee Rose's safety, but he cannot answer. The end of the episode is really sad. Jackie invites the Doctor for his tea, but he and Rose aren't staying. The Doctor asks Mickey to come with them in the TARDIS, but he can't handle it--just like Catherine Tate's character on Christmas Day (God, I loved that episode). "It's a time machine. I'll be back in ten seconds," Rose assures her mum. So the TARDIS disappears and Jackie counts to ten, but Rose isn't back.
"Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance"
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