Old Skool Doctor Who
Jul. 19th, 2006 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99With apologies for that spelling of school.
I've been watching some old school Doctor Who, Tom Baker episodes and well, okay, I realise the SFX weren't as good, but I'll be damned if the stories weren't better. Okay, I may be being spoilt as one of the stories was 'City of Death', but even the other story, which was 'The Creature From the Pit', and more bog-standard sci-fi, was better sci-fi. Because that's one of the problems, even a really good episode like 'Love and Monsters' wasn't sci-fi, and the most wonderfully sci-fi idea of series 2, which was the Olympic alien, wasn't given time to develop. I'm one of those tiresome fans who wants more aliens and alien planets, because wasn't 'The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit' better because it was on an alien planet. Wouldn't it make more sense for a sci-fi show to spend money making Cardiff look like an alien world than making Cardiff look like London.
But yes, now for a spoiler cut
It was the first time I'd seen City of Death in ages, and it's just as much fun as I remember it. Because it's a very fun little story, despite everything, including one pretty horrid death. Alas poor Karensky who was the absent-minded scientist made flesh.
The oddest thing was, despite how nasty he was, you could help but like Scaroth, because he was charming, and I think it's to the good that Julian Glover has never used his majestic acting powers for evil.
I love how it all fitted together and how clever the script was, and while I realises it's a bit too silly for some people, I enjoyed it as a refreshing change from everything else seeming to be so serious at the moment. I also really liked how they used Paris.
'The Creature From The Pit' or whatever it's actually called, was, as I said before, bog-standard Dr. Who - alien planet, strange society, problem to solve. It wasn't even particularly well done, although one of the characters in particular, Organon the astrologer, was a wonderfully fun character, who does get the best line of the episode, when he's introducing himself in the pit - "Astrologer extraordinary. Seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the present explained, the past - apologised for."
And he's a wonderful quack. I also like how the non-humanoid creature of the pit turned out to be quite nice and sensible really. I also liked how it and the Doctor communicated before it got its satellite dish back, because I swear that that's what it was.
But yes, I like how evil Lady Adrasta is and quite how bloodthirsty her chief henchwoman is and I like how alien the creature is. Although the design used for it did leave a lot to be desired on the scare front.
But yes, in short, I enjoyed them both immensely.
I've been watching some old school Doctor Who, Tom Baker episodes and well, okay, I realise the SFX weren't as good, but I'll be damned if the stories weren't better. Okay, I may be being spoilt as one of the stories was 'City of Death', but even the other story, which was 'The Creature From the Pit', and more bog-standard sci-fi, was better sci-fi. Because that's one of the problems, even a really good episode like 'Love and Monsters' wasn't sci-fi, and the most wonderfully sci-fi idea of series 2, which was the Olympic alien, wasn't given time to develop. I'm one of those tiresome fans who wants more aliens and alien planets, because wasn't 'The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit' better because it was on an alien planet. Wouldn't it make more sense for a sci-fi show to spend money making Cardiff look like an alien world than making Cardiff look like London.
But yes, now for a spoiler cut
It was the first time I'd seen City of Death in ages, and it's just as much fun as I remember it. Because it's a very fun little story, despite everything, including one pretty horrid death. Alas poor Karensky who was the absent-minded scientist made flesh.
The oddest thing was, despite how nasty he was, you could help but like Scaroth, because he was charming, and I think it's to the good that Julian Glover has never used his majestic acting powers for evil.
I love how it all fitted together and how clever the script was, and while I realises it's a bit too silly for some people, I enjoyed it as a refreshing change from everything else seeming to be so serious at the moment. I also really liked how they used Paris.
'The Creature From The Pit' or whatever it's actually called, was, as I said before, bog-standard Dr. Who - alien planet, strange society, problem to solve. It wasn't even particularly well done, although one of the characters in particular, Organon the astrologer, was a wonderfully fun character, who does get the best line of the episode, when he's introducing himself in the pit - "Astrologer extraordinary. Seer to princes and emperors. The future foretold, the present explained, the past - apologised for."
And he's a wonderful quack. I also like how the non-humanoid creature of the pit turned out to be quite nice and sensible really. I also liked how it and the Doctor communicated before it got its satellite dish back, because I swear that that's what it was.
But yes, I like how evil Lady Adrasta is and quite how bloodthirsty her chief henchwoman is and I like how alien the creature is. Although the design used for it did leave a lot to be desired on the scare front.
But yes, in short, I enjoyed them both immensely.
