Random Classic Who viewing - Seventh and Eighth Doctor

Time to finish what I could call "Classic Doctor Who Month" with the final post about my initial viewing of Classic Who episodes. After the First to Third Doctor and the Fourth to Sixth Doctor, I've now come to the last two Doctors belonging to the classic era.

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy). Episodes watched: Remembrance of the Daleks, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, The Curse of Fenric.

A good place to start? Yep. I have to reluctantly admit, the times I forego the box sets and cherry pick Classic Who adventures I've heard praised or think sound interesting it tends to pay off. I didn't expect to like the Seventh Doctor much. What with all those question marks and the umbrella, he certainly looked as if he was supposed to be a goofier version of the Doctor which would appeal more to a young audience than the Sixth. That instantly made me want to prefer his less crowd-pleasing predecessor. Which one I do prefer is still undecided, but I have to admit McCoy's Doctor is a solid one, brainy and a great deal less whimsical than I feared. It's probably a good thing that I picked late adventures with the Seventh, as I gather he grew more Machiavellian with time, which is fine by me. The pairing with feisty young companion Ace also works very well.

Admittedly, the plots in the adventures I watched are more than a bit confused at times, but the pacing is better than in much of the earlier Classic Who episodes, so I can roll with it. The side characters are not quite as strong as in the very best episodes of the classic era (usually penned by Robert Holmes, who had died by this time), but they are good nonetheless, and often make more of an impression than the cannon fodder we meet in some episodes of New Who. But why do the bad guys in Greatest Show turn out to be "the gods of Ragnarok" of all things? They look more Egyptian to me, and there's not a wolf or snake in sight. I suspect the name's just an excuse so as to allow McCoy to roll his r-s a lot: a mannerism that irritated me at first but which I soon got used to. It suits his "maverick uncle" take on the Doctor.

Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann). Watched: Doctor Who The Movie from 1996.

A good place to start? Well, where else would you start? Maybe with the new Who short The Night of the Doctor, where McGann reappears and gives a memorable enough performance for the viewer to regret that we never got a chance to become better acquainted with his Doctor. Otherwise, the TV movie is the only time we get to see McGann's Doctor on screen (though there are a great deal of audio dramas at hand).

The TV movie, which had American backing (hence the "movie" part), is a strange thing. It does try to capture some of the quirkiness of the original show, but that means it rather falls between two chairs. It's too off-beat for a mainstream action film, but it's not Who-ish enough for most Whovians. Concepts are introduced for mere mechanical plot reasons which would have serious consequences to Who lore if they weren't routinely ignored by fans and show runners alike (yes, I'm thinking about the Doctor supposedly being half human). All things considered, though, I found the film/movie closer to the show than I'd imagined, maybe because I'm so used to new Who that a Doctor kissing his companion (and what's more, not very romantically, because he's relieved to have regained his memory) doesn't really shock me. Eric Roberts's Master has been much criticised and usually ends up at the bottom of Master rankings, but I quite liked him and his dynamic with confused youngster Lee - it's as if the Master's trying out the whole companion thing for himself, but isn't sure it does much for him. Again, having started with New Who probably helps. It's hard to imagine how a Master could be too over the top after the rampant insanity of John Simm's Master in the third series of new Who - and campness isn't an unheard of trait for this character either, surely?

McGann puts on a good show, but we're not given much of a hint of how his Doctor would have turned out had the TV movie become the prelude to a series. My guess is, considerably closer to Tennant than McCoy: the Doctor comes across as a bit of a glamorous action hero, which was certainly new for the time. McGann was unfortunate enough to land the role of the loathsome Eugene Wrayburn in a Nineties adaptation of Our Mutual Friend, and this combined with one of his brothers playing a smug jerk (who was meant to be dangerously attractive) in the TV series The Grand made me allergic to the distinctive handsome-in-a-horsey-way McGann features for a while. But I'm over that now: holding it against McGann that he played Wrayburn convincingly is taking the Lucky Luke audience syndrome a step too far. And he is very good in those audio dramas.

Random Classic Who viewing - Fourth to Sixth Doctor

I'll continue with the overview of my completely random and far too box-set-based watching of Classic Doctor Who adventures right away: for the preamble, see my previous post. 

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). Episodes watched: The Key to Time series including The Ribos Operation, The Pirate Planet, The Stones of Blood, The Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll and The Armageddon Factor; The Pyramids of Mars.

A good place to start? I rather think so, at least the Key to Time adventures. True, there are more highly regarded Tom Baker episodes - I really must see The Genesis of the Daleks, which everyone talks about - but there are also, I've gathered, those which are a great deal worse. I enjoyed every episode of the Key to Time series; even The Power of Kroll, which is probably the weakest, has its highlights. Yes, the assembling of the Key to Time itself is a classic McGuffin, but I'm a sucker for a story arc - any story arc. What's more, Romana, the (comparatively) young, competent Time Lady accompanying the Doctor on these adventures, proves a good match for him.

You could say that Tom Baker is the Great Expectations of Classic Doctors. Although he's not my personal favourite, he is in all probability, objectively speaking, the best Doctor of the Classic era. He nails the excentric, charismatic alien perfectly and when he breaks into that smile you just have to surrender. However, I do have some inner resistance to overcome when the Fourth Doctor's concerned. Most likely it has to do with him being popular, and me being contrary. For whatever cause, the Fourth Doctor, like David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in a different way, strikes me as a bit of a diva. They are both great Doctors, and they know they are. Therefore, it's good to see this Doctor with a strong companion who doesn't stand for any nonsense. On paper, it may not seem like the best idea to have the Doctor travelling with another Gallifreyan (the Doctor will always be a Gallifreyan to me, never mind The Timeless Child). The companions are mostly earthlings and the audience's point of reference in the Tardis team: they are partly there to be as confused as we are and ask the right questions. A Time Lord and a Time Lady ought to be too much of a muchness. But Baker's Doctor thrives on being occasionally put in his place by Romana. Mary Tamm is really classy in the role, and I look forward to seeing the second version of Romana played by Lalla Ward in future adventures. Her chemistry with Baker was apparently something else (they married, though it didn't last). Oh, and one bonus with The Androids of Tara is seeing Peter "Bulstrode" Jeffrey acting his socks off as the dastardly Count Grendel.

The Pyramids of Mars was included as a bonus on one of my Sarah Jane Adventures box sets and is very well thought of, but I must admit I enjoyed the Key to Time episodes more. True, the villain in Pyramids is great, but he doesn't really feature until the end of the adventure, and there's a lot of not very thrilling stuff to sit through first. What's more, I didn't really care for the Doctor in this episode: he's grumpy even before encountering the serious threat the villain represents and dismissive of Sarah Jane. Some of my favourite New Who Doctors are grumpy (Capaldi and Eccleston), but it doesn't work for the Fourth Doctor.

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). Episodes watched: The Black Guardian/Turlough episodes, including Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Enlightenment; The Caves of Androzani.

A good place to start? No. That is, The Caves of Androzani is excellent, one of the very best episodes of Classic Who I've seen this far, but it is the Fifth Doctor's last adventure, so maybe not that good of a starting point. With The Black Guardian trilogy, my fondness for box sets led me astray. The unifying story which ties these three adventures together is that the villainous Black Guardian is half bribing, half threatening Turlough, an unscrupulous lad (who's actually an alien stranded on Earth), to ingratiate himself with the Doctor, travel with him and ultimately kill him. The Black Guardian is great fun when he appears (which is only intermittently), and I liked the Uriah Heepish vibes I got off the conflicted Turlough (he's a lanky redhead). However, the adventures themselves have considerable longueurs, especially Terminus  which feels interminable. (Though Mawdryn Undead was a tight story with an interesting ethical dilemma.) Also, you don't really get a handle on Davison's Doctor and what makes him tick. I loved Peter Davison as Tristan in All Creatures Great and Small, and I suspect it is as Tristan I will always primarily see him. There must be better show cases for his Doctor than the Black Guardian trilogy, though.

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker). Episodes watched: The Trial of a Time Lord series, including The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe. 

A good place to start? Yes! Even though these are the last adventures of the Sixth Doctor, because I suspect he doesn't get much better than this. Poor old Sixie and Colin Baker got really shafted. When Baker replaced Davison, the role was taken in another direction than he would have preferred, and he was obliged to play an arrogant and confrontational Doctor wearing a multi-coloured jacket that makes the viewer's eyes ache. Then, when this version of the Doctor didn't catch on, Baker was made the fall guy and unceremoniously sacked. With that kind of context, you would have to be very un-contrary indeed not to go into a Sixth Doctor adventure really wanting to like him as much as possible.

And actually, the Sixth Doctor in The Trial of Time Lord series isn't half bad. In it, the Time Lords have put the Doctor on trial for wreaking universal havoc with his meddling. This is a kind of situation which suits the cross-grained Sixth Doctor, and I enjoyed watching him splutteringly defend himself ("Poppycock!") aginst the prosecutor, the sinister and impressive Valeyard. (I'm certainly one of the many fans who want the Valeyard to be brought back in New Who, though goodness knows how they'd manage it considering who he turns out to be.) The Doctor adventures submitted as evidence in the trial are maybe not the strongest, but they held my attention (Mindwarp's really a bit of a mess, though). Even new companion Mel, mostly known for screaming a lot, is perfectly all right here. I was left with the impression that though the Sixth Doctor may not be the best of the Doctors, he deserves his place in the line-up of Doctor regenerations.

Next time: Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor, whom I appreciated far more than I anticipated, and the oddity that is the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie starring Paul McGann's glamorous Eighth Doctor. Yes, even without The Timeless Child, this character has had good many lives.                   

Random Classic Who viewing - First to Third Doctor

I've been forced to resign myself to the distinct possibility that Doctor Who - one of my favourite TV series, and the only one still running - will never hit the spot for me like it used to as long as Chris Chibnall is at the helm. His run may not be as bad as some critical fans claim, but neither is it as good as the series was in the days of show runners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat. In itself, that is no great shame, as they were both exceptional. Nevertheless, it's depressing for a New Who nerd like myself to know that the next helping of my favourite show will probably disappoint me, and I will have to wait for it for ages anyway. So what do I do now to get that Who fix?

The audio dramas of Big Finish is one alternative (a subject for another post). But I have also been dipping my toe into the vastness that is Classic Doctor Who - the first incarnation of the show that aired from 1963 to 1989 (I think it was). There are practical difficulties here. No streaming service available to us Swedes is interested in airing this part of the series. I simply do not have room to buy and house all the DVDs for all the classic adventures (and it would be a bit pricey, too). And what to do with Classic Who DVDs I've watched and don't particularly want to keep? I doubt the charity shop will be pleased to receive them - the fan base for Classic Who in Lund can't be that wide-ranging.

Nevertheless, I've taken my first nibbles and found that I enjoy the series, though it's very different to New Who. It reminds me more of, say, The Avengers (the Sixties TV series with Steed and co., not the superheroes). It's a problem that the adventures weren't originally meant to be watched in one go - each adventure being made up of several bite-sized episodes of a little more than twenty minutes. When watching them all at the same time, the story often feels unnecessarily padded out and sometimes rather confusing. But there is a great deal of charm and wit to make up for it, and the Doctor - and his companions - are engaging characters. Somehow, I must find a way to explore Classic Who further without plastering my walls with DVDs.

More than one blog post will be needed to go into my first impressions. Let's start with the very first Doctor, the original, one might say:

First Doctor (William Hartnell). Episodes (as in full stories) watched: An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction, The Time Meddler.

A good place to start? Well, yes - and no. The very first Who adventure, An Unearthly Child, holds up very well indeed, especially the very first mini-episode where the Doctor, his grand-daughter Susan, and the two teachers who become their unwilling travel companions - Ian and Barbara - are introduced. It's a special feeling to see the very first Dalek adventure, too. A recurring theme in my Classic Who watching has been my fondness for box sets and story arcs, for good or ill. All adventures mentioned above except The Time Meddler are part of a box set with the very first episodes. While I'm glad to have seen them, only The Time Meddler, in my view, shows the full potential of Hartnell's Doctor. The character wasn't fully formed at the start and was clearly meant to be a sort of mad, often grumpy scientist figure whose heart is nevertheless in the right place. Ian (the action hero) and Barbara (the empathic and spunky heroine) are more the traditional leads in this kind of story (with poor Susan usually tagging along with little to do). In The Time Meddler, the Doctor is still flanked, to quote Sidney Newman in An Adventure in Space and Time, by "a good-looking guy and a good-looking gal" (Steven and Vicki), but he's much more the natural centre of the story. Also, he has mellowed into a real sweetie, though he still puts his companions in place when he feels he has to, especially Steven. He has great rapport with one of the side cast - a helpful Anglo-Saxon woman they encounter in 1066 - and The Monk is a fun antagonist. Though slow in places, The Time Meddler left me wanting to see more of Hartnell in his later, mellower mood.

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). Episodes watched: The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The War Games.

A good place to start? Yes. Well, The Dominators, though enjoyable, is not required viewing by any means, but The Mind Robber and The War Games are both top-notch, and all three adventures are good show cases for Troughton's Doctor and two of his companions, hot-headed Highlander Jamie and capable Zoë from "future Earth" (actually our time). I vaguely remember liking Troughton in the series A Family at War (my parents had it on tape) - fancying him, in fact. I don't fancy Troughton's Doctor, but I like him enormously. He is fun, quirky and sly, with a great flair for improvisation and talking his way out of scrapes. In fact, he is my favourite classic Doctor so far, and he, Jamie and Zoë make quite a team. A warning: The War Games is the Second Doctor's last adventure (except when he guest stars in later multi-Doctor stories), so best not start with that one. The Mind Robber takes place in the Land of Fiction - I was sold from the word go.

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee). Episodes watched: Spearhead from Space, The Terror of the Autons, The Time Monster.

A good place to start? Good-ish, I'd say. The Time Monster should perhaps not be the first port of call for the Third Doctor, as it was for me. It was part of a box set which I thought only contained Third Doctor adventures, but it turns out only one was, and of the two remaining (Fourth Doctor adventures) one is a well-known dud. Though The Time Monster does contain the suave Roger Delgado as the Master charming the Queen of Atlantis, and a nice Doctor speech, it didn't really give me a good idea of the Third Doctor's personality. The two Nestene/Auton adventures Spearhead from Space and The Terror of the Autons (also a box set) are a much better starting point. Spearhead is Pertwee's first adventure, while Terror introduces Delgado's Master. Pertwee has charm and class, and good acting chemistry with his female companions (not to mention Delgado), but of the first three Doctors his is the one that has made the least impression on me so far. Still excellent, though.

I will continue with Tom Baker and the rest - another time, though. The Fourth Doctor will, as per usual, require some space.