That new theme song and opening credits are a perfect example of all the wrong choices.
Time Lord costumes are amazing. I love how her hat is a Time Lord collar in hat form.
The Doctor does meddle, so I can’t blame them for trying him for that.
The Doctor should know that he should have a defence attorney.
Oh! Stuff is recorded in “the Matrix.”
Well, so far this season, he’s less of an asshole.
So far he’s kinda reminding me of what very little I know of Sylvester McCoy. Maybe a splash of William Hartnell.
The stripy sideburns are definitely a fashion statement. Not as good as the weird pointed ones in Star Trek.
Okay, I like these thugs. This is so far a pretty fun story, Except it’s fourteen parts, so I doubt that’ll last.
Doctor Who writers need to know what a constellation is.
At least he’s not ignoring Peri’s feelings because he’s an asshole. Now he’s just super giddy.
That robot is fantastic.
These people have a book about Canadian Geese, the bastards.
Part Two – The Mysterious Planet Part Two
Peri’s gonna get many husbands. She doesn’t seem thrilled, though.
That robot is a real L7. Chetta oom, chetta oom, check it out.
Oh, and the immortal is an L3 robot!
So much discussion of black lights, I wonder if this robot could just head to the Comfort Zone.
Part Three – The Mysterious Planet Part Three
This music is so stressful.
“Valeyard, I would appreciate if these brutal and repetitious scenes are reduced to a minimum,” and the audience agrees.
That was the worst instance of her fake American accent.
Every once in a while during this episode, there’s so damn good humour in there.
Part Four – The Mysterious Planet Part Four
The judge seems so annoyed at both the Doctor and the Valeyard. Yet she lets this terrible trial continue. The Valeyard is hardly preventing any evidence, just instead watching an episode of Doctor Who.
The Doctor didn’t set any of these events in motion. The robot would have run out of black light whether or not the Doctor was there.
The Valeyard is completely wrong in his evaluations.
Part Five – Mindwarp Part One
Let’s do the mindwarp, again!
Yowzah! Look at those strapping young lads.
Part Six – Mindwarp Part Two
Keep your prisoners tied up. That helps.
If the writers were any good. This whole trial would be a question of morality.
I’ve totally lost this story. And there’s two more parts. Yikes.
Part Seven – Mindwarp Part Three
I’m only on Part 7 and I think it’s going on a bit long.
What’s with that tongue thing Sil is doing. Yuck.
Part Eight – Mindwarp Part Four
Apparently females are all flibbity jibbity. Also, I don’t blame Peri for wanting to leave the Doctor. I would have left him seasons ago.
Part Nine – Terror of the Vervoids Part One
They’re stating where something is in space, and not using constellations as their coordinates.
Well that’s an entitled asshole.
Wow, that’s a terrible way to introduce Mel. She’s fat shaming and horrible. She might want to focus on fitness in her life, but to impose it on the Doctor who is obviously very uncomfortable with it, is just plain rude. At least I no longer need to listen to Peri’s horrible accent.
Commodore as a rank makes me giggle.
Gym equipment goes very retro in the 2980s.
Oh, Mel is short for Melanie, not Perigilliam.
Part Ten – Terror of the Vervoids Part Two
So the Doctor is showing a story from his own future. He hasn’t lived through these events, yet. So the weird question here, is how on Gallifrey is that even allowed?
Part Eleven – Terror of the Vervoids Part Three
Why does the Doctor start this episode with mumbles?
That woman looks like a cabbage.
Oh, apparently she is a cabbage.
“Stop the Matrix.” No, I think they’re going to make more and more Matrix films.
“Going to pieces won’t help.” Of course a man said that to a woman.
Oh no! Human cabbages!
“Allow me,” you didn’t even hold the door open, you just moved to the side, you’re a liar.
Why would you pulverize dirty towels?
Part Twelve – Terror of the Vervoids Part Four
I don’t know what to write about the cabbage people. They look like gentiles.
“They have no respect for any form of life.” That’s a pretty accurate description of humans.
I agree with the Valeyard for the first time, yeah, the charge must be genocide.
Part Thirteen – The Ultimate Foe Part One
Supposition, Doctor! There is no evidence to suggest the Valeyard “wants your head!”
Are they calling this guy “Hop-a-long Glitz.”
The Master is going to come to the Doctor’s defence.
“That’s it Doc! Now we’re getting at the dirt!” says Mel, who has no idea what is going on.
The Valeyard being the Doctor between his 12th and final regeneration could be any Doctor since Matt Smith.
The Matrix is filled with circus music. That’s what the Wachowski Sisters got wrong.
Ahh, the quicksand trope. Been a while since I’ve seen that.
Part Fourteen – The Ultimate Foe Part Two
So if you kill yourself in the past, you just get rid of the aspects of your personality that were prime at the time?
Mel telling the Doctor that he’s not better than the Valeyard, a renegade on the run. Trying to convince him he doesn’t want to be that? That doesn’t make sense, that’s the Doctor’s core character.
Does he think he’s Picard with all his Shakespeare quotes?
She opens a closet of flashing lights and says, “A megabyte MODEM!” What?
Oh, if you save the Time Lords, they’ll forgive your genocide.
Okay, this is just turning into a fashion blog. Maybe I’ll start writing about the Great British Sewing Bee (just finished season 5). What the hell is Peri wearing? That white skirt is a really bad idea. And those shoulder? Yuck!
At least Doctor Who is talking about environmental protections, but 40 years later, and we did nothing.
Don’t you hate when your horse-drawn wagon gets carjacked?
*gasp* It’s the Master.
HAHA! I love when Time Lords/Ladies peel off a face. The Master totes has a boner for the Rani.
Oh, Master, yes, “claptrap” is a great use of language, I approve.
Is this the end for our Doctor? Is the Doctor rolling to an early grave? Find out next week. Same Bat-Time. Same Bat-Channel.
Part Two
George Stephenson is apparently the inventor of the steam locomotive. You learn new things by watching Doctor Who.
Oh god, the Master and his hypnosis.
“You’ll make an awful mess of that pretty dress.” No, Doctor! That’s not a pretty dress.
Doctor on a stick.
The Rani turning people into trees is amazing.
Peri, is that really how you think Americans say “later?”
Oh god! The T-Rex is the worst thing Doctor Who has done… since this dress Peri is wearing.
“I always said he was a strange fella,” says the man who just met him.
Wow, they layering of video is not very Doctor Who. And it looks horrible.
I’d say those outfits are rip offs of Deep Space Nine uniforms, but this is a decade earlier.
Peri screams as much as Susan.
Android rebels???? YES!
OH DAMN! I thought the red ones makde it look like DS9 uniforms. Now there are yellow and blue.
Starfleet uniforms
And the Doctor just introduced Peri as Perpugilliam Brown. Someone was dropping acid when writing.
I hate close-talkers.
“Suggests I take 0.3 of a centilitre every day.” If you’re going to put in decimals and use a non-frequently used measurement of a litre, might as well just day 3 millilitres. or 0.03 decilitres.
Oh yeah! This is the S&M story with the guy in the gimp mask.
Part Two
Dude in a gimp suit saying “quite content” while putting his hand on Peri is creepy, but I don’t think in the way they intended.
That dude had enough time to spit out that pill before the guy started trying to force him to bite on the suicide pill.
The green part is under our control. I love that it’s just a screen divided into four equal bands of different colours.
One of the stages of this death that Saltine warns the Doctor of is. TDP, Thermal Death Point. I was certain he said TVP, textured vegetarian protein.
Gah, Peri, stop screaming.
Gimp is pretty upset.
Part Three
I feel like they’ve used this monster costume a few hundred times before in Doctor Who.
That gimp slapping the Doctor was hilarious.
If you have a janky looking prop, don’t have a closeup of it. Though the next guy looks like he’s holding an iPhone.
Doctor Who loves that “One day, I shall come back” clip.
Richard Hurndall doesn’t look much like William Hartnell.
“Just a twinge of ‘Cosmic Angst.'” That’s my band name. Cosmic Angst. The nerdy teenagers will love it!
God damn, just 30 seconds with Patrick Troughton makes me happy. He’s so good. Best Doctor.
The Brigadier says that someone is his replacement and Troughton replies, “yes, mine was pretty unpromising, too.” Now I have no idea how he knows that as a character, but damn, I love that line, so much.
Jon Pertwee’s abduction wasn’t as great as I would have wanted.
Sarah Jane has a greater part to play in abduction scenes than Jon Pertwee.
And here’s Tom Baker’s archive footage. A shame he wouldn’t participate. I would have loved to see him with Patrick Troughton.
I don’t like this trend of Companions knowing how to use the TARDIS.
Yay! The Master! Time for some moustache twirling!
Hmm, this is the first appearance of the Dalek’s since Tom Baker left.
“Teeth and curls?” Classic!
Peter Davison making excuses to his previous self is great.
It’s nice that they have well maintained paved roads in the Death Zone.
The Commodore 64 graphics in the TARDIS are excellent.
“The scanner is keyed to my, to our, brainwave pattern. Well, well, well, so two of them made it. I wonder what happened to the other.” This is written in William Hartnell’s Doctor voice, and Hurndall fails to master it in any way.
Susan twisting her ankle is probably the best moment in this entire story.
God, I love Gallifreyan fashion.
Susan acts exactly like she did in the good ole’ days.
Cops are bastards on Earth and on Gallifrey.
Patrick Troughton’s cowardess is one of my favourite things of the second doctor era.
Yeah, make Sara Jane carry everything, Doctor.
I love Zoe and Jamie. I miss that trio.
“What happened to the little fellow?”
“I’ve reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.” Thank you Jon Pertwee!
Can we talk about the disembodied heads in the opening credits for a second… why? Who thought this was a good idea? Who thought you should keep doing that 20 years later? They do it until the end of the classic run, and honestly, they shouldn’t.
Oooo, a royal feast. Yum yum yum.
If the King calls you “Lord Doctor,” does that mean you have a seat in the House of Lords?
“We take your council, demon.” I’m liking this story already.
So the king seems strange, and I know Anthony Ainley is in this episode. So I’m pretty sure that it’s the Master.
The Doctor has 20 layers. Tegan is cold. Doctor, lend her your jacket.
So he takes his jacket off for a sword fight, but not Tegan.
Oh! I was wrong about who the Master is masquerading as, that’s a nice surprised.
Part Two
Oh my! It’s the Master!
The Doctor isn’t going to murder the Master. That’s not how Doctor Who works.
How does Turlough know the Master?
I kinda want to see Monty Python do this whole episode. Graham Chapman as King John, John Cleese as the Doctor, Michael Palin as the Master, Terry Jones as Tegan, Eric Idle as Turlough and Terry Gilliam as Ranulf Fitzwilliam.
Michael Palin would be amazing as the Master.
That cutting of shots of the Doctor and the Master speeding up is exactly why Doctor Who is horrible.
The TARDIS showing up on RADAR seems like it breaks a lot of Doctor Who.
Was there snow on the ground when the TARDIS was hovering over Heathrow?
How did the plane lane on that landscape? Oh, wow they answered that.
How is the makeup on Doctor Who so bad? It’s the 1980s. Even original Trek did better than this 20 years prior. I don’t know if that bad guy is a racist caricature, all I know is let’s assume it is… classic Who hasn’t has a great track record.
Part Two
Yeah, now that I see the facial hair in more detail and the robe, yes it is a racist caricature.
Oh, there’s Adric, I was wondering why he was listed on Wikipedia.
Oh, racist caricature is just a racist Master.
Part Three
Uh oh, the Master stole the TARDIS.
I think the good ole’ TARDIS has seen better days, the door is rather loose.
The Doctor could try to stop the Professor with more than just a casual “stop.”
Part Four
The Concord is taking off, and you can see the buildings in the background. It’s not in the Jurassic period, it’s at an airport.
I guess we’re really done with Tom Baker, and it’s time for Peter Davison.
Part One
Some military police arrive and stop our heroes from rescuing the Doctor. Tegan and Nyssa steal an ambulance, drive it 3 metres to the TARDIS and leave Adric behind. Then the Master shows up, laughs, disappears, Adric is behind the Master’s TARDIS, comes into the TARDIS, they leave, the Master’s TARDIS shows up, the Master laughs, the Master’s TARDIS disappears.
That was… something.
Davison has a terrible haircut, but I enjoy him tearing apart his scarf.
“I wonder boy, what would you do if you were me,” he asks with his hands in his suspenders like William Hartnell used grip his vest’s lapels. So far I’m enjoying some Davison.
And now he’s doing a mediocre Patrick Troughton.
The Master’s moustache twirling villainry is tiring. And why does the Doctor have a Cricket locker room in the TARDIS? That’s a stupid question, the Doctor has everything. Oh, Adric is captured by the Master.
I think you mean universe when you said galaxy, Nyssa. But hey, Big Bang, sounds good. Just make sure you don’t end up on the Big Bang Theory.
Part Two
Disembodied Master head!
I love that the Doctor doesn’t have a fancy futuristic wheelchair, nope he has one from the ’80s.
Well, there’s some Pertwee nod, “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow.”
Why are Adric and the Master on the set for the music video for “The Rest Of My Life?”
Also, the Master is holding an original series tricorder.
After watching so many regeneration stories, I’m really happy that they restarted the show in 2005 without a regeneration. As much as I love Paul McGann, I didn’t need to see him to know that Eccelston was the new Doctor.
This is the problem with classic Doctor Who, so much wasted time as characters wander around.
Part Three
Very kind of the Doctor to leave a trail of blood for Tegan and Nyssa to follow.
Those Castravulvaians look like the eggmen, goo goo g’joob.
Oh! Celery! But he ate it, didn’t decorate with it.
Part Four
I enjoy the M.C. Escher building.
I feel like this story does not have much story for it. It could have easily been half the length. Maybe a quarter. It’s just a regeneration story, but usually there’s some plot outside of the Doctor’s regeneration.
We’re here. The final Tom Baker story. I’m gonna take a Doctor Who break soon. After this I’m going to watch K-9 and Company, which is the next Doctor Who item to air. Then I’ve got two serials that were animated that I didn’t watch before. After that I’m not sure how long it’ll be before I start up Peter Davison’s era. Maybe a year, maybe a day. Who knows. This past week seems like it was a whole year with this pandemic.
Part One
Oh that’s the Master’s TARDIS, just so happened to masquerade as a police box.
The Doctor doesn’t do a great job of communicating with people.
HAHAHA! The machine code they use makes the TARDIS draw like I used to do on my Commodore 64.
15 minutes of this episode was dedicated to fixing a flat tire and measuring a police box.
Part Two
Aunt and copper dolls!
If the Doctor is going to put a creepy garden in his TARDIS, he should make it less creepy. Also, how many people do you think from the hundreds of years of the Doctor’s life is roaming around in the TARDIS that never met the Doctor and are just trapped.
We have the same mind!
Why do British people pronounce “omega” so strangely.
The Doctor has an ominous stalker. If I recall correctly, the Watcher never gets explained. Maybe if they didn’t spend 15 minutes on flat tires (or tyres) then we wouldn’t be here. Watching Doctor Who makes me think that maybe Stephen Moffat’s bad writing when he was head writer is just normal Doctor Who.
Now there’s someone named the Monitor. Doctor, Master, Monitor, Watcher.
I really don’t understand why it’s so urgent that the Doctor head to Logopolis to have his TARDIS reconfigured.
Also, why is the advanced technology of Logopolis computers from the ’80s?
Part Three
So the TARDIS shrinks. Adric panics as the Doctor is in there… why should that matter? The external dimensions are not linked to the internal dimensions.
I feel like the only thing Ainsley is doing in this episode is laughing at the camera.
If the TARDIS is shrunk, why is it shot with fisheye?
Poor Tegan, she has nothing to do to help.
Really Doctor, that’s how you tell Tegan that Auntie Vanessa died? You’re a prick.
Part Four: The Final Part
Aww, I miss the sound of dot matrix printers.
This is the funkiest Doctor Who music ever.
More Masterial laughter.
Tom Baker deserved a better finale. But hello Peter Davison!
