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Doctor Who

Doctor Who Serial 045 – The Mind Robber

Another day, another Doctor Who serial. Synopsis: In a quick getaway from the erupting volcano from the previous serial, the TARDIS finds itself outside normal space-time. The Doctor and crew are being pitted against fictitious characters, as the author of their doom tries to ensnare The Doctor to award himself freedom. The episode starts off with the TARDIS flying apart as Jamie and Zoe cling to the console for dear life. The episode also begins with Zoe’s bum. They face Medusa, a unicorn, a minotaur, and even Karkus, a comic book character from the distant future, the year 2000. Zoe kicks his ass. One of the stranger aspects of this… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 045 – The Mind Robber

Doctor Who Serial 044 – The Dominators

Synopsis: The Doctor finds himself on a peaceful planet with Zoe and Jamie. They encounter a scientific expedition, and some aliens called The Dominators who want to enslave the local population while destroying the planet. In the previous story, The Doctor, in our future, encountered a nice young scientist named Zoe. He invited her to join him on his journey. This is the first surviving story with Zoe in it, and she joins Jamie to become the best companion pair (perhaps until Rory and Amy). The Dominators have a terrible fashion sense, but create adorable robots named Quarks. No relation to the bartender. The robots might be adorable, but they’re… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 044 – The Dominators

Doctor Who Serial 041 – The Web of Fear

Synopsis: A continuation of the missing serial 038, The Abominable Snowmen, the Yeti have returned. Robots disguised as Yeti under the control of the Great Intelligence had years earlier  terrorized a Buddhist monastery. Now, years later the Yeti are terrorizing the London Underground. Marks the first appearance of Colonel Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Lethbridge-Stewart would later be promoted to Brigadier General and be put in charge of UNIT. According to the TARDIS wikia… In televised episodes, the Brigadier appeared and interacted with all of the first seven Doctors — though his encounter with the Sixth Doctor in Dimensions in Time is not counted as part of the Doctor Who universe. The Brigadier would become such an important part of Doctor Who… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 041 – The Web of Fear

Doctor Who Serial 040 – The Enemy of the World

Synopsis: The Doctor is mistaken for Salamander, a man who is trying to become dictator of the world. Salamander’s enemies try to convince The Doctor to impersonate the evil man and help take him out. In the 1970s, the BBC was junking old TV shows in its archive. Back then, reruns didn’t exist, and the concept of home video and DVD would have been ridiculous. The shows were recorded onto video, and rather than buying new tapes, it was easier to blank the existing ones. They also had 16mm prints which were used to sell shows to foreign markets. Since film takes up a lot of space, those were destroyed… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 040 – The Enemy of the World

Doctor Who Serial 037 – The Tomb of the Cybermen

Synopsis: After 500 years without Cybermen, an Earth expedition of archeologists finds their homeworld to find the Cybermen sleeping in wait. Hello, and welcome to The Patrick Troughton Years. The Patrick Troughton years of Doctor Who are arguably the best. Troughton brought something very unique to the role, he brought comedy and clowning. Perhaps the greatest asset Troughton had in his time on Doctor Who was Frazer Hines. Hines played Scottish highlander Jamie McCrimmon for twenty stories, to give you some perspective, Patrick Troughton played The Doctor in twenty-one stories1. I cannot think of any companion who lasted as long as Jamie did, three years.  The Doctor liked to hide how… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 037 – The Tomb of the Cybermen

Doctor Who Serial 029 – The Tenth Planet

So it turns out that serial 028, The Smugglers, is a missing story. Not a single episode exists. I had downloaded a reconstruction. Since that doesn’t interest me in the least, the fourth season premiere story will be skipped, and we’ll go on to The Tenth Planet. Episodes 1-3 of The Tenth Planet exist, while episode 4 is lost in the ether. The BBC has animated it for DVD release, and that is what I shall be watching. This serial is rather special, as it is William Hartnell’s final story. This is the first time we see regeneration. Doctor Who will soon enter a new era as Patrick Troughton takes on the titular role… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 029 – The Tenth Planet

Doctor Who Serial 027 – The War Machines

Synopsis: A COMPUTER GOES CRAZY! First things first. Stephen left during episode four of The Savages. We didn’t see it. It’s just The Doctor and Dodo, I hope he ditches her sometime soon1. They keep on trying to experiment. In The Chase was had ridiculous piano music. In The Gunfighters we had that terrible song. In this episode, The War Machines, we have a rather insane opening for each episode. I love-hate it so much, I had to upload it to YouTube. The Doctor gets a strange feeling when looking at a building. He makes his way into a secret laboratory where the scientists have created a computer well ahead of its time, WOTAN.… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 027 – The War Machines

Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones

Doctor Who Serial 023 – The Ark

Synopsis: The Doctor, Dodo, and Steven arrive on an ark which is taking the human population from a doomed Earth to a new planet. The guardians who are awake for this journey catch a cold from Dodo, and thus put The Doctor and his companions on trial. After less than a minute, we learn that our monster of the week is Brian Jones! Turns out they’re the Monoids, and they’re essentially slaves for the human population, but they imply that the Monoids are slaves voluntarily. Yeah, uh ha. The legal minds who wrote this script must have a great experience in the court room. No evidence, no anything except conjecture.… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 023 – The Ark

Doctor Who Serial 017 – The Time Meddler

Synopsis: The year is 1066, Harold II is king of England, Vikings are on their way to attack England, the Normans are preparing to invade. In a small English village, the TARDIS lands. The Doctor, Vicki, and Steven begin exploring. The Doctor follows the sound of monks chanting to find a victrola. My lord, this is so much better than The Chase. This story is written by Dennis Spooner who wrote the excellent The Romans and The Reign of Terror. We meet a new character, The Meddling Monk, who is a member of Doctor’s race, the Time Lords. They don’t explicitly say this, as we still don’t know that The Doctor is a Time Lord,… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 017 – The Time Meddler

Doctor Who Serial 016 – The Chase

Farewell Barbara and Ian, hello Steven. Synopsis: The Daleks chase The Doctor through time and space. After a repeat of the finale of the previous story, we get a piano introduction that feels like it came out of Mr. Dressup. The episode opens with The Doctor tinkering with a “Time-Space Visualizer,” trying to get it to work. Essentially it’s a TV that shows images from any time and space. Ian suggests they watch Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, while Barbara wants to watch Elizabeth I and Shakespeare who The Doctor will eventually meet again… and marry one of them, too. Whereas Vicki wants to listen to some classical music, and thus we… Read More »Doctor Who Serial 016 – The Chase