Every single episode of Doctor Who watched and reviewed, from the very first episode to the present day.
Join in by leaving your comments below...
Every single episode of Doctor Who watched and reviewed, from the very first episode to the present day.
Join in by leaving your comments below...
I watched this again on the VHS copy I bought after it had been re-discovered, and was so happy that it had, both then and now. It had always remembered as being a particularly brilliant Doctor Who story, and it was so nice to find that actually true when the episodes were returned to us.
ReplyDeleteFurther evidence for the Doctor having built the Tardis comes in the line that he's "perfected a rather special model", when talking about time travel with Victoria.
The special effects are great. There's a lovely pan early on from the spaceship model to Toberman which really gives a sense of scale in the location shooting.
The relationship between Jamie and the Doctor continues to be one of sheer brilliance, both of them masters of comedy both physical and verbal.
The Doctor, when introduced to the city of Telos (not, mark you, the planet, which is un-named) helps out the humans who want to get into the tomb, and there's a question to be answered here: does he deliberately help them get in? Why not just leave, in the knowledge that they're probably not clever enough to open the tombs?
My read of the story is that the Doctor actually doesn't mean to give the answers to the logic problems away - he just can't help himself from solving the puzzles. And then perhaps a little bit of wanting everyone to know how clever he is, but regretting giving the answers away as soon as he's done so.
As a man brought up on Doctor Who novelisations, for me this has always been how the Cybermen killed - with their X-Ray lasers which cause smoke to come out from people's bodies as they're shot. Although the Cybermen of The Moonbase and The Tenth Planet may have killed differently on-screen, this is how they did off with people in the books, all of which I read long before I ever watched these episodes.
This is how my Cybermen kill. And it's good.
I watched this story with a friend who hasn't ever seen any black-and-white Doctor Who before, or even any before Tom Baker arrived, and am pleased to report that it still holds its spell even among the not-we. She was scared by the concept, laughed at the comedy, and jumped at the Cybermats. And we got a big disgusted ew when the Cyberman bleeds/melts/foams at the end.
It's the small touches. The verisimilitude. The fact that the undersides of the Cybermats are shown, with dozens of triangular flaps which they use to move themselves, and their lovely wobbly organic eyes...
And just as in their previous stories, the Cybermen have a plan, and they're following it. The human vilains have a plan, and even between Kaftan and Klieg, they have different approaches and attitudes.
Which equals conflict.
Which equals drama.
Looks downstairs.
ReplyDeleteFinds copy of borrowed DVD which I'd borrowed to watch it on instead of watching crappy old VHS.
Saunters off, whistling and looking completely innocent.