[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 136: preg_match_all(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 138: array_unique() expects parameter 1 to be array, null given
[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions_reimg.php on line 141: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread! • Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

King Kong! Star Trek! The Lord of the Rings! Hellraiser! Star Wars! The Marvel Cinematic Universe! The Universal Monsters! Freddy and Jason! The Dead Trilogy! The DC Cinematic Universe! Battlestar Galactica! Hammer Films! Gorgo! The range of Western Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy Movies and Television programs span the scope of the imagination; this is the forum to discuss them!

"Come get some..."

Moderator: Controllers

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby sentaison » Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:22 pm

Yes, the Nestene are the same ones that were in Ecclestons first appearance as the Doctor. Jon Pertwee is still my favorite Doctor overall, not in small part because of the appearance of The Master starting in his second season. Pertwee and Roger Delgado, the first Master, always played well off of each other and watching them duel (intellectually or physically), or reluctantly team up against a greater enemy is great fun. And then there's UNIT and it's members, who become fan favorites among the Doctors companions, especially Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
User avatar
sentaison
Godzilla
 
Posts: 710
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:33 am

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:20 am

All hail the greatest one, of which Planet of the Spiders was most definitely not. I don't know what the general opinion is on this episode, but this is by far my least favorite classic Who episode I have seen thus far. It was just so god damn booooooooooooring. Like the whole thing could have been 2 episodes long and it probably would have still been mediocre.

What was the point of the James Bond-esque car, boat, airplane-ish chase when the dude just teleported away in the end? The spider lady could have just had him do that right from the get go instead of spending 10 minutes of one episode and another five on the next for this bullshit?

Also, why the hell was Stewart hardly in the damn thing? He had the best parts of the show.

Oh, and I'm curious as to what they spent their entire season's budget on since they couldn't even be bothered to show us things that the characters were looking at. Like the story starts out with the Doctor and Stewart watching some performances, but we never actually see them, we just hear them exposit about them. So exciting.

Did the dudes not have time to memorize and actual chant? Is that why their entire chant consisted of "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?"

And then we have the Great One, who was talked about so much, then the first time the Doctor meets her they pulled the same crap they did with the show the two were watching at the beginning. When we finally see her in the last few minutes, it was like, "That's it?"

Maybe I'm being too hard on this episode as it did not live up to War Games, but like I said, I was just so bored during it that I can't help but compare it to that one and The Tenth Planet. Even Pertwee was nowhere near as exciting to watch as he was in Spearhead. I could tell he was clearly over the character at this point with how little energy he provided. For being his grand finale, he deserved better.

Well whatever, hopefully I get the Baker BD for Xmas so we can start watching his run.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Tue Dec 25, 2018 1:19 am

While I wait in anticipation for getting the Tom Baker BD set tomorrow, I've been wondering, why is Colin Baker considered to be the worst Doctor when it was McCoy who got the show canceled?
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby sentaison » Tue Dec 25, 2018 4:02 am

Colin Baker gets a bad rap, much of it is the fact that much of the time Colin Bakers Doctor comes across as arrogant and somewhat unlikeable. Most of that is due to writing and directing as Mr. Baker was very friendly to Dr. Who fans when I met him around 30 years ago. There were BBC executives (specifically Michael Grade) that wanted the show canceled and production got suspended after the 1985 series. A campaign by fans got the show back on the air, but Grade got Baker removed from the show after the 1986 series. The show was moved from Saturdays to Mondays and then to Wednesdays during McCoys tenure which hurt ratings. That's what got the show cancelled.
User avatar
sentaison
Godzilla
 
Posts: 710
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:33 am

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Tue Dec 25, 2018 2:49 pm

Got the Tom Baker set as hoped (and Underwater Menace).

Image

Aside from Colin Baker and McCoy, I have now seen the first episodes to the other Doctors and I have to say that Robot has got to be my favorite premier thus far. It's even better than Matt Smith's introductory episode.

The plot moved by at a brisk pace that I never once felt like there was any filler in it. Tom Baker was down right incredible as he was quirky and energetic in every scene he was apart of. I liked the stuff they did with Sarah Jane and Dr Not-Wily, but my two favorite lines are by far these:

"Just once I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't immunte to bullets."
"There's no point in being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes."

Granted, I already saw the clip with the bullet comment from Stewart year's ago. even used it in one of my reviews a while back, but that doesn't take away from the fact that that line is utterly amazing. As for the grown-up one, that needs to be added to my list of all time favorite quotes such as Homer Simpsons, "Trying is the first step toward failure." :-D

The robot itself was executed quite effectively even if the voice actor was hit or miss at times. My favorite part of the episode though goes to when the machine growns big and we have a Kaiju-esque moment happening. That was awesome as very rarely does the Doctor fight giant monsters.

If this is a sign of things to come from this season, I'm already excited. I mean, I have seen a couple of episodes that featured Baker back in 2009, but I don't remember much of his personality in them outside of Pyramid of Mars. Though, I do know that I liked him a lot. This story just reminded me as to why I liked him the best back then.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Tue Dec 25, 2018 7:23 pm

Following up on Robot, Ark in Space was another solid adventure, though the aliens and their bubble wrap bodies kind of bugged me. :-p I really enjoyed the four episodes and I never really felt like there was too much filler in this one. On the other hand, Sarah Jane was nothing more than the damsel in distress here, which is kind of annoying considering she was quite spectacular in Robot and even in Planet of the Spiders. Here, I felt her character was quite consistent with those two. Still not Polly and Tegan levels are uselessness, but certainly not great.

The premise was interesting and I loved the bit when Harry and the Doctor were hiding beneath the seat thing to not be killed by the security device. That whole sequence was spectacular, especially when Harry had to walk around the rest of the story without any shoes on and even made a comment relating to such towards the end of the show. I'm surprised the show ended without finishing up this story, so I'll be curious to see if this is a season long thing or not.

Baker continued to be wonderful as the Doctor. There's something about his deep voice that really adds a new element to his character compared to the Doctors before him. Both Hartnell and Pertwee felt like the grandfatherly figure who would take you to a chocolate factory while Troughton was that cooky uncle you loved to hang out with. Baker seems more like the dude you want to say, "Whoa, that guy has so much charisma and I can't help but love following him."

Anyway, The Sontaron Experiment was okay. It didn't feel dragged out since it was only two episodes, but it still wasn't exactly stellar either. The make-up on the Sontaron was quite exquisite though and I did like how the scene when the Doctor tricked him into combat. I do wish more time had been spent actually discovering what had changed on the planet due to the mass burning, but oh well. There's still two more stories to go, so who knows what could happen. Interesting that they still have not actually conclude the Ark plotline yet.

Next up, the story that I have been told is the be all end all Dalek story. I hope it lives up to the hype.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Wed Dec 26, 2018 12:58 am

Well we found ourselves not in any sort of Christmas mood today to watch another Xmas film, so we decided to just go ahead and watch Genesis of the Daleks. God damn, that is hands down one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever. It was intense, it had a lot of fantastic lighting and colors used, the foggy opening was fantastic, Davros was top notch as a villain and getting to see his breakdown into a complete lunatic by the end was just as outstanding as watching the Daleks turn on him in the end. Part Four was just epic on all kinds of levels. They really outdid themselves with this one as there was maybe only one moment I felt things slowed down a bit, but the lull didn't last too long.

I loved how serious the entire thing was and the contrast between Davros relishing in the idea of being able to unleash a virus that would wipe out the universe to the Doctor's dilemma if he really should blow up the Dalek incubator room quite epic. It's kind of a shame that some aspects of the show were hindered by their low budget such as the clam meeting in the cave and the missile launch.

Other than that, yes, this absolutely lived up to its hype.

Next up, the return of the Cybermen in what I recall was not exactly an amazing story.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Thu Dec 27, 2018 1:45 am

We finished up Season 1 today with what may be the weakest Cyberman story I've seen thus far. It's not exactly bad, per say, as there are some cool things done, and I liked the scenes in the caves, but the whole point doesn't make a lot of sense and the music is atrocious. I couldn't figure out whose side the scientist traitor double agent dude was actually working for, but the fact that he killed all of his coworkers for his own gain was disgusting. His ambitions may have cost him his life in the long run, but he deserved to die in a much more satisfying manner. He got off way too easy. The Cybermen themselves were fine, though sometimes they looked a tad too short in the caves. The planet dwellers were as ugly as they were utterly forgettable. Hell, I just watched the thing a few hours ago and I don't even remember what their race was called. For being the season finale, it was kind of lackluster, though it was a better finale than Time-Flight in the first Davison season. Maybe I should have watched it with the new 5.1 soundtrack since I had seen this one before, as it may have given life to this brain dead soundtrack, or even improved the bits that were lacking. Still, it wasn't bad by any means, as I did enjoy it, but it was a poor follow up to Genesis of the Daleks. It was also nice to finally have context to everything that lead up to it since I recall being lost when I first watched it nearly a decade ago (or whenever the DVD came out).

Nevertheless, Baker's first season was utterly spectacular and I did enjoy nearly every minute of it despite my disappointments with Revenge and Experiment. My rankings for the season are as follow:

1. Genesis of the Daleks
2. Robot
3. Ark in Space
4. Revenge of the Cybermen
5. The Sontaran Experiment

We also watched many of the bonus features from the set, which were enjoyable, especially the Behind the Sofa segments. I don't feel like the peeps were as energetic as Davison's crew is in their BTS stuff though.

Being that I'm not ready to be done with Baker due to how much I enjoyed the first season, we immediately watched my DVD of The Terror of the Zygons. It's interesting getting to see the first appearance of another group I have seen in the new stuff as they were pretty cool here. The story itself was enjoyable and they finally fought an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets. :-p Although, it would have been funny if either Stewart had brought that up himself or if the Doctor had made a joke out of it.

Taking the concept of the Lochness Monster and doing what they did with it was quite intriguing. I do wish they had a better budget for Nessy him/herself, but oh well. Maybe they'll do a CGI update in the eventual BD release like they did with the snake in Kinda. That would be cool to see (and since I've seen this episode with its original effects, I would definitely watch it with updated effects the next time).

My only issue with the episode really stemmed from the Zygons as sometimes it was hard to hear what they were saying as their mics sounded muffled at times. Other than that, it was well paced. In fact, I've gotta say that Baker's episodes are the first time I feel like they are paced perfectly as they have enough story to keep them from ever feeling like there is filler material.

It is a shame Harry isn't going to join the Doctor anymore as I really liked him. He had great chemistry with both Baker and Sladen as they always played off of each other instead of feeling like a third wheel. Oh well. I can't wait to watch the next DVD.

BTW, I may have watched this last week, but I keep thinking about The War Games and how absolutely brilliant it was. I don't know why, but that one story has been sticking to me this entire time.

EDIT: We watched Planet of Evil this morning. It was quite good. The swamp was utterly amazing and I loved the horror feel it gave. I don't really have much I can add at this point since I feel like I would just be repeating things I already said throughout Season 1.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:04 am

We watched both Pyramid of Mars and The Android Invasion today. Pyramid of Mars was the first classic DW story I bought and watched back in 2009, so it was interesting to revisit it after so long. It remained very good except for one scene that just doesn't work for me now knowing the Sarah Jane character a lot better and it is the one where she manages to shoot the Doctor's explosive package with a single shot. When the hell did she become an expert marksman? That just seemed really out of character for her. Other than that, this whole story felt like a Karis mummy film, which was awesome.

As for The Android Invasion, well if Pyramid of Mars is a mummy film, this one is by far Invasion of the Body Snatchers with robots. I enjoyed it, though this is probably the first one I felt like it dragged on a bit as episode 3 was so damn slow. Of course, there's a narrative issues I found with the fourth part as when Sarah and the Doctor are in the ship, they come to the conclusion they can not use the drop pods because they would be splattered across the landscape. The next time we see them, they are on Earth without any sort of explanation. Huh?! o_O Also, this is apparently Harry's final appearance and with that being the case, that's quite disappointing as he deserved to get a goodbye scene or something. Other than the pacing of Part Three and the stuff with Part Four, it was a great little story. I'm really looking forward to the next two stories though as they sound pretty awesome.

BTW, the DVD for Invasion has some weird commercial on it for something called Weetbix. What the hell is a Weetbix? lmao
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sat Dec 29, 2018 7:51 pm

And now we have Frankenstein and The Thing... I mean The Brain of Morbius and The Seeds of Doom.

Both were fantastic, especially The Brain of Morbius. If I have any complaint on Seeds it is that it was an episode too long, which is a shame because the first 3 episodes flew by etremely fast. Part of it was the wannabe James Bond villain just wasn't all that interesting of a character. Not to mention predictable. Plus, how many times did the Doctor or Sarah have to get captured just to be caught again? It made some of those chase sequences superfluous.

Back to Morbius, that story may be my favorite of the season. The gothic looking architecture for Solom's lab was amazing as was the set design for the entire planet. No, it wasn't as superb as the swamp in Planet of Evil, but it was still excellent nonetheless. The fire cult sisters were interesting too.

Overall, I guess that technically marks the end of the second season, and it remained as fantastic as the first. My order rankings would go:

1. The Brain of Morbius
2. Planet of Evil
3. The Seeds of Evil
4. The Terror of the Zygons
5. Pyramid of Mars
6. The Android Invasion

EDIT:

We just watched episodes 3-5 of the new season, all of which were a mixed bag. Rosa was pretty good despite it getting the history wrong and the white supremacist villain was terrible. Is this season going to actually develop its Aliens of the Week or are they going to be wallpaper like the latest Sentai villains?

Arachnids in the UK was quite enjoyable since it followed the horror tropes (which is when DW is at its best) and the pacing was quite good. My only complaint is Wannabe Trump did not get killed. That "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" deserved to die a slow and painful death and he didn't. -_-

Then we have whatever the title of the hospital ship was, and my god was this episode beyond boring. It started out well only to fall apart a quarter of the way in. The pregnancy scene was so friggin stupid and none of the characters were even remotely interesting in this one. Actually, scratch that, the one character who was interesting was killed off in the first quarter. It also doesn't help

I'm still liking Whitaker as the Doctor, but I can definitely see why this season has mixed reviews. So far, I'm unimpressed, but at the same time, it is the 37th season of Doctor Who, so I'm not expecting Shakespear. All I ask is to be entertained, NOT BORED!!

EDIT AGAIN:

Masque of the Red Dea... I mean Masque of the Mandorgora, was probably the weakest Tom Baker show thus far. That doesn't mean I didn't like it, as I still thought it was a fantastic episode, it just didn't live up to the stories I have watched over the last week. I did laugh that they got Sarah and the Doctor getting kidnapped out of the way quite quickly, which was nice. Not sure how I feel about the new Tardis control console, it seems a little small. Plus, it doesn't quite make sense, but then, this is Doctor Who, asking for something to make sense is illogical. :-p

Speaking of Sarah getting kidnapped and the Doctor being able to do whatever he wants, it's quite fortunate that the cult waited until the Doctor had escaped being prisoner and got to the catacombs before they decided to sacrifice Sarah. Not to mention not even actually see him pulling her off the slab in front of their faces.

The sets used were outstanding and I loved the masks for the cult. The one dude's beard though. Is that even physically possible? @_@

I also noticed that the dude who played Marko is the same guy who was Creedy in V for Vendetta. God damn he looks so young (for obvious reasons).

Oh yeah, I couldn't help but laugh at the one scene at the beginning when it looked like the Tardis was swirling into the opening song to Ultraman.

I loved Sarah's face when Gialiano was explaining to her his theories that the Earth is round and stuff. Just watching her find amusement in his thinkings was fascinating.

There is one thing that I found kind of odd though at the end during the awesome masquarade scene. Did the Doctor actually let people die before he stopped the servants from firing? Or did he just not arrive until they had already started?
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:55 am

And now I bid fare the well to Sarah Jane. She was a fantastic companion as I can really see why she became a fan favorite. She was quite intelligent and was one of the few who could actually talk to Doctor into his place. I loved the way Sladen performed her final scene when she was just rambling on towards the Doctor, who's not even paying attention. Such a brilliant bit. Of course, I also loved everything they did with her in this story, especially the camera work used when she was under the control of Eldrad.

IN fact, I wish this story had been an episode longer as it was so enjoyable and flew by quite quickly. I loved the bit with the female Eldrad acting all nice and peaceful, keeping you on the edge of your seat expecting her to betray the Doctor, finally making you realize she's not going to actually do that, only for the male version to emerge later and he ends up being exactly what you were expecting to see the entire time. Not just that, but damn was that also a nice spin having the race died out and Eldrad is now the king of a dead planet.

The sets all around were well done and I loved the scenery from the power plant. It gave it a nice change of pace instead of having just another gravel pit, mansion, or space ship for the characters to walk around in. Overall, another solid adventure and I'm curious to see what the next episode with the Time Lords brings.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby sentaison » Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:32 pm

The Hand of Fear was the first Dr. Who story I watched from the TV series. (I had seen the Peter Cushing movies years before) It was a great introduction into The Doctors world. I had read several novelizations from both the Baker and Pertwee years, but it was something else to finally see it on tv. (Thank you PBS) BTW, I'm really enjoying your posts on your journey through the Baker years. You have one more story (The Deadly Assassin) until you meet Leela, the companion who was chosen for two obvious reasons! :lol:
User avatar
sentaison
Godzilla
 
Posts: 710
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:33 am

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Mon Dec 31, 2018 3:03 pm

It's been quite an experience getting to watch these in order. I'm absolutely blown away at how these Baker episodes are on a whole different level compared to the rest of the classic stuff. Hell, it's even better than most of the new stuff that isn't Tennant related too. I'd say that Genesis of the Daleks and The Brain of Morbius are on the same levels as Blink and Girl in the Fire Place. Nevertheless, I'm a little bit worried about when I get to the fourth season since Hinchcliffe is done with three. I've heard not so many great things about that season. I'm also trying to take out of the library the Key to Time season so that I can just keep on going through his years until I get to Season 7 (which I'll just watch when it comes to BD in March).

After I finish what I can for his sixth season, I'm going to jump ahead to Colin Baker's run, of course starting with Davison's final adventure.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Mon Dec 31, 2018 6:51 pm

WHOA! The Deadly Assassin was quite good. Or as I call it, The Manchurian Candidate goes into The Matrix to play Metal Gear Solid 3 while battling Skeletor. :-D

The episodes flew by and yet again I kind of wish it was just a tad longer as the stuff inside the Matrix was so intense. I wish there had been more weirdness to it, but it is what it is. My only complaint is how I couldn't understand what The Master was saying at times due to the skeleton mask muffling up his voice.

Other than that, this was anohter solid episode.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this, but there was a really strange bonus feature on the Masque episode that I have no idea what it was about. It was this dude narrating all of this random stuff and making up his own TV skits, but I have no idea what the point of it all was. Does anyone know what I'm referring to? Is this some sort of British comedy skit show or something? Are they are on any other discs?
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:26 pm

Today we finished Season 3 up with another excellent trio of stories. That now makes Baker three for three in solid seasons. Hell, his first three seasons are on par with Tennant's three seasons.

Anyway, The Face of Evil was very intriguing. I loved the concept of a group of explorers that lost their way and ended up becoming two separate waring tribes without knowing the true reasons as to why. In fact, this entire episode made me think of something out of the Metroid universe. Initially I thought this episode was going to be a retread of The Earthly Child story that the franchise premiered with, but nope, it went in a totally different direction. Add on top some very nice dialog and you've got yourself a solid adventure. Though, if there is one complaint I do have about the episode, it is the moment in the first part when the Doctor is clearly talking to the audience. That kind of broke the immersion for me.

The Robots of Death was mindblowing. The murder mystery aspect was well thought out and paced. I was totally expecting Poole to be the culprit with a split personality if nothing else, so I was pleasantly surprised when he wasn't the one. Another spectacle was the set and costume designs. The Art Deco style was quite effective especially in the way the robots looked. The only negative would be that I felt these people deserved what they got since they were just a bunch of rich jackasses looking down upon others they don't find equal to themselves.

Finally, oh boy, The Talons of Weng-Chiang lived up to the hype. What an absolutely phenomenal story this one was. It was atmospheric, suspenseful, well plotted, a better Phantom of the Opera-like story than the actual movie adaptations, and the characters were so well written. Both the coroner dude and the theater owner were never dull and just like with Robots, every time I expected the show to go into one direction with them, it threw a curve ball at me. Now for this one, my only nitpick is the white washing of Chang himself. Why they chose to do that bewilders me, especially since they had actual Chinese actors in the show.

Now you may have noticed I never said anything about Leela and that's because I just wanted to give her her own paragraph with my thoughts on her for all three stories. I like her. I like her a lot. Sure, she is easy to use as exposition, but she is quite different from the other companions. I love how she will just jump head in to battle without a care for her own safety if it meant doing the right thing. Not just that, but she has yet to be a damsel in distress and she compliments the Doctor's passive nature quite well. Their dynamic makes me think of Batman and Superman. What she did in Talons when she traded places with the one woman and outright attacked Weng-Chiang twice was stupendous.

It's sad that I have now run out of episodes that Hinchcliffe was involved with, but I do look forward to revisiting them again in the future at some point, especially when they are released on BD.

With that in mind, my rankings for this season is another tough one, as my top 2 are kind of tied, but I'll list them as follows:

1. Talons of Weng-Chiang
2. Robots of Death
3. The Hand of Fear
4. The Deadly Assassin
5. The Face of Evil
6. Masque of the Mandragora
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:05 am

Today we watched both Horror of Fang Rock and The Invisible Enemy. Or as I am nicknaming them, The Fog and Fantastic Voyage. :-D

Fang Rock was really good. The first episode moved a bit slow but the other three episodes flew by at lightning speed. Just like the last many episodes before it, it continued its horror movie feel, which is nice. Doctor Who is always at its best when it focuses on horror. Unfortunately, the alien creature was lame as friggin hell. In fact, it may be the lamest alien monster I've seen thus far from this series. The killer trees from that one Capaldi episode have nothing on this little green ball. I was half expected him to say he was from the planet GO and that they were at war with a race called STOP.

My favorite moments included when the "I'm Rich and I'm British" dude's secretary started to scream and Leela just turns around and "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" smacks the wench and then when she rolled her eyes at the banshee later on. I cheered when that dummy died. It was a great start to the season.

As for The Invisible Enemy? Remember when I just said the green ball was the lamest alien monster thus far? Well the BBC sure didn't waste any time taking that award away and giving it to someone else, as the amoeba things are even worse. WTF? It doesn't help that the Doctor felt completely out of character here as he was down right mean spirited and being an "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" towards Leela for no reason. Not to mention the scene at the end when he just runs into the Tardis and nearly leaves her behind. Like seriously? It felt like the show's plot was running into the Tardis stating, "There's no time to spend on a conclusion, bye." Then we have Leela, who seemed like an idiot suddenly. Should I even get into how dumb K9 is? Scrappy Doo is a better cheap sidekick "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!".

I'm not sure which makes this one worse, being the first bomb from Tom Baker's run (which let's face it, it is his fourth season at this point, so it was bound to happen by now) or just how jarring the downgrade in quality was compared to its predecessors. Either way, it was quite terrible, though, at least the first two parts weren't boring. The effects were awful all around too.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sun Jan 06, 2019 12:13 pm

Continuing our Tom Baker viewing, I picked up Image of Fendahl from the library and it was pretty good. Way better than The Invisible Enemy, the Doctor and Leela felt in character again, and it had a lot of atmospheric scenes. Unfortunately, the climax was kind of a let down as it felt like the writer couldn't figure out how to exactly end this story, so they just made some random nonsense up to do it, with another explosion no less. Also, the leeches were kind of dumb, but at least they weren't some green snot ball or a pile of poop with an arm sticking out of it. I did like the characters though, especially the old grandma lady as she had some really witty dialog.

We also watched episodes 6-8 of the latest season.

Demons of the Punjab - Yet again Yaz continues to get the most development of the three companions with this story. Of course, the problem here is that this episode was just so damn booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring. The last 10 minutes was the best part of the show, but everything else was absolutely uninteresting. They could have done so much more with the period they were in. The Assassins who aren't actually Assassins were cool looking though.

Kerblam! - Okay, here we go, FINALLY, a truly amazing episode! It was creepy, suspenseful, had an interesting mystery going on while making fun of retailers. At first i thought it was meant to be mocking Amazon, but then they showed the packages were being secured with bubble wrap to ensure the products aren't damaged during shipping, so I knew that couldn't be the case after all. I loved the plot twist on who was the one causing it. The only part of the episode I thought was a little dumb was the Polar Express-like conveyor belt scene. That aside, this is easily the best episode of the season so far.

The Witchfinder General - Another mostly solid episode, at least until the end. The mud creatures were kind of dumb, especially with how they were defeated, but whatever. Alan Cummings as James was interesting and this was another episode with some really great moments of suspense. I do wish they had actually done something with Graham after James had made him his general though. Graham is seriously like the Tegan of this season. He does absolutely nothing but acts like a know it all when he is on screen.

Um... so I've got two episodes of the season left and so far, there hasn't been one hint of who the main villain of the season is going to be. WTF? In fact, there doesn't seem to be any sort of over arching plot whatsoever unless white supremacist boy and the blue tooth fairy are going to return in the next two episodes.

EDIT:

We just watched both The Sun Makers and Underworld.

The Sun Makers was quite enjoyable, almost as good as Fang Rock. It was well paced, the entire civilization was interesting, and Leela was quite badass. Not to mention the entire social commentary on corporatism that seems to be just as relevant today as it must have been when this episode was made. Mini Me cosplaying as Professor X was also an intriguing change from your normal upper class tyrant. I loved the scene when he is just spinning around in his chair unsure as to what to do because things aren't going his way. Add on top that eyebrows. Great stuff all around.

On the other hand, Underworld makes The Invisible Enemy look like a masterpiece. Like oh my god, what the hell happened here? I get they had some budgetary issues, but when more than half of your story is clearly a green screened in background to the point where the actors body parts are disappearing during certain camera angles, there's a problem. Not just that, but the scene when the Doctor, Leela, and the cave dude were floating down the green tube thing was seriously missing some comedic floating music to go with it. All I wanted to put over the audio was the music when Charlie and his grandpa are floating up to the ceiling in Willy Wonka or something. It was just so damn bad.

Effects aside, even the writing was awful. For being a representation of Jason and the Argonauts, none of the characters were even remotely compelling. They were as lifeless as the backgrounds they were strolling through. This story could have easily been two episodes in length as even three would have been too much. No one did anything interesting. I pray to the gods known as the Time Lords that the next story is a vast improvement over this dreck.

EDIT 2:

We finished the fourth season with The Invasion of Time and kicked off the fifth season with The Ribos Operation.

The Invasion of Time was not bad, but like many other episodes not from Tom's era, it did not need to be 6 episodes long. It could have easily been the standard four. There was a lot of fluff going on, especially in the last episode when they kept walking in circles in the Tardis for like 10 minutes before something happened. It was funny, but pointless filler.

Also, the villains that the Doctor was dealing with for the first four parts were extremely lame. First, they look like garbage bags floating around, but then when their true form is actually revealed, they're just human soldiers in goofy outfits. WTF? A complete and total let down from that three episode build up. The whole time they made them sound like they were going to be interesting characters.

Where were all of the Time Lords from The Deadly Assassin? It seemed like everyone here was brand new except for Borusa, but he was played by a different dude. I guess he could have regenerated, but still. Hell, why wasn't the news anchor dude there to talk about the coronation?

It's sad that this was Leela's farewell, but it's better for her to leave in her prime than to be wavering about as a stale character. I loved how blood thirsty she was as she complimented the Doctor's passive nature quite well. The next companion has a lot to live up to. Though, how the hell she just managed to get that knife to go through Sontaran steel is quite vexing. Plot skills do her good. Finally, K9 is starting to grow on me as he is being used effectively. I expected him to be nothing more than a stupid gimmick.

Overall, the entire season was a mixed bag. There was a serious dip in quality from the first three. It wasn't a terrible season when compared to the entire franchise, as it was par for the course, but when you compare it to Baker's first three seasons, it was like an entirely different show outside of Horror of Fang Rock. Even Fang Rock though is inferior to the likes of Morbius, Weng-Chiang, Seeds, Genesis, and Robots of Death, but at least it felt like it belonged to its predecessors.

My rankings for this season are as follows:

1. Horror of Fang Rock
2. The Sun Makers
3. Image of Fendahl
4. The Invasion of Time
5. The Invisible Enemy
6. Underworld

Moving on to Season 5, The Ribos Operation was a decent kick-off to the Doctor's quest of finding the infinity stones. It had some interesting concepts, such as a planet that has winter for 32 years, characters who live in THE NORTH, and an army called The Watch. Wait a minute... why do I feel like I was watching an episode of Game of Thrones, just with dudes that wore Hershey Kisses for hats?

Seriously though, the story was pretty good. The stuff in the catacombs was cool and the younger thief dude was more interesting than half of the characters from the previous season. Hell, even the heretic dude was more interesting. On the other hand, I don't like Romana one bit. She is poorly acted and comes off as nothing more than a spoiled uneducated brat. How the hell is she supposed to be a Time Lord and know absolutely nothing?

That is all for now.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Wed Jan 09, 2019 12:51 am

We just finished The Pirate Planet and it was all right. The Captain villain dude was way too goofy as if he were a Saturday morning cartoon villain and the plot twist with his nurse wasn't all that thrilling. In fact, the story was borderline boring at times, but at least it was paced well. I did like the concept of the planet devouring other planets though. I hope the next story is better.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Thu Jan 10, 2019 2:05 am

We got through the next three stories today.

The Stones of Blood - It started out interesting despite featuring ANOTHER cult, but that was quickly dealt with, so that was nice. The druid stones plotline was neat even though the one lady being the one in charge was quite obvious right from the get go. I also liked how it had a little horror movie feel again, especially when a couple of campers get murdered by the living stones. Sadly though, the story came crashing down during the last part when the Doctor had to face off with angry sparkler lights. That was pretty down right dumb. All I thought of was that everyone were getting talked down on by Tinkerbell. A lame ending for what started out good.

Alternatively, The Androids of Tara was pretty damn awesome. Easily the best story of the season so far. I loved the medieval aspect of the show mixed with robots. Of course, yet again Romana gets captured, not once, but twice. -_- For a Time Lord, she seems to be utterly useless. Also, what the hell was up with the priest dude. The villain tells the priest the king is going to marry the princess, then he is going to die, and then the priest will have to marry him and the princess afterwards and the dude did not think anything suspicious of the sort. What a friggin moronic dumbass he was!!

I did love the bit when Romana was trying to figure out how to make the horse work, but the scene was the sword duel between the Doctor and the villain. My only issue with the episode was that it was kind of hard to root for the "good guys" when they kept demeaning "the peasants." If they are the good guys and look down upon the people not as rich as them, then this world might not be worth saving in the long run.

Well whatever, The Power of Kroll was also pretty awesome. I loved the tribal music used from the swamp dwellers when they were going to sacrifice Romana. The hair on the swamp dwellers was kind of dumb as it looked more like they were wearing knitted hats, but that aside, it was your basic Europeans vs Native Americans story, just with a really friggin badass giant monster involved. It's not often you get to see a giant sea monster in Doctor Who to please the Godzilla fan in me, and this one was quite satisfying. I loved the entire concept revolving around the monster and the outcome. The only negative towards the episode is that it was a given who gave the arms dealer the weapons to sell to the swamp dwellers. There is one more thing that vexes me though. They had five crew members at the beginning of the episode, one got killed by Kroll when he got pulled into the pipes, but then there were only three in the control room afterwards. What happened the fourth member?
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:29 am

We finished the last two episodes to the new season.

It Takes You Away was quite good. In fact, almost as good as Kerblam!. The only thing that ruined the episode was its last few minutes when the stupid frog thing showed up. All I wanted to hear it say was, "You are walking up the stairway to heaven." Just like with the previous two episodes, it did have some moments of suspense and was interesting.

I can't remember the name of the finale, but it was pretty mediocre. I'm sorry, but Mr White Walker Tooth Fairy is just not an astounding villain at all. It doesn't help that they still didn't actually do anything with him from a character point of view. He was as one dimensional as the paper this episode's script was printed on. Graham was also extremely out of character because not once did he even say anything about killing that dude over the entire course of the season.

In fact, nothing that happened between episoes 2-9 even had any relation to 1 and 10, which was super lame. What about the white supermacist dude? Where were classic monsters in all of this? I'm not saying they need to do the same classic monsters over, but come on, they should be doing at least one. Do the creatures from The Visitation if nothing else as that will prevent the snowflakes who hate everything New Doctor Who from getting their panties stretched too far up their ass. Or even the creatures from The Hand of Fear. Something. ANYTHING!!! Hell, what about the snotty sultan dude that left the Doctor and gang stranded in the desert?
Why not do something there? This season lacked a true threat and it came off boring because of it.

Jodie was great as the Doctor though despite she's still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her version of the Doctor and Yaz is the best of her companions. I hope they actually do something to make me care about Graham and Ryan in the next season as right now, they are useless to me. They are the training wheels for a bicycle being ridden by an adult. WIth that said, this season is by far the worst Doctor Who season I have seen thus far. Let's hope the year long break gives Chibnall time to write a competent thrilling sci-fi spectacle.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Fri Jan 11, 2019 7:24 pm

Well The Armageddon Factor happened... It was a thing...

Um, seriously though, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. There were some good ideas involved, but it was six episodes of absolutely nothing interesting and then the ending rendered the entire season pointless since the Doctor just goes and scatters the pieces across time and space again. I feel like I just got trolled. In fact, I had to sign up for a Britbox account because the disc I got from the library was defective. That was not worth having to use my 7 day free trial over. Season 4 might have been a huge step down compared to its predecessor, but at least some of it still fit the tone of what came before it. This season was a downgrade from Season 4 and felt more like some average episode out of Colin Baker's era or something. It was an utter disappointent.

Now I did like the conversation between the Doctor and Romana at the beginning of the episode when she said her positivity opted out of coming with her and everything from that whole spot. Following that, why the hell did the Marshall dude look like Char Aznable? It was made even funnier because they were fighting with a race called Zeons. lol All I was waiting to hear was someone shout, "Sieg Zeon!" lol

Anyway, like I said, I was quite disappointed with the outcome of this season, though, I guess this wouldn't be the worst episode in the season. My rankings are as follows:

1. The Androids of Tara
2. The Ribos Operation
3. The Power of Kroll
4. The Stones of Blood
5. The Armageddon Factor
6. The Pirate Planet

I don't even really feel like I am watching the same Doctor anymore. Obviously it is the same Doctor, but some of his mannerisms seem different from his first few seasons, so I'd swear he regenerated between shows or something, but ended up being a twin just with a different persona. Well whatever. I hope to the gods that things improve with the next season. Well it should because Graham Williams is gone now, right?
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:32 pm

Did I miss an episode or something between The Armageddon Factory Part 6 and Destiny of the Daleks Part 1? I am pretty damn sure that Destiny P1 comes right after, but when this episode started Romana was in the middle of a regeneration. Or several regenerations. Since when can a Time Lord regenerate at will? She never once died or anything in the last episode. And why the hell would she just suddenly choose to regenerate in the first place? It makes no god damn sense. You don't randomly regenerate your character off-screen. That's utter and complete bullshit and throws the audience out of the immersion.

Moving past this "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" ass start to what ended up being a "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" ass season premier, the rest of the story was just that, "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!". I'm not sure what it is worse, the drag queen looking robots or their terrible crocheted wigs, but they were just flat out stupid as hell.

Oh, and Davros has been dead for centuries but somehow his body was completely preserved? Say what? How is that even possible? None of this makes sense. He doesn't even sound like Davros. What the friggin hell is going on here? I take back what I said about Underworld and The Pirate Planet, THIS is absolutely the worst episode in Baker's run thus far. Even the Daleks seemed quite out of character. In fact, here is my perfect description for the protrayal of what are supposed to be the most fearsome race in the Doctor Who universe:

Image

Thank the gods City of Death was a vast improvement. Hell, City of Death is easily the best episode since The Image of Fendahl. It was interesting, it was funny when it needed to be, it was dramatic the rest of the time, and overall, it was just a good time. Not to mention the money shots of Paris were well done. I liked this one a lot. Julian Glover continues to make an awesome villain in everything I've seen him in.

The new lady playing Romana was much better this time around compared to that bad comedy I watched right before it. Still don't understand why or how she regenerated though. Regardless, everything about this episode was fun and entertaining. I loved the concept of an alien that is splintered across time and I wish they had done even more with that by having the Doctor meet a third iteration of him in another time.

The detective dude was a pretty poor sleuth, but I liked him too. I kind of wish he had become another companion from the Doctor in the end as he was quite funny since he was also breaking things and punching people.

Overall, this season is already a mixed bag and with there only being three stories left, it can go either way. I just hope the next story is on part with City rather than Destiny. Oh, and curious that K9 hasn't done anything.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:27 pm

The Creature from the Pit wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good either. It had some interesting parts and some dull ones. The concept of a planet made mostly of plants that thrives on metal with another planet made mostly of metal that thrives on plants was interesting. The design of the creature thing was quite stupid though. Was it supposed to be like a giant moth larvae or something? Most of the time it looked like a giant penis attached to a blob. The acting was quite subpar, especially from the cavemen thieves who were beyond idiotic. Oh yeah, and I absolutely hate the new voice for K9. Did BBC just randomly decide to replace most of their actors at this point just to spite the viewers? Hell at this rate I'm surprised they actually bothered to give Tom a regeneration episode instead of just changing actors off-screen like they did to Romana and K9.

Anyway, there's really not much for me to say about this one since I didn't feel much really happened. It was mostly 4 episodes of nothing.

BTW, I keep forgetting to bring this up, but I finally figured out what the serialization of Doctor Who reminds me of. Nickelodeon made this show back in the 90s about a bunch of teens who could teleport and the stories were broken up into 5 parters. I believe it was called The Tomorrow People. The structure of these classic Doctor Who episodes totally remind me of that.

Moving on to The Nightmare of Eden, I enjoyed this one quite a bit, but it was more in a "It's so bad it's good" sort of way. There were a lot of interesting things happening, way too many interesting things that made the plotlines seem overly complicated and unneccessary. The Mandrils were a total joke. I don't mean they looked like a total joke, although they were that too (and the scenes of them kill people was laughable since one dude died by barely being touched), rather they were rather pointless and the show would have been much better just being a crime mystery episode instead of throwing monsters needlessly into the plot. Of course, it was quite obvious right from the beginning who the culprit was, which was disappointing because the show hardly even bothered to try and throw a curveball. In fact, it goes so utterly predictable that I thought they were intentionally make it seem that way to throw you off, but nope, it was straighter than an arrow. I'm not even sure if I should bother mentioning the terrible looking ships. I usually try to avoid degrading bad effects for a show that was made with budget constraints, but even this was beyond terrible for Doctor Who. The show has proven to be capable of so much better than this travesty.

Now the Doctor had some truly great lines, especially at the beginning when he is told by the pilot that the company he claims to be working for was shut down and hils response is, "Well that explains why I haven't gotten paid."

Unfortunately, just when I thought you couldn't get any worse than Planet of the Spiders, Underworld, and Destiny of the Daleks, The Horns of Nimon happened. Yeah, that was a thing. It makes The Armageddon Factor look like a masterpiece. "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", it makes the recent season's finale appear to be the very ideal of perfection. I know this wasn't the true season finale, but thank the gods it was. I can only imagine how much worse Shada would have been had it actually aired.

Where do I even start with this utter piece of cockymanie bullshit? I guess the only positive is that I liked the Nimons because they made me think of Ultraman villains. Other than that, this is hands down the worst episode of Doctor Who I have seen thus far. I don't even know what the hell happened here, but clearly everyone just phoned it in. Tom Baker's performance was halfassed as if he just didn't give a damn, Ward provided the facial expressions of someone just collecting a paycheck (does Romana ever do anything interesting?), and then there are the actors playing the soldiers and commander of whatever they were called. Then again, can you even call them actors? It was like watching an elementary school play put on a big sci-fi budget with first graders acting. Hell, I've seen first graders do better acting. I don't even think the leader dude with the staff even blinked once while he was on camera.

Of course, that isn't the worst of this crapfest as the plot was beyond boring, the editing and camera work was haphazardly insipid, and the fact that they tried to adapt a fantastic Greek myth into such drivel is insulting.

I'm just going to stop there and rank this worthless season that I now wish I had waited until BD to watch since it means I have suffer through it again at some point.

1. City of Death
2. The Nightmare of Eden
3. The Creature from the Pit
4. Destiny of the Daleks
5. Horns of Nimon

Since this is where my journey for Tom Baker's era ends up the S7 BD in March, I'm going to list my top 10 episodes from Tom at this current time. Whether or not that changes with S7 remains unknown, though I suspect it won't seeing as how each season after 3 got progressively worse.

1. The Talons of Weng-Chaing
2. Genesis of the Daleks
3. The Brain of Morbius
4. Robots of Death
5. The Seeds of Doom
6. Planet of Evil
7. The Hand of Fear
8. Pyramids of Mars
9. The Deadly Assassin
10. Terror of the Zygons

Where do I go with my next Classic Doctor Who adventure? Well since I had to start up a BritBox account, I might go ahead and watch Seasons 2 and 3 of Peter Davison's run. On the other hand, I'm really anxious to watch Colin Baker's era, so I might stick with my original plans to go with that. Either way, I'll figure that out later.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:54 am

Well we watched the New Years special and it was actually a pretty solid episode overall.

We FINALLY got some good development for Ryan (despite getting way too mushy) and I liked that they tried something new with the Dalek. That Dalek was kind of terrifying. It was a shame they didn't actually do anything with the fact that the archeaologist lady murdered a bunch of cops though. Surely she's messed up in the head from that, right?

The story was interesting, the Doctor's conversation with the Dalek felt natural, the music was quite good here, but most of all, it wasn't boring! That is the key factor here. I also loved the social commentary on UNIT being affected by Brexit. Overall, this felt like the real episode for this new Doctor.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

Re: The Official MZ Doctor Who Thread!

Postby Dr Kain » Sun Jan 20, 2019 10:57 pm

We started watching Davison's second season today. I have to say, despite the fact that we watched his first before going into Baker's run, it feels odd watching a show without Baker being the Doctor. Well whatever.

The Arc of Infinity - This was a pretty enjoyable premier, though Nyssa seemed off for some reason. I don't know if it was just the actress being out of it or if it was just the writers didn't know what to do with her, but she was quite uninteresting. What's sad is that Tegan seemed to do more than she did this time. Speaking of which, man, they couldn't even get through a full story without bringing her back, could they? Nevertheless, I liked the concept of Omega and it was cool seeing Michael Gough in the show even if his character was predictable.

Snakedance - I thought the Mara back in Kinda was an interesting villain, so having it return was unexpected. Of course, I do wish we had gotten to see the creepy Elijah Wood lookalike with the cool white lighting and stuff back, but oh well. The story was as equally interesting as the mythology around the Mara. Though, I could have done with out the emo prince with the big lips. The snake model they did this time was a vast improvement over the inflatable from Kinda.

Mawdryn Undead - STEWART!!!!! Wait, Stewart times two? EVEN BETTER!!!! I loved this one a lot because the two different timelines having to intersect with each other was a brilliant idea. Watching two Stewarts was equally badass. The villains-ish were an intriguing notion too. I do not like this Trough though. He's an utter "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!". It is cool to have the Black Guardian return though. Maybe they'll actually do something with him this time compared to the Key to Time story. Oh, and the music was freaking awesome in this one.

Terminus - Should have been called Terminally Boring. Ugh, I did not like this one at all. Sure, it's no where near as bad as The Horns of Nimon, but it is easily the weakest of the Davison stories. The concept was fine and I loved the design of the armor for the soldiers (kind of made me think of the Necromongers in Chronicles of Riddick). Other than that, this was painfully dull. The characters were bland and the story moved at an extremely slow pace as if it was a two parter stretched out to four episodes.

Enlightenment - This one started out really nice, got a little sluggish during its third part, but ended again on a high note. I'm happy they at least did something more with the Black Guardian at the end compared to the joke they had done in the Key to Time season. Oh, and it was nice that the White Guardian brought that up as it made it feel like it actually somewhat meant something. The space race bit being done like an old school shipping race was a neat idea, I just wish the show had the budget to do more than just a couple of scenes of the ships themselves. The Eternals were also an interesting concept.
Image
User avatar
Dr Kain
Millennium Godzilla
 
Posts: 11930
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:00 pm
Location: Englewood CO but originally from Buffalo NY

PreviousNext

Return to Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy Films and Television

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron