Doctor Who

Caught a bit of it but I’d only just watched the serial when the big upload happened so didn’t feel the need to do it all over again.

How did the edit compare to the Peter Cushing film?

The colourisation looked appropriately lurid

That'll be from the Black and White footage. The copy of The Daleks is from a transfer to 16mm film, from the original Video tape, which causes the waviness in darker scenes.

Nice to know that even David Tennant looks a bit sheepish, awkward and not really sure what to do with himself when Happy Birthday is being sung at him.

I haven't had a chance to watch the stuff on iPlayer yet. Is it all bad quality or have they uploaded the remastered versions of those that have had Blu-ray releases (the release of those has been really slow and in a completely random order)?

We know the Toymaker is involved in the upcoming episodes, but seeing as time is being played with I'm really hoping that the Time Meddler has also finally been brought back.

I think the iplayer archive is everything that’s available of the first two Doctors, which is six or seven series worth with about twenty episodes in each (usually 4 or 5 serials of different lengths of between 2-6 episodes).

Then from Pertwee’s debut as the Third onwards it is a complete set with all the serials present over the next twenty series. Then the tv movie and onto the reboot.

And the two Cushing films aren’t included because they were Hammer (I think?) not the BBC so they don’t have the rights.

Most of the missing episodes and serials from the first two Doctors are because the tapes are literally physically missing although I think the actual first story (The Unearthly Child) physically exists but isn’t included for some other rights issue.

Gordon Ramsey is the new doctor? Lewis Capaldi is his tuneful sidekick? F*ck*ng pass me my sonic screwdriver you numnuts?

This I would actually watch!

As much as I complained about RTD era, it was nice to just have a fun, ludicrous romp again.

Doctor Who has always covered the politics of the day. The pronouns stuff was there as a parallel to Rose.

I enjoyed it. It was a good romp. The effects budget looks like it’s had a boost from the Disney money.

Rather enjoyed the episode, not all of it worked but it was certainly a nice change after the Chibnall era not to wonder why I was watching.

As for the creators of the original strip, Pat Mills hasn't seen it (he was having to VPN to iPlayer to watch it so I'm not sure where he is and was having an issue) meanwhile Dave Gibbons was happy.



I'd have thought the BBC would have sent them copies of the show in advance but I guess not.

I never really understood the Doctor and his attachment for companions, as he outlives them all, so him becoming close to them never really made any sense. That's why for me when Doctor Who got rebooted, that Ecclestone felt a bit stand-offish.
Anyway you know what you're getting with RTD, and there will be plenty of tugging at heartstrings etc, but he does know how to make interesting alien stories.

I think in-universe the principle companions have served different purposes.

Initially Susan is his grandaughter and when she leaves Hartnell goes through a string of obvious Susan substitutes who he wants to show the universe.

I think through the 70s and 80s you then get a series of more confident women who are scientists or other types of experts who challenge and support the Doctor to up his game.

Its only the tv movie for the American market that one becomes a love interest.

I think canonically its probably just because he/she gets lonely after losing Susan. In production terms it was probably just an excuse to cast attractive women.

First Doctor iPlayer archive completed.

A bit of a mixed bag as you’d expect. Some very dated stories and special effects but also some surprisingly sophisticated stuff too.

My favourite serials were any Dalek story, Time Meddler, Space Museum, Ark, War Machines and the Tenth Planet. The last two in particular were really smart in balancing sci-fi action and contemporary themes (Cold War, computing etc) even if the War Machines themselves looked truly shite and unthreatening. The Daleks are the Daleks and its remarkable how fully formed they were from the very start and across each of their serials. The other three all have actual fun or twists around the nature of time travel beyond being an excuse to change location every story.

War Machines and Tenth Planet are both very modern stories that you could tell in any era of the show. A lot of the others fall into either “companion is captures” or “Doctor is trapped in a cave”, very often both.

Its a shame there are so many gaps caused by missing serials and episodes. I can understand keeling something mostly complete and important like The Chase in but some others where only one or two episodes survive could probably have been parked somewhere outside the main streaming series. The black and white animated episode look pretty good but the colour ones look distractingly like Archer.

I’d only seen a few Hartnells so most of this was new to me. Its interesting to see how he develops from existing mostly beside rather than central to the stories at the start to being the hero toward the end of his run. The companions change fairly regularly but for the most part fill archetype roles so closely that they’re virtually recastings.

Well worth watching the best of these and not just as historic curios. Plus you can marvel at how Hartnell at the start is only two or three years older than Tennant is now.