Taking a Dive into Classic Who

Pt 1 of an Unearthly Child is a must see. But pts 2,3 and 4, when they are with the Cavemen, I usually skip. The Dead Planet/Daleks is a fantastic, epic tale, but as I think you already know, don't watch it all at once. The War Machines is a rather down to earth story, that reminds me of what we would later see with the Pertwee era. Plus, it is one of Hartnell's last, and you can see how his portrayal has evolved from almost an anti-hero to the Doctor as we know him today. So, if you can, get both.

McCoy's Dalek episode is one of his best, I believe. Get that one. Battlefield, I love, but it seams to be hit and miss for a lot of fans.

The Castellan wrote:

Invasion also was a bit bad, cause these Cybermen felt more like Cybusmen in the the fact they felt so bland and dull.

On the contrary, I loved their portrayal here (Course, I love the Cybusmen). It's just the story kept going. If I had access to video editing equipment, I'd cut a five/six parter that would have a lot tighter narrative. But again, the reason for that length was to head off scripting problems by giving them eight weeks to get turned in.

There's nothing wrong with The Invasion as a story. It's narrative is just unnecessarily long. I did get a kick out of the special features, namely that while filming in the Guinness factory, Troughton and Hines were treated to several brews and thus...had some "issues" with filming for the rest of the day.


As for McCoy...his Dalek episode might come along down the line. But I don't want to just have the big two (Cybermen and Daleks) as the opponents for my view on the classic series. I've become burnt out on Classic Cybermen, and RTD saw that I'm not all that overly fond of Daleks all the time, either. Genesis had the benefit of being a very low key Dalek story that was masterfully written. Revelation has the benefit of being a story set up I'm extremely interested in. Remembrance...it will likely come down the road, if only to give a second McCoy story. But for right now, I think I'll stick with Battlefield. I'm a huge fan of Arthurian Legends and the Brigadier, so throw the two together and I'll have fun, regardless. Heck, my luck's been good so far: Only one outright terrible story (The Two Doctors), the rest are either brilliant or just entertaining.

Well, I hope you like Battlefield, I certainly did. If you do watch Remembrance, Do it after Unearthly Child. It references that story some.

So I finally watched The Power of Kroll. Not a bad tale. After the somewhat boring Androids of Tara, Kroll had a lot of suspense and a good ol' fashion Giant Monster. It felt very "New Who" in its presentation, as well.

The effects were for the most part quite well done, I thought. Yeah, you could tell Kroll was a model superimposed on the film, but the actual model was quite nice looking (Also doesn't hurt I went through a "Godzilla" phase several years back, so I'm familiar with that particular film technique). The Tentacles overall impressed, simply because it was such a simple effect, but used well. I think my two favorite bits are when it grabs the Doctor in the fourth episode, and especially when it erupts from the pipe to grab the crewman aboard the Refinery. Props has to be given to the actor during that scene. He managed to move in such a way as to honestly make one believe the Tentacle was grabbing and pulling him, rather then him just winding himself around it while walking backward.

The Paint on the Swamp People was especially well done, I thought. Only a minor (and insanely difficult) patch around the eyes gave the makeup away. The High Priest's makeup was a tad shiny, though. And I couldn't help it, my first comment on seeing them was "Romana's been kidnapped by the Jolly Green Giants!".


If there was a part of the episode I didn't care for, it was how the Doctor managed to escape the Vine trap. That was extraordinarily hokey, and felt it could have been handled much better (Such as the suggested hail).


Still, overall an entertaining outing. And a good fake out in Episode One/Two, when it seemed Kroll was some sort of Macara.

Rust wrote:

So I finally watched The Power of Kroll. ...you could tell Kroll was a model superimposed on the film...

Wait, what?! Kroll was a model? I am now so disenchanted with what has long been one of my favourite Tom stories ...yeah, right (to quote Bill Cosby as Noah)

Seriously, did you notice that "Fenner" was also "Solon" from Morbius, & the "War Lord" from The War Games?

neogeoMk2 wrote:

Wait, what?! Kroll was a model? I am now so disenchanted with what has long been one of my favourite Tom stories ...yeah, right (to quote Bill Cosby as Noah)

Take heart. Kroll looks far more convincing then a giant, CG Wasp.

Quote :

Seriously, did you notice that "Fenner" was also "Solon" from Morbius, & the "War Lord" from The War Games?

Not especially, since I've not seen either of those stories.

If you thought The Invasion was long and drawn out, War Games is 10 parts. You might want to avoid that one judging by your current level of Classic burnout.

Have you seen any Pertwee other than Inferno?

Just The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors. Ambassadors of Death doesn't seem to be out on DVD yet.

Put in the order today. Only going with "The Beginning" set this time (Unearthly Child/The Daleks/The Edge of Extinction), as the price jumped in the few days it's taken to look into it. Also because, as I said before, I am getting a little burnt out on Doctor Who. Still, being the start of the show and all, it's worth having just to see how far its come. Also, it is three stories plus the last segment of "The Key to Time" means I'll still have plenty of Classic Who to watch for two weeks.

With the rest of my "Fun Money" for this pay period, I picked up Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Essentials (Manos, the Hands of Fate and Santa Claus vs The Martians). Time to start building my MST3K collection.

Rust wrote:

Put in the order today. Only going with "The Beginning" set this time (Unearthly Child/The Daleks/The Edge of Extinction), as the price jumped in the few days it's taken to look into it. Also because, as I said before, I am getting a little burnt out on Doctor Who. Still, being the start of the show and all, it's worth having just to see how far its come. Also, it is three stories plus the last segment of "The Key to Time" means I'll still have plenty of Classic Who to watch for two weeks.

With the rest of my "Fun Money" for this pay period, I picked up Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Essentials (Manos, the Hands of Fate and Santa Claus vs The Martians). Time to start building my MST3K collection.

I always liked the 1st ep of Unearthly, have long enjoyed The Daleks, and quite enjoy Edge of Extinction myself. Good choices, in other words.

Well that was irritating.

Just got an E-Mail saying my order for The Beginning had been canceled from the place I ordered it from. I guess they ran out of stock. I reordered through another supplier. Here's hoping.

Apparently, I'm not supposed to have The Beginning, cause that's the second time the Order has been Refunded! >_<

Rust wrote:

Put in the order today. Only going with "The Beginning" set this time (Unearthly Child/The Daleks/The Edge of Extinction), as the price jumped in the few days it's taken to look into it. Also because, as I said before, I am getting a little burnt out on Doctor Who. Still, being the start of the show and all, it's worth having just to see how far its come. Also, it is three stories plus the last segment of "The Key to Time" means I'll still have plenty of Classic Who to watch for two weeks.

With the rest of my "Fun Money" for this pay period, I picked up Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Essentials (Manos, the Hands of Fate and Santa Claus vs The Martians). Time to start building my MST3K collection.

You need to get Cave Dwellers, and the Japanese films they did as well.

mst3k- oh I did love that show. I would so love those guys to get back jsut to do a few who episodes...like delta and the bannerman, the dominators and the horns of nimon.

Sorry you still can't get the beginnings set...I remember the first time I saw the scene with the tardis in the junkyard....I felt such a chill...it was the beginning of history.

greenk9 wrote:

mst3k- oh I did love that show. I would so love those guys to get back jsut to do a few who episodes...like delta and the bannerman, the dominators and the horns of nimon.

Sorry you still can't get the beginnings set...I remember the first time I saw the scene with the tardis in the junkyard....I felt such a chill...it was the beginning of history.

Oh, yes, me too! And then when Ian and Barbara burst into the TARDIS! The first time for everything. We are lucky that episode survived. Parts 2-4, well, not so much.

Oh I still plan on getting The Beginning, but probably not this pay period. The upswing, however, of this Who Drought (I've only the Armageddon Factor to tide me over), is that next pay check is a "bonus" in that this month we get paid three times. Plus, it's our quarterly bonus (Which is rather small this time around, but extra money is money).

That means this is an entire paycheck that has no factor into any of my finances. While I don't plan on going crazy...oh who am I kidding? Expect to see a Binge post of Classic Who purchases in Two Weeks. Further, this time off of Classic Who will likely help, given I was starting to burn out.

And I too am grateful for the survival of the first episode. Really, when you think about how many adventures were lost, it's a miracle it survived the purges.

Actually TWO versions of the first episode survive. And both are on the DVD.

I wish I could just edit the first episode and some of the second and fourth episodes of "An Unearthly Child," so it leads straight into "The Daleks."

New Pay Period, "Fun Check" (An entire check not tied to any bills or necessities) + Break from Who = Classic Who Deluge.

Ordered The Beginnings (Let's see if it goes through this time), The War Machines, The Revelation of the Daleks, and finally Battlefield.

This will "close out" my Classic Who collection in that I'll have finished my primary goal of getting an episode of every Doctor of the TV era (And I'll likely pick up The Enemy Within when it comes out). There are still a few Classic Stories I'd like to check out, plus I'd like another example of the Classic Master. I'll also likely be getting another McCoy adventure in the future as well, as he'll be the only Doctor now with a single Adventure featuring him.

Rust wrote:

I'll also likely be getting another McCoy adventure in the future as well, as he'll be the only Doctor now with a single Adventure featuring him.

Aside from McGann, but what can ya do? (Listen to the audio adventures!)

Rust wrote:

New Pay Period, "Fun Check" (An entire check not tied to any bills or necessities) + Break from Who = Classic Who Deluge.

Ordered The Beginnings (Let's see if it goes through this time), The War Machines, The Revelation of the Daleks, and finally Battlefield.

This will "close out" my Classic Who collection in that I'll have finished my primary goal of getting an episode of every Doctor of the TV era (And I'll likely pick up The Enemy Within when it comes out). There are still a few Classic Stories I'd like to check out, plus I'd like another example of the Classic Master. I'll also likely be getting another McCoy adventure in the future as well, as he'll be the only Doctor now with a single Adventure featuring him.

Did we suggest Netflix? You can watch all of them, and if you really like an episode, then you can go buy it for your collection.

Not a huge believer in Netflix, to be honest. That's not a slam against Netflix in the slightest - I just dislike renting things in general. It's a weird personality quirk I have. About a year ago, when I was seriously hurting for cash, the hardest thing I did was allow friends to loan me newly released games (BioShock 2 and Mass Effect 2). I'd make a terrible thief - I hate possessing other peoples' property, even for a little while.

Rust wrote:

Not a huge believer in Netflix, to be honest. That's not a slam against Netflix in the slightest - I just dislike renting things in general. It's a weird personality quirk I have. About a year ago, when I was seriously hurting for cash, the hardest thing I did was allow friends to loan me newly released games (BioShock 2 and Mass Effect 2). I'd make a terrible thief - I hate possessing other peoples' property, even for a little while.

I'm like that as well. I hate borrowing things from people, but I'm happy to lend anyone anything. I DO use netflix, but the main problem I have with it is that, whenever I watch something, I usually want to buy it afterwards!

In all honesty, I've wanted to chime in here because there are so many great classic Who stories (and I've seen all that survive at one time or another), but most of mine are still on VHS so I'm not sure which have been released now on DVD. And as for Netflix, my brother loves it and uses it a lot; I haven't--I've been content and pretty pleased with my U-verse thus far (but of course BBC America is not yet OnDemand).

Something I did like from years ago was The Edge of Destruction (Hartnell). Not sure if its on DVD yet, but I enjoyed it when I 1st saw it close to 20 years ago (I think it was--memory's a funny thing, one day its there and the next ...what was I talking about?)

Edge of Destruction is in the box set with Unearthly Child and The Daleks