I've also watched a later season of Tom Baker's run. One of the series where Douglas Adams was the script editor. His touch is noticeable. There are several quirky moments that cracked me up. It's not full on comedy. Adams had a gift for being incidentally funny - seeing the humour in a situation rather than writing a situation that was funny.
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Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View PostI've been watching the vintage Who on iPlayer. I started with a Jon Pertwee Dalek story and then carried on watching that series, then have watched most of the series with Sarah Jane in. Just one story to go. The six parters are a bit too drawn out tbh. Although there's usually a decent twist by about episode 3.
It's really noticeable how Terry Nation recycled his scripts for Dalek stories. I'm pretty sure an AI generator could create a script that would be indistingiishable from his. - Tardis lands on a planet
- There are humans/ Thals
- There are hostile aliens
- There is some kind of useful thing to be mined/ collected
- There are Daleks!! (revealed at end of episode 1)
- Some rebel / apostate alien helps the Doctor & the humans or Thals
- The Daleks are thwarted
For two stories in a row the Tardis lands and there is an "energy drain" that means it can't just leave.
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Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View PostTerry Nation owned the rights to the Daleks and the films were his cash in. Dalekmania and all that.
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Planet of the Spiders is problematic. From the guy doing an impression of a Tibetan lama, through how chanting and meditation are a gateway to evil, to having a character with developmental issues being treated as a dogsbody and living under the stairs.
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To be fair, neither were the schedulers at UK Gold in August 1997…
On Sunday, 31 August 1997, UK Gold were scheduled to show an omnibus version of the 1979 6-part story, The Armageddon Factor. However, when the news broke of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, a decision was made to replace the story with a different 6-parter due to concerns that the title of the story may have upset people.
The only 6-parter they could get hold of at such short notice was Planet of the Spiders, which was duly shown albeit with a subtitle at the bottom of the screen alerting people that a major news story had broken. However, I’m sure that any relief the staff at UK Gold must have felt at replacing a story with allusions to death in its title, must have evaporated given that the first 45 minutes of Planet of the Spiders features both a near car crash and a high speed car chase.
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I've watched the first Tom Baker story, Robot, and it wasn't great. The robot's floppy hands were distracting and it just clomped around being a bit rubbish. I was amused by the special effect of using a toy tank in the foreground instead if having to hire an actual tank.
Anyway, first episode of The Ark in Space and its already more interesting than yet another secret society trying to kill off humanity.
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Good stuff. The Ark in Space marks the start of 16 stories produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and script edited by Robert Holmes. If you don’t know what to expect, I’d say that at least 6 of the stories are among the best in the history of the programme, most of the rest are really good too, with only 2 out and out clunkers - one of which is mostly down to the cheapness of its look. And it also features 1 story which makes “Tommy, you’re normal!” seem positively quaint to modern sensibilities.
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Aw, Robot's a great story. Made by the Pertwee production team as their swansong at the end of season 11, it has the beautiful distinction of being a story clearly geared up for one Doctor but starring the next. Dangly hands and poor CSO aside, the K1 robot is a magnificent creation and Terrence Dicks imbues it with lashings of sympathy. Miss Winters is a proper steely villain, too.
The Ark in Space is a different kettle of Wirrrn entirely, proto-Alien horror for Saturday teatimes featuring perhaps the most disturbing use of bubble wrap (unless of course anyone knows better...)
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