Who?

[Patrick Thistle]

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.

[Fargo Boyle]

I'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.

By the time it was Tom Baker's turn for a Dalek episode, Terrance Dicks had had enough and told Nation to bin his initial proposed script (probably as per the above) and come up with something original, which became Genesis of... so he could do it if he tried.

[Mumpo]

Then a few years later he wrote Destiny of the Daleks, where the 'useful thing to be mined/collected' is... ah, perhaps that should go in a spoiler.

[Patrick Thistle]

Then a few years later he wrote Destiny of the Daleks, where the 'useful thing to be mined/collected' is... ah, perhaps that should go in a spoiler.

Haha, I watched that.

[Jobi1]

Terry Nation owned the rights to the Daleks and the films were his cash in. Dalekmania and all that.

I remember actually laughing out loud when they appeared in the joyously silly Lego Batman Movie and are only referred to as 'British robots'.

[Patrick Thistle]

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.

[Patrick Thistle]

Finished Planet of the Spiders. Underwhelming. I don't get why the spiders just fell off people and died. That seemed like a particularly rubbish denouement.

Onto the Tom Baker era next.

[kokamoa]

The spiders died because The Great One died and they were all psychologically linked to her, so her pain was their pain and her death was their death etc. The threat level in that story does go downhill once Lupton starts to get sidelined.

[Patrick Thistle]

Ah OK, yes that makes sense. Clearly I wasn't following it very well.

[kokamoa]

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.

[Mumpo]

Ha, now imagining the Diana chase involved driving a hovercraft over a tramp

[Patrick Thistle]

Ha, now imagining the Diana chase involved driving a hovercraft over a tramp

Yeah, that was very odd. Seventies humour at its finest.

[Patrick Thistle]

Not even the most 'off' bit though. That would be when Tommy has had his under-developed intelligence enhanced and Sarah Jane exclaims "Tommy! You're normal!"

[kokamoa]

Susan? (Starts to twitch)

Who’s going to correct him?

[Patrick Thistle]

Oh god I'm having a mare what with the whole Kristen Stewart Hinger Games thing as well.

[Patrick Thistle]

Sarah Jane, not Susan.

[Patrick Thistle]

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.

[kokamoa]

Is this the first time you’ve seen these stories?

[Patrick Thistle]

Yeah. I'm finding it interesting catching up.

[kokamoa]

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.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've seen the next two stories before (The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks) but I might watch them.both again to maintain the continuity.

[Mumpo]

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...)

[Levin]

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