Doctor Who

Dec

2023

Ranking Doctor Who – Season 2

My Doctor Who rewatch proceeds, if slowly. I’m resisting the urge to write something in depth about every episode, and am instead doing quick rankings and brief thoughts. Season 1 is here, if you want to start at the top!

The Dalek Invasion of Earth – Everything really is better with Daleks. This one’s an epic and deserves its reputation. With six episodes, all four of our leads get plenty of time to shine.
The Chase – I’m a sucker for stories with a new sub-adventure every episode (see my unusually high placement for the much disliked The Keys of Marinus last season). The Mechonoids don’t quite work, but the episode in the haunted mansion is delightfully bonkers and Ian and Barbara’s exit is beautifully handled.
The Time Meddler – We meet another of the Doctor’s people for the first time! (Except for Susan, of course.) And he’s got a TARDIS! This is the first Doctor Who story to blend history with science fiction elements, and since I’m not a big fan of the pure historicals that makes for a welcome change.
The Web Planet – A lot of people hate this story, and those people are wrong. Okay, it drags a little… Okay, it drags a lot. But it’s just so incredibly weird I can’t help but love it.
The Rescue – A strong intro for Maureen O’Brien, who’ll go on to be criminally underused as new companion Vicki.
Planet of Giants – The giant props are great, and Jacqueline Hill acts the hell out of the script whenever she’s trying to hide her poisoning from her friends. The evil scientist scenes are dull, but telephone operator Hilda and her policeman husband Bert steal the show.
The Space Museum – I’m as surprised as you that I’m not putting this last, but the first episode really is a marvel, and honestly, on rewatch, the rest of the story holds up better than I thought. The main cast snapping at each other constantly does get a bit wearisome.
The Crusade – I know, it’s beautiful and the guest performers are fantastic. But like I said, I don’t love the pure historicals. Maybe if we found the missing episodes I’d change my tune…
The Romans – I love Ian and Barbara’s relationship in this; they are absolutely fooling around even if there’s no concrete evidence on camera. Not a bad story, but not a memorable one.

Jul

2023

Ranking Doctor Who – Season 1

I gave up on my live-tweeting all of Doctor Who from the beginning – pausing every few seconds to tweet something was kind of a drag. So instead I’m making quick ranked lists as I finish each season. Who doesn’t love ranked lists? So here’s season 1, ranked from least-best to best. (I have a hard time thinking of any Doctor Who as “worst”.) Feel free to comment with your own opinion, but I assure you my Doctor Who opinions are always 100% correct.

The Daleks – There’s a reason these things caught on! Plus Barbara gets it on with a hot blond.
An Unearthly Child – And I didn’t rank it so high just for the incredible first episode! I will die on the hill that the cave people story in episodes 2-4 is a lot better than people think.
Marco Polo – The missing episodes bum me out, and I hate watching reconstructions, BUT I’ve been watching the Loose Cannon recons while listening to the BBC Audio narrated soundtracks, and the extra narration has me appreciating Marco Polo more than I did on my last rewatch. It’s really a gripping story, if a little drawn out.
The Keys of Marinus – Everybody hates this except me. Everybody except me is wrong. The end drags but the McGuffin-chasing through the first few parts is great!
The Edge of Destruction – Part 2 loses its way a bit, but Part 1 is unsettlingly weird and intriguing. Carole Ann Ford is great.
The Aztecs – A Barbara showcase story! I love Barbara even more than I dislike the strict historicals!
The Reign of Terror – Suffers from the capture-escape-repeat padding, and Susan is done dirty by the writing, but all the Doctor’s bits are terrific.
The Sensorites – The first two episodes are marvelously spooky but the Sensorite threat is deflated once they start talking.

Jan

2023

My Dad, the Doctor, and Me

“I’ve been watching since I was seven,” is what I always say when my love for Doctor Who comes up in conversation. “My dad got me into it.”

It’s possible I wasn’t seven. I didn’t make a note of it or anything. But that’s the age that’s stuck in my memory, and I’ve said it aloud enough times that it may as well be true. Seven years old, so it could have been late 1979, but I’m pretty sure it was 1980.

My father had been trying to get me to watch for ages, insisting I’d love it, but on WGBH, Boston’s public television station, Doctor Who aired weekdays at 7pm, and that was prime playing-outside time.

But one night, for whatever reason – maybe it was raining, maybe none of the other kids on the street were around, or maybe my dad was just particularly insistent – I sat down in the back room of our house, a small room at the end of the hall that served as my dad’s TV room (mom’s was the living room). The back room had a couch and a chair, both of which he ignored, preferring to sit on the floor, eye level with the television, which was housed in a low cabinet. And sitting on the floor together, my father and I watched the third episode of “The Hand of Fear,” a Tom Baker story, the last to feature Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.

I thought it was fine, I guess?

It probably didn’t help that I had no idea what was going on. I’m not sure I came back for the fourth and final episode.

A little detective work now. The website broadwcast.org features an encyclopedic listing of international air dates for Doctor Who. A quick perusing of the page for WGBH gives a couple of possible days on which this underwhelming start to my journeys with the Doctor might have begun.

The only possible air date where I’m 7 is Tuesday, September 16, 1980, but that doesn’t seem quite right to me. The next story they showed was an out-of-sequence “The Robots of Death,” and I’m sure that “The Deadly Assassin” was shown in its rightful place after “The Hand of Fear” when I watched. I know because I remember thinking I was just intrigued enough by what I had seen, and, probably subconsciously, enjoying the idea of a show my father and I could watch together, that I gave it another try, and was even more baffled by the cryptic political nightmarescapes of “Assassin.” It’s a great story, but perhaps not the best introduction to the show for a 7-year-old.

December 19 is the next possible date. But that doesn’t sound right, either, and not just because I’d have turned 8 by then. I remember being torn between watching and playing because it was nice outside. Not that I didn’t play outside in winter, but my memory tells me it was sunny when the show aired. My memory lies to me constantly, but it’s all I have to go on.

That brings me to the following spring – Monday, May 11. So it was 1981, not 1980, and I was 8, not 7.

I don’t know why that makes me a little sad. It doesn’t change anything, except one small detail about the story I tell whenever I have reason to talk about how long I’ve been a fan.

Anyway, this date feels right because “The Deadly Assassin” aired next, followed by “The Face of Evil.” Despite “Assassin” failing to catch my interest, I gave the show a third and final chance by watching the first episode of “Face,” and that’s where it got me. I came in at the start of a new story, a story introducing a new character who had as much to learn about the Doctor as I did, and the show no longer felt confusing or unwelcoming.

If Tom Baker was my Doctor, Louise Jameson as Leela was my companion. My father was a Leela fan too, and watching her run of stories with him fixed my attachment to the show. He had seen them all before and was eager for me to appreciate them, and happy that his certainty that I’d love them was proving correct. We watched “The Talons of Weng-Chiang,” a favorite of my father’s due to the similarities to his greater love, Sherlock Holmes. I remember sitting at his side transfixed by the creepiness of “Horror of Fang Rock.” He knew I’d love K-9, the robot dog introduced in “The Invisible Enemy” (and what 8-year-old wouldn’t?). Dad explained Gallifrey, the Doctor’s home planet, to me when we got there in “The Invasion of Time,” Leela’s final story.

The next episode to air was the first part of “Robot,” Tom Baker’s debut story, as WGBH had run out of new episodes. I got to meet Sarah Jane properly this time. Watching “The Hand of Fear” from the beginning, with the approaching-encyclopedic knowledge of any child with a new obsession, I couldn’t believe I’d been so dismissive of it the first time around. As for “The Deadly Assassin” – well, it would take a couple more years to really get that one. (Honestly, I’m still not sure I do.) And then Leela was back, and I watched her stories the second time as eagerly as I’d watched them the first.

My father, however, slowly lost interest as the limited episodes available for the US to license got repeated, and repeated, and repeated again. Whenever the opening titles revealed that we had once again looped back to the first episode of “Robot” he would express his disappointment, and before long I was watching without him, on one of the other TVs in the house. I’m not sure exactly when that happened. I know we were still watching together when WGBH finally moved past Leela in October of 1982. I think we finished out that first airing of Tom Baker’s final seasons, his departure happening in January of 1983. But after the last episode of “Logopolis” it was back to the first episode of “Robot,” and I can almost hear my father crying out in annoyance at yet another rerun. So that was probably it. Maybe we watched another story or two here or there after that but certainly by July of 1984, when the popularity of the show in the US had grown enough that PBS began showing the newest episodes, starring Peter Davison, Dad was done.

Which was fine, really. My brother and my cousin had long since joined me in my fandom, so I still had someone to talk to about it, to pick up issues of Doctor Who Magazine for me, to introduce me to the burgeoning Doctor Who convention scene. (I met Tom Baker in person! I was too stunned to speak but he grinned at me and said something nice I can no longer remember.)

My love for the Doctor has only deepened over the years since my dad introduced us. I stayed with it through the final years of its original run, through the end of the 80s, when I had to watch on my sisters’ TV, for some reason the only set in the house that could pick up the New Hampshire PBS station showing Sylvester McCoy’s episodes. I stayed faithful through the wilderness years of the 90s, through the disappointment of the Fox TV-movie, through the show’s renewal and reemergence into the popular consciousness in 2005. And I’m still very much faithful to it today.

I’ve tried to get my father back into it, here and there. I gave him a bootleg VHS copy of “The Curse of Fatal Death,” a 1999 parody starring Rowan Atkinson, whom I knew he liked. He watched it once, politely, but the tape eventually made its way in with my own, and now sits in my closet. I thought the new show would interest him, but it wasn’t much to his taste. He watched an episode or two, but he doesn’t care for the ongoing arcs and deeper characterization of modern science fiction. Most recently, I tried to get him to watch “Legend of the Sea Devils” with me. It was the Easter 2022 special, and it sounded like it would be a fun one-off action piece. (And it was!) I was staying with him and my mom for a few weeks at the time. When I brought it up that morning he was interested, but by the time it aired that night, bed held more appeal. He’s over 90 now, I can hardly blame him.

So my dad’s relationship with the Doctor ended a long time ago, and that’s okay. Dad’s done a lot for me over the years, but making me sit down and watch Doctor Who with him all those decades ago is still the best gift he ever gave me. And even though we’ll probably never watch another episode together, it’ll always be something we share.

I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I was eight years old. My dad got me into it.

Nov

2022

Doctor Who Missing Episodes (sort of) (not really)

Last year, for nobody’s amusement but my own, I made a parody Twitter account purporting to tweet synopses of the 97 episodes of Doctor Who that have been erased from the BBC’s archives. Instead, I tweeted synopses of episodes that I made up entirely, allowing me to poke fun at the show I love so very, very much. (Too much, possibly.)

The account didn’t gain much traction, probably because I stopped updating it (although I did get a few amusing mentions from people who seemed to think I was an official Who account). In the spirit of my general move away from social media and back to this blog, here are all of those tweets to date (in story order, not the order I tweeted them). If for some reason you want to give this fake account a follow, it’s @WhoMissing – if enough people jump on, maybe I’ll start posting again!

The Rock Lords Part 2 – “Masters of Stone” (1963) The Doctor tricks Ian into falling off a cliff.

The Song of Melodia Part 2 – “Timpani of Terror” (1964) Barbara attracts the romantic attentions of the Melodians’ handsome maestro. Susan faints.

The Macedonians Part 2 – “Key Coiffure” (1965) Imprisoned in the dungeon by Philip, the travelers plan an escape using Barbara’s hair-do as a battering ram.

The Macedonians Part 5 – “Catamite Calamity” (1965) Vicki, disguised as a boy, catches the eye of Alexander.

Sweet Danger (1965) TARDIS takes Dr Who and his grandchildren John and Gillian to the planet of living pastries. When Gillian bites the head off a shortbread boy, John defends her by wiping out the entire civilization with a handy laser rifle.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 13 – “The Nightmare Continues” (1966) After Sara is aged to death, the Doctor and Steven flee the Daleks. New companion Beth joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 14 – “Aftershock” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Beth is killed by the Daleks. New companion Eric joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 15 – “Winds of Doom” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Eric is gunned down in 1930s Chicago. New companion Molly joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 17 – “History Repeats Itself” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Eliza is vaporized by the Daleks. New companion Jerry joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 19 – “Not That Button” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Katarina is sucked out of an airlock again. New companion Dirk joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 20 – “Bubbles of Disaster” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Dirk is boiled in acid. New companion Kelly joins the crew.

The Daleks’ Master Plan Part 21 – “The Yeast of Steven” (1966) Steven watches in horror as Kelly is baked into a loaf of bread. New companion Tommy joins the crew.

The Lifeless Planet Part 1 – “Footfall of Doom” (1966) Dodo trips over an anthill, inadvertently wiping out an intelligent insect race.

The Weather Masters Part 3 (1966) Ben and Polly stall the Weatherians while the Doctor takes the week off.

The Twilight Beast Part 2 (1966) The evil Jotun refers to the Doctor as “Doctor Who,” but nobody makes a big deal out of it.

Curse of the Cybermen Part 3 (1966) Polly fends off the Cybermen with hydrofluoric acid she makes out of perfume. The Doctor finds a fun hat.

The Castle of Terror Part 3 (1967) The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria escape through a maze of corridors, which don’t wobble at all, smartass.

The Castle of Terror Part 5 (1967) The Doctor and Jamie are captured by the Pale Green Robots. Victoria screams.

The Stealers of Smartness Part 2 (1968) Zoe is arrested for solving Fermat’s Last Theorem without a license.

The Absorbent Snowmen Part 3 (1970) The Doctor and Liz track the errant Yeti to a loo in Tooting Bec.

Evolution of Death Part 1 (1970) The Doctor meets a colony of friendly ape-people. The Brigadier kills them.

The Foibles of Myopia Part 1 (1971) Jo bumps into a wall.

Village of Darkness Part 2 (1972) The Master murders everyone in the village. The Doctor shares a bottle of expensive cognac with him.

The Perils of Paperwork Part 4 (1974) Captain Yates is court martialed for having a character arc prematurely.

More Mutants, More Problems Part 1 (1974) The Doctor takes Sarah Jane to another planet he first visited with Jo, and she pretends not to mind.

The Mandatory Sensitivity Training of Weng-Chiang Part 1 (1977) The Doctor makes some racist jokes and we’re just supposed to roll with it, I guess?

The Mandatory Sensitivity Training of Weng-Chiang Part 4 (1977) Leela sits the Doctor down to gently explain why him calling her “savage” bothers her. He cries and says he feels very attacked.

The Haze of Health and Safety Part 1 (1977) The TARDIS lands in a thick dark fog. Leela says something naïve yet terribly clever.

Horror of Prog Rock Part 1 (1977) The Doctor syncs the TARDIS up to “The Wizard of Oz” and it works surprisingly well. You can totally hear the dematerialization noise just as the witch is melting.

Horror of Prog Rock Part 2 (1977) Leela performs a fourteen-minute flute solo.

Terror of the Turgids Part 3 (1979) Romana finds the seventh segment of the Key to Time disguised as a cheap portable radio.

The Bleakness of Nihilism Part 1 (1980) The Doctor, Romana, Adric, and K-9 land on a planet of existential dread and foreboding music.

K9 and Company: “Midsommar” (1982) The villagers crown Sarah Jane as their May Queen. Things get hot for Brendan when he dons a bear suit.

K9 and Company: “The Wicker Man” (1982) Sarah Jane investigates a young girl’s disappearance. Things get hot for Brendan at the village May Day celebration.

Plague Day Part 4 (1982) Nyssa saves the Morvilles from destruction while the Doctor, Adric and Tegan argue bitterly about the weather.

Glamour of the Ganjites Part 1 (1983) Reunited with Tegan in Amsterdam, the Doctor and Nyssa take her for what they intend to be a fun holiday. Nobody mentions Adric.

The Inlay Annoy Part 3 (1983) The Doctor suspects that Mr Theaste may not be who he claims.

The Ensliming Part 1 (1984) The Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough are menaced by giant slugs. Kamelion stays in the TARDIS.

The Awkwardness Part 1 (1984) Following Tegan’s departure, the Doctor and Turlough eat breakfast together in silence. The Doctor doesn’t look up from his paper.

The Awkwardness Part 2 (1984) The Doctor cracks a joke about that time Turlough tried to murder him, but it just makes things weird.

The Awkwardness Part 3 (1984) The Doctor fakes an emergency landing just to give him and Turlough something to talk about. Kamelion stays in the TARDIS.

The Psychotic Solution Part 1 (1984) Peri criticizes the Doctor’s coat. He hits her in the head with a shovel.

Eye of the Fruitbat Part 2 (1985) Peri is turned into a fruitbat. The Doctor murders a guard.

The Failing Grade Part 1 (1985) On a brief hiatus from adventuring, the Doctor and Peri take the opportunity to indulge in some light character development.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part 15 (1986) A vital clue might prove the Doctor’s innocence, or confirm his guilt. It’s never mentioned again.

Death Department Part 1 (1987) Mel needs a megabyte modem so the Doctor takes her to the galaxy’s biggest department store.

Death Department Part 2 (1987) The Doctor and Mel find the store overrun by gangs of colorfully dressed post-apocalyptic shoppers.

The Perils of Perivale Part 1 (1989) The Doctor makes Ace relive the day her childhood dog got run over.

The Wilderness Years Part 1 (1993) The Doctor, Ace, and Benny do drugs and have sex and swear.

The Wilderness Years Part 2 (1993) Trapped in New Neo City, Benny must neurojack into the information megahighway to free the AnarchoPixelz from derezzing at the cyberhands of the TechnoPunx.

The Wilderness Years Part 4 (1993) A reunion with an old companion reveals her life after the TARDIS was one of misery and despair. The Doctor stands helplessly by as a sordid death comes for…I don’t know, let’s say, Polly?

Summer of Love (1996) The Doctor and Grace travel back to 1967 San Francisco and kiss.

Fever (1996) Grace tracks down patient zero of an alien plague threatening San Francisco, while the Doctor works on a cure. Then they kiss.

The Weaker Sex (1996) The Master takes over Grace’s body, but his deception is revealed when the Doctor kisses him.

Eggheads (1996) The Doctor discovers an evil plot at the heart of San Francisco’s chapter of Mensa. He kisses Grace.

The King is Back (1996) The Doctor and Grace save San Francisco from a race of evil alien Elvis impersonators. Then they kiss.

Wartorn (2005) The Doctor and Rose visit the trenches of World War I. A dying soldier mutters “bad wolf” but nobody hears him.

Smooth Cruelty (2005) Jack seduces an Auton but is disappointed with what he finds.

The Emotion Loop (2007) Martha stares at the Doctor and sighs. The Doctor stares at a picture of Rose and sighs.

Sanitation (2007) The Doctor digs out the truth at the heart of the planet of garbage. Martha meets the Quarks for some reason.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: “Drink Up, Sarah Jane Smith” (2008) The Trickster removes the kids from time and Sarah Jane takes one damn second to enjoy the quiet before saving them, and can you blame her?

Just Don’t (2013) The Doctor makes a comment about Clara’s sweater being tight, and it’s weird for everyone.

Fetish of the Man-Child (2011) Amy and River display hyper-competence while the Doctor and Rory fumble and bumble adorably. Later, Amy and River are in danger, and it’s up to the Doctor and Rory to save them.

Smell (2014) The Doctor and Clara realize there’s one surefire way to determine if the shape under the bedsheets is a malevolent alien or a small child. But do they have the stomach for it?

Cry Babies Cry (2018) A small but loud faction of humanity erupts in anger because the Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan exist. Graham’s fine for some reason.

Capitalism Is Good, Actually (2018) The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham save the benevolent VoidLife Corporation from the evil workers’ strike.

The Establishment Doctors (2018) The Thirteenth Doctor meets the Third and they get along very, very well. Ryan expresses discomfort with the idea of UNIT in a moving monologue that has no impact on the plot. Yaz and Jo kiss.

May

2016

Time for a Queer Companion on Doctor Who

I’ve got a new post up over at Geeks Out! – Time for a Queer Companion on ‘Doctor Who’. It’s a quick look back at queerness during Steven Moffat’s time running the show, with a request for new companion Bill to be a member of the LGBT community. Take a look!

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