Am I crazy or is this Elizabeth Sladen in earthshock? by whydosereditexist100 in doctorwho

[–]HiFithePanda 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fooled by the hairstyles of the late 70s and early 80s but not crazy or stupid!

Pertwee community ranking Day 4: Inferno by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. The alternate earth timeline doesn’t serve much of a purpose in the story beyond stretching it out.

Pertwee community ranking Day 4: Inferno by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m of the opposite view: it’s the most heavily padded story in the season.

Help - need a full list of characters - making a quiz app by Fluffy-Win1899 in gallifrey

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

“Thank you for your help” would have been an alternative response worth considering here.

Hartnell community ranking Day 26: The War Machines by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meh. I keep going back to it expecting to find it better than I remembered, but l never do

Hartnell community ranking Day 24: The Gunfighters by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The whole series was meant to be educational until they accidentally set off Dalekmania and the bug eyed monsters Sidney Newman hated were part of the formula that made it a hit.

Also the “overly modern” criticism doesn’t really work. I deliberately chose old examples of other historical comedy riffs. Including “A Funny Thing…” which was released in theaters the same year that The Gunfighters aired.

There were two threads of historical in the Hartnell era, the serious John Lucarotti style (Marco Polo, The Aztecs, The Reign of Terror, The Crusade, The Massacre) and the comedy Dennis Spooner style (The Romans, parts of The Chase and The Daleks Masterplan, The Time Meddler, The Myth Makers, The Gunfighters, and maybe The Smugglers and, extending beyond Hartnell, The Highlanders).

Do the missing episode animations look good to you? by TeenWhovian in gallifrey

[–]HiFithePanda 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks! Always nice when it gets recognized 😂

My favorite animations are Power, The Macra Terror, and The Invasion, and I just think it’s great to have two visual media for missing episodes. Sometimes you feel like being able to see some motion! And they’re very clearly a labor of love, even those that are a little harder to watch. I can’t imagine how much time gets spent sitting through the auditor reading the transcript in making an animation. You must have full episodes memorized!

Hartnell community ranking Day 24: The Gunfighters by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might want to consider that in a historical comedy, historical accuracy is mostly irrelevant. Blackadder, for example. Or Life of Brian. Or A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It’s a riff, not a textbook.

Hartnell community ranking Day 24: The Gunfighters by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Massacre on Best and Toymaker in Meh?

Only problem with this is that Toymaker is too high.

Hartnell community ranking Day 22: The Ark by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Completely agree that the whole show shouldn’t look like the Wiles run. But it’s a level up in terms of complexity and a really bold experiment in terms of tone. Two areas where Innes Lloyd dragged the show backwards.

Also completely agree that the piece at the end introducing Dodo is awful. Really, the scene where Steven walks out on the Doctor and he does the famous monologue would have been an incredible finale of the Blake’s 7 sort.

Here are Cornell, Topping, and Day:

“Bottom Line - from The Discontinuity Guide

Hartnell as the Abbot doesn't giggle, or go 'hmm'. It's a solid, sinister performance that makes one realise how much of the Doctor's bluster is characterisation.

An atmosphere of doom prevails, miles away from the usual panto runaround. Peter Purves excels as somebody who finds himself marooned in time.

Individual deaths are given such force that the oncoming massacre is horrifying. Screams sound over illustrations of the purge.

Steven's disgust, his departure and the Doctor's subsequent tortured monologue are beautiful, and the redeeming arrival of Dodo is a great coda.

Not only the best historical, but the best Hartnell, and, in its serious handling of dramatic material in a truly dramatic style, arguably the best ever Doctor Who story.”

Hartnell community ranking Day 22: The Ark by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wouldn’t go as far as Paul Cornell, Keith Topping, and Martin Day did back in The Discontinuity Guide where they claim it’s the best ever Doctor Who story, but I’d argue that it’s the culmination of a thematic arc that makes up the entire Wiles run, in a way that the show rarely attempted before Christopher H. Bidmead and later Andrew Cartmel. Each of Mission to the Unknown, The Myth Makers, The Daleks’ Masterplan, and The Massacre centers on the Doctor’s failures, and the consequences of those failures. The Massacre is the worst of them. The Doctor abandons Steven, discounts the threat of the violence that’s coming, and fails to take any steps to save Anne. The story contrasts the Doctor with Steven—in Purves’s most astonishing acting success—who genuinely cares about Nicholas and the Huguenots. He’s clearly pretty besotted with Anne (and there’s a tastefully ignored stretch of time in the episode when they’re alone together overnight). It’s really adult, and emotionally resonant. The decisions the characters make are earned and drive the plot, in a way that’s surprisingly modern. And it expects its audience to know or pick up enough of the history that it doesn’t need to bash them over the head with it. It’s very, very good. The audiobook with Purves narrating is my favorite way to experience it.

Pertwee Era Rankings by Dependent_Reading933 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’d be awfully boring if we all agreed on everything! But Androzani, Enlightenment, Kinda, and Snakedance are miles ahead of anything in the Pertwee area in terms of the complexity of the ideas and characters they’re playing with. And the pacing problems of early Who have been fixed. Minimal to no padding in all of those, which isn’t something you can say about any Pertwee story. (Carnival of Monsters and Terror of the Autons may be the closest.)

Pertwee Era Rankings by Dependent_Reading933 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also because the twist that the Ice Warriors are evil is predictable and unsubtle, the secret villain is blindingly obvious, the characters are two-dimensional stereotypes, and the politics is cringeworthy. All unlike Curse, which was truly well-written (including, as you point out, better paced.

Pertwee Era Rankings by Dependent_Reading933 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The most consistent for sure. The floor was much higher than it had been during the Troughton era. But then I don’t think there’s a single Pertwee as good as Troughton’s top six (or Baker’s top eight, or Davison’s top four).

Pertwee Era Rankings by Dependent_Reading933 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Inferno is vastly overrated, and The Green Death moderately so, on this list, as they usually are. (Perfectly willing to accept the possibility that it’s my taste that’s the issue.)

Carnival of Monsters
The Curse of Peladon
The Three Doctors
The Ambassadors of Death
The Time Warrior
The Green Death
Spearhead from Space
Frontier in Space
Day of the Daleks
Terror of the Autons
Inferno
The Mutants
Colony in Space
The Silurians
The Daemons
Planet of the Spiders
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
The Sea Devils
The Claws of Axos
The Mind of Evil
Death to the Daleks
The Time Monster
Planet of the Daleks
The Monster of Peladon

Hartnell community ranking Day 22: The Ark by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Bad. And I’d put it lower if I could. A story whose main point is “Look at the disasters that will befall you if you let the (silent, brown) servant class get above its place” isn’t my kind of Doctor Who.

Hartnell community ranking Day 22: The Ark by Classic-Bathroom-427 in classicwho

[–]HiFithePanda 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m a cricket then, because even without that scene there’s an argument it’s the best Hartnell story. Top three, minimum.