I'm sure none of you give a shit or even remember that back in June I declared my plan to watch all Doctor Who episodes in broadcast order and then after the following "explanation" post I failed to mention the idea ever again.
Well as of this post I have reached Episode 3 of Series 3 story "The Dalek's Master Plan" so here's the running total as it stands:
093 episodes out of 789016 of which were recons
010 of which were audio recordings
The more anal of you wil notice that the above figures doesn't necessarily tally with the actual surviving episode figures. This is because while episodes 1-3 and 6 of the Reign of Terror do survive in the BBC archive they are only available to view as part of an expensive long out of print limited edition VHS boxed set. With the DVD edition of this story not due for release until at least Novemeber this year and the out of print BBC audio CD costing a little more than I would wish to pay I chose to sign up for a free trial with Amazon Audible just to download that title.
Once the "Reign of Terror" DVD is released I will watch it and update the running totals accordingly by removing 6 from the the audio recordings and adding 2 to the recons (obviously the total episode tally will remain the same)
Here are a few brief thoughts on each story from series 1.
An Unearthly Child:
Frankly recieved wisdom is right about this story. Episode 1 is an intriguing drama about two teachers concern and curiosity over a prodigious yet distant pupil by the name of Susan which famously leads them to a junk yard where they encount her unpleasant grandfather and a mysterious police box that is "larger on the outside than the inside".
Then the following 3 episode are mostly boring rubbish about cavemen trying to discover fire.
3 out of 10 (7 out of 10 for episode 1)
The Daleks:
A good 2 part story stretched out into an intermitently interesting 7 parter. With their completely inhuman appearence the Daleks are an undeniably inspired piece of design work and deserve to be regarded as the all time classic science fiction monsters they are.
Their debut story, to modern eyes, however is mostly a bore.
3 out of 10
The Edge of Destruction:
Two part Tardis set filler story that somehow conspires to be more interesting than the two preceding it. Something goes wrong with the Tardis. The Doctor bangs his head, goes a bit weird and paranoid and starts blaming his 3 traveling companions.
5 out of 10
Marco Polo (all 7 episodes watched as recons):
4 stories in and we have the first lost (ie wiped) story. Shame really as it's conciderably better than the 3 that proceed it.
The first of the black and white era's many historical stories. The Tardis lands in the Himalayas and the crew meet up with, well do you need telling? 7 episodes of political back stabbing, stolen keys, sabotaged water suplies and enforced marriage.
7 out of 10
The Keys of Marinus
Many people regard this 6 part Terry Nation story, the only non-Dalek story he wrote for the show, as crude and a bit dull. They are wrong. While it certainly isn't the best series 1 has to offer it's IMO an entertaining romp
The model work in episode 1 is among the best of the black and white era while the story's episodic nature means that if one episode isn't of interest there's something of interest coming along next week.
7 out of 10
The Aztecs
Unquestionably series 1's best story and probably Barbara's finest hour. The Tardis lands in ancient Mexico and through various tricks of fate Barbara finds herself proclaimed a god and the Doctor finds himself married (a fact seemingly forgotten by a certain Steve Moffat)
9 out of 10
The Sensorites
And we crash back down to Earth with this snooze inducer. Much like the "An Unearthly Child" this story begins with a interesting and suspenseful episode one complete with genuinely creepy cliff hanger only in this case to pan out into a dull story of political intregue.
3 out of 10
The Reign of Terror (all episodes listened to as narrated off air audio recordings)
Another historical, this time set during the French Revolution. As an audio recording this sounded like something of a run around. Certainly enjoyable and seemingly quite violent, something that may be confirmed once I get to see the forthcoming DVD release.
8 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment