We'll always have Metebelis Three
9 Mar 2019 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkI've polished off the Third Doctor era. A weirdly black and white era, for me: so much to love, so much to barely survive watching.
Winners:
1) Earth-based episodes. It's shocking how neatly my list of favorite and least favorite episodes in this era is sorted by the ones set on earth vs. the ones set in space.
2) The UNIT family. Two genres I am super easy for are spy families and campy humor, so this was basically the Doctor Who as workplace sitcom era of my heart. And I've always liked the Brig, but god, the Brig is fabulous, isn't he?
3) The Master. Delgado was the last chance for somebody to make me a fan of the Master and not just Michelle Gomez/Missy, and . . . well, he failed. But I had a great time watching him do it.
4) Liz Shaw. Queen. Though we deserved so much more of Spearhead from Space Liz and not the watered down, be-wigged version they gave us for the rest of the season.
5) Pertwee's costumes, especially the late-stage ones. Surely one of the best-dressed Doctors ever. I want to do obscene things to the plum velvet blazer from Planet of the Daleks. Not to Pertwee in the blazer. Just to the blazer.
6) Sarah Jane. Confession: I do like Sarah more towards the end of her time with the Doctor, which fandom informs me is the wrong opinion. But her sheer tenacity and savvy in season 11 is undeniably great.
7) Spearhead from Space, Ambassadors of Death, Mind of Evil, The Daemons, The Sea Devils, The Green Death, The Time Warrior. And special shout out to both Invasion of the Dinosaurs and The Time Monster, omgomgomg for being the best things ever. Just the best. All the hearts.
Losers:
1) Space. Space, why are you so stupid? Why are you so full of boring things I care so little about? Why do you always take the Doctor away from the UNIT family where he belongs and mire him in a really inferior Tom Baker story without Tom Baker and therefore 1000% less interesting to watch? By the last seasons I was hard tuning out as soon as they left earth.
2) Three, kinda. Now, I don't hate Three and I enjoyed watching him quite a lot almost always when he was on earth where he belonged. But . . . are we sure he's actually the Doctor? Because I'm not really convinced. This is a surprising outcome for me because back when I was trying random Classic Who serials as suggested by popular opinion instead of watching whole eras in order like I should have, Three was the only Doctor who really grabbed me. And now he's my least favorite Doctor I've seen. Sorry, Three. You should have just been your own character.
3) Jo, kinda. I want to like Jo far more than I do. I liked her best when they did the best job of playing up the dichotomy between her slightly ditzy, sweet persona and her actually quite impressive spy skillz. I basically just rode a slightly confused rolled coaster with her for her whole three seasons. And her writing was obviously horribly uneven: a story that really knows how to use her followed by one that reduces her to all her most annoying and feeble qualities. Bleah, she goes way down the totem pole of favored companions.
4) Six and seven-parters. No. Just. No.
5) Season seven. I actually made an attempt, several years ago now, at watching the Pertwee era through, and back then I rather liked season seven and got turned off by season eight. This time it was basically the opposite. There are aspects of the season I really like but, man, it is a real concentrated dose of boring people in grey control rooms, isn't it?
6) Doctor Who and the Silurians (though points for the title), Colony in Space, Peladon and Peladon, The Mutants . . . god I can't even be bothered. If it was in space, it was bad.
--------------------
And now I only have two Doctors left, eep!
Winners:
1) Earth-based episodes. It's shocking how neatly my list of favorite and least favorite episodes in this era is sorted by the ones set on earth vs. the ones set in space.
2) The UNIT family. Two genres I am super easy for are spy families and campy humor, so this was basically the Doctor Who as workplace sitcom era of my heart. And I've always liked the Brig, but god, the Brig is fabulous, isn't he?
3) The Master. Delgado was the last chance for somebody to make me a fan of the Master and not just Michelle Gomez/Missy, and . . . well, he failed. But I had a great time watching him do it.
4) Liz Shaw. Queen. Though we deserved so much more of Spearhead from Space Liz and not the watered down, be-wigged version they gave us for the rest of the season.
5) Pertwee's costumes, especially the late-stage ones. Surely one of the best-dressed Doctors ever. I want to do obscene things to the plum velvet blazer from Planet of the Daleks. Not to Pertwee in the blazer. Just to the blazer.
6) Sarah Jane. Confession: I do like Sarah more towards the end of her time with the Doctor, which fandom informs me is the wrong opinion. But her sheer tenacity and savvy in season 11 is undeniably great.
7) Spearhead from Space, Ambassadors of Death, Mind of Evil, The Daemons, The Sea Devils, The Green Death, The Time Warrior. And special shout out to both Invasion of the Dinosaurs and The Time Monster, omgomgomg for being the best things ever. Just the best. All the hearts.
Losers:
1) Space. Space, why are you so stupid? Why are you so full of boring things I care so little about? Why do you always take the Doctor away from the UNIT family where he belongs and mire him in a really inferior Tom Baker story without Tom Baker and therefore 1000% less interesting to watch? By the last seasons I was hard tuning out as soon as they left earth.
2) Three, kinda. Now, I don't hate Three and I enjoyed watching him quite a lot almost always when he was on earth where he belonged. But . . . are we sure he's actually the Doctor? Because I'm not really convinced. This is a surprising outcome for me because back when I was trying random Classic Who serials as suggested by popular opinion instead of watching whole eras in order like I should have, Three was the only Doctor who really grabbed me. And now he's my least favorite Doctor I've seen. Sorry, Three. You should have just been your own character.
3) Jo, kinda. I want to like Jo far more than I do. I liked her best when they did the best job of playing up the dichotomy between her slightly ditzy, sweet persona and her actually quite impressive spy skillz. I basically just rode a slightly confused rolled coaster with her for her whole three seasons. And her writing was obviously horribly uneven: a story that really knows how to use her followed by one that reduces her to all her most annoying and feeble qualities. Bleah, she goes way down the totem pole of favored companions.
4) Six and seven-parters. No. Just. No.
5) Season seven. I actually made an attempt, several years ago now, at watching the Pertwee era through, and back then I rather liked season seven and got turned off by season eight. This time it was basically the opposite. There are aspects of the season I really like but, man, it is a real concentrated dose of boring people in grey control rooms, isn't it?
6) Doctor Who and the Silurians (though points for the title), Colony in Space, Peladon and Peladon, The Mutants . . . god I can't even be bothered. If it was in space, it was bad.
--------------------
And now I only have two Doctors left, eep!
(no subject)
Date: 17 Mar 2019 07:42 pm (UTC)I really don't get why Hinchcliffe is supposed to be the greatest.
My personal theory is that it looks a bit better (bigger budget) and doesn't have as many jokes so it's Srs Bizness DW that fanboys think they can enjoy without having to be ashamed of it.
The burning of Two is a sad :( He was too good for this world.
(no subject)
Date: 17 Mar 2019 08:48 pm (UTC)I have zero interest in any real gossip, but fandom gossip? I will kick that hornets nest every time.
Also during The Wilderness Years there were the NAs so the people wedded to the Cartmel years were writing "the canon" and it was a very unequal structure for a fandom.
That makes sense. Just on the face of it an epic battle between Pertwee and McCoy fans sounds something like the Rose stans having an epic battle with the Missy stans. Because . . . why?
My personal theory is that it looks a bit better (bigger budget) and doesn't have as many jokes so it's Srs Bizness DW that fanboys think they can enjoy without having to be ashamed of it.
Booooo. Is it Doctor Who if you're not a little bit ashamed of it? That's half the fun. Also I don't know how to break it to them that Arc is Space is boring.
The burning of Two is a sad :( He was too good for this world.
Pain over missing episodes is not something I was looking forward to sharing in, but now it is my pain too.