Bad 80s Who Strikes Again

[meddow]

Revelation of the Daleks has knocked The Visitation out of its position as worst Classic Who serial I’ve watched. Thankfully it was only two episodes. I don’t think I could have taken more of it. Too many characters, too many plots and WTF was with the DJ? Last thing the serial needed was an annoying character with a terrible accent giving a running commentary.

I do wonder who on earth thought the Six-Peri dynamic would be a good idea. He’s basically mean to her all the time – even calling her fat – and although she does make the odd remark back at him, he just comes off as a bully. If they're going to make the Doctor that abrasive he needs somebody who will not take his crap. Thank goodness for Evelyn.

I think I’m going to have to avoid Six for a while after that and maybe watch some more Three. The UNIT gang never cease to make me happy. Or at least re-watch Partners in Crime. Five days and multiple re-watches later I still love that episode to pieces.

Here’s also hoping that The Fires of Pompeii is as good as it’s being made out to be. I do remember last year when 42 was hyped as being a brilliant episode and it turned out to be my least favourite of season 3. As a result I’ve become rather deeply cynical about anything the production crew announces is great (silence, on the other hand, makes me optimistic). Although I do badly want it to be brilliant since sounds like the plot is The Aztecs meets a disaster movie and if they pull it off, it could be fantastic.

Comments

[naushika.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, someone who shares my view that Six & Peri are like a completely abyssmal pairing. He's a total ass and Peri is just weak and whiny in comparison. She was a much better complement to Five's temperament. Honestly I don't really like Six though. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, and from what I hear there was a greater arc for his character that never got fully played out so we only got the crap part and not the good part, but whatever. All I know is, he's kind of a jerk, heh.

I showed Revelation of the Daleks to my boyfriend early on in his Old Who watching. I had forgotten how bad it was. Needless to say, it was a long time before he agreed to watch any more old episodes with me. And he refers to Six as "the crabby one with the weird clothes."

It must say something about 42 that I did not remember at all what episode that was, and had to look it up. And I still only vaguely remember the plot. Clearly I was not impressed by it either. I am looking forward to The Fires of Pompeii, if only because NEW COMPANION, yay! :D And the previews made it look deliciously old school, so I'm hoping it delivers on that front.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Six comes off better in the audios in which he has been mellowed and has a Companion that can and will stand up to him, but he's certainly not my favourite Doctor, mainly because of the way he treats Peri.

After my laptop refused to play the disk properly, I had to sneak about my flat and watch it when my flat so as to make sure my flatmates would not walk in - they're only vaguely into old school, and Revelation, I feel, is not a good introduction.

There is the promise of the ritual sacrificing of the Companion in Fires! Yay! I've missed that from Old School. Oh, and Donna! So far, there have been no misses IMO in her run as a Companion (okay, two hits from two isn't hard, but still).

[naushika.livejournal.com]

One day, after I am free of this time-consuming hell-hole known at college, I WILL listen to the audios! Everyone always talks about how awesome they are, and I already absolutely need to listen to Eight's audios, and now I must add Six to the list! Because I want to like him. I really do! *lol*

The ritual sacrificing, yes!! I'm unreasonably excited about it.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

It must say something about 42 that I did not remember at all what episode that was, and had to look it up. And I still only vaguely remember the plot.

You're not the only one! I thought 42 was surprisingly forgettable, and I only vaguely remember what it's about because my roommate recently finished watching Series 3.

[naushika.livejournal.com]

haha, excellent! I'm not alone! *celebrates*

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Have you seen any other Six/Peri? Their dynamic is much more even in Vengeance on Varos and Attack of the Cybermen.

I adored 42, but from a rather subjective place. Maybe the crew's judgment of its brilliance comes from the Ten & Martha emotional stuff? That was the center of it for me.

I'm really jazzed for Fires of Pompeii because (...like in 42!) powerless Doctor shall be intriguing.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I've seen The Mark of the Rani and I can't remember thinking their dynamic was so bad. Maybe I need to watch one of those two to clearly get an idea.

The Ten and Martha emotional stuff is the best think about 42. It's all the badly-to-not-at-all fleshed out supporting characters and the plot that let it down. Planet of Evil did that same plot in a better manner.

And it shall certainly be interesting to see the Doctor powerless to history.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Peri. *shudders* Is Revelation the bizarre one with Alexei Sayle? Most of the 6th Doctor's reign has been blurred from my memory, mainly because I've only seen most of them once (except "Vengeance on Varos" because of Jason Connery and 'The Two Doctors' which seemed to get shown on assorted PBS stations a lot when I was moving around between New York, Syracuse and Phily) and not since they aired or thereabouts. I know it's pretty awful.

Peri in general just makes my brain hurt. I adore Colin Baker as a human being - he's one of the sweetest people I've ever had privledge to spend time around. I cannot say the same for Nicola Bryant and my opinion of her has coloured my already low opinion of Perpugilliam Brown (yeah, sure that's a normal American name...GAH!)

Sadly, Colin got saddled with some of the worst episodes EVER, and then the BBC blamed him for DW's plummeting ratings and canned him. Poor man.

I'm very psyched about "Fires of Pompeii" for a ton of reasons including the setting, the actual sets (so I can make cracky Rome jokes to myself) and James Moran who wrote the episode. He was at the Gallifrey One convention and just very very sweet. and very very quiet. god he just talked like this all the time in rooms filled withVERY LOUD PEOPLE LIKE STEVEN MOFFAT :-) Also Phil Davis is just made of awesome sauce and he's playing a Roman in it so yayz.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm really looking forward to making crack Rome jokes as well. I've already decided that Pullo and Vorenus are mixed up in it all, they're just off screen.

It is the bizarre one with Alexei Sayle - he was the out of place DJ. I had no idea he was an actual comedian until I just googled him now to see who he was. From what I've read of Colin Baker, he does seem so lovely, and as big a fan boy of the show as David Tennant. It is such a shame he's blamed for the decline and that they took it out on him by canning him - his Doctor is very good in the audios. He really just didn't have the Companion or the scrips for Six to work on screen.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I've seen a bunch of still, and yeah. It's just screaming for Rome jokes. It doesn't help that I have the Peter Davison 5th Doctor Audio with James Purefoy as Dracula. I haven't listened to it yet but my brain goes in strange places. Especially since Kevin McKidd was in Journeyman so therefore Verenus was a timetraveller too...

Okay. Yeah, I remember seeing that one at the time and wondering WTF it was all about. I think Rula Lenska's in it too? (I'm weird, I am actually a fan of hers thanks to a series she did in the late 70s called Rock Follies). I knew who Alexei Sayle was because he was on The Young Ones (with Nigel Planer, Ric Mayall, Adrian Edmonson and Christopher Ryan -- who is now going to be a Sontaran this year) and had seen him do some bizarre standup on tv.

Colin's just a sweetie. I still feel guilty that I didn't get to say hello to him at Gallifrey this year -- he was lovely when I dealt with him at 2 different Visions back in the 90s. He's someone who remembers all his fans by name, is just the nicest, easiest person to deal with, no ego etc. And yes, he's a huge fan too. He really got screwed in the companion and script dept.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, "Revelation" is up there for Worst Stories Ever. Six's repeated jokes about Peri's weight made me really uncomfortable.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really hated those Peri's weight jokes. I can understand them wanting to establish the Doctor as a bit of an arse, because Six was an arse - but having him make derogatory remarks about his Companion's physical features is completely unnecessary to establish Six's arseholeness as not only does it make you feel that he does not care for his Companion (which is the relationship central to the show), but it's particularly bad when you consider the Doctor as a role model.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Yeah. And I think of all the men who say they were desperately attracted to Peri, and how young they must have been, and what that must have taught them about interacting with women... It's just terribly depressing. Just as nasty as the subtext with Martha last year, and fifty times as textual.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

It's quiet depressing to think that over twenty years later, very little has been learnt at all.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I think it's a lot more subtle these days, and watching Six-era, I do find myself appreciating RTD's reluctance to use standard, real-world guns. The subtlety of the ugly messages makes them more insidious, but I'll take that over Ten calling Martha fat four times an episode.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

No, it's isn't overt like it was back then. We did have Mickey tell Rose to watch the chips once that I recall, but it wasn't the Doctor at least and it wasn't an RTD script. Though I do think RTD missed the idea that if the Doctor-Companion relationship is hurtful, then it starts to effect the viewer's enjoyment of the show - or at least mine.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I don't think you can eliminate every inkling of hurtfulness, because people tease. And sometimes that's fine. But there's a line that exists between that and the obnoxious territory.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I think, considering how strongly people react to such dynamics in the show -- how even kids reacted to Ten's mistreatment of Martha -- that people generally made it out the other side of watching stuff like that without their interaction with women tainted by it. (That boozy Five Doctors commentary holds up David as not having his attraction to Nicola Bryant damaged, for one...)

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

So far I've only seen a little bit of Classic Who, I've yet to watch any Sixth Doctor serials, partly because I never hear anything all that great about that era of the show.

I'm optimistic about The Fires of Pompeii, I think largely because I'm still in the mindset that Donna is brilliant and therefore it has to be good. :D (It's the transitive property of Donna. Donna is in the episode, and Donna is brilliant, therefore the episode is brilliant.)