Doctors Revisited -- Sixth Doctor special, plus Vengeance on Varos

[dbskyler]

Finally got the chance to watch the Doctors Revisited special for the Sixth Doctor. It was fine -- nothing great, but nothing bad, either. Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, and Bonnie Langford were all interviewed, plus Steven Moffat and other people. For the first time, David Tennant wasn't interviewed; I wonder if that's because he was too busy at the time of shooting, or because he didn't have much to say about the Sixth Doctor? (I suspect the former.)

Their chosen episode for Six was Vengeance on Varos, and I realized I'd never seen it! So I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Also, it was again introduced by Steven Moffat, and I am starting to suspect that he is the one choosing which episodes to show. Regardless if it's him or not, the choices have been uniformly good, even if they haven't always been the ones I would personally choose. I was pleasantly surprised by V on V -- it was really an excellent episode, and Colin was in great form as the Doctor. I found myself really appreciating his physicality, and I loved one point in particular where he seemed to be purposefully imitating Peter Davison.

I'd heard talk of the bit with the guards and the acid bath, and I agree with the rest of fandom that it is OOC behavior for the Doctor, especially as those guards were not presented as being anything other than normal people stuck with a slightly distasteful job that was harmful to no one. But other than that, it was well written, and Moffat in his introduction talked about the irony of watching a violent show about people enjoying watching violence. Of course, I would argue that the key difference is watching fiction vs. watching reality -- we know that no one was really thrown into an acid bath! But it was still an interesting conceit.

Only one more "regular" special left -- I wonder which episode they're going to show for Seven? And I wonder what sort of retrospective they'll do for Eight? Do they have the rights to broadcast the TVM? Will they bother to cover him at all?

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Think of Tumblr as a really busy noticeboard. When you actually have one of your own (rather than just looking at people's blogs over there - it's hideous to navigate from the outside), stuff goes along your dashboard, not unlike your flist here, so everything everyone you follow posts goes by and you see news, pics, gifs, vids etc. It's very unsatisfactory compared to LJ but it does have its uses - speedy information being one of them. And pretty pics. You just can't talk to anyone without doing the online equivalent of shouting at a disco.

:-)

I know a lot of people say otherwise, but I don't think Curse of Fenric is a good intro to Seven - I love it, of course (and Ghostlight, which most fans seem to hate - I'm v surprised you got the opposite impression, unless that was just from me and JJ or something) - but Ghostlight, Fenric, and Survival are the conclusion of Ace's story arc, so it's much more satisfactory to watch them in order - to watch all of Ace's story in order, really. Anyway, the story they have chosen is the Really Obvious one you haven't mentioned yet (and the story I would use as the best intro to anyone who hadn't tried Seven, or hadn't tried the Classic series, especially if they weren't used to old TV. It's one of my three that rarely seem to fail with non-fans, the other two being The Five Doctors and Robots of Death). I don't know if you've seen it. I'd guess you must have done, but I don't know. ;-)

And I know it's not a spoiler, but I'm amused now. *is being evil* Given that Seven only has a limited amount of stories anyway, I'm sure you'll get it. (And then find out that Tumblr lied to me, or something and I'm wrong. If it even was Tumblr...)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Hmm, not Ghost Light, not Curse of Fenric . . . I would love it to be Paradise Towers, as that's another one I haven't seen, but I somehow suspect it's not . . .

A lot of people on who_at_50 guessed Remembrance of the Daleks for Seven. It's a good episode (I've seen it), and it's anniversary-appropriate, but I wouldn't call it a great introductory episode. Perhaps you would, though. Hmmm hmmm hmmm . . .

[thisbluespirit]

Yep, Remembrance! And it's not just me - it really does seem to be a good one for newbies and very popular generally. I've tried it myself. ;-)

And now I come to think of it, though, I'm not at all sure whether it was the BBCA announcement or the BFI one (the British Film Institute have been doing a screening of one story per Doctor each month, with special guests). :lol:

But even if it was that, BBCA seem to be going for four-parters, so that leaves you with Battlefield, Fenric and Remembrance, doesn't it? They're unlikely to go for S24, because much as I enjoy some of it, it just isn't as good, or as representative. And I can't think which one was the four-parter for that season, either.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Just saw an ad on BBCA, and yes, it's going to be Remembrance of the Daleks!

The weird thing is, I saw that as one of my first Seventh Doctor episodes (if not the first), and I recall having a hard time figuring out what was going on. And that's despite a familiarity with Classic Who. But you've had luck showing it to newbies? Well, I do have a general problem with following Seventh Doctor stories, so it could be just me.

BBCA also gave us a teaser with Sylvester McCoy, so he got interviewed, hurrah! Looking forward to seeing the special! Plus I'll have to re-watch Remembrance to see if I "get" it any better now.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, so many people say Seven eps are hard to understand, and I just don't get it, because I saw them when I was 11 and 12 and they seem exactly how DW should be to me. I didn't watch Remembrance, though - I was a little late in starting!

Yep. I wouldn't do Curse, because I think it does need some knowledge of Ace's story to properly appreciate what's going on, but remembrance seems to work nicely. :-)

It's quite funny that you're getting these repeats and we're just not. The BFI is doing screenings, but obviously that's not the same thing, and only a small number of people can go to those.

I'm glad I wasn't wrong after all that. :lol: