Okay, first post!
Yes you guys sound far, far better right off the bat. The best so far, really. Please bore us here with the details on the new setup and differences. =)
Okay, first post!
Yes you guys sound far, far better right off the bat. The best so far, really. Please bore us here with the details on the new setup and differences. =)
Other stuff:
Martin Jarvis was also in a recent UK production of Much Ado About Nothing (starring Billie Piper as Hero).
The Master in Mark of the Rani... how did neither of you correct Warren about his not returning until Survival considering he was in The Ultimate Foe? I'm typing these as I listen so perhaps you correct yourselves later. =)
Jacqueline Pearce... I never saw the allure about her. Then again, I've seen almost no Blake's 7.
Timelash... the worst ever? Hmm. I watched it again not too long ago and as far as fluff goes it was okay. I remember quite liking it as a younger fellow, disliking it the more I saw it, and now back to some semblance of ambivalence about it. I don't like it, but I don't hate it. I would grant it's perhaps the worst of the Colin Baker era... though I'm no fan of Mark of the Rani. As far as the plot holes mentioned go, you'll recall the whole "I'll explain later" bit was well-satired in The Curse of Fatal Death (and rightly so). It's not the first time that's happened in DW and although no specific examples leap to mind, likely not the last.
Revelation... the thing hardly features the Doctor, which was one of the major issues I had with the atrocious, horrible, steaming pile that is Love & Monsters. Overrated immediately leaps to mind as an apt way to describe the episode. The best thing to come out of the episode was the completed segregation of the Dalek factions which led to Remembrance's beauty, initially started in Resurrection. I know Jean-Paul has his hate on for Eric Saward, yet digs Revelation (at least to a degree), but the more I think about that story, the more I want to shove Saward out an airlock somewhere. And the whole Soylent Green ripoff? Please. Though you're bang on with the pacing issues... stall stall stall stall stall stall RUSH RUSH BEAT THE DALEKS RUSH RUSH.
I wasn't aware Ian Levine was the... um, genius... who wrote Doctor in Distress. As cheesy as it was, at least it sort of worked as a rallying cry.
Mysterious Planet: By far the best of the bunch for the Trial stories... the mystery, the Gallifreyan intrigue, Glitz (one of the best elements to come out of the late Colin Baker era), humour (I remember first seeing it at a 10-0 meeting back in the day and the whole room erupted in laughter when the mention of the Canadian Goose book occurred), luddite-ish people, you name it, it had it. It was very well-acted, fairly well-written... a true gem. I might have to agree with Steven about it being the best of the era, although I still really dig Attack of the Cybermen. It'd definitely be a tossup between those two for best of the era.
Mindwarp was also fairly good though I could never get into it. Brian Blessed was fine in it, but he's essentially played the same role for his entire career and these days it's tiring to see him. The best element was absolutely Sil, and the whole mystery slash deception angle undertaken by the Doctor was nice to see.
Terror of the Vervoids... well, it's best summed up in one word: Mel. The only redeeming factor was we got Pussy Galore in it. Maybe that's why the Vervoids looked like vaginas... some sort of allusion to Ms. Blackman?
Ultimate Foe... a bad way to wrap up the era. The twist with the Valeyard is wonderful, the revelations regarding the sleepers and the tapes from Mysterious Planet is great... but the whole long drawn out boring period drama bits with the Popplewicks was almost enough to make you want to jump off a bridge. That alone was probably enough to get Colin not wanting to do the regeneration scene the next year. =)
Technical details first....I used Wiretap Pro's computer sound and microphone combo input, and just recorded from there. That meant turning off mail and other things that go "beep," but it seemed to work out all right.
I did screw up and forgot that the Master was in the Ultimate Foe....but hey, it's been years since I've seen a few of these stories.
And I always loved Revelation, despite its flaws. Remembrance is about the only good thing about McCoy's era, but I always thought it was less than the sum of its parts. Of course, I can save that for next week....
Also, this is the first time I'd ever heard "Doctor in Distress,"....yeeesh. I lasted about 5 lines in before I made you all suffer. :)
Also, turns out "The Nightmare Fair" at least was made into a fan audio drama by the same people who made Realitywarp and a few other fan productions. I'm going to try and track these down in the next couple of weeks, unless someone else has copies already...
Also, I should apologize for that weird buzzing sound while we were discussing Vengeance on Varos. That was my cell phone getting a call. Usually I remember to keep it in another room, but this time I forgot. :(
I thought that was a cell phone buzzing, but I didn't say anything, lest no one else heard it and they thought I was mad. Mad in the British sense.
And I missed the Master/Ultimate Foe comment, but then, I usually don't remember the beginning of the sentence I'm ending. It could have been worse - we could have left Leela out of the flashback sequence in "Resurrection".
Jon Pertwee would often use the "I'll explain later" line. Not because the writers couldn't think of an answer to a problem, or that the audience was too dim to understand it, but Jo Grant would have looked even more stupified. And, latterly, the Brigadier. In the background, though, Captain Yates nodded knowingly...
Wiretap Pro works that well does it? Excellent to know. Yeah, right off the bat it was so much crisper and cleaner for the voices, it was a wonderful improvement.
Overall, I think you guys put across one thing which seems to be overlooked -- the Colin Baker era is far, far better than a lot of people will give it credit. Truly there's only one stinker (Vervoids), and even in it we see some really interesting elements (such as how far the Doctor will go when his back is up against the wall, facing a genocide charge for his actions). I look forward to the McCoy retrospective, though I have a feeling it'll be even more divisive than Colin's time.
(I happen to be one of those who loved the dark vision put forward by Cartmel in season 26, and the other week I even voluntarily sat through Paradise Towers, Delta and the Bannerman and Dragonfire nearly back to back. Okay, Paradise is still fairly horrid, Welsh accents make me laugh uncontrollably, and I still want to shoot that kid from Dragonfire from a cannon, but the experience didn't totally suck. Now I'm all tempted to go through Happiness Patrol and Greatest Show in the Galaxy, neither of which I've seen in a while compared to the rest of season 25.)
I originally had a much higher opinion of C. Baker's era - until it came time to do the podcast, oddly enough. Maybe I wasn't looking at it as objectively in the past.
Warren hates the McCoy era, whereas I, like you, Chris, quite enjoy Season 26. Well, apart from Ghost Light, which looks and sounds great, but makes zero to no sense. I'll save the rest of my comments until the cast, though!
One thing about Ghost Light is it parallels Attack of the Cyberman in that you need to know too much about past stuff to make complete sense of it. Unlike Attack, at least what you need to know was presented somewhat recently and appears in stories which are complete. The whole story is overly and unnecessarily cryptic, and when it aired on PBS we were in the era of the Target books coming out well after the story airs, and unfortunately although the book was quite big relative to the 3-episode length I don't recall it explaining much of the back story. It's just one of those ones you have to watch over and over again to get the nuances, which lends itself to boring you to freakin' death especially compared to the more up-front and fast-paced stories of the season. Long spiel short, I think it's a lose-lose situation with Ghost Light... you can't get it with one viewing, and you can't view it more than once easily.
Yet I still like the story... at least more than Survival for others in the season.
In regards to Colin, I think I walked away with a greater appreciation for the era after listening to the podcast. Obviously there are variances in our respective preferences and such, but the detailed and objective look at things is something I've not really done for his era.
One thing I neglected to comment upon is the assertion made that Colin deserved to distance himself from the role and series after the way he and the show were treated -- far, far moreso than Eccleston (who I don't think has the right to be so indignant about his efforts). Colin doesn't get the respect he deserves, and it's a great thing that he's been such a friend to the show in the new era. Perhaps sitting on his duff for a year and drawing a salary made him not hate the show. =)
Only 10 (now 11, with this one) comments about the last RFS? And I was hoping ot break 20 again. I guess we just don't care about Colin Baker that much...sorry, Colin.
Meh, just wait until the Paul McGann podcast. I'm betting the fine folks at "canadian phramacydfshdfhe" will be the main commenters there...:)
I'm afraid I won't get around to listening until the weekend. There, that's one more comment. I'll just start by saying that I think Colin Baker is overrated. Let's see how I feel by the end of the podcast.
BUY VIAGRA BUY VIAGRA
There, let's pad things a bit.
Overrated you say? I so rarely hear good things about his era I didn't think that was possible. I could buy "appropriately rated" from the typical comments one sees... =)
Yup, overrated. I'm not speaking of the older historical perspective on the era, which is largely dismissive. In recent times, I have seen many people take a revisionist viewpoint, accepting Colin Baker's portrayal and his stories as being praiseworthy.
Mind you, I gather there are people who like the McCoy era, too.
And I ain't one of them! I thnk the best way to approach the next podcast, I Am Steven, is to just assume I don't like each and every McCoy story (which, other than Remembrance of the Daleks, is more or less true) and go from there. :)
Yeah, I kinda figgered that, Freyburg. It will be a tough sell....
Jumping forward a bit, can you believe that the Eccleston retrospective (henceforth referred to as the "RetrospEccleston") will be the first time we've actually reviewed the first of the new series?
Yes, I have finally managed to listen to the latest podcast. I was saving it for the boring drive home along the QEII highway from Edmonton to Calgary. I could even make out the voices of Warren and Steven above the roar of engine and road, for a change. That's definitive proof of the improved sound quality of this broadcast (i.e. no more unintelligible muffled voices). Though I did keep thinking my cell phone was going off for some reason! :-p
I'm still not so sure Colin Baker was a good choice of actor to play the role of the Doctor, in opposition to the kudos delivered by our lovely podcast hosts. Previously, I have felt that each actor selected had a portfolio demonstrating unique character, command, and charisma--this despite rarely, if ever, having played a leading man. Doctor Who offered them that primary role, at the same time defining the highlight of their career.
Colin Baker, and McCoy afterwards, lacked these undefinable qualities. They seemed to me to be just any old actor. This reflects the overall decline of the programme in the mid-eighties. Yes, Colin Baker is my least favourite Doctor of them all from the classic series, TV movie, or new show.
The main heading for this is now off the front page of the blog, but courtesy DWO, we have some upcoming DW DVD releases:
2|entertain have confirmed some more Doctor Who titles to us for 2007.
2nd April - The Runaway Bride
16th April - Survival
14th May - Series 3 Volume 1
28th May - Robot
11th June - Series 3 Volume 2
25th June - Timelash
OMGWTF TIMELASH WHEE YAY. Steven will buy it. =)
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