Classic Who updates again
Jun. 17th, 2018 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auroracloudI've continued getting into the Second Doctor era of Classic Who, though the Twitch marathon has moved on. The Invasion wasn't shown during the marathon, I guess because they didn't have the rights to the two episodes that have been reconstructed as animation because the video hasn't survived. But you can view it online in some places, and I've been watching that lately. It's 8 episodes long, and because I don't have to marathon, I've been taking it more slowly and am not yet quite finished. There little enough that has survived from Two's era that I don't want to rush through the rest of it. But The Invasion is good, and the Cybermen are my favourite recurring monsters (favourite in the sense that they actually do scare me and a lot of the stories with them seem to work well). And yay Zoe gets a girlfriend a friend and there's Capable Girls Doing Adventurous Stuff Together, which I much approve of. (I'm so going to write f/f for them at some point.)
I've also been falling down the Two/Jamie rabbit hole. I went to look for fic pretty much as soon as I'd finished watching what I could of Two's stories in the Twitch marathon. Naturally fic existed, though I haven't found huge amounts of it in my usual DW fic haunts (AO3 and Teaspoon) - actually, most of the good stuff is written by the same person, who I'm gradually starting to shower with kudos and comments.
Anyway, I'm enough into this that I've just splurged a fair amount of money on buying a bunch of Two era DVDs. It's going to be a while before I've got them all, because all stories being in separate DVDs, it doesn't become cheap. Eventually I'm going to want to get some First Doctor era stuff as well, especially as I didn't catch nearly enough of Vicki, and there are companions I haven't seen at all yet (most notably Polly and Ben). I did order the "Lost in Time" DVD set which has the various episodes that exist of the One and Two era stories that are partly missing.
. I do have to say one thing, though. As much as I love The War Games, I absolutely refuse a part of the ending. There's no way I accept it as canon that Jamie and Zoe won't remember almost any of their adventures with the Doctor. That's a horrible ending. It just didn't happen. I'll write the fics to prove it eventually, I will.
I suppose with the black-and-white era already preying on my hard-earned, scarce money, it's just as well that thus far, I haven't been able to like Third Doctor era at all. I've tried watching several stories by now, and the only one I managed to watch from the beginning to the end was The Three Doctors - not because the story is any good, as it isn't, but because it had Troughton and Hartnell (mostly Troughton, but a bit of Hartnell as well). Any time either or both of them was on screen, I was immediately interested no matter what rubbish the script was. Oh, Troughton wiped the floor with all the rest of the cast (save for Hartnell). Even if I got the feeling he wasn't quite in top form either, probably due to how bad the script was and not having much anyone interesting to act with. But still, it was amazing how much more interesting he made the story whenever he was on screen.
But yeah, the whole Third Doctor era is really not impressing me. True, some of the episodes I was trying to watch when sick with a nasty flu, so it considerably affected my desire to go on if I didn't enjoy something. But it hasn't improved even after my health did. Part of the reason I dislike it so much is because of the UNIT setting - I'm just not interested in military guys being military and the kind of storylines that revolve around this setting. It takes away almost everything I love about Doctor Who. None of the military guys are particularly compelling characters (even though the Brigadier is so legendary, I'm getting sick of seeing him, too; I did find him more enjoyable in the Second Doctor era, though). This could still be forgiven if the Doctor or his Companions were compelling, but... Well, after having liked every single Doctor I've seen until now, in Three I've finally found one I just can't like at all. Worse, he bores me. He's no fun. But he's also stuffy, condescending, patriarchal in the way I don't like, and just... uh, the only good thing about him is his appearance. He looks very fancy in those clothes and all, but I just can't like him or be interested in him.
What makes it worse is the useless twit of a Companion that Jo Grant appears to be. I've no idea why many people seem to love her, other than nostalgia of old-school fans about the time when they started watching the show. Okay, she's had a few moments of bravery that have made me go "Way to go, girl" but otherwise, she just seems to be there to stare up at the Doctor admiringly, let men do the talking and traipse around in terrible 1970s clothing (though she's had awesome boots on occasion, I'll give you that). I suppose the unfortunate fashions of the time period make it even worse for my modern gaze, because she seems even more of a ditz for venturing out in any of that stuff, or with that kind of hair. It's probably not fair of me - though on the other hand, I'm untrendy enough that I probably would have mocked those fashions even if I'd lived back in the day. I certainly mock lots of today's fashions!
Sorry if anyone loves Jo and feels offended. I just need to rant because I felt offended by how sexist the whole thing is, with a ditzy companion and a condescending older man who she madly looks up to. The script writers aren't exactly doing Jo any favours, what with lines like "I know I'm exceedingly dim, but would you mind explaining?" which didn't sound sarcastic. Seriously, I couldn't believe my ears. Gave up on The Time Monster very quickly after that. But even when she gets scripted with clever lines and actions, like in The Three Doctors, Katy Manning still plays the part with the sort of vacuous empty-headedness that gives me the impression Jo doesn't have two brain cells to rub together. Maybe there's a great deal of good stuff I've missed because I couldn't bother continue watching her stories for long, but I've tried to give her a chance, I really have. I just can't be bothered any more. This era of Doctor Who just feels unbelievably sexist and all kinds of stuff I have no time for. I'm also fairly unimpressed by Delgado's Master so far. He was kinda fun with the Terror of the Autons, but after that he just seemed to stick to spiritless overacting. Hope he improves later. I'll come back once Sarah Jane is on - and soon after that the Doctor will change, thank goodness. Hopefully I'll like Four. He'll be on for a while, after all. And sounds like his companions are a good deal more competent, so I look forward to that.
At least the good thing about the Third Doctor and Jo is that they mostly come as a package deal, so I won't really have to watch either of them in the future! So handy when I can avoid both at the same time and spend my money and time on the good stuff!
Anyway, really looking forward to my DVDs arriving soon! It's fun to be obsessed with something new, even if it's sort of the old thing in the sense that it's Doctor Who. But so very different from what I've viewed until now! Hopefully I won't fall for too many of the Classic Doctors and companions, because my finances can't support it...
I've also been falling down the Two/Jamie rabbit hole. I went to look for fic pretty much as soon as I'd finished watching what I could of Two's stories in the Twitch marathon. Naturally fic existed, though I haven't found huge amounts of it in my usual DW fic haunts (AO3 and Teaspoon) - actually, most of the good stuff is written by the same person, who I'm gradually starting to shower with kudos and comments.
Anyway, I'm enough into this that I've just splurged a fair amount of money on buying a bunch of Two era DVDs. It's going to be a while before I've got them all, because all stories being in separate DVDs, it doesn't become cheap. Eventually I'm going to want to get some First Doctor era stuff as well, especially as I didn't catch nearly enough of Vicki, and there are companions I haven't seen at all yet (most notably Polly and Ben). I did order the "Lost in Time" DVD set which has the various episodes that exist of the One and Two era stories that are partly missing.
. I do have to say one thing, though. As much as I love The War Games, I absolutely refuse a part of the ending. There's no way I accept it as canon that Jamie and Zoe won't remember almost any of their adventures with the Doctor. That's a horrible ending. It just didn't happen. I'll write the fics to prove it eventually, I will.
I suppose with the black-and-white era already preying on my hard-earned, scarce money, it's just as well that thus far, I haven't been able to like Third Doctor era at all. I've tried watching several stories by now, and the only one I managed to watch from the beginning to the end was The Three Doctors - not because the story is any good, as it isn't, but because it had Troughton and Hartnell (mostly Troughton, but a bit of Hartnell as well). Any time either or both of them was on screen, I was immediately interested no matter what rubbish the script was. Oh, Troughton wiped the floor with all the rest of the cast (save for Hartnell). Even if I got the feeling he wasn't quite in top form either, probably due to how bad the script was and not having much anyone interesting to act with. But still, it was amazing how much more interesting he made the story whenever he was on screen.
But yeah, the whole Third Doctor era is really not impressing me. True, some of the episodes I was trying to watch when sick with a nasty flu, so it considerably affected my desire to go on if I didn't enjoy something. But it hasn't improved even after my health did. Part of the reason I dislike it so much is because of the UNIT setting - I'm just not interested in military guys being military and the kind of storylines that revolve around this setting. It takes away almost everything I love about Doctor Who. None of the military guys are particularly compelling characters (even though the Brigadier is so legendary, I'm getting sick of seeing him, too; I did find him more enjoyable in the Second Doctor era, though). This could still be forgiven if the Doctor or his Companions were compelling, but... Well, after having liked every single Doctor I've seen until now, in Three I've finally found one I just can't like at all. Worse, he bores me. He's no fun. But he's also stuffy, condescending, patriarchal in the way I don't like, and just... uh, the only good thing about him is his appearance. He looks very fancy in those clothes and all, but I just can't like him or be interested in him.
What makes it worse is the useless twit of a Companion that Jo Grant appears to be. I've no idea why many people seem to love her, other than nostalgia of old-school fans about the time when they started watching the show. Okay, she's had a few moments of bravery that have made me go "Way to go, girl" but otherwise, she just seems to be there to stare up at the Doctor admiringly, let men do the talking and traipse around in terrible 1970s clothing (though she's had awesome boots on occasion, I'll give you that). I suppose the unfortunate fashions of the time period make it even worse for my modern gaze, because she seems even more of a ditz for venturing out in any of that stuff, or with that kind of hair. It's probably not fair of me - though on the other hand, I'm untrendy enough that I probably would have mocked those fashions even if I'd lived back in the day. I certainly mock lots of today's fashions!
Sorry if anyone loves Jo and feels offended. I just need to rant because I felt offended by how sexist the whole thing is, with a ditzy companion and a condescending older man who she madly looks up to. The script writers aren't exactly doing Jo any favours, what with lines like "I know I'm exceedingly dim, but would you mind explaining?" which didn't sound sarcastic. Seriously, I couldn't believe my ears. Gave up on The Time Monster very quickly after that. But even when she gets scripted with clever lines and actions, like in The Three Doctors, Katy Manning still plays the part with the sort of vacuous empty-headedness that gives me the impression Jo doesn't have two brain cells to rub together. Maybe there's a great deal of good stuff I've missed because I couldn't bother continue watching her stories for long, but I've tried to give her a chance, I really have. I just can't be bothered any more. This era of Doctor Who just feels unbelievably sexist and all kinds of stuff I have no time for. I'm also fairly unimpressed by Delgado's Master so far. He was kinda fun with the Terror of the Autons, but after that he just seemed to stick to spiritless overacting. Hope he improves later. I'll come back once Sarah Jane is on - and soon after that the Doctor will change, thank goodness. Hopefully I'll like Four. He'll be on for a while, after all. And sounds like his companions are a good deal more competent, so I look forward to that.
At least the good thing about the Third Doctor and Jo is that they mostly come as a package deal, so I won't really have to watch either of them in the future! So handy when I can avoid both at the same time and spend my money and time on the good stuff!
Anyway, really looking forward to my DVDs arriving soon! It's fun to be obsessed with something new, even if it's sort of the old thing in the sense that it's Doctor Who. But so very different from what I've viewed until now! Hopefully I won't fall for too many of the Classic Doctors and companions, because my finances can't support it...
no subject
Date: 2018-06-18 11:34 am (UTC)But no matter, what I really wanted to say is how much I enjoy reading about your joy about watching and nerding about his! :oD I can totally relate to that in general, and find it awesome.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-18 12:24 pm (UTC)A website called Twitch is streaming all of the classic TV series, from 1963 to 1989 (Doctors One through Seven), as a huge marathon between late May and late July, so that they show a few stories each day in blocks of 5-8 hours, repeating each block three times. Back then, the series consisted of stories spanning a few 25-minute episodes (from 2 to 14, most commonly 4-6 episodes), rather than the current style of mostly self-contained 45-minute episodes that each tell one story, sometimes with a story spanning 2 or 3 episodes like, say, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances (ie. 1941, "Are You My Mummy?" and Jack Harkness).
I'm absolutely not managing to watch most of the episodes, but I try to watch at least some from each Doctor (and when possible, each Companion) to give myself an idea of what I want to get on DVD. Although after falling in love with the Second Doctor era, my Doctor Who shopping is booked for a while. :-D The Second Doctor was played by Patrick Troughton from 1966 to 1969, but unfortunately a lot of the material has been lost or partly lost, because it didn't occur to the BBC back then that this might turn into a dedades-long cult phenomenon they might wish to conserve in its entirety. So the Twitch marathon blew through his era in just a few days, but I was fortunate to catch enough of the episodes to see I absolutely adored his Doctor and his Companions. The said Companions include Jamie McCrimmon (played by Frazer Hines), an utterly wonderful Scottish young man from the 1700s, who I think was the longest-serving Doctor Who companion ever, as well as the 19th century girl Victoria (Deborah Watling), and after her Zoe Heriot (Wendy Bradbury) who's a scientist girl from the future. Jamie and the Second Doctor happen to have a very touchy-feely friendship and obviously lots of affection for each other, and are thus wonderful material for shipping. :-) My icon shows Jamie, the Second Doctor, and Zoe. :-)
The Third Doctor era was on in the early 1970s, and since I'm not into his most long-term companion Jo Grant, I'm just waiting for the appearance Sarah Jane, whom you might remember from the School Reunion episode from Tennant's first season. Sarah Jane starts with Three, but mostly travels with the Fourth Doctor, who took over in 1974.
no subject
Date: 2018-06-18 07:20 pm (UTC)