As a birthday present my parents bought me a portable B&W television So I saw the last part of Jon Pertwee's last season So this season was my first introduction as a teenager to Dr Who and this season which I watched in toto is still very memorable to me.
Another fine review of a fine story. I can confirm that bubble-wrap wasn't particularly well known back then, and I don't personally recall encountering it until well into the 1980s. Before then, things tended to be packed in straw, polystyrene or scrunched-up paper :)
To this day - despite seeing bubble wrap often, in this age of home delivery, and even owning a roll of the stuff somewhere - I just don't see bubble wrap in this episode! With these Classic era monsters, the suspension of disbelief is high, expectations low, enjoyment on a level sadly missing in this Modern era of cgi. Practicle effects ftw, nothing too scary, pop pop pop ;)
One of the finest scripts of the show, easily in my top 10 of Tom Baker’s era. Not a bad turn from now script editor Robert Holmes, especially since he had to pen it not long before filming began due to issues with getting revisions in on time. Long story short, John Lucarotti took over from the first writer but Lucarroti lived on the Mediterranean ocean and a postal workers strike meant the first drafts came too late and needed too much work. Alleged BTS fact that might not be true: according to her autobiography Elisabeth Sladen genuinely got stuck in the conduit but was so professional she panicked in character. Baker picked this up and ad-libbed some provocation which Sladen took offense to, so when she does get out, that’s not Sarah hitting the Doctor, that’s Lis actually trying to slap Tom. COULD not be true but it’s a fun and weird story circling the fandom.
8/10… It was quite an interesting plot. Not too complex but not too simple either. I loved how useful the companions were during all of this. I really enjoyed the interaction between Harry and the 4th Doctor. Harry seems so eager to get involved and be useful but also seems to like to learn new things. Sarah nearly out of breath and getting sucked into this mess was exciting. Later The Doctor even used her for their plan to stop the enemies. When she was stuck he pushed her so hard coz he knew she won’t have it. But I’m surprised how whiney Sarah Jane became since the last 2 serials of the 3rd Doctor. She was much more confident during her first 3 serials. It’s still enjoyable and not as annoying as Susan but what’s up with that? The Wirrn looked cheap but yet so effectively creepy. It worked overall.
@@DalamReviews it’s also has maybe the best line in all of Doctor Who “You’re improving Harry. Your mind is beginning to work. It’s all to do with my influence of course you mustn’t take any credit”
I found this serial-and Season 12 at large-to be extremely underwhelming and rather dull on my first viewing. I rewatched it later and it’s now one of my favorites. I love the sense of physical space and architecture of the space station. It has an actually memorable layout, which is quite rare for Doctor Who.
I've got to agree, that is something Doctor Who doesn't do terribly often. They do a rather good job of showcasing the unique look of the spaceship, especially compared to what we've already seen in the show.
What's amazing is that the sense of space was conjured up by having a comparatively small set shot from different angles, with the liberal use of mirrors.
I think the notion of reusing the spaceship from this story for the Cyberman story did alot of trade and also in the Cyberman story the Cybermen were originally on board the spaceship before the story started which was in Gerry Davis original storyline the CYbermen had been smuggled aboard the Nerva ship and also in the original Gerry Davis script the Cybermen took over the nerva spaceship to use as a base to destroy the nearby planet of gold which had human gold prospectors living on it not those bloody awful alien vogans and alos in the original script of Gerry Davis the planet of gold was unnamed and only appears in part 3 of the story and also the Cyberleader in the original script was domed headed like the CYberman Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen
I buck the trend and am a big fan of Robot especially as I started with Tom on PBS in the late 70s, so I didn't see any Jon Pertwee serials until years later so wasn't familar with his earthbound UNIT story structure.
Solid story, as a kid i wasnt that keen on it. Like it more nowadays tho, however i find the last episode rather dull. For me its basically on par with genesis, but i prefer robot and sontaran experiment more. Altho harry is brilliant in this story, especially the first episode, so funny! 7/10
The very first Baker story I ever watched back when Who was still on Netflix. Absolutely adore this story I completely missed all the overt misogyny of Harry 😭 but I still like this trio a lot. Good story and good review 👍
I remember being very impressed with Ian Marter's (Harry Sullivan) novelisation of this story for Target Books. He died much too young at 42.
As a birthday present
my parents bought me
a portable B&W television
So I saw the last part of Jon Pertwee's
last season
So this season was my first introduction
as a teenager to Dr Who
and this season which I watched in toto
is still very memorable to me.
I remember watching this when it first aired…😎
Another fine review of a fine story. I can confirm that bubble-wrap wasn't particularly well known back then, and I don't personally recall encountering it until well into the 1980s. Before then, things tended to be packed in straw, polystyrene or scrunched-up paper :)
That's good to know, thanks!
To this day - despite seeing bubble wrap often, in this age of home delivery, and even owning a roll of the stuff somewhere - I just don't see bubble wrap in this episode! With these Classic era monsters, the suspension of disbelief is high, expectations low, enjoyment on a level sadly missing in this Modern era of cgi. Practicle effects ftw, nothing too scary, pop pop pop ;)
One of the finest scripts of the show, easily in my top 10 of Tom Baker’s era. Not a bad turn from now script editor Robert Holmes, especially since he had to pen it not long before filming began due to issues with getting revisions in on time. Long story short, John Lucarotti took over from the first writer but Lucarroti lived on the Mediterranean ocean and a postal workers strike meant the first drafts came too late and needed too much work.
Alleged BTS fact that might not be true: according to her autobiography Elisabeth Sladen genuinely got stuck in the conduit but was so professional she panicked in character. Baker picked this up and ad-libbed some provocation which Sladen took offense to, so when she does get out, that’s not Sarah hitting the Doctor, that’s Lis actually trying to slap Tom. COULD not be true but it’s a fun and weird story circling the fandom.
I think the idea for the film Alien was inspired by this Dr Who story
8/10… It was quite an interesting plot. Not too complex but not too simple either. I loved how useful the companions were during all of this. I really enjoyed the interaction between Harry and the 4th Doctor. Harry seems so eager to get involved and be useful but also seems to like to learn new things. Sarah nearly out of breath and getting sucked into this mess was exciting. Later The Doctor even used her for their plan to stop the enemies. When she was stuck he pushed her so hard coz he knew she won’t have it. But I’m surprised how whiney Sarah Jane became since the last 2 serials of the 3rd Doctor. She was much more confident during her first 3 serials. It’s still enjoyable and not as annoying as Susan but what’s up with that? The Wirrn looked cheap but yet so effectively creepy. It worked overall.
This might be my favourite 4th Doctor story! It’s wonderful
I'm glad you like it so much, it's a blast!
@@DalamReviews it’s also has maybe the best line in all of Doctor Who
“You’re improving Harry. Your mind is beginning to work. It’s all to do with my influence of course you mustn’t take any credit”
You're right to mention it, that's a brilliant line
I found this serial-and Season 12 at large-to be extremely underwhelming and rather dull on my first viewing. I rewatched it later and it’s now one of my favorites. I love the sense of physical space and architecture of the space station. It has an actually memorable layout, which is quite rare for Doctor Who.
I've got to agree, that is something Doctor Who doesn't do terribly often. They do a rather good job of showcasing the unique look of the spaceship, especially compared to what we've already seen in the show.
What's amazing is that the sense of space was conjured up by having a comparatively small set shot from different angles, with the liberal use of mirrors.
I think the notion of reusing the spaceship from this story for the Cyberman story did alot of trade and also in the Cyberman story the Cybermen were originally on board the spaceship before the story started which was in Gerry Davis original storyline the CYbermen had been smuggled aboard the Nerva ship and also in the original Gerry Davis script the Cybermen took over the nerva spaceship to use as a base to destroy the nearby planet of gold which had human gold prospectors living on it not those bloody awful alien vogans and alos in the original script of Gerry Davis the planet of gold was unnamed and only appears in part 3 of the story and also the Cyberleader in the original script was domed headed like the CYberman Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen
I wonder if this story would have worked with Jon Pertwees third Doctor even though Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks were gone form Who at this time
Great Review man :) - George
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
I buck the trend and am a big fan of Robot especially as I started with Tom on PBS in the late 70s, so I didn't see any Jon Pertwee serials until years later so wasn't familar with his earthbound UNIT story structure.
Ah, this absolute banger of a story might be my fave classic Who ever.
Possibly...
Very strong words, I'm glad you like it as much as you do, it's a great serial!
Solid story, as a kid i wasnt that keen on it. Like it more nowadays tho, however i find the last episode rather dull. For me its basically on par with genesis, but i prefer robot and sontaran experiment more. Altho harry is brilliant in this story, especially the first episode, so funny!
7/10
The very first Baker story I ever watched back when Who was still on Netflix. Absolutely adore this story I completely missed all the overt misogyny of Harry 😭 but I still like this trio a lot. Good story and good review 👍
The Doctor pays more attention to Harry, because Harry needs to be watched constantly - otherwise, the dude WILL screw something up.