Oh god, this takes me back! I supplied/made the melting head sequence with my then work partner Stephen. Considering it was churned out in double quick time I thought it worked rather well considering we were being asked to do a 'Raiders effect' on a tiny budget. Also we painted and dressed the Tetraps and the baby Chimeron coming out of the egg. Happy days....LOL
The Bonnie Langford Scream Theme was great. As a kid of a certain age back in the mid 80s, I cannot express how horrified I was to find out Bonnie Langford would be a companion. It’s like hearing your friend’s annoying kid sister is coming to the movies with you, and then she’s moving in, with all her dolls, and in a couple of years you’ll have to marry her And her pony.
AsI just couldn't see Sylvester McCoy as the doctor, because I knew him from TISWAS. Glad I've returned to his run though. I would have missed some of my favourite DW stories.
I met Sylvester at a London Star Trek sci-fi bar back in the naughties. He was absolutely charming, self effacing, and had us captivated with his spoon playing. Lovely guy.
Believe it or not, the actor who played the pilot in Delta and the Bannermen (the one who says "goodbye everyone" at the end of this video) was my English Language teacher in college! Lovely guy.
I was 16 in 1987 - I'm only a casual viewer of Dr Who at best, yet I still have a weird nostalgia over this era. Thanks StamFine - your videos make my Friday!
Colin Baker was Peter Capaldi of the 80's. The perfect Dr Who actor, with the worst scripts. Poor old Sylvester McCoy had a similar issue. (P.S. Thank you for the Dalek Rock n Roll. They still sing better than Axel Rose at "Glasto").
Capaldi was perfect, but I think Smith had worse scripts. The timey-wimey went out of control in the style of Lost or the Star Wars sequels. The stories looked fine until the mysteries later was explained and everything turned into a mess. There also seems to be a consensus that the lady doctor had even worse scripts, but I haven't seen any of that, except for the first story.
@@kulturkriget People were too concerned as to whether a female doctor would work, they forgot to write a script. Still... Remember the original reboot? Eccleston fighting a single dalek? Weren't they great times? Pretty-much all of the Tennent era... Just magical stuff. We'll always have that.
I started watching Dr Who in the Pertwee era and his is still my absolute fave. I can't wait for him to return (hey! With CGI we can do anything ;-) Apart from a 'cartoony' or 'pantomime' feel to Season 24, i really did enjoy Sylvester McCoy's Doctor. I think Sylvester really put his heart and soul into the role and when Ace became his companion and JNT started to tease us with little bits of the Doctors history, i think we started to see what the modern (2005) Dr Who would be. Bonnie Langford was a typical screamy companion and tbh it suited her. And of course when Sophie Aldred joined the cast well... er.... I was a teenage male after all!
"I met a Doctor who sang the blues and I asked him for some happy news, he just boarded the Tardis and dissolved away." "And the three men I admire the most, the Baker, the Pertwee and the Throughton most, they took the last key to time to the coast, the day the BBC died." Excellent review.
Thought it was funny that you said "after the nuclear meltdown that was colin baker" and I looked at the year, 1987, Baker being the previous year, 1986 which was the year of the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.
This was the first season I watched contemporarily... and I must say I have a huge soft spot for it. One thing this season has in spades is fun... McCoy's Doctor is always watchable... never ever boring.. yes daggy... but still entertaining... And "Time and the Rani" is my favourite guilty pleasure of the entire show (both incarnations)... The Rani is the closest thing to a drag queen in Doctor Who... and the opening line of the story (And season) is so ICONIC that I have it printed on cushions in my lounge "Leave the girl.... it's the MAN I want!" As a gay man I didn't have a chance. Yes things get better... but don't hate on this season. They had to start the rebuilding somewhere...
Brilliant!! Just in time for a post fish n chip dinner watch on a Friday night!! There's a touch of brilliance mashing Mel's screams with the title theme by the way, and as for Dalek Astley. Lastly, I might just have to track down this season just for the Butlin's Who segment!
Of this season the stories I like are Paradise Towers and Dragonfire - glad to see Glitz again. The other stories I absolutely dislike except for episode 1 cliffhanger episode ending on Time and the Rani. Paradise Towers could of been a really dark story it had a Judge Dredd vibe to it. When I saw the film Dredd I actually thought of Paradise Towers. I found this season the lighting was way to bright.
Paradise Towers is unironically one of my favourite Who stories amongst the likes of Robots of Death, Talons, Fenric, Genesis, Tomb, Face of Evil, etc. I just adore the darkly comedic dystopian vibe that is very Brit comic strip (e.g. Judge Dredd) of the era. I always knew it was based on Ballard's High Rise but never read it, however seeing the film adaptation a few years back I can see exactly what the inspiration was. Paradise Towers' flaw is not living up to the premise and failed execution, with things like Pex's look, Briar's acting in the last episode (imagine if he had been more quietly chilling like Dr Judson in Curse of Fenric!), and the Cleaners being very limited in movement.
Oh man, I love Paradise Towers. Robots, cannibals, and hot girls It's pure entertainment. McCoy is my favorite. Outside Time and the Rani, I enjoy his whole run as the Doctor.
I don't believe Season 24 is as bad as portrayed here. The only one I didn't care for much is Delta and the Bannermen. That was too hoakey, too far. The rest, the stories were at least interesting.
Lovely Sylvester McCoy. I still see him as his character from Vision-On, even after more than half a century. At least I finally got a glimpse of his Doctor. Thank you Stam. Well, you can say what you like about Bonnie Langford...
Ah Stam. I haven't been here for a bit. Yeah I missed your epic reviews. You are the only one who does this absolutely brilliantly. Thank you, I spent the last 30 minutes laughing so hard. My ribs hurt.😂😂😂😂. Have a fab weekend ❤❤❤❤
Clive Merrison, whose performance in 'Paradise Towers' is reviewed here, has a unique claim to fame as an actor. He is the only person to have played Sherlock Holmes in all 60 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. He did this for the BBC on radio in a project that took more than 20 years to complete.
The biggest problem with season 25 (and a large part of why its ratings were still poor) was that people saw this season first. Can you imagine what poor McCoy's legacy would be like if the show had been cancelled here?
In America, a lot of PBS stations ended up dumping Dr. Who after season 24 due to both low ratings and the increasing costs the BBC was charging them to run it.
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we had a handful of really great Public Television Stations. One of which had raised the money over the years to purchase a large number of British programs including a run of DR. Who which went back to the Pertwee years and on through to this season. We were seeing episodes not long after they aired on the BBC. I will agree this season had difficulty finding its footing. A lot of these stories weren't very good, but I still enjoyed seeing them. Sylvester McCoy is still one of my favorite actors in the role. Around this time Star Trek: The Next Generation had premiered and it too was not having a good first season. It was definitely a year I had to hope things would get better for both shows!
During a re-watch of the series a while back when I found them on legit streaming, I was blown away at how over the top Mel's screaming was this season. The Screaming Women in the show has always been a popular topic of discussion, but this season was definitely one where I was amazed that I never really heard people going on about Mel's screaming. She actually fits the trope perfectly where the earlier seasons I always through the screaming FAR more subdued than the jokes made it out to be.
All I remember about Paradise Towers is "Bin Liner". Because that just seemed like a great name idea when I was a kid. Sadly, the American equivalent, "Trash bag" just doesn't have the same ring.
Agreed! Also the tabletop roleplaying game "Paranoia" (though Happiness Patrol is even closer). I love cynical dystopian fiction which is why Paradise Towers is one of my favourite Who stories despite so many failures to live up to the premise/potential (Briars' Kroagnon, Pex, the Cleaners lack of threat). I just love it unironically, despite thinking the stories around it (especially Time and the Rani and Dragonfire) are horrifically awful!
I remember pondering all the sinister implications established. Like those cannibal grandmas eating teenage girls. Who is full of that stuff, it’s a Lovecraftian horror show when you consider the fates of the weekly victims.
Your reviews are by far my favorite! I knew nothing of Doctor Who before I stumbled upon your videos and now I'm a huge fan of the classic series. Thank you!
That Mel scream theme hurt me to my very soul. The first McCoy ep I ever saw, Paradise Towers, almost put me off all non Tom Baker classic Who, with the exception of the security chief channeling his most Satanic John Cleese. This was one rough era of Doctor Who.
The pre-internet confusion of watching Doctor Who in Western Canada 🇨🇦. They skipped a couple seasons and I thought Season 25 was a new release in very early 1990.......after a long hiatus I was extremely underwhelmed and they only had a few episodes and dropped it. The US TV movie was hyped though.
I thought Sly McCoy's run highly visually stunning. The video quality better than previous 20 seasons. And the music was appropriate for the Era. The Rani was my favorite female villain.
Thanks for posting. I just finished watching this season a few weeks ago, and was looking for your review of it. This made my Friday-but the Mel “scream-stream” was a little rough on my ears. :) As a fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, I also appreciate your references to them in this video.
You make me proud to be an Australian, if only in the hope some of that dry wit is a common national resource . . . Plus I couldn't stop laughing at the Bonnie Langford scream theme!
I don't know what to say other than when I watch this season I'm entertained the whole way through. I understand that's not the culturally accepted opinion but I'm not going to pretend I don't like something I do.
I think people can be terribly harsh on this season. There's some absolute drek in later Baker, T seasons and Baker, C only had a couple of successful stories. Yes, Time and the Rani is awful. But a recent rewatch has actually meant I really enjoyed Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen. They both did things that were new for the show. Dragonfire to me is a bit meh, but not unenjoyable. In some ways I think the season is also reputationally harmed by what came after it, with maybe 4 of the final 8 serials being as good as classic Who ever got.
Love your work mate,I’m watching all the classic series and love watching your commentary afterwards,are you going to do seasons 25 and 26, Red Kangs are best!
Gosh "We are the Kangs! Red Kangs are best!". I do have a sneaking appreciation for the cannibalistic old ladies of Paradise Towers, however. But poor Pex was a cowardly cutlet. Should I be worried that so much of that has lodged in my brain?
Man, I guess you dig Dire Straits. I didn't know all those titles by them. Dig the spoons playing. Yikes! Some of the creatures in this batch are really resembling the Sid and Marty Kroft creations. Hmm, the film quality seems to have gone up like it was on the sly.
To me... Sylvester was the BEST thing about "Time and the Rani". Over the years, I slowly came to agree with all the hatred aimed at the story. I now view it as a 2-parter PAINFULLY STRETCHED out to 4. The best thing to come out of it was the DWM interview with Donald Pickering & Wanda Ventham, who revealed that due to their long friendship, they'd drive directors crazy by being unable to stop laughing whenever they were in the same room together. The image of Pickering having that kind of sense of humor took a bit of imagination... I liked "Paradise Towers" from the start, and it's currently my FAVORITE of the season. It's the EXACT moment when the show got good again, after YEARS of bad writing. I particularly love the scene with the rule book. Cracks me up that Clive Merrison became the only actor to actually adapt EVERY SINGLE Arthur Conan Doyle SHERLOCK HOLMES story, on radio. "Delta" had me scratching my head at first. An ongoing "WTF?" moment. It's GROWN on me over the years, mostly as I now see it as having Bonnie Langford's best writing. I also now recognize Stubby Kaye whenever I see him, and whenever I see Don Henderson, I usually wind up yelling "GAVROK!" at my TV. I love how the Doctor shows real human empathy in this one... for the first time since JON PERTWEE, for God's sake! Sylvester went on to become my #1 FAVORITE DOCTOR. And he still is. "Dragonfire" has 2 problems in my view. One is Mel's departure makes NO SENSE at all, while Ace is TOTALLY-unlikable. There was really NO WAY to predict how much I'd come to like her later on. The other is... the writer is displaying his total lack of professional experience, by trying to cram WAY TOO MUCH into a single story. And you know what? HE DID IT AGAIN in "The Curse Of Fenric". Yeah. That one's considered an all-time top classic... but not by me. Too much, and, too much that NEVER MAKES SENSE.
Thankfully, Fenric feels original. Dragonfire is a mash of Aliens Wizard of Oz, and Superman - and is less than the sum of its parts. And that ending. Just have Mel say she's going to marry Glitz and be done. Or better yet, keep her around and develop her character. Delta is just a good core idea poorly executed. But a genocide plot is a dime per dozen. The less said about the human turning into a chimeron by eating queen chimeron food, because someone told him that a worker bee eats queen bee food and becomes a queen, the better. Maybe the story is trying to do homage to 50s sci-fi. It doesn't work. Towers and Rani are bonkers, but are somehow fun. Like The Horns of Nimon was. Thankfully the show would grow during seasons 25 and 26... McCoy and Aldred rise above a lot...
I kinda want Stamfine to review Ultraman shows, i think that Ultraman is Japans equal to Doctor Who. Ultraseven especially, it's likebif the Doctor kept his identity a secret. What if an Ultraman was a companion to the Doctor? That would be a brilliant crossover.
I can't find your thoughts on 25 so I assume it's yet to come? I remember the McCoy run being generally well regarded, but perhaps it leans more toward the latter part. There was some stuff I liked but it'd crossed a modernity path that I was having trouble taking, at least as far as aesthetics. Having a companion who was capable was not a problem, however :)
Good stuff. I was obsessed with Who around the time this aired. I got the number for the ABC publicity dept and would reliably call them about once every two weeks to ask when Dr Who was coming back on. #sad
Nice one Stam (there wasnt a lot you could do with this season), I was about 12 or 13 when I saw this originally and even then I realised it was doggy doo's
I was 7 years old when I saw my first bit of Doctor Who on TV. It was the episode 1 cliffhanger from Remembrance of the Daleks (Season 25), and my young mind had absolutely no context of what was going on. When I asked my parents "What is that show with the little man in a white coat running from a flying pepper pot?", they dismissed it as 'a load of rubbish', and that would have been the end of my Doctor Who knowledge, but I went back to it when I grew up. Like many, I consider Season 24 the undisputed 'weaker' season of the McCoy era, yet after watching numerous people blindly reacting to Classic Who in the present, I see a lot of people falling in love with Paradise Towers, Delta, and even Dragonfire -- with Time and the Rani being scolded the most. In short, despite all the criticism, there are definitely people out there who love Season 24 for being a turn-your-brain-off-adventure of utter insanity. Having said that, Remembrance of the Daleks -- the first story of the next season -- is arguably the best choice for people who want to get into Classic Who, especially if they are a modern viewer. It introduces a kick-ass companion who becomes the template for the modern era, stars everyone's favourite pepper-pots, has great pacing, lots of action, lots of memorable moments, great acting, great side-cast, and is the start of 7+Ace's familial teacher/student arc that would appear throughout the next two seasons.
Oh my. I'd been both looking forward to and dreading this one. Really, I was so angry at how the Doctor was characterised in the first episode, with Norman Wisdom-esque pratfalls and clowning. But it did get better. Hated Delta & the Bannermen. Weirdly liked Paradise Towers. Rewatched it a few years ago and unironically enjoyed it. I know people hate Briers' performance, but I think it fits the tone of the story, which is a farce-cum-parody; it's not really satire, is it? No, for me, Paradise Towers is the forgotten gem. I will die on this hill.
Now there was another writer at the BBC in the late 80s who was just in his mid 20s and only had experience writing for this children's show from which he was fired after making it too plot driven. He grew up with both Doctor Who and comic books, and he was gay. Makes you think of what could've been if he was hired way back then, that wide-eyed young Welshman...
Always look forward to your Dr Who reviews. Season 24 borders on ligh t enterainment at times, howeer Paradise Towers & Dragonfire are both enjoyable. Yellow Kangs are doomed! 👍
We really need a Who story set in the Byzantine Empire with the historical "color gangs" doing a "Red kangs are best" chant at some point. No explanation for the anachronism whatsoever, just have it happen and move on. Maybe a companion asks Doc what that was all about and s/he just shrugs and says they've seen it before somewhere.
One season I have somehow never seen an episode of. Bookended it, 'though, thanks by my parents giving me Trial of a Timelord boxed set in a tin Tardis (VHS) *and* Remembrance of the Daleks boxed set in a tin Dalek (VHS) for the same Christmas. Thanks, mum and dad.
Delta and the Bannermen... A play on the obscure band, Echo and the Bunnymen. God the McCoy era had some truly awful crap in it. Most of those series felt like they were missing an episode or two.
I love your reviews! Although, having only seen the 1st two episodes of this season recently, I actually loved them. Paradise Towers is a sort of distillation of a lot of late 80's dystopian future that would set the stage for later dystopian fiction (and was seemingly influenced by previous dystopias presented by Philip K. Dick, etc.). I'm also a big fan of The Rani (as I'm working on a short fan film where she's regenerated into me, perhaps I'm biased), and thought there were some genuinely great moments from that first episode -- but yeah, it's largely Kate's acting that carries it off. Glad to see these continuing, you made my day brighter!
Oh god, this takes me back! I supplied/made the melting head sequence with my then work partner Stephen. Considering it was churned out in double quick time I thought it worked rather well considering we were being asked to do a 'Raiders effect' on a tiny budget. Also we painted and dressed the Tetraps and the baby Chimeron coming out of the egg. Happy days....LOL
It was the best effect that that season! So well done.
@@paulhammond6978 Thank you.
Got into doing best fx monsters who ever had
Wait... So it's YOU, is it??? You're the bastard responsible for my decades of nightmares!!!
That melting face was one of my earliest Dr. Who memories. I would have been 6 at the time. Thanks for the nightmares!!!!
The Bonnie Langford Scream Theme was great. As a kid of a certain age back in the mid 80s, I cannot express how horrified I was to find out Bonnie Langford would be a companion. It’s like hearing your friend’s annoying kid sister is coming to the movies with you, and then she’s moving in, with all her dolls, and in a couple of years you’ll have to marry her And her pony.
Truly a perfect diatribe.
AsI just couldn't see Sylvester McCoy as the doctor, because I knew him from TISWAS.
Glad I've returned to his run though. I would have missed some of my favourite DW stories.
Bonnie Langford was the absolute worst, partnered with the worst doctors as well, Jesus.
I met Sylvester at a London Star Trek sci-fi bar back in the naughties. He was absolutely charming, self effacing, and had us captivated with his spoon playing. Lovely guy.
I was 13 years old in 1987 and this video had me smiling from start to finish. Stam Fine would make a great Red Kang. Red Kangs are best!
Red Kangs! Red Kangs!
I'm just gonna say, I find Paradise Towers to be a guilty pleasure for some reason... I mean, Red Kangs, Red Kangs are BEST!
Let down by the silly robot's in water
I never appreciate how much I miss the singing Daleks until one of your Who videos lands...
The Bonnie Langford theme is truly terrifying 😆😱
It's a form of torture.
That "scream theme" spooked my cat!
Bonnie Langford was insufferable
I am quite sad to come to the end of your reviews of Dr. Who so far- it's been a pleasure, Stam Fine. And damn good work
Believe it or not, the actor who played the pilot in Delta and the Bannermen (the one who says "goodbye everyone" at the end of this video) was my English Language teacher in college! Lovely guy.
That is awesome!
Round of applause for the album jokes at the beginning! Can't wait for the Season 25 & 26 reviews!
A time when the show's golden era seemed So Far Away.
I was 16 in 1987 - I'm only a casual viewer of Dr Who at best, yet I still have a weird nostalgia over this era. Thanks StamFine - your videos make my Friday!
Colin Baker was Peter Capaldi of the 80's. The perfect Dr Who actor, with the worst scripts. Poor old Sylvester McCoy had a similar issue.
(P.S. Thank you for the Dalek Rock n Roll. They still sing better than Axel Rose at "Glasto").
Series 25-26 are well written and generally considered very good.
@@RBenjo21 Indeed, but they couldn't recover from series 24.
Capaldi was perfect, but I think Smith had worse scripts. The timey-wimey went out of control in the style of Lost or the Star Wars sequels. The stories looked fine until the mysteries later was explained and everything turned into a mess. There also seems to be a consensus that the lady doctor had even worse scripts, but I haven't seen any of that, except for the first story.
@@kulturkriget People were too concerned as to whether a female doctor would work, they forgot to write a script. Still... Remember the original reboot? Eccleston fighting a single dalek? Weren't they great times? Pretty-much all of the Tennent era... Just magical stuff. We'll always have that.
Every single element of what you said is absolute total bollocks, mate 🤦🏻♀️
I think I enjoyed your review more than the season itself!
I started watching Dr Who in the Pertwee era and his is still my absolute fave. I can't wait for him to return (hey! With CGI we can do anything ;-) Apart from a 'cartoony' or 'pantomime' feel to Season 24, i really did enjoy Sylvester McCoy's Doctor. I think Sylvester really put his heart and soul into the role and when Ace became his companion and JNT started to tease us with little bits of the Doctors history, i think we started to see what the modern (2005) Dr Who would be. Bonnie Langford was a typical screamy companion and tbh it suited her. And of course when Sophie Aldred joined the cast well... er.... I was a teenage male after all!
oh.. i forgot. BLUE KANGS ARE BEST!
I think you should be crediting Andrew Cartmel for that rather than JNT.
I actually liked the premise of Paradise Towers and enjoyed it at the time. Time and the Rani was indeed dire.
"I met a Doctor who sang the blues and I asked him for some happy news, he just boarded the Tardis and dissolved away."
"And the three men I admire the most, the Baker, the Pertwee and the Throughton most, they took the last key to time to the coast, the day the BBC died."
Excellent review.
Paradise Towers was my first exposure to Dr. Who. Suffice to say, my friends and I weren't sure what to make of it.
Fun Fact - Wanda Ventam (Col Lake) is the mother of Benedict Cumberbatch.
Thought it was funny that you said "after the nuclear meltdown that was colin baker" and I looked at the year, 1987, Baker being the previous year, 1986 which was the year of the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.
@TV-eb8lk exactly, it can't be a coincidence.
@TV-eb8lk no way, there are too many dots connecting, Colin Baker was in some part responsible for Chernobyl, I'm sure of it.
@TV-eb8lk those guttersnipes!
This was the first season I watched contemporarily... and I must say I have a huge soft spot for it. One thing this season has in spades is fun... McCoy's Doctor is always watchable... never ever boring.. yes daggy... but still entertaining... And "Time and the Rani" is my favourite guilty pleasure of the entire show (both incarnations)... The Rani is the closest thing to a drag queen in Doctor Who... and the opening line of the story (And season) is so ICONIC that I have it printed on cushions in my lounge "Leave the girl.... it's the MAN I want!" As a gay man I didn't have a chance. Yes things get better... but don't hate on this season. They had to start the rebuilding somewhere...
Brilliant!! Just in time for a post fish n chip dinner watch on a Friday night!! There's a touch of brilliance mashing Mel's screams with the title theme by the way, and as for Dalek Astley. Lastly, I might just have to track down this season just for the Butlin's Who segment!
My wife has a soft spot for "Delta", it was filmed in the old Butlins in Barry Island where she worked in the early 80's.
Of this season the stories I like are Paradise Towers and Dragonfire - glad to see Glitz again. The other stories I absolutely dislike except for episode 1 cliffhanger episode ending on Time and the Rani.
Paradise Towers could of been a really dark story it had a Judge Dredd vibe to it. When I saw the film Dredd I actually thought of Paradise Towers. I found this season the lighting was way to bright.
Paradise Towers is unironically one of my favourite Who stories amongst the likes of Robots of Death, Talons, Fenric, Genesis, Tomb, Face of Evil, etc. I just adore the darkly comedic dystopian vibe that is very Brit comic strip (e.g. Judge Dredd) of the era. I always knew it was based on Ballard's High Rise but never read it, however seeing the film adaptation a few years back I can see exactly what the inspiration was. Paradise Towers' flaw is not living up to the premise and failed execution, with things like Pex's look, Briar's acting in the last episode (imagine if he had been more quietly chilling like Dr Judson in Curse of Fenric!), and the Cleaners being very limited in movement.
Ingreresting fact, Barnicle Cumbersnatche's mum is...
Is what? Do tell!
@@diverguy3556 ... a former dinner lady at my school. I thought everyone knew that.
You mean Benjamin Cucumbersuch?
@@jasons2023 No, I'm pretty sure it was Banrnaby Clampersnatch.
I was certain it was Peregrin Bandersnatch🤔
The Bonnie Langford scream intro music was genius.
Oh man, I love Paradise Towers. Robots, cannibals, and hot girls It's pure entertainment. McCoy is my favorite. Outside Time and the Rani, I enjoy his whole run as the Doctor.
I watched the new stuff up to Capaldi because my wife liked it. It was okay.
But 30 minutes of this channel riffing on ANYTHING...and I'm there.
McCoy was my Doctor growing up. Season 24 is poor but 25 and 26 are awesome
I don't believe Season 24 is as bad as portrayed here. The only one I didn't care for much is Delta and the Bannermen. That was too hoakey, too far. The rest, the stories were at least interesting.
Lovely Sylvester McCoy. I still see him as his character from Vision-On, even after more than half a century. At least I finally got a glimpse of his Doctor. Thank you Stam. Well, you can say what you like about Bonnie Langford...
I think Paradis Towers is a great series, it's one of my favorites
Ah Stam. I haven't been here for a bit. Yeah I missed your epic reviews. You are the only one who does this absolutely brilliantly. Thank you, I spent the last 30 minutes laughing so hard. My ribs hurt.😂😂😂😂. Have a fab weekend ❤❤❤❤
Clive Merrison, whose performance in 'Paradise Towers' is reviewed here, has a unique claim to fame as an actor. He is the only person to have played Sherlock Holmes in all 60 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. He did this for the BBC on radio in a project that took more than 20 years to complete.
The biggest problem with season 25 (and a large part of why its ratings were still poor) was that people saw this season first. Can you imagine what poor McCoy's legacy would be like if the show had been cancelled here?
I was 7 years old watching this on PBS in America
Always love the Doctor Who videos 👍
SCREAMING THE THEME TUNE!
In America, a lot of PBS stations ended up dumping Dr. Who after season 24 due to both low ratings and the increasing costs the BBC was charging them to run it.
Yaaa! The Doctor Who vids are back!!
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we had a handful of really great Public Television Stations. One of which had raised the money over the years to purchase a large number of British programs including a run of DR. Who which went back to the Pertwee years and on through to this season. We were seeing episodes not long after they aired on the BBC. I will agree this season had difficulty finding its footing. A lot of these stories weren't very good, but I still enjoyed seeing them. Sylvester McCoy is still one of my favorite actors in the role. Around this time Star Trek: The Next Generation had premiered and it too was not having a good first season. It was definitely a year I had to hope things would get better for both shows!
During a re-watch of the series a while back when I found them on legit streaming, I was blown away at how over the top Mel's screaming was this season. The Screaming Women in the show has always been a popular topic of discussion, but this season was definitely one where I was amazed that I never really heard people going on about Mel's screaming. She actually fits the trope perfectly where the earlier seasons I always through the screaming FAR more subdued than the jokes made it out to be.
All I remember about Paradise Towers is "Bin Liner". Because that just seemed like a great name idea when I was a kid. Sadly, the American equivalent, "Trash bag" just doesn't have the same ring.
Spoons are often great to have around... Especially if you're to duel Robin Hood, one day.
I was 8 years old when this went out and I absolutely loved it. Of course, the next two seasons went up several levels from this one!
Every time I hear Don Henderson mentioned I remember that he was in Star Wars. And yes, the film was called Star Wars. No mention of new hope.
McCoy Who has an incredible sense of darkness. Also, there was a lot of screaming.
Did you know Benedict Cumberbatch is made of atoms? Every day teaches us something
Back in the day, it didn’t take many episodes of this season to convince me to give up on Who until it revived.
Same here. Even my secret crush on Bonnie Langford couldn't save it.
"Paradise Towers" always reminds me of "Beneath a Steel Sky". Wonderfully cynical game with a great art style, by the way.
Agreed! Also the tabletop roleplaying game "Paranoia" (though Happiness Patrol is even closer). I love cynical dystopian fiction which is why Paradise Towers is one of my favourite Who stories despite so many failures to live up to the premise/potential (Briars' Kroagnon, Pex, the Cleaners lack of threat). I just love it unironically, despite thinking the stories around it (especially Time and the Rani and Dragonfire) are horrifically awful!
I remember pondering all the sinister implications established. Like those cannibal grandmas eating teenage girls. Who is full of that stuff, it’s a Lovecraftian horror show when you consider the fates of the weekly victims.
Your reviews are by far my favorite! I knew nothing of Doctor Who before I stumbled upon your videos and now I'm a huge fan of the classic series. Thank you!
Brilliant. So much work went into this video. Love the slip slop slap reference that only us Aussies will get. Cheers.
Came for the review of season 24, stayed for Dalek Astley.
I was 87 in 1987. I eat Weetabix and watch Bonnie Langford
Stam Fine, your Dire Straits references are gold but i'd choose Love Over Gold.
"slip, slop, slap it sounds like a breeze when you say it like that."
Almost exactly a year since this was done I hope tonight’s the night for season 25
er, no. sorry.
@@StamFineah stammit. Thanks for the swift response sir have a cracking weekend
Great vid such a campy season but it’s fun
That Mel scream theme hurt me to my very soul. The first McCoy ep I ever saw, Paradise Towers, almost put me off all non Tom Baker classic Who, with the exception of the security chief channeling his most Satanic John Cleese. This was one rough era of Doctor Who.
The pre-internet confusion of watching Doctor Who in Western Canada 🇨🇦. They skipped a couple seasons and I thought Season 25 was a new release in very early 1990.......after a long hiatus I was extremely underwhelmed and they only had a few episodes and dropped it. The US TV movie was hyped though.
Somebody send Bonnie Langford that scream remix
I thought Sly McCoy's run highly visually stunning. The video quality better than previous 20 seasons. And the music was appropriate for the Era. The Rani was my favorite female villain.
I liked Paradise towers, the kangs were anusing, the cannibal resi's were interesting and the chief caretaker had Richard Briars in the role.
Thanks for posting. I just finished watching this season a few weeks ago, and was looking for your review of it. This made my Friday-but the Mel “scream-stream” was a little rough on my ears. :)
As a fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, I also appreciate your references to them in this video.
Brilliantly cutting sense of humour gave rise to that laugh addition around 15:40. I expelled a mouthful of food.
You make me proud to be an Australian, if only in the hope some of that dry wit is a common national resource . . . Plus I couldn't stop laughing at the Bonnie Langford scream theme!
i always love seeing a Stam Fine video in my feed..
cheers mate from UK
This season is great and no one will convince me otherwise.
The only flaw I can find is that a lot of audiences don't like having silly fun times.
I don't know what to say other than when I watch this season I'm entertained the whole way through. I understand that's not the culturally accepted opinion but I'm not going to pretend I don't like something I do.
I think people can be terribly harsh on this season. There's some absolute drek in later Baker, T seasons and Baker, C only had a couple of successful stories. Yes, Time and the Rani is awful. But a recent rewatch has actually meant I really enjoyed Paradise Towers and Delta and the Bannermen. They both did things that were new for the show. Dragonfire to me is a bit meh, but not unenjoyable. In some ways I think the season is also reputationally harmed by what came after it, with maybe 4 of the final 8 serials being as good as classic Who ever got.
Love your work mate,I’m watching all the classic series and love watching your commentary afterwards,are you going to do seasons 25 and 26,
Red Kangs are best!
I cant wait for season 4 of the new series, but 25 is good as well
Gosh "We are the Kangs! Red Kangs are best!". I do have a sneaking appreciation for the cannibalistic old ladies of Paradise Towers, however. But poor Pex was a cowardly cutlet.
Should I be worried that so much of that has lodged in my brain?
Has anyone ever requested spoon playing?
Very well put together and researched. Funny too, that Mel scream theme tune 😂
Man, I guess you dig Dire Straits. I didn't know all those titles by them. Dig the spoons playing. Yikes! Some of the creatures in this batch are really resembling the Sid and Marty Kroft creations. Hmm, the film quality seems to have gone up like it was on the sly.
Praying the Season 25 vid goes up today!
Six months and still no follow-up...
To me... Sylvester was the BEST thing about "Time and the Rani". Over the years, I slowly came to agree with all the hatred aimed at the story. I now view it as a 2-parter PAINFULLY STRETCHED out to 4. The best thing to come out of it was the DWM interview with Donald Pickering & Wanda Ventham, who revealed that due to their long friendship, they'd drive directors crazy by being unable to stop laughing whenever they were in the same room together. The image of Pickering having that kind of sense of humor took a bit of imagination...
I liked "Paradise Towers" from the start, and it's currently my FAVORITE of the season. It's the EXACT moment when the show got good again, after YEARS of bad writing. I particularly love the scene with the rule book. Cracks me up that Clive Merrison became the only actor to actually adapt EVERY SINGLE Arthur Conan Doyle SHERLOCK HOLMES story, on radio.
"Delta" had me scratching my head at first. An ongoing "WTF?" moment. It's GROWN on me over the years, mostly as I now see it as having Bonnie Langford's best writing. I also now recognize Stubby Kaye whenever I see him, and whenever I see Don Henderson, I usually wind up yelling "GAVROK!" at my TV. I love how the Doctor shows real human empathy in this one... for the first time since JON PERTWEE, for God's sake! Sylvester went on to become my #1 FAVORITE DOCTOR. And he still is.
"Dragonfire" has 2 problems in my view. One is Mel's departure makes NO SENSE at all, while Ace is TOTALLY-unlikable. There was really NO WAY to predict how much I'd come to like her later on. The other is... the writer is displaying his total lack of professional experience, by trying to cram WAY TOO MUCH into a single story. And you know what? HE DID IT AGAIN in "The Curse Of Fenric". Yeah. That one's considered an all-time top classic... but not by me. Too much, and, too much that NEVER MAKES SENSE.
Thankfully, Fenric feels original. Dragonfire is a mash of Aliens Wizard of Oz, and Superman - and is less than the sum of its parts. And that ending. Just have Mel say she's going to marry Glitz and be done. Or better yet, keep her around and develop her character.
Delta is just a good core idea poorly executed. But a genocide plot is a dime per dozen. The less said about the human turning into a chimeron by eating queen chimeron food, because someone told him that a worker bee eats queen bee food and becomes a queen, the better. Maybe the story is trying to do homage to 50s sci-fi. It doesn't work.
Towers and Rani are bonkers, but are somehow fun. Like The Horns of Nimon was.
Thankfully the show would grow during seasons 25 and 26... McCoy and Aldred rise above a lot...
I kinda want Stamfine to review Ultraman shows, i think that Ultraman is Japans equal to Doctor Who. Ultraseven especially, it's likebif the Doctor kept his identity a secret.
What if an Ultraman was a companion to the Doctor? That would be a brilliant crossover.
Oh that infernal megabyte modem! Terrifying only in it’s lacklustre performance.
I can't find your thoughts on 25 so I assume it's yet to come? I remember the McCoy run being generally well regarded, but perhaps it leans more toward the latter part. There was some stuff I liked but it'd crossed a modernity path that I was having trouble taking, at least as far as aesthetics. Having a companion who was capable was not a problem, however :)
Jolly good video old sausage! 👏🏼
Good stuff. I was obsessed with Who around the time this aired. I got the number for the ABC publicity dept and would reliably call them about once every two weeks to ask when Dr Who was coming back on. #sad
Nice one Stam (there wasnt a lot you could do with this season), I was about 12 or 13 when I saw this originally and even then I realised it was doggy doo's
Holy moly :) still my Doctor regardless..
I was 7 years old when I saw my first bit of Doctor Who on TV. It was the episode 1 cliffhanger from Remembrance of the Daleks (Season 25), and my young mind had absolutely no context of what was going on. When I asked my parents "What is that show with the little man in a white coat running from a flying pepper pot?", they dismissed it as 'a load of rubbish', and that would have been the end of my Doctor Who knowledge, but I went back to it when I grew up.
Like many, I consider Season 24 the undisputed 'weaker' season of the McCoy era, yet after watching numerous people blindly reacting to Classic Who in the present, I see a lot of people falling in love with Paradise Towers, Delta, and even Dragonfire -- with Time and the Rani being scolded the most. In short, despite all the criticism, there are definitely people out there who love Season 24 for being a turn-your-brain-off-adventure of utter insanity.
Having said that, Remembrance of the Daleks -- the first story of the next season -- is arguably the best choice for people who want to get into Classic Who, especially if they are a modern viewer. It introduces a kick-ass companion who becomes the template for the modern era, stars everyone's favourite pepper-pots, has great pacing, lots of action, lots of memorable moments, great acting, great side-cast, and is the start of 7+Ace's familial teacher/student arc that would appear throughout the next two seasons.
Dalek Astley, OMG 😂
Oh my.
I'd been both looking forward to and dreading this one.
Really, I was so angry at how the Doctor was characterised in the first episode, with Norman Wisdom-esque pratfalls and clowning. But it did get better.
Hated Delta & the Bannermen. Weirdly liked Paradise Towers. Rewatched it a few years ago and unironically enjoyed it. I know people hate Briers' performance, but I think it fits the tone of the story, which is a farce-cum-parody; it's not really satire, is it? No, for me, Paradise Towers is the forgotten gem. I will die on this hill.
Now there was another writer at the BBC in the late 80s who was just in his mid 20s and only had experience writing for this children's show from which he was fired after making it too plot driven. He grew up with both Doctor Who and comic books, and he was gay. Makes you think of what could've been if he was hired way back then, that wide-eyed young Welshman...
Aparently Benedict Cumberbatch's mother, was in Time And The Rani😜 😂😂😂😂😂
OK, did NOT know her son is Benedict Cumberbatch! HE LOOKS LIKE HER!
Where's the season 25 video?
Always look forward to your Dr Who reviews. Season 24 borders on ligh t enterainment at times, howeer Paradise Towers & Dragonfire are both enjoyable.
Yellow Kangs are doomed! 👍
Without wishing to sound controversial, my take away from Season 24 was always that Red Kangs, are not necessarily the optimum Kangs.
I could never get past the tour bus in space. Even that was too cheesy for me.
Thankfully season 25 starts a turnaround!
We really need a Who story set in the Byzantine Empire with the historical "color gangs" doing a "Red kangs are best" chant at some point. No explanation for the anachronism whatsoever, just have it happen and move on. Maybe a companion asks Doc what that was all about and s/he just shrugs and says they've seen it before somewhere.
One season I have somehow never seen an episode of. Bookended it, 'though, thanks by my parents giving me Trial of a Timelord boxed set in a tin Tardis (VHS) *and* Remembrance of the Daleks boxed set in a tin Dalek (VHS) for the same Christmas. Thanks, mum and dad.
Delta and the Bannermen... A play on the obscure band, Echo and the Bunnymen. God the McCoy era had some truly awful crap in it. Most of those series felt like they were missing an episode or two.
I love your reviews! Although, having only seen the 1st two episodes of this season recently, I actually loved them. Paradise Towers is a sort of distillation of a lot of late 80's dystopian future that would set the stage for later dystopian fiction (and was seemingly influenced by previous dystopias presented by Philip K. Dick, etc.). I'm also a big fan of The Rani (as I'm working on a short fan film where she's regenerated into me, perhaps I'm biased), and thought there were some genuinely great moments from that first episode -- but yeah, it's largely Kate's acting that carries it off. Glad to see these continuing, you made my day brighter!
The Kangs should make a comeback.
Yes quick jump to Season 25. Also was very excited. Been waiting for my Doctor Who content!
This was the season I checked out on Doctor Who.