The Tegan bleeping gag was hilarious. That plus more dalek cover songs makes this the best episode yet. I haven’t seen this season since it aired but I have a soft spot for it because I recorded the audio on tape as a kid.
I think one thing I liked about Season 18 the most was that Baker portrayed the Doctor rather differently than he had before. Maybe it was because of his bad mood during it or maybe because he recognized the tone of the series changed, but I find that the Fourth Doctor noticeably is a lot less eccentric and over-the-top. He is more subtle, more brooding, and wiser, especially as he treats Adric as sort of an apprentice. He just seems a lot more no-nonsense and serious, which I found to be an interesting development.
Tom Baker knew this was going be his last season as Doctor. John Nathan Turner made clear that He was in Charge, Baker couldn't manipulate direction of series anymore.
You pointed out something about Matthew Waterhouse and that is that his chemistry with Tom Baker was fantastic and that he was written differently going forward after Tom's departure. I always wanted to love his character but often ended up loving to hate it, but I will be the first to admit that I bawled like a little girl when the silent credits rolled on Earthshock. It's like having the universe is most annoying little sibling that just once in awhile would endure you enough can be devastated if anything ever happened to them. In that respect he captured the character very well all props to Matthew Waterhouse despite what he was given to work with and his obvious lack of experience.
Shout out to that CSO tracking shot at 9:16 and 11:24 real people walking on a model set, with shadows, and a moving camera. That was an amazing effect for it’s time, especially on this budget. Blew me away back then.
Yeah this still amazes me how well it looks. Pioneering work for sure and it stood the test of time. Especially if you are someone who appreciates such groundbreaking experimental effect works. I mean this is basically LIVE motion control and you can see the results instantly.
True. The BBC used to pioneer a huge number of techniques, technology and storytelling methods. Now all it pioneers are ways to disenfranchise and lose as many Who fans as possible.
It's called Scene-Sync. it was a big deal in the 1970s-80s, and helped pave the way for Motion Control Units. There's a really good documentary on the Meglos DVD about it, really interesting stuff.
I'd forgot why I had a better impression of Adric than everyone else seems to -- he did have a very good interplay with Tom Baker's doctor, and I cared far more about that than whether anything was good or bad during the Davison era. There was a definite father/son relationship there, that was unlike Baker's relationship with all his other companions.
Yeah, usually I forget how annoying Adric is to other people because the one I remember the most was this version of him with Tom Baker's Doctor instead of the later 'Wesley Crusher' style Adric.
For me it being his last season was the only downer of this season. One of my favorite all time seasons otherwise. I liked Davidson too, and the accompanying cast as well. Like Tegan is an all time favorite companion for me. But I feel like they underutilized that cast. It would have been great it they would have kept Tom and just wrote in Tegan. Tegan and Tom were great together in spite of me missing Romana (and her write out was bittersweet and still left open ended). I thought their scenes together in Logopolis were great, especially when it was just them and maybe The Master. There was a lot of untapped potential with that casting mixture. Like say one season with the two of them and then keep Fielding and bring in Davidson. Maybe that would have worked better for Davidson too. I think the following 2 seasons would have been better this way. But that's just my 2 cents.
Marvellous review as one has come to expect from Stam Fine. Tom Baker perfectly demonstrates how to bring a novice actor's performance level up by minimising how much Mathew Waterhouse had to "do acting". Making him simply react to the reality of whatever Tom felt like doing at that moment as often as he could instead. Kind of like Jack Nicholson in 'The Departed', only using surprisingly loud delivery of lines rather than a black dildo and a better supporting cast.
That weird oscillating hiss in the original theme music matched the howl around visuals, was spooky, alien, like time passing in waves... an element of the uncanny which all the poptastic remixes since have seriously been lacking. Made the Doctor seem a traveller in fearful places, from some place unknowable, other worldy, chilling, and beyond our understanding. Not enough adjectives for how that intro made me feel as a kid, always it arrived almost unexpected and set a tone which still comes back like a haunting with every relisten. Never bettered
I agree. The wonderful spookiness of the theme music used in the 60s and 70s was perfect for the show. Someone (in print) wrote that as the 80s were reached it had been replaced by a "tinny disco tune". A bit harsh,perhaps,but I knew what they meant. Loss of gravitas and all that.
@@SammEater the official record of the first theme tune? That had rock-solid timing, which was actually the first version Delia Derbyshire put together. But Verity Lambert (IIRC) wanted it to feel slightly off-kilter, so Derbyshire re-recorded the tapes and they weren't quite in sync to the same degree as the first one. However, the music industry side of the BBC understandably decided to release the first version that was "in time" as opposed to the title-card one that "dragged" a bit.
25:43 The only thing I hear censored Aunty Vanessa saying here is "Tell the ***** to f*** off". Very sage advice. We watch that bit over and over, probably playing havoc with your viewing metrics. Thank you for your sterling work, Stam Fine.
I had the cassette tape of 'State of Decay' narrated by Tom. Must have listened to that a million times, because when I tracked it down again recently, I could remember so many individual phrases and Tom's intonations. It's been seared into my memory all this time! :-D I was always particularly impressed by the revelation about the vampires being the original crew of the spaceship and the corruption of their names over time: "MacMillan...Camillan...CAMILLA!"
I had the same tape matey! Lost it aeons ago but then a few years ago a non-Dr Who fan mate of mine found a copy in a car-boot sale and gave it to me! I've never actually played it though cos I've not had a tape deck in ages!
@@seedhillbruisermusic7939 Hopefully, this should help :-) ua-cam.com/video/lE7YO2V85T8/v-deo.html I don't remember the weird, cheesy music, but everything else seems exactly as my 10yo self first heard it.
My favorite Baker role after Who was Captain Redbeard Rum in Bkackadder. "Ha. -Aah! You have a woman’s purse! I’ll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I’ll wager it’s never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it."
I’ll wager those are legs that have never been sliced clean off by a falling sail and swept into the sea before your very eyes. Well, neither have yours. That’s where you’re wrong! OH MY GOD!
It's all about his delivery. When you rewatch it, you can see Rowan fluffing his lines and struggling to stay in character in the face of such a typhoon.
This is the first series that I really remember. Give me Tom Baker, K-9 and even Adric and the dodgy special effects over the current crop any day. This version of the Master is also the definitive one for me.
As an old school Doctor Who fan I wasn't expecting to hear the name "Qantel" as part of a Season 18 review. The company I worked for back in the 1980's purchased a Qantel Business System 88 Mainframe computer and at the time it seemed like a good competitor to the Sperry UNIVAC commercial timeshare network we were using previously. Now, back to the Doctor!
@@caulkins69 Yes, Quantel made sophisticated video effects systems. The kind that networks would purchase, not your mom and pop video production house, provably talking six figures at the time. Then if you have one, do hourly billing to whoever uses it, i.e. take that out of their budget at the network, or a production house that needs a few hours worth of work who doesn't have one that you rent out to.
I always liked the chemistry between the Doctor and Romana during this season, and was always hoping that she would make her return in the new series. She never did sadly...
Lalla is good in City of Death. But when other Romana2 stories came out on VHS, I found I didn’t like her as much. She just seems pissy and annoyed a lot of the time. And thanks to the tension between Tom and Lalla while making Season 18, the original playful rivalry between fellow Time Lords of the Key To Time season is a distant memory.
Another great video from you, Stam Fine, but from the moment John Nathan-Turnip got a hold of the reigns that box of chocolate assortments was made up of 'Spring Surprise' and 'Crunchy Frog'. From the rhubarb-coloured costume with its' question marks they threw at Tom Baker, to the bright, disco lighting, to the eventual choice of the Wet Vet as the 5th Doctor with his cricket uniform and more bloody question marks, JNT was a catastrophe that just hung on like a fart in an elevator until the eventual demise of the original series.
Making the Doctor wear an unchanging costume rather than merely having a very strong signature in clothing like Jon and Tom in the 70s was a huge mistake. Topped off by question mark shirt collars, jumpers and umbrella handle. The strong visual branding of the character made a strong impression on young children, but everyone else just found the panto-esque artifice difficult to get past. Actors should feel comfortable in their costume and that it helps them find their character. I’m sure the costumes must have just made Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy feel self conscious and embarrassed
Did you know Tegan's name was actually a mistake sort of? Yeah, the character name wasn't decided early on. It was literally written down as Tegan/Jovanka. Someone thought it was a first and last name, and the rest is history.
Anthony Ainley was a top bloke. I met him at a Southampton convention and he was really funny. I was slightly in awe of meeting him and he totally put me at ease. Good times.
JNT: come with me K9 K9: ok where are we going, oh I see into this room. * K9 enters empty room: oh no JNT *shoots K9 in the back of the head Tom Baker: what happened JNT: there was an accident and I took care of it, their was nothing I could do
Full Circle scared me WITLESS when I was kid, a started to literally avoid ponds etc (surprised you didn't mention the obvious Alien ripoff?). But that fact they can't fly the ship isn't the best twist in that story...
Tegan. I (bleep)ing love it! ❤ As with the whole season, save for K9 & CashIn. Amazed you didn't use a clip of his laugh that were supposed to relate to because we're nerds. I'm a nerd and cringed. Great points on the theme in particular. I posted too quick. The Dalek rendition at the end was a coffee spit-take! As with all these reviews its wonderful. Thank you! 🤣 😊 ❤
For me this was the one and only Doctor I cared to watch, he was genuine, strange and enigmatic but always commanded respect as a time lord while still being eccentric and jovial. His sidekicks Romana (Lalla Ward), Leela (Louise Jameson) where amazing and Tom Baker somehow brought the best out in them without ever hampering their styles... as an actor that's commendable and no other "Doctor" did that as good on screen. I think your homage piece is a bit on the comical (bordering satirical) side and doesn't give the stories or work the actors put into the series enough credit, as a long time fan of Sci-Fi I can truly say they were imaginative, thought-provoking and highly entertaining despite some low budget decors or special effects. I give this Doctor and series' Season the highest marks and I appreciate you honoring their legacy here.
Nice to see another Australian talking retro science fiction on UA-cam (I am one as well). Thank you so much for putting up this video! I have been thinking about getting this Doctor Who season for years, the only thing preventing me is that I never see it at JBHIFI. But after watching this video I will make an extra effort. Thanks.
Fair suck of the sauce bottle Skip, if any nationality has dibs on discussing classic Doctor Who it's Australian I reckon, considering how many times we were given the honour of watching reruns of The Goodies at 6 and Doctor Who at 6.30 pm throughout the whole of the 1980's on the ABC it seemed. Thank God for the ABC 😍👍🎉
The Daley’s cover the Beatles please 😃 Daley versions of Yesterday All you need is love Revolution Helter skelter And Please please me That would be awful but hilarious 👍
Great script writing for all your episodes, matched by perfect delivery. Thanks for your effort and the best part of all--your humor! I bust a gut every time you slip a snide remark in.
Another great review! Growing up in the 1970s watching the Pertwee/Tom Baker eras, this season was when the show 'jumped the shark' forever (to use that overused phrase) in my opinion. I bought that new theme tune 7" at the Doctor Who exhibition at Madame Tussards London which ran at the same time as Season 18 aired & included some of that years 'monsters' iirc
It certainly jumped over it pretty darned high in Meglos, inspired by this video (because I was impressed by the make up, sets and effects) I just rewatched it, and with adult eyes it really makes no sense at all. It was like watching a Doctor Who story made by someone who liked lots of bits of Doctor Who stories, but didn’t really understand why any of them ever needed to happen in any particular order. Very odd indeed.
I literally just finished re-watching S18 this week so great timing to watch this retrospective!!! Yes it was the end of an era and for me Tom Baker was my Doctor. Re-watching Tom Baker after so many years was interesting, and this time round, I became more aware of his erratic behaviour on screen, likely fuelled by his challenging behaviour off screen, which definitely seemed more pronounced since Liz Sladen left. Lots of highs and lows in S18, but overall a good way to transition to update the series and transition between the old to the new!!!
Back in the 90s my best mate and I would watch stuff like this laughing whilst rolling on the ground in tears over virtually nothing, cos something would set us off. He’s now a DW writer but I just relived the experience watching this. For some reason it took about 20 attempts to get past Tegan swearing.
After reading your comment I literally rushed to Google news to double check. Got a little bit carried away with excitement for a second not gonna lie.
It is very unlikely that it will be him though, he is very busy and I doubt he would want to commit to something like Doctor Who. Anyway personally I hope the next Doctor is a woman or poc, I'll love whoever is cast (all the Doctors are great) but who they cast next will say a lot and I hope the BBC make the right decision and don't send the wrong message. But we shall see! We need to find out who the next showrunner is first though!
@@friendlyotaku9525 Agreed. In the old days - as Stam and we all know - it used to be the 'Producer' from NT to BL; now it's 'The Showrunner' from RTD to SM and CC..all have acronym nicknames btw. Stam's vids abtw are also really good at logging the analogue tensions between producers and star. There are old pilots and bold pilots but never old bold pilots.
@@suk6323 yeah, I think in general tv has changed in how it operates. There's a head writer now whereas in the classic era it was a producer and script editor that often crafted the series. I have seen people talk about what if they went back to the old producer/script editor model which could be interesting or even two showrunners (something American shows tend to have) which Doctor Who has never really done before, which could also be interesting!
K-9 was a favorite of mine and didn't appreciate how he was treated on the series. Other than that, a great send off for the best Doctor ever. "Would you like a jelly baby?"
My Doctor, and who I to this day consider the best. The reboots both the American movie and the 2005 reboot, just never had the charm of Tom Baker era of Who.
I always felt that big burgundy coat was too burdensome . It was bulky and looked like you'd sweat off 20lbs every time. The whole outfit seemed too color coordinated for the Fourth Doctor.
Ahh Adric...an awkward maths nerd who was as enjoyable as nostril hair on a ham and mushroom pizza. Damn, but you nailed how he walked at 17.40 ...like a scaled up Herve Villechaize. LOL!!! Also, digging the gloating Daleks at the end. Lmao!
If alone with Davison, Adric would have worked well with him, too. Adric is the best companion. Real, talked real, and loved finding out of the universes.
Please do a review over Seasons 1-6. They are some of the most classic episodes and have a few of my personal favorites of the whole series. Even some of the reconstructions are great!
That would be nice, but so much of those episodes are lost. There is not a lot of footage to use. From what I can tell, he is mostly using what is available on the box sets that have more recently come out, as any film footage is HD transfers, and those are now available on the newer Collection box sets.
@@marcusdamberger seasons 1, 2, 5 and 6 are largely intact, and season 4 is well filled in with animations. 160 original episodes is plenty of footage. Just season 3 might be a problem, easily avoided by having multiple photographs of Dodo on screen.
@@ShamrockParticle Ooh! Good one. I like it 'cause it has this Gary Numan-esque techno-pop sound to it that fit perfectly into the music of the times. Definitely rad.
At the same time the first several stories in this run of Dr Who were on,we were watching a series called Hammer House of Horror much later on Saturday nights on ITV.
at the time I was actually watching Buck Rogers on ITV cos I really fancied Gil Gerard. I knew the stories weren't anywhere near as interesting as Dr Who but in those days any remote chance of seeing Buck Rogers topless was a chance worth taking.
Each to their own! Given the choice of 'totty' between Buck Rogers and Dr Who, Romana won it for me every time. Not much chance of seeing *her* topless, though! :-D
Having spent the pandemic watching all (available) episodes of classic Who, I have to say that Tom's final season was pretty awful. And I lay the blame fully with JNT. And what do we expect from a guy who's background was in pantomime? It's funny isn't it that he supposedly didn't like the silly aspects of the early Baker seasons, yet introduces two of the most comically bad AmDram and worse companions in Who history, Adric (fuck me, what a shitshow he is) and Tegan (shut the fuck up you whinging bitch) as well as the ultimate fuck-up of all costume ideas - those bloody question marks. (It's very notable how Baker tries to hide them as much as possible in the earlier episodes). And then JNT casts Davidson as Baker's replacement, who is so bloody dull and basically the safe 1980s "Ever Decreasing Circles" version of Sci-fi , that Who becomes a real slog to watch until Sly comes along.
Doctors 2 through 4 are my all time favorites though I love them all. But old Tom is like the OG for me since he was my generation's introduction to this wonderful show. Is there such thing as a Whovian who doesn't like Tom?
The thing that rarely gets remarked upon is not so much the fact that Nyssa looses her father, but the fact that she has to face the Master using his body. That's so fucked up.
Meglos scared the crap out of me, his impersonation of the Doctor, his holding the human captive and "squeezing him back in" via hugging him while spiky, then there was the entire carnivorous forest. I can tell how much of an effect it had on me as it's the only story from the season that most of it stuck in my memory. Flashes of Full Circle, flashes of Traken (shrunken auntie and pissed off Tegan high on that list), but that's about all. Oh, and of course the vet from All Creatures Great and Small taking over.
Jeez, I don't recall Tegan cussin' so much! I wish she had, it may have improved my enjoyment of the show. Bloody John Nathan-Turner killed Doctor Who! It wasn't a show for Doctor Who fans, anymore. And those effing question marks on the lapels (and later on even an umbrella handle!)...grrrr!
I love State of Decay, being the last of the gothic horrors for which the Tom Baker era is so well remembered. And Logopolis was a bloody good sendoff. I agree that Adric in this season was, for the most part, better than the following season, and I expect that if he had had more time as the Doctor's solo companion, he could have been better developed as a character, rather than becoming the fourth wheel on the tricycle.
Hi. My research (for an embarrassingly nerdy textwall comment elsewhere!) suggests the Tom Baker era didn't air in North America until 1978, starting with Robot. Does that year sound correct to you? (And apologies if I'm confusing you with someone of an age enough to know;)
10:06 There's a video of a lecture Peter Howell did in 1981 where he explains how he struggled to score that scene so it feels serious enough and how he handled it
The thing that made “state of decay" one of my favorite episodes ever had nothing to do with the wonderful camp of the terrible terrible vampire doll ;) But when the Doctor is with the rebels who cannot make their scanner work. The doctor looks at it and says something to the effect of “oh! This is old earth technology! As I remember the earth engineers used to just... “ and then he hit the side of the cabinet and everything started working again. Thats CLASSIC and cannot be challenged ;)
Be sure to see McGoohan in the Christopher Plummer role in “Silver Streak;” the best movie to pair up gene wilder and Richard prior. It’s like a Hitchcock film if it was a comedy and it’s fun, but the stakes are real like in Beverly Hills cop.
Meglos was the very first Doctor Who story I ever saw. Tom Baker turning into a cactus had me hooked after I was intrigued by the Chronic Hysteresis. Full Circle was my favourite story of the season as it introduced my favourite companion from when I was a child. Sorry, I will always have an admiration for Adric. I almost wet myself at Romana hitting that Roves fellow with that orange pillow while he's choking The Doctor though. LOL
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #1 НАЧАЛО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ [Новый сезон] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/380Q7gLWGvk/mqdefault.jpg)
The Tegan bleeping gag was hilarious. That plus more dalek cover songs makes this the best episode yet. I haven’t seen this season since it aired but I have a soft spot for it because I recorded the audio on tape as a kid.
I think one thing I liked about Season 18 the most was that Baker portrayed the Doctor rather differently than he had before. Maybe it was because of his bad mood during it or maybe because he recognized the tone of the series changed, but I find that the Fourth Doctor noticeably is a lot less eccentric and over-the-top. He is more subtle, more brooding, and wiser, especially as he treats Adric as sort of an apprentice. He just seems a lot more no-nonsense and serious, which I found to be an interesting development.
Tom Baker knew this was going be his last season as Doctor. John Nathan Turner made clear that He was in Charge, Baker couldn't manipulate direction of series anymore.
You pointed out something about Matthew Waterhouse and that is that his chemistry with Tom Baker was fantastic and that he was written differently going forward after Tom's departure. I always wanted to love his character but often ended up loving to hate it, but I will be the first to admit that I bawled like a little girl when the silent credits rolled on Earthshock. It's like having the universe is most annoying little sibling that just once in awhile would endure you enough can be devastated if anything ever happened to them. In that respect he captured the character very well all props to Matthew Waterhouse despite what he was given to work with and his obvious lack of experience.
Romana was the ultimate Time Lady to me. Smart, grounded, and fun, and someone I wanted to be when I grew up. *Sigh*
Which one? 'My' Romana was Mary Tamm, but I still enjoyed Lala Ward's portrayal too.
@@zybch Romana II aka Lala Ward.
And as cute as a button.
Are you suggesting that the current brave, strong female lead Time Lady is not to your liking? You must be a Nazi!
Romana I > Romana II
Bleeping Tegan is a genius move.
Shout out to that CSO tracking shot at 9:16 and 11:24 real people walking on a model set, with shadows, and a moving camera. That was an amazing effect for it’s time, especially on this budget. Blew me away back then.
Brilliant
Yeah this still amazes me how well it looks. Pioneering work for sure and it stood the test of time. Especially if you are someone who appreciates such groundbreaking experimental effect works. I mean this is basically LIVE motion control and you can see the results instantly.
True. The BBC used to pioneer a huge number of techniques, technology and storytelling methods.
Now all it pioneers are ways to disenfranchise and lose as many Who fans as possible.
It's called Scene-Sync. it was a big deal in the 1970s-80s, and helped pave the way for Motion Control Units. There's a really good documentary on the Meglos DVD about it, really interesting stuff.
True, still surprises me that they managed to make it look good with the budget and limitations of 1970's tv.
I'd forgot why I had a better impression of Adric than everyone else seems to -- he did have a very good interplay with Tom Baker's doctor, and I cared far more about that than whether anything was good or bad during the Davison era. There was a definite father/son relationship there, that was unlike Baker's relationship with all his other companions.
I'm coming right out and saying it - Adric wasn't as terrible as he's made out.
He might have been better though...
Yeah, usually I forget how annoying Adric is to other people because the one I remember the most was this version of him with Tom Baker's Doctor instead of the later 'Wesley Crusher' style Adric.
Though it is sadly the end of the Tom baker years but the moment has be prepared for Davison
For me it being his last season was the only downer of this season. One of my favorite all time seasons otherwise. I liked Davidson too, and the accompanying cast as well. Like Tegan is an all time favorite companion for me. But I feel like they underutilized that cast. It would have been great it they would have kept Tom and just wrote in Tegan. Tegan and Tom were great together in spite of me missing Romana (and her write out was bittersweet and still left open ended). I thought their scenes together in Logopolis were great, especially when it was just them and maybe The Master. There was a lot of untapped potential with that casting mixture. Like say one season with the two of them and then keep Fielding and bring in Davidson. Maybe that would have worked better for Davidson too. I think the following 2 seasons would have been better this way. But that's just my 2 cents.
The Tegan swearing was hilarious 😂
I remember seeing Tom Baker in a Remington Steele episode in the 1980s.
Yes! I prob watched it half a dozen times back then! If I recall he was the bad guy in that episode and his name was "Blaylock".
In the early '80s I was in a local Doctor Who fan club called The Keepers of Traken. Just thought I'd mention that.
Marvellous review as one has come to expect from Stam Fine.
Tom Baker perfectly demonstrates how to bring a novice actor's performance level up by minimising how much Mathew Waterhouse had to "do acting". Making him simply react to the reality of whatever Tom felt like doing at that moment as often as he could instead. Kind of like Jack Nicholson in 'The Departed', only using surprisingly loud delivery of lines rather than a black dildo and a better supporting cast.
That weird oscillating hiss in the original theme music matched the howl around visuals, was spooky, alien, like time passing in waves... an element of the uncanny which all the poptastic remixes since have seriously been lacking. Made the Doctor seem a traveller in fearful places, from some place unknowable, other worldy, chilling, and beyond our understanding. Not enough adjectives for how that intro made me feel as a kid, always it arrived almost unexpected and set a tone which still comes back like a haunting with every relisten. Never bettered
Spot on.
Is there a reason why the version on the show sounds a bit different from the official release?
I agree. The wonderful spookiness of the theme music used in the 60s and 70s was perfect for the show. Someone (in print) wrote that as the 80s were reached it had been replaced by a "tinny disco tune". A bit harsh,perhaps,but I knew what they meant. Loss of gravitas and all that.
@@SammEater the official record of the first theme tune? That had rock-solid timing, which was actually the first version Delia Derbyshire put together. But Verity Lambert (IIRC) wanted it to feel slightly off-kilter, so Derbyshire re-recorded the tapes and they weren't quite in sync to the same degree as the first one. However, the music industry side of the BBC understandably decided to release the first version that was "in time" as opposed to the title-card one that "dragged" a bit.
25:43 The only thing I hear censored Aunty Vanessa saying here is "Tell the ***** to f*** off". Very sage advice. We watch that bit over and over, probably playing havoc with your viewing metrics. Thank you for your sterling work, Stam Fine.
I had the cassette tape of 'State of Decay' narrated by Tom. Must have listened to that a million times, because when I tracked it down again recently, I could remember so many individual phrases and Tom's intonations. It's been seared into my memory all this time! :-D I was always particularly impressed by the revelation about the vampires being the original crew of the spaceship and the corruption of their names over time: "MacMillan...Camillan...CAMILLA!"
I had the same tape matey! Lost it aeons ago but then a few years ago a non-Dr Who fan mate of mine found a copy in a car-boot sale and gave it to me! I've never actually played it though cos I've not had a tape deck in ages!
@@seedhillbruisermusic7939 Hopefully, this should help :-)
ua-cam.com/video/lE7YO2V85T8/v-deo.html
I don't remember the weird, cheesy music, but everything else seems exactly as my 10yo self first heard it.
Yup, I have it somewhere, and now a digitised version. :)
Speaking of Camilla, damn she looked fine back then.
I had that tape too. Also had the view master slides of Full circle.
Logopolis. Close to the very best and always heartbreaking on every viewing. Goodbye MY Doctor.
My favorite Baker role after Who was Captain Redbeard Rum in Bkackadder.
"Ha. -Aah! You have a woman’s purse! I’ll wager that purse has never been used as a rowing-boat. I’ll wager it’s never had sixteen shipwrecked mariners tossing in it."
I’ll wager those are legs that have never been sliced clean off by a falling sail and swept into the sea before your very eyes. Well, neither have yours. That’s where you’re wrong! OH MY GOD!
@@aquamonkee I'd rather be a lapdog to a slip of a girl than a...............GIT!
It's all about his delivery. When you rewatch it, you can see Rowan fluffing his lines and struggling to stay in character in the face of such a typhoon.
This is the first series that I really remember. Give me Tom Baker, K-9 and even Adric and the dodgy special effects over the current crop any day. This version of the Master is also the definitive one for me.
Me too.
@@provisionalhypothesis Good taste, friend. They are really cute indeed.
Guard " You must help us or we'll die" Count " Then die, that is the purpose of Guards." State of Decay
The Crispy Master really came into his own in Big Finish.
As an old school Doctor Who fan I wasn't expecting to hear the name "Qantel" as part of a Season 18 review. The company I worked for back in the 1980's purchased a Qantel Business System 88 Mainframe computer and at the time it seemed like a good competitor to the Sperry UNIVAC commercial timeshare network we were using previously. Now, back to the Doctor!
The name referenced in the video is Quantel, not Qantel. They were different companies, on opposite sides of the pond.
@@caulkins69 Yes, Quantel made sophisticated video effects systems. The kind that networks would purchase, not your mom and pop video production house, provably talking six figures at the time. Then if you have one, do hourly billing to whoever uses it, i.e. take that out of their budget at the network, or a production house that needs a few hours worth of work who doesn't have one that you rent out to.
I always liked the chemistry between the Doctor and Romana during this season, and was always hoping that she would make her return in the new series. She never did sadly...
The first Romana wow what a woman! Was gutted when they replaced her .I was only 8 years old bit I was really pissed off at the time Lol.
@@lucaschapman2188 Yes I was disappointed when Mary Tamm left, but City of Death won me over.
Lalla is good in City of Death. But when other Romana2 stories came out on VHS, I found I didn’t like her as much. She just seems pissy and annoyed a lot of the time. And thanks to the tension between Tom and Lalla while making Season 18, the original playful rivalry between fellow Time Lords of the Key To Time season is a distant memory.
Another great video from you, Stam Fine, but from the moment John Nathan-Turnip got a hold of the reigns that box of chocolate assortments was made up of 'Spring Surprise' and 'Crunchy Frog'. From the rhubarb-coloured costume with its' question marks they threw at Tom Baker, to the bright, disco lighting, to the eventual choice of the Wet Vet as the 5th Doctor with his cricket uniform and more bloody question marks, JNT was a catastrophe that just hung on like a fart in an elevator until the eventual demise of the original series.
Making the Doctor wear an unchanging costume rather than merely having a very strong signature in clothing like Jon and Tom in the 70s was a huge mistake. Topped off by question mark shirt collars, jumpers and umbrella handle. The strong visual branding of the character made a strong impression on young children, but everyone else just found the panto-esque artifice difficult to get past. Actors should feel comfortable in their costume and that it helps them find their character. I’m sure the costumes must have just made Davison, Colin Baker and McCoy feel self conscious and embarrassed
@@AurumEtAes Yes, apparently Colin Baker had chosen something similar to Christopher Eccleston's eventual kit. Colin loathed his Dr Who costume.
Did you know Tegan's name was actually a mistake sort of?
Yeah, the character name wasn't decided early on. It was literally written down as Tegan/Jovanka. Someone thought it was a first and last name, and the rest is history.
Anthony Ainley was a top bloke. I met him at a Southampton convention and he was really funny. I was slightly in awe of meeting him and he totally put me at ease. Good times.
JNT: come with me K9
K9: ok where are we going, oh I see into this room.
* K9 enters empty room: oh no
JNT *shoots K9 in the back of the head
Tom Baker: what happened
JNT: there was an accident and I took care of it, their was nothing I could do
Full Circle scared me WITLESS when I was kid, a started to literally avoid ponds etc (surprised you didn't mention the obvious Alien ripoff?). But that fact they can't fly the ship isn't the best twist in that story...
actually dr who did alien before alien with Arc in Space, early in Toms run!
Oh Adric. Despite all the character's flaws, I think he had a lot to do with 10 year old me realising I wasn't really into girls.
And 9 yr old me.....nice to kno i was not alone
You know 10 and 9 year old boys are not supposed to be into girls. They're not supposed to be "into" anyone that way.
@@STho205 Oh. Had I known that I would have just flicked the hormone switch off...
First time seeing davros I realised I wasn't into girls
@@darvon906 an understandable reaction
Tom Baker was always my favorite Doctor.
10:11 "I am MEGLOS" line, always makes me laugh but at the same it fits his character so well I can't help but to love it.
Tegan.
I (bleep)ing love it! ❤
As with the whole season, save for K9 & CashIn. Amazed you didn't use a clip of his laugh that were supposed to relate to because we're nerds. I'm a nerd and cringed. Great points on the theme in particular.
I posted too quick. The Dalek rendition at the end was a coffee spit-take! As with all these reviews its wonderful. Thank you! 🤣 😊 ❤
Another One Bites the Dust is so apt for a Dalek to sing.
For me this was the one and only Doctor I cared to watch, he was genuine, strange and enigmatic but always commanded respect as a time lord while still being eccentric and jovial. His sidekicks Romana (Lalla Ward), Leela (Louise Jameson) where amazing and Tom Baker somehow brought the best out in them without ever hampering their styles... as an actor that's commendable and no other "Doctor" did that as good on screen. I think your homage piece is a bit on the comical (bordering satirical) side and doesn't give the stories or work the actors put into the series enough credit, as a long time fan of Sci-Fi I can truly say they were imaginative, thought-provoking and highly entertaining despite some low budget decors or special effects. I give this Doctor and series' Season the highest marks and I appreciate you honoring their legacy here.
sidekicks
sidekicks
This is the era where I came into the series. I too did not know any other Dr but Tom Baker at frist. This part made me a Whovian.
Thanks for the K9 and company clips! Hear about the series years ago, but never found footage. Thanks for the videos!!! 📺📺📺
Nice to see another Australian talking retro science fiction on UA-cam (I am one as well). Thank you so much for putting up this video! I have been thinking about getting this Doctor Who season for years, the only thing preventing me is that I never see it at JBHIFI. But after watching this video I will make an extra effort. Thanks.
Fair suck of the sauce bottle Skip, if any nationality has dibs on discussing classic Doctor Who it's Australian I reckon, considering how many times we were given the honour of watching reruns of The Goodies at 6 and Doctor Who at 6.30 pm throughout the whole of the 1980's on the ABC it seemed. Thank God for the ABC 😍👍🎉
I'd like a whole album of Daleks singing please.
I want to hear a dalek sing Friday by Rebecca Black. That song is well matched to dalek speech patterns.
@@pharoh73 I would go some Friday by Rebecca Black, some Friday on My Mind by the Easybeats and Friday I'm In Love by The Cure to round it off.
The Daley’s cover the Beatles please 😃
Daley versions of
Yesterday
All you need is love
Revolution
Helter skelter
And
Please please me
That would be awful but hilarious 👍
ua-cam.com/video/KB7HF82y9CI/v-deo.html
@@mikenash7049 amazing!
Great script writing for all your episodes, matched by perfect delivery. Thanks for your effort and the best part of all--your humor! I bust a gut every time you slip a snide remark in.
Another great review! Growing up in the 1970s watching the Pertwee/Tom Baker eras, this season was when the show 'jumped the shark' forever (to use that overused phrase) in my opinion. I bought that new theme tune 7" at the Doctor Who exhibition at Madame Tussards London which ran at the same time as Season 18 aired & included some of that years 'monsters' iirc
It certainly jumped over it pretty darned high in Meglos, inspired by this video (because I was impressed by the make up, sets and effects) I just rewatched it, and with adult eyes it really makes no sense at all.
It was like watching a Doctor Who story made by someone who liked lots of bits of Doctor Who stories, but didn’t really understand why any of them ever needed to happen in any particular order.
Very odd indeed.
Hey, people say that, but there was an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie jumped a shark on his motorbike and it was the best one
As ever, top analysis, brilliant choice of clips, and just the right balance of silliness and seriousness.
What (another) fantastic video review 🙏🏻. Thanks so much- was really looking forward to this one- and it’s superb. Superstar 👍♥️
I literally just finished re-watching S18 this week so great timing to watch this retrospective!!! Yes it was the end of an era and for me Tom Baker was my Doctor. Re-watching Tom Baker after so many years was interesting, and this time round, I became more aware of his erratic behaviour on screen, likely fuelled by his challenging behaviour off screen, which definitely seemed more pronounced since Liz Sladen left. Lots of highs and lows in S18, but overall a good way to transition to update the series and transition between the old to the new!!!
Back in the 90s my best mate and I would watch stuff like this laughing whilst rolling on the ground in tears over virtually nothing, cos something would set us off. He’s now a DW writer but I just relived the experience watching this. For some reason it took about 20 attempts to get past Tegan swearing.
I've gone in a moment from never having heard of a "paddle pop" to having an almost overwhelming desire to try one.
Only thing better than a Paddle Pop is a Gaytime
The end of Logopolis always gets me right in the feels.
It's the end of Season 18, but the moment has been prepared for.
18:55 Don't forget the legendary stunt man Rick Disneck
Adric's "Madchester" hair made him look like he could have been Ian Brown's younger autistic brother.
And 40 years later, Stam will be reviewing Michael Sheen's new tenure..
After reading your comment I literally rushed to Google news to double check. Got a little bit carried away with excitement for a second not gonna lie.
@@adamfreddo5703 He is a recent favourite, good buddies with Tenant and I think he'd be ideal rather than the other young person they have in mind.
It is very unlikely that it will be him though, he is very busy and I doubt he would want to commit to something like Doctor Who. Anyway personally I hope the next Doctor is a woman or poc, I'll love whoever is cast (all the Doctors are great) but who they cast next will say a lot and I hope the BBC make the right decision and don't send the wrong message. But we shall see! We need to find out who the next showrunner is first though!
@@friendlyotaku9525 Agreed. In the old days - as Stam and we all know - it used to be the 'Producer' from NT to BL; now it's 'The Showrunner' from RTD to SM and CC..all have acronym nicknames btw. Stam's vids abtw are also really good at logging the analogue tensions between producers and star. There are old pilots and bold pilots but never old bold pilots.
@@suk6323 yeah, I think in general tv has changed in how it operates. There's a head writer now whereas in the classic era it was a producer and script editor that often crafted the series. I have seen people talk about what if they went back to the old producer/script editor model which could be interesting or even two showrunners (something American shows tend to have) which Doctor Who has never really done before, which could also be interesting!
I'm so old I remember watching this season as a child was to young to notice the difference easy to notice when you look back
Tom was very much a mid-1970s Doctor....
K-9 was a favorite of mine and didn't appreciate how he was treated on the series. Other than that, a great send off for the best Doctor ever. "Would you like a jelly baby?"
My Doctor, and who I to this day consider the best. The reboots both the American movie and the 2005 reboot, just never had the charm of Tom Baker era of Who.
Thanks for this upload. It brought back many memories... especially when we moved to Norfolk LOL
great info and very entertaining. Love the amusing and incisive commentary.
Thanks! You made me watch all the Tom Bakers.
You should send the bleeping of Tegan's lines to Janet!
I always felt that big burgundy coat was too burdensome . It was bulky and looked like you'd sweat off 20lbs every time. The whole outfit seemed too color coordinated for the Fourth Doctor.
Tom was ill for much of this season. I'm sure wearing this big, heavy coat in studio didn't help his wellbeing
The production value looked big by this era. It crashed by Colin Baker. Picked up a little again by McCoy
Ahh Adric...an awkward maths nerd who was as enjoyable as nostril hair on a ham and mushroom pizza. Damn, but you nailed how he walked at 17.40 ...like a scaled up Herve Villechaize. LOL!!! Also, digging the gloating Daleks at the end. Lmao!
I noticed that Tom would take whatever chance he could get to cover up the question marks.
21:57 River Song foreshadowing.
If alone with Davison, Adric would have worked well with him, too. Adric is the best companion. Real, talked real, and loved finding out of the universes.
Please do a review over Seasons 1-6. They are some of the most classic episodes and have a few of my personal favorites of the whole series. Even some of the reconstructions are great!
That would be nice, but so much of those episodes are lost. There is not a lot of footage to use. From what I can tell, he is mostly using what is available on the box sets that have more recently come out, as any film footage is HD transfers, and those are now available on the newer Collection box sets.
@@marcusdamberger seasons 1, 2, 5 and 6 are largely intact, and season 4 is well filled in with animations. 160 original episodes is plenty of footage. Just season 3 might be a problem, easily avoided by having multiple photographs of Dodo on screen.
Season 18's revamped theme song is the most punk sounding of all its incarnations. It's my favorite.
Thr only thing missing is a mashup with a song from "Oh No It's Devo!" 😁
@@ShamrockParticle Ooh! Good one. I like it 'cause it has this Gary Numan-esque techno-pop sound to it that fit perfectly into the music of the times. Definitely rad.
Gary Numan! Good call, mate.
@@briansands9957 Were you sharing an account? You'll get veruccas...
@AndrewGivens Perhaps he's cloned himself.
I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this, thanks so much.
Adric was the first Mary Sue actually inserted into a series from a bad piece of teen-fan-fic. That makes sense.
I loved the espace episodes so much. Perfect mix of my earlier favorite Gothic/Hammer episodes, and the new digital kind of age
At the same time the first several stories in this run of Dr Who were on,we were watching a series called Hammer House of Horror much later on Saturday nights on ITV.
at the time I was actually watching Buck Rogers on ITV cos I really fancied Gil Gerard. I knew the stories weren't anywhere near as interesting as Dr Who but in those days any remote chance of seeing Buck Rogers topless was a chance worth taking.
Each to their own! Given the choice of 'totty' between Buck Rogers and Dr Who, Romana won it for me every time. Not much chance of seeing *her* topless, though! :-D
Swap Wilma for Buck and I'd agree. But then the Space Vampire ep was so scary I switched back to BBC1.
@@MrLorenzovanmatterho wilma was amazing, even as a gay guy I thought she was great. And I remember being pretty freaked out by that vampire episode!
@@seedhillbruisermusic7939 She replaced Lynda Carter as my no1! It was only later when I rewatched it I realised all the allegories to Dracula.
Lynda Carter was amazing! I might be gay but I totally loved her
I always liked State of Decay. Spooky, dark and a good plot and acting.
Having spent the pandemic watching all (available) episodes of classic Who, I have to say that Tom's final season was pretty awful. And I lay the blame fully with JNT. And what do we expect from a guy who's background was in pantomime? It's funny isn't it that he supposedly didn't like the silly aspects of the early Baker seasons, yet introduces two of the most comically bad AmDram and worse companions in Who history, Adric (fuck me, what a shitshow he is) and Tegan (shut the fuck up you whinging bitch) as well as the ultimate fuck-up of all costume ideas - those bloody question marks. (It's very notable how Baker tries to hide them as much as possible in the earlier episodes). And then JNT casts Davidson as Baker's replacement, who is so bloody dull and basically the safe 1980s "Ever Decreasing Circles" version of Sci-fi , that Who becomes a real slog to watch until Sly comes along.
Presented only in the way an Aussie could. Though minus the VB. And as for Tegan swearing, just brilliant.
okay now i need a full edit of Logopolis where every time Tegan speaks she's bleeped
@17:41 : “De Starliner! De Starliner!”
Brilliant observational documentary and comedy as usual. Why so few views?
Tom B. was definitely the BEST (and for me, the only) Doctor !
Doctors 2 through 4 are my all time favorites though I love them all. But old Tom is like the OG for me since he was my generation's introduction to this wonderful show. Is there such thing as a Whovian who doesn't like Tom?
I think he’s great, but he’s the position as fan favourite classic Doctor is far less solid now than it used to be for many years.
The thing that rarely gets remarked upon is not so much the fact that Nyssa looses her father, but the fact that she has to face the Master using his body.
That's so fucked up.
Meglos scared the crap out of me, his impersonation of the Doctor, his holding the human captive and "squeezing him back in" via hugging him while spiky, then there was the entire carnivorous forest. I can tell how much of an effect it had on me as it's the only story from the season that most of it stuck in my memory. Flashes of Full Circle, flashes of Traken (shrunken auntie and pissed off Tegan high on that list), but that's about all. Oh, and of course the vet from All Creatures Great and Small taking over.
Tom Baker was my first Doctor.
Meglos is one of all time favorites
The new Decider also dubbed George Lazenby undercover as Baronet Hillie for much of On Her Majesty's Secret Service
K-9 was the first Google, years before the hitch hikers guide !
Jeez, I don't recall Tegan cussin' so much! I wish she had, it may have improved my enjoyment of the show. Bloody John Nathan-Turner killed Doctor Who! It wasn't a show for Doctor Who fans, anymore. And those effing question marks on the lapels (and later on even an umbrella handle!)...grrrr!
Adric is an anagram of "Dirac", the greatest English scientist.
It was the END. Too much change. It didn't FEEL like Doctor Who anymore.
Now where have I heard that before...?
@@evertonporter7887 Every true fan who isn't a revisionist.
@@QuietstormusicYou didn't like the 5th Doctor? I thought he was cool.
JNT, Barry Letts and Tom Baker - 3 very English people who would never have used the word 'gotten'. They'd have said 'become'.
I love State of Decay, being the last of the gothic horrors for which the Tom Baker era is so well remembered. And Logopolis was a bloody good sendoff. I agree that Adric in this season was, for the most part, better than the following season, and I expect that if he had had more time as the Doctor's solo companion, he could have been better developed as a character, rather than becoming the fourth wheel on the tricycle.
This is first Doctor Who I saw as a kid in San Diego on KPBS.
Hi. My research (for an embarrassingly nerdy textwall comment elsewhere!) suggests the Tom Baker era didn't air in North America until 1978, starting with Robot. Does that year sound correct to you? (And apologies if I'm confusing you with someone of an age enough to know;)
I love the E-Space trilogy. So different, never anything like it ever since.
this was my childhood dr :D....looking forward to this .....be gentle sir
10:06 There's a video of a lecture Peter Howell did in 1981 where he explains how he struggled to score that scene so it feels serious enough and how he handled it
Would you go back and review the Hartnell and Troughton eras?
The thing that made “state of decay" one of my favorite episodes ever had nothing to do with the wonderful camp of the terrible terrible vampire doll ;) But when the Doctor is with the rebels who cannot make their scanner work. The doctor looks at it and says something to the effect of “oh! This is old earth technology! As I remember the earth engineers used to just... “ and then he hit the side of the cabinet and everything started working again. Thats CLASSIC and cannot be challenged ;)
A guy named Tremas becomes The Master what a surprise.
Be sure to see McGoohan in the Christopher Plummer role in “Silver Streak;” the best movie to pair up gene wilder and Richard prior. It’s like a Hitchcock film if it was a comedy and it’s fun, but the stakes are real like in Beverly Hills cop.
Meglos was the very first Doctor Who story I ever saw. Tom Baker turning into a cactus had me hooked after I was intrigued by the Chronic Hysteresis. Full Circle was my favourite story of the season as it introduced my favourite companion from when I was a child. Sorry, I will always have an admiration for Adric.
I almost wet myself at Romana hitting that Roves fellow with that orange pillow while he's choking The Doctor though. LOL
Logopolis is great!
D84 was the robot assistant we should have.
Tom Baker was The Best of all of the Doctors.
Whaaat? State of Decay is brilliant!