Pertwee gave us the very best stories from Doctor Who, in my opinion, and was by far one of the best actors to play the part alongside Hartnell. Season 12 is rather entertaining, but after that it's very much a steady decline in quality until the show is finally cancelled in 1989. For me, Doctor Who will never again touch the greatness of Hartnell and Pertwee's first seasons until the reboot in 2005. Farewell, Jon. You were the noblest Time Lord of them all. And thank you, Chris, for the effort and love you put into these reviews.
60th Anniversary Doctor Who Marathon...Take 2 "Season 11" TV stories The Time Warrior (10/10) Planet of the Spiders (7/10) Monster of Peladon (7/10) Death to the Daleks (5/10) Invasion of the Dinosaurs (3/10) Time Warrior was a great introduction to Sarah Jane. I loved that she was practically an antagonist towards the Doctor for half the story and wasn't immediately convinced of his innocence. The introduction to a Sontaran and his society was also well done, along with his unconcern for changing Earth history. I also always loved that the Doctor thinks that we're civilized enough by 1974 to deal with nuclear technology. Definitely thinks more of us than we do ourselves. Oh boy...a lot to say about Invasion of the Dinosaurs. First of all (TL:DR) I hated it and I think most people really like this one. So...sorry in advance. One of the disadvantages of doing a Doctor Who marathon is you can quickly tire of certain tropes. During Pertwee's era specifically, there's a ton of stories where corruption exists in the upper levels of society where the Earth is dangerously at risk as a result. Be it military, government, scientific, civilian, or a combination of all those branches of society. I think here is where that trope finally broke me. There were also points like the Doctor's "exposure" that makes zero sense as he wasn't doing a thing and was just there. And how these people think they will survive ancient (sorry, "purer") Earth with a small group is mind boggling. And duping a group of people into believing a lie...is extremely tiring at this point in the show and is not something I'm interested in watching. I did however, love Sarah, the Doctor, Brigadier, and Benton in the story. And the ending is great, especially with the Doctor tempting Sarah to go to another planet. Oh...and Yates can go *uck off. This story can be defined as a Marathon killer for me (almost) if not due to a few facts. Pertwee was proving to be at his best already this season, Sarah Jane has tons of charisma, and the modern Earth setting is largely about to be placed on the backburner. Monster of Peladon was a nice enough sequel to the season 9 story Curse of Peladon. It's definitely not as good and I think part of that is 6 parts is too long to spend inside that citadel with that society. The Queen was not quite as an incompetent ruler that her father seemed to be although still not particularly great. The Ice Warriors being the villains again was played well enough. The finale is something that my wife will never willfully watch as an arachnophobe. The spiders were decently scary as the villains in the story though even for me. Especially the "Great One." I liked the intro of a Time Lord ally for the Doctor. Yates didn't quite redeem himself in my eyes. I don't hate the guy, but he is now last in my companion ranking. The biggest ally this season I will give to Cho-je/K'anpo. Biggest enemy was Eckersley...that monster killed Aggregor. Big Finish The Gulf (8/10) The Devils Hoofprints (6/10) Such slim Big Finish material this season is going to be even worse for Seasons 12 and 13. Companion rankings Jo Vicki Brigadier Jamie Zoe Ian Chesterton Steven Taylor Polly Barbara Wright Benton Liz Victoria Ben Oliver Sara Susan Dodo Katarina Yates
i probably agree that season 11 is the weakest of the Pertwee era but I still like it and it also introduced the diamond logo and the best title sequence of the classic era. I think Dinosaurs and Spiders are the best stories. I feel that Letts and Dicks had run out of steam and they had also miscast April Walker as Sarah and had to pay her off. So the season didn’t start well. We still agree on the best story - my top 10 would be: 1. Inferno 2. The Web of Fear 3. Spearhead from Space 4. The War Games 5. The Invasion 6. The Green Death 7. The Tomb of the Cybermen 8. The Dalek Invasion of Earth 9. The Mind of Evil 10.Carnival of Monsters My top 10 companions are at this stage: 1. Liz Shaw 2. Jamie McCrimmon 3. Jo Grant 4. Barbara Wright 5. Sarah Jane Smith 6. Zoe Herriot 7. Ian Chesterton 8. Steven Taylor 9. Ben Jackson 10. Polly Wright
I think the lows of Season 11 are often over exaggerated. While there are some weaker stories in this season, I find that Season 3 has more missteps and lower lows… such as Celestial Toymaker and the Ark, along with the deadly dull Massacre (sorry). There are much worse seasons to come, however… 17, 23, and 24… that make Season 11 seem like a masterpiece.
imo The Time Warrior is the best story overall up until that point, and Invasion of the Dinosaurs immediatly outdoes it. Then followed up by Pertwee's worst. Inconsistent? Definetly.
I've felt for years that season eleven is quite simply the weakest overall season of Who until Trial of a Time Lord. And really... that's low. I mean, you rate a Time Warrior just a bit higher than me. But boy is Monster of Peladon disappointing. And underwhelming is most of Death to the Daleks and most of Planet of the Spiders. But it's all still so watchable. Nothing in the Pertwee years is close to as bad as The Dominators.
I can't believe how awful this series is, especially after the quality of last year. Same writers, same directors, and yet it feels like everyone's run out of ideas...!!
@@chris_stokes You've got a remake of a story from two seasons ago, a remake of last seasons remake, a Letts script with all the problems that entails.. Was there just no money in 1974? Don't answer that!
Pertwee gave us the very best stories from Doctor Who, in my opinion, and was by far one of the best actors to play the part alongside Hartnell. Season 12 is rather entertaining, but after that it's very much a steady decline in quality until the show is finally cancelled in 1989. For me, Doctor Who will never again touch the greatness of Hartnell and Pertwee's first seasons until the reboot in 2005. Farewell, Jon. You were the noblest Time Lord of them all. And thank you, Chris, for the effort and love you put into these reviews.
@@michael_m22 Thanks Michael, it's much appreciated
60th Anniversary Doctor Who Marathon...Take 2
"Season 11"
TV stories
The Time Warrior (10/10)
Planet of the Spiders (7/10)
Monster of Peladon (7/10)
Death to the Daleks (5/10)
Invasion of the Dinosaurs (3/10)
Time Warrior was a great introduction to Sarah Jane. I loved that she was practically an antagonist towards the Doctor for half the story and wasn't immediately convinced of his innocence. The introduction to a Sontaran and his society was also well done, along with his unconcern for changing Earth history. I also always loved that the Doctor thinks that we're civilized enough by 1974 to deal with nuclear technology. Definitely thinks more of us than we do ourselves.
Oh boy...a lot to say about Invasion of the Dinosaurs. First of all (TL:DR) I hated it and I think most people really like this one. So...sorry in advance. One of the disadvantages of doing a Doctor Who marathon is you can quickly tire of certain tropes. During Pertwee's era specifically, there's a ton of stories where corruption exists in the upper levels of society where the Earth is dangerously at risk as a result. Be it military, government, scientific, civilian, or a combination of all those branches of society. I think here is where that trope finally broke me. There were also points like the Doctor's "exposure" that makes zero sense as he wasn't doing a thing and was just there. And how these people think they will survive ancient (sorry, "purer") Earth with a small group is mind boggling. And duping a group of people into believing a lie...is extremely tiring at this point in the show and is not something I'm interested in watching.
I did however, love Sarah, the Doctor, Brigadier, and Benton in the story. And the ending is great, especially with the Doctor tempting Sarah to go to another planet. Oh...and Yates can go *uck off. This story can be defined as a Marathon killer for me (almost) if not due to a few facts. Pertwee was proving to be at his best already this season, Sarah Jane has tons of charisma, and the modern Earth setting is largely about to be placed on the backburner.
Monster of Peladon was a nice enough sequel to the season 9 story Curse of Peladon. It's definitely not as good and I think part of that is 6 parts is too long to spend inside that citadel with that society. The Queen was not quite as an incompetent ruler that her father seemed to be although still not particularly great. The Ice Warriors being the villains again was played well enough.
The finale is something that my wife will never willfully watch as an arachnophobe. The spiders were decently scary as the villains in the story though even for me. Especially the "Great One." I liked the intro of a Time Lord ally for the Doctor. Yates didn't quite redeem himself in my eyes. I don't hate the guy, but he is now last in my companion ranking.
The biggest ally this season I will give to Cho-je/K'anpo. Biggest enemy was Eckersley...that monster killed Aggregor.
Big Finish
The Gulf (8/10)
The Devils Hoofprints (6/10)
Such slim Big Finish material this season is going to be even worse for Seasons 12 and 13.
Companion rankings
Jo
Vicki
Brigadier
Jamie
Zoe
Ian Chesterton
Steven Taylor
Polly
Barbara Wright
Benton
Liz
Victoria
Ben
Oliver
Sara
Susan
Dodo
Katarina
Yates
* Sarah Jane is just below Barbara in my companion rankings currently.
Again, I'm pleased to see the often underrated Steven and Vicki get the love they deserve.
Crazy how hard this season falls off after the first two stories. Luckily season 12 picks it up (for the most part)
i probably agree that season 11 is the weakest of the Pertwee era but I still like it and it also introduced the diamond logo and the best title sequence of the classic era. I think Dinosaurs and Spiders are the best stories. I feel that Letts and Dicks had run out of steam and they had also miscast April Walker as Sarah and had to pay her off. So the season didn’t start well. We still agree on the best story - my top 10 would be:
1. Inferno
2. The Web of Fear
3. Spearhead from Space
4. The War Games
5. The Invasion
6. The Green Death
7. The Tomb of the Cybermen
8. The Dalek Invasion of Earth
9. The Mind of Evil
10.Carnival of Monsters
My top 10 companions are at this stage:
1. Liz Shaw
2. Jamie McCrimmon
3. Jo Grant
4. Barbara Wright
5. Sarah Jane Smith
6. Zoe Herriot
7. Ian Chesterton
8. Steven Taylor
9. Ben Jackson
10. Polly Wright
I think the lows of Season 11 are often over exaggerated. While there are some weaker stories in this season, I find that Season 3 has more missteps and lower lows… such as Celestial Toymaker and the Ark, along with the deadly dull Massacre (sorry). There are much worse seasons to come, however… 17, 23, and 24… that make Season 11 seem like a masterpiece.
imo The Time Warrior is the best story overall up until that point, and Invasion of the Dinosaurs immediatly outdoes it. Then followed up by Pertwee's worst. Inconsistent? Definetly.
What happened to the season ranking you did in the season 8 recap??
@@TediousMilkshake They're not a regular thing
@@chris_stokes i liked it tho :(
I've felt for years that season eleven is quite simply the weakest overall season of Who until Trial of a Time Lord. And really... that's low. I mean, you rate a Time Warrior just a bit higher than me. But boy is Monster of Peladon disappointing. And underwhelming is most of Death to the Daleks and most of Planet of the Spiders. But it's all still so watchable. Nothing in the Pertwee years is close to as bad as The Dominators.
I can't believe how awful this series is, especially after the quality of last year. Same writers, same directors, and yet it feels like everyone's run out of ideas...!!
@@jameswhitaker12 Yeah weakest so far for me
@@chris_stokes You've got a remake of a story from two seasons ago, a remake of last seasons remake, a Letts script with all the problems that entails.. Was there just no money in 1974? Don't answer that!
Indeed. I wonder if the loss, for different reasons, of Manning and Delgado was too much of a double-whammy for the team to bounce back from.
Not sure if Ben Jackson would make it as a companion these days, because NuWho Doctors seem to have a pathological disrespect for the military.