Well blow me sideways and call me Betty 😂 😮💨🌬️hey Betty I’ve been looking forward to seeing you react to this, I’m not on patrion but follow you faithfully on UA-cam so looking forward to dimensions in time being released here. I relive each moment of seeing it for the first time through you, I hope you do More than 30 years in the TARDIS, there’s a scene I’d like to see your reaction to about 14 minutes in, not saying what but knowing what you like about the show I know you’ll love it. You reaction to the rocky horror show was funny, please do Pricilla Queen of the Desert, you’ll laugh your socks off
While it's understandable you're much more in shock about the brigadier I'm surprised you've not noticed 7's new outfit. Look at that fancy new jacket he's wearing
Interesting cast note not already mentioned but June Bland who plays Elizabeth Rawlinson (the blind woman in the hotel bar) in this story had previously appeared as Berger in Earthshock
We of course knew the Brig was coming back when the story aired thanks to DWM etc, so it wasn't a shock to see him for us. Your reaction as such is extra special. :)
I have insane nostalgia for this story. This was my introduction to the Seventh Doctor in the 90s back when i had just got into Doctor Who and was buying whatever random stories were available to buy on VHS.
Trivia 1: The reason the TARDIS was dark at the start was because they didn't have the proper set, and the wall with the roundels is in fact a cloth backdrop. They shot it in dim light as the audience would have noticed the trick under normal lighting conditions. Trivia 2: We've already met the Brig's wife, Doris... well, sort-of. In one scene in _Planet of the Spiders,_ a psychic "reads" his watch, and reveals (to the Brig's embarrassment) that he got it from a "young lady" namded Doris as a gift to "mark her gratitude".
@@mpg272727 The disposal of the TARDIS set was an accident due to the chaotic conditions of making Greatest Show in the Galaxy - if a set was to be kept they had to hang a notice on it for the scenery shifters but obviously someone forgot so it ended up in the skip for all the other sets.
@@Darren79 Well, that was a lucky coincidence! To me, it feels suspiciously like an unforeseen circumstance that was "covered by a line", as there is nothing in the plot that would intrinsically call for the TARDIS to be darkened.
Very entertaining story. It’s a fabulous cast. Episodes 2 and 3 are stunning. Wonderful to have the Brig back. Loved the new Brig. Met her in one of my Brighton and Hove Tennis park league matches. I turned round and saw the actress walking onto the court. I gasped and blurted out you were in Dr Who. She was lovely. She really enjoyed the role and got a lovely photo with her.
That’s such a cool story! I love Angela Bruce. A fantastic actress. When I read the New Adventures in the 90s I always imagined her in the role of Roz Forrester.
Fun fact. Nicholas Courtney actually appeared in Silver Nemesis as well, although not as the Brigadier. You don’t see his face but is part of a group of tourists (also played by old Doctor Who luminaries) wandering around ‘Windsor’ (actually Arundel) castle. Doris was played by Angela Douglas who was the female lead in a number of Carry On films. Not only was Jean Marsh in Daleks Master Plan, she was (from 1955 to 1960) married to Jon Pertwee.
Love seeing the Brigadier again !! 😊 Also this is sadly the last time we see the tardis console room as it was dismantled after greatest show in the galaxy.
I turned 20 the year Battlefield was aired, and also I really cannot say the late 80s was a great time for me it was nice to see Lethbridge-Stewart back for this story .
The actress who played Morgaine was kind of companion Sara Kingdom in Daleks Mastsr Plan and Joanna in the Crusade. That's where you've seen her before.
The beginning of the end ☹️ Crazy it got cancelled. The last season is one of the best. Great monster in this one. Poor Sophie. I hope Battlefield didn’t give her a fear of water .
Jean Marsh specialised in Witches, was also one in 'Return to Oz' and 'Willow'. She was also in 'Nine to Five' (movie and series) and had a thing for wasps in 'The Tomorrow People'.
@@goblin457 I wouldn't go so far as to call it brilliant, but it's still a hugely enjoyable story, and far better than Aaronovitch gives himself credit for.
Season 26 starts with a bang. I so loved this episode/part in 1989! The dvd and blu-ray both have great restoration work done. I'm too tempted to bring out the s26 blu-ray and watch this again!
The woman playing Doris is Angela Douglas, who was friends with Anneke Wills (Polly) - but she was also married to Kenneth More, an actor known for playing stalwart British military types... so in a strange way she kind of *was* married to the Brigadier in real life...
About the only thing that gets the Brig out of retirement. Love how he's not at all interested in UNIT in the slightest, 'Soldiering days behind me...', 'let me fade away...' . When Doris tells him the Doctor is back, he's suddenly, 'I better go get my gun then'. One last adventure is practically the Brigadier's mantra since the end of the UNIT era.
I enjoyed this reaction immensely. Particularly since I had fully anticipated that the appearance of the Brigadier would "blow you sideways, 'Bessie.'"😂 The real reason it's so dark inside the TARDIS is because the set was pretty knackered at this point and they didn't have the extra money in the budget to build a new one, so they turned the lights down to conceal how rough looking it was. In the expanded media of Doctor Who, like books, Big Finish audios, etc, Kate Stewart is the product of the Brig's first marriage, to a wife he gets divorced from early in his UNIT career, because he's keeping so many secrets from her, due to the classified nature of his work. Doris is his second wife, the sweetheart of his youth, who is name-dropped in Planet of Spiders, and who he meets again, and ultimately marries, at some point after Mawdryn Undead. As for the Doctors the Brig has encountered, he first appears opposite the Second Doctor in The Web of Fear and The Invasion, he appears throughout the Third Doctor's era, he encounters the First Doctor in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, he's with the Fourth Doctor in Robot and Terror of the Zygons, and the Fifth in Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors.
Cartmel was said to dislike TARDIS scenes since he felt they were distracting from the story. But one of the things that makes Doctor Who unique is... the TARDIS.
The TARDIS walls were as far as I recall - destroyed - in anticipation of making new ones, which then weren't in the budget. So - what you can see is not the TARDIS walls at all, but in fact were drapes with holes in them to fake the roundels.
@@ShamrockParticleYeah, I recall reading that he considered the TARDIS as nothing more than transportation. While I don't entirely agree with that, the TARDIS scenes were often overdone in seasons 18-23, especially season 22, so I guess his dislike of them may at least partially have been a reaction to that. Considering the amount of plot that was crammed into many of McCoy's stories, it was probably good to minimise the TARDIS stuff and leave more time for the actual story.
Don't forget Nick "Brig" Courtney met 1st doctor...but as a different character:Jean Marsh's character's brother (whom she shot dead) in "Dalek Masterplan"🎩
The Brig met 6 in Dimensions in time. Technically he met the 1st doctor in the 3 doctors but he worked with William Hartnell as Bret Vyon in The Dalek's Master plan
Big Finish sorted the Sixth Doctor gap out in one of their very earliest stories - The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. They tended to 'fix' stuff like that, as I guess any fan would...
Much of this was filmed around the Rutland Water area in Leicestershire. I was a teenager at the time, and begged my Dad to drive me there so I could watch. I pointed out that I’d probably never get another chance to see ‘Who’ filming, as I was acutely aware the show was in trouble and that this season would likely be the last. My Dad, quite reasonably as I now think, didn’t fancy the 45 minute drive there and then back again after work. Hey, ho.
At this stage, I had spent a few years trying to videotape the series off-air. By the time Season 26 was underway I was studying a misguided BTEC in Grimsby and staying with my aunt and uncle, who had a rather posher VCR with 'slow' and 'long' play facilities. This meant you could record at twice the speed; essentially doubling the capacity of your tape. But in my hurry to get everything down, I completely forgot we didn't have this capability on my home recorder. So guess who ended up with 'Battlefield' playing back as if stuck in fast-forward...
I know this story doesn't tend to be very highly rated, but I love it. Arthurian knights invading the present-day with laser guns and hand grenades? Yes, it's goofy, cheesy nonsense, but isn't that what Doctor Who is all about? The fact that this show has the freedom to explore such a silly concept is part of what makes it great, imo. And, of course, it's great to see Lethbridge-Stewart return after all this time!
Jean Marsh was also Joanna King Richard's sister from the William Hartnell story "The Crusade". It's awesome to see The Brigadier again one last time 😊 but sadly his last appearance in the main show 😢. The Fourth Doctor was still serving for The Brigadier in his first story "Robot" and "Terror of the Zygons" so Tom's Doctor knew the Brig twice, the only Doctors that didn't meet the Brigadier was One and Six. The Brigadier's assumed wife Doris was briefly mentioned in Jon Pertwee's final story "Planet of the Spiders" but this is the first time we see her on screen. I also like the new Brigadier she's a real kick ass character.
Coincidentally I have just sterted reading the Rivers of London. Ben Aaronovitch 's series of novels exploring police procedural and magic. I suddenly realised that it is what he is interested in. I see great parallels with the Curse of Fenric (vampires and military) and Battlefield (legendary fantasy and UNIT)
The underrated one from season 26. Love this one and perhaps the one i was most looking forward to your reactions. Its lovely to meet to meet the famous Doris that the Brig mentioned throughout the 3rd doctors era. As youve finished the classic era now. This was the final appearance of the interior in the shows original run :(
Marie Clare you make me laugh and cry at the same time, with joy as you sit there in astonishment as you see our immortal brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
It's crazy to think that the end grows so near... (Marie-Clare has already finished the series on Patreon, if anyone is worried) I've had my life change over the past few months so very much and it's so surreal to see Battlefield in my uploads, when I remember The Caves of Androzani, hell even as far back as The Three Doctors, popping up in my feed. Still some good ones to go!
Doris is the Brigadier's second wife and is not Kate's mother, that was someone called Fiona. However Doris was mentioned by Mr Clegg in Planet of the Spiders as giving the Brig a watch.
Great story here we are last season of classic who in 1989 cannot believe dr who went 15 years with only a movie and children in need special btw love that brig is back with his wife not sure what age Kate was at this point
It's a rather typical situation for the period that 'darkness' - as John Nathan Turner now seemed interested in bringing back to the show - is initially reflected in the Doctor by giving him a brown rather cream jacket. Obviously this is not all there is to it, but it feels very telling that this was chosen over, say, getting rid of the conspicuous use of question marks. Not that I'm harbouring a long-term grudge...
WORTHY OF NOTE - Morgain is played by ex-wife of jon Pertwee married 1955 to 1966. Known for amongst her many film and tv roles UP STAIRS , DOWNSTAIRS and Played the evil Queen Bavmorda in Ron Howard's WILLOW 1988. Oh Marie..you are in for some treats this season. trust me. And i always look forward to your vids, your Awesome.
Now that I can see you've finished this era on Patreon pace, it's safe to reveal that Seven only ever went to Lakertya, Ice World and wherever Greatest Show was set as far as other planets are concerned. The rest of his stories were all Earth-based. The look on your face when Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart turned up was priceless. The scene in the dark TARDIS is the last time we see its interior in Classic Who. The rest of this series we only ever get external shots of the ship. Very optimistic of the makers of this show to think Britain would have gone metric by the time of Charles III's reign. But they did at least predict we'd still be using sterling (albeit wildly inflated compared to late 1980s prices), I suppose.
You also forgot the colony world of Terra Alpha, from the Happiness Patrol. Plus whichever unnamed planet the apartment block Paradise Towers was on. Seven had 12 stories on TV, 6 of which took place on other planets.
@@alextaylor1705 I have always thought of Paradise Towers as taking place on a dystopian future Earth, but you and NyderOfSkaro are certainly right about the other two. Survival is obviously based in Perivale but yes, there is a part of it set on another planet, and I simply should've remembered about Terra Alpha.
Betty,…you pondered on a historical story, or Space (where the knights emerge to arrive on Earth)…🤔you didn’t anticipate the first UNIT story since 1976 (besides the nod, 5 Doctors, and mentions). 😮 Elements of your guess, were correct.
Part 1 of this story unfortunately had the lowest rating of 3.1 million, as it had minimal publicity & bbc put up against coronation street and an England world cup qualifying match. BBC basically sabotaged this season to end the show.
The whole McCoy era was aired against Coronation Street- a deliberate decision to sabotage the show’s ratings and therefore justify cancellation by a certain Mr Grade and Mr Powell.
Despite being my least favourite of S26, it's still a fun and memorable 'turn your brain off' adventure, especially for those familiar with UNIT/Brig. I've always enjoyed the weird and wonderful blend of "medieval knights & magic (vs) nukes and modern technology". You also have the side-adventure of Ancelyn & Bambera, one the best looking monster costumes in Classic Who, a reunion with UNIT + Brig (including some of his most epic moments in the show), a bundle of references, a powerful antagonist who left their moustache at home, and enough campy fun to ease your journey towards the much darker stories that follow.
The tagline for this story-if not the entire Seventh Doctor era-could well be “too good to be true, but true it is”. Arthurian mythology? The return of the Brig? The Doctor has a really nice new jacket? UNIT is back and led by a Black woman who’s immediately one of the show’s most brilliant and likable guest characters? (If Brigadier Bambera has no fans, I am dead, etc.)
The 26th and - for what seemed at the time like the final - season of Dr Who starts with a serial held over from the previous year. Originally 'Storm over Avallion', Ben Aaronovitch's first script for the series turns out to be the first time the show had actually toyed with the Arthurian legend. Which seems long overdue. And it's immediately overshadowed by the return of an old favourite. But whenabouts are we? The dratted UNIT timeline....
That was certainly up there as one of your best shocked reactions! Sadly, at the time of broadcast in September 1989 this episode garnered the lowest ratings in the show’s history, not helped by the fact that Season 26 was, like the previous season, scheduled on Wednesday evenings opposite Coronation Street. The Brig had indeed met the first five Doctors by this point, and of course Nick Courtney had also, as Bret Vyon, appeared opposite William Hartnell in The Daleks’ Master Plan, in which he and Jean Marsh had played brother and sister. Doris had briefly been referred to in Planet of the Spiders, but this is the first time viewers ever got to see her. This is also the first proper UNIT story since The Seeds of Doom way back in 1976. The main location for the story was Rutland Water, but filming also took place in Lincolnshire. The Brig’s house was in Buckinghamshire - presumably he got a very generous pension for helping to save the Earth countless times, or maybe Doris had a lot of money…
Two fun facts! 1. The reason why the TARDIS is so dark is that the walls of the set were accidentally junked at the end of the last season so it was darkened so you couldn't see. 2. They did ask Graeme Harper, director of The Caves of Androzani, Revelation of the Daleks and several Tenth Doctor stories to direct this story but he couldn't.
No spoilers. You haven't seen anything yet. This is new modern Doctor Who, well modern for 1989!. This and the next few stories are the best classic Doctor Who has and is good as new Doctor Who gets.
Season 26 is pretty strong, but the sad thing is that hardly anybody was watching the show at this point due to the BBC continuing to bury it opposite Coronation Street as per the previous two seasons. I like "Battlefield", though I like the other stories in the season even more. For me, Season 26 is much more even than 24 or 25 - with no hideous "Time and the Rani" or "Silver Nemesis" style self-imposed blundering mishaps. It's such a pity that that BBC wanted the show to die.
As you know by now - stories set on a spaceship weren't forthcoming. The script editor Andrew Cartmel didn't have any confidence in the BBC design departments to do more overtly sci-fi stuff by this time, so he tried to make as many stories as possible be achievable by making them earth based.
Great reaction Marie-Clare. The 80s era of Doctor Who was a time when the show began relying too much on the past and not looking forwards to attract new viewers. As a fan I love the call backs but I imagine they meant nothing to the general public and probably added to the decline in viewership.
It depends how the callbacks were handled. You’d have to understand the show’s history to really appreciate Attack/Cybermen but it’s not necessary to understand Remembrance/Daleks.
I know you're already well ahead of this and past speculation but at the time this was broadcast, the word was that we might be losing the Brig in this story and everyone was very worried for the character.... and yes, he kind of met the First Doctor (in Daleks Masterplan with Jean Marsh). Possible Spoilers for Big Finish... The Brig got to meet The sixth in the Big Finish production "The Spectre of Lanyon Moor" The eighth in "Minuet in Hell" (Sadly in story only, not in person) The ninth in Old Friends: Way of the Burryman (via John Culshaw) Not to mention a bunch of "Brief Encounters"
He met the First Doctor as the Brig briefly in both The Three Doctors (over a video link in the TARDIS) and The Five Doctors (in person, in Rassilon’s tomb).
Predicting 5 pound coins which exist The idea that people had mobile phones of phones in their cars or 5 for 3 drinks or having the king They were good predictions by the writers You didn’t mr ruin Sylvesters nee brown coat And the 1st doctor met the brig in the 3 and 5 doctors and Doris was referenced in planet of the spiders Jean marsh met Nick Courtney the brigadier in Dalek master plan You’re right this era of who was the blue print for modern who including the last appearance of the old tardis finale it was actually a sheet of paper with circles painted in as the walls had been damaged
Really like this story apart from some of the scenes with ace and the Chinese girl,I think the script is really cringy. Jean Marsh is a brilliant actress who was married to Jon pertwee and the blind woman was in adric's last story earthshock,
The Chinese girl's name is Shou Yuing - although I'm not convinced she ever introduced herself in the actual episode. I liked the character, but she and Ace certainly could've done with a few more scenes together to properly develop their relationship.
It's sad because having a black female Brigadier nowadays would have everyone labelling the show as 'woke'. Doctor Who has ALWAYS been progressive. Look at seven's era - a strong working class female companion, a critique of Thatcherism in 'The Happiness Patrol' (plus a pink TARDIS), a story exploring racism and factions ('Remembrance'), some LGBT subtext in an upcoming story... the list goes on.
Ironic, perhaps the points you made and the poor ratings helped expedite the show's demise. In any case, if it had gone woke, Ace would be disabled, non-binary or transgender, a Black Lives Matter or 🏳️🌈 flag would be attached to the wall in the console room, and the Doctor's sole mission would be to make sure Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. Regardless, I enjoyed all the stories in this final season.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 You've rather missed the point - the show WAS 'woke' at the time, it's just that in those days people didn't whine about it in the way they do now. Another example would be the rejig of Battlestar Galactica; when it turned two of the classic main characters into women, the people who objected had to confine themselves to bleating on letters pages before being forgotten. Of course if that exact same thing happened today, tens of thousands of unthinking whiners would take to their keyboards. So much easier to be noticed than the days when you had to actually write your thoughts on a piece of paper.
@@petersvillage7447 Next you'll be saying the original Star Trek was woke, when all Gene Roddenberry was portraying was a future where everyone had common purpose and an optimistic future at a time when America was falling apart, the nuclear arms race was out of control and young people wondered if they'd still be alive by the age of 30. The best episodes featured critiques of racism, military adventurism and other important aspects of the human condition, especially the inherent dangers of trusting technology over human intuition. Those who push woke identity and gender politics continually in people's faces do it from a finely honed assumption that they're better than everyone else, and will cancel any group or individual who pushes back against their misplaces assuredness. And by the way, I loved the 2004 BSG as much as the original series.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 But that being the case, you're not really talking about 'woke' so much as you're talking about bad and crass writing (which I can agree with) - and that certainly includes the preachier stuff in original Star Trek, and a great big bulk of TNG, neither of which gets slapped down with the woke label. The point, surely, is that this stuff has always been with us, it's only in recent years that the stupid label 'woke' has come into fashion. Stuff like BSG 2004 absolutely would get savaged if it appeared now, because audience attitudes have shifted towards the reactionary (in the political sense), not because it would be doing anything objectively radical today. The term 'woke' is rarely, if ever, applied retroactively - even though if it was honestly applied, it really should be. The best Who example of this is the wave of people who complained about Bill, a black lesbian character - people who had apparently been completely asleep during the years when RTD rolled his political panzers across the audience's Europe (about which people neither complain nor cry 'woke' today).
After dimensions in time and the Sarah Jane adventures and audio this is the brigs other last adventure m.ua-cam.com/video/EHf2BVDjsew/v-deo.html&pp=ygUJRG93bnRpbWUg
Easily the weakest of the season. I always found this one grating. It's visually garish, the music is the usual Keff ear-bashing but worse (Holiday '89 in a shopping mall) and the messaging is typical late-80s on -the-nose right-on-ness. On the plus side it has the gorgeous Ling Tai (who also appears uncredited in The Leisure Hive and Warriors of the Deep) and it mentions CAMRA. Sylvester is excellent but Aldred's crassness drops like an anvil on the foot. Jean Marsh (Morgaine) was the unfortunate Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Masterplan and was at one time married to Jon Pertwee.
FULL LENGTH | Doctor Who: Dimensions In Time (1993) | REACTION
www.patreon.com/posts/full-length-who-86858688
Ohh dear 🙈
LOL@@goblin457
I was hoping you'd watch this -- seeing Jon Pertwee in costume again is like the ultimate mental comfort food. 🙂
Well blow me sideways and call me Betty 😂 😮💨🌬️hey Betty I’ve been looking forward to seeing you react to this, I’m not on patrion but follow you faithfully on UA-cam so looking forward to dimensions in time being released here. I relive each moment of seeing it for the first time through you, I hope you do More than 30 years in the TARDIS, there’s a scene I’d like to see your reaction to about 14 minutes in, not saying what but knowing what you like about the show I know you’ll love it.
You reaction to the rocky horror show was funny, please do Pricilla Queen of the Desert, you’ll laugh your socks off
While it's understandable you're much more in shock about the brigadier I'm surprised you've not noticed 7's new outfit. Look at that fancy new jacket he's wearing
I never liked that one: always felt like they were trying too hard to associate him with Patrick Troughton's Doctor. I much prefer the cream jacket!
The blind lady actress was in "Earthshock"🎩
Angela Bruce is superb as Bambera...we've all been waiting for you to reach this one!🎩
she's lovely
Wonder if, had things gone differently, she could have made more appearances as Bambera in Classic Who?
Interesting cast note not already mentioned but June Bland who plays Elizabeth Rawlinson (the blind woman in the hotel bar) in this story had previously appeared as Berger in Earthshock
To say I, and probably lots of others, have been waiting for your reaction to this episode is an understatement. Best Brig story hands down.
Nah! Still the Ambassadors of Death for me!
But it was a much better comeback for him than Mawdryn Undead!
We of course knew the Brig was coming back when the story aired thanks to DWM etc, so it wasn't a shock to see him for us. Your reaction as such is extra special. :)
Your reaction seeing the Brig is exactly what I expected, always liked Battlefield. Also really nice to see Jean Marsh back in Doctor who.
❤
I have insane nostalgia for this story. This was my introduction to the Seventh Doctor in the 90s back when i had just got into Doctor Who and was buying whatever random stories were available to buy on VHS.
Trivia 1: The reason the TARDIS was dark at the start was because they didn't have the proper set, and the wall with the roundels is in fact a cloth backdrop. They shot it in dim light as the audience would have noticed the trick under normal lighting conditions.
Trivia 2: We've already met the Brig's wife, Doris... well, sort-of. In one scene in _Planet of the Spiders,_ a psychic "reads" his watch, and reveals (to the Brig's embarrassment) that he got it from a "young lady" namded Doris as a gift to "mark her gratitude".
Sad reminder of how little the BBC liked doctor who at the time. Almost like they wanted it canceled or something..
@@mpg272727 The disposal of the TARDIS set was an accident due to the chaotic conditions of making Greatest Show in the Galaxy - if a set was to be kept they had to hang a notice on it for the scenery shifters but obviously someone forgot so it ended up in the skip for all the other sets.
The dark lighting was actually scripted before they knew about the set situation.
@@Darren79 Well, that was a lucky coincidence! To me, it feels suspiciously like an unforeseen circumstance that was "covered by a line", as there is nothing in the plot that would intrinsically call for the TARDIS to be darkened.
Very entertaining story. It’s a fabulous cast. Episodes 2 and 3 are stunning. Wonderful to have the Brig back.
Loved the new Brig. Met her in one of my Brighton and Hove Tennis park league matches. I turned round and saw the actress walking onto the court. I gasped and blurted out you were in Dr Who.
She was lovely. She really enjoyed the role and got a lovely photo with her.
That’s such a cool story! I love Angela Bruce. A fantastic actress. When I read the New Adventures in the 90s I always imagined her in the role of Roz Forrester.
Fun fact. Nicholas Courtney actually appeared in Silver Nemesis as well, although not as the Brigadier. You don’t see his face but is part of a group of tourists (also played by old Doctor Who luminaries) wandering around ‘Windsor’ (actually Arundel) castle.
Doris was played by Angela Douglas who was the female lead in a number of Carry On films.
Not only was Jean Marsh in Daleks Master Plan, she was (from 1955 to 1960) married to Jon Pertwee.
And she was in the TV sitcom version of 9 to 5!
Villianess played by same actress as played Hartnell companion Sara Kingdom 🎩
back in season 3, in the Daleks' Master Plan, 23 years before, alongside Nicholas Courtney's first DW appearance when he played Bret Vyon !
She also played Joanna in the Crusade in season 2 as well
Love seeing the Brigadier again !! 😊
Also this is sadly the last time we see the tardis console room as it was dismantled after greatest show in the galaxy.
It's not dated specifically in the story but I read in a book that it's the year 1997. Also Jean Marsh was married to Jon Pertwee.
14:50 - she’s called Doris. She’s the woman that that clairvoyant at the start of Planet/Spiders said had given the Brig his watch.
I turned 20 the year Battlefield was aired, and also I really cannot say the late 80s was a great time for me it was nice to see Lethbridge-Stewart back for this story .
A lot of old faces in this one! Our lovely old Brig in particular.
Your reaction to the Brigadier is just brilliant .
Seeing the Brig again brings a smile to the face & a tear to the eye...
The actress who played Morgaine was kind of companion Sara Kingdom in Daleks Mastsr Plan and Joanna in the Crusade. That's where you've seen her before.
The Brigadier is back!
14:30 - he also met the first on the screen in The Three Doctors and in-person (briefly) in The Five Doctors.
The beginning of the end ☹️ Crazy it got cancelled. The last season is one of the best. Great monster in this one. Poor Sophie. I hope Battlefield didn’t give her a fear of water .
Michael Grade....😢
I think the Curse of Fenric may have caused the fear of water!
I love this story. This is one reaction I could not wait for. Jean Marsh was married to Jon Pertwee in the 50s.
I absolutely love this story. You've got perfect elements everywhere.
Jean Marsh specialised in Witches, was also one in 'Return to Oz' and 'Willow'. She was also in 'Nine to Five' (movie and series) and had a thing for wasps in 'The Tomorrow People'.
This is the story that introduced me to Doctor who 😬 specifically part 2 I missed part one of the repeat 30 years ago 😣
Did you enjoy it?Its personally one of my favs
@@kuel6228 100% it's really good, Ben Aaronovitch really does himself a disservice saying he thought it was a rubbish script I think it's brilliant.
@@goblin457 I wouldn't go so far as to call it brilliant, but it's still a hugely enjoyable story, and far better than Aaronovitch gives himself credit for.
Season 26 starts with a bang. I so loved this episode/part in 1989!
The dvd and blu-ray both have great restoration work done. I'm too tempted to bring out the s26 blu-ray and watch this again!
The woman playing Doris is Angela Douglas, who was friends with Anneke Wills (Polly) - but she was also married to Kenneth More, an actor known for playing stalwart British military types... so in a strange way she kind of *was* married to the Brigadier in real life...
So so pleased you’re loving the 7th doctor era so much. :)
Love this serial. It comes a close second to Remembrance of the Daleks.
About the only thing that gets the Brig out of retirement. Love how he's not at all interested in UNIT in the slightest, 'Soldiering days behind me...', 'let me fade away...' . When Doris tells him the Doctor is back, he's suddenly, 'I better go get my gun then'. One last adventure is practically the Brigadier's mantra since the end of the UNIT era.
I enjoyed this reaction immensely. Particularly since I had fully anticipated that the appearance of the Brigadier would "blow you sideways, 'Bessie.'"😂 The real reason it's so dark inside the TARDIS is because the set was pretty knackered at this point and they didn't have the extra money in the budget to build a new one, so they turned the lights down to conceal how rough looking it was. In the expanded media of Doctor Who, like books, Big Finish audios, etc, Kate Stewart is the product of the Brig's first marriage, to a wife he gets divorced from early in his UNIT career, because he's keeping so many secrets from her, due to the classified nature of his work. Doris is his second wife, the sweetheart of his youth, who is name-dropped in Planet of Spiders, and who he meets again, and ultimately marries, at some point after Mawdryn Undead. As for the Doctors the Brig has encountered, he first appears opposite the Second Doctor in The Web of Fear and The Invasion, he appears throughout the Third Doctor's era, he encounters the First Doctor in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, he's with the Fourth Doctor in Robot and Terror of the Zygons, and the Fifth in Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors.
Cartmel was said to dislike TARDIS scenes since he felt they were distracting from the story. But one of the things that makes Doctor Who unique is... the TARDIS.
The TARDIS walls were as far as I recall - destroyed - in anticipation of making new ones, which then weren't in the budget. So - what you can see is not the TARDIS walls at all, but in fact were drapes with holes in them to fake the roundels.
Hey we’re going make new Tardis interior in season 27. But that fell though as the show was axed
@@ShamrockParticleYeah, I recall reading that he considered the TARDIS as nothing more than transportation. While I don't entirely agree with that, the TARDIS scenes were often overdone in seasons 18-23, especially season 22, so I guess his dislike of them may at least partially have been a reaction to that. Considering the amount of plot that was crammed into many of McCoy's stories, it was probably good to minimise the TARDIS stuff and leave more time for the actual story.
At least this time Angela Bruce didn't need Batman and Robin's help 🤔
Don't forget Nick "Brig" Courtney met 1st doctor...but as a different character:Jean Marsh's character's brother (whom she shot dead) in "Dalek Masterplan"🎩
He met the first Doctor as the Brig on the screen in The Three Doctors then (briefly) in Rassilon’s tomb in The Five Doctors.
The Brig met 6 in Dimensions in time. Technically he met the 1st doctor in the 3 doctors but he worked with William Hartnell as Bret Vyon in The Dalek's Master plan
Big Finish sorted the Sixth Doctor gap out in one of their very earliest stories - The Spectre of Lanyon Moor. They tended to 'fix' stuff like that, as I guess any fan would...
Much of this was filmed around the Rutland Water area in Leicestershire. I was a teenager at the time, and begged my Dad to drive me there so I could watch. I pointed out that I’d probably never get another chance to see ‘Who’ filming, as I was acutely aware the show was in trouble and that this season would likely be the last. My Dad, quite reasonably as I now think, didn’t fancy the 45 minute drive there and then back again after work. Hey, ho.
Look forward to watching this later. My favourite of the Syl Mccoy stories
Great to see the Brig coming out of retirement for one more adventure 🙂👍
At this stage, I had spent a few years trying to videotape the series off-air. By the time Season 26 was underway I was studying a misguided BTEC in Grimsby and staying with my aunt and uncle, who had a rather posher VCR with 'slow' and 'long' play facilities. This meant you could record at twice the speed; essentially doubling the capacity of your tape. But in my hurry to get everything down, I completely forgot we didn't have this capability on my home recorder. So guess who ended up with 'Battlefield' playing back as if stuck in fast-forward...
I know this story doesn't tend to be very highly rated, but I love it. Arthurian knights invading the present-day with laser guns and hand grenades? Yes, it's goofy, cheesy nonsense, but isn't that what Doctor Who is all about? The fact that this show has the freedom to explore such a silly concept is part of what makes it great, imo.
And, of course, it's great to see Lethbridge-Stewart return after all this time!
Jean Marsh was also Joanna King Richard's sister from the William Hartnell story "The Crusade".
It's awesome to see The Brigadier again one last time 😊 but sadly his last appearance in the main show 😢.
The Fourth Doctor was still serving for The Brigadier in his first story "Robot" and "Terror of the Zygons" so Tom's Doctor knew the Brig twice, the only Doctors that didn't meet the Brigadier was One and Six.
The Brigadier's assumed wife Doris was briefly mentioned in Jon Pertwee's final story "Planet of the Spiders" but this is the first time we see her on screen.
I also like the new Brigadier she's a real kick ass character.
What about Seeds of Doom (a personal favorite). We definitely had UNIT, but I cant remember if the Brig appeared>
@@martincook1412 No he was in Geneva. None of the regulars appeared in that one. Benton and Harry's last story was The Android Invasion.
I like to think that the Brigadier (or whatever her rank was) in the David Tennant era was based on Bambera!
Coincidentally I have just sterted reading the Rivers of London. Ben Aaronovitch 's series of novels exploring police procedural and magic. I suddenly realised that it is what he is interested in. I see great parallels with the Curse of Fenric (vampires and military) and Battlefield (legendary fantasy and UNIT)
The tardis set had been junked by this point, thats why the lights are down so low, it was just a big sheet with circles instead of a set wall
The underrated one from season 26. Love this one and perhaps the one i was most looking forward to your reactions. Its lovely to meet to meet the famous Doris that the Brig mentioned throughout the 3rd doctors era. As youve finished the classic era now. This was the final appearance of the interior in the shows original run :(
I don’t know if someone’s already mentioned it. But Kate’s mum was from the Brig’s 1st marriage. And Doris is referenced in Planet of Spiders.
nice reaction betty 😉😀👍🏻
One of my favourite 7th Doctor stories
Marie Clare you make me laugh and cry at the same time, with joy as you sit there in astonishment as you see our immortal brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
It's crazy to think that the end grows so near... (Marie-Clare has already finished the series on Patreon, if anyone is worried) I've had my life change over the past few months so very much and it's so surreal to see Battlefield in my uploads, when I remember The Caves of Androzani, hell even as far back as The Three Doctors, popping up in my feed. Still some good ones to go!
Good to see Brett Vyon and Sara Kingdom back together!
Oh yeah! That never occurred to me!
Doris is the Brigadier's second wife and is not Kate's mother, that was someone called Fiona. However Doris was mentioned by Mr Clegg in Planet of the Spiders as giving the Brig a watch.
Great story here we are last season of classic who in 1989 cannot believe dr who went 15 years with only a movie and children in need special btw love that brig is back with his wife not sure what age Kate was at this point
It's a rather typical situation for the period that 'darkness' - as John Nathan Turner now seemed interested in bringing back to the show - is initially reflected in the Doctor by giving him a brown rather cream jacket. Obviously this is not all there is to it, but it feels very telling that this was chosen over, say, getting rid of the conspicuous use of question marks. Not that I'm harbouring a long-term grudge...
WORTHY OF NOTE - Morgain is played by ex-wife of jon Pertwee married 1955 to 1966. Known for amongst her many film and tv roles UP STAIRS , DOWNSTAIRS and Played the evil Queen Bavmorda in Ron Howard's WILLOW 1988. Oh Marie..you are in for some treats this season. trust me. And i always look forward to your vids, your Awesome.
Now that I can see you've finished this era on Patreon pace, it's safe to reveal that Seven only ever went to Lakertya, Ice World and wherever Greatest Show was set as far as other planets are concerned. The rest of his stories were all Earth-based.
The look on your face when Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart turned up was priceless. The scene in the dark TARDIS is the last time we see its interior in Classic Who. The rest of this series we only ever get external shots of the ship.
Very optimistic of the makers of this show to think Britain would have gone metric by the time of Charles III's reign. But they did at least predict we'd still be using sterling (albeit wildly inflated compared to late 1980s prices), I suppose.
You forgot the Cheetah Peoples planet.
You also forgot the colony world of Terra Alpha, from the Happiness Patrol. Plus whichever unnamed planet the apartment block Paradise Towers was on.
Seven had 12 stories on TV, 6 of which took place on other planets.
@@alextaylor1705 I have always thought of Paradise Towers as taking place on a dystopian future Earth, but you and NyderOfSkaro are certainly right about the other two.
Survival is obviously based in Perivale but yes, there is a part of it set on another planet, and I simply should've remembered about Terra Alpha.
Let's Gooooooooooo
I've been waiting for you to see this one
Doris was first mentioned in Part 1 of Planet of the Spiders
DORIS is the BRIGS 2and wife while his first wife Fiona is KATE'S MUM
Betty,…you pondered on a historical story, or Space (where the knights emerge to arrive on Earth)…🤔you didn’t anticipate the first UNIT story since 1976 (besides the nod, 5 Doctors, and mentions). 😮
Elements of your guess, were correct.
Part 1 of this story unfortunately had the lowest rating of 3.1 million, as it had minimal publicity & bbc put up against coronation street and an England world cup qualifying match. BBC basically sabotaged this season to end the show.
The whole McCoy era was aired against Coronation Street- a deliberate decision to sabotage the show’s ratings and therefore justify cancellation by a certain Mr Grade and Mr Powell.
Darker jacket for a darker Doctor. McCoy has decided to take things a bit more serious from here on out.
the actual reason it's dark is because budget cuts axed the walls of the tardis set lol.
Yep, the Brig is back
Big Finish has had the Brig meet Six, Eight and Nine.
Another episode I've been waiting for you to watch ... 😁
My favourite Doctor Who story ever
Despite being my least favourite of S26, it's still a fun and memorable 'turn your brain off' adventure, especially for those familiar with UNIT/Brig. I've always enjoyed the weird and wonderful blend of "medieval knights & magic (vs) nukes and modern technology". You also have the side-adventure of Ancelyn & Bambera, one the best looking monster costumes in Classic Who, a reunion with UNIT + Brig (including some of his most epic moments in the show), a bundle of references, a powerful antagonist who left their moustache at home, and enough campy fun to ease your journey towards the much darker stories that follow.
If you like murder mysteries you should check out Foyle's War, which was set in WWII Hastings
The tagline for this story-if not the entire Seventh Doctor era-could well be “too good to be true, but true it is”. Arthurian mythology? The return of the Brig? The Doctor has a really nice new jacket? UNIT is back and led by a Black woman who’s immediately one of the show’s most brilliant and likable guest characters? (If Brigadier Bambera has no fans, I am dead, etc.)
The 26th and - for what seemed at the time like the final - season of Dr Who starts with a serial held over from the previous year. Originally 'Storm over Avallion', Ben Aaronovitch's first script for the series turns out to be the first time the show had actually toyed with the Arthurian legend. Which seems long overdue. And it's immediately overshadowed by the return of an old favourite. But whenabouts are we? The dratted UNIT timeline....
You might also recognise Jean Marsh as Mrs. Croker from the CBBC series The Ghost Hunter!
And Sara Kingdom in Daleks Master Plan AND Joanna in the Cruaade....
That was certainly up there as one of your best shocked reactions! Sadly, at the time of broadcast in September 1989 this episode garnered the lowest ratings in the show’s history, not helped by the fact that Season 26 was, like the previous season, scheduled on Wednesday evenings opposite Coronation Street. The Brig had indeed met the first five Doctors by this point, and of course Nick Courtney had also, as Bret Vyon, appeared opposite William Hartnell in The Daleks’ Master Plan, in which he and Jean Marsh had played brother and sister. Doris had briefly been referred to in Planet of the Spiders, but this is the first time viewers ever got to see her. This is also the first proper UNIT story since The Seeds of Doom way back in 1976.
The main location for the story was Rutland Water, but filming also took place in Lincolnshire. The Brig’s house was in Buckinghamshire - presumably he got a very generous pension for helping to save the Earth countless times, or maybe Doris had a lot of money…
It was the lowest but Chibnall beat that. :/ 3m for Battlefield was 3m people watching it when it was on, live.
Didn’t an episode of The War Games get lower?
@@stickytapenrust6869 The lowest rating War Games episode got 3.5 million viewers, whereas this episode only got 3.1 million.
Two fun facts! 1. The reason why the TARDIS is so dark is that the walls of the set were accidentally junked at the end of the last season so it was darkened so you couldn't see. 2. They did ask Graeme Harper, director of The Caves of Androzani, Revelation of the Daleks and several Tenth Doctor stories to direct this story but he couldn't.
Didn't know about the Graeme Harper connection. The set was accidentally damaged but not accidentally junked.
@@davidbull7210 Ah, OK! Must have misheard the bit about the set.
Jean Marsh is back! Fun fact: she was married to Jon Pertwee but broke heart by cheating on him.
To bad dr who did not continue into the 90's I'm sure the Brigadier would still make appearances.
Brigadier Allistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart! SALUTE!
No spoilers. You haven't seen anything yet. This is new modern Doctor Who, well modern for 1989!. This and the next few stories are the best classic Doctor Who has and is good as new Doctor Who gets.
Season 26 is pretty strong, but the sad thing is that hardly anybody was watching the show at this point due to the BBC continuing to bury it opposite Coronation Street as per the previous two seasons. I like "Battlefield", though I like the other stories in the season even more. For me, Season 26 is much more even than 24 or 25 - with no hideous "Time and the Rani" or "Silver Nemesis" style self-imposed blundering mishaps. It's such a pity that that BBC wanted the show to die.
As you know by now - stories set on a spaceship weren't forthcoming. The script editor Andrew Cartmel didn't have any confidence in the BBC design departments to do more overtly sci-fi stuff by this time, so he tried to make as many stories as possible be achievable by making them earth based.
Thats my favourite 7th doctors story and Would you do midsomer murders next
Great reaction Marie-Clare. The 80s era of Doctor Who was a time when the show began relying too much on the past and not looking forwards to attract new viewers. As a fan I love the call backs but I imagine they meant nothing to the general public and probably added to the decline in viewership.
It depends how the callbacks were handled. You’d have to understand the show’s history to really appreciate Attack/Cybermen but it’s not necessary to understand Remembrance/Daleks.
The darkness inside the TARDIS had to do with no longer having the set...
I know you're already well ahead of this and past speculation but at the time this was broadcast, the word was that we might be losing the Brig in this story and everyone was very worried for the character.... and yes, he kind of met the First Doctor (in Daleks Masterplan with Jean Marsh).
Possible Spoilers for Big Finish...
The Brig got to meet
The sixth in the Big Finish production "The Spectre of Lanyon Moor"
The eighth in "Minuet in Hell" (Sadly in story only, not in person)
The ninth in Old Friends: Way of the Burryman (via John Culshaw)
Not to mention a bunch of "Brief Encounters"
He met the First Doctor as the Brig briefly in both The Three Doctors (over a video link in the TARDIS) and The Five Doctors (in person, in Rassilon’s tomb).
Predicting 5 pound coins which exist
The idea that people had mobile phones of phones in their cars or 5 for 3 drinks or having the king
They were good predictions by the writers
You didn’t mr ruin Sylvesters nee brown coat
And the 1st doctor met the brig in the 3 and 5 doctors and Doris was referenced in planet of the spiders
Jean marsh met Nick Courtney the brigadier in Dalek master plan
You’re right this era of who was the blue print for modern who including the last appearance of the old tardis finale it was actually a sheet of paper with circles painted in as the walls had been damaged
Really like this story apart from some of the scenes with ace and the Chinese girl,I think the script is really cringy. Jean Marsh is a brilliant actress who was married to Jon pertwee and the blind woman was in adric's last story earthshock,
The Chinese girl's name is Shou Yuing - although I'm not convinced she ever introduced herself in the actual episode. I liked the character, but she and Ace certainly could've done with a few more scenes together to properly develop their relationship.
It's sad because having a black female Brigadier nowadays would have everyone labelling the show as 'woke'. Doctor Who has ALWAYS been progressive. Look at seven's era - a strong working class female companion, a critique of Thatcherism in 'The Happiness Patrol' (plus a pink TARDIS), a story exploring racism and factions ('Remembrance'), some LGBT subtext in an upcoming story... the list goes on.
Sadly all too true.
Ironic, perhaps the points you made and the poor ratings helped expedite the show's demise.
In any case, if it had gone woke, Ace would be disabled, non-binary or transgender, a Black Lives Matter or 🏳️🌈 flag would be attached to the wall in the console room, and the Doctor's sole mission would be to make sure Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election.
Regardless, I enjoyed all the stories in this final season.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 You've rather missed the point - the show WAS 'woke' at the time, it's just that in those days people didn't whine about it in the way they do now. Another example would be the rejig of Battlestar Galactica; when it turned two of the classic main characters into women, the people who objected had to confine themselves to bleating on letters pages before being forgotten. Of course if that exact same thing happened today, tens of thousands of unthinking whiners would take to their keyboards. So much easier to be noticed than the days when you had to actually write your thoughts on a piece of paper.
@@petersvillage7447 Next you'll be saying the original Star Trek was woke, when all Gene Roddenberry was portraying was a future where everyone had common purpose and an optimistic future at a time when America was falling apart, the nuclear arms race was out of control and young people wondered if they'd still be alive by the age of 30.
The best episodes featured critiques of racism, military adventurism and other important aspects of the human condition, especially the inherent dangers of trusting technology over human intuition.
Those who push woke identity and gender politics continually in people's faces do it from a finely honed assumption that they're better than everyone else, and will cancel any group or individual who pushes back against their misplaces assuredness. And by the way, I loved the 2004 BSG as much as the original series.
@@escapetheratracenow9883 But that being the case, you're not really talking about 'woke' so much as you're talking about bad and crass writing (which I can agree with) - and that certainly includes the preachier stuff in original Star Trek, and a great big bulk of TNG, neither of which gets slapped down with the woke label. The point, surely, is that this stuff has always been with us, it's only in recent years that the stupid label 'woke' has come into fashion. Stuff like BSG 2004 absolutely would get savaged if it appeared now, because audience attitudes have shifted towards the reactionary (in the political sense), not because it would be doing anything objectively radical today. The term 'woke' is rarely, if ever, applied retroactively - even though if it was honestly applied, it really should be. The best Who example of this is the wave of people who complained about Bill, a black lesbian character - people who had apparently been completely asleep during the years when RTD rolled his political panzers across the audience's Europe (about which people neither complain nor cry 'woke' today).
After dimensions in time and the Sarah Jane adventures and audio this is the brigs other last adventure
m.ua-cam.com/video/EHf2BVDjsew/v-deo.html&pp=ygUJRG93bnRpbWUg
Boooooom what a terrible line…on the other hand, great to see The Brigadier, a Tardis interior scene and a Liz Shaw reference
Easily the weakest of the season. I always found this one grating. It's visually garish, the music is the usual Keff ear-bashing but worse (Holiday '89 in a shopping mall) and the messaging is typical late-80s on -the-nose right-on-ness. On the plus side it has the gorgeous Ling Tai (who also appears uncredited in The Leisure Hive and Warriors of the Deep) and it mentions CAMRA. Sylvester is excellent but Aldred's crassness drops like an anvil on the foot. Jean Marsh (Morgaine) was the unfortunate Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Masterplan and was at one time married to Jon Pertwee.