I feel so oddly proud about this. Though you did all the work, of course. #watching DW wrong
It does include some typical classics as well, but yeah. It's a very odd list to make, but fun & I think it should be said that I just love all DW hopelessly. I have my preferences, and my objective self will criticise much of it & rate things as much as any fanboy, but my heart was lost a long time ago. So if you turn out to really like anything I've been v flippant about here, know that I actually like it, and have probably watched it ten times already. (I even watch Underworld, although I do fast-forward the middle two episodes, because there are limits).
This is the first good thing I've ever heard about that one. I've only ever seen it referenced as a punchline.
The thing with Planet of the Spiders is that it has huge amounts of padding and the Two-legs on Metebelis 3 really are the worst guest actors. (I'm not sure why - I've seen some of them being fine in other things, so who knows what behind the scenes stuff was going on, I don't want to be mean to the poor souls stuck in what were always going to be thankless roles). However, it was written by Barry Letts and he does tie in a lot of Three's story thematically, with things he had seeded in previous stories (The Green Death, which is awesome, and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which has pretty much the same greatness/padding ratio as Spiders, only with terrible CSO dinosaurs). So, it's a mix and there are also some things that hover on offensive (not unusually), and I don't want to spoiler stuff, but it is a good thematic ending for Three and the regeneration scene is one of the best even now. So, yeah, it's an odd one to place, which is why I wouldn't normally put it on a recs list, but if we're looking at things from this angle, then it's also got a lot that's worth watching for. It is a real mix, though.
Oh man, *giggles* I am exactly the kind of person who this sort of thing makes me want to drop everything and watch this immediately. BUT I HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED.
It has Leela in it, so it can't be the absolute worst, but the CSO really is that bad and the poor actors were literally going out onto green baize flooring and trying not to fall over while saying their lines without the usual rehearsal period in order to get it done. I have the DVD and the making of is an exciting epic, while the actual serial is considerably less so!
fairy tale-ish and interesting, but he got hit by Inflation and Tom Baker's ego. *whiney noises* That sounds great.
He started out with a budget crisis, as Philip Hinchcliffe had overspent the previous year before leaving and then wound up battling the inflation crisis in the late 70s, plus the strikes, power cuts and three day weeks. Tom Baker also took against him (Hinchcliffe had worked with him really well and I think hadn't really wanted to go, but the BBC just randomly moved producers round at the time), although I should add that Tom in latter years really regrets that things went to his head as they did, and that Graham Williams having died, he never got the chance to apologise to him as he has to others.
I mean, some of Williams's stuff could be random, but it would definitely have been extremely interesting to have seen what Williams and Douglas Adams would have done between them if they had not been simultaneously battling strikes, inflation, and on occasion, Tom. But he does seem to have been the first Classic Who producer to actually have been keen on the potential mythology of the Time Lords and the universe the Doctor operated in - like Barry Letts, he had also been a writer himself, which seems to make a difference to how they both approached it, but Barry Letts was keen on characterisation and green issues and things like that, while Graham Williams seems to have had a more fantastical bent in there.
Obviously, DW was made so differently then, and one of the things is that the producer/script writer team would commission scripts in advance, the BBC would then move them on (sometimes without warning and against their preferences) and the incoming team would then have to produce 4-6 serials that were the brainchild of the previous team, so you get this odd effect of each era merging into the next, and, sometimes, if they weren't permitted to stay very long, they almost only leave this odd echo of the scripts they commissioned that got made by somebody else. (Derrick Sherwin, for instance, set up UNIT and cast Liz Shaw and was excited about the whole thing, and got moved on before even the second serial of S7, and Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts moved in and had three more seven parters to make with the Doctor stuck on earth, while wanting to get time travelling again.) It's a funny thing, but it adds to the variety. Meta here is a giant jigsaw where you're not even sure the pieces belong to the same puzzle, but it's amazing what you can do with them (and some bits do fit together beautifully as planned). It's been a fun game, I think, anyway!
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It does include some typical classics as well, but yeah. It's a very odd list to make, but fun & I think it should be said that I just love all DW hopelessly. I have my preferences, and my objective self will criticise much of it & rate things as much as any fanboy, but my heart was lost a long time ago. So if you turn out to really like anything I've been v flippant about here, know that I actually like it, and have probably watched it ten times already. (I even watch Underworld, although I do fast-forward the middle two episodes, because there are limits).
This is the first good thing I've ever heard about that one. I've only ever seen it referenced as a punchline.
The thing with Planet of the Spiders is that it has huge amounts of padding and the Two-legs on Metebelis 3 really are the worst guest actors. (I'm not sure why - I've seen some of them being fine in other things, so who knows what behind the scenes stuff was going on, I don't want to be mean to the poor souls stuck in what were always going to be thankless roles). However, it was written by Barry Letts and he does tie in a lot of Three's story thematically, with things he had seeded in previous stories (The Green Death, which is awesome, and Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which has pretty much the same greatness/padding ratio as Spiders, only with terrible CSO dinosaurs). So, it's a mix and there are also some things that hover on offensive (not unusually), and I don't want to spoiler stuff, but it is a good thematic ending for Three and the regeneration scene is one of the best even now. So, yeah, it's an odd one to place, which is why I wouldn't normally put it on a recs list, but if we're looking at things from this angle, then it's also got a lot that's worth watching for. It is a real mix, though.
Oh man, *giggles* I am exactly the kind of person who this sort of thing makes me want to drop everything and watch this immediately. BUT I HAVE BEEN DULY WARNED.
It has Leela in it, so it can't be the absolute worst, but the CSO really is that bad and the poor actors were literally going out onto green baize flooring and trying not to fall over while saying their lines without the usual rehearsal period in order to get it done. I have the DVD and the making of is an exciting epic, while the actual serial is considerably less so!
fairy tale-ish and interesting, but he got hit by Inflation and Tom Baker's ego.
*whiney noises* That sounds great.
He started out with a budget crisis, as Philip Hinchcliffe had overspent the previous year before leaving and then wound up battling the inflation crisis in the late 70s, plus the strikes, power cuts and three day weeks. Tom Baker also took against him (Hinchcliffe had worked with him really well and I think hadn't really wanted to go, but the BBC just randomly moved producers round at the time), although I should add that Tom in latter years really regrets that things went to his head as they did, and that Graham Williams having died, he never got the chance to apologise to him as he has to others.
I mean, some of Williams's stuff could be random, but it would definitely have been extremely interesting to have seen what Williams and Douglas Adams would have done between them if they had not been simultaneously battling strikes, inflation, and on occasion, Tom. But he does seem to have been the first Classic Who producer to actually have been keen on the potential mythology of the Time Lords and the universe the Doctor operated in - like Barry Letts, he had also been a writer himself, which seems to make a difference to how they both approached it, but Barry Letts was keen on characterisation and green issues and things like that, while Graham Williams seems to have had a more fantastical bent in there.
Obviously, DW was made so differently then, and one of the things is that the producer/script writer team would commission scripts in advance, the BBC would then move them on (sometimes without warning and against their preferences) and the incoming team would then have to produce 4-6 serials that were the brainchild of the previous team, so you get this odd effect of each era merging into the next, and, sometimes, if they weren't permitted to stay very long, they almost only leave this odd echo of the scripts they commissioned that got made by somebody else. (Derrick Sherwin, for instance, set up UNIT and cast Liz Shaw and was excited about the whole thing, and got moved on before even the second serial of S7, and Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts moved in and had three more seven parters to make with the Doctor stuck on earth, while wanting to get time travelling again.) It's a funny thing, but it adds to the variety. Meta here is a giant jigsaw where you're not even sure the pieces belong to the same puzzle, but it's amazing what you can do with them (and some bits do fit together beautifully as planned). It's been a fun game, I think, anyway!