Doctor Who. The Reality War

 

Okay there are spoilers here

I am going to work backwards here-I will give you the positives first

I did enjoy seeing 13's cameo I did like that Jodie Whittaker was written properly for once. 

I did very much enjoy Archie Panjabi as the Rani. I think caught got the spirit of the character perfectly

Anita Dobson should have done more comedy.

I was moved by the discussion of living a life of childlessness which is often unwanted. I thought that Belinda was well written as a mother- This is the Lungbarrow story

It looks great. That has been true for years now

I disliked

BBC London- Its bright and clean. Everyone can afford a house. It is never raining. 

I loathe Billie Tyler being teased as the Dr- Yes I have heard the speculation that this the Bad Wolf or such. I don't care. Move on-move on. 

I dislike UNIT having laser beams to fire at CGI. They are better when they are grunts. 

What the hell was the plot? They had made a deal with the God of Wishes to create one man's utopia. Eventually doubt would consume the world, and open a portal to allow Omega to break free- Oh except Omega is a monster now. A thoughtless monster.. who eats Timelords. Then Poppy is lost and found. She was part timelord and now she did 

Oh and it is acknowledged that this Utopia is really not that bad. Why have a villian produce this brave new world 

What I think is that Dr Who has not learned the lesson of the 80s. Another time when you heard about  the Rani and Omega. Another time when a showrunner was voicing opinion. Maybe show- maybe hint instead

What we have is more and more mythology - Just make a nice Cyberman story

William Russell

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c988nnnjy5go

19 November 1924 – 3 June 2024

I am saddened to hear about the death of William Russell. Who played Ian Chesterton in the first series of Doctor Who back in 1963

I had encountered Ian in the Target novelizations of  Doctor Who particularly the Romans, where we reading  his character unposted letters to a friend-relaying his adventures and misadventures in the court of Nero. 

In Peru, alone I watched an Unearthly Child I was shocked by how adult the themes hinted in the pilot episode is. Russell as a polite but stern young man challenging the Doctor I think it is Russell who is the foundation stone upon which the temple of Who will be built. Indeed that is what Moffat noted. Russell's Chesterton  takes the rock away from Doctor- to prevent him from euthanizing a sick caveman 

Valette

The Blackadder, Robin of Sherwood, Superman 

( Father, RAF Veteran, Oxford Graduate)

Doctor Who Flux

(A parson's egg)

Okay

Doctor Who- Flux looks beautiful. The special effects rival Hollywood. The BBC have closed the gap with the USA  the days of painted hairdryers are a long way away 

So what did I like about Flux, Well I liked John Bishop. I liked the proudly Scouse setting- The Mad Mole. Anfield- and the Klopp era referenced  John Bishop threatening to call ``the busies'' 

The Crimean War episode was beautifully realized. You did get a feel of the size of the conflict As well as the dirt and squalor the soldiers fought in.  I was pleased to see Mary Seacole on screen 

The supporting cast were generally pretty good. Nice to see Neill from the inbetweeners  The girl from Northern Ireland- made herself very welcome very quickly. I got the sense of a younger talented Dave Lister from Vider. 

It was nice to see Kate Stewart  again. 

Jodie seemed more relaxed as the Doctor. She seemed to have more energy too. I also liked the evil Jodie, we see at the end. It was nice they give Jodie some meat 

The Bad

There is a lot of storylines being mixed and matched. 

I did not like the look of the villains

But as for the plot? Something about the Division who now seem to be almost all powerful? The planet called Time. Chris Chibnall seems to have learned the wrong lesson from years of Doctor Who. 

Gallifrey and the Time Lords get duller and duller. . Killing the Timelords off for the Division makes no sense . You end up with a more complicated backstory messing with the plot and for what? 

I think the weeping Angels have been overused,

The Triple Doctor, was a good idea. I think there was just too much going on. 

We had another universe ending phenomenon (Which I never understood) There seems to have been hints of something else 

We see the Sontarans, Daleks, and Cybermen collaborating-Ala season 5- The 

The chocolate/sugar fix of Sontarans was silly

Oh another Prophecy WOW

I have seen every episode of classic Dr Who

 It's been a long road. I began this journey having seen He Who Moans review of the pilot - An Unearthly Child. I was still living in my martial home.  I was watching episodes often on a cheap Chinese phone

My daughter managed to lock herself in her bedroom midway through my viewing.  I lived on the other side of the planet. I watched Dr Who, on a little screen - I watched the WarGames one afternoon in Lima, in my hotel. ( When I was living in a hotel ala Alan Partirdge) 

Since then, returned home. Watching at Work, 

Some thoughts

The pacifist Dr and the Asexual Dr come from a specific place. JNT onwards

A Woman Dr is foreshadowed and frankly, they should have done it in the 1980s 

Adric might have worked. I can just about see what they were trying to do...Have a critical  mercurial character in the TARDIS - Basically Turlough

I really like Jon Pertwee, Did not expect too.. but there you go

There is more backstory about the Timelords, as Tom's stuff goes on - He's the Cosmic Dr

Tom Baker Doctor WEho Stories

 Underworld.

I liked this one. I don't know why it has such a bad reputation with fans. I liked Alan Lake's performance in particular. I think he had the aggression of a Greek heroic age figure. Even the design of the weapons was interesting - I thought they could do more with the Timelords being more mercurial figures

Nightmare of Eden, It is an interesting idea for the Antagonist  to sell drugs to continue his work. He begs the Doctor to understand him-One scientist to another 

State of Decay. This is the best of the E-Space Trilogy. It feels and looks great - Gothic Horror in Space. Its nice to see Adric open to becoming a vampire, he would not understand the lore. So why not try and live for ever. I don't want to flog the aeon's dead horse that is Adric. I think the mercurial moments  shows what could have been done with the character. Having someone who is just not Human to play off the Dr and the Companion. It worked with Nardol and the 12th Doctor 

 The World of the Hydrax feels real. The Headman trying to keep his son - The captain of the Guard telling the headman he tried to save his son. Again we have the Time Lords deep past. There is even a hint of HBD. 

The Hand of Fear. Great Performance by Liz Sladen 

The Romans, Doctor Who

I really enjoyed this one. It would have been perfect for my A-level classical civilization class
When the BBC do History, as Andrew Cartmel observed they do it really well. This even  looks alright, despite the budget and tech limitations  I was impressed by the scope of the episode. Ian ends up on a galley, we visit an Italian villa, and finally in Nero's court
The imperial court even technically has an Arena ( We see Ian fight a gladiatorial contest for Nero)
This was the first Hartnel Story I encountered. I hated the novelization. It was written in epistolary form.... A selection of jottings from Nero's notebook.... A letter which Ian tried to write to a friend. ...The Doctor's personal diaries. Oh and best of all, the memoirs of Locusta. ``A poisoner remembers...''
Locusta is an actual person who served Nero.

Oh Locusta is a Gaul. I did not know that

Compared to recent visits to the Roman world. The Romans shows I think more of the dark side of the empire. We see slavery, something that seems to be absent from both the Eaters of light and the fires of |Pompeii. Indeed Barbara is abducted to be sold into sex slavery. Barbara is sold out for a few coins, to slave traders In part because She and the TARDIS crew are selling vegetables at below market prices in the local forum.

Do we see slavery in Fires? Or in Eaters of the light  I note that in Eaters we are supposed to be amused and delighted by the Roman army having progressive views towards homosexuality. Tell that to Batavi.

As I said I liked this. There is a lot of action. The Doctor relishing fisticuffs He chides Vicki for intervening in a fight between him and a gladius wielding foot-pad

Vicki also makes Barbara feel really old! We learn young  Vicki studied medicine in high school. One passes medicine before one graduates.

Well Barbara despite Vicki's teasing  you have aged like French wine.

Finally we reach the court of Nero. We run into ill starred Poppaea Poppaea does not roll her eyebrows at Barbara like Vicki Poppaea cuts her eyes. Her character  worries that Nero will leave her for her. Nero, is looking for wine and song. The Doctor poses as a Greek musician ..and dodging daggers and diotoxins and directly giving Nero the idea for the great fire of Rome. So presumably starting the persecution of the Christians... The year of the 4 emperors etc

So the Doctor and co, actually make History

This episode is a lot of fun. It's also interesting -Ian helps himself to a souvenir and chases Barbs round the room. We have a long way to go to get to the man who never would.. This is a Doctor and a TARDIS crew, having a romp in the past and breaking the rules as they go...

Doctor Who Season 1

Thanks to Britbox, I have been able to watch the entirety of season 1
I also watched the Battle of the River Plate

I had seen ``An Unearthly Child'' before and the first episode is a stone cold classic. The confrontation between Chesterton and the Doctor in the junkyard is unsettling. Even knowing there is 50 years of canon

The Daleks

I was a bit disappointed really. It is interesting that the Dr here simply manipulates his crew to get his own way. The Doctor  lies about a piece of TARDIS equipment being faulty and needing topping up with mercury. Oh and that the specter of atomic war hangs over everything The Dals, and the Thals

The Daleks are trapped in their city eating vegetables grown with artificial sunlight. Do we hear or see the Daleks eat later?

One amusing exchange is that Chesterton tries to shame the pacifistic Thals into action by pretending he is going to sell one of the Thal women into white slavery

Another interesting exchange is a Thal describing Susan as not yet a woman.

The Thal ladies are all in swimsuits and the Thal men all bare chested despite the fact that they are eking out an existence in a post atomic horror


Keys of Marinus 

Oh this is where the Voords make their first appearance. Ditto the Sense sphere will be mentioned in New Who as close to the Ood home world

A very beautiful guest star. Katharine Schofield She also seems to have a higher social standing then her male counterpart. At one point she tells the Voords that her servant is only a servant and not to waste time hurting him 

It was interesting to see the trial on the authoritarian planet. I am surprised it was also a woman who set the murder in place. I liked the trial scenes. I liked seeing the Dr itting on a bench his head in his hands after the verdict.



The Aztecs

Aside from the obvious brown face. This was the highlight of the series. I wondered why the series simply does not do Historical's anymore Human beings can be more alien than any bug eyed monster or Kaled traveling machine.

I do like Barbara. It is interesting that while the Doctor is cynical about Barbara's capacity to redeem the Aztecs

I did like Susan meeting Perfect Victim. I kept thinking of Dead Meat from Hot Shots ...


The Sensorites.

It got better as it went on, but I thought this episode was too long. I did like how the Sensorites were able to use ``They all look alike '' aspect of their alien faces  Barbara disappears
The ending of the story, the discovery of the Earthmen seems rushed though.

The Timeless Children

The Timeless Children,

There are spoilers here.

In short, I would have preferred Chibnal left things alone.

Okay is the Master going to pay a price for the destruction of Gallifrey? 

All of the  Timelord's are dead. The Shobogans too. If we accept the Day of the Doctor- There were millions of children of Galifrey. The Master gets away with this.

I am actually fond of the Jo Marten/Ruth Doctor. I want to see more of her. I like her assertiveness which is refreshing

I was not so keen on the fact that the Doctor as the Timeless child, has had nearly infinite lives and thousands of regeneration's. I would have preferred an earlier cycle of regeneration. Something that we know the Timelords can do.

 Why is not there at the end of the Universe with Me/Ashilda?
 The Doctor could have saved everyone in Mawdryn Undead so it seems?
Why did the Eternals, or Sutekh not notice that the Doctor was not different to other Timelords?
Why did Rassilon not bait the Doctor with this information at the End of Time?
Why did Omega not ask for regenerations ?
Why did the Daleks not realize the Doctor was different

 I was watching the confrontation between the Doctor and the Master-ala Cyber lords. I asked, can the Doctor die now? I was not sure anymore

As I said  would have preferred there had been a set of regeneration before Hartnell.  

There is a precedent for this . We do see the Master being offered a new set of regenerations in the Five Doctors by the High Council. We know the Master is revived in the Last Great Time  war. As is Rassilon. This would not have been such a departure from canon The 12 regenerations being an arbitrary line, seems fine

So, I go back to the Name of the Doctor.  If being the Doctor is a promise.
 The Timeless child did not make that promise. Through hundreds of regenerations. Until something happened with the Ruth Doctor.

The Ruth Dr, regenerates, into a young Hartnell. The cycle does not quite begin again she passed on something to Hartnell. Hartnell broke the cycle. Maybe he rescued Susan Then he meets Ian and Barbara and the rest is history....

Meglos

So I thought why not watch some classic  Doctor Who

I liked this a lot

Basically the Dr stops and Alien from stealing an artifact that is a source of immense power

Tom plays two roles, it is a doppelganger story The antagonist  Meglos- Meglos who is the sole survivor of a long dead race of plants.  And of course the russet coated JNT era 4th Dr, and Tom is always good as a Gillian. Sorry as a villain. Tom's breakout role was as Rasputin

A plant antagonist is interesting. It's quite different then a bumpy headed alien. I did wonder why Meglos needed to kidnap a host from Earth. Rather than any warm body. In modern Who they would make more of a struggle between the captured host and Meglos.

This is one episode where the Dr can actually pilot the TARDIS. Albeit it is something he does off screen. He returned the hos human home

It's nice to see one of the villain's of the week simply covert the Dr's long red coat.

The escape from the Time loop is brilliant. The Dr and Romana realize there is no technological solution to the problem. So they try and preempt the events, throwing the cause and effect loop out of sync.  Romana  also tries to use the fact that the planet has counter rotation like Venus to throw the goons off...

Quite fun, quite fun indeed.

So who is the Ruth Clayton Doctor?

Theories 

1. She is a different universe Dr

2. She is the Doctor from season 6B. There is a regeneration between 2 and 3, which we did not see. 

Hence she is working for the CIA. Celestial intervention agency

3. She is the Valeyard. Which would put her in Dr's past

3. She is a pre-Hartnel Dr, the Morbius Doctors are canon. It was her coat in the control room

4. There was something going on, she is the Doctor from the past....But there were looms or something.

5. She is the Peter Cushing Doctor regenerated

Update

Chibnal says she is not a clone

The Enemy of the World

Patrick Troughton has not met many Mexicans His accent as Salamander crosses the Med, several times, but I don't think it manages to  go as far as Mexico
The second Doctor wears long johns
Victoria is quite pretty. There is a cook that complains about everything... no microwave. Granted that is class thing.
It seems there are two plots meshed together here.
The Salamander as a megalomaniac trying to take over the world. The deception of the ``survivors'' from the faked nuclear war.  I am not really sure if the former plot makes sense. I don't understand why the Salamander would bother with them. Was it supposed to be a harem, why? Yes it is his way of controlling the Suncatcher satellite but ehh really ??
PS, I would love to see a Suncatcher satellite floating in orbit completely forgotten about in New Who
The Universe of 2019 has an older woman pushing about a large pram. Despite the rockets leaving between Sydney and central Europe. There is also a hovercraft, this is the past's future
The food taster is a pretty black woman Fariah. She is killed off in true Hollywood style, it is also hinted I think that Salamander had used her as a concubine
Zones would be mentioned again in the battle with the Merka
One might make political capital of a Mexican employing robot harvesters.
Troughton does some great work flipping between characters in a heartbeat.
Its nice to see someone thrown out of the Tardis..

The Woman who fell to Earth

The first story of the Chibnal era

Okay

It is better than Deep Breath. It is not as good, as the 11th hour. It is about the same level as the Christmas Invasion. Which I think it mimics on purpose. Even the Alien big bad, seems to have a similar look, to the big red guy.

Okay.

I liked, the Sheffield setting. It was something I liked about Torchwood. This feels more real, than the idealised London, of the RDS era, or the hip Britannia of the Moffat days.

The cast is fine. The acting is very good. Some of the dialogue particularly that given to Bradley Walsh is a bit clunky. The line about blaming this on your dyspraxia too

I like Jodie. I liked her, Line, in the police car, can we turn on the sirens. I liked her messing about with the phone.

I liked the forging of new sonic screw driver

It is weird to hear the Doctor apologise. I know that Tennant was famous for the I'm so sorry line. But Jodie's Doctor is quite specific. I am sorry this person died. I am sorry you got sucked into this. This is different.

Quite good, cliffhanger at the end.

Saving Sayward's slaughter

Okay

We take Resurrection of the Daleks out, of the run.  We can replace it with another story but the upshot is that Tegan leaves at the end of that story. (By the way, Tegan just walks out of of the Tardis, with only the clothes on her back-in London in 1984-She has nothing. No where to go..

OR

We have the Master kill, Tegan in planet of fire. Now yes this happened recently with Adric So this might be a problem

OR

We do not introduce Peri in planet of fire. I have nothing against Nicola Byrant but for our purposes I think it works better later if we have Tegan Jovanka.  So in Caves of Androzani Peter  Davison saves Tegan, rather than Peri.

So we have the twin dilemma but this time, we have Tegan. Tegan handles the regeneration better, and we do not have the Alien spies too. Maybe she tries to get Doctor into the Zero room. Hell you are not going out like that Doctor. So instead of a train wreck of a story, we have a cancelled train, due to flooding..

But the Doctor is erratic, Spiky and distant. Superior. Colin plays 6, as he is before the Alien spies scene.

So, we return to earth, instead of the cyber-man story we have a new doctor fighting the Daleks. Colin is cool and detached, think Maxil,all business. Also Colin does, pilot the Tardis properly he does fix, the chameleon circuit. Maybe the Doctor is not holding back anymore.

Maybe he will damn well pull the trigger...

The Key to Time

To be honest I was not really impressed. To be honest I am not sure Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor 
I am glad they ( The Dr Who Team ) did something different.  Change can be good for example how the Daleks are over used in Modern Who. The Key to Time and the 6 connected stories that make it up  run out of steam after the Androids of Tara

After watching a bit of classic Who for a while. One begins to see the same faces,-the same repertory of actors who the BBC hired and fired for Dr Who, ``Some Mothers do ave em'', and Fawlty Towers.

This is not bad but gets a bit boring 

The Ribos Operation  -The Doctor is given his duty by the White Guardian who is nursing a green liquid in a brandy glass What is it ? Crème de Menthe? -Absinthe?   Anyway the Doctor and his new nubile assistant  They fly to the planet of Ribos There they meet a Mummerset speaking con man. Mummerset- Fake West Country or Rural English accent that is not Yorkshire 

 There are some nice character touches round the edges of this story The two con artists meet a proto Galileo in the dungeons. The con man, talks about trying to sell Sydney Opera House..

The Pirate Planet-
There was a mesh of legal reasons why this could not be released as a target novel. It is a Douglas Adams piece- The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy writer. Is he beginning to become unfashionable?  The Captain is a classic Adams villain -grandiloquent and always threatening death.
A cybernetic proto Vogon. There are air cars with terrible special effects.

The Androids of Tara

I liked this one. I really like Tom Bakers outfit- Well done the costume department The Doctor does a swash buckler- They tried this in the Pirate episode in  New Who's season 6. It did not go down well. The Archbishop (Not the word they use) is the psychic from the hotel episode of -Some mothers do ave em. ``Mr Bedford Mr Bedford ''

 The Doctor and Romana both play themselves playing androids.

The Stones of Blood.

Who meets Celtic mythology. The episode has a nice aging female archaeologist, who perhaps has a touch of a crush on Romana. The Doctor critics the modern day druids, the people who meet at Stonehenge on midsummers day. We now know the Stonehenge builders would have been the enemies of the  great great grandparents of the druids. The space prison and judges are interesting-

Tom Baker produces a barrister wig from nowhere Which is a nice touch 

Krull
(Yes this is best forgotten- The natives have woolen caps, but no sheep)

The main bad guy is Mr Bedford from some mothers do have em. The Sons of Earth are an interesting idea. I wonder if they would turn up in new who. I suspect Rhodesia and the winds of change is in the minds of a few scriptwriters in Who, see the Mutants.

The Armageddon Factor
Too long, and two different stories that seem to have been messed together. The Bad guy, is Brother Mordred from the Knights of God. He is replaced halfway through with another evil baddy-then we have the Black Guardian take over, after a twist . It whimpers out- The season is forgotten 

Doctor Who season 10

I like Pearl Mackie she comes across with the right mixture of naivete and curiosity. She looks the part, She feels clumsy

Thin Ice.
I was annoyed the Dr hit, the baddie for the racial slur. Is this going to happen all the time?  Compare this to the treatment of Martha in Human nature. Where Martha has lived with constant insult both deliberate and unconscious. I get it, the Doctor despises Racism. Trying shouting the MESSAGE louder and louder. I liked the joke about the Doctor, looking for a man with a ship tattoo by the docks.

The Lodger
A waste of a good guest star. Suchet is brilliant. The juxtaposition at the end is good. Bill pointing out to the Doctor that a dad does not bring insects into the house to show his sick daughter. But for god's sake give Suchet a meatier role.

This is the point the Trial of a Timelord podcast made. Who gets these stars and wastes them...

Oxygen.
The Walking Dead in space. I liked this one. I wonder if it fits into the same continuity as the Sunmakers? Nice to see there will be a consequence to the actions of the story

Extremis

Quite a nightmarish idea-the world is all just a projection. The episode started from the ridiculous the Pope interrupting Bills date-to the sublime-The Dr being offered a chance to confess, and be given absolution. Yes the Dr does the Da Vinci code-We see a female pope- (Is it me or does she look like Angelina Jolie)   The universe being only a simulation. I am sure a lot of kids tried out the counting game. The Wine swinging French accented scientist banging on the table while he waited for a bomb to go off was unsettling.  The dead president in the oval office, and Nardol realizing he was a projection and disppearing forever in testing his idea,. The Dr being blind was interesting.

The Pyramid at the end of the world.
Okay it was a nice subversion to see the soldiers refuse to fight. I spent a while connecting the name to the face of Oregon,s college lecturer . I liked the idea that the end of the world was going to come through a series of unfortunate and unforeseeable error. The Dr being blind had a direct and unpredictable result.


Lie of the Land
Yes, I am not sure what happened here. It started well, the fake regeneration was nice  Missy giving them the solution to how to deal with the monks. Lobotomize Bill and live with the consequences I thought was an idea that had potential. What if there is no good way out. What if you just have to push someone in front of a bus to kill Hitler?

The Empress of Mars
Ok
It was nice to see the Ice warriors again. I note that Gatis was worried about having a black soldier in the British army. Could you have not just made them sailors ? Or set the story in India The RHIP quip is a call back to Day of the Daleks. I was not impressed by the Ice warriors guns-nor the noisy males line. Yay Alpha Centauri its back

The Eaters of Light

Okay, I liked the quips about Scotland. The Roman army being comfortable with gays and bis, I am not sure is historically accurate.  At least not in the way modern people would view things. There were Batavian boys used as sexual slaves by the Romans after a revolt in or about this time period. The further back we go the messier consent as an idea and ideal becomes 

 A point was raised, about Bill being a lesbian. Most cultures will not see what the fuss she is making is about. Yes she prefers woman, but she still find a husband obviously. How else would she have children, to manage the servants, to provide for her in her old age.  So Bill should be and would be pursued. Pearl Mackie face grows on me.

 I am not sure about the we sound like children to the Doctor line. , RDS was better at calling out the Time LORD- This is the opposite idea to Dona, and even going back as far as Ian  Chesterton of the companions humanizing the Doctor 

The finale
part 1  World Enough and Time
Okay, the meta jokes- I am Dr Who. Michelle Gomez Dances. Okay yes. I saw Green wing. Michelle Gomez I am a violent Glasweigan stick got old there. I thought she was much better in the book group. 
I am not sure why there is a blue janitor on the  Colony ship, and everyone else is human. The scenes with The Dr, and Bill back on Earth were touching. The Nurse Ratchett figure was creepy. The Master's disguise was silly. Why does he need it? I get it is call back, but why not have someone point out how ridiculous it is on camera. The Master does not seem to hear the drums. I thought the fact that the Mondassian cybermen spoke with Bills cadence was nicely done

.

The Pilot

I really liked this.

I mean we sat through three years of Clara???? Well no that is harsh. I did like Jemma Louise Coleman. We got Hell Bent, We got the last scene in face the Raven.We got Robin of Sherwood, I like that episode,we got the Mummy on the orient express. But as others have said better where were we going with Clara?If we were going anywhere was it not spoiled with the end of heaven sent

1) The Doctor as a lecturer it makes sense. Capaldi is older, and it gives him a logical reason to be hanging about with a young companion. It mirrors the aging of the female demographic who have been watching since Rose. Why did it take three years for someone to think this up? Unlike the school stories it means no child actors. You can even think of it as mirroring the UNIT stories

2) I like Nardol. I was skeptical about him.I think I was in practice a bit unfair to Lucas. The thing I dislike most about the God complex was David Walliams,and I compounded the two. But with Lucas/Nardol we have a companion who can chat back,and act as a narrator. ``He never notices the tears''

3) Pearl Mackie is fine. I was skeptical about her. My name is Bwill I surve chipz. She charming, realistic and fun. We are going to see the universe again through new eyes. She was again brave enough to stand up to the Doctor.

4) Nice to see the Movellans getting slaughtered. Surely that is not logical

Hide, Doctor Who

I re watched this and liked it better,

(I have since learned my problem with Ms Coleman's Clara was a common one) 

Edited Feb 2020

The start is exquisitely filmed and set . A man and a woman alone in a haunted house
The episode is a period piece of the seventies. Its nicely done. The male guest star was involved in WW2 black ops. A`` Baker street irregular'' Another Who / Sherlock crossover

The female guest star is an empath. Non objective equipment as the Professor refers to her

We see the beginning of Clara's death wish. She has to be double dared into looking

There is a ``whose hand is that?'' joke

Clara and the Empath drink whiskey. They would both prefer tea

The professor and the empath, are investigating a ghost. The professor thinks the Dr is working for an unnamed ministry Air perhaps - intrusion counter measures

The ghost is a time traveler -in the  Orson pink mode. Humanity messed up big with time travel

We see the beginnings and end of Earth. Clara is disturbed by this.

The episode ends with the empath warning Clara about the Dr. The Dr had come to this place to have the empath  scan Clara ...Here we have 11th Dr acting like McCoy suspicious of his companion. Keeping his enemies close

Doctor Who Season 22

Season 22.

I had the notion to watch, the caves of Androzani. I enjoyed Peter Davidson's swan song very much. Peter Davidson is the first Doctor I can remember, but it was the Davidson years Target books, which I remember. The Five Doctors. Terminus. The Visitation Maydrwn undead Even the quiz books.

It was Nicola Bryant Peri who intrigued me.  Firstly she is simply radiant. The second was the realisation she had a crush on the Doctor. " You were almost young- I really liked you" The revised series would take this idea and run with it ( rose tyler) and run ( Martha Jones)  and run ( Amy Pond) with it.

So here are my thoughts. The episodes are not listed in any particular order:

Attack of the Cybermen
Sarah Greene annoyed me as a child watching Saturday Superstore She has a didactic manner which grates. Brian glover takes the piss out of a Cyberman. A wonderful scene.

Lytton from resurrection of the Daleks returns. He is playing a gentleman soldier of fortune who, has been hired by the Cyrons.  Lytton mocks his partners in crime. They are after all working class.
the episode is  bloody. The Dr  desperately battles with the Cybermen inside the TARDIS.
The ending of the episode comes as a shock to the Doctor and knocks some of the swagger out if him.

Vengeance on Varos.

A prison planet on the future and the governor. The descendent of former wardens still speaks with an RP accent. This is a good episode . Probably the best Colin Baker episode. Vengeance is, a poke at the BBC and the viewers. The viewers who are represented by two cockneys who vote on the fate of the Governor. There was a place in Ancient Greece where legislative proposals were offered while standing on a chair with a noose about ones neck. Here the Governor Martin Jarvis is trying to escape a contract with Sil.
Sil is great
A wonderful oily rag of a villain
Donal Noye from GOT stars too I amused myself by thinking of him saying he took the black. Jason Connery appears too linking it tangentially to the 80s Robin hood series

Timelash

Not as bad as the rumors had it. On the planet of the New Romantics, an evil dictator must be overthrown. Avon not Vila from Blake's 7. Overacts to get his revenge on Colin Baker
H.G wells puts in an appearance. Though sadly does not get any sense knocked into him.

Mark of the Rani.

Trouble n TARDIS. It's actually a pity, as done straight this might have been a more interesting story. The Doctor has a run in with some machine smashers - luddites in the North of England. The mcguffin is the Rani has been stealing brain fluid and preventing people from sleeping. Why not a lunatic asylum or a flophouse?
The idea of using a bath house as the scene if the crime at least points the viewer into the reason why people accepted the Industrial revolution. There were some obvious benefits. If the guns and dogs suggested other wise.
Leela's father from Bergerac makes an appearance.

The Two Doctors
A parsons egg of an episode. . It's also another Blake Seven reunion. Jacqueline Pearce is an Androgum A race the Dr despises .It is hard to see the Dr do down a race we have just seen on screen. The Androgum are obsessed with eating. The episode is a pretty leaden gloved metaphor for vegetarianism. We see Jamie being shocked to bring out the flavour.

We watch footage of a  day trip to Seville. The villains are actually filmed in a horse and carriage. Colin Baker changes out of his awful coat and hat. Peri looks radiant. A background character a slightly cowardly resting Ack-tor working as maître de for a Seville restaurant is simply stabbed and killed . Wether they wanted to shock the viewers or needed a kick the Dog moment. It seems unnecessary
The scenes of Troughton working as the Dr again are splendid

Fan Theory

Missy is the black guardian...

(Spoilers)

Turns out Missy is the master having regenerated into female form
I am not too pleased actually
I  dislike the idea of the Doctor changing sex. I generally prefer to think of the Time lords as Alien
but that is too Alien
While I do like  Missy a comic actress-I think she is a bit too manic

Round up 16-9-14

Best wishes to my cousin Patrick, who is expecting his first child, and my cousin Paul on the birth of his child.

Their was an incident with my dog the other day. It got lose and chased and knocked over a kiddywink in the park. I felt so bad for the wan, who must have been terrified. I am so sorry,  for her. I went home so embarrassed 

On Thursday Scotland goes to the polls. I have been following the story from afar. I am surprised at the negative reaction especially from over the water. I went to university in Glasgow. It seems like a life time ago

I have enjoyed the last 2 episodes of Dr  Who. Peter Capaldi's Doctor seems to have hit his stride.
I had my doubts about the Mark Gatis episode-Robot of Sherwood but I enjoyed it a lot. Gatis had been hitting his form as a writer

I look forward to the all Ireland on Sunday

My pretty wife was feeling unwell on Monday-now she feels better