Doctor Who: 5th Doctor - Now I've seen them all!

Frontios: You know how sometimes you recognise someone from a different role and it entirely overrides the current storyline?
Drop the Dead Donkey's resident hypochondriac as Plantagenet. Having a heart attack. Heh.
Tegan's clothes are excessively 80s now. And also her hair. IS sad.
Turlough is more fun when he's not insane, and drool isn't a good look on anyone
but I liked the bit where he was all 'no one expects you to go after them / of course not, I'm Turlough' and with the coin in both hands to make it look like fate. That was cool.
The Gravis and the... whatever, evil snail things... they were less cool. I mean the idea probably didn't sound bad, but the actual suits were nasty. Sad really. That bit with the zombie powered digger had potential. Since machinery powered by the dead is always cool they should have used that a lot more and the evil snails a lot less.
Earth that eats you is another good one of course.
The idea that they're right out on the frontiers of the Time Lords' knowledge is nifty. Also the Doctor being all 'don't mention it'/ 'literally' because if they ever did he'd get in big trouble. Nice reminder.
I loved the bit with the hat stand. That was just highly amusing. Hat stand of doom!


Planet of Fire: Teeny tiny Master! That's just so cool!
Okay, from the start - Turlough being twisty and duplicitous = yaays. Chameleon turning out to be a bad idea for the obvious yaays too. I mean really, he's a remote control device with intermittent free will, how's that even meant to work out?
I like how we get to find out stuff about Turlough's home world.
The running around in shorts / stripping off to swim part is... well, he really isn't an outdoors guy, is he?
That bit with the triangle on his arm is nifty. Whole secret history! That we find out about only just in time for him to leave!
Because clearly there couldn't be any emotional bonding going on with the exile thing at all. Nope. Not like the Doctor has, oh, been there done that? :eyeroll:
Sometimes I get frustrated at the old school storytelling style. Just intermittently. But then I get back to playing along and it gets fun again.
Sad to see Turlough go, but he got story arc and character development and stuff, so that was yaays.

Peri... okay, introducing a character by having her strip down to a bikini and nearly drown? Way to establish credibility! And make her sound like a whiny spoiled brat at the same time, that'll get fans! So she's rich and educated and can travel earth on her own if she wants to - clearly this is exactly the kind of person who needs the TARDIS.

The bit where she has a strong mind and can get in a willpower fight about Chameleon is fun. And the thing where she actually wants to go travelling is nice.

Also she looks human yet nice in the bikini.
... I have to say it.
But it's *weird* and not what it's supposed to be about!

I liked the plot for Planet of Fire, and the twisting about, and the reveal on why the Master needed Chameleon completely caught me by surprise, and also TEENY TINY MASTER FTW! So I loved that bit. And clambering around on the inside of the TARDIS controls is way cool.

I would have liked it better if it was a result of the Doctor's little trap at the end of The Kings Demons, because that would make sense and make it the Doctor's fault, build in some knock on consequences. But no. Of course. It was the Master's own fault for trying to build a worse weapon.

Meh.

And then the Doctor uses said weapon on Chameleon! Now that's just not right. There's supposed to be some difference between them! And it wasn't exactly redemptive sacrifice, it was just really depressed mind controlled robot. I mean if the Doctor killed his companions every time the got mind controlled they'd be dropping like flies.

And then at the end the Doctor stood there and watched the Master burn! Sheesh! Just when you think it's just the Master being crazy that makes for the animosity! I think if someone did that to me I'd be plenty pissed off too!
For the record, of course acting like the Master and trying to conquer the universe and shrinking people and stuff is of the bad. I'm just saying letting people burn to death is pretty damn bad too.

And okay the Doctor looked shocked, but... not enough, dude! Should have tried! Looked like he let it happen on purpose!

Bad.


I like it that Turlough stopped running and chose to go home on purpose. That was nice. It's different than when most companions go home because sometimes it's like they're running away or giving up, but with that exile and politics spin then Turlough is stopping running and going to get stuff done. So yaays, good exit.

Not so good entrance though.

because fixing characters is harder

The weird thing about watching a lot of old Doctor Who is I start getting plot bunnies.

Clearly Martha needs to meet Nyssa. Older Nyssa, after she sets up the hospital and stays to invent a cure to a galaxy wide plague. Because then we get a completely different 'after he left' conversation, one where she left him, and there's none of that implying she didn't have a life without him cause lookit, she cured the plague. And all that nifty positive stuff about how the Doctor makes people better, because she was a better person for travel with him so she could devote her life to that stuff. Because otherwise he doesn't make better, you see, and then he isn't the Doctor.

But also there could be many nasty knock on health consequences for everything Nyssa went through, not least the uncontrolled radiation that cured her that first time, so she could be all painful death and was it worth it?

See, interesting! Like Martha, only really not very! And... I don't know, I managed to watch so many episodes and still be left with the impression of not much personality that I just want to go writer her something full of life and reasons and choices and responses and all that person stuff.

But... I'm getting plot bunnies for *Nyssa*? That's just... odd.


Mind you, there's last-of-her-kind angst going on there, so clearly there could be a productive conversation with the Doctor. And that other angst about the Master, there's mileage still there. And... well, suddenly my head is full of reasons this would be a cool story.

... I already have cool stories.
... also I pretty much want someone else to write it and to see it on TV.
... weird.

The Doctor's psychological limitations

Someone was complaining about Utopia. But what they were complaining about seemed to me to be part of the point. A side of the Doctor we get to see this season, how he's not always all that shiny but has these great big blind spots and flaws.
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I'm not saying it's the only way to plausibly write him. Just that it seems plausible to me, and an interesting aspect to explore as a stated problem, as something he needs to fix about himself.

Now if they mess that up and just make him be a git then obviously badness ensues. So you never know. But I thought the point was sometimes the Doctor needs slapping, and it's his companions that have to do that.

ymmv

DW clothes this week

anyone happen to know if/where that waistcoat can be bought?


... I likes waistcoats. especially with decent pockets.