Through the Vortex: Classic Doctor Who

We are going to celebrate the great one-off villains of the First Doctor's era by counting down some of the best! No monsters or faceless hordes (so leaving off the Daleks--they got their own episode:-) but rather we are looking at the megalomaniacs, the schemers, and the scoundrels. Some are funny, some are scary, some are down-right devious, but all are unforgettable.

In Part I we will look at some honorable mentions and Villains #10-6. Next time, we will look at my picks for Villains #5-2. My #1 Villain is getting his own little episode in Part III. 

NOTE: See Vanquishing Villains #1: The First Doctor and the Daleks for an in-depth discussion of the Daleks and how they define this era. This is a different sort of list.

Upcoming:
10 Best First Doctor Villains (Part II)
We are going to continue are list with Villains #5-2 for the First Doctor.
Monday, January 16th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

In a small coastal town in the 1600s, a priest is terrified for his life and confides a riddle to the Doctor that will reveal the secret to Pirate Avery's lost treasure. Soon, the Doctor is kidnapped, Ben and Polly are charged with murder, and smugglers, pretend-witches, and pirates all collide!

AKA Doctor Who and PIRATES!

_____

BEN: Oh great! The way things are going there probably won't be a navy when I get back.
POLLY: Look, Ben, for the moment we're in the seventeenth century, somehow. We'll just have to like it and lump it. Here you are.

________________________

DOCTOR: Well, I'm afraid, my boy, we can't leave at the moment.
POLLY: What? But why not?
DOCTOR: Yes, well I know it's really difficult for both you to understand, but I'm under moral obligation.
BEN: Well, about what? We've got no ties here.
DOCTOR: No, but it's this village. I feel that I might be responsible for it's destruction, and therefore I must at least try and avoid this danger until Blake comes back.
BEN: Yeah, but you heard what Blake said. We wouldn't stand a chance against Pike's mob. They're a right bunch of yobbos.
POLLY: We wouldn't stand a chance.
DOCTOR: Ah, wouldn't we, my dear?
BEN: Well, what does that mean?
DOCTOR: Well, you seem to forget, young man, that I've already met Pike, and I know something that he doesn't. The clue to the treasure.

__________________________________________________________

Upcoming:

Top Ten Non-Monster Villains of the First Doctor Era
We are going to celebrate the great one-off villains of the First Doctor's era by counting down some of the best! No monsters or faceless hordes (so leaving off the Daleks--they got their own episode:-) but rather we are looking at the megalomaniacs, the schemers, and the scoundrels. Some are funny, some are scary, some are down-right devious, but all are unforgettable.  

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

We've made it through Doctor Who's third season, AKA the season where the show transitioned into the form it would retain for the next 60 years. The Doctor is our wise hero accompanied by a plucky companion providing the human element. It's an uneven season--some of the best serials the show has ever done and...really no bad serials but some that are very unmemorable.

We'll discuss the season overall: the behind-the-scenes chaos, its thematic threads, what it introduces into the Doctor Who formula, the good, the great, and the ugly. 

NOTE: In the round-up of  which serials to watch, for some reason I forgot to discuss The Dalek's Masterplan. Possibly because it's hard to say whether to struggle through the reconstruction or not. It is easy to follow with the audio and stills. It genuinely is a great serial with great characters, a complicated but interesting story, a lot of commentary....but it is LONG (12 episodes), and it probably only needed to be 6 episodes. If you listen to the three-part podcast on that one, I mention you can basically watch the beginning and the end and leave out the middle strange side quest (even though that means missing the Monk, and who would want to miss the Monk?). Basically, watching still and audio for 5 hours is an investment. But if you want to make that investment, it is a rewarding story. Maybe someone has put out a condensed version somewhere? If not, at the very least check out the last episode--it is the bleakest ending the show has ever permitted.
 

NEXT TIME:

Serial #28: The Smugglers
4 episodes, all missing:-(
Pirates looking for buried treasure? Count the Doctor, Ben, and Polly in! Our last first Doctor historical.
Monday, January 2nd

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Oh, Dodo....there was so much potential with this companion that was squandered. It often feels as if the writers just held her in contempt but didn't want to write her out of the story. And that's a shame. Dodo could have been an interesting companion if anyone had bothered figuring out her story. We are going to take a moment to celebrate the good parts and mourn what could have been.


Upcoming:

Doctor Who's Third Season
We are going to take a look back at Doctor Who's revolutionary third season wherein the Doctor is firmly cemented as the hero of his own story and the Doctor/Companion roles are renegotiated in a lasting way.
Monday, December 26th (Happy Boxing Day!!)

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

In 1966, in a tall London tower, Professor Brett has developed the computer WOTAN that can think for itself and will soon impartially run all the computers in the world to improve the human race's efficiency....WOTAN unfortunately has other ideas.

AKA Doctor Who enters the swinging 60s for the first time and the Doctor begins his war against machines. 

_____

DOCTOR: Are you seriously telling me, sir, that you have invented a machine that can think?
BRETT: Yes.
DOCTOR: And never makes mistakes?
BRETT: Never.

________________________

STONE: It seems to me by the way you're talking, sir, that this machine can think for itself like a human being.
SUMMER: It can. Only much more accurately.
STONE: But sir, I mean, isn't this kinda risky? I mean, suppose it decides it can do without people, what then?

__________________________________________________________

Upcoming:

Celebrating Companions: Dodo Chaplet
Oh, Dodo....there was so much potential with this companion that was squandered. It often feels as if the writers just held her in contempt but didn't want to write her out of the story. And that's a shame. Dodo could have been an interesting companion if anyone had bothered figuring out her story. We are going to take a moment to celebrate the good parts and mourn what could have been.
Monday,  December 19th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Taking a moment to celebrate one of Classic Who's most underrated gems: Steven Taylor!  The man who escaped a Mechanoid City and nearly died for a teddy bear who goes on to become a leader uniting Elders and Savages. Noble, headstrong, a tad  immature, and a more than a bit silly, Steven deserves more love y'all.

Steven is arguably the Companion to the First Doctor who goes through the most--and he changes the most because of that experience! Our first companion to a "hero" Doctor, he is the first to be the "right-hand man" and friend to the Doctor, the first companion to embody the role we generally see companions play going forward.

NOTE for Clarity: I mention that Steven struggles with empathy...I think a better way of putting this would be he intellectually struggles with "perspective-taking." He deeply cares about people and has great sympathy for their suffering, but he struggles to understand when others see the world differently from him (which leads to him sometimes being a bit pig-headed/stubborn). I think the First Doctor actually has almost the opposite problem wherein he struggles to emotionally feel/connect to others but learns (mostly from Ian/Barbara) to understand multiple perspectives and ways of seeing the world.  In the most simplistic terms: Steven is all HEART, and the Doctor is all HEAD.


Upcoming:

Serial #26: The War Machines
4 episodes that all exist!!!
The Doctor and Dodo arrive in "present day" London where scientists have been experimenting with a computer that can think for itself....
Monday, December 12th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

In the far distant future there exists an almost perfect civilization with wealth, knowledge, and great scientific advancements. They have tracked the Doctor's progress through time and space and eagerly await his predicted arrival.... but how have they achieved such greatness? And who are the Savages who lurk beyond the City walls?

AKA Doctor Who does another allegory on why capitalism is bad. 

_____

JANO: How can you condemn this great artistic and scientific civilization because of a few wretched barbarians?
_____________________________________________________

DOCTOR: Indeed I am going to oppose you, just in the same way that I oppose the Daleks or any other menace to common humanity.
JANO: I am sorry you take this attitude, Doctor. It is most unscientific. You are standing in the way of human progress.
DOCTOR: Human progress, sir? How dare you call your treatment of these people progress!
JANO: They are hardly people, Doctor. They are not like us.
DOCTOR: I fail to see the difference.
JANO: Do you not realise that all progress is based on exploitation?
DOCTOR: Exploitation indeed! This, sir, is protracted murder!
JANO: We have achieved a very great deal merely by the sacrifice of a few savages.
DOCTOR: The sacrifice of even one soul is far too great! You must put an end to this inhuman practice.

___________
JANO: You will find what I going to say very difficult to understand. All the Elders of our city are here, and so is the source of our supremacy on this planet. No man easily gives up the means which give him power.
SENTA: I don't understand you, Jano.
JANO: That is what I am asking you to do. I want you to destroy all this.
SENTA: What? The laboratory? The generators?
JANO: All the machinery which we have used to destroy our fellows.
SENTA: They are not our fellows, Jano. They are the savages. They are not capable of development like us.
JANO: How do you know?

___________________________________________

DOCTOR: Just think of the challenge to be able to set up the people of this planet for a new life. You're quite ready for this task.
STEVEN: You think I can do it?
DOCTOR: Yes, I do. And you're the only man who can, my boy.



Upcoming:

Celebrating Companions: Steven Taylor
Taking a moment to celebrate one of Classic Who's most underrated gems: Steven Taylor!  The man who escaped a Mechanoid City and nearly died for a teddy bear who goes on to become a leader uniting Elders and Savages. Noble, headstrong, a tad  immature, and a more than a bit silly, Steven deserves more love y'all. 
Monday, December 5th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

The Doctor, Steven, and Dodo end up in Tombstone, Arizona....right before the shootout at the O.K. Corral. AKA Doctor Who does a Western!

Yes, it is as fabulous as you think it will be.  One of the funniest episodes of the era. Just beware of the song...it will remain in your head for the rest of your life. 

_________________

DOCTOR: Oh, my dear Dodo, my dear Dodo. You know you're fast becoming a prey to every cliché-ridden convention in the American West. And it's high time we left. Now, come along.
STEVEN: Thank goodness for that.
____________________



Upcoming:

Serial #26: The Savages
This is the first Classic Who story without individual episode titles! There are 4 episodes; all of them are missing. 
Monday, November 28th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

Finally, we reach the end!

This is my the third and final episode examining my thoughts on Jodi Whittaker's Regeneration Special "The Power of the Doctor." In this final part, I am focusing in on our Thirteenth Doctor and her companions. In short, I think they deserved better. Still, there are some great moments.

Enjoy!

NOTE: All three parts of this review were recorded the day after watching "The Power of the Doctor" in pretty much one take (I know!). But the last ten minutes of this episode I felt the need to return, briefly, to the review. Given some time and space, I needed to defend Yaz a bit more. I think she's pretty brilliant in this special. Period. I even buy her and the Doctor together in the isolation of this one episode. Yeah, they do that good a job with these final moments.
A big thank you to Hannah for listening to me as I fully processed this episode! 
For what it's worth, this special ultimately softened me considerably to  the last three seasons and I am (tentatively) excited to see what they do with the 60th anniversary. As is often the case with Doctor Who, it is possible my feelings on this entire era of the show will change drastically given more time and space. I look forward to revisiting it in a few years. 



NEXT TIME:

Serial #25: The Gunfighters
"Holiday for the Doctor," "Don't Shoot the Pianist," "Johnny Ringo," "The O.K. Corral"
Team TARDIS arrives at Tombstone, AZ....right before the Shooting at the O.K. Corral. One of the funniest episodes of the First Doctor's tenure. Go watch it. Beware the earworm of a song.
Monday, November 28th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]

We are back again! Continuing my thoughts on "The Power of the Doctor," Jodi Whittaker's regeneration special and Doctor Who's contribution to the BBC Centennial Celebrations, this time we are focusing on our dear Master, the Master-Cybermen, and the Daleks.

Some great ideas in here even if they are a bit too rushed to be fully explored.

Seriously....the Master as Rasputin. Gold.


NEXT TIME:

New Who Review: The Power of the Doctor, Part III
The finale of this review that is longer than the episode! This one will focus in on the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, and her other companions. I will also touch upon the David Tennant Reveal.
Monday, November 14th

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/ 

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: [email protected]