"You look Time Lord."

So here we go with the last two stories of the first season; one space adventure and one forage into the past! I'm still struck with both the surprising differences and the equally surprising likeness between the old and modern Doctors.

I should really get myself a first doctor icon.



Obviously the first thing that struck me was Sense Sphere -> Ood Sphere -> same system? Apparently they are! It made me all giddy inside, haha.

It's a good thing these early parts are black and white, and also not in stunning quality; it's much easier to suspend your disbelief when you can't see the the details of the very low-budget effects.

That said, I really liked the story - exciting and suspenseful, and with a little hint of Gallifrey thrown in! Apparently it's the first time that burnt orange sky and silver-leaved trees are mentioned, too. This is on of the better episodes for Susan (who is the one to talk of Gallifrey); she isn't screaming in fear, for once. In fact, the telepathy twist is very interesting; I know the Doctor has a bit of it later on (though it only seems to work by touch, I think?), but Susan seems to have a stronger gift for it.

Barbara is just expanding on her brilliance; damn, but she's awesome! The others just faffs about, more or less, and while they do get things done (though often by accident!) Barbara is calm, collected, and brings order to chaos, most of the time. Go Barbara!

It was fun to see future humans for the first time, too; they'd even included a woman pilot! I didn't miss that her fiancé said that they thought about giving up piloting and settle down, either; that he talked about them as having equal standing in the matter must have been a bit provoking at the time, if anyone noticed.

The different ideals of the time when this was made shows quite clearly, though; the main point seems to be to trust your elders (Susan's little rebellion is resolved happily when she starts to obey her grandfather again, and it's the Sensorites that fail to obey the First Elder who are the crooks). Today, the story would probably have kept the part about not trusting blindly, but portrayed the questioning of authority a good thing instead (to which I agree; respecting experience can easily be done without relinquishing independent thought.




Ah, yes, the French revolution. *shudders* truly one of the worst in history (though, there are quite a lot of horrible revolutions and other catastrophes in history). So typical of the Doctor to end up there, and Ian and Barbara are already making fun of his navigation skills, ha!

It doesn't take long for things to get pear-shaped of course, and soon they're on their way to the Guillotine. Naturally.

But oh, the first Doctor sure was a lively fellow! And he didn't shy away from hitting bullies over their heads with spades, heh. It was very carefully made clear that he was still alive though - it's the first time I've heard an unconscious person snore!

Meanwhile, the rest are in prison, fighting rats (in the case of Barbara and Susan) and having intimate moments with dying counter-revolutionaries (in the case of Ian). The prison-guard is such a horrible cliché; I don't know whether I should laugh or cry...

Ooh, nice calves, Ian! Just flash a bit of leg, and all the counter-revolutionary secrets are yours, I'm sure.

Hm, Susan, are you a human or a rag doll? Not exactly cut out for the wild and dangerous life of time-travelling, I think. She's lucky Barbara is there to take care of her. Barbara the femme fatale, haha. Barely rescued, and already being coveted by two of her new acquaintances!

The Doctor, has, of course managed to get himself into even more trouble, impersonating an official in his attempt to save his friends who were long gone from the prison by then!

Huh. Apparently part of this was lost at some point, and I will have to be satisfied with stills and sound. Nothing much happens though - they're all trapped again, mostly. Really, the old stories sometimes did have a lot of padding. This story could probably have easily been cut into an hour-long episode.

Oh, good, the ending is moving pictures again.

Heh, again Barbara cuts through the indecision and sets the course. Which, of course, leads to Napoleon Bonaparte; it is the French revolution after all!

Once again the Doctor talks of how impossible it is to change history, which hardly fits with the more recent canon. One can still choose to interpret it as only meaning certain events, I suppose, and the DW canon is hardly consistent in any case.

I noticed that the Doctor lost his ring in this episode, as payment for his (rather gaudy) disguise. He did seem a bit hesitant, but gave it up in the end. If it were special, it must have been replaceable in some way. Perhaps it was only a potentially important thing? Something he could have used for storing power, consciousness, or otherwise in?



Er, I sort of tagged the post, is that all right? If not, just let me know.

Oh, and this is more or less cross posted to my own dreamwidth, though there's a bit of additional (non-Who) rambling in that post.

Edited to fix cut tag.
Edit number two: Apparently members can't actually tag posts, so nevermind that. But some tags would be nice...