vivdunstan

Another rewatch for us, 20 years on. And this two parter is still superb.

It's a fresh twist on a base under siege story, with big ideas, a superb guest cast (especially Claire Rushbrook and Danny Webb), and an innovative new monster/creature in the Ood. As an agnostic I find some of the religious angles harder to relate to, but it still works on many levels, and is so ambitious. And the music at times is breathtaking.

If it was in any other year it would be a contender for the best story of the season. But this is such a strong year with some stellar stories. But it's really, really good.

And I've just remembered there's a new Target novelisation that I still have to read. That will be fun. It's novelised by the original scriptwriter Matt Jones. Who, sadly, we didn't get any more Doctor Who TV stories from. Though he did write a Torchwood episode. As well as some other Wilderness Years books and short stories.

We're rewatching (or for Martin for many stories first time watching) the Peter Davison era of Doctor Who. Starting up with Castrovalva, which we watched last Sunday night and tonight, fitting in a couple of episodes at a time. We are watching on the remastered Blu-ray release, albeit opting for the original special effects.

I remembered enjoying this on original TV watch, and a couple of decades later. But this time I found it really dragged in the opening two episodes. Way too much wandering around the TARDIS, and Tegan and Nyssa repeatedly climbing up rocks. I've never worn high heels, but I felt huge sympathy for both actresses re the climbing, especially Janet Fielding. I don't blame the director so much for the poor pacing, I just don't think there was enough content in the written scripts for these episodes to make sufficiently satisfying episodes.

Things pick up once they reach the city, and there are some fantastic ideas in here. I've long loved Escher's art. But even here there are too many not fully shown scenes, e.g. Shardovan swings into the web, then there's a cut, then we see an aftermath (again note I'm watching the original SFX).

I wasn't sad to see Adric sidelined. And his “wardrobe malfunction” was, erm, far too noticeable ...

Things get so much better when the Doctor takes a more active part, though I suppose that’s the intention.

Watching the the making of documentary (nearly 40 minutes long!), which is steered by Mark Strickson (Turlough), for much of his life a television producer, I was amused that Mark is refreshingly frank on how boring he found watching the opening two episodes! Also in the "making of" documentary I was frustrated that the BBC clearly didn’t get permission to show the relevant inspiring Escher art prints on screen, so they could only be talked about instead.

We plan to watch a couple more of the mini documentaries included in the Blu-ray's bonus special features - the one with Tom Baker discussing the large TARDIS crew back then, and also Peter Davison explaining how he tackled his new Doctor. But we'll fit those in sometime over the coming week, ready to swap discs and carry on to the next story next Sunday.

Another two parter in this series, and it's a two-part sequel to 2013's "The Day of the Doctor". Going to discuss my thoughts with significant spoilers.

( spoilers )

... the final part of my favourite Doctor Who story first aired on TV. "The Empty Child" / "The Doctor Dances" immediately overtook "City of Death" as my top Doctor Who story, a position that had held since I first saw it as a youngster in 1979.

Just realised that I didn't blog about rewatching this the other week, 20 years after original broadcast. I haven't got much to say, except that I think it's one of the very best episodes ever, and it totally holds up on rewatch. It was my late Dad's favourite Doctor Who story, and he'd been watching since 1978. It's a little self knowing in places, but that's very Steven Moffat. But it's so very good. And I think it would be a good introductory episode for a new watcher, to see if they might like the programme.

Having finished rewatching the BBC 1988-1990 Narnia TV series we are now happily starting to watch the extended making of documentary covering the full thing. Just learned about the beaver actors constantly falling over in the Scottish snow, and having to be rescued by dedicated “beaver retrievers”.

We watched this last week, another 20-years-on anniversary rewatch. I remembered really liking this story on first watch, with some provisos. And it's still great.

Tightly written, full of content. There's an original Scottish setting, and it was nice to see David Tennant's Doctor use a Scottish accent, and be incorporated into the plot.

Rose is very resourceful and brave, leading the prisoners' defence. But at the same time she is phenomenally irritating re the repeated "We are not amused!", and her Princess Anne jibe was incredibly misjudged by RTD. And I say that as a non royalist.

The episode is full of exciting action scenes, from the opening monk acrobatic hijinks, through to the werewolf transformation, and the final climax.

A strong guest cast, mostly Scottish, helps immensely. Pauline Collins - a Classic Who returnee to Doctor Who - is a memorable Queen Victoria.

Much running along corridors, and more stairs. But effectively done, and not annoyingly repetitive.

Some nice uses of history, and as a book historian I especially liked the woodcut showing something relevant from James V's era. Unlike Jonathan Creek's "Satan's Chimney" episode with Mary Tamm, this story at least got the correct Scottish monarch!

And nods to the future, re both Torchwood and Bad Wolf.

Great stuff, albeit still with a few quibbles. And, yes, incredibly tightly written, which again RTD2 and also Capaldi-era Moffat could take lessons from.

Oh and the early 2000s special effects seemed to hold up well for me watching two decades on.

Continuing our weekly rewatch of 1990 BBC Narnia TV series “The Silver Chair”, and wryly amused at episode 4’s quasi reunion of Blackadder’s Nursie and Captain Rum. “Potato” is my all time favourite episode of Blackadder.

I'm just starting a rewatch of New Who series 9, with "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar". And while I'm enjoying it, I'm finding the so very Steven Moffat storytelling exhausting. Admittedly I'm especially tired at the moment, including cognitively, as I recover from my latest neurological illness flare. But the constant jumping around from time and place to somewhere else combined with the big set pieces in between feels way too much for me at the moment. I'd really like a more simple story structure with a more straightforward beginning, middle and end!

To be fair I've seen and enjoyed this era of Doctor Who before, on original broadcast. And I'm very familiar with this style of storytelling, from especially New Who series 5 onwards, as well as some isolated examples before then. It's what we get, for example, in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang", and so many many more Steven Moffat penned stories. But sometimes it's just too much for my taste. And tonight is definitely one of those times.

Harking back to slightly simpler times in Doctor Who history, we're planning to soon rewatch all the Fifth Doctor TV stories in sequence, now that we have all of his season Blu-ray boxes. I saw them all many years ago, and a few again more recently. Martin's only seen a few of the stories. So that will be fun, and hopefully a little more palatable for me when fatigued. That's not to say that they're simplistic, but there should be a certain lack of convolution generally. Which I think I will appreciate. Though we still have to finish watching the final BBC Narnia TV series first.

Just got to Tom Baker appearing in our rewatch of “The Silver Chair” Narnia series from the BBC in 1990. And I’m constantly laughing at everything he says as Puddleglum. Brilliant character, perfectly cast.