Magic Moments

[SiHart]

Inferno:

I love the cliffhanger to part 4 with the countdown to Penetration Zero, with the Doctor roaring over the drills and Stahlman wanting him shot...it's unbelievably tense and excellently played by all concerned.

Si xx

[Jason Thompson]

'Listen to that! It's the sound of this planet screaming out its rage!'

I agree wholeheartedly with that one. It's one of my top ten cliffhangers.

[SiHart]

Pertwee was never, ever better than in that moment if you ask me.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

I'd probably agree with that Si. Certainly not in dramatic terms anyway.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Terror of the Autons:

"You've ruined it you ham-fisted bun vendor"

next...

[SiHart]

Mind of Evil

The Master's Keller Machine induced nightmare of a giant Jon Pertwee looking down on and laughing is a magic moment for me. It's a nightmare vision we can all be scared of! But it really does cement the relationship between the two characters.

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

The Claws Of Axos

"Cantchastoppit?"

Bizzarely my dad (who can't stand Dr Who) caught that moment of the story on UKGold once and was doing impressions of Bill Filer for weeks...

Seriously, I'd nominate that cliffhanger - the music, the tension, the reactions, the crap monster... very Who.

[Stuart Wallis]

Colony In Space

Perversely, the scenes with the Guardian. Odd sense of humour, me...

And also the frisson between the Doctor and the Master when the former knows the "Adjudicator"'s secret, but can't convince anyone else.

[Stephen Morgan]

Frank Bellamy's artwork for the Radio Times of April 1971 has to be amongst the best illustrations ever for a Doctor Who story. The feature made me anticipate Colony in Space very much, and I wasn't disappointed. I know it gets bad press but even after all these years I still love it.

[Jason Thompson]

I'm quite fond of Colony In Space myself. I love the scene where the Master reveals his plan and offers the Doctor control of half the Universe, saying he could rule benevolently, and for a brief second the Doctor seems tempted. It's a nice character moment.

[Andrew Curnow]

A bit of a tangent perhaps, but for me one of the best moments in this story isn't in this story at all!!! That is to say, in the Target version (Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, of course) there's a short sequence at the funeral of the dead colonists, where the Doctor 'guides' Ashe to say a few words. It's a touching little scene, showing perhaps a different side to the third Doctor than we usually see on TV.

[Stephen Morgan]

A bit of a tangent perhaps, but for me one of the best moments in this story isn't in this story at all!!! That is to say, in the Target version (Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon, of course) there's a short sequence at the funeral of the dead colonists, where the Doctor 'guides' Ashe to say a few words. It's a touching little scene, showing perhaps a different side to the third Doctor than we usually see on TV.

Thank you Andrew, I was going to cite that very scene in the TARGET myself, but I got caught up in the excitement of the Eurovison Song Contest.

[Jon Masters]

The Daemons
There are lots of little moments that twinkle (and lots of pretty bad overacting, especially on the 'wobbly ground' front), but I love Professor Horner in Ep 1. Every put down is a gem. Such a shame he doesn't make it to Ep 2 .

[Si Hunt]

The Curse of Peladon

You have to mine hard for treasure in this story, so perhaps we should go for the absurd - "First you're threatening to have the Doctor put to death, then you're proposing to me!". Then again, the Doctor landing the TARDIS on the edge of a cliff is a hilariously buffoonish thing to do. Poor Jo, all dolled up for a night out with Mike Yates as well. Where were they going, Duckies?

Si.

[Jon Masters]

Oi ! Don't you diss the Curse !

Perhaps you should have gone for Day of the Daleks first anyway

[Si Hunt]

Day of the Daleks

I like the little scene at Styles house in the evening. The Doctor is having a whale of a time, raiding Styles cellar for wine and scoffing cheese! And namedropping at the same time! "Boney, I said, an army marches on its stomach!"

Oh, and there's the most intense Pertwee moment of all later on...

"Styles didn't start that war and change history... YOU DID IT YOURSELVES!!!!"

Si.

[Jon Masters]

I'm going back to Curse, 'coz I like it.

I love the fact that the Doctor really doesn't trust the Ice Warriors for a large chunk of the start of the story - given how the 3rd Doctor usually makes a point of loving every civilisation he comes across, you can see in JP's acting that he's not prepared to forgive or forget until proved otherwise.

[Andrew Curnow]

Good choices all, but can I just add that my favourite bit of Day is the moment about 10/15 minutes into part 1 where the camera suddenly whips back from the Controller to a Dalek who barks, "Report!" That scene doesn't make it into the restructured Target version, and I'd never heard anything to suggest that the first appearance of the Daleks in the story wasn't the part 1 cliffhanger - so when I first watched the video in 1988, just that brief 'shock' moment was a real bolt out of the blue. Goodness knows how exciting it would have been to a 9 year old in 1972!

Now some poor sod's going to have to produce a nugget out of The Sea Devils. On you go!

[shada pavlova]

Find something good in The Sea Devils?

You have just made me angry. VERY, VERY ANGRY!

[Andrew Curnow]

Or is it The Seadevils?

[Jon Masters]

Now some poor sod's going to have to produce a nugget out of The Sea Devils. On you go!

I'm sure the Pertwee boys will have lots to say, but SD gives one of my favourite Roger Delgado performances as the Master. Every scene is a joy, from his apparent contrition, his smooth way of dealing with Trenchard, his brazen robbery at the Naval base, and his anger at the Sea Devils for their changing sides. And the best of it - he gets away to fight another day under his own steam !

[Si Hunt]

"The Sea Devils" is a great story!

We have the Doctor's BRILLIANT put-downs of Walker - "But you've NOT destroyed them! You have just made them very, very angry!", the classic Episode 1 where the Doctor and Jo are stalked round a clanging, empty sea fort by an unseen Sea Devil (who runs! Monsters that run are scary!). When it finally appears, it's bizarre and strange and menacing, with its eerie electronic howl when it's attacked. Then the lovely little moment where the Doctor rigs up a new gizmo and says "If I may say so that's a remarkably efficient bit of work!" before it goes 'pfffzzzttttt!' in his hand. Then the Sea Devil on the beach, the Doctor trapped between it and a minefield. And the Sea Devils coming out the sea! And the funny bit where the Doctor eats a whole plate of sandwiches leaving poor Jo without any! And the swordfight! Oh yes, it's a lovely little story.

Si.

[shada pavlova]

Geoffrey Palmer is the only good thing in The Mutants.

Pity he's killed off in the first episode.

[Jason Thompson]

Excellent moments all. I love The Sea Devils. Yes, it's a bit of a slog to sit through in one go, but it was never supposed to be seen that way.

It's also one of those stories that has a moment I remember but wasn't actually there, if you know what I mean. It's the scene in Hart's office where Jo is trying to explain about the Sea Devils. In my head the scene went:


JO: They want to take over the Earth.

HART: Really, Miss Grant...

JO: Well, re-take it if you like, and-

DOCTOR: Yes all right, Jo, all right, let me do the talking. (turning to hart) You see, they want to take over the Earth....


I was quite disappointed to find it didn't actually happen that way. I can only think I saw the clip in Resistance Is Useless, which cuts out after the 'let me do the talking', and I made up the last bit because I thought it would have been a typically Doctor Who humour-y thing to do.

[Jason Thompson]

Actually I rather like The Mutants. I would point to the tribunal scenes as magic moments, when the Doctor manages to get the Marshall to admit to his genocidal ideas. Pertwee's grin as the Marshall gives himself away is priceless. And then, minutes later, his impassioned plea to the adjudicators that the Mutt that breaks into the office is a sentient being and gunning it down would be nothing less than murder.