What Who are You Currently Watching This Time?

[Mr BHT]

I found the end of Planet of Spiders cusriously moving tonight. Perhaps more so than I ever have done before. I'm not entirely sure why, but there was just something about it that i found quite touching and sad. Maybe it's been reading About Time that's done it and my new found appreciation of the Pertwee era themes.

Si xx

When I last watched Planet of the Spiders it was during a Who marathon - all the stories I owned in order. One of the things that stood out to me about this story, particularly after all the other Pertwee adventures is just how downbeat Jon Pertwee seems to be throughout it. I wonder if he was having second thoughts about giving up the role at the time. His heart really seems to be on his sleeve. After five years it must have been a tough decision to make.

[SiHart]

It's entirely possible. I suppose the role was really the making of him as a huge, iconinc star and that's got to be a big thing for anyone to give up. In fact you can probably argue that he never really gave it up at all.

Si xx

[Antony Cox]

For all it's faults, it's an enjoyable story and is certainly rather poignant towards the end.

[SiHart]

It certainly has a few faults, but its hearts are in the right place. In fact I probably haven't enjoyed it so much since I first had the book read to me when I was little.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

I can remember when I first got the video not really expecting all that much of it, but I found it so engrossing I watched the whole story in a day. It has its faults, but at the same time it is the perfect summary of the Pertwee years that it's a very well-judged finale. I can certainly see why the Pertwee fans amongst us, who were there at the time when it went out in 1974, hold it in such high regard.

[Ralph]

I found the end of Planet of Spiders cusriously moving tonight. Perhaps more so than I ever have done before. I'm not entirely sure why, but there was just something about it that i found quite touching and sad. Maybe it's been reading About Time that's done it and my new found appreciation of the Pertwee era themes.

Si xx

Yay!

I've only watched this once since transmission back in 2004 and I was amazed at how emotional it made me feel - it took me right back to being an upset 11 year old seeing the passing of a favourite childhood icon

Lovely to see you were touched by it Si

[Simon R]

We've finished "The Invasion" and very good it was too. The animated episodes make us ache and thirst for further such projects.

I've never noticed Isobel's lipstick dress before.

[Antony Cox]

Watched Inferno yesterday.

It's a really great story, powerful in the way it cranks up the tension gradually as it progresses. And I really, really don't think it ever lags or suffers from padding through it's seven epsiodes - truly one of the best DW stories ever.

[Si Hunt]

"The Seeds of Death" Episode 1.

A strange episode - it's only 22 minutes long and the regulars are in about four of those. But I love the relationship between Radnor and Eldred - it's clear from the off that it's long and bitter. I particuarly like the way Eldred asks him "Have you been spying on me?!" and Radnor replies "No, of course not!" before adding "We stopped doing that a long time ago"! Hilarious!

And the COMPUTER at T-Mat control says "Things okay this end"!

Si.

[SiHart]

We're watching The Giant Robot. Episode One is one of the most fun ever. Honestly everything Tom does is a reaction against Jon Pertwee and it's ever so funny- he was on cracking from right from the start.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

We've finished "Seeds of Death" and it's lovely and shiny, but the plot is absolute bobbins! One cliffhanger is the Doctor being teleported into space. In the next episode, he turns up on a bed and no-one ever explains it!!

Later on, we find out that the Martians oh-so-cunning plan is to distribute a fungus, which is destroyed by water! Did they not think that because the world is mostly made up of water, this might be a bit of a flaw? And the pods are sent all over the world, but the Doctor makes it rain by twiddling some wires in the weather control beaureu in Britain. So does Britain control the weather for the entire planet Earth? And Miss Kelly is the only person who knows how to work T-Mat, so considering that cars are obselete (therefore everyone in the world must use T-Mat to get to work and the shops) is she the only person in the whole world? (or they could T-Mat another expert in, no?) In which case, hadn't someone better get her to write something down before she falls down a hole or dies of swine flu and the entire planet realises it's dependent on a travel mechanism that only a cold, dead woman knows how to fix?

Si.

[Logo Polish]

We've finished "Seeds of Death" and it's lovely and shiny, but the plot is absolute bobbins! One cliffhanger is the Doctor being teleported into space. In the next episode, he turns up on a bed and no-one ever explains it!!

That's because Jamie and Phipps rescue him just before he gets transported, by breaking through the hatch at the back of the capsule. They're seen doing the first stage of that, it's just that they're not actually shown dragging the Doctor out. The dialogue says that they take him back through the tunnels to the room where he's later lying on the bed.

[Si Hunt]

Hang on though, don't you actually see him vanish? I'm 99% sure.

Si.

[Logo Polish]

No, it's quite a while since I last watched it, but from memory the camera zooms slowly in on him propped up inside the capsule while intercutting backwards and forwards between it with Slaar ordering Fewsham to operate the control, and Fewsham trying to plead for him not to make him do it. He finally does it, it cuts to a shot of the empty capsule, Fewsham wails "You've killed him, you've killed him!" and then it cuts to Jamie and Fewsham in the inner workings talking about how they're going to get the still unconscious Doctor back to their hideaway.

[shada pavlova]

Today I watched episodes 2 & 3 of Doctor Who in "Kelner's Got a Brand New Monocle".

[Jonno]

I've watched the first 7 episodes of The War Games this weekend. The last of those was the last episode to be broadcast before I was born. The next episode I watch (8) was broadcast the day after I was born!

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, you're rattling through those Jonno - I've only watched episodes one & two so far!!

[Jonno]

Yes, I've surprised myself really! It probably helps that a) I've not seen it for around a decade and it feels like a new story - I've only seen it a handful of times since 1990 and b) there's not been much else on telly! I did 3 eps last night, 2 this morning and another 2 tonight. I won't finish it before Torchwood starts though...

4 hours of The War Games and 5 hours of Torchwood in the space of a week - phew!

[Si Hunt]

We've done five episodes.

My feelings at this time are that the first three or so episodes are superb - the WW1 stuff is like a 1930's film, the location filming is rich and plentiful, and the villains are sinister and nasty.

Alas, a lot of Parts 4 and 5 do descend into the often-criticised running around with people shooting. When the alien's base arrives, it's inventively designed (although the silly glasses are a touch too much) and the SIDRAT's must have been fairly amazing at the time, as is the moment when the Doctor first meets the War Chief. But it's starting to feel a bit overloaded with villains - we've now had Smyth, the evil German Villain, the thin bloke with the conditioning machine, the War Chief, and now James Bree's extraordinary Security Chief. And this is before Philip Madoc has arrived. It's a touch overcrowded.

Despite this, the story remains engaging and each episode pushes it along just enough to keep you interested. Troughton is a delight throughout, especially his tricking of various people, so everyone just about gets away with this lively, expensive but occasionally circular are-we-at-the-end-of-the-season-yet athon.

Si.

[SiHart]

I like the way that we're overloaded with villains and that the more we peel back and find out what's going on, we fiond out that people we think are behind it all aren't the ones holding control... the further back we go, the more powerful the villains become and the more deadly the stakes.

Si xx

[SiHart]

I've been watching The Stolen Earth. I still think this is one of the most exciting episodes of the show ever!

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

I genuinely give that Episode a 10/10! Of course you had to rank it in DWM with the following one, so the score went down a bit. I think "The Stolen Earth" alone is brilliant though.

I'm currently enjoying "The Space Pirates"! I am!

We've done two episodes tonight, and it has to be said that the recon is brilliant - they've really got good at them now. The camera angles are aligned to how they would be in the real episodes, so it cuts from shot to shot, and even the static images have clever flickering lights and moving radars to keep them animated.

The story itself is rather good, considering it's reputation, and I'm genuinely intrigued as to who's behind it all. Is Clancy just a harmless old man, or something more sinister? Is the little smile Madeline Issigri gives at the end of Episode 2 significant?

One thing though - Hermack calls Madeline and her big metal hair "attractive". Is he blind?! She's like a man in drag!

Si.

[Andrew Curnow]

Be fair though, he's about 120 and he's stuck on a ship with geeky looking blokes sporting odd accents and even odder moustaches. Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if he starts chatting up Jamie by episode five!!

[Tom Simpson]

"The War Games" Episode Ten later on today, and I'm gonna order Rescue/Romans and The Aztecs later (the disc has been broken for years now, I've just never had a chance to replace it) cos I need a "New" who fix, from stories I haven't seen in a while/never! =]

[Andrew Curnow]

I watched New Earth this morning, for the first time in three-and-a-bit years, and, I have to admit, well.... it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. Maybe I'm just softening in my old age, but I, erm, must admit that, um, I actually, well, quite enjoyed it.

To be fair, I think it's more to do with knowing what to expect, so there's no chance for disappointment. I still think it's the weakest RTD season opener, but it's not all that bad. I know why I dislike(d) it, namely the sense of 'same old same old' instead of something new (we have re-used music, re-used Boe, re-used Cassandra, re-used Spiders, re-used 'Everybody Lives!' ending, even re-used locations already); but equally there's some entertaining stuff in there too.

And, which I hadn't really picked up on before, there's some similiarity between Rose's comments to Cassandra about staying the same & not changing, and Jackie's comments to Rose later in the run in Army of Ghosts, so maybe there's some crafty thematic stuff going on there which I never gave credit for before.

Above all, despite 2006's opinion, I don't think Tennant's bad in this one at all, and Billie is certainly very fit throughout which doesn't hurt.

>Sigh< It's Andro-bloody-zani all over again isn't it...