Season 11- is it any good?

[SiHart]

For years this was considered to be the weakest of all the Pertwee seasons. What with the lack of Jo, the absence of the Master (for sadly obvious reasons) and the gradual move away from UNIT stories, perceived wisdom had it that this wasn't a great season for Pertwee to leave on.

But is that true? What do you think of S11? Does ti stand up against the other Pertwee years?

[Terry Leptil]

I agree that it is the weakest of the Pertwee seasons.

It gets off to a good start with The Time Warrior but then the middle three stories cause it to go weak. However, things do pick up for Planet of the Spiders.

I've heard that Jon Pertwee thought about doing another series but the producers didn't agree with his ideas. Had Katy Manning stayed on for a bit longer, Roger Delgado hadn't died and the producers agreed with his ideas, Jon Pertwee may have done another series.

[Andrew Curnow]

You often see people say that Pertwee isn't giving his all this year, or is going through the motions - I don't see it myself though. Other than the dreadfully weak Monster of Peladon, it's a good series - Invasion of the Dinosaurs being a particular favourite, and neatly doing something slightly different & fresh with UNIT instead of just another soldier story. And Planet of the Spiders, for all its faults, is a fitting end to an era, and one I find hard not to be moved by - when the Doctor reappears right at the end ("I got lost in the vortex," he says, "The TARDIS brought me home") it's just so touching.

So a really good run of stories IMHO - I'd say season 10 is a rather weaker collection actually...

[Dino]

I love three of the stories, Planet Of The Spiders, Death To The Daleks and The Time Warrior. But I'm not just rating it on 3 out of 5. This is quite experimental, not in a visual or special effects way, but in the writing and trying to do new stuff with Pertwee's Doctor. You can certainly see another season of Doctor three. But only another season.
There is no let up in Barry Letts's production skills throughout.
If you excuse the Peladon and Daleks stories, it didn't fall into "one last battle with every monster" type of farewell.
I take it as read we wouldn't have minded seeing a season like that, but that shows how comfortable and enjoyable this season was.

[Rob McCow]

I think it's a great season, but it's up against stiff competition in the Pertwee league. Every Pertwee season apart from his first has it's concrete boot, the bloated six-parter that doesn't quite hit the mark. Monster of Peladon, Planet of The Daleks, The Time Monster and Colony In Space all have their merits, but they can be a slog to get through.

The 'least good' Pertwee season is probably Season 9, where you have both The Mutants and The Time Warrior to slow things up.

I think that Season 11 is pretty awesome, in fact. And Liz Sladen gives it a real boost!

[Antony Cox]

The 'least good' Pertwee season is probably Season 9, where you have both The Mutants and The Time Warrior to slow things up.

Monster...

[Rob McCow]

What's that coming over the hill? Is it a Warrior?

[SiHart]

I think there's only one duff story in this season, Monster of Peladon, otherwise this is a fairly strong set of stories.

I'd controversially choose this season over 8 or definitely 9. Yes at times Pertwee looks tired (look at those big bags under his eyes in Death to the Daleks), but I like the novelty of the season. It feels different to the other Pertwee years and less cozy perhaps. There's a restlessness about it, not quite sure whether to move back to stories in time and space or go back to UNIT stories. When they do the UNIT stories, they don't feel like the earlier ones- Invasion of the Dinosaurs sees UNIT on the backfoot against Gen Finch and Mike's a traitor and Planet of the Spiders they're just down to the Brig, Benton and Pat Gorman and it feels a little sad.
But The Time Warrior has a real verve and makes me sad there weren't any other Pertwee historicals (or indeed psuedo-historicals) as they seem to suit him. Death to the Daleks is better in so many ways than Planet of the Daleks and Monster of Peladon is, well, Monster of Peladon.

So I like it. And it's got a great title sequence!

[Jon Masters]

Saeson 11 will always have a special place for me because its the first full season that I can remember watching at the time. Yes, I have vague memories of Omega and Drashigs and Daleks being pushed into frozen pools and Giant Maggots before that, but season 11 was when I would consciously choose to sit down and watch every story, and remember about them, and start buying Target books etc.

The other big highlight for me was the RT 10th anniversary special that came out in Nov 1973, and in particular the fact you had pictures of the new title sequence, and Lis Sladen, and little outlines of the stories BEFORE season 11 started. I can picture (in my minds eye) the photo of Sarah, hiding behind a castle wall while at the top of the steps behind her is a blurred image of a squat looking figure in shiny space armour.......

[J.R. Southall]

I'm with you Jon. It's the first series I can really clearly remember all the way through, and I still absolutely love those stories even now. I think that, although there's obviously a sense on the one hand on them going over the same ground as they've trod before (and possibly something of a "Greatest Hits", with even dinosaurs/giant reptiles having previously appeared in several Pertwee stories, only to get a valedictory "proper" outing here; likewise substitute spiders for maggots and bob's your uncle), there's also a sense of them pushing those boundaries back a bit further as they do so.

The Time Warrior is the most joyous and fun opening story since Terror of the Autons, Invasion of the Dinosaurs takes the UNIT set-up and realigns it completely, Death to the Daleks is a "standard" Dalek story made shit-scary (at least for an eight-year-old, that is!), The Monster of Peladon is like Curse but on a grand scale, and Planet of the Spiders is like a giant two-fingered salute (in both senses) to the whole of the previous five years.

It's a brilliant series. You have to have been there at the time (and of the right age, of course) to really appreciate just how brilliant it was.