Ultimate Doctor Who: Season 9

[SiHart]

We're deep into the Pertwee years now, and there's a shift away from UNIT stories with more adventures in time and space.

The Daleks are back, The Ice Warriors are back, the Sea Devils arrive and there's two Master stories. But which one do you like best?

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't expect it to win, and actually I like most of the stories in this season so won't mind, but I'm plumping for a real favourite, namely The Mutants. I know it gets a bad rep, and it's visuals are maybe a bit hit and miss... but I just love it. Jon & Jo are sparkling together, which is always good, but I especially like the way that Bob 'n' Dave have chucked so much in there - so we get the mystery of the box, then the mystery of the mutations, not to mention the mysterious glowing cave, and the mysterious figure in the mysterious cave, and... Well, you get the idea. Plus I always laugh at Jo & the Doctor's discussion about the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire!

[Wayne]

My least favourite Pertwee season.

Got to be Day of the Daleks for me.

[Terry Leptil]

No doubt about it. It has to be The Sea Devils, a really fun adveture from the Pertwee era and one of the best.

[Paul Clement]

A very poor season for me. Day of the Daleks gets my vote as the only story I genuinely enjoy.

[Rob McCow]

Which one do I like best? Why, that'll be the funny, sunny, simply sublime Day of The Daleks. Possibly still my all time favourite Doctor Who story!

[Stuart Wallis]

Day Of The Daleks. Probably my favourite Pertwee.

[Dirk Gently]

Day of the Daleks just ahead of Sea Devils. Not an inspiring season.

[MacNimon]

Day Of The Daleks just barely beats The Sea Devils for me.

[Rob McCow]

The Time Monster really scuttles this season, doesn't it? Day, Curse and Sea Devils are all pretty good. The Mutants is decent enough, with some fairly good new monsters. If it had all ended with a proper classic, this would seem like a much stronger group of stories!

The video quality of the episodes also leaves a lot to be desired. Despite the brave efforts of the Restoration Team, Curse of Peladon, The Mutants and The Time Monster suffer horribly from looking so washed out. I think people would like these stories better if they weren't so drab on screen.

[brandynigma]

Day of the-

Oh, that's already pretty popular. Yay!

[Jonno]

Definitely Day in an otherwise pretty poor season - a fair comment from Steve about the picture quality of most of the season, however equally you can't polish (that word again!) a turd and that's pretty much how I feel about the last two in the season. And I do think Sea Devils is very over-rated. I do like Curse but Day is a great story and - a rarity in the original run - a clever use of time itself.

[SiHart]

I like Curse of Peladon best this year. I suspect this all stems from loving in 1982 when it was repeated for the Doctor Who and the Monsters season of repeats. I love the Pertwee/ Jo dynamic in this story, her posing as princess, him as Chairman Delegate from Earth.

[Jonno]

Ah yes, the unheralded repeat that most of us only knew about on the day of transmission in that day's newspapers' TV section!

[SiHart]

I remember my Dad getting home from work and telling me all about it. It was very exciting!

[Andrew Curnow]

I was beginning to think my memory was cheating on that, so I'm pleased to hear that you both remember 'Doctor Who and the Monsters' arriving unannounced like that. My recollection is reading 'Doctor Who and the Monsters: The Ice Warriors' in the newspaper TV listing in the morning - and I then nipped into the newsagents on the way to school to peek inside the Radio Times to find out which story it was!!

I didn't realise season 9 was so unpopular. I really enjoy Day & Curse, both of which are pretty darned good; and I also really enjoy The Mutants (obviously) and Time Monster, even though I realise that neither is objectively all that good. Only the slightly ploddy Sea Devils lets it down for me, and even that is livened up no end by Delgado!

[Dave Tudor]

Once again, it's the series opener which wins out for me, partly for the VHS nostalgia factor, but also because it's an excellent story all round. The Sea Devils comes pretty close, and I've got a lot of affection for The Curse of Peladon, but it's Day's day today.

[Jonno]

Of course, soon we won't be able to just refer to it as "Day" out of context!

[Dave Tudor]

True, but I suppose, strictly speaking, we can't really do so now i.e. Day of the Moon...

[Jonno]

Ooh, I'd never thought of that - either because it's the second part or because it wasn't a particular favourite of mine and soon forgotten!

[Dave Tudor]

And of course there are also the episodes Day of Darkness, Day of Armageddon and Father's Day!!

[SiHart]

Days I remember all my life...