What Who Are You Currently Watching? - Goes Fourth.

[Leah Betts]

though editing out pre-decimal currency from Enid Blyton is stupid. Kids can figure out old money. Oh and Anne from the Famous Five no longer says boys cannot wear pretty dresses or like girl's dolls.

[Stuart Wallis]

Some things are common sense; Charles Dickens refers to Fagin as "the Jew" in A Certain Book more times than he calls him by his name, and even he ended up embarrassed by it over time. Whereas... well there was a kids' sketch show over here a few years ago which included a brother and sister double act, whose showbiz careers were followed in a mockumentary style. In one programme, they were interviewed waiting in a queue for an audition for a stage version of The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe.

INTERVIEWER "And which part are you going for?"

BROTHER "The wardrobe."

SISTER "It's a small part, but it's a significant part!"

BROTHER "This could be the part that launches us!" (picks up bits from a wardrobe)

(after audition)

INTERVIEWER "How did it go?"

BROTHER "Not too well I'm afraid - they wanted a real wardrobe. It's political correctness gone mad!"

Make of that what you will...

[Leah Betts]

I was watching Logopolis and I have to shake my head at the make-up artist. Sarah Sutton really suffers as a result. You're supposed to be breaking for Nyssa during the "he killed my step-mother and then my father..." speech but the viewer is distracted by how much lipstick and eyeshadow and blush that she is wearing.

[Stuart Wallis]

I now have this disturbing vision of Coco the Clown reciting "To be or not to be..."

[Leah Betts]

Miss Jackson in The Hand of Fear suffers the same "way too much makeup on" problem.

[SiHart]

It was the fashion at the time.

[Stuart Wallis]

Enemy Of The World over the weekend, for perhaps obvious reasons (although Deborah doesn't get much to do, except in episode 3, and isn't in episode 4 at all). Great story though.

[SiHart]

We watched Tomb. It was good

[Stuart Wallis]

Shame there's not much more of a choice under the circumstances...

[Leah Betts]

I very firmly believe that Time Monster has a bad reputation with fanboys because it’s full of women, and Time herself is a woman.


And also it’s pretty silly, but, I mean, it’s Doctor Who, that’s a feature not a bug.

[Stuart Wallis]

Or maybe because, even by Doctor Who standards, it's pretty silly...

[Dirk Gently]

The last Doctor Who I got to watch (aside from the lastest series) was Day of the Doctor in 3D. I still really like this & the ending still gets to me.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

This week, Ken and I finally reached the end of the black and white era with The War Games - it probably says a lot about how much we've struggled with the Troughton era in particular (especially since we concluded that Ken wasn't enjoying watching reconstructed serials so I ended up watching/listening to most of those alone) that he gave up part way through the first episode so I watched up to the end of episode 8 that evening and then put the last two parts on whilst we were having dinner the following evening (I thought we both ought to see the ending as it does rather cue up the next three years of earth-bound serials). I'm hoping that now that the era of missing stories is behind us and we're now in colour we'll get back to enjoying our weekly Who watch together but time will tell, especially with three 7-part serials coming up in the near future.
As for The War Games itself, I actually found it quite well-paced. I'd expected it to drag more around the middle episodes but compared to many of the previous serials from the same era it actually stands up as one of the better ones despite its length.

[Nyder]

Just finished The Chase. Yes I know it's very silly, but I found it more enjoyable than DIOE. And all the regular crew seemed like they were having a blast - especially Ian when he nearly pulled Barbara's trousers off


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[Rob McCow]

Wish I'd decided to watch The Chase.

Instead I watched Time and The Rani. I've enjoyed watching this before, but this time I couldn't get over the dialogue. Every actor in the story doesn't seem to understand the lines they've been given to say, so they garble them out with lots of energy and hope it works. Except for Donald Pickering who serenely wanders through the whole affair.

McCoy is great though. He's really going for it. There's a lot of verve to the story and the effects are generally great. I just had to get past the pain of every single line...

[Stuart Wallis]

Never mind all that, I was in bonkers mood too and watched the first two episodes of The Keys Of Marinus. Oh! these dullards in the City of Morphoton, the Cybermen are welcome to them. Heron Carvic as the voice of the brains gives by far the best performance so far, other than the regulars. That said, it's not til The Aztecs that Billy starts getting into his stride as the Doctor; here, he's still closer to his performance in An Unearthly Child, but the signs are there.

[SiHart]

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. It stands up really well, beautifully atmospheric and perhaps one of Sylvester's best performances. He has loads of great moments

[Stuart Wallis]

Keys of Marinus episodes 3 and 4. Slow, even for a Hartnell story, despite which, Billy wasn't missed. Ian and Barbara certainly keep ep. 3 together.

[Paul Clement]

I've always had a soft spot for Keys of Marinus. Possibly because the novelisation made it feel like an epic story and although the real thing doesn't measure up, you can still see what could have been. It may also be just because Marinus is also my oldest brothers name which once confused him when I said I was watching The Keys of Marinus and he started patting his pockets.

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[Rob McCow]

It may also be just because Marinus is also my oldest brothers name which once confused him when I said I was watching The Keys of Marinus and he started patting his pockets.

Seriously?! I think this tale is apocryphal...

If William Russell and Jacqueline Hill had stayed on the show, they could have carried it on their own. Write out William Hartnell and have Barbara and Ian flying the TARDIS!

[Paul Clement]

Seriously?! I think this tale is apocryphal...

If William Russell and Jacqueline Hill had stayed on the show, they could have carried it on their own. Write out William Hartnell and have Barbara and Ian flying the TARDIS!

Alas, it is true. My parents were Dutch. By the time I was born, they were picking anglicised names for their kids (hence the Paul) , but the oldest two boys are Marinus and Johan. My dad's names were Johannus Marinus.

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[Stuart Wallis]

I've been led to believe that the literal translation for San Marino is Saint Marinus.

[Rob McCow]

Simon wanted to watch a Sylvester McCoy story last night, so I chose The Five Doctors. That'll show him!

Brilliant as ever. It's one of the funnest Doctor Who stories of all time, I don't know why it doesn't chart more highly in the polls.

I have a new theory - When the 2nd Doctor meets Jamie and Zoe, they're not phantoms projected by Rassilon at all, but the real Jamie and Zoe. The Time Lords locked them in the tower instead of wiping their memories. Of course, that means that the Doctor kills them by stepping into the forcefield. Hey ho. Poor Jamie and Zoe!

Everyone is having a whale of a time, but none more so than Jon Pertwee. With his big cape and hair he is absolutely in his element. They should have brought him back again before the series ended!

Terrance does a fantastic job of balancing all the elements, but we could have done with a few different monsters. There must have been a few more costumes lying around from Season 19/20 surely? Maybe the Master could have led the Terileptils across the Chessboard of Doom.

[Stuart Wallis]

Finally got round to finishing Keys Of Marinus. The trial section is by far the best of the story, even if there's the occasional cliché, such as the "It's" character - the one who's shot just as he's about to tell us who his co-conspirators are. "It's - ZAPP! - Arghhh!" Well done Ian for working out that Yartek has started impersonating Arbitan - a brilliant spotting of the bleeding obvious there!

And after watching the one main extra to speak of, Ray Cusick wasn't a fan of the story, was he?

[Rob McCow]

Ray Cusick has the bitterest memories of Keys of Marinus. Not a fan!

I feel ready to watch this story again. The novelisation made it seem pretty exciting. Sure it's cheesy but there are definitely some good bits - mainly Ian and Barbara getting an episode to themselves.