Started 31-Aug
We watched the colour bluray animation on the big screen.
Another departure in style for about the sixth time in eight stories.
This is so serious.....
The colony admin characters are very earnest. Lesterson is a fool clearly but very bound to convention.
The technical details are made up and some are more imaginative than others. The uncorrodable metal key fragments are ok but the add electricity to the Daleks and wake 'em up thing is a bit primitive/dodgy.
The Doctor's Examiners Badge is a barely credible construct. It serves the story but is hardly believable.
Ben and Polly seem to have at least a working knowledge of the Daleks. This verges on a continuity error. It's not explicit but I guess the Doctor's been chatting to them between stories.
This is the fifth Dalek story and the first not written by Terry Nation.
The story manages to achieve something very original and creepy through character inversion. The Daleks act against expectation and so do the colony characters.
Dennis Spooner rewrote (uncredited in 1966 but credit restored for the animated version) David Whitaker's script.
Production dates reveal each episode was shot barely a week before broadcast yet none seem improvised or underproduced.
The Tristram Cary soundtrack is seductive and amazing. It's been heard several times before but seems perfect for this.
Troughton has a very different approach to the Doctor compared with the last guy. His character seems proactive rather than passive. Wild and uncontrolled but *not* crazy.
I have a feeling the animation is disappointing. The acting subtleties of Troughton that I keep imagining are not shown on the screen. Even with this miracle reanimation I still want this to be rediscovered. One of the features of the earliest rediscovered Troughton episodes (Underwater Menace p2) was how Troughton performs on the screen. If you don't believe me just take a look through these telesnaps http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/photonovels/power/. I think it zings off the screen. Chris Barry did a lot of very good DW directing but this might shade Morbius and The Daemons. But sadly we cannot tell.
Episode 6 is a bleak and raw tragedy. It is deeply affecting, and a new peak in dramatic impact for DW.
A major improvement for the series. This makes several steps in an adult direction (that might not be maintained but let's watch and see....) Maybe underappreciated by the British tv audience (the ratings and the appreciation score seem low), never repeated, only shown in 3 other countries and then lost for 50 years.
Lost. Classic. Doctor Who.
No.1 with a bullet....
ABM Rating 3.80/4.00
LJM Rating 4.75/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.25/10.00
No. 1 (out of 30)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Rankings Scoreboard
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