Revenge of the Cybermen is a bit an oddity. At a time when Phillip Hincliffe and Robert Holmes were setting out their version of Doctor Who (think Genesis of the Daleks which was the story that preceded it), this story feels like a throwback to the 1960s. Which isn't surprising as Gerry David hadn't been involved with the programme since the Patrick Troughton days. It's probably;y the weakest story of Season 12, but that doesn't mean it's not entertaining. Tom Baker was starting to hit his stride as the Fourth Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen is as good as ever. The guest cast are pretty good and, despite was Phillip Hinchliffe says in the documentary, the Vogans are well realised.
I have to admit I approached Silver Nemesis with some dread. My memory of it being 90 minutes of poorly written drivel. While it;s not drivel, it is poorly written with a number of set pieces in search of a plot. Sylvester and Sophie are good, and Fiona Walker's Lady Peinforte and Gerard Murphy's Richard make a good double act. The production standards are high, but the story is a mess (and it's a bit of a worry that over 20 minutes of footage was cut from the final product - enough for another episode). Definitely the weakest story of Season 25 (and of this box set).
First thing that has to be said is how good was the title sequence from Pertwee's final season of Doctor Who?
And, of course, it got even better the next series with the TARDIS finally making an appearance in the titles, but more on that later.
Planet of the Spiders brings the curtain down on the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who. Some commentators have said, perhaps somewhat cruelly, that the serails production code - ZZZ - is appropriate. I wouldn't go that far, but I would suggest that it suffers from the same problem most six parters suffer from: it's about two episodes too long. Also, I think Barry Letts was trying to be George Lucas about 25 years too early with the amount of blue screen in the show. Metebelis III looked really convincing when we briefly saw it in The Green Death twelve months earlier, but here you can tell it's a studio set. And the spider's citadel is badly let down by bad lighting (a fault designer Rochelle Selwyn admits to on the documentary accompanying the disc. She did make her thoughts known to the lighting director which was subsequently ignored to the productions detriment).
However, there are some good things. All the UNIT crew are as good as ever, with Richard Franklin being the stand out. John Kane's sensitive portrayal of Tommy is excellent along with Kevin Lindsay as the gleeful Cho-je and George Cormack as the Doctor's old mentor K'anpo. The spiders themselves are well realized with the Great One being very convincing (a great example of when Chromakey does work!) with great vocal talents from Ysanne Churchman, Kismet Delgado and Maureen Morris. Otherwise the rest of the cast are forgettable.
But this is Pertwee's swansong and I have to say he isn't too bad. His final scene is very moving, especially if one think of recent events in the real world with the sad passings of both Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen.
But the regeneration itself is rubbish!
So, Planet of the Spiders: not as bad as most people suggest, but not great either. But the series best years were just around the corner.
Ah yes. The Doctor Who story mentioned in Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. And one story that I have no memory of ever seeing before (a rarity for Jon Pertwee's Doctor).
First the good bits: the realization of the story's monsters, the Mutts, is pretty good along with most of the visual effects (Ky's transformation into a mutant is good by 70's standards. Though I hope when Stubbs dies in episode 5 by being shot in the arse was more a miss-timed video effect and not deliberate). Katy Manning's as good as ever (Pertwee seems to be in neutral) and Garrick Hagon's Ky is the most impressive out of the guest cast (Paul Whitsun-Jones' Marshall has to be seen to be believed). Otherwise it's a pretty bland story. Probably could have been improved by cutting it to four episodes instead of six.
If anyone were to ask me what's the most beautiful scene ever filmed for Doctor Who, I think my vote would go to this one.
A fitting tribute to a much loved actor and one of the most loved characters in Doctor Who.
Anyway, The Wedding of River Song (such as it was). It was okay and tied up all the plots line (except who the hell was Madame Kovarian?). One could argue that the nature of the Doctors "death" was a cop out, but I thought it was handled quiet well.
On the whole I thought series 6 (both parts) was enjoyable and built on the foundations Moffat established last year. Matt Smith has certainly settled into the role and has become one of favorite Doctors. The dynamic between Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as the first married couple in the TARDIS has been great too (I really missed then in Closing Time) and Alex Kingston is always welcome. The standout episodes for me were The Doctor's Wife (come back Neil Gaiman!). A Good Man Goes to War, Let's Kill Hitler! and Closing Time.
What's better than a Steven Moffat episode? A Neil Gaiman one? Or how about Gareth Roberts?
Closing Time begins with the Doctor on a farewell tour visit to Craig Owens from last years The Lodger. Really it's a two-hander between Matt Smith and James Corden and the interplay between then is excellent. It also has this years "what the?" moment when the Cybermen capture Craig and begin to convert him. For a moment I thought they were going to go through with it (which was the effect Roberts was hoping for when writing that scene. If they had it would have been the blackest thing ever to happen in Doctor Who).
The only letdown the was the last scene. It would have been better to end it with the kids in the street watching the TARDIS depart instead of cutting to Madame Kavorian and company setting up River for next weeks episode (Frances Barber's over-acting annoyed me). But otherwise Closing Time was one of the best episodes of this series.
Two classics from my favorite writer from the original series, Robert Holmes.
First up Spearhead from Space. Aside from being the first story to feature Jon Pertwee's Doctor, it's also the first story made in colour and on film no less; something that was a happy accident for the production (a strike having put paid to the original plan to record the studio scenes at Television Centre and per usual) and one that does wonders for it. Watching it again it reminded me of an episode of The Avengers instead of Doctor Who.
Of course, Spearhead also introduces us for the first time to the Autons, one of the most effective monsters ever made for the series simply because they can take the form of whatever they like. Who can forget the scene from episode 4 when they begin their invasion by marching down Ealing Broadway?
Again it's easy to see why Russell T. Davies' paid homage to this in 2005s Rose (also, as Derrick Sherwin and Terrance Dicks both point out in the commentary, everyone thinks the glass was smashed in the original. But it never was, only hinted because the BBC couldn't afford to replace the glass!).
Terror of the Autons, the second story included in this set, also has a number of firsts to claim. The first story to feature The Master, Jo Grant and Captain Mike Yates. Also, while Spearhead takes a somewhat more adult approach to its storytelling, Terror really marks the beginning of the cosy UNIT family which would last for the rest of the Pertwee era. It also contains a lot of dodgy Chromakey (a.k.a. blue screen or Colour Separation Overlay at the BBC liked to call it) effects which would also be a hallmark of the Pertwee era (though as Phil Collinson, producer of the 2005 relaunch, points out in one of the documentaries on the DVD people in 40 years time will probably also say the same thing about some of the effects used in the new series).
Best thing about Terror is Roger Delgado's Master, who manages to outshine Jon Pertwee (something that I'm sure went down well with him!). He's very suvave, very dangerous and has a nice line in black humour (I love his line when discussing how McDermott gets killed by an Auton plastic chair: "He sat down in this chair and just slipped away.").
As I said in the beginning of this post, these are two classics by Robert Holmes and are in some ways a template of what was to come when he took over as script editor for Tom Baker's first three years as the Doctor. Out of the two, I think Spearhead is the strongest for its adult approach to Doctor Who. But both are great examples of classic Doctor Who.
