Review The Tom Baker Doctor

alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
I own fourteen Who stories on DVD and thirteen of them are Tom Baker stories.

Counting down from #13 to #1 would look like this:

13. The Face of Evil (Chris Boucher/Pennant Roberts, 1977)
12. The Sun Makers (Robert Holmes/Pennant Roberts, 1977)
11. Terror of the Zygons (Robert Banks Stewart/Douglas Camfield, 1975)
10. The Masque of Mandragora (Louis Marks/Rodney Bennett, 1976)
9. The Invasion of Time (Graham Williams and Anthony Read/Gerald Blake, 1978)
8. Horror of Fang Rock (Terrance Dicks/Paddy Russell, 1977)
7. The Seeds of Doom (Robert Banks Stewart/Douglas Camfield, 1976)
6. The Ark in Space (Robert Holmes/Rodney Bennett, 1975)
5. The Robots of Death (Chris Boucher/Michael E. Briant, 1977)
4. Pyramids of Mars (Lewis Greifer and Robert Holmes/Paddy Russell, 1975)
3. The Deadly Assassin (Robert Holmes/David Maloney, 1976)
2. Genesis of the Daleks (Terry Nation/David Maloney, 1975)
1. The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Robert Holmes/David Maloney, 1977)
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
The Leisure Hive

I try to watch this now and again, but my interest wanders and I just have it in the background if only for the incidental music. A triumph of style over substance.

I think that the dvd itself is more interesting for the documentary called A New Beginning about the start of the reign of JNT.
 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
Doctor Omega said:
I try to watch "The Leisure Hive" now and again, but my interest wanders and I just have it in the background if only for the incidental music. A triumph of style over substance.
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As you can see from my list above, the stories I own are all from Seasons 12-15. I think those are Tom Baker's best years.

Yes, Season 15 was a step down from Season 14, but it still had enough Hinchcliffe/Holmes Classic Who feel to seem like a legitimate continuation of the prior era. Robert Holmes was still script editor for "Horror of Fang Rock" and it shows. And while the Holmes scripted "The Sun Makers" is satirical, it contains many of Leela's best moments, no wonder it's Louise Jameson's favorite Who adventure. Even the underrated "The Invasion of Time", while flawed, successfully invokes the feel of the previous Gallifrey story, "The Deadly Assassin".

IMO, it wasn't until Season 16 that the series really went downhill. I did watch until the end, but by that point, the show's best years were clearly behind it.
 
chainsaw_metal1

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
Definitely a great send off for my favorite Doctor. Probably my favorite of the regenerations, as well. It was so well done, with The Watcher being himself, preparing for the event. Like something Serling would have written had be been a writer for the show.
 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
Doctor Omega said:
Your thoughts and views on this, the first ever story for Tom Baker's Doctor?
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Although it was the inaugural Fourth Doctor story, it was also the last outing for producer Barry Letts and story editor (and in this case writer) Terrence Dicks. As such, it feels like a Jon Pertwee adventure that happens to star Tom Baker. The Jon Pertwee signature aspects such as Bessie and UNIT are prominent.

It starts out fine with some great comedy bits between Tom Baker and Ian Marter, "You may be a doctor, but I'm the doctor." The mystery with the robot, and the reveal of Professor Kettlewell as a misguided traitor are well handled. Sarah Jane looks lovely as usual and actually acts like a journalist.

But later on, it becomes rather ridiculous as the robot grows to monstrous size, just so that he and Sarah Jane can put on a low budget re-enactment of "King Kong". And the solution to the problem is equally ridiculous, a bucket of green goo.

So not the best start for Tom Baker, but the new regime of Phillip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes were about to take the show to a whole new level.
 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
Now we're talking! This is where things really begin for Tom Baker's Doctor. This is a great serial and I own it on DVD.

The first episode remarkably has no cast other than our three leads.

The story is effective. However the logic that a space station would be safer than the "thermic shelters" is questionable. Perhaps the solar flares were a brief event, and Space Station Nerva's orbit had it behind the Earth at the time, so it could use the entire planet as a radiation shield?

The set design by Roger Murray Leach is remarkable. The Wirnn costumes are effective too - while the lights are low. Once the lights come full on, well...

All and all, a terrific story, well worth owning on DVD.
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10



Your thoughts and views on this, Tom Baker's third ever story as the Doctor - and the second ever appearance of the Sontarans.....



 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
It's OK. It has the misfortune of being bookended by two the best serials of all time.

It could have used a different title. When the only cliffhanger for your two-part story the reveal of a Sontaran, using the title "The Sontaran Experiment" ruins the surprise.
 
Gavin

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
The significant amount of location shooting makes this look really good. As alpha128 mentioned it's hampered by its placement between two all time great episodes so it tends to get overlooked. Put this serial between two stories like Revenge of the Cybermen and Nightmare of Eden and it would be considered a season highlight.
 
Gavin

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
alpha128 said:
However the logic that a space station would be safer than the "thermic shelters" is questionable.
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When I got to the age where I thought about this issue, I worked on the assumption that the station had been put into a highly elliptical orbit and had been at a far greater distance from the earth during the flares.
 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
I resisted buying this one for a while. Although I like the story, some of the Skarasen effects, particularly near the end, are cringeworthy.

Still, I am glad I bought the DVD. The restored scene (see below) is wonderful and the special features are great. I just wish they had provided replacement CGI Skarasen effects.

But this DVD is out of print in Region 1 the last I looked, so I'm very glad I got it while I had the chance.

 
ant-mac

ant-mac

Member: Rank 9
An excellent DOCTOR WHO serial, that was unfortunately let down slightly by what amounts to no more than several seconds of highly questionable special effects footage. However, the Zygons themselves look much better in this outing than they do in their subsequent return appearances in New Who.

In their later stories, I personally felt that they looked far too rubbery. Such a disappointment.
 
alpha128

alpha128

Member: Rank 3
The Planet of Evil is the only Tom Baker story from the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era that I remember disliking the first time I saw it. I rewatched on-line in the last few years and my opinion didn't change much.
 
Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
ant-mac said:
the Zygons themselves look much better in this outing than they do in their subsequent return appearances in New Who
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I totally agree on that point. How did they bring them back so many years later and somehow make them less scary than their lower-budgeted debut?
 
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