Me-ow!

[slipjig3]

Speaking as a relatively new Doctor Who fan who is only now beginning to broaden his background with the classic episode, having just watched The Mark of the Rani with Colin Baker:

Is it just me, or do the Doctor and the Master come off like a couple of bitter old drag queens insulting each other's outfits over their Cosmos? I was fully expecting Peri to jump in with an, "Oh, snap!" Jeez Louise, the Rani has more testosterone than the two of 'em combined.

And it took me precisely eight seconds into the episode before I wanted to slap Peri. I swear, it's like the rebirth of Jean Hagen in Singin' in the Rain without the chutzpah.

Comments

[freyapax.livejournal.com]

LOL Yeah after getting hooked on new Who, I went all the way back to the beginning and have come forward episode by episode. I had a pretty hard time getting thru the 5th Doctor, because while I enjoyed him very much, the gasping breathless borderline panic attack delivery got my nerves badly. But now I've started with 6th Doctor and am totally stalled. Can't stand Peri, and the Doctor aggravates badly. Heh.

I miss Tom Baker. :(

[jnanacandra.livejournal.com]

Oh, don't worry, everyone wants to slap Peri.

[shannon_a]

I was a big fan of the old show in the '80s, but I think it just can't hold a candle to the new show. Some of it's watchable, but I find most of it too slow, a lot of it too cheesy, and some of it too annoying.

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

Is it just me, or do the Doctor and the Master come off like a couple of bitter old drag queens insulting each other's outfits over their Cosmos?

They're British

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

Daleks! Daleks! Daleks!

Both old and new who.:D

[captain18.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Peri has her ups and downs.

The thing that is so weird about '80s Who is how when you step back far enough, you can really see how John Nathan-Turner actually tried very hard to learn lessons from the '60s Who that was so in reverence at the time. Remember, in 1980 much of fandom was irritated by the direction Graham Williams had taken the show. There was talk of "gee, remember when there were multiple companions and not everyone always got along?" and since there had been no repeats of the old stuff nobody remembered how annoying Susan could be or how badly you'd like to slap Polly for being so dumb.

JNT really was trying to re-create that feel of the show being one (loosely) threaded narrative with one story hooking into another at the end, and more variety to the cast. In that sense, he would have made an awesome Executive Producer. But as a Producer, his background in pantomime meant he was really unsuited for selecting talent for the kind of show Who was. This was reinforced by his early decision to not invite back anyone who used to work for the show previously. (There is a reason Tom Baker called it quits at the end of his first JNT season and it wasn't just because he was tired of the role.)

If you look at the framework -- the character bios and the plot synopses, 80s who should have seriously kicked ass with a cosmopolitan crew and a Doctor who didn't walk into danger with a shit-eating grin on his face. Instead we got Matthew Waterhouse wearing pajamas and a bunch of script writers who couldn't turn shit in on time so the show was practically run by Eric Saward rewriting first draft submissions instead of actually being Script Editor and Ian Levine as fanboy-turned-continuity-advisor. Pip-N-Jane Baker were valued not because they turned in great stories, but because they turned in scripts very quickly that required few rewrites to fill the alloted time and budget. Saward, by the way, having such a crush on Robert Holmes' work that his scripts totally apes his style through a more violent lens. (Pay attention to Orcini in Revelation of the Daleks and you'll see it.)

This basically repeated when Sylvester McCoy got the role, Andrew Cartmel wrote frigging graphic novels when he was tapped to be Script Editor, he had no clue what he was doing, and first McCoy season shows it. Cartmel figured it out but it was too late. The last few McCoy episodes are actually pretty damn cool, but there was too little of an audience left and JNT had so little credibility left with the BBC Controller (who also hated Sci-Fi, it's a wonder Red Dwarf ever got slipped through the cracks) that things finally collapsed.

Ah, what it could have been, and wasn't...

[spoothbrush.livejournal.com]

I married this!

[captain18.livejournal.com]

And you love every minute of it.