Doctor Who Season 2
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
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009: Planet of Giants
- Planet of Giants 1964 October 31
- Dangerous Journey 1964 November 7
- Crisis 1964 November 14
(First watched 2007-07-30, -31, -08-01) Very cool. Â Were it a modern episode a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids comparison would be appropriate, but this episode predates that movie by a quarter century. Â Considering that and a BBC budget, it was done well. Â Great to see something really goofy go wrong with the TARDIS, other than just ending up in an inconvenient place or time. Â The background drama going on wasn't very remarkable, but it kept the environment of hour protagonists from being static... and somehow gave them a way to save many lives, even on modern Earth as inch-high versions of themselves. Â The villain trying to disguise his voice with a piece of cloth, though... yikes, what a crappy trick. Â I think this is the first time I remember seeing that cliche in something other than a completely parodic manner.
This episode made me want to play Pikmin.
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010: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
- World's End 1964 November 21
- The Daleks 1964 November 28
- Day of Reckoning 1964 December 5
- The End of Tomorrow 1964 December 12
- The Waking Ally 1964 December 19
- Flashpoint 1964 December 26
(First watched 2007-08-04, -05, -06, -07, -08, -09) The Doctor said their previous run-in with the Daleks was "a million years" in the future as an explanation to why they were still around. Â I won't take that as an accurate measurement, but... the Daleks they saw before seemed to have come into being on that planet, and seemed bound to the planet. Â Are we now to take it that they were just some remaining sect, and the others had long since gone off planet to conquer?
Goodbye Susan. Â Boy, that'll make things awkward for Ian and Barbara if they ever get back home. Â They disappear at the same time as a student, and turn back up without her.
I think it speaks to British-Gallifreyan conceptions of maturity and ages of consent when they can get away with the Doctor dumping off his ~16-year-old granddaughter in a devastated world to get married to someone she's just met.
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011: The Rescue
(First watched 2007-10-07, -08) Not bad. Â A short one, mostly an excuse to pick up another traveler in Vicki, but the question of what happened on the planet was a change, too. Â No, not an Earth-Dido conflict or the Didoans becoming aggressive... but just a human mass-murderer trying to make it appear that way as a cover story.
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012: The Romans
- The Slave Traders 1965 January 16
- All Roads Lead to Rome January 23
- Conspiracy 1965 January 30
- Inferno 1965 February 6
(First watched 2008-04-23, -05-01, -06, -08) Â Boy, the doctor is a big grump. Â Refusing to let Ian and Barbara go with him and Vicky to Rome, I'd think him randy if I didn't know better.
They didn't do a very good job of making the fight hectic; when Barbara beaned Ian accidentally it absolutely looked intentional.
Ahaha, the Doctor really manhandled that assassin! Â And was cocksure about it afterward!
Ahaha, the Doctor's silent lyre playing as an "emperor's new clothes" trick so everyone fakes that they heard him. Â His weird antics are making this my favorite of the historical serials yet.
Rome? Â BUUUUURNED.
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013: The Web Planet
- The Web Planet 1965 February 13
- The Zarbi 1965 February 20
- Escape to Danger 1965 February 27
- Crater of Needles 1965 March 6
- Invasion 1965 March 13
- The Centre 1965 March 20
(First watched 2008-05-11, -12, -08-16, -10-11, -11-27, -28) Â I know there's only so much they could do, but those ant things walking around with a pair of human legs look silly indeed.
Bees, too?
Hahaha. Â In the third episode, an ant man inadvertently bumps into the camera since he probably can't see shit in there.
Boy, this one is just sooo goofy in an unfun way. Â That it's taking me half a year to finish watching it is both an effect and cause.
OK, so it did end up taking me half a year to see. Â At this rate I'd never catch up. Â But boy, from awful costumes to boring story, this is pretty much scraping the bottom of what I expected of the early years of this show. Â We didn't even get much main character interaction beyond Vicki/Doctor, since they were all split up.
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014:
(First watched 2008-12-10, -28) Â Hey, this later-day version includes an intro by old-ass Ian. Â Very cool.
So Ian gets knighted and the Doctor wishes he'd been, too. Â While I wouldn't be surprised if it happens by the end of the serial, I know it happens to him at least once in a later incarnation.
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015:
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016:
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