Slow Moving Vehicle, you make a good point. I watched the same episode, and while I loved the show in the Tom Baker years, and the “City of Death” serial was voted one of the best… well, the style has changed a lot… and so have we. I remember liking “City of Death” a lot, the first time I saw it. In multiple parts, once a week.
But durnit, I still have my opinions. And my memories of Delgado’s verbal duels with Pertwee. We’ll always have “Terror Of The Autons.”
And Penfeather, y’gotta have something to brandish. And it’s gotta be brandishable. This is why Star Trek had phasers that looked like packs of cigarettes… that eventually became little pistol thingies. And why TNG had phasers that looked like dustbusters… that eventually became little… um… brandish thingies. It’s not for realism. It’s for Dramatic Impact!
Delgado and Simm are both good, just in different ways. I recorded but have not yet watched The Keeper of Traken. Looking forward to that, as it was the introduction of ::swoon:: Nyssa of Traken. Had a big ol’ thing for Sarah Sutton, back in the day.
I agree that the show has changed enough that era-to-era comparisons aren’t always meaningful, and that the old show can look hokey compared to the show of today. But I reject the idea that the producers of the classic series somehow didn’t understand television the way today’s post-Whedon producers do. They were not transplants from the world of theater; they understood their medium just fine. The culture has shifted and audiences demand a different approach to fantasy stories than the more broad, on-the-nose style of the 70s.
I too nerdcrushed on Sarah Sutton. Traken is kind of a snooze though.
See my post back at 157; I agree completely. Something handheld works so much better for stage business, as well, not just brandishing but twirling or blowing imaginary smoke from. Sunglasses will just be too awkward to write directions for; they’re either on or off.
I’ve been fairly critical of NuWho and frankly was one of the few that just didn’t feel it for the first episode of the series. But the revelations about how Daleks work (and how they use language) and a marvellous performance for Missy made this one of the most enjoyable episodes in a long, long time.
So I’m not adding anything new, but I felt I should say something positive as I have been so negative in the past.
The whole “has vapours at the sight of a gun” business only became an issue with 10; previous incarnations would only rarely pick one up, but the emphasis was always more that they preferred to use their wits. In *The Seeds of Doom * 4 happily threatens people with a pistol,
While the Doctor’s never been a VIOLENT guy, he’s shown a willingness to do some mayhem from time to time. The First Doctor was actually rather selfish about the lives of others, at first. The Third Doctor knew Venusian Karate, and wasn’t afraid to kick people around. And on occasion, they’ve waved guns around, but to my knowledge, have never used them on people (well, except the War Doctor, but he was a different beast).
None of the Doctors would have seen anything wrong with using a Dalek zapgun to clear obstacles and save a life… or to set up a cool cliffhanger.
And in “The Deadly Assassin,” the Doctor sees someone about to assassinate the President of Gallifrey, and without missing a beat, he grabs a convenient rifle and attempts to pot the assassin before he can kill the president. He doesn’t succeed - the rifles sights had been tampered with so you couldn’t hit anything with it, but he didn’t realize it at the time, and was ready to straight-up shoot a dude to save the president’s life.
To be fair, 9, 10 and 11 had what amounted to massive PTSD due to believing they had caused widescale genocide after participating in a war that presumably spanned centuries of their life. I can understand maybe, perhaps, being a little skittish around weapons.
So why was the Doctor so certain he was going to die at the start of last week? My DVR cut off right when Missy ran away and the Doctor was trying to unhook Clara from the Dalek - did they explain it then?
Or maybe they explained it during one of the many, many times I couldn’t hear a damn word b/c BBC America jacks up the background music so much that I can’t hear anything anyone says.
All this is true, but I was trying to explain - well, fanwank - why Clara panicked and freaked out. Being threatened by a gun-toting Doctor would be like, I imagine, being attacked by Danny Pink. A little more unexpected, a little more shocking, a little more terrifying, than waking up hanging upside down with Missy sharpening a stick.
I have the same problem. I also blame the TV’s built in speakers. Consider getting external speakers, or watch it online on your desktop. I did that with Magician’s Apprentice and it made a world of difference. Tomorrow I will do the same with Witch’s Familiar
