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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Tenth Doctor: An Introduction

The Tenth Doctor:
David Tennant (Born 1971)

**Author's Note: I had planned to review the Doctor Who catalog on this site, but given the sheer number of stories I opted to spin-off those reviews to a separate site: Gallifrey Exile. As such, readers will find reviews may hop from one site to another. Reviews are collected at a link at the end of this essay. Also, this essay was updated on January 2021.

My mother never understood my love of Doctor Who. She thought it was a stupid show and made it a point to tell me as such. She would also add that being ugly was a prerequisite to play the Doctor...with one exception. After looking at David Tennant, she decided he was halfway decent-looking.

This seems to be the consensus: that David Tennant is perhaps one of the most attractive men to play the role. In retrospect, a good fifteen years separated from his debut story, Tennant's physical appeal and crafting the Doctor as an object of romantic yearning, even physical desire, may have been a mistake. The romanticism and lust factors may have been both a blessing and a curse to the show. He was certainly swoon-worthy to many a fangirl and fanboy, but could Tennant's looks have been the catalyst for creating whole seasons where every Companion save Donna fell in love with him?

He was perhaps the most romantic of Doctors, one that loved sweeping in to rescue damsels in distress (case in point, The Girl in the Fireplace). Oftentimes, it was suggested that he fell in love to those women he encountered (the aforementioned Girl in the Fireplace, Doomsday, Forest of the Dead). This goes against the Third Doctor Jon Pertwee's view that there should be even a hint of romance between the Doctor and his Companions.

I think that was a good policy, to make The Doctor a mentor not a lover, someone who in Pertwee's words was fond of his Companions but that fondness is different from desire. However, perhaps Tennant's good looks and easy manner made him too hard to resist. It now makes me wonder whether the emphasis on romance shifted Doctor Who from a good, family science-fiction show into a space soap opera: Lust in Space if you like.

Perhaps this is why, in the future, the then 34-year-old Tennant was succeeded by the even younger Matt Smith, to continue making The Doctor not into an intellectual hero but an object of worship and erotic fixation. That may explain why when the much older Peter Capaldi came around, more than a few fans objected to not having that romantic, swooning figure but a crotchety old man.

Tennant's looks are not his fault, and he showed himself to be a fine actor and one of the best Doctors. However, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps the focus shifted from "The Doctor" to "David Tennant", and in the same way Classic Who never fully recovered once Tom Baker left, NuWho has yet to hit the heights the Tennant Era had.

At the time, I thought David Tennant was a welcome change from Christopher Eccleston. This isn't to say the latter was terrible, but he was a terribly unhappy Doctor. Tennant, on the other hand, is for the most part quite jolly. He has a touch of Troughton: a sense of wonder about the things going on around him. He gets Pertwee's ability to be authoritative, even a bit bossy when the need arises. Tennant also brings something of Davison's vulnerability to the role. This is informed by the fact that The Doctor's home world of Gallifrey is supposed to have been destroyed. While he is a happier Doctor than Eccleston, Tennant can also rage like the best of them.

As I revisit this essay a good twelve years later, I can now confess that I was like many a NuWho fan too enthralled with the show to be analytical. I let my emotions carry me, until Love & Monsters.

Love & Monsters shook me from my fever dream of thinking every Doctor Who episode was brilliant. I was angry at how insulting it was to the fanbase. I was horrified at the oral sex joke, one that left me so stunned I had to watch that part just to be sure I had heard what I had heard. It was an ugly, ugly episode, one so horrifying and hideous I essentially quit watching Doctor Who right then and there. I skipped Fear Her out of protest (which I have since seen and thought it too was awful), stumbled through Army of Ghosts Parts I & II, then stopped watching altogether.

That's how awful I thought it was. The association was simply too awful for me to have anything to do with it. I also thought the battle between the Daleks and the Cybermen was not all it could have been. All the pity. I did think his first season (Series Two) was overall quite good.

It wasn't until Matt Smith took over that I decided to give Doctor Who another try. When he handed over Smith. I hoped for great things.

I was, sadly, unprepared for that Legendary Legend of Legendness, River Song, but that's for next time.

Next, The Eleventh Doctor: An Introduction

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Monday, September 21, 2009

The Ninth Doctor: An Introduction

The Ninth Doctor:
Christopher Eccleston (Born 1964)

**Author's Note: I had planned to review the Doctor Who catalog on this site, but given the sheer number of stories I opted to spin-off those reviews to a separate site: Gallifrey Exile. As such, readers will find reviews may hop from one site to another. Reviews are collected at a link at the end of this essay. Also, this essay was updated on January 2021.

I was very excited when Doctor Who was revived in 2005. So excited that I cajoled a friend of mine to let me watch it at his house since I didn't have cable or satellite. I believe my faith is justified.

Christopher Eccleston's Doctor is in a word: manic. He seems in a hurry to get things done. If the storyline is to be believed, Gallifrey no longer exists. His home world has been destroyed, with him the only survivor. This would make him more dour than his predecessors, and while Eccleston's performance shows him to be angrier, he also does allow some goofiness to come through.

There is a tinge of regret to him, as if a shadow will always be with him, haunting him perpetually. He also oddly seems to be the most "regular guy" Doctor. There's no air of sophistication or culture that the Third or Fifth Doctor had. Instead, he seems like just a bloke who happens to be a Time Lord.

This might explain that chip on his shoulder he seems to carry, as if he's always worried someone will look down on him. He has a Northern accent, which distinguishes him from all other Doctors and reinforces that outsider status. Perhaps to the class-conscious British this might be an issue of concern.

The Ninth Doctor's anger also seems to find more comfort with violence than McCoy's. He has no problem being vengeful, downright evil, with the 'last' Dalek. He goes so far as to threaten to kill him. Yes, it was to save his Companion Rose Tyler, but it still is a marked departure for someone who used to rail against violence to solve things. Perhaps this was a manifestation of the actor himself, who left the series after one season. I don't know what his plans in relation to Doctor Who are, but he seems to be taking a page from Tom Baker: respect but a wary distance.

Now, with the new series there is a change. Rather than having two-to-four part stories, each story is an individual episode with one or two exceptions. Out of the stories in his tenure, the best to my mind is Dalek. It finally makes the Daleks the terrifying creatures they could be. I also thought The Unquiet Dead (where he meets Charles Dickens, brilliantly played by Simon Callow), and Father's Day were well-written and executed. I really don't think there was a bad episode in the bunch.

Now that I've had well over a decade to reflect on NuWho, I think Eccleston has been wildly underrated. He brought a mix of mirth and menace to the role, both goofy and frightening. I think in retrospect that his costume worked well: the leather jacket and overall black ensemble showed him to both working-class and dark.

The teaming of the Ninth with Billie Piper's Rose was a mix between romantic and friendship. If memory serves correct I don't think the romance was built up to the extent it would be in the future, and perhaps if Eccelston had stayed on it would have been tapered down.

I also think that my wild enthusiasm was perhaps an emotional rather than intellectual reaction, for as good as I think some of the stories are, I cannot recall any of them with great detail apart from The Unquiet Dead and The Empty Child Parts 1 & 2. The "farting aliens" perhaps should have been a sign that things were not as I imagined them, and while Captain Jack Harkness made for a good guest character, his eventual dominance in Who lore may have been a mistake.

On the whole, I think well of Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor, mercurial as both character and actor are. Time has softened my love of Series/Season One, but that is for another day.

Next, The Tenth Doctor: An Introduction

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Eighth Doctor: An Introduction

The Eight Doctor:
Paul McGann (Born 1959)

With Paul McGann as The Doctor, it's impossible to give a fair analysis. He appeared as The Doctor only once on screen, and that is not available in the United States*. Instead, I will give my impressions of McGann based on my memories of the Doctor Who TV movie.

I was very excited about seeing Doctor Who again, and eagerly started to watch. As the show went on, I started losing interest. Eventually, I did the unthinkable: I switched it off. I like to think that was the beginning of my starting to grow up, leaving aside childish things. Still, it would be nice to have it available if only for completion's sake.

Now, what I do remember about McGann's Doctor is actually quite positive. He seemed more eager for adventure, and more eager to defeat his arch-nemesis The Master once and for all. He also appears frankly less angry than the Seventh Doctor, though not as jolly as the Second. He gave me the impression that he should take part in the affairs of others because it would be interesting.

What I didn't like was the suggestion of romance between the Doctor and his newest Companion, Dr. Grace Holloway (although I think the reports that he kissed her passionately are exaggerated. I don't doubt he did, but I think it was out of joy of remembering who he was than out of an erotic desire).

Less disturbing than this idea of a romance between a Doctor and his Companion is him saying he's half-human. BLASPHEMY, I SAY! There was never anything to suggest he was anything other than what he was for twenty-six years: an alien being, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Why this was done is irrelevant, the fact that it was done at all was disastrous. I prescribe it to post-regeneration trauma, not to any sense that this is the actual truth.

In retrospect, and with the benefit of hindsight, things become clear. The "half-human" bit was to try and start the show afresh. However, the idea was a bad one from the get-go: it alienated and angered longtime fans without bringing in new ones. It also would become a point of contention in the fanbase. Was the "half-human" story element Canon? Was McGann's version even Canon?

There are three schools when it comes to the Eight Doctor. The first is that he is Canon, part of the chain that stretches from William Hartnell. The second is that he is not Canon and can be ignored. The third is that he is the last of Canon, with everyone following him being non-Canon.

My view is this: he is Canon. Sylvester McCoy, whom no one questions as Canon, appeared as the Doctor prior to McGann's regeneration. Since McCoy regenerated to McGann, he is Canon.

As I think on Paul McGann, I think he would have made for a great Doctor. He seemed a mix of romantic and naïve, childlike and wise old soul. He was simply not given a good shot, and that will always be a terrible shame. While he's done audio stories, it is a shame that he never got a chance to complete a series on his own. I hope that the new series will allow him to make a reappearance in the role of the Eight Doctor. It would be a sign of respect.

Ultimately, the Eight Doctor is the one I know the least, through no fault on either side.

Next, The Ninth Doctor: An Introduction

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*Update: In 2011 the Doctor Who TV Movie, also known as The Enemy Within, was released on DVD in North America. In 2013 McGann reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor in the mini-episode The Night of The Doctor, his first (and as of 2021 his last) on-camera appearance as The Doctor since the TV movie.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Seventh Doctor: An Introduction

The Seventh Doctor:
Sylvester McCoy (Born 1943)

Sylvester McCoy once beat out perennial winner Tom Baker as the favorite Doctor. I can see why. Like the first Baker and Troughton, he has the eccentricity and whimsy of their versions. Like Hartnell and Pertwee, he can bring a darkness and mystery to the part. He also is the first Doctor to have a faint hint of an accent (Scottish), all which combined to make his tenure a good one. His was the last of the original series, and he made it an elegant swan song.

McCoy has been the Doctor who, to my mind, has been both the angriest and the biggest pacifist. He abhors violence and avoids it at almost all costs. However, he is bent on striking out against those who would do violence. He may appear foolish, but he wasn't. I always got the sense that while he still like humans he had grown tired of our inability to resolve things with dialogue. The "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later" mindset was one he constantly goes against, and he is genuinely angry at injustice of any kind.

When it came to his companions, he still had Mel whom I abhor, but then found Ace whom I love. Ace, a troubled girl with deep family issues, found in the Doctor (or Professor to her) if not a father figure at the least a good uncle. On occasion, he could put her through a lot, but it was always with her best interests in mind. Perhaps this was his way of seeing that there was still some stubborn hope in these Tellurians. That perhaps, was the best message McCoy's Doctor could give us.

Alas, it was here when the show was put on "hiatus", one that lasted twelve years give or take. Doctor Who was never officially cancelled, but for all intents and purposes it had run its twenty-six year run. McCoy, unlike Colin Baker, was never blamed for the show's end, another credit to how well he did in the role.

It was unfortunate that the de facto cancellation came at that time since the show was finally finding its way back. The costume was at least rational, and the stories were improving. Remembrance of the Daleks brings the series almost full circle, returning to Coal Hill, the school where the show had begun. I especially love The Curse of Fenric, which to my mind is not just among the best the series made but the last great story of the original era. It's one of the few to elicit in me a reaction of fear and suspense.

Of the ones available now as of this writing, Ghost Light was one I did not understand at all. Not one bit. I'd put that one as the worst.

Stories available: Remembrance of the Daleks, Battlefield, Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric, and the ironically titled final story of the original series, Survival. Delta and the Bannermen was released in September.

Next, The Eight Doctor: An Introduction

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Friday, September 18, 2009

The Sixth Doctor: An Introduction

The Sixth Doctor:
Colin Baker (Born 1943)

Actor Brian Blessed, who guest starred on Doctor Who in a part specially written for him, commented in The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel & Beyond, about Colin Baker's interpretation of The Doctor. "With Colin", he said, "I got the sense that he hadn't made up his mind how he was going to play it". Baker would, Blessed observed, pursue one avenue of interpreting the role halfway and then pull back. This seems as apt a description of Baker's tenure as any I've heard.

Colin Baker was not the worst Doctor on Doctor Who. If you see his guest starring performance in the Fifth Doctor story Arc of Infinity, you see he could be quite menacing. Perhaps this is what persuaded Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner to cast him, though I've also heard JNT found Baker personally witty and funny. If he had a strong producer to guide him, he could have been quite a dangerous Doctor, bringing a touch of menace to the role.

God Bless John Nathan-Turner, but he was not that kind of producer.

Let me state that JNT deserves credit for keeping the show alive as long as he did. However, he did infinite damage to the show by making some awful decisions. However, we can't avoid that fact that Baker should have been more forceful to JNT. He should have also taken greater charge of his interpretation of the character.

It wasn't Baker's fault alone. He was the unfortunate recipient of the WORST costume in the series' history (and that's saying a lot). The eccentric wardrobes of Tom Baker and Davison now degenerated into a laughable patchwork that made Colin Baker look like Ronald McDonald's illegitimate son. It might have been done with the best of intentions, but to a first-time viewer, it only has the effect of making him look ridiculous, a figure of ridicule than of interest.

That awful decision doomed Baker before he even began. JNT might have thought he was being clever, enhancing the Sixth Doctor's arrogance, egocentrism and pompousness. Instead, he undercut the character by turning him into a joke. Here is a good example of how actor and producer were at loggerheads, with producer being so wildly wrong.

To emphasize the Sixth Doctor's menace, Baker suggested an all-black suit. Nathan-Turner rejected the idea, deciding to go for the most garish outfit possible. The frustrated costume designer, fed up with Nathan-Turner's constant rejections for her designs, created the multi-patch coat as a joke. To her horror, JNT loved it. Poor Baker, realizing what a hideous outfit he'd have to wear, managed to sneak in a cat pin as his sole contribution.

There is simply no way to underplay how awful the Sixth Doctor's costume is. It should serve as a textbook example of how one poor decision can create a mess that no amount of good writing or acting can save.

You can't take the character seriously if he's wearing the silliest of costumes. Tragically, only Nathan-Turner didn't see until far too late what damage he'd caused by his obstinacy.

It brings to mind what Milton Berle once said. Suppose someone comes out in a funny costume, Uncle Miltie stated. You get a laugh for a few moments, but then what? You've got to carry on with the scene, and now you have to work the funny costume into the act. When you are suppose to have a serious character, you can't accept the insanity of the outfit and take things seriously.

Another unfortunate circumstance that Baker faced was falling ratings. The BBC held the bizarre idea that the reason viewership was dropping was Colin Baker himself. It wasn't the poor stories he had. It wasn't the almost insane idea to start Baker's tenure with the Doctor attempting to murder his Companion (albeit in a state of post-regeneration confusion). It wasn't the slashed budget that caused the already wonky sets and effects to look ghastly.

No, according to the wise folks at the BBC, it was solely the lead actor's fault. Colin Baker got the rawest of raw deals: lousy costume, bad scripts, oddball producer, small budget and while trying desperately to make things work getting the blame on top of all that.

When the BBC actually spent money on the show, the results are still extraordinary. Take for example the opening of the season-long The Trial of A Time Lord (aka Episode One of The Mysterious Planet). Even by today's standards, it's spectacular. In fact, I thought the first minute, with its camera movement over a spaceship and the TARDIS being taken into it, had been remade for the DVD release using 21st-Century computer generated effects.

I was stunned to discover that nothing had been altered in that sequence. It is proof positive that if the budget had been increased it would have rescued The Doctor far more than Doctor in Distress, an embarrassing We Are the World-type song that is still perhaps the lowest point in connection with the series. Doctor in Distress remains one of the oddest moments in attempts to save a show. The sight of an openly contemptuous Anthony Ainley (The Master) and a slightly bemused, slightly perplexed Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) "singing" is frankly quite sad.

In retrospect, it's unfair that Baker got the blame and the boot for the low ratings and dreadful stories, which were completely out of his control. He did the best he could under difficult circumstances, and got nothing but grief over it.

Finally, Baker was saddled with perhaps the two worst Companions in the series' history. Peri (full name Perpegilliam) Brown is a good idea on paper: the first American Companion. To her credit Nicola Bryant's American accent is good. However, Nathan-Turner's obsession with exotic names sinks her character, and she really isn't given a chance to do much except run around in skimpy outfits. True, she was there for "eye candy", but it is amusing that the openly gay Nathan-Turner had a fixation on showcasing Peri's physical attributes.

Peri Brown, whatever her faults, could at least be endured.

Not so Melanie (Mel) Bush. Even as a child I hated her. To this day I still loath her. Brainless vapid twit. She exemplified the worst caricature of a Companion. My only memories of her are of her SCREAMING. A LOT. SCREAMING ONLY AND ALWAYS.

I hated her. I hated her looks, I hated her voice, I just hated her. What do I mean, 'hated'? I STILL HATE HER. I imagine Bonnie Langford is a very nice person and a talented actress. The stories her character were in, however, gave no indication of either. Perhaps I'm being too harsh, but I still wince whenever I think of Mel Bush. Can't help it. Never liked her. Still don't.

All this created a perfect storm from which no actor could have survived. To his eternal credit, Baker still is active in Doctor Who-related events and activities, and appears proud to be part of the series (if not about how things ended, for which he has every right to be angry).

Even among the ruins of Baker's tenure, one can still find some treasure. The slimy sea villain Sil, first seen in Vengeance on Varos and returning in Episodes Nine-Twelve of The Trial of a Time Lord (aka Mindwarp) is a great villain. I would rank him not just among the best Doctor Who villains but also the last great villain the series created.

We also had the first appearance of a renegade female Time Lord known as The Rani, more an equal to The Doctor than the now-somewhat cartoonish Master became. She proved herself a worthy opponent whose potential was and is still wildly under-tapped.

Curiously, though he was the only Doctor to be fired, he will be the first to have all his stories released on DVD. Out of the ones available now, I still think Vengance on Varos is the best. In its story about televised torture for the amusement of people, it's remarkably prophetic. As for the worse, I have to say The Ultimate Foe. This isn't a criticism of writers Pip & Jane Baker (though most Doctor Who fans seem to have a particular antipathy for them). It has more to do with Mel being there. She was in Terror of the Vervoids, but that story holds up pretty well in spite of her. I also didn't quite understand The Mark of the Rani, but I give it props for the creation of another Time Lord baddie.

Now, what about The Trial of A Time Lord? One massive story, or four? This debate will be going on among fans from now to the end of time. Arguments for the One Story thesis: the title is The Trial of A Time Lord, and they're marked Episode One, Episode Two,...Episode Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen.

Argument for Four Stories thesis: they involve four distinct settings with four sets of writers. Therefore, they are Four Stories.

I'm with the Four Stories group. If you remove the setting of Gallifrey and the trial itself, I think the stories could be independent of each other. I liken it to The Key to Time. Nobody ever argues they are one story, even though all involve the same objective: finding the six segments of The Key to Time. Like Key to Time, Trial of A Time Lord was a season long. With that, and the fact that there was no one writer for one story, I count them as four. There it is.

Stories available: Attack of the Cybermen, Vengance on Varos, The Mark of The Rani, The Two Doctors, Timelash, Revelation of the Daleks, and The Trial of a Time Lord box set (containing The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids, and The Ultimate Foe).

Next: The Seventh Doctor: An Introduction

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Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Fifth Doctor: An Introduction

The Fifth Doctor:
Peter Davison (Born 1951)

In the Fifth Doctor story Black Orchid, the Doctor plays of all things, cricket. Somehow, it seems fitting that this most British of institutions enjoys this most British of sports. It certainly matched his latest ensemble. It is also perhaps a recognition that Peter Davison was the youngest actor to play the Doctor in its original run at age 29.

Despite his youthful appearance, Davison worked to make his Doctor "an old soul", someone who had millennia of wisdom. Davison tried to remind viewers through his performance that he was really an amalgamation of four other people, drawing from various elements of past Doctors. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Davison, however, did manage to put his own stamp on the role. He was the Doctor who was most human of the lot.

Here is where I think that at times, he was hampered by a more meddlesome producer. John Nathan-Turner wanted Davison to play things perfectly straight as a counter to the increasingly jokey Tom Baker, but that ended up suppressing part of the Doctor's whimsy. It seemed strange to force such a young-looking man to be so stern, but it was in my view an effort of course-correction that went too far the other direction.

To me, this Doctor was a little more hesitant to act, almost as if he didn't want to be where he was at. He could do the job required, but his more introspective nature made things difficult. He had a sense that adventure was something to be endured. No, he wasn't terrible in the role. It was just that he knew what a high cost there was to his travels in time and space.

He also had an early run of embarrassing stories and poor Companions. Even as a child, I knew that there was something wildly wrong in Warriors of the Deep. While I thought well of the Sea Devils and Silurians, the Myrka was embarrassing. I couldn't take it seriously, nor the sets that I could see could break away with no effort.

Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka) made a very astute point: that in the BBC, the least-watched programs had the largest budgets while the most-popular ones had the smallest. Reverse snobbery, she called it. She called it right. Time-Flight also could have been a great story if they had spent the money on it. The fact that they didn't brought the whole thing down.

Some early stories such as Four to Doomsday and the aforementioned Time-Flight were horrors, though Davison also has some of the best Doctor Who stories. Earthshock is in my opinion a brilliant piece, enhanced by a shocking end. Davison's era also ended with The Caves of Androzani, which is routinely voted as one of if not the best Doctor Who story of All Time.

It was a mixed bag, where sometimes Davison was let down by the scripts, the poor sets and effects or his eccentric producer.

Some of his early stories were hampered by JNT's odd fixation for interesting Companions, such as Turlough, a humanoid alien trying to kill the Doctor. Then there was Tegan Jovanka, a nod to the Australian fanbase who forever kept whining about wanting to get off the TARDIS. His final Companion, Peri, was a nod to the American fanbase, but she was hampered by far too much attention to her cleavage.

I have a special fondness for Davison's Doctor. He was my Doctor, the first one I saw when I was a child. Curiously, David Tennant's Tenth Doctor also refers to him as his Doctor in the mini-episode Time Crash, showing Tennant to not be just an actor but also a fan. Davison was the first Doctor to appear in the revived series, Eight Doctor Paul McGann making a later appearance in the mini-episode prequel to The Day of The Doctor, called originally enough The Night of The Doctor.

In retrospect, I think this bit of mini-fan service was a mistake. I get that they were acknowledging the connection between the past and present, but now it rings hollow, excessive, not to my liking. Something about it just doesn't sit well with me.

That being said, I still can't disown The Fifth Doctor's tenure. As bad as some of the effects were despite the production staff's best efforts, I still have this time as a cherished childhood memory.

I want to say that the Twentieth Anniversary special The Five Doctors is the first Doctor Who story I saw, at the very least the first one I remember well enough.

From the stories currently available, I think Time-Flight is if not the worse at least the weakest, sadly brought down by lousy effects and cheap sets. I wasn't too thrilled with Black Orchid, but the one I liked the least was The Visitation. Though I liked the ending, I didn't quite follow what was going on for most of it. I might have to watch it again. I'm always willing to give things a second chance.

Stories currently available as of this writing: Four to Doomsday, The Visitation, Black Orchid, Earthshock, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, and The Caves of Androzani. Castrovalva is available either individually or as part of the New Beginnings box set which has The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis from the Fourth Doctor, and Warriors of the Deep is available individually or as part of the Beneath the Surface box set with Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils from the Third Doctor. The Black Guardian Trilogy (containing Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, and Enlightenment) is scheduled for November 2009.

Next: The Sixth Doctor: An Introduction

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Fourth Doctor: An Introduction

The Fourth Doctor:
Tom Baker (Born 1934)

Tom Baker holds the record for the actor who played the Doctor the longest: seven years in all. Due to that he has become to many the face of Doctor Who. It's his version: the wild, unkempt hair, the long coat and floppy hat, and a scarf that is illogically long, that pops into people's mind when they're asked about Doctor Who. It's this version that was parodied on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and which was the basis for at least three episodes of The Simpsons.

Baker certainly had the authority of Hartnell, the general goofiness of Troughton, and the action orientation of Pertwee. However, he brought a very special element to The Doctor: his own wild eccentricity. The Doctor wasn't a gruff old man, or a cosmic hobo, or a dashing man of action. The Doctor now was just a bit nutty.

Of course, this is part of his charm, as they say. Baker was successful in meshing all the work his predecessors had done and turn it into gold. His Doctor was highly intelligent, though a bit aloof from everyone, even at times those within his immediate circle. He was nobody's fool, but he rarely let them know it.

Perhaps this is why he is often ranked the Best or the Favorite Doctor. He seems a perfect amalgamation of the character's previous incarnations, while bringing something unique to the role. In retrospect, he revived the show to greater heights.

He also had a great run of Companions. Starting with Sarah Jane Smith, he moved to such varied personalities as warrior princess Leela and the female Time Lord Romana.

I'm not talking about there being romance between the Doctor and his Companions per se. Rather, he was more open with them than the Doctor had been with anyone outside his granddaughter from his first incarnation. Baker also made him far more mercurial than The Doctor had been. He wasn't by any means a misanthrope, but he at times didn't invite beings he encountered into cozy relationships with him.

Tom Baker also knew, like all the others, how important the character was to children. As a result, he somehow communicated to kids that they could travel with him, join him in his wanderlust.

I do wonder, though, if he stayed on too long. Is this blasphemy? I don't know. Tom Baker is among the best Doctors, yet I wonder by having one actor in that role for such a long time, does that hinder those that follow? Hard to say. There were issues with the latter part of his tenure, particularly in that the humor might have been a little overboard. Was it becoming too jokey, too silly?

Out of his stories available as of the original writing, my favorite is Planet of Evil. The visuals show that with enough imagination even the most limited budgets can still produce incredible images. I also thought The Talons of Weng-Chiang and City of Death to be quite inventive and original. The former will always be controversial due to both the yellowface and the portrayal of the Asian characters, but that subject is for another day.

As for my least favorite, there are surprisingly quite a few: The Brain of Morbius (sunk by silly costumes), The Invasion of Time (sunk by silly sets), and The Leisure Hive (sunk by silly special effects). In fact, when I showed The Leisure Hive to my friend, he couldn't stop laughing at just how unconvincing the effects were. I haven't had the courage to watch it since.

Next, The Fifth Doctor: An Introduction

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