Doctor Who (2005) 11-10: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (Quick Review)

Episode:

850

|

Serial:

286

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

09-Dec-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I would've been writing about Doctor Who series 11's epic two-part finale, but they decided to end the season with a relatively low-key one-part story this year so I'm stuck writing about that instead.

I feel like I should be talking about how The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is actually the first and only one-part finale in the revival series, as modern Doctor Who seasons always get ridiculous at the end, but I checked and it turns out that The Wedding of River Song and The Name of the Doctor both packed their absurdity into 45 minutes, so it ain't true.

But I can talk about its singularly awkward name, because Chris Chibnall's gone against 55 years of tradition here. You get one made up word per Doctor Who title, that's the rule, and unless I've overlooked something it's never been broken until now. Mostly because writers typically gravitate towards titles that people are able to remember, spell and say. They really tripped up a lot of podcasters with this one.

Anyway, I won't be going through the full episode scene by scene this time, I'm just sharing observations and opinions here, but if you continue reading past this point you'll find yourself knee deep in SPOILERS for this story and maybe earlier ones as well. The Pirate Planet jumps to mind. Castrovalva too, but ain't no one wants me to go off on a tangent ranting about Adric and block-transfer computation so I'm pretending I didn't think of it.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-09: It Takes You Away (Quick Review)

Episode:

849

|

Serial:

285

|

Writer:

Ed Hime

|

Air Date:

02-Dec-2018

---

Is it just me, or is the title text getting smaller with every new episode this season?

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm giving you my opinions and observations of It Takes You Away, the third episode by writer Ed Hime. I don't mean his third Doctor Who story, I mean the third episode he's ever written for TV, as according to IMDb all he's been credited for before this was a couple of episodes of Skins. He's also written for radio and theatre though apparently. I'm pretty much as clueless about him as I have been about any of the new writers this season to be honest.

Though one thing I do know is that showrunner Chris Chibnall will be back next time for the series finale, then the New Year's special, and probably the series 12 premiere after that, so it'll be a long while before we see any episodes by new writers again.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for this story and maybe earlier ones too. Just giving you a heads up.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-08: The Witchfinders (Quick Review)

Episode:

848

|

Serial:

284

|

Writer:

Joy Wilkinson

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm sharing my thoughts on The Witchfinders, episode 848 of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who's had female writers and female directors before, but it's rare for an episode to feature both like this. In fact its only happened twice before in the series' history, both in the classic series: Enlightenment and Mark of the Rani. And Mark of the Rani was co-written by a guy.

Here's some other trivia which will get more interesting years from now when people have started forgetting it: Amazon Prime subscribers accidentally got to see the episode three days early in place of Kerblam!, which just happened to be an episode criticising Amazon. I guess now we know that the company's not run by witches at least.

There will be SPOILERS for the episode and earlier ones below, and if I'm feeling particularly precognitive I might even spoil future stories too! For instance, I'll tell you now that the long awaited four-part Star Trek: Destiny / Doctor Who crossover in series 15 will be a bit of a let down, but The Fourteen Doctors will be the best multi-Doctor story since Day of the Doctor.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-07: Kerblam! (Quick Review)

Episode:

847

|

Serial:

283

|

Writer:

Pete McTighe

|

Air Date:

18-Nov-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing the episode of Doctor Who known as Kerblam!

It's not the only episode in the series history to use punctuation in the title (there's The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe for one) but it is the very first to feature an exclamation mark. There's still exactly zero episodes with a question mark in the title though, so that's still up for grabs. Incidentally Star Trek has two exclamation mark titles and six question mark titles, so Doctor Who has some catching up to do. Fun fact: your life wasn't improved by knowing any of this.

This was the second episode directed by Jennifer Perrott (after The Tsuranga Conundrum, a title I can now spell correctly without looking it up), but the first to be written by Pete McTighe, a screenwriter I know nothing about. It's interesting how they went with entirely new writers for this season, like they were trying to make absolutely sure the episodes had no resemblance to anything that'd come before. That probably wasn't the worst idea actually, but I'm still hoping they give Jamie Mathieson another episode in series 12, considering how well Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline worked out. Or let him take over as showrunner, either's good.

There will be SPOILERS below, so this would be a good place to stop reading if you don't already know what happens. I might also mention a few things from earlier episodes too, but I couldn't spoil anything later if I tried because they haven't aired yet.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-06: Demons of the Punjab (Quick Review)

Episode:

846

|

Serial:

282

|

Writer:

Vinay Patel

|

Air Date:

11-Nov-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, the first episode of Doctor Who's 11th series not written by Chris Chibnall! Well I'm sure he did a lot of rewriting work on it, as that's his job, but he's not gotten a 'written by' credit this time.

Vinay Patel is brand new to Doctor Who, and to me, but director Jamie Childs is on his second episode now... kind of. Doctor Who directors work on two episodes in a row for whatever reason, and he directed the season premiere The Woman Who Fell to Earth, so I figured that must make this the second episode filmed. But nope, it was actually the ninth episode to be produced, so that second episode is still out there somewhere, waiting to confuse us with how the actors seem very slightly less comfortable in their roles.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for this story and maybe earlier ones too. I will not be spoiling anything about series 1 episode Father's Day though, mostly because I haven't seen it yet.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-05: The Tsuranga Conundrum (Quick Review)

Episode:

845

|

Serial:

281

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

04-Nov-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm talking about Doctor Who again! Why? Because I feel compelled to finish this season and I can't write about two shows a week anymore because I burned up all my enthusiasm and determination a couple of months ago when I wrote about the entire classic series.

Uh, I mean I'm writing about this episode because I have many opinions on it... probably! None of them are really leaping to the forefront of my brain but I'm sure there must be some in there somewhere and I'm dying to share them with people.

I've also got at least one fact for you, which is that the episode was written by showrunner Chris Chibnall. That might not come as a huge shock considering that his name's on the title card up there and he was credited for the four that came before it as well, but you may not know that this is going to be his last for a while. The next four episodes, basically the second half of the season, were all written by new writers. So any one of them could be the next Blink or Flatline... or the next Fear Her or Sleep No More. They'll be a change at least. Hopefully.

There will be SPOILERS after this point, for this episode and maybe earlier ones as well.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-04: Arachnids in the UK (Quick Review)

Episode:

844

|

Serial:

280

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

28-Oct-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's Arachnids in the UK: the fourth episode of Doctor Who's 11th season to be written by showrunner Chris Chibnall. In a row.

Everyone knows that the title's a play on the Sex Pistols song Anarchy in the U.K. but there's also a subtle clue in there that the episode's about spiders. By an interesting coincidence the fourth serial of the classic show's 11th season, Planet of the Spiders, was also about evil spiders! Well okay it was the sixth serial, but close enough.

This is a spooky story just in time for Halloween, but I have to admit that I wasn't overly hyped for it. Mostly because I was worried it'd put me off my food. Writers should be more considerate of people who watch TV while they're eating their dinner!

There will be SPOILERS below this point, for this episode and perhaps even earlier ones, but no SPIDERS. I realise that most people reading this would've watched the episode already and have no problem with scrolling down to a surprise spider screencap, but I figured I'd play it safe. 

Doctor Who (2005) 11-03: Rosa (Quick Review)

Episode:

843

|

Serial:

279

|

Writer:

Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

21-Oct-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I've got another relatively brief Doctor Who review for you! It's all opinions, no recap, and like the shiny text says it's for an episode called Rosa.

The shiny text also claims that it was written by showrunner Chris Chibnall, continuing his streak of writing every episode this season, and Malorie Blackman, who's new to the series. I was going to make a dumb and shameful joke about her being both the first Blackman and black woman to write for the series, but it turns out that the situation's more depressing than that, as she's apparently the first non-white writer that the TV show has ever had. Still, I can't say that the Rosa Parks episode was a bad time to bring her on board.

This is the first celebrity pseudo-historical of the Chris Chibnall era, arriving right on schedule. Russell T Davies brought in Charles Dickens for his third episode and Steven Moffat had Winston Churchill, so it seems like it's become a tradition now. Hopefully it's a little better than those two stories though. I mean I don't actually know if The Unquiet Dead's any good or not, I've never seen it, I just hope this is better than it anyway.

There will be SPOILERS for this episode below this point and I might mention something that happened in an earlier story too. Like just then when I carelessly mentioned that Charles Dickens was in The Unquiet Dead.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-02: The Ghost Monument (Quick Review)

Episode:

842

|

Serial:

278

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

14-Oct-2018

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I've got a quick review of The Ghost Monument for you. All opinions, no recap. Here's a bonus opinion right at the start: it's nice that they've given me a proper title to put at the top of my review this time so I didn't have to screencap the end credits instead.

This is the second episode of the season to be written by showrunner Chris Chibnall and it seems that I'm going to have to get used to seeing his name under the titles as he's written a good percentage of the episodes himself. I suppose that's nothing new though, as if you look at the writing credits for the stories filmed during Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat time in charge you'll see their names show up on half of them. It's a big change from the classic era though, where the job was sort of split between the producer and script editor, and neither of them were supposed to be writing episodes (but they sometimes did anyway).

There will be SPOILERS underneath, both for this episode and maybe earlier ones too.

Doctor Who (2005) 11-01: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

Episode:

841

|

Serial:

277

|

Writer:

Chris Chibnall

|

Air Date:

07-Oct-2018

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about Doctor Who series 11, episode 1: The Woman Who Fell to Earth. It's the very first Jodie Whittaker story, arriving just 14 months after the end of series 10.

We're actually in year 13 of the revival series now (we didn't get seasons in 2009 or 2016), and the classic series ran for 26 years so it's halfway to matching it! If you're curious, if the classic series had started airing in March 2005, we'd be up to The Talons of Weng-Chiang right now, three years into Tom Baker's run. Somehow I don't think they'd get away with airing that in 2018 though.

There's been two distinct eras to the modern series so far: the Russell T Davies era of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, and the Steven Moffat era of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors. But with this we've entered the third era, of Chris Chibnall and the Thirteenth Doctor. Man, it's going to get awkward writing the Doctor's names out like this once we reach the One Hundred and Twenty-First Doctor. The transition from RTD to Moffat was pretty noticeable, and that was with a lot of the team staying on, including composer Murray Gold. This time around they've apparently got a lot of new people working on it and it seems like it's going to be a much bigger change in tone and style. But I don't know yet as I'm writing this intro before I've watched it.

I have seen a few of Chris Chibnall's episodes before though, like The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, and The Power of Three, and to be honest I don't see this series being disappointing in the same way Steven Moffat's run could be sometimes. Because I had sky-high expectations for Moffat's episodes after he amazed me with his early stories and I'm just hoping I'm not too bored during these ones.

There will be SPOILERS for the episode below and perhaps earlier ones as well, but I'll say nothing about happens after it. And not just because it's the latest episode and I don't know what happens next. I won't be spoiling the David Bowie movie The Man Who Fell to Earth either as I've never seen it.

Doctor Who (2005) 8-01: Deep Breath

Episode:

801

|

Serial:

242

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Air Date:

23-Aug-2014

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the first story to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor. I keep forgetting if it's called Don't Breath or Deep Breath though. I'm fairly sure it's not Don't Speak at least, because that's a song.

Peter Capaldi was the oldest actor to the take the role, as he was 56 at the time he filmed this, just slightly older than William Hartnell had been when he made An Unearthly Child. That means this is the biggest age gap between Doctors, as Matt Smith had been the youngest. Unless you count John Hurt and complicate everything.

There was no change in showrunner this time, as Steven Moffat remained the producer and main writer, but there was a bit of a shift in tone for this era. I've noticed some people aren't all that keen on the Peter Capaldi seasons, but I've also noticed that it's usually the writing that gets blamed for that. Me, I think that all of Doctor Who's seasons are a mess, classic and modern, with plenty of terrible stories to go along with the great ones, and the Twelfth Doctor's seasons were no exception.

Just this once I've decided not to bother warning people about the massive SPOILERS below this point, so if this is the first review you've seen on my site and you don't know by now that I only drop in spoilers for other Doctor Who stories that aired before it and none that came afterwards, then that's your own problem I'm afraid.

Doctor Who (2005) 5-01: The Eleventh Hour

Episode:

757

|

Serial:

203

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Director:

Adam Smith

|

Air Date:

03-Apr-2010

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing words about The Eleventh Hour: the first episode of series five, the Steven Moffat era and the Eleventh Doctor's four year run.

This is the first time we've been introduced to a new Doctor, companion and producer at once since Rose. In fact it's only happened five times ever: An Unearthly Child, the TV movie, Rose, The Eleventh Hour and the upcoming Girl Who Fell to Earth. It's become a tradition in the revival series for each new producer to get a bit of a clean slate but that wasn't the case in the classic show.

It's also the first time the Doctor's number has been referenced in the episode title. The Eleventh Doctor was played by Matt Smith who remains the youngest actor to take the role. He was 27 at the time, almost 30 years younger than William Hartnell was when he first stepped into the Tardis. This wasn't Smith's first time playing the role though, as besides his cameo at the end of The End of Time, he also filmed both episode of The Time of Angels first. So he'd had a bit of practice by this point.

The episode was originally going to be called The Doctor Returns, but Moffat decided to come up with something else because the Doctor hadn't actually gone anywhere. He finally got a chance to use the title for the 2016 Christmas Special after the series took a year off, but he gave it a bit of a Spanish twist, turning it into The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

One last first: this was probably the first episode of Doctor Who that I decided to watch properly, from the start, and I think I even watched it the day it aired. Well okay, I also saw the TV movie, but that's not an episode so it doesn't count.

Warning: There'll be SPOILERS below for the episode and perhaps earlier ones. No spoilers for later stories though.

Doctor Who (2005) - Christmas 2005: The Christmas Invasion

Episode:

710

|

Serial:

167

|

Writer:

Russell T. Davies

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2005

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about another episode of Russell T Davies era Doctor Who!

This one's called The Christmas Invasion because it's the first of Doctor Who's annual Christmas specials. I don't watch enough TV to know what kinds of series usually get Christmas specials and how rare they are, but I do know that the classic series never had any. Well okay, it had a Christmas episode one time in 1965, but that's only because serials would continue throughout December back then and Christmas Day just happened to coincide with one of the episodes. But since Christmas Invasion they haven't missed a year, even on occasions where they pretty much took the rest of the year off (I'm looking at you 2009 and 2016).

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point, for this story and perhaps earlier ones as well. For instance, I'm going to spoil that this is David Tennant's first episode as the Tenth Doctor.

Doctor Who (2005) 1-01: Rose

Episode:

697

|

Serial:

157

|

Writer:

Russell T Davies

|

Air Date:

26-Mar-2005

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Rose, the first episode of modern Doctor Who. Because after writing about the first eight Doctors it seemed a shame not to write about a Ninth Doctor story.

It's kind of amazing to me that this actually features the actual Ninth Doctor instead of a new First Doctor, and they didn't reset the continuity despite the huge gap between stories. This aired 9 years after the TV movie and 15 years after the final episode of the classic series. Doesn't quite beat the 18 year gap between Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Original Series but it's pretty close.

Here's some more facts for you, to save me from writing an actual introduction:

• This is the first of just three episodes of Doctor Who to have a companion's name in the title (four if you count the Feast of Steven chapter of The Daleks' Master Plan). The others are Smith and Jones and Amy's Choice.
• The episode had the shortest title in all of Doctor Who's then 42-year history until it was beaten a couple of years later by an episode called 42. I don't think that one's in any risk of getting outdone any time soon.
• If they'd kept the numbering, this would've been the first episode of season 27.
• It's the first season opener since The Ribos Operation in 1978 to introduce a new companion, and the first to also introduce a new Doctor in the same story since 1970's Spearhead from Space.
• It's the first story since Mission to the Unknown in 1965 to not feature a single returning actor (even the TV movie had Sylvester McCoy).
• It was directed by Keith Boak, the same guy who did the farting aliens in the Aliens of London two-parter and then never came back. Though to be fair he didn't write it. The episode was written by Russell T Davies, the same guy who wrote the farting aliens in the Aliens of London two-parter. Also the producer for this era.
• I'm not actually sure if I watched this episode on the day it aired, the only Doctor Who I'd seen at that point was the 1996 TV movie, so I wasn't exactly hyped. But it seems very plausible that I walked into a room with it on, saw a wheelie bin burp and then walked back out again. (I watched it a few years later though).

This is going to be a full recap review commentary full of screencaps and SPOILERS, so I'd suggest watching the episode first before reading it. In fact, to be safe you should probably watch all 696 classic episodes as well, even though I'm sure any spoilers I drop about them will be incredibly minor. And I'll be spoiling absolutely nothing about episodes that aired after it; I won't even say the words 'bad wolf' because there's no reference to them in this story at all.

Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Era (1996)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I finally get to stop writing about that bloody Twitch Doctor Who marathon I watched over the summer. I'm all out of classic episodes now, but I do have some a few lists for you and maybe some final thoughts. Also, the 1996 TV movie wasn't actually part of the Twitch marathon or the classic TV series, but it didn't seem right to leave out the Eighth Doctor, so I'm giving you a bonus review as well! You probably guessed that already from the title though.

It's weird how the Eighth Doctor's run ended just as soon as it began, but his logo stuck around in continuous use longer than any other. This slightly modernised version of the Third Doctor's logo introduced here went on to be used for things like books, DVDs and Big Finish audios relating to the classic era for 22 years, until everything was unified under the gold Jodie Whittaker logo this year. Which is good, because to be honest this is maybe my favourite logo of all of them, classic or modern.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for the TV movie and I might even throw in the odd spoiler for the classic series, but I'll not spoil anything that might happen during the revival series. Not even that.

Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor Era (1987-1989)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of classic Doctor Who! This is it, these 12 serials I'm writing about here were the last ones I watched during that two-month Twitch marathon I sat through. That also means that they're presumably the most vivid in my mind, dramatically increasing my chances of remembering things that happened in them!

I definitely remember how glad I was that they'd changed the bloody logo. RIP that terrible neon tube logo, 1980-1986. I get the impression this 3D rendered opening title sequence isn't many people's favourite, especially considering how dated the effects look now, but I'm just happy that it was something different (plus I like the chunky metal WHO). It was nice to get a new arrangement of the theme as well, even though it's far from being my favourite.

There will be SPOILERS below, so if you don't want episodes ruined by a stream of spoilery opinions you'd best leave the article alone for now. Though I'll only ever be spoiling backwards, never forwards, so I'm going to resist the temptation to bring up Asylum of the Daleks or The Magician's Apprentice while writing about Remembrance of the Daleks.

Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor Era (1984-1986)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the Sixth Doctor era of Doctor Who. Yay!

I can't believe that this logo's lasted for three Doctors now. Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker all had two logos and two opening credit sequences each, but this terrible looking neon tube logo just won't die! They did give it a bit of a glow though, plus they swapped in Colin Baker's face and threw in some colourful weirdness for the camera to fly through, seeing as he was the gaudy Doctor.

Underneath this SPOILER warning you'll find reviews for all 11 Sixth Doctor stories and inside those reviews you'll find spoilers. But only for what you've been reading so far, I won't say a word about future stories. Except for in the next paragraph where I'll mention something entirely innocuous about Army of Ghosts.

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Era (1982-1984)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing things again! I watched (almost) all of classic Doctor Who a few weeks back and I watched it wrong, racing through the whole thing in two months instead of spacing the episodes out, thanks to the marathon that Twitch showed a few months ago. I've already written about the first four Doctors and now I'm up to Doctor #5.

New Doctor, same logo, same music, and same opening titles pretty much as well. I'm guessing that they recreated the title sequence from scratch as all the stars and lens flares are different, but giant Peter Davison face aside you'd have to watch them side by side to really notice. I guess they wanted to reassure viewers that they were still watching the same show.

Contained within this very article you have on your screen right are 20 individual reviews covering all three of the Fifth Doctor's seasons and the Five Doctors anniversary special! But not The Twin Dilemma, I'm saving that for next time. There's also a lot of SPOILERS beyond this point, but only for stories that had already aired at the time of the review you're reading. So I may mention something about how a companion came on board, for instance, but I'll not even hint at how they're ultimately going to leave until they're gone.

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Era (1974-1981) - Part 3

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm still reviewing all those stories I watched during Twitch's classic Doctor Who marathon. I've reached the 80s at last, the classic series' final decade and I'm writing about Tom Baker's final season as the Fourth Doctor. That's The Leisure Hive to Logopolis for everyone who hasn't memorised an episode guide.

1980 was the point that John Nathan-Turner took over as producer and he remained in the role for 10 years until its cancellation, when he was finally freed. It was also the point where Christopher H. Bidmead become the script editor, but he only stuck around for the one season. The two of them brought a few changes to the show, but the one I feel like talking about right now is that bloody logo up there. Apparently, the designer thought that a neon sign was the ideal style to make the logo look fresh and modern, and maybe it was really trendy in 1980, I wasn't born yet, I wouldn't know. But right now it looks like it should be hanging up on a shop wall. Plus it's not even an illuminated sign, it's just glass! I hate it so much!

This era also got a new arrangement of the theme music, which was kind of a big change seeing as the original theme had been around in slightly different variations for 17 years. And I don't hate it! In fact, it really grew on me over the next few seasons. I think I still prefer the original theme better though and I'm definitely not so keen on the slit-scan tunnel being replaced with the cheesy starfield. Nathan-Turner thought that the old opening title sequence looked dated and needed an update, but I think the kaleidoscopic time vortex has actually aged better. Making new a title sequence for every season is something I can definitely endorse though, so it's a shame I reckon that they stuck with variations of this one for the next 7 years.

There'll be SPOILERS beyond this point, but not for future episodes. Only past and present ones, relative to the story you're reading. So I won't be sharing my first impressions of Jodie Whittaker's Tardis console room halfway through my review of The Keeper of Traken.

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Era (1974-1981) - Part 2

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing classic Doctor Who stories based on my fading memories of a Twitch marathon I watched ages ago, again!

I've reached the second era of the Fourth Doctor's run here, which was when Graham Williams took over as producer and Anthony Read took over as script editor (before passing the job over to Douglas Adams for season 17). So this article will feature reviews of every serial from seasons 15 to 17, starting with Horror of Fang Rock and ending with The Horns of Nimon.

I'm still dropping SPOILERS for every story I review, but they'll be limited to the current serial and those that came before it. I'm not jumping ahead in my personal timeline.

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Era (1974-1981) - Part 1

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm still reviewing (almost) every classic Doctor Who story based on my fuzzy memories of the Twitch marathon aired across June and July.

I've finally reached the part where I get to share my thoughts on the Fourth Doctor era, which is good, because everyone seems to like it, and bad, because man the guy had a lot of serials to write about! Tom Baker was in the role for seven years and had almost twice the stories of any other Doctor. 30% of the classic Doctor Who serials I watched starred the guy with the scarf! Fortunately, his seasons divide pretty well into three eras, so I've split him up into three articles.

This first post will feature Philip Hinchcliff and Robert Holmes' three gothic horror-themed seasons, spanning from Robot to The Talons of Weng-Chiang. If you want a list of what's in there, check at the top of any 'Greatest Doctor Who Episodes Ever' poll.

There will be SPOILERS below for each serial and maybe earlier ones as well, but I'll not be spoiling anything that happens after.

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Era (1970-1974) - Part 2

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, the second half of my Third Doctor reviews, covering seasons 10 and 11 (that's The Three Doctors to Planet of the Spiders if you're curious).

That also covers this surprise new opening title sequence that appeared at the beginning of season 11. I had no idea that the Tom Baker's diamond logo was introduced in Jon Pertwee's last series! I've never been keen on the logo itself, it looks like it belongs on a bottle of ketchup, but the people in charge of licencing were apparently keen on it. It ended up on VHS tapes, books and even a video game made long after the series itself had gone through its terrible neon tube and 3D logo eras (and then died). Man, I hate that neon tube logo, I hate it so much!

I love the psychedelic slit-scan time vortex effect though. It was created using the same technique they used for the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and by 'technique' I mean 'dark forbidden magic', as I've seen the process involved and it still seems like sorcery to me.

It's my duty to inform you that there will be SPOILERS beyond this point, but I'll only be spoiling the serial I'm reviewing and occasionally stories leading up to it, nothing that came afterwards. So for example, you won't have to worry about me ranting about the terrible neon tube logo from season 18 when I'm talking about the diamond badge logo from season 11. Oh, wait...

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Era (1970-1974) - Part 1

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, my epic Doctor Who review saga continues.

I watched Twitch's classic Doctor Who marathon a few weeks back without any intention whatsoever to write anything about it, because reviewing 600 episodes in a hurry would be crazy, but then afterwards I decided to do it anyway. It wasn't too much work to write about the First and Second Doctor's stories, due to the BBC thoughtfully erasing all their tapes and giving me less to review, but from this point on all the classic serials have been recovered. Plus I found more to write about the Third Doctor's stories because I actually wrote some notes down for them while I was watching, sometimes even three or four sentences per serial! (It was something to do to pass the time).

That's a lot of opinions for one article, so I'm going to split the Pertwee era into two parts for both your sake and mine. I'll give you the first three seasons now and you can come back for the last two and my conclusion later.

There don't seem to be any notes here to let me know what I feel about the Third Doctor's flashy new opening titles sequence, but I'm going to assume that I like it. The effect was produced using the same black and white process as the first two opening titles, but when they tinted the footage it came out looking less spooky and more psychedelic. I definitely like this version of the title text as it's probably my favourite of the classic logos, and I guess the people who made the TV movie thought so as well as they brought it back for the 90s.

I should inform you that there'll be SPOILERS in every review, but nothing from serials later than the one I'm writing about. So there'll be no speculation here on who would win in a fight between Bessie and K-9.

Doctor Who: The Second Doctor Era (1966-1969)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still dealing with the horrifying consequences of my past decisions!

My first mistake was to watch (almost) all of classic Doctor Who over eight weeks during Twitch's marathon. Actually, I'm kind of not regretting that even though it was very much not the way these stories were intended to be watched. My second mistake came afterwards when I let my brain even entertain the possibility of writing a short review for each and every serial I'd watched. That's the kind of thing you really want to prepare for while you're watching them or better still never because that's a lot of words, man. But I figured it was either now or never, I ain't watching them all again.

So I've written down what I remember thinking about the Second Doctor's serials, the ones that Twitch showed anyway (plus a couple of bonus stories). That's 13 whole reviews in one article, some of them more than a couple of paragraphs long! In fact, I'll even throw in an extra opinion right now: I like the way the new title sequence tears apart to reveal the Doctor's face, it's a clever effect. Not sure the plain logo's much of an upgrade though, but I guess they needed to keep it simple to make the video effects work.

There's going to be SPOILERS all over the place, but my plan is to only spoil things that happened either during the episode I'm reviewing, or the ones that came before it. So if you're reading about Tomb of the Cybermen you'll get no spoilers for The War Games, but I might spoil something about The Tenth Planet.

Doctor Who: The First Doctor Era (1963-1966)

I realise that I've been slacking a little bit when it comes to this sci-fi review site of mine. "Next on Sci-Fi Adventures I'll be writing about Deep Space Nine's Rivals," is basically what I said at the end of my last post, and then I disappeared entirely for six months.

What happened was that I got distracted with other things, some of them important, some of them less so. Like that Doctor Who marathon that Twitch was showing a couple of months back for instance. Until then my exposure to the classic series had been pretty pitiful, I'd seen maybe two stories from each Doctor, so I'd always felt like I'd missed out on an important part of British pop culture and there was a gaping hole in my sci-fi knowledge. Then Twitch announced it was showing the entire classic series (more or less) for free over two months and I figured it was an opportunity I couldn't miss. In fact, I even watched some of the stories that they skipped, if there was anything still surviving of them to watch.

Turns out that 8 weeks of 16 episodes a night is actually quite a lot to sit through. But I somehow made it through and my evenings were finally my own again. Then I had my second bad idea!

I had no intention to write about any of the serials for Sci-Fi Adventures because I wouldn't be able to rewind to the stories to check things, getting good screencaps would be a pain, and there was something like 140 of them, so I didn't bother writing up proper notes, or coming up with reviews as I went along. But then afterwards it occurred to me that this was it, I'm never going watch all these stories again, this was my one and only chance to ever write about the whole of classic Doctor Who like this. So I've gone and written mini-reviews of every story I watched using whatever notes and screencaps I did take, the chatlog of conversations I had while watching, and anything that was left in my brain after a few months. I can definitely relate to the Doctor's memory problems now; a lot of the series is still in there but it took a bit of prodding to come out.

What you'll find below are my first 19 reviews covering the whole Hartnell era. I didn't write a synopsis for any of them but I did include some SPOILERS. I'll only be spoiling up to the serial you're currently reading though, so I'm not going to go into a rant about Dodo or whatever midway through The Aztecs.

Star Trek: Discovery - Season 1 Review

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I feel like I need to write a few more words about all those episodes of this poor troubled space show I just watched. For closure and stuff.

Discovery's not the only Star Trek series to have massive behind the scenes problems during its first season; Star Trek: The Next Generation in particular was famously a mess at first, leading to two of the worst seasons in the franchise's entire run until Michael Piller took over as head writer and got the series on track. Deep Space Nine and Voyager, on the other hand, entered their best seasons when Piller left, and Enterprise finally began to shine when Manny Coto took over. You can kind of see this for the Original Series as well, as many of the best episodes came after Gene Coon was brought on as a producer.

So after analysing this pattern I've determined that for Trek series behind the scenes issues are bad for overall episode quality and a change in showrunner is typically good. But for Discovery the behind the scenes problems included creator Bryan Fuller getting kicked out before filming even started, so does that count as good or bad? I had some opinions on that subject while watching the episodes, but now that I've finished the whole season and I've had time to think about it I'm ready to revise those ratings and decide whether the series is really as terrible as people on the internet think it is, or if it's actually as great as other people on the internet think it is.

It probably goes without saying that this is going to include huge SPOILERS for events in the first season taking place between The Vulcan Hello and Will You Take My Hand? but I'll leave this warning here just in case. Plus I may end up spoiling parts of earlier Trek series and movies as well.

Babylon 5 2-15: And Now for a Word

Episode:

37

|

Writer:

J. Michael Straczynski

|

Air Date:

03-May-1995

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about an ISN special report called 36 Hours on Babylon 5, except not really, as the text on screen gives away that it's actually Babylon 5 episode And Now for a Word. It's the series' first format-breaking episode but they didn't break it quite far enough to leave the title off or change the opening credits sequence. It's a bit disappointing really.

Oh, by the way, it's Babylon 5's 25th anniversary! The pilot movie The Gathering aired on the 22nd of February 1993, just one month after Deep Space Nine's pilot Emissary. I was late for the DS9 anniversary and I've missed Red Dwarf's recent 30th anniversary entirely, but this time I finally got it right! (Though to be honest I was planning to have reached the slightly more monumental In the Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum by this point).

Okay, this is one of my regular length reviews, which means I'll be sharing my thoughts on the entire episode and throwing out massive SPOILERS along the way. I'll likely end up spoiling a few of the earlier B5 episodes as well, but I won't even hint at anything that happens after it. Except for just then when I said that Shadow of Z'Ha'Dum is one of the more important ones.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-15: Will You Take My Hand? (Quick Review)

Episode:

15

|

Writer:

Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts

|

Air Date:

11-Feb-2018

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm sharing my opinions on Star Trek: Discovery's first season finale: Will You Take My Hand?

There aren't actually all that many Star Trek episode titles with question marks in. I'm sure it's not something you've ever wondered or cared about, but out of 707 titles, this is only the 6th to have a question mark in the title, after the Original Series' What Are Little Girls Made Of? Who Mourns for Adonais? and Is There in Truth No Beauty? and Deep Space Nine's Doctor Bashir, I Presume? and Who Mourns for Morn? Hey, that Morn title is a play on the other one! I never realised that.

The episode's written by showrunners Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts, and directed by Akiva Goldsman, so they've got the Context is for Kings team back together for this one, more or less. There's only one episode of Discovery so far I haven't been keen on, and it wasn't that one, so no warning signs there for me. Though whenever Akiva Goldsman's involved I can't help but be just a little concerned that Mr Freeze and the Riddler are going to pop up at some point and have a pun battle.

By the way, it says (Quick Review) up there, but that's basically a lie this time. I won't be going through the story scene by scene like I usually do, but you'll be getting a similarly epic mountain of text. Plus I'll be throwing out massive SPOILERS for the whole episode, so please factor that into your decision to read any further. I'm also going to be considering the whole rest of the franchise up to this point fair game, so don't be shocked if you find spoilers for things like Deep Space Nine, Star Trek III, Star Trek IV and Star Trek Into Darkness underneath as well. But not Alice in Wonderland this time.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-14: The War Without, The War Within (Quick Review)

Episode:

14

|

Writer:

Lisa Randolph

|

Air Date:

04-Feb-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about Star Trek: Discovery's The War Without, The War Within.

It's debatable whether Discovery's had the best episodes of any Star Trek series' first season, but one thing that's not in dispute is that it's got the longest titles of a Trek series first season. The War Without, The War Within is the 10th longest title in the franchise's history, meaning that Discovery's already claimed three slots in the all-time top ten. Hopefully they can do better next season; I want to see them knock For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky off the top spot in time for the story's 50th anniversary.

The episode's credited to Lisa Randolph, who also wrote The Wolf Inside just a few weeks back. I guess that explains why it wasn't called The Wolf Within, as she was saving the alliteration for this one to get a higher combo. It was directed by David Solomon, who did a whole lot of Buffy and Dollhouse, plus everyone's favourite episode of Firefly (Out of Gas). He never did any Angel though, weirdly.

Beyond this point there shall be SPOILERS and not just for this episode. Well mostly for this episode, but I may also mention some things that happened in earlier Trek.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-13: What's Past is Prologue (Quick Review)

Episode:

13

|

Writer:

Ted Sullivan

|

Air Date:

28-Jan-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Discovery season one's antepenultimate episode What's Past is Prologue. Wait, hang on, Trek already had a story called Past Prologue! It was the second episode of Deep Space Nine. Though now that I think about it the first episode of DS9 stole its name from a Next Gen story called The Emissary, so it's only fair.

The title comes from The Tempest, which means this is the second Discovery episode in a row to take its name from a line in a Shakespeare play. The phrase 'vaulting ambition' appears in Macbeth, and is spoken by a character trying to talk himself out of committing regicide, while in The Tempest 'what's past is prologue' is said by a character talking someone else into it. So I'm spotting a bit of a theme there. I don't know if that was deliberate though, as this one's by a different writer.

With this Ted Sullivan becomes part of the elite group of writers who've written more than one episode, and Olatunde Osunsanmi becomes the only director so far to return. So if you were ever curious about what would happen if the writer of the episode with the shortest title (Lethe) teamed up with the director of the episode with the longest title (The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry), now you know: they made an episode with the most average length title. Organise the episodes by the length of their name and you'll find this in the exact centre of the list; it's spooky is what it is. I thought both of their previous stories were decent enough though, so no warning signs there. In fact, I've actually been pretty hyped for this one, mostly because the title maybe possibly hints that we're getting some backstory and explanations at last.

This is going to be one of my relatively quick reviews, meaning I won't be going through the episode scene by scene, but you'll still find massive SPOILERS for this story and the ones that preceded it below. In fact, I'll throw in some spoilers for other Trek series like Deep Space Nine for you as well, plus Return of the Jedi and Alice in Wonderland.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-12: Vaulting Ambition (Quick Review)

Episode:

12

|

Writer:

Jordon Nardino

|

Air Date:

21-Jan-2018

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm writing about the shortest ever episode of live-action Star Trek! Discovery's beaten this record twice already, but it's outdone itself yet again here as without the 'previously on' clips and the trailer they like to put at the end, the episode's just over 36 minutes long.

It's called Vaulting Ambition by the way, which is a quote from Macbeth, a story I know absolutely nothing about! But if I wasn't so completely clueless, I'd probably mention that it's from a soliloquy by a guy who realises he's got no good reason to murder a king other than his ambition. Some titles have been a little too obscure, but this one's perhaps a little too clear.

But if you want SPOILERS you're in luck, as my review's going to be full of them, for this episode and probably earlier ones too. I'll also give away the ending of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at some point, so there's something for you to look out for.

Babylon 5 2-14: There All the Honor Lies

Episode:

36

|

Writer:

Peter David

|

Air Date:

26-Apr-1995

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing my thoughts about There All the Honor Lies, considered by many to be the 14th episode of Babylon 5 season 2.

It's also the second and last episode written by Peter David (after Soul Mates six episodes back), and the second to last episode written by anyone but creator J.Michael Straczynski for a long long while. But there's still one Larry DiTillio episode to go this season; JMS hadn't achieved total script domination quite yet.

I'll be recapping the whole episode with screencaps and sharing my opinions and observations, so there'll be wall to wall SPOILERS past this point. I'm sure I'll even spoil events from earlier episodes, but I'll give away nothing from any of the episodes that come after it. Or episodes from entirely different series for that matter.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-11: The Wolf Inside (Quick Review)

Episode:

11

|

Writer:

Lisa Randolph

|

Air Date:

14-Jan-2018

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've finally managed to get a review to land on the correct day! Or at least that's what it'll look like after I mess with the post date to shave a half-hour off. It was more luck than planning this time, as I didn't realise until the last minute that I was writing this on 17/01/2018; a perfect day for a Star Trek post in my opinion.

Unless you're in a country which flips the date to 01/17, in which case it's not.

But I'm not writing about Kirk's crew, I'm writing about Star Trek: Discovery again, as I have done 10 times before. Well, 12 times if you count those trailer reviews, in which I blessed the internet with my hot take on the first draft USS Discovery's boxy ass. This time I'm giving you my reaction to The Wolf Inside, which according to IMDb is the title of exactly zero werewolf movies. I thought I remembered it being a Telltale adventure game at least, but I just checked and the game's actually called The Wolf Among Us.

This is one of my (relatively) quick reviews, which means that instead of a long tedious scene by scene commentary I'll just be sharing my tedious opinions. There will however still be SPOILERS; mostly just for this episode, but I may mention a thing or two about events in earlier Trek episodes.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 2-10: Sanctuary

Episode:

30

|

Writer:

Frederick Rappaport

|

Air Date:

28-Nov-1993

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'd like to apologise for my inability to stick to my long-term plans for the site. I didn't actually tell anyone I was planning to get a Deep Space Nine episode review posted on January 3rd in time for the 25th anniversary, but I was. Also the plan was to have reached a good episode by then, so that I could celebrate the series, and instead I've ended up with... Sanctuary. By the writer of Move Along Home. I'm so sorry.

Not that I'm saying that Sanctuary's a bad episode. No, it would make much more sense to save that bombshell until later in the review.

By the way, every time I start writing about a DS9 episode I check the episode's air date to put in the box above, and then I invariably add '1993' to the post's labels because every single episode I've rewatched and reviewed so far was first aired during the same 12 months. That's 30 episodes in one year, how is that even possible? Well 29 really, seeing as Emissary aired as one feature-length story. But Sanctuary was the penultimate Star Trek episode of 1993, with Next Gen's Parallels bringing the franchise's busiest ever year of television to an end a day later. There will never be more episodes of Trek airing in a year ever again. Unless Discovery gets three spin-offs and they're all released simultaneously.

I'd also planned to make this one of my quick reviews, without the long recap, but it didn't work out. I ended up with a long rant about a four-minute scene that happens in the fourth act and barely mentioned anything else. So I've gone and rewritten the whole thing, to give you more SPOILERS and to give me just a little more reason to resent watching it.

Star Trek: Discovery 1-10: Despite Yourself (Quick Review)

Episode:

10

|

Writer:

Sean Cochran

|

Air Date:

07-Jan-2018

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally getting around to sharing my thoughts about Star Trek: Discovery's new episode, Despite Yourself! I've left it a bit late I'm afraid, as by the time I'm posting this the next episode's almost out. Could be worse though, as I'm 25 years late on my Deep Space Nine reviews.

Discovery's been a bit lazy itself, with the way it took December off, but it's back now for season 1, chapter 2, and Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes is at the helm! I've been waiting for this episode ever since watching the episode of The Orville he directed, Pria, as I was curious which would turn out to be better. Not that a TV director has that much influence on an episode, it's not like he wrote it, but I'm still interested in how it turns out. Which of them is going to impress me more, Despite Yourself or Pria?

There'll be huge SPOILERS for the episode, by the way, and probably earlier Trek episodes as well. Though this is just a quick review and I won't be going through it scene by scene like I usually do with TV shows.

Doctor Who (2005) - Christmas 2016: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

Episode:

827

|

Serial:

264

|

Writer:

Steven Moffat

|

Air Date:

25-Dec-2016

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This Christmas on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about a Doctor Who Christmas special again!

Well, the review was supposed to be done by Christmas anyway. I was aiming for Christmas Day and missed, though that's probably for the best now that I think about it. Two Doctor Who Christmas special posts coming out on consecutive Christmases is dangerously close to becoming a tradition and I'm not keen on getting stuck in traditions. I might even write about the next one at Easter or something just to mix things up. That seems like a good time for a story about rebirth.

The Return of Doctor Mysterio is actually the very next episode after the previous Christmas ep, The Husbands of River Song, as they apparently forgot to air a series of Doctor Who during 2016. It was a leap year too, so that means 365 days between episodes; the longest hiatus since the big one between 1989 and 2005 (the 1996 TV movie doesn't count because it's a movie). That's why it's the Return of Doctor Mysterio by the way.

Though Peter Capaldi had actually been back for a while by the time this entered production, as it was filmed during the production of the 2017 series, between Knock Knock and Oxygen. Must have been weird for them to film an episode without Pearl Mackie around.

Uh, I mean Pearl Mackie, who's that? Never heard of her. I don't even know who Jodie Whittaker is mate. This review only features SPOILERS for this episode and the ones that came before it (Christmas specials especially) and I'll not even be hinting about anything that comes after. Except for a few paragraphs back where I hinted that the next Christmas special is about Jodie Whittaker becoming the next Doctor, which you of course know already.

Man, I said 'Christmas' nine times already and it's only the intro, that's a bit worrying. Ten now.