Doctor Who (1963) 25-10: Silver Nemesis, Part Three

Episode:

677

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

07-Dec-1988

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final part of the infamous Silver Nemesis. It's only a three-parter this one. You can click these links to go to PART ONE or PART TWO.

There had been other three-parter episodes earlier in the show's run, even a couple of two-parters, and a one-parter, but the Seventh Doctor era was when they really became a regular thing. It's a little surprising to me that it took them so long, as splitting up a story into a beginning, a middle, and an end seems very natural, and people love their trilogies. Three-parters also have the advantage, theoretically, of not being padded out with irrelevant scenes and dragging on too long. I'll let you know how well that worked out in this case.

This is going to be full of SPOILERS, at least up to this point in the series.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-09: Silver Nemesis, Part Two

Episode:

676

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

30-Nov-1988

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got more Silver Nemesis for you, whether you want it or not. However you can CLICK HERE if you'd rather go back to to part one.

Silver Nemesis was writer Kevin Clarke's first serial for Doctor Who and, coincidentally, also his last. Though to be fair, at this point every serial was someone's last, as there were only five more stories left before the classic series got cancelled. Doctor Who did eventually come back, but the writers didn't (except for Rona Munro, who returned to write one of Peter Capaldi's final episodes).

There will be SPOILERS here for this episode and earlier stories. You don't have to worry about me spoiling anything that happens later though.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-08: Silver Nemesis, Part One

Episode:

675

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

23-Nov-1988

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Silver Nemesis, Part One, the first episode of Doctor Who's silver anniversary story. In fact, it's not just the show's 25th anniversary celebration, but it's also its 150th serial. The latest Doctor Who story to air, The Power of the Doctor, was the 300th story, so this is exactly halfway through!

Plus it's the 675th episode, which isn't actually significant, except for being a bloody huge number. To put that into some perspective, the 675th episode of Star Trek was the 3rd season Enterprise episode Impulse. (And the 150th Trek story was the second season TNG episode Manhunt.)

It's a bit weird though that this is the anniversary story and not Remembrance of the Daleks, which... has certain connections to a past serial. Also, this is the first anniversary story to not list the number of Doctors it contains in the title. We're up to seven now, so it's probably for the best that they don't all show up.

There will be SPOILERS here for the episode and presumably earlier stories too if it really is an anniversary special like it claims. I won't give away anything that comes later though.

Red Dwarf 1-01: The End - Part 2

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm still writing about Red Dwarf's first episode, somehow. The episode's just 30 minutes long! I don't know why this is happening! It's just that whenever I go to type something about it all this useless trivia comes out of my brain. Like this:

Red Dwarf first aired on February 1988, about five months after Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered and a year before Doctor Who went on its long hiatus. Next Gen was the biggest fish in the TV sci-fi pond in America but it took three years to air on the BBC so Red Dwarf had plenty of time to establish itself as the top sci-fi show in the UK. The End got 4-5 million viewers, which is about what Doctor Who manages at its worst, but it was pretty good for a low-budget UK sitcom and the ratings grew over time. In fact Red Dwarf is still being made to this day (assuming they can get the legal problems sorted out) and would be Britain's longest running sci-fi series if Doctor Who didn't have the unfair advantage of starting 25 years earlier.

Anyway, if you're looking for the first half of this article, CLICK HERE. If you're looking for the conclusion you're already in the right place. Be warned though, there are SPOILERS ahead (for this one episode, not the whole series).

Red Dwarf 1-01: The End - Part 1

Episode:

1

|

Writer:

Rob Grant & Doug Naylor

|

Director:

Ed Bye

|

Air Date:

15-Feb-1988

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm finally writing about long-running British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf! The series started way back in 1988, so if I'd been a bit quicker about it I could've written this in time for the 30th anniversary four years ago. Still, I can't feel too bad as the series did nothing for its 30th either, despite airing new episodes in the two years leading up to it.

People joke about British shows having ridiculous short seasons, but Red Dwarf must set some kind of record for managing just 73 episodes in 30 years. Part of the reason for this is that British sitcoms typically have only one or two writers who work their asses off to get six scripts done a year. In fact Red Dwarf was scripted by former Spitting Image head writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor for the first five years and then Naylor basically handled the rest of it on his own after Grant left. I was kind of hoping they'd sort their problems out and get back together, but last I heard Naylor's in a legal battle to get the rights back from his former friend so it doesn't seem like the rift's going to heal any time soon.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to be analysing this sitcom episode scene by scene, so I won't just be spoiling the story, I'm going to be ruining all the jokes too. I'll not be spoiling later episodes though.

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.