#re-who-atch

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I really like the first episode of The Web Planet, it's just the cast hanging out and having little interactions and exploring the new environment. Barbara and Vicki get to compare experiences from their time periods, Ian and the Doctor display great rapport, the tardis gets to spin around like weeee. Just an all round great episode! plus the Zarbi noises are used pretty sparingly which helps

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Imagining the First Doctor shortly after The Dalek Invasion of Earth sat in Susan's old room long after Ian and Barbara have gone to sleep. Holding close to his chest the worn out shoe he'd taken from Susan before saying goodbye. A quiet moment.

They'd ran away from their people and their home together and now for the first time he's a lone renegade with no-one from home but the TARDIS. His Granddaughter has grown up and still he must journey on.

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There are some stories in the early years that would define Doctor Who, their DNA resonant in the shows entire history. The groundwork would continue being laid down well into Pertwee's run but the First Doctor's era was concocting new formulas and core themes that would beat at the heart of everything to come. An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, The Aztecs, The Time Meddler, The War Machines, and perhaps most beloved of all The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is many things, essential classic viewing, stunningly ambitious, a pretty grim portrayal of a post-apocalypse given the family show framework, and a bittersweet farewell to a beloved companion.

Once again the opening episode is an absolute masterpiece (the consistency of first doctor serials having perfect first episodes is impressive) with excellent atmosphere and in its final few minutes some genuinely very unsettling imagery. But the serial continues firing on all cylinders with a great incidental cast who are varied but all very well realised and an epic scope far beyond anything the show had done before (closest being Marco Polo but even there the stakes are of course substantially lower).

The Daleks is a truly brilliant story that is held back by being perhaps one or two episodes too long, but The Dalek Invasion of Earth is near perfectly paced. Of course, Susan's relationship with David is quite hurried and that makes the ending feel a little odd, this was one element I really didn't mesh with on first viewing all those years ago. But this time around I really did enjoy watching it develop and seeing the Doctor clock what was happening subtly and especially in that heartbreaking final scene come to terms with the fact the time has come to say goodbye.

Him holding her worn through shoe as he steps into the TARDIS to leave her to her new life is just so poetic. Her travelling days are over. Susan's arc of wanting to belong somewhere and asserting herself is woven throughout the series leading up to this moment and the payoff being such a sad but hopeful goodbye is just perfect. Carol Ann Ford gives an incredibly moving performance and the Doctor's speech is so incredibly iconic. I did tear up watching it again.

Occasionally due largely to the limitations of the budget the serial fails to truly deliver on a moment. 60s Who especially struggles with action and a lot of the time this isn't a huge problem but the Daleks can occasionally feel a little impotent which undercuts the stakes of the serial quite a bit. I was a little lost during the assault on the Dalek saucer and I think this largely comes down to the cinematography, I couldn't really tell if the bombs had failed or if the show just couldn't adequately show them working until in the aftermath we are told the assault was a failure and a bloodbath. I can't hold this against the serial too harshly because once again on its budget and with the incredibly tough time restrictions and the inability to reshoot it's all still very impressive, but it did impact the viewing experience.

Overall this serial is absolutely breath-taking and a landmark in Doctor Who history that would undoubtably cement the Daleks as the Doctor's greatest adversaries and would come to define the show moving forward. A genuine spectacle from a show that on a production level shouldn't even have been capable of delivering on such a script. A testament to the entire production team!

[vampyre-daisies]

Next stop Season 2! I'm really looking forward to revisiting this season, some personal favourites and of course Vicki! PLus Steven eventually!!

Also going to be injecting a couple audios into the season as I go!

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Past Doctor Adventures: The Witch Hunters

Finished, I cried. The characterisation of the core cast is absolutely on point and the incidental cast is brilliantly fleshed out. We come to know so many of these characters and their motivations so well that even many of the 'villains' become sympathetic. The Salem witch trails are such a brutal piece of history and it is portrayed so incredibly deeply here (it is for that reason you're in for a difficult read emotionally if you pick this up).

It has flaws certainly but it builds on so many of the character arcs and themes of the early 60s run and I absolutely ate that up. As I experience more and more of the EU I find myself more hungry for stories that really have something to say about the themes and characters. There's certainly a place for a great or fun concept being executed well in the name of fun, but it's stories like The Witch Hunters that become a core part of how you view the characters and ideas of the main show.

More spoiler-y under the cut, nothing specific but yk

The story really digs into the unclear rules of time that govern the show. Giving Barbara a chance to reflect on The Aztecs and Susan a powerful version of this of her own that builds brilliantly on her growing independence. The book also interrogates the Doctor's beliefs, how afraid he is of what his upbringing on Gallifrey has taught him about interference. How true are these rules he follows?

I found chapter four a little too cruel to our core cast, it does incredibly well to show the grim reality of the period to the reader but I've never been a fan of the tardis team being put through this kind of suffering. This is a personal taste thing that some of the extended media leans into too much for me sometimes. I think it impacts the tone of surrounding stories. Maybe because it's hard to imagine a human character recovering from these things, put the doctor in the pain hole for a decade sure but put Ian in the pain hole for more than a couple days and I just don't like it- it feels gratuitous to me. I feel similarly about Jack's burial in Exit Wounds, what are we doing here?

Overall, this sits solidly as a great story for me and one that I'd welcome as a spiritual finale to the first season. A story that the show proper couldn't have done at the time but solidly enriches the overarching narrative.

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The Witch Hunters (PDA Novel) is so good so far! I'm a slow reader but damn the characters are so character! I can hear every line of dialogue in the actors' voices. The book is daring to ask questions about how season one presents the rules of time travel in really interesting character driven ways and I'm eating it up, also the Salem witch trials are such a vivid backdrop for a story.

Have a strong feeling I'll be adding a new story to my favs list by the end 👀

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First Doctor doing vague scientist activities >>> mixing vials, collecting samples and such The Doctor should be allowed to do this on screen more often

[vampyre-daisies]

T-Rex arms, hypersensitivity to sound, loves clear instructions, inability to read faces My autistic queens <3