TV #26 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 12 A bright new era for the show, with incoming Fourth Doctor Tom Baker — still many viewers’ platonic ideal of the gallivanting Time Lord hero, who would go on for a record seven seasons in the role — making an immediate impression. This initial material doesn’t …
Tag Archives: Classic Doctor Who
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 11
TV #12 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 11 A true end of an era for this show, but unfortunately not one that finds it at its best. The current star Jon Pertwee makes his exit here, of course, but behind the scenes, the influential producer Barry Letts and his script editor Terrance Dicks (who …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 10
TV #6 of 2024: Classic Doctor Who, season 10 Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor still has another year to go before he regenerates into Tom Baker, but this penultimate run feels like a farewell tour for his era in so many ways. The final story, The Green Death, culminates in the exit of costar Katy Manning …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 9
TV #59 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 9 Narrowly more good than great in my opinion, and certainly less innovative than the Third Doctor’s first two seasons, which radically overhauled the series on several levels and then introduced the delightful recurring villain the Master. The main change this year is just that the Doctor …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 8
TV #45 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 8 The Third Doctor’s sophomore season leans into the strengths of the previous year, which showed how the venerable sci-fi program could adapt its time-traveling and space-hopping premise to an earthbound format, with the hero assisting the UNIT military forces fend off alien invasions. He’s now joined …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 7
TV #32 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 7 Previously for this rewatch, I’ve been assigning each season of Classic Who an average rating that’s the literal mean of my ratings for the individual serials within. I’m going to cheat a little this time, though, both since there are only four stories in season 7 …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 6
TV #20 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 6 The end of an era for the show, in several different ways. This 1968-1969 run is the final year to be aired in black-and-white, and from a modern perspective, it contains the last episodes that are missing from the BBC archives, with only the audio recordings …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 5
TV #8 of 2023: Classic Doctor Who, season 5 I guess I have to concede, based on the average ratings I give its seven component serials below, that this season of old Doctor Who is still narrowly more good than great overall. But it’s easily my favorite of this rewatch yet, with some fun minor …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 4
TV #60 of 2022: Classic Doctor Who, season 4 This is the most incomplete surviving season of Doctor Who, meaning it has the highest number of episodes currently missing from any modern archive: 33 gone, and only 10 available to be viewed. As with all of the absent material for Who, we do have audio …
TV Review: Classic Doctor Who, season 3
TV #42 of 2022: Classic Doctor Who, season 3 Airing from 1965 to 1966, original Doctor William Hartnell’s last full year in the role marks a turbulent time for Doctor Who both off-screen and on-, as is perhaps best exemplified by the sheer volume of companion turnover: starting the season with Vicki and Steven and …
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