Talking Meme #10
For the Talking Meme, from eowyn: what about what Doctor Who episode is your favourite, and why?
This is a very, very hard question. This is the hardest question on this list. There are a lot of DW serials and episodes I like! How do I choose? Do I cheat and make a list? Do I do one per Doctor? One for New Who and one for Old Who? Can I do a list per Doctor?
It is also, obviously, as you can see, a good question! I decided to answer it as this: if I'm forced to go downstairs and select an episode to watch for each Doctor right now, which one would I pick? (Presumably, that one will be as reasonably close to current favourite as I can get. Tomorrow, of course, it could be different. It did give a little edge of random to it, anyway & I tried not to be spoilery about anything.)
One: The Aztecs! Although it is a really tough contest between this and An Unearthly Child and while I am far less opposed to the unconvincing cave people than a lot of people* but as a whole serial, let be honest, I want to watch the BBC do the historical stuff that wants to be Shakespeare while Barbara is an actualfax goddess, the Doctor gets into trouble with a cup of cocoa and a nice Aztec lady, and everybody debates the ethics of changing history. It ought to be dodgy, maybe it is, but it's also still marvellous.
Also rans: The Gunfighters, The Romans. (What can I say, if I'm rewatching, I like a comedy historical serial?) If The Crusade was complete, it would probably be here, too. With a honorary mention for The War Machines.
Two: The tragic lack of the Second Doctor in the archives does at least make this a bit easier: The War Games. No, it is not too long! There are four parters with way more padding than The War Games - the only bit of genuine padding it has, is right at the end when Two, Zoe & Jamie are running from the Time Lords and that's fair because when they stop, it'll be the end, and I don't want that to come. Every episode pushes things along and provides a new reveal and the adorable team TARDIS has never been more adorable, heart-breakingly so. It's epic, fun, unusual** ground-breaking for the show, and genuinely tragic at the end.
Also rans: the two new recoveries Web of Fear and Enemy of the World, which maybe, once I've rewatched them a few times might gives TWG a run for its money. (I kind of want to say The Mind Robber, but it can be a bit ploddy in some parts, despite its wonderful weirdness, and I like Tomb less each time I watch it, although it's got some very good stuff in it.) If it existed, The Power of the Daleks, though. If only, if only, dammit.
Three: So hard! None of them are even missing, and do I go for S7 with its distinct feel that I love or plump for the sheer enjoyability of the UNIT family? Depending on which side I fall, it's either Inferno or The Green Death. Many of the UNIT family serials are a lot of fun and it pains me to pick one without Roger Delgado, but I think The Green Death holds up really well in so many ways. There aren't many old DW serials where I start looking around to grab anybody in the house to come and watch with me because they're missing out. Such a fun megalomaniac computer! "I like your handbag!" Green issues a la Doomwatch! "I'm up on the slag heap with the professor!" "Gone to get you a maggot!" "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!" And then the Doctor's heart breaks a bit at the end (and so do all of ours).
But on the other hand, Inferno is one of my all-time favourites: the never-ending pressure of the drilling, the parallel world, meddling with things best not meddled with (oh the 70s search for cheap alternate power sources that are inevitably evil/alien and out to destroy us all!) and the Doctor: "So free will is not an illusion after all." <3
It's tough. Maybe I'll just watch The Ambassadors.... of DEATH instead. I love that one ridiculously and I have no justification for it, and, yes, it's at least one episode too many. But eerie alien space suits! Liz, being abducted: "Don't worry, I won't hurt you!" and the Brigadier and the Doctor cautiously making up to fight a genuine xenophobe. UNIT storm a factory! And best of all: that loose plot end that totally makes lovable Sergeant Benton a murderer by isotope.
But I have no other also-rans in the same category with Three, so... maybe that's why my ones I love, I love and I can't choose between them. (I like lots of the others! I mean, just gazing adoringly at Roger Delgado is a a worthwhile occupation let alone everything else.)
Four: And then Four is hard, because there's so much Four, and so much good Four, but under this criteria, I must apologise for my terrible taste, but it's going to be The Image of the Fendahl. It is not as glorious as Robots of Death and it's been rather messed up somewhere along the way, but it's still Chris Boucher combining idea and character and this time, riffing on horror, gothic stuff, and evolution. How do you kill death? Well, you need to get some salt and the best daily help ever, that's how you kill death. I love it. Although possibly I would only choose it now because I've watched Robots of Death and Ark in Space too many times, which are probably actual favourite and top comfort watching respectively.
Also rans: Terror of the Zygons, The Masque of Mandragora, The Androids of Tara ("Next time I shall not be so lenient!"), State of Decay, Horror of Fang Rock, and probably City of Death. (I say probably, because despite its glorious script, it is a bit... ploddy or something is off with the pacing compared to a lot of Baker-era episodes. But OTOH, that script + Julian Glover pulling off his very best villain of the week & Catherine Schell...)
Five: Five is also tough! For some reason, I wound up with a near-complete run of Five before any other Doctor and used to use them all as collected comfort-vewing, so I have a soft spot for the whole era. (It really does bear rewatching in so many ways.) So, this one is more arbitrary, but let's say Enlightenment: can you ask for more DW-ish weirdness than Eternals racing sailing ships in space for a game? And at the end: "Enlightenment wasn't the prize - enlightenment was the choice."
Also rans: Kinda, Snakedance, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, Earthshock, Black Orchid, The Awakening...
Bonus, because it would be unfair to count it for Five, but The Five Doctors, which is kind of terrible but also amazing and a party. Sometimes you want to sit down and watch Doctor Who have a party and this is exactly that, and Patrick Troughton scene steals throughout, because of course he does. A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about, indeed. (Even if it's only really three Doctors, a fake Doctor and a film insert.) <3
Six: Poor Six is only too easy. Sorry, Six. It was a bad era, it wasn't your fault. Anyway, Vengeance on Varos, hands down. And not just for being the best of a bad bunch, despite its faults - it's a favourite DW serial for me under any definition. It started out as a criticism of video nasties; it's wound up looking eerily prescient about reality TV and has gained relevance instead of losing it. Plus, despite some wooden rebels, you've got Martin Jarvis and Nabil Shaban being excellent, plus the 'Greek chorus' of Etta and Arak. *pauses to shake fist at New Who for not bringing back Nabil Shaban when they could*
Honorary mentions to Six's much more marvellous audio run, of which my two faves are probably Robert Shearman's brilliant and creepy Jubilee (later the basis for Dalek) and Gareth Roberts's The One Doctor, for a contrast.
Seven: My favourite Doctor! If I made this as a list of episodes, it probably would have had nearly all the Seven in it. And, argh, I don't know: can I choose The Happiness Patrol, Ghostlight and The Curse of Fenric in this meme? No? Ghostlight, then. Probably. It's weird and wonderful and riffs on just about all the Victoriana going, plus it has such an excellent moment of confrontation between the Doctor and Ace. And at the end: "Any regrets?"/ "Yes, I wish I'd blown it up instead!" (<3 That's my girl.)
Also rans: Happiness Patrol, The Curse of Fenric, Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Delta & the Bannermen, Battlefield, Dragonfire and Remembrance of the Daleks. (I'd include Survival but it traumatised me too much last time, as it ended and I was transported back to a WORLD WITHOUT THE DOCTOR.)
Eight: LOL, poor Eight - there is only one answer! Luckily, despite its faults, I actually enjoy The TV Movie a lot. Now it's not the future of DW, it can be watched and laughed at. Paul McGann is great, and I actually quite like the Roberts!Master (and I laugh cruelly about how bothered people were by the half-human line back in the day). And you have to give it this: it is still, wig aside, one of the prettiest bits of DW.
And a honorary mention to the many, many excellent audios of Eight, my favourites forever and always being the early run with Charley, especially Robert Shearman's The Chimes of Midnight.
Nine: Probably Rose, because it does re-establish everything quite nicely.
(Um, okay, one day I need to rewatch Nine properly, because I'm sure my real choice for this should be something else.)
Ten: The Shakespeare Code. I should probably have another favourite, but let's be honest, if you make me pull out a Ten episode, it's going to be The Shakespeare Code. If you make me pull out a Ten episode it's going to be S3, because that's where everything clicked for me, whether because Martha, or because it just did, and I'm not going to want an angsty thing or an arc-y thing, and The Shakespeare Code is an awful lot of fun. But you were already getting the part where I have terrible taste, right?
Also rans: The Runaway Bride, for years, the only Christmas Special that I really loved. (I might have more S4 here, if I owned the box set, but I don't. Murray Gold has mellowed over the years and I still get slightly sick and dizzy if I try to rewatched the RTD era, thanks to the score.) And Blink.
Eleven: So many possible contenders, but one that will always beat the rest - The Eleventh Hour! It's lovely and wee!Amelia is so great. I mean, I like Amy, but wee!Amelia is the best.
Also rans: Hide, The Name of the Doctor, The Abominable Snowmen, The Doctor's Wife & Vincent and the Doctor.
Bonus: The Day of the Doctor, which has also been rewatched by me almost as much, because that is the way of my favourite anniversary stories. (And I cry when the Caretaker turns up.) <3 <3 <3
Twelve: You remember the part where I have a huge soft spot for comedy historicals, yes? Well, let me be consistent: Robot of Sherwood. It's very silly, but it's meant to be and it has my heart just for the Maid Marian reference.
Also rans: Mummy on the Orient Express, Face the Raven, The Pilot, The Husbands of River Song, Deep Breath and The Doctor Falls. I haven't had the chance to rewatch much Twelve yet, though. (I may not get quite so ill from Moffat-era Murray Gold, but I still have to ration him out carefully in case he tires me). But I've loved a lot of Twelve and I see much rewatching in the future, and this category becoming almost as impossible as some of the Classic Who ones. The same is true of Eleven, I expect. As yet, the list is honest but a little random!
* There are some really good concepts going on in there, with three sets of people from three time periods reacting to each other as aliens/savages! it bears rewatching much more than Terry Nation cliches do; I feel like my will to live is running out before The Daleks will end.
** The only thing with a similar storyline I can think of is DWJ's The Homeward Bounders, although I'm sure there must be more around and about. And Terrance Dicks resurrects certain elements of it for convenience's sake in The Five Doctors, although given that's the Time Lords again, it links up in a reasonable world-building way, I suppose.
... so all right, that was a bit long and self-indulgent, but sometimes it's nice to remind yourself of all the things you love about your favourite fandom. Have a multi-Doctor fanvid. It is after all, a thing of monsters and imagination and friendship and JOY. <3
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Please click through to comment. -- Current comments:
This is a very, very hard question. This is the hardest question on this list. There are a lot of DW serials and episodes I like! How do I choose? Do I cheat and make a list? Do I do one per Doctor? One for New Who and one for Old Who? Can I do a list per Doctor?
It is also, obviously, as you can see, a good question! I decided to answer it as this: if I'm forced to go downstairs and select an episode to watch for each Doctor right now, which one would I pick? (Presumably, that one will be as reasonably close to current favourite as I can get. Tomorrow, of course, it could be different. It did give a little edge of random to it, anyway & I tried not to be spoilery about anything.)
One: The Aztecs! Although it is a really tough contest between this and An Unearthly Child and while I am far less opposed to the unconvincing cave people than a lot of people* but as a whole serial, let be honest, I want to watch the BBC do the historical stuff that wants to be Shakespeare while Barbara is an actualfax goddess, the Doctor gets into trouble with a cup of cocoa and a nice Aztec lady, and everybody debates the ethics of changing history. It ought to be dodgy, maybe it is, but it's also still marvellous.
Also rans: The Gunfighters, The Romans. (What can I say, if I'm rewatching, I like a comedy historical serial?) If The Crusade was complete, it would probably be here, too. With a honorary mention for The War Machines.
Two: The tragic lack of the Second Doctor in the archives does at least make this a bit easier: The War Games. No, it is not too long! There are four parters with way more padding than The War Games - the only bit of genuine padding it has, is right at the end when Two, Zoe & Jamie are running from the Time Lords and that's fair because when they stop, it'll be the end, and I don't want that to come. Every episode pushes things along and provides a new reveal and the adorable team TARDIS has never been more adorable, heart-breakingly so. It's epic, fun, unusual** ground-breaking for the show, and genuinely tragic at the end.
Also rans: the two new recoveries Web of Fear and Enemy of the World, which maybe, once I've rewatched them a few times might gives TWG a run for its money. (I kind of want to say The Mind Robber, but it can be a bit ploddy in some parts, despite its wonderful weirdness, and I like Tomb less each time I watch it, although it's got some very good stuff in it.) If it existed, The Power of the Daleks, though. If only, if only, dammit.
Three: So hard! None of them are even missing, and do I go for S7 with its distinct feel that I love or plump for the sheer enjoyability of the UNIT family? Depending on which side I fall, it's either Inferno or The Green Death. Many of the UNIT family serials are a lot of fun and it pains me to pick one without Roger Delgado, but I think The Green Death holds up really well in so many ways. There aren't many old DW serials where I start looking around to grab anybody in the house to come and watch with me because they're missing out. Such a fun megalomaniac computer! "I like your handbag!" Green issues a la Doomwatch! "I'm up on the slag heap with the professor!" "Gone to get you a maggot!" "A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!" And then the Doctor's heart breaks a bit at the end (and so do all of ours).
But on the other hand, Inferno is one of my all-time favourites: the never-ending pressure of the drilling, the parallel world, meddling with things best not meddled with (oh the 70s search for cheap alternate power sources that are inevitably evil/alien and out to destroy us all!) and the Doctor: "So free will is not an illusion after all." <3
It's tough. Maybe I'll just watch The Ambassadors.... of DEATH instead. I love that one ridiculously and I have no justification for it, and, yes, it's at least one episode too many. But eerie alien space suits! Liz, being abducted: "Don't worry, I won't hurt you!" and the Brigadier and the Doctor cautiously making up to fight a genuine xenophobe. UNIT storm a factory! And best of all: that loose plot end that totally makes lovable Sergeant Benton a murderer by isotope.
But I have no other also-rans in the same category with Three, so... maybe that's why my ones I love, I love and I can't choose between them. (I like lots of the others! I mean, just gazing adoringly at Roger Delgado is a a worthwhile occupation let alone everything else.)
Four: And then Four is hard, because there's so much Four, and so much good Four, but under this criteria, I must apologise for my terrible taste, but it's going to be The Image of the Fendahl. It is not as glorious as Robots of Death and it's been rather messed up somewhere along the way, but it's still Chris Boucher combining idea and character and this time, riffing on horror, gothic stuff, and evolution. How do you kill death? Well, you need to get some salt and the best daily help ever, that's how you kill death. I love it. Although possibly I would only choose it now because I've watched Robots of Death and Ark in Space too many times, which are probably actual favourite and top comfort watching respectively.
Also rans: Terror of the Zygons, The Masque of Mandragora, The Androids of Tara ("Next time I shall not be so lenient!"), State of Decay, Horror of Fang Rock, and probably City of Death. (I say probably, because despite its glorious script, it is a bit... ploddy or something is off with the pacing compared to a lot of Baker-era episodes. But OTOH, that script + Julian Glover pulling off his very best villain of the week & Catherine Schell...)
Five: Five is also tough! For some reason, I wound up with a near-complete run of Five before any other Doctor and used to use them all as collected comfort-vewing, so I have a soft spot for the whole era. (It really does bear rewatching in so many ways.) So, this one is more arbitrary, but let's say Enlightenment: can you ask for more DW-ish weirdness than Eternals racing sailing ships in space for a game? And at the end: "Enlightenment wasn't the prize - enlightenment was the choice."
Also rans: Kinda, Snakedance, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, Earthshock, Black Orchid, The Awakening...
Bonus, because it would be unfair to count it for Five, but The Five Doctors, which is kind of terrible but also amazing and a party. Sometimes you want to sit down and watch Doctor Who have a party and this is exactly that, and Patrick Troughton scene steals throughout, because of course he does. A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about, indeed. (Even if it's only really three Doctors, a fake Doctor and a film insert.) <3
Six: Poor Six is only too easy. Sorry, Six. It was a bad era, it wasn't your fault. Anyway, Vengeance on Varos, hands down. And not just for being the best of a bad bunch, despite its faults - it's a favourite DW serial for me under any definition. It started out as a criticism of video nasties; it's wound up looking eerily prescient about reality TV and has gained relevance instead of losing it. Plus, despite some wooden rebels, you've got Martin Jarvis and Nabil Shaban being excellent, plus the 'Greek chorus' of Etta and Arak. *pauses to shake fist at New Who for not bringing back Nabil Shaban when they could*
Honorary mentions to Six's much more marvellous audio run, of which my two faves are probably Robert Shearman's brilliant and creepy Jubilee (later the basis for Dalek) and Gareth Roberts's The One Doctor, for a contrast.
Seven: My favourite Doctor! If I made this as a list of episodes, it probably would have had nearly all the Seven in it. And, argh, I don't know: can I choose The Happiness Patrol, Ghostlight and The Curse of Fenric in this meme? No? Ghostlight, then. Probably. It's weird and wonderful and riffs on just about all the Victoriana going, plus it has such an excellent moment of confrontation between the Doctor and Ace. And at the end: "Any regrets?"/ "Yes, I wish I'd blown it up instead!" (<3 That's my girl.)
Also rans: Happiness Patrol, The Curse of Fenric, Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Delta & the Bannermen, Battlefield, Dragonfire and Remembrance of the Daleks. (I'd include Survival but it traumatised me too much last time, as it ended and I was transported back to a WORLD WITHOUT THE DOCTOR.)
Eight: LOL, poor Eight - there is only one answer! Luckily, despite its faults, I actually enjoy The TV Movie a lot. Now it's not the future of DW, it can be watched and laughed at. Paul McGann is great, and I actually quite like the Roberts!Master (and I laugh cruelly about how bothered people were by the half-human line back in the day). And you have to give it this: it is still, wig aside, one of the prettiest bits of DW.
And a honorary mention to the many, many excellent audios of Eight, my favourites forever and always being the early run with Charley, especially Robert Shearman's The Chimes of Midnight.
Nine: Probably Rose, because it does re-establish everything quite nicely.
(Um, okay, one day I need to rewatch Nine properly, because I'm sure my real choice for this should be something else.)
Ten: The Shakespeare Code. I should probably have another favourite, but let's be honest, if you make me pull out a Ten episode, it's going to be The Shakespeare Code. If you make me pull out a Ten episode it's going to be S3, because that's where everything clicked for me, whether because Martha, or because it just did, and I'm not going to want an angsty thing or an arc-y thing, and The Shakespeare Code is an awful lot of fun. But you were already getting the part where I have terrible taste, right?
Also rans: The Runaway Bride, for years, the only Christmas Special that I really loved. (I might have more S4 here, if I owned the box set, but I don't. Murray Gold has mellowed over the years and I still get slightly sick and dizzy if I try to rewatched the RTD era, thanks to the score.) And Blink.
Eleven: So many possible contenders, but one that will always beat the rest - The Eleventh Hour! It's lovely and wee!Amelia is so great. I mean, I like Amy, but wee!Amelia is the best.
Also rans: Hide, The Name of the Doctor, The Abominable Snowmen, The Doctor's Wife & Vincent and the Doctor.
Bonus: The Day of the Doctor, which has also been rewatched by me almost as much, because that is the way of my favourite anniversary stories. (And I cry when the Caretaker turns up.) <3 <3 <3
Twelve: You remember the part where I have a huge soft spot for comedy historicals, yes? Well, let me be consistent: Robot of Sherwood. It's very silly, but it's meant to be and it has my heart just for the Maid Marian reference.
Also rans: Mummy on the Orient Express, Face the Raven, The Pilot, The Husbands of River Song, Deep Breath and The Doctor Falls. I haven't had the chance to rewatch much Twelve yet, though. (I may not get quite so ill from Moffat-era Murray Gold, but I still have to ration him out carefully in case he tires me). But I've loved a lot of Twelve and I see much rewatching in the future, and this category becoming almost as impossible as some of the Classic Who ones. The same is true of Eleven, I expect. As yet, the list is honest but a little random!
* There are some really good concepts going on in there, with three sets of people from three time periods reacting to each other as aliens/savages! it bears rewatching much more than Terry Nation cliches do; I feel like my will to live is running out before The Daleks will end.
** The only thing with a similar storyline I can think of is DWJ's The Homeward Bounders, although I'm sure there must be more around and about. And Terrance Dicks resurrects certain elements of it for convenience's sake in The Five Doctors, although given that's the Time Lords again, it links up in a reasonable world-building way, I suppose.
... so all right, that was a bit long and self-indulgent, but sometimes it's nice to remind yourself of all the things you love about your favourite fandom. Have a multi-Doctor fanvid. It is after all, a thing of monsters and imagination and friendship and JOY. <3
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Please click through to comment. -- Current comments: