41 Weeks to 50: Poll-of-Polls Countdown: The Witch Hunters

[hammard]

Continuing my 50th Anniversary countdown of aggregated poll results for Doctor Who Books, TV Serials & Audio Dramas, with number 41:

Comments

[jjpor]

Thanks for posting. :) I've read this one, and I agree it's pretty good indeed, and a good use of the straight-historical format that really died out after the One era. Well, there was The Highlanders, I guess, but the historicals era was really done by then.

This, though:

This is the only story containing the First Doctor to break into the top 50

This frankly astonishes me. Oh, fandom... ;D

[hammard]

I really like it as well, definately my favourite of the PDA range.

I almost feel it's a shame the pure historicals disappeared with Hartnell, so many were really good. The Highlanders isn't really a historical anyway, just an adaptation of Kidnapped.

I really like Hartnell myself, I recently did my own top 50 and he had the most with 10. I think a lot of newer fans find his stories too slow and drawn out.

There is another Doctor on the list who also only has 1 story (and it's not who you might think).

[jjpor]

My favourite PDA is Festival of Death, but mainly because I'm a hardcore Four/Romana(s) fan, so I'm biased. But this one is definitely up there

[livii]

I consider any story with no aliens (other than the Doctor! ) a historical, and I truly mourn them. You are so right about Vincent and the Doctor ...what could have been!

I'm really sad to see this is the only First Doctor story ...also I should get my hands on this book, since I'm a PDA fan even without the historical bonus!

[jjpor]

Or indeed any rampaging/mad scientists/megalomaniacal computers etc. And technically speaking, the Silurians/Sea Devils aren't aliens either, but... ;D

It would've been great, wouldn't it?

I can't get over this being the only First Doctor story on the list - sometimes I love fandom...and sometimes I could just kick it in its collective head. Ah well, that's just the way it is, I guess. And it's a good read - I don't think you'll regret it.

[swordznsorcery]

I find myself thinking that they ought to do just one straight historical episode in NuWho - just one, to prove it can be done in the modern era, even if it ends up remembered as a bit of an oddity that only the oldschool fans really liked. ;) I mean, Vincent and the Doctor could have easily been done without the weird alien dinosaur-chicken thing and it probably would have won BAFTAs for being daring or whatever. What do I know, though, eh?

The Vesuvius one. A massive volcano obliterating a city isn't enough of a story without having to add in giant fire monsters?! Rarely have I been so exasperated by the programme. Actually it might have approached genuine anger at the time. Thousands of people killed horribly - real people, whose lives we can still look directly into today. And yet somebody somewhere decides that that isn't story enough without monsters.

And they were rubbish monsters too, which makes it even worse.

[hammard]

It's true and they were probably really expensive to CGI in. They should have just admitted they were basing it on The Fires of Vulcan and just have the TARDIS get trapped.

[jjpor]

Amen to that. Not one of my favourites, that one, even if I seem to remember fandom fawning over it at the time. But series 4 didn't really get going until The Unicorn and the Wasp, imho (and then ended up fumbling it horribly in Journey's End, but that's a rant for another day). But yeah, more than enough story and emotion and interest to be going on with, you'd think. Apparently not, though.

[hammard]

I'll tell you which one it is when they come up ;)

I think I would have preferred Vincent and the Doctor as a pure historical. As much as I understand what they were trying to do with the creature a lot of the explanation got lost in time cuts and it felt a bit like the 80s imperative of having a monster for every story (which resulted in the weird rubber lava creature in Caves of Androzani).

[jjpor]

I can't wait! :D

But yes, a sign perhaps that at the heart of the new series there's still that insecurity and need to please the audience that led to some dodgy calls back in RTD's day. Not that there's anything wrong with pleasing the audience, but challenging them a bit more often (and not just in terms of obscure story arcs) might prove a more rewarding strategy than the showrunners seem to think.