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]

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.

Very true - much like Black Orchid, just because it's set on Earth in the past and there are no aliens in it, it doesn't necessarily make it "historical". 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?

I guess. It is a different age and a different culture at this remove, I suppose, but still. Gotta respect the original.

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess Eleven, just for the irony value and for the seeming increase in online fanwank-volume these past three years or so. ;)

Nah, it's Two, isn't it, based on the fact that so few of his stories actually survive fully intact and not many of the spinoff media adaptations dealing with his era are actually all that Two-ish (or good)?

[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.