Comments | who_at_50: 18 Weeks To 50: The Curse of Fenric

hammard in who_at_50

18 Weeks To 50: The Curse of Fenric

Jul 20, 2013 17:27

We're now into the top 20 of my 50th Anniversary countdown of aggregated poll results for Doctor Who Books, TV Serials & Audio Dramas, with number 18:

( #18 Behind Cut )

50 years of who, television stories, poll-of-polls countdown, seventh doctor

Comments 44

sueworld2003 July 20 2013, 17:51:00 UTC

"1. The Haemovores are genuinely frightening and look fantastic."

Aww, shucks, thank you very much. My (then) business partner and myself made them. Glad to hear folks still like them even after all this time.

hammard July 20 2013, 18:15:46 UTC

Awesome. Even today they hold up brilliantly. You should be very proud.

sueworld2003 July 20 2013, 20:45:02 UTC

Thanks. :)

ponygirl72 July 21 2013, 01:00:46 UTC

Indeed you should, OP. The haemovores are brilliant Classic Who monsters!

Thread 20

ponygirl72 July 21 2013, 00:59:25 UTC

Finally, my icon is 100% appropriate! (ahem)

Yeah, I would have to place this one in my top two or three personal favorites when it comes to televised stories. I have to ask, though-- I'm shocked about the statistical snippet regarding vampire stories. What about the sublime Paul Cornell offering, Goth Opera?!

hammard July 21 2013, 08:49:49 UTC

I love Goth Opera too (apart from a slight pet peeve of mine that it is set in 1993 rather than 1983, but that's a minor issue). It comes in at #203, right next to Vampire Science at #208. This tends to be middling-good stories sitting near Black Orchid, Amy's Choice, Rose and The Ribos Operation.
I'm not 100% sure why it's not that well liked. Apparently DWM ripped it apart at the time. From what I can tell is that a lot of people at time were disappointed Cornell wasn't doing anything amazing like Timewyrm: Revelation, Love and War or No Future, but yet it didn't directly capture the mind-bending philosphical bent of Season 22.
Personally I'd put it much higher. But I also love Blood Harvest as well and fans place that down at #409, near The Sun Markers, The Doctor The Widow & The Wardrobe and The Reign of Terror.

jjpor July 21 2013, 20:59:47 UTC

Fans don't know what they're talking about, clearly. ;D

swordznsorcery July 22 2013, 01:04:54 UTC

No, they don't. If they put "Reign Of Terror" down that low, then quite frankly fans should never be allowed anywhere near a poll!

Except me, obviously. ;)

Thread 8

jjpor July 21 2013, 21:14:37 UTC

Another one of my personal top favourites - I remember being completely blown away by it when I first saw it as a wee nipper on BBC1 and the Target novelisation is one of the best in the range imho as well. Some great supporting characters and performances, iconic monsters (well they should be iconic, anyway) and the Seven and Ace interaction is just sublime - this and Ghost Light are the stories that elevate their relationship to one of the very best Doctor-companion "things" in the whole 50 years, imho. And some genuinely deep and meaningful meditations on the morality of war. It's kind of noteworthy that it took the original series practically its entire twenty-six year run to get around to dealing with the Second World War directly (as opposed to using metaphors as in, well, just about every Dalek story, for instance), and it managed to say more about it in one story than the new series has managed in repeated visits over the course of just eight years ( ... )

hammard July 22 2013, 18:20:42 UTC

Yeah it always blows me away too, even after however many times I've watched it. I hold Season 26 is the closest the show has ever had to perfect season and this is the jewel in the crown.

jjpor July 22 2013, 21:50:14 UTC

Indeed so. Certainly, a couple of dodgy ones aside, Seasons 25 and 26 combined are probably the strongest run the programme had had in quite a number of years. Six and Five both had good individual stories, but the overall quality was so inconsistent during those years. And it's those years, particularly Season 22, that really killed the classic series. The bitter irony is that it was finding its feet again at the very moment that the axe finally fell. Typical.

swordznsorcery July 24 2013, 01:51:01 UTC

I cannot disagree with this analysis, much though it pains me to admit to there being anything wrong with the Davison era. He's great, he really is, but when I watch his stories today I can't help but cringe at times. The badly over-lit sets and shoddy props are pretty unforgivable. Yes, they were battling with low budgets, but "Blake's 7" managed to overcome that. Even with wobbly spaceships and occasionally laugh out loud costumes, it's still a gritty and well-made show. At times during the eighties, it's just not possible to call DW that. I would argue that the same is true of the later Tom Baker era too. And then poor Colin! His era was so bad that the poor man wasn't even taken seriously by a lot of fans until the audios came along. McCoy had a rough beginning, but that last series was good stuff. Had they axed the show a year or two earlier, it wouldn't have seemed nearly so unfair.

Thread 5

swordznsorcery July 22 2013, 01:00:16 UTC

One that I haven't seen in a very long time. I really ought to revisit the Seventh Doctor era sometime soon. I do recall enjoying it a lot though. Good to hear that "Son Of The Dragon" did quite well, too! I really loved that one. How do the audio adventures compare with the TV episodes in the voting stakes? I'm guessing that that the TV side of things has a natural advantage, since it has a much bigger audience?

hammard July 22 2013, 08:38:44 UTC

Without being too specific about future results:
Audios average 67% with a Standard Deviation of 8.
Books average 65% with SD of 9.
TV stories average 69% with an SD of 11.

So audio adventures average slightly less but tend to stay more around the same level.

swordznsorcery July 22 2013, 22:55:47 UTC

Thank you. That's interesting! I had assumed that TV episodes would be well in advance, but that's not as big a lead as I'd expected. I suppose that's what happens when you canvas fans. Interesting also that the audios seem to have a lead on the books. I would probably have expected it to be the other way around.

hammard July 23 2013, 07:12:10 UTC

I think the bottom end tends to skew it. Whilst there are few really badly considered big finish audios (6 in the bottom 50) there are quite a number of really badly considered books (29 in the bottom 50, mostly by Terrance Dicks, Gary Russell and Christopher Bulis).
I may well do a bonus round at some point giving a bottom 10 for the sake of comparison.

Thread 9

a_phoenixdragon July 22 2013, 23:40:10 UTC

Ohh, need to see this one again...

femme_slash_fan July 23 2013, 21:50:28 UTC

It's fairly angsty too! Right up your alley... if you know what I mean. *cough*