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The 'watching the whoniverse on iPlayer' thread
doctor blue box
Posts: 7,346 Forum Member
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Since I'm sure many of us are delving into the newly placed archive of almost the entirety of the newly branded 'whoniverse' on iPlayer now, I thought it would be a good idea to create a thread where anyone can give their thoughts on episodes/ stories they've just watched for the first time, or perhaps even noticing things on a rewatch of a story, or any questions you might have about the episode(s) you've just watched.
Basically any musings you have on any of the 'whoniverse' content you've watched on iPlayer recently, this is the dedicated thread for just that.
Basically any musings you have on any of the 'whoniverse' content you've watched on iPlayer recently, this is the dedicated thread for just that.
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Comments
I've watched 6 of the 7 episodes so far, and whilst yes, it's fairly talky, I think most of the conversation seems to further the plot, and it's holding my interest.
It's obviously dated in the sense that Ian, as the middle aged male, seems to be positioned as the main authority on things, but at the same time, Barbara and sometimes Susan do seem to get their opinions heard, and Barbara is shown as strong willed enough that is not as badly dated in its attitudes as I might have imagined, going of this story at least.
I really liked the mischievousness of the whole 'Doctor pretends the fluid link needs mercury to get what he wants' moment, and it's nice to see his passion for exploring already on show at this early stage in the shows history.
Some questions:
It's mentioned that the thals and the daleks have both gotten to the form they are now through evolution. Isn't this explanation at odds with the later assertion with davros creating the daleks? Is this later clarified, or is this early explanation just something that's later ignored like Susan supposedly coming up with the name TARDIS.
The fluid link is so important in this story, and yet in all my years as a fan I've never heard of it mentioned before, so am I right in assuming it was a plot device in this story that's never mentioned again?.
It's also stated that daleks need radiation to survive. Clearly in most stories after they don't need that, or static to power them for that matter. Are these things ever eventually explained away?. ( I don't need to know the explanation if so, because I am placing to eventually watch as much as possible, but it would just be nice to know if these things do get explained eventually or ignored as the backstory evolves).
In Genesis of the Daleks it's stated that the Dalek creatures are what the Kaled race will eventually evolve into. Davros just speeded up the process.
Of course in the first Dalek story the name Kaled is never used and the Daleks used to be known as Dals.
Daleks need Static Electricity in other stories as well. Overtime they evolved better travel machines that didn't need it for power.
https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Static_electricity
Great. Thanks for the info.
Praised The Ribos Operation on another thread. Now just finished The Pirate Planet. God it's such a fun time. Big concepts, lots of chuckles, witty Douglas Adams script, strong characters...an absolute banger. And amidst all the high jinks we have a scene in Part 3 between The Captain and The Doctor which is easily the angriest we ever see the Tom version. Electric. Plus we get a robot parrot dropping deadly lasers from it's metal arse whilst a certain robot dog chases it. I mean...what's not to love??
Stones of Blood upcoming.
Saving the pirate planet for next Sunday.
Meglos is silly fun...
Sounds fun. I'm sure I'll get there one day, but for now I'm attempting to work through in order, so it's still 1963 for some of us
First episode was great, lots of oddities happening, the crew turning on each other, and a real sense that something sinister had come into the TARDIS.
Second episode though, and we find out everything was caused by...a stuck button.
Seemed a rather strange explanation for everything we'd seen. I might have found it clever, except for the fact that it didn't seem to fully explain everything, like why they kept all having pains at the back of their necks, or why the TARDIS was showing random pictures.
Is that 3 stories or 4???
Three. You've seen the middle one, State of Decay (good stuff). First is 'Full Circle' which introduces fan favourite Adric (like that too) and it concludes with 'Warrior's Gate' which is one of my favourite Who stories period. Might not be in the 'fan wisdom' majority there though!
Thats quite the undertaking.....
By the way... do we know how long this back catalogue will be available?
Im assuming its not infinite... as Britbox is the usual home of the classic series.
Says for over a year
I assume that it won't be forever, but I was hoping it'll be at least 12 months or so.
And yes, I understand it is quite an undertaking, and I'm not sure if I'll ultimately manage it, but I'm giving it a try because I want to be able to fully understand all of the shows history.
As a new who fan who had only seen the a handful of classic who stories up to this point, I've had many times on here where I've pondered if something could or might happen, only for people to come along and say things like ' well actually this already occurred back in 1973..' so it would be nice to feel fully informed.
It's a right little oddity and was much derided by my real life older fellow fans in the 80's....but I'm fond of it. Like the early clear indication that the TARDIS is more than 'just' a ship (as they called it back then),it's got some nice dark moments (Scissors! Oooohh!) and the cast give a cheap emergency episode, due to other script problems as well as budgetary issues, a darn good go. Hartnell gets a nice little monologue and I think his scene at the end with an understandably effed off Barbara really shows some development in the crew dynamics. Also find it funny that Ian being bemused throughout most of the story accurately reflected what William Russell thought of the story!
As I say, I really did enjoy the first part, and most of the story, just not the end reveal, as it didn't quite make sense. It was surprising and interesting how quickly they all turned on each other, but I had assumed that was to do with whatever was manipulating them, which added to my disappointment with the explanation that actually nothing of that sort was happening.
Shows how the character of the Doctor has mellowed very much over time and incarnations, when in this story, he's going to throw Ian and Barbara out of the TARDIS at one point, and when Susan points out that they don't know where they are, or even if the atmosphere is breathable outside, his response is basically that he doesn't care. Couldn't imagine modern Doctors being like that.
Re the TARDIS, coming from the perspective of a new viewer, I was a bit bemused that at first Hartnell says ' my TARDIS doesn't think' and insists it's only a machine, only to later concede that with having many computer banks, it does sort of think. Still a million miles away from the evolved backstory we've had for many years now, where TARDIS'S are grown and it's known full well they have a spirit of sorts. Also Ian confirming checking the Doctors chest and confirming his heart ( singular) sounds ok was a bit of an eye raise thing, but I think I've heard that before that the '2 hearts' aspect wasn't even thought up until after Hartnell's run.
P.s does anyone have a logical explanation for how, in this era, when the doors open, when viewed from inside the TARDIS the exterior facing part of the doors look white with roundels at the front, just like the interior, but as soon someone goes outside, of course they are police box doors on the outside?. I find this perplexing.
YES! Im glad someone else noticed this as its bothered me since I was a child watching the show.
For sure, it makes no sense whatsoever - where are the police box doors when those big internal doors swing open.
Of course from C21 Who they have made them literally a set of doors to the outside with the Police Box interior clearly there.
In C20 Who they dabbled with this 'opening to the outside' effect a fair bit but eventually gave up on it as visually it makes no sense whatsoever.
That said I really prefer the big grand internal doors that swing open - it's far more 'dangerous' to me making the decision to 'open the doors' usually with a nice lever on the console.... I miss that from modern console rooms although Jo Martin's one cheated slightly by not showing the doors at all.
Also, when you finally arrive at K9's time with the 4th Doctor, you'll notice that K9 doesnt fit through the doors at all, and is never shown embarking and disembarking the TARDIS.... he would simply trundle towards the police box and Tom Baker would look down 'following him in' even though the prop couldnt mount the threshold let alone fit through the doors
Watching Stones of Blood this week on rewatch.
‘Is that knife sterilised?!’ 🤣🤣🤣
I always assumed that there was vestibule or porch i between the two sets of doors.
I think this may be a permanent or at least long term set up. Britbox in the UK is wholly owned by ITV, and they seem to be absorbing the platform into ITVX. BBC are still licencing their material to Britbox, but they no longer have a vested interest in it.
The pilot episode shows both the police box and internal doors in the same shot. It makes Barbera’s entrance far more dramatic. Thanks to you know who, we might have to wait a while to see it on iPlayer
... or just start a free trial of BritBox or ITVX and watch it for free right now.
Happily I then watched The Gunfighters 1, which is wonderful.
The way the kamelion prop is designed, I'm close the reclaiming them as the first trans character on the show..
Seriously interesting design choices...
so you said in the other thread too.
... eye of the beholder etc.