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Favourite Non-Regular Characters in Classic Who.
daveyboy7472
Posts: 16,420 Forum Member
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Watching through Classic Who I always love watching some of the guest characters, even if the story itself is very good.
I usually love the Robert Holmes created ones, like Glitz, Jago and Litefoot and especially Binro the Heretic from The Ribos Operation. That scene where he realises there is stars above etc was superb and I love the ethos created by this character, even though Ribos is not one of my favourite stories.
I have some more at a later date but for now, what non-regular characters do you like?
Doesn't include UNIT personnel or Returning villains such as Davros etc.
I usually love the Robert Holmes created ones, like Glitz, Jago and Litefoot and especially Binro the Heretic from The Ribos Operation. That scene where he realises there is stars above etc was superb and I love the ethos created by this character, even though Ribos is not one of my favourite stories.
I have some more at a later date but for now, what non-regular characters do you like?
Doesn't include UNIT personnel or Returning villains such as Davros etc.
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In Jago, Litefoot and Binro you have already named some of my favourites.
But I would add Garron and Unstoffe to Binro in Ribos and also Nyder, Professor Rumford, Duggan and Richard Mace.
The Daleks: None
The Edge Of Destruction: N/A
The Keys Of Marinus: The changes between multiple locations means that, on the whole, there isn't a lot of time to get to know various characters but I'd say that Kala (Fiona Walker in a pre I,Claudius role) is by far the most interesting. She wouldn't however be in my "top rank" of guest characters but I probably like her more than any others up to this point.
The Aztecs: I love The Aztecs, and especially the fact that it's Barbara, rather than The Doctor who holds the fate of the group in her hands. One wrong move by her and the time travellers could all find themselves facing death.
The Doctor's relationship with Cameca (Margot Van der Burgh) is charming and John Ringham as Tlotoxl makes a great villain but, once again, neither of these would be in my top rank of characters.
The Sensorites: The Sensorites isn't a bad story but it could have been so much better. Part of the issue is the costume design for the Sensorites (their feet are too big) and the fact that the story talks down to the audience in some respects. It also labours some of the plot points rather heavily eg: the idea that The Sensorites are distinguished by their sashes. "I hadn't thought of that" says the Third Elder (Peter Glaze) blatantly signposting that he'll soon be impersonating the Second Elder.
Having said that, I do like the concept of The Sensorites a lot even though there are no particular standout characters in this story for me.
The Reign Of Terror: None
Planet Of Giants: None
The Dalek Invasion Of Earth:
The Rescue:
The Romans: It's got to be Nero, played with such relish by Derek Francis. Yes, I know he's not strictly historically accurate but I love the interplay with him and The Doctor, Nero's relationship with Poppaea, Hartnell "duffing up" the assassin, Barbara and Ian blissed out of wine. Locusta talking about her job as the official court poisoner. There's so much here to enjoy and, to this point in the series Nero is probably my favourite character.
The Web Planet: None
The Crusade: None
The Space Museum: None
The Chase: None
The Time Meddler: Peter Butterworth's Meddling Monk really makes this story work but it's a pity that he and Hartnell didn't get more scenes together.
The Ark: None
The Gunfighters: None
The War Machines: None
The Tenth Planet: None
Hartnell Character Rankings
01) Nero
02) Tlotoxl
03) Meddling Monk
04) Kala
05) Cameca
I'm not including any of the following missing / incomplete stories:
Marco Polo
Galaxy Four
Mission To The Unknown
The Myth Makers
The Daleks' Masterplan
The Massacre
The Celestial Toymaker
The Savages
The Smugglers
All good characters!:)
Richard Mace I really like, he was another of those 'Guest Companions' Davison had that worked better than his normal ones! Thought Dr Todd worked well within that role as well.
Well that's thorough! Do you like any guest characters from other era's?
Just to add to my list, I thought Amelia Ducat from The Seeds Of Doom was an absolute delight. In a story that scared the crap out of most people at the time she was a little bit of light relief.
From my fave story of Classic Who(Caves Of Androzani), I think both Sharez Jek and Morgus are just brilliant characters. One is highly emotive and the other cold and clinical. I like the way Robert Holmes made them the antithesis of each other.
Just to mention a character mentioned in another thread recently. Duggan from City Of Death.
Punching above his weight he wasn't!
Scorbie from Seeds of Doom
Nyder
Of course.
I thought I'd do a run down of each era but got sidetracked with other stuff tonight. Probably try and do Troughton and Pertwee tomorrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORsGpEwhNQ0.
As was Michael Jayston as The Valeyard. Ooh, he was sinister!
Ardal o'Hanlon as Thomas Kincade Brannigan in Gridlock.
Linda Bellingham as the Inquisitor during The Trial of a Time Lord.
Brian Blessed as King Ycarnos, Joan Sims in The Mysterious Planet (Trial of a Time Lord).
There are too many that I loved, to mention, appearing as either a one off character, or just appearing for one season, never to be seen again after that.
Sister Lamont
The Doctor and Nurse in Spearhead from Space
Pigbin Josh
The Moonbase: None
Tomb Of The Cybermen: A strong opener for Doctor Who's fifth season with an interesting array of characters like Kaftan, Kleig, John Viner and Professor Parry. However, I can't say that I like any of them as much as I like the lowest ranked Hartnell character (Cameca)
The Ice Warriors: None
The Enemy Of The World: I've only seen episode 3 so, not having seen any of the rediscovered episodes am not really in a position to form an accurate opinion.
The Web Of Fear: None
The Dominators: None
The Mind Robber: None
The Invasion: None
The Krotons: None
The Seeds of Death: None
The War Games: I love the opening episodes of The War Games where the audience isn't quite sure what's going on and why the mysterious mist seems to separate soldiers from different time periods.
It's arguably a little over-long and could have perhaps benefitted from a little pruning but there are a number of interesting characters in action.
There's the War Chief (Edward Brayshaw before he became better known to a legion of kids as Mr. Meeker in Rentaghost), General Smythe (Noel Coleman), the Security Chief (James Bree), von Weich (David Garfield) and the War Lord (Philip Madoc) who all add to the entertainment.
For my money the characters here are slightly better than the ones in Tomb and rank as follows:
Troughton Character Rankings
01) War Chief
02) General Smythe
03) War Lord
04) Kaftan
05) Security Chief
06) von Weich
07) Klieg
08) John Viner
09) Professor Parry
Overall Character Rankings
01) Nero
02) Tlotoxl
03) Meddling Monk
04) War Chief
05) General Smythe
06) Kala
07) Cameca
08) Kaftan
09) War Lord
10) Security Chief
11) von Weich
12) Klieg
13) John Viner
14) Professor Parry
I'm not including any of the following missing / incomplete stories:
Power Of The Daleks
The Highlanders
The Macra Terror
The Faceless Ones
Evil Of The Daleks
The Abominable Snowmen
Fury From The Deep
The Wheel In Space
The Space Pirates