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What Would You Improve: Fourth Doctor Era


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Old 26-06-2014, 15:50
Mrfipp
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Just a question, you have started these threads and well done for that, enjoying them very much but.....I notice you haven't given an opinion on any of them!

Any reason for that? Just think it's a bit weird to start threads like these and not give an opinion???????

Honestly? I hadn't thought about it. I already know my opinions, and I was curious about what other people thought. But you do bring up a point, so I'll try to add my own thoughts to previous and future topics and add my own to the threads.

Improvements for the Fourth Doctor Era would be to give Harry more time, he Four and Sarah Jane were the perfect TARDIS trio, maybe moving the Zygon story to the end of the season, which would also act as a big farewell to UNIT in general. Romana I would need a proper regeneration story, "Destiny" at the very least. Leela's farewell would also need to be redone, since the original was poor at best.

Behind the scenes, reign in Tom Baker. Give him less say in what happen since it gave him too big of a head, and let the producers do their job.
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Old 26-06-2014, 16:14
daveyboy7472
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Honestly? I hadn't thought about it. I already know my opinions, and I was curious about what other people thought. But you do bring up a point, so I'll try to add my own thoughts to previous and future topics and add my own to the threads.

Improvements for the Fourth Doctor Era would be to give Harry more time, he Four and Sarah Jane were the perfect TARDIS trio, maybe moving the Zygon story to the end of the season, which would also act as a big farewell to UNIT in general. Romana I would need a proper regeneration story, "Destiny" at the very least. Leela's farewell would also need to be redone, since the original was poor at best.

Behind the scenes, reign in Tom Baker. Give him less say in what happen since it gave him too big of a head, and let the producers do their job.
Well it just seemed so strange that you started the threads but hadn't given any opinions yourself. It wasn't a criticism as such, just found it unusual to say the least.

I agree with a lot of your post and you said as I did that the Zygon story should have stayed where it was meant to be originally and use it as a UNIT farewell.

Alternatively, I would have liked the full UNIT Crew and Harry just be there in The Android Invasion and The Seeds of Doom and have that as a farewell story instead. Yes, I would have liked Harry to have stayed on in full for Season 13 but you can't imagine where he would have fitted into those other stories like Brain Of Morbius or Pyramid Of Mars etc.

That's why I think my original idea of having Terror Of The Zygons as a UNIT farewell sort of works better.

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Old 27-06-2014, 13:28
meglosmurmurs
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- Agree about Harry, I would have probably kept him on until the end of season 13. I think a team of 3 can feel more dynamic than the usual Doctor/companion relationship.

- At the end of the Key To Time season, I'd have put much more question on the possibility that the White and Black Guardian are the same being. Just to give the season more of a dramatic conclusion. I feel like it would have made alot of impact to put the whole Time Lords beliefs into question like that if The Doctor discovered this.

- One story that kind of bugs me is Invasion of Time. I'd have majorly tidied that up and made Leela's exit way more dramatic. Not sure I'd want her to die, but maybe she could have saved the day some way and caused herself great injury and had to stay on Gallifrey for treatment or something.

- Shada does seem like a missed opportunity. Infact I think it's a better story than the few that preceded it, so they should have made sure they had enough time and resources to finish it. Maybe they should have sacrificed one of the other stories (Creature, Nightmare or Nimon)

- I would have changed Romana's regeneration. Not depending on it solely being funny. I'd have removed the bits with the unnecessary extras and just had her change into Lalla Ward, and The Doctor being concerned that she somehow managed to mold her appearance during the regeneration and that she shouldn't look like someone else. I think it kind of suited Romana's technically-minded personality to say something about how the segment of the key obviously thought Princess Astra's appearance was an appealing one to wear and she thought so too.

- I really like season 18 but it does seem purposely serious. I'd have kept the humour but kept it subtle, not looked to remove it almost completely. I'd have probably had The Watcher appear through the season, as if The Doctor's regeneration is stalking him as it's becoming overdue.

- I did feel like K9 had a bit of a rough ride. Some stories he would obviously have trouble moving around so they just didn't bother with him at all, which is fair enough. A key example being Power of Kroll. But poor old K9 seemed to get badly damaged alot, which is quite sad to watch, especially for the kids. It made K9 seem like a clumsy burden. Like 'oh here we go, K9's had his circuits burnt out again'.

- I don't think I'd have ever had Adric as a long term companion. Just a short-term one that stays with them only during E-Space. I like the suggestion that his brother should have been the companion instead.
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Old 27-06-2014, 23:26
joe_000
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A bit of humour in Tom's final season. A better departure for Leela. More of Romana 1. Not to have the star field title sequence... Never liked them - stick with the time vortex and more episodes of Tom's Doctor with Tegan. That would have been interesting.
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Old 28-06-2014, 06:59
Tom Tit
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I don't typically 'do' things like this because I think hindsight warps our perspective too much on properly judging what would have been good at the the time, but there are three things I will mention, which are points to do with specific stories:

Tom Baker should have got a better send-off after 7 years than 'everything has been prepared for' surrounded by a load of relative strangers.

I love 'The Deadly Assassin' but I've never liked the Time Lord legacy it saddled us with: a bunch of ineffectual old fogeys shuffling around being boring. I would make one small change to the story: I would make it set in Gallifrey's past, not contemporaneous with the Doctor's life: a historical if you like, just like in the Hartnell perod, but set on Gallifrey. That way we keep the fantastic story and also would have kept the mystery of the Time Lords that we lost subsequent to it.

The Gallifreyan man Leela falls in love with in the Invasion of Time should have been a Gallifreyan rebel from the wastelands, not one from the citadel. That would have made far more sense: he would have the similar, wild, survivalist background of Leela, paired with the advanced intellect of the Doctor, the man she admires. That would seem to be a perfect partner for her and a man she could credibly fall in love with and want to stay with.
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Old 28-06-2014, 08:29
Pull2Open
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The Gallifreyan man Leela falls in love with in the Invasion of Time should have been a Gallifreyan rebel from the wastelands, not one from the citadel. That would have made far more sense: he would have the similar, wild, survivalist background of Leela, paired with the advanced intellect of the Doctor, the man she admires. That would seem to be a perfect partner for her and a man she could credibly fall in love with and want to stay with.
I was never convinced by the whole Leela falling in love thing anyway. I don't think Leela would have let love get in the way of what she considered to be honour ie travelling with the Doctor and helping those who need it.

I think Leela should have been killed off in a highly heroic way.
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Old 28-06-2014, 09:23
Phoenix Lazarus
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The Gallifreyan man Leela falls in love with in the Invasion of Time should have been a Gallifreyan rebel from the wastelands, not one from the citadel. That would have made far more sense: he would have the similar, wild, survivalist background of Leela, paired with the advanced intellect of the Doctor, the man she admires. That would seem to be a perfect partner for her and a man she could credibly fall in love with and want to stay with.
Not unlike the incongrousness of Peri marrying a barbarian king.
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Old 28-06-2014, 15:08
Michael_Eve
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Not unlike the incongrousness of Peri marrying a barbarian king.
With a VERY LOUD VOICE!

Thought that was a complete cop-out at the time. Peri wasn't my favourite companion, but Nicola Bryant's performance at the end of Mindwarp was superb, and that reveal really undermines it in retrospect.

Back OT, agree with above comments about Leela's departure. Rubbish, basically. I can only assume the production team were still holding out for Louise to do another year? Then again, I believe the whole production of Invasion of Time was a "seat of their pants" scenario after another story fell through. I personally think it has it's really good moments; Leela 'falling in love' and electing to stay with a not very interesting character was not one of them.
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