It's all subjective, of course. But the show was seven years old when Pertwee took over and was showing signs of weariness (although I think The War Games is terrific). The show could have died when Troughton left. It didn't, but the producers clearly felt the need to change to survive. I would submit that having the eternal wanderer exiled, bitterly resenting it at first, but coming to find a family and actually making the most of his exile, was a twist to the concept, not a reinvention. In fact, there were echoes of Hartnell's Doctor (who could be manipulative and selfish) in Pertwee's occasionally peevish attitude to his exile.

It did need to change to a format which budget's etc.. could cope and be more managable, the choice to go to seven episodes which I believe Letts and Co. got lumbered with was unfortunate all round. I don't mind season 7 that much, season 8 was a much better effort all round. Giving us Colony in Space which got the exiled Doctor off Earth helped and the feel and indeed length of some of the Earthbound stories were more palatable. Ending with the superb classic The Daemons and the Master throughout the season, giving it a link alongside the UNIT side of things more of an ongoing focus.

Which demonstrates just how subjective it is, of course. I think Series 7 is as good as classic Who - Hell, all of Who - got, and that Series 8 was a step down, although still excellent.

I acknowledge what the production team had to do at the time, in the longer run you could see it as one of many factors that saved the show, but I could say Letts and Dicks decision to move The Doctor gradually back into space was a factor as well.

I guess how you perceive Season 7 is down to taste and perception, but my view is that if in 1963 Doctor Who had simply been about an alien exiled to Earth it would have been very limiting and imvho short lived.

What made the show popular was the fact The Doctor had this amazing spaceship which was bigger inside than out and he could go absolutely anywhere in time and space. Every story was different. It was pure escapism, which I personally like.

Suddenly in Season 7 that was all taken away and for me personally, that's a very drastic step away from it's core idea which has served virtually every other season in Classic Who and series in the modern era so well.

I do agree with you that the show was tiring towards the end of Troughton's run and change was needed but that doesn't mean I have to like what followed.

Apples and oranges for me. I loved Season 7 for the very reasons you stated, but I also loved the more lighthearted approach to Season 8 and grew more attached to Jo than Liz.

Of course you don;t have to like it - I've liked very little since Moffat took over, and gave up completely last year. But isn't the very thing you cite as being core to the show - the Doctor being able to go anywhere - given a fantastic twist if you take that away from him for a while? It's like depriving a superhero of his special powers for a bit, to see where it takes us.

What made it fascinating for me was that the Doctor was frustrated, and always trying to escape, but his essential character couldn't resist helping when earth/UNIT needed him. But that didn't preclude doing underhand things, like surreptitiously syphoning off some of the nuclear energy in Inferno to try and get the TARDIS working again. Of all the Doctors, I feel it's Pertwee's which has the most satisfying arc.

Oh, I love Series 8. And The Daemons, for me, is one of my favourite stories. And, on balance, I prefer Jo to Liz. But if Liz had stayed longer, and been given a proper send off, who knows...?

Not really!!!

I get where you're coming from, but I find when a hero gets their powers taken away, it's usually for an episode or two. I've seen that happen in Buffy and in the Superman TV Series and indeed the second Superman Movie in the 70's/80's.

I don't think it worked for me personally, if you listen to Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks on the audio commentaries on the DVD's, they weren't keen on it either which is why they tried to change it in later Seasons.

At least we can agree about Moffat!

I think the main reason I loved Jo was her naivety and innocence in the face of danger, in stark contrast to all the burly and serious characters around, but with more time Liz could have been just as good of a character. It doesn't really help that out of four stories she appeared in, she was sparesly in the last of them. It's a shame she got so little time because she worked great with Pertwee.

Agree with this and other sentiments about Liz in the show, can see her in Season 8 particularly in The Mind of Evil. She got very little to do at times in The Silurians, all I can recall her doing is standing around in the makeshift lab handing stuff to the Doctor aside from the scene in the barn with the Silurian.

I love the seven parters, although Ambassadors is the weakest of them. Marco Polo's soundtrack is joyful from start to finish.

They're long enough for the writer to be creative and do different things. Whole new stories can be added, not just padding subplots. Whole new locations and sets of characters crop up and the story has space to accommodate them. It's able to keep refreshing itself and keep reinventing itself, and the story often ends up in a totally different place from where it started out.

Six parters often sag. There just is not enough going on. Sub plots trudge along. There's capture/escape stuff. Padding. Waffle. Everything treads water and grinds to a halt. There just is not the imagination or ingenuity. Of course this is not always the case (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, talons of Weng Chiang, etc).

Maybe Ambassadors can be accused of some of this (Liz goes through the capture/escape routine a few times), but it's not as painful ass some of the six parters tend to be. The Mutants, The Time Monster, Colony in Space, Monster of Peladon ... these are the real bains of the Pertwee era for me. The Armageddon Factor is a true "lowest ebb" of Tom Baker's years: even rubbish like Meglos can be livened up by (a) brevity, and (b) a silly talking cactus, but The Armageddon factor is like a virgin's knickers: on and on and on and on and on and on.

Give me a seven parter anytime!

I love Ambassadors of Death. It is a quarter of the fantastic Season 7 that more than holds it's own with the other 3 quarters of one of the all-time great seasons of Who, albeit the least traditionally appreciated of the four serials.

For all the talk of over-long serials in the earlier days of Classic Who, much of which criticism is fair, at that particular point in the show's evolution, under the guiding hand of Terrance Dicks, they had become really very good at padding and pacing out serials to support that ponderous length. Sure, it could have been trimmed with positive effect but I don't personally feel like it ever gets boring or totally overstays its welcome. I remain interested in the mystery of the astronauts, the characters, the machinations. Indeed, the finale of the of the serial got a small round of applause from me upon first watching (I'm not speaking figuratively; I really do feel inclined to do that from time to time :P). I really love the ending, with the fallen and disgraced Carrington allowed to surrender with dignity. It would have been so easy to reduce him to a cackling madman. And the doctor's exit subsequent to that was perfect.

This is the era of Pertwee I love: more serious and edgy than the Barry Letts period; less chummy and familiar. Each serial has a genuine sense of menace and foreboding doom for the human race. The doctor may love Earth and the human race but in this period of his life he was PISSED at being stranded there and that gave the 3rd Doctor his pompous and condescending attitude which played so well into the that fraught feeling the season 7 serials have.

I love the Mutants

I love Ambassadors of Death. I first caught it as an omnibus on UK Gold back in the 90s and I loved the atmosphere that it has and the music/soundtrack is one of the best in classic Who (matched or bettered only by "The Daemons" and "Logopolis")

As for The Mutants...my goodness I hate that one. A truly unlikeable villain - which isn't a problem in itself, but he is so xenophobic to the point that when he's presented with the truth at the end, he'd rather keep blasting away (figuratively and literally) than accept that he's wrong. No redeeming features or qualities whatsoever. - and a cast that feels jarring. Stubbs and Cotton are supposed to be best friends but there isn't any real connection between them! Add to that a really boring, overlong and preachy story that hits you over the head with its views - don't be racist! Be more accepting! Don't be so narrow minded! - and you have the worst story in classic Who. It's just too mean spirited.

Of the Pertwee era - which is five seasons of six stories each. I count the below as substandard

Colony in Space
Monster/Curse of Peladon (but thats a personal thing)

Thats it. they are the weakest

I'd like to big up Ambassadors, the Mutants, Time Monster, Planet of the Daleks - all have Pertwee, the Master etc to raise their game

I count the Pertwee era the most successful of the Doctor Who

I definitely find Pertwee's era to be the most consistently brilliant, start to finish. Tom Baker's first few years top anything else in Who, but his time with Graham Williams and JNT, though far from bad, didn't compare, so his run is a little more wonky for me.

I am not sure that any old Who story does not feature at least some padding. It is so funny that in that regard the show has gone from one extreme to the other. Now it is all compression to the point of incomprehensibility.

Any way I really like the start and end of Ambassadors of Death. Particularly the start which is fantastically atmospheric. Cant remember much about the middle but yes I am sure it was full of narrative dead ends and repetitions.

I was under the impression that some of the Impossible Astronaut stuff was a tribute.

Too harsh on both eras but with a bit more under-statement quite a fair point. Both formats have their strengths and weaknesses. Doctor Who now is incapable of telling a story like Marco Polo, just as classic Who was incapabale of telling a story like Heaven Sent or Midnight.

Kind of makes you wish we had both doesn't it? Wait.. we do

I'm not so sure about that. I think Midnight could/would have worked well in C20th DW. Haven't seen Heaven Sent though.

4 episodes long, with week long breaks between episodes? Would have been very difficult to keep the sense of suspense and mounting terror. I think it's perfect at 45 minutes.

Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, the 25min weekly structure would not have worked for Midnight.

It just depends on the sort of story really. New Who is at its best with one-shot stories that put a short spin on things, but Classic Who's format allowed for a much richer dive into the worlds the Doctor visited and the stories could move along at a much smoother pace without having to keep it snappy.

A of D is one of the best for me; a great Pertwee, good eerie otherWorldly music, the dialogue, aliens on earth,a car chase with a then-new ford Capri, the space race, etc.
I love all of season 7 and think it one of the Who greats, along with 1967/68s Troughtons ( the two Yeti stories are outstanding)

Pertwee was my era, my earliest memories of Who was 1971s The Daemons ( another great Who). I love the original series.