Watched this yesterday on Sci-Fi, usually with some certain Old Who episodes I tend to get bored with the amount of padding (Hell, some episodes The Doc only manages to do one thing before another cliffhanger appears) but watching this yesterday it was very fast paced at times. Of course there were a few annoyances such as Peris acting () but I have to say this actually surprised me and I quite enjoyed it, plus, the Brilliant Second Doctor was in it, it was fun comparing how 2 & 6 have the exact opposite communication and feeling for each other compared to 5 & 10. Anyone else out there who expected this to be rubbish but enjoyed it in the end?

I liked it too i also have it on DVD

I'm in the middle of watching it at the moment lol. Although I think I've seen it before.

I agree that it's a better pace than some old stories.

I was bored and watched this last night. I had really forgotten how much of a complete babe Peri was.

If the director had been paid per cleavage shot, he could have retired straight away

There are some horrible errors and issues in this which even I cannot forgive

1 - the 2nd Doctor working for the timelords. This Doctor comes from series 5 and he was definitley not working for the Time Lords - he was on the run from them.

2 - He was able to steer the Tardis to take Victoria to study Graphology. The 2nd Doctor couild not control the Tardis let alone steer it.

3 - Victoria studying Graphology is a bit bizzare. She was a timid child who was with the Doctor becuase her father had been killed by The Daleks. This never changed and she would not have left the Tardis for a year (Zoe maybe).

5 - The Sontarans are just not right. Why do the need to allie themselves with Dastari? They previously managed to invade Galifrey - It just watered them down.

6 - The whole symbiosis thing just does not hang together.

One other thing

The murder of Oscar in the restaurant was just not justified at all.

Okay that said, I think the rest of the story is pretty good. The scenes on the space station where doc 6 and Peri meet Jamie is pretty good.

But for me my favourite bit is when Doc 6 is starting to sucumbe to the augmentation - "Cat, Cat" and "Capercallies In brandy sauce"

This story misses the traditional Robert Holmes double act - though Doc 2 and Shockeye come pretty close when they go into Seville.

So ignorring the blunders I think this is probably ione of the best from the 6th Doctors tenure but perhaps clocks in at 45 minutes too long.



"This has all the marks of a conspiracy"
"A Conspiracy?"
"Ay - A Plot"

See series 6B
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season_6B

It goes on a bit on the space station at the beginning, but the Seville bits are wonderful. The Sontarans are okay (not brilliant, but perfectly okay); there are some nicely savage bits (but the Oscar murder is maybe a step too far); Jacqueline Pearce gives her usually magnificent, understated, nuanced performance; the story is fun; Pat Troughton is fun; Oscar and Anita are loveable ... eminently watchable.

Not 6b again

Okay

1 - It is a fan theory put together to justify a cock up by Terence Dicks in the 5 Doctors and Robert Holmes in The Two Doctors regarding continuity - therefore it is not canon.

2 - The theory (and I do have the Discontinuity Guide) was proposed 10 years after The Two Doctors aired. I suspect it was a bit of fun on the part of Mr Cornell and co.

2 - I refer to my comments about Victoria - she was a timid child who was very scared. I cannot believe that she would agree to go travelling with the Doctor again and jump ship to study Graphology.

The idea of 6b is good fun but was proposed in a book which was not meant to be taken seriously (references to Jo grant's velvet knickers!! ffs).

Thw Two Doctors is a canonocal work but has the errors I highlighted.

Ah the Victor Kennedy type!

The classic series never took continuity seriously (there's 3 different reasons for atlantis), just enjoy it and don't get bogged down with irrelevancies. We'll be here all year if we go through the entire series for continuity problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_retentive

Sorry - not sure what you mean by that.

I don't normally get bogged down in continuity - I like the 2 doctors mostly. I normally justify continuity issues it to myself by saying that whatever happens that contradicts previous happenings is normally because the Dr has changed the time line by being where he should not have been. These continuity issues usually affect the time lines and events of people and places around the Doctor.

However the Two Doctors directly contradicts the Doctor's own timeline and that just grates. It was an acknowledged cockup by Bob Holmes and should have been picked up by Eric Saward. It could easily have been rectified and would noty have been such a problem if he had not referred to Victoria.

I'm probably judging you unfairly with the continuity nutters out there. But I don't think that the errors with this episode are that intrustive - the Doctor looks a heck of a lot older than when he was the current Doctor (and I prefer the 6B theory to everything what else was on screen - I don't like the idea of the 2nd Doctor being only around for a couple of years in tht incarnation). Compare some of the later stuff with the First Doctors era and there are many such errors. Also the limit on the 13 incarnations of the Doctor is a contridiction.

I think an "ah f*ck it" attitude suits continuity errors much better

I think it's unfair No you probably are right and it is the only one that has ever got to me. So as you say "ah F*ck it".

It's a good enough story and perhaps I ought to be wondering what capercallies in brandy sauce would tase like.

Now is that the Black Billed Capercaillie or the western variety. I hope he wasn't referring to the scottish folk - rock band.................................

They were quite hard to miss, to be fair. The director was just paid to do his job. I think John Nathan-Turner was always keen that Nicola Bryant's assets should feature prominently in the narrative.

Highly enjoyable story. Peri looks great too.
As for continuity, get over it. Classic Who offers 3 different explanations for the destruction of Atlantis none of which fits in with the other. For ref they are The Underwater Menace where it sank after a massive volcanic eruption and Prof Zaroff wants to raise it again by blowing up the same volcano?? In The Daemons it was said Azal destroyed Atlantis as a failed experiment and in The Time Monster it was destroyed by Kronos and The Master, work that lot into canon.
Dr Who is hokum, pure entertainment most fans should get over themselves, leave this kind of crap to Trekkies.

Not to mention that by Time Warrior the 3rd Doctor seemed to think he had never seen a Sontaran before.

The things that the 2nd Doctor did not remember from this adventure are also explained in the series 6b theory