tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768495027896028196.post8288213619452269284..comments2024-03-26T19:08:32.544-04:00Comments on That's alls I know: Classic Doctor Who countdown (#30 - #21)Tommy Kraskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12564935526936828636noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768495027896028196.post-35938227047575561102018-01-19T11:02:05.090-05:002018-01-19T11:02:05.090-05:00"The Awakening" is the rare serial that,..."The Awakening" is the rare serial that, after Philip and I first watched (and loved) it, we went back and watched the whole thing again, this time with the DVD commentary -- we couldn't get enough of it. At the time, it seemed a perfect miniature: buoyant and infectious. When I wrote my very first blog entry, my four-part Peter Davison retrospective, that was my take on it. The most recent time I watched -- I guess about eight or nine months ago -- it seemed so relevant to our current political climate, I was dumbfounded. Some of the Fifth Doctor stories, of course, wear their political statements on their sleeves (e.g., "Terminus," "Warriors"), and heaven knows, dozens upon dozens of Classic Who serials are allegorical in nature -- but I never would have expected to see such an apt evocation of our current political climate in "The Awakening." Yet its tale of a madman who establishes authoritarian rule -- and the forces that arise to support him, indulge him or resist him -- feels like it could have been written today. Seeing the parallels has, for me, made the serial no less delightful, but doubly effective.Tommy Kraskerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12564935526936828636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768495027896028196.post-52447127330103128412018-01-18T17:52:08.191-05:002018-01-18T17:52:08.191-05:00Ah, The Awakening. Two episodes. Small but perfect...Ah, The Awakening. Two episodes. Small but perfectly formed. Denis Lill, so far over the top he's back down the other side. Polly James, sparking so well off Davison I just want her to leave with him at the end of the story and travel with him forever. A genuinely disturbing monster that still utterly works. Oh, it's just... lovely.Walter Dunlophttps://ladydontfallbackwards.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768495027896028196.post-65083711693208709982018-01-17T11:16:42.973-05:002018-01-17T11:16:42.973-05:00I mentioned in my full "Wheel in Space" ...I mentioned in my full "Wheel in Space" essay -- but it didn't make it into my capsule review -- that I think one problem when watching the reconstruction is the limited telesnaps of the guest cast. It's a character-driven script that largely avoids histrionics, and I think when one sees those same shots of the guest cast over and over again in the reconstructions, it's easy to think that their performances (and characterizations) are fairly bland and unexceptional. But the last time I watched, I let the surviving episodes be my guide for how to judge the performances in the missing episodes, and came away with a very different impression. That's not to say you'll ever love "Wheel" -- as you said, you like the monster stories; they're not my favorites -- that's a very big difference between us. I veer more towards the character-driven stories, which is what I think "Wheel" is. And I think the characters are superbly drawn, and if you look at the standard for Cybermen stories -- "Tomb" or "Earthshock," for example -- these characters (particularly, of course, Zoe, but also Gemma Corwyn and Jarvis Bennett) are so much richer. It's also got some of the easy, unforced scene work that I so love in something like "Snakedance," where scenes just seem to unfold, the way they do in the theatre, and we're left to guess what dialogue is "important" and what's just "conversation" -- as opposed to the heightened faux-theatrics of much of '60s television.Tommy Kraskerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12564935526936828636noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6768495027896028196.post-6001221538871307492018-01-16T16:28:23.100-05:002018-01-16T16:28:23.100-05:00I still cannot get behind your love for 'Wheel...I still cannot get behind your love for 'Wheel' - I have tried, and it IS Whitaker, so it should be good, but...I simply can't love it. I think I find the Wheel crew generally less interesting than you do, and as a monster fetishist from childhood the feeble attempts to disguise the fact there are only two cybermen just make me sad (plus, the redesign is not especially effective). One day, perhaps, I'll watch it and finally catch on...tjpieraccinihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00536427543616664938noreply@blogger.com