I’m probably mad for attempting this again but… time to embark on ‘The Pilgrimage’ once more, with a year-long #DoctorWho marathon leading up to the 60th.
Last time I did this was from the 49th to 50th anniversary. Quite a few more seasons added since then of course! Can I squeeze them all in? Let’s find out! #DoctorWhoDay
There’s some effective use of back projection in this story, with lots of rolling clouds seen behind the characters… only ‘slightly* spoiled by their shadows occasionally falling across the “sky”! #DoctorWho
Galaxy 4: Ah, the old sci-fi trope of warning about the dangers of a society run entirely by… (GASP!)…women!
“We have a small number of men, as many as we need. The rest we kill. They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function.” Crikey! 😳 #DoctorWho
In the animation, Maaga grabs Steven by the throat and lifts him bodily off the ground! Surely an embellishment that wasn’t in the original episode? #DoctorWho
It’s hard to get a sense of the Rill spaceship since it’s all scaffolding and bits of perspex. Is that really meant to be the exterior wall? Of a spaceship?? #DoctorWho
Why does everyone in Galaxy 4 go on about “dawns” rather than days? I guess it makes the imminent destruction of the planet sound a bit more poetic.
Funny how Maaga spends the whole story obsessively wanting to take the Rills’ spaceship and only at the last minute thinks of commandeering the TARDIS instead. #DoctorWho
The whole “Aha! The beautiful people are the baddies and the ugly monsters the goodies!” twist seems charmingly simplistic now, but must have been still fairly novel at the time.
And all when Star Trek was just a glint in Roddenberry’s eye… 😀 #DoctorWho
Watched the 2019 remake of Mission To The Unknown. Very good, and when watched in context with the surrounding episodes you could almost believe it was a product of the time. #DoctorWho
There’s still a lot of clumsy misuse of cosmological terms at this point. “Solar system”, “Galaxy”, “Universe”, etc, all get bandied about interchangeably. #DoctorWho
The Myth Makers: another semi-comical historical from Donald Cotton. The antics of the ruling family in Troy are part sitcom and part soap opera, with Barrie Ingram as Paris in particular being a character straight out of a farce. #DoctorWho
And that’s it for Vicki. One again the Doctor has an incredibly cavalier attitude towards letting a teenage girl stay in an unfamiliar time and place to marry the first bloke she got a crush on, and who she met two days ago.
Someone report him to the authorities! 🤪 #DoctorWho
The couple in episode one are arguing about what to watch on space telly - the Mars / Venus match or Mavic Chen’s speech. Disappointing to see that in the year 4000 there’s no longer any such thing as streaming/recording/catchup services. #DoctorWho
Never mind everything else the Daleks have ever done, in the middle of The Daleks Master Plan they needlessly exterminate some mice! You bastards! 😨 #DoctorWho
Karlton (Chen’s No. 2) is an underrated villain. If his episodes still existed I think he’d be up there in the ranks of creepy underlings alongside Nyder from Genesis. #DoctorWho
The previous week’s cliffhanger of a “totally poisonous atmosphere!” then becoming simply some 1960s air pollution is a hilariously crap cop-out. #DoctorWho
Back to DMP and The TARDIS makes a quick stop-off on Earth on New Year’s Day. (I timed the rewatch of this episode well)
Then it’s a welcome return for the Monk. I wish we’d seen the bit where the Doctor wraps him up like a mummy and shoves him in a sarcophagus! #DoctorWho
Towards the end the Delegates are back. Pity we didn’t (apparently) get to see more of Sentreal, the Satanic Christmas Tree. We’re all agreed he’s everyone’s favourite, yes? 😁 #DoctorWho