Season 10

Here’s the ratings for the stories that made up season 10: -

DWM Mighty 200/ 2014 poll

The Green Death – 39/30

The Three Doctors – 58/51

Carnival of Monsters – 62/64

Frontier in Space – 113/ 127

Planet of the Daleks – 118/ 123

My Ratings

The Green Death

The Three Doctors

Carnival of Monsters

Planet of the Daleks

Frontier in Space

Yes, I tend to agree with the ranking in the 2014 poll, although I agree with both polls that there is precious little to choose between “Frontier in Space” and “Planet of the Daleks”. I am so delighted that fandom in general rates “The Green Death” so highly. It’s a serious candidate for the best Pertwee story so far as far as I’m concerned. In a way it’s quite ironic that in this, the first season in which the Doctor has been able to travel freely since the end of the first story of the season, “The Three Doctors”, the finest story is actually an Earth based, full blown UNIT story – possibly the last great UNIT story, although we shall make our own minds up about that as the next couple of seasons progress. Well, for me one of the keynotes of the season was the Doctor’s gradual realisation of just how fond he was becoming of Jo Grant – the instances of him being a pig towards her have been noticeably far fewer. His leaving scene at the end of “The Green Death” was actually one of the strongest scenes of the era, and proved that when given the opportunity, Pertwee could do quiet emotion just as well as Hartnell or Troughton.

As a whole season, season 10 had more variety than any Pertwee season so far, more variety than any other season since season 6, Troughton’s last, and maybe even season 4. Maybe it is the benefit of hindsight that makes me say that “The Green Death” had something of the feeling of the end of an era. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks would still be around in season 11, but both were coming towards the end of their time on the show. In Dicks’ case, Robert Holmes was being groomed to take over as script editor and shadowed Dicks throughout season 11. According to Richard Molesworth’s biography, Holmes used to joke that this meant him doing the work, and Terrance Dicks popping in to see how things were coming along on the way to the golf course. Holmes and Dicks were friends, so I’m sure that this was an exaggeration, but nevertheless it did reflect that the show was heading in a new direction. For example, it’s telling that there will be no UNIT story totally set on 20^th century Earth in this season – the two ostensibly UNIT stories , “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” and “Planet of the Spiders” involve time manipulation and travelling through space respectively.

That’s all ahead of us. For now, we can look back on season 10, a season that was a transitional one, with some great highlights, and while some of the stories will never be among my personal favourites, all of them were consistently watchable. 

Season Five

That was the famous ‘Monster Season’ then. What can we say about it as a whole? Well, firstly it was far more homogenous than the previous season. The Historicals have gone for one thing. For another, the ‘base under siege’ format is very much to the fore – you can actually argue that only “The Enemy Of The World” is a complete departure from the format. Is this necessarily a good thing? Well, in one way no, because it meant that the weaker stories of the season looked extremely derivative and repetitive. It’s just possible that I would have enjoyed “The Wheel In Space” more if it had come at the end of a more diverse season, for example. Possible – although not extremely likely. On the other hand, if a story like “Fury From The Deep” can stand out amongst the other stories of the season – and for me it does – then it does highlight how good it was.

The Production team had obviously decided by this time what they thought Doctor Who was all about, and for this season they set about providing an unrelenting diet of it. You can’t argue with box office. The fact is that 3 stories from this season made it into the Mighty 200 top 50, and another 2 into the top 100. Comparing it with the first 7 Troughton stories, for those stories the average position in the Mighty 200 works out at 107. For this season it works out as 74. It underlines the fact that people do like good Doctor Who monsters – in this season we had 2 Cybermen stories, 2 Yeti stories, and an Ice Warriors – and one of the other stories, “Fury From The Deep”  had possibly the most frightening scenes we’ve yet seen in Doctor Who. Let’s have a look at the ratings for the season, then: -

Mighty 200 Ratings/ 2014 DWM Poll Ratings

The Web of Fear   23/16

The Tomb of the Cybermen  25/23

Fury From The Deep   41/69

The Abominable Snowmen   59/87

The Ice Warriors   78/141

The Enemy of the World 139/56

The Wheel in Space  156/177

My Ratings

The Abominable Snowmen

Tomb of the Cybermen

Fury from the Deep

The Web of Fear

The Ice Warriors

The Wheel in Space

The Enemy of the World

I do wonder whether, if the Mighty 200 poll was retaken, the positions of both “The Web of Fear” and “The Enemy of the World” would change now that they can actually be seen. As always, this is a purely personal choice. It is very difficult to judge recons against stories that exist in their entirety. As things stand, though, I enjoyed “The Abominable Snowmen” more than I enjoyed any other story this season. I feel bad that the two David Whitaker stories are so far down, yet there really isn’t much to choose between the bottom 4 of my list. 

Season Three

Was Season three the longest season ever? I wouldn’t be at all surprised. It was a massive 10 stories long for a start, and even if you say, yes, well, Mission to the Unknown was only 1 episode, the fact is that the Daleks’ Masterplan was 12 episodes!

Season three for me saw the best of the comedy historicals, in Donald Cotton’s clever and funny The Myth Makers. John Lucarotti’s “The Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Eve” was right up there with his own “The Aztecs” as the most enjoyable of all of the historicals, and maybe even better. If we’re trying to characterise Season Three, I think I can discern at least a couple of trends, namely –

A hefty turnover of companions. Yes, this season saw the Doctor say goodbye, for one reason or another, to Vicky, Katerina, Sara and Steven. Alright, Sara was maybe never conceived as a long term companion, and Jean Marsh has gone on record as saying that she had no intention of carrying on the role even if they had asked her to. The haste with which Katerina was discarded, though, smacks of a lack of foresight and planning. Somehow as well I get the impression that nobody really sat down and worked out what Dodo was going to be like either. So I don’t know whether Dodo was just poorly written, or poorly acted by Jackie Lane, but she never convinced me. What was she doing on the TARDIS? She just sort of arrived. What did she get out of being on the TARDIS? Probably exactly the same as what she would have got out of sitting on a chair in Wimbledon Common for a couple of months. Stupid is as stupid does.

The sidelining of William Hartnell. – In both “The Massacre” and “The Celestial Toymaker” the Doctor disappears for much of the story. In “The Savages” he spends a whole episode comatose. By the end of the third season William Hartnell only has 2 stories left as the Doctorand it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that for producer Innes Lloyd and script editor Gerry Davies this wouldn’t be a moment too soon.

Stories that had interesting concepts, but were not properly realised on screen. Of course I’m referring to the Celestial Toymaker – I’ve already seen how cuts affected the script and what eventually appeared on screen, but it’s also largely true of the Ark, which started so brilliantly, but finished as a rather tame piece of space opera.

I do think we’re in a position to make some reflections on the Hartnell era as a whole, but as there are two stories still to go it is only fair that we watch them first. So let’s have a look at how the stories of the third season rated.

Mighty 200 Positions

The Daleks Masterplan – 42

The Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Eve – 86

The War Machines – 108

The Myth Makers – 126

Mission to the Unknown – 133

The Celestial Toymaker – 151

The Ark – 154

The Savages 162

Galaxy 4 – 172

The Gunfighters – 175

Now my rating

The Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Eve

The Myth Makers

The Daleks’ Masterplan

The Savages

The Ark

The Gunfighters

The War Machines

The Celestial Toymaker

Mission to the Unknown

Galaxy 4

The War machines so far down? Well, this is a personal list, and it comes down to enjoyment. The fact is that the last two episodes of The Ark are poor, but I enjoyed the first two episodes so much that I can’t honestly put it any further down the list even though the last to episodes are rubbish. Am I really saying that I enjoyed The Gunfighters that much more than the War Machines? Too right I am. The Gunfighters has it hands down for me. I’ve already put on record how much I enjoyed the Massacre, and while The Daleks Masterplan has some wonderful moments, it is uneven, which is only what you’d expect from such a mammoth twelve parter. 

Season Two: Overview

The Second Season – Overall

Well , that was different, wasn’t it? Repeat after me – yes it was. The emphasis in the first season, for me, always came back to the crew, and the relationship between all of them. By the time of Planet of Giants they were working together as never before, and had become a really tight little unit. Then the Doctor locked Susan out at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and it was never going to be the same again. It’s been a season of flux. Vicki was actually a good addition to the crew, and allowed , at least in her first couple of stories, to do quite a bit more than Susan ever was. But then seeing off Ian and Barbara at the end of the Chase. That for me symbolized that the Doctor is now undoubtedly the hero of his own show. Yes, Steven will undoubtedly do some of the physical stuff that Ian did, but I can’t see that any companion will ever be the focus of identification for the viewers in the way that the two teachers were for the first season.

I think that there’s been another change as well. In the first season, I think you can argue that the Travellers only really make any difference to the places and people they encounter in The Daleks – The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites. In fact, the most notably sci fi of the stories. That’s only 3 out of 8 stories. There are 9 stories in the second season, and of these you can argue that they have an effect in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” - “The Romans” – giving Nero the idea of burning Rome -  The Web Planet – The Space Museum – The Chase and The Time Meddler. Now ok – in the Time Meddler the Doctor is only acting to preserve the status quo. But there’s another interesting thing – the Time Meddler seems to provide some proof that you actually can change time. That’s a big change too.

But it was a lot of fun wasn’t it? Accuse me of watching through rose tinted spectacles if you like, but there was something to enjoy about each of the 9 stories this season delivered- even if there wasn’t that much you could say that of in The Web Planet. It was a season where the production team(s) continued to experiment – most noticeable for my money in Planet of Giants and The Web Planet.

  

Mighty 200 Ratings

The Dalek Invasion of Earth – 44

The Time Meddler – 75

The Romans – 97

The Crusade - 100

The Rescue – 127

The Chase – 157

Planet of Giants – 163

The Web Planet – 178

The Space Museum – 190

Now my rating

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Planet of Giants

The Time Meddler

The Crusade

The Romans

The Space Museum

The Chase

The Web Planet

The Rescue

The most obvious differences between my list and the mighty 200 rating is that I put Planet of Giants so high. But I honestly thought it was very good indeed – miles better than what I’d heard said, and what I’d read about it in the past. The Rescue, on the other hand, is the bottom of my list, because, well, I’m sorry, but it’s just so bland. The only thing that really saves it at all is Maureen O’Brien’s performance as Vicky – she’s foregrounded n this story and she makes the most of it. As regards The Web Planet – well, I have such mixed feelings about it that if I did the list again tomorrow, I might put it quite a bit higher. Nah, scratch that. I wouldn’t. 

Season One: Overview

Mighty 200 poll – First Season Ratings

Back in 2009 Doctor Who Magazine carried out a poll amongst its readers, to rate the first 200 stories of the classic and new series. These were the positions taken by the stories of the first season. I quote these as a useful comparison to my own ranking. Here’s the Mighty 200 ratings : -

The Daleks - 37

The Aztecs – 57

An Unearthly Child - 61

Marco Polo – 65

The Reign of Terror - 144

The Edge of Destruction - 158

The Keys of Marinus - 160

The Sensorites – 183

Now here’s my rating.

First season -

The Aztecs

Marco Polo

The Keys of Marinus

The Reign of Terror

The Edge of Destruction

The Daleks

An Unearthly Child

The Sensorites

This surprises me somewhat. Had you asked me prior to watching the season whether I thought the Historicals would come out so strongly, I would probably not have said so. This was based purely on how much I enjoyed each story – I didn’t take into account how seminal each story proved to be, or how influential – otherwise the Daleks would obviously have been much higher. As it is, though, it’s overly long, the Thals are a bit of a bore, and it outstays its welcome in my opinion. If I was ranking individual episodes, then episode one of An Unearthly Child would be a lot higher, but the caveman story which takes up three out of four episodes is a yawn. The Sensorites for me is nowhere near as bad as people have told me it is, but it’s still probably the least good of what has actually been a really good series. I’ve loved the way that the crew’s relationship with each other has developed, and feel sad that there’s only two more stories left with them as a unit.