#instead of either Barbara/Ian or One/Cameca

[hartnellwho]

Heterosexual? Nah; they're both definitely bi.

Doctor Who episodes that aired on the 25th of June…

In 1966, The War Machines Episode 1

[relative-dimension]

“The Bride of Sacrifice”

Season 1 episode 29 - 6th June 1964

[id: Ixta stands with his back to the camera, weapon raised. Through the gap between the weapon and his head Barbara is visible, holding a knife to the throat of Tlotoxl and staring at Ixta. /end id]

At this point, I really wish Tlotoxl had been given the chance to be an interesting villain. There’s so much that could be done with his relationship to his religion and why he so desperately fights to disprove Barbara, despite knowing that elements are engineered as propaganda, and contrasting him with Autloc, and so many things that could be done instead of just having him be Evil for vague reasons and therefore stand for all the different things that the Tardis team stand against.

Is it an entertaining watch: 3/5, regardless of how many missed opportunities there were, this is still a pretty solid story. It’s only when I start thinking about anything that I get actually annoyed, I do understand why this is one of the Absolute Classics. I don’t agree, but I understand.

Does the production hold up: 3/5, I always find scenes of actors pretending that a piece of scenery is heavy incredibly funny, but honestly? They don’t do that badly with the big stone blocking the tunnel entrance.

Does it use its time well: 3/5, there’s enough development and so on, and the build-up to the cliffhanger is well-paced.

Are the characters consistent and well-used: 3/5, often, when characters are missing from serials for whatever reason, they’re just left out, either they’re sat offscreen or left behind or go on ahead, and the story focuses on the others apart from the occasional “oh, I wish [x] were here...” moment. I can’t decide if the way this story deal with that problem, by having Susan as essentially an element of the plot to be moved around and argued over until Carole Ann Ford gets back from holiday, is better or worse, but it does make it much more obvious that she’s missing.

Dr Who also gets a subplot where he gets engaged which is cute I guess. My favourite part of that whole thing is Ian’s reaction, and it’s fun enough that I can ignore how hilariously distracted Dr Who has to be in order to accidentally do that after all of the hints Cameca drops.

Is there anything actually going on under the surface: 2/5, I have more to say about the simplistic ideas of “evil” in stories that deal with much more complicated factors than that, but I think that’s worth saving for a few episodes time, as The Sensories does a lot of weird shit with it and I want to wait until then to dissect it because there’s more to say. For here, I just still think that presenting Tlotoxl as “evil” and the Tenochca as “savages” is just racist.

Does it avoid being a bit dodge with its politics: 3/5, the “oh look we’re being educational” bit with the cacao and all that is probably the most earnest attempt to educate about Tenochcan culture without being weird about it.

Overall Score - 17/30

[defliveblogs]

GUESS WHO’S BACK

BACK AGAIN

DEF IS BACK

anywhooooooooooooo here’s the situation: I haven’t done my wrap-up for Season 2

so i’m gonna do it now!!! and then i’m gonna watch as much as I can of Galaxy 4!!!

hold onto your butts because it’s been well over half a year since i watched season 2 lol

The Doctor

goddamn i wish i had done this when I had *actually* just watched this season instead of like eight months later lol

Okay, so, what I remember about the Doctor in this season: he’s a lot more paternal/amiable in this season than he was in Season One! One has of course already cemented himself as the Doctor in my mind, but in this season we got to see a little bit more of his gentler side. I think of Dalek Invasion of Earth, where we got to explore a little bit more of his relationship with Susan (to devastating effect) and also saw how instantly compassionate he could be with Vicki in The Rescue. We also got to explore his more intuitive (*cough*telepathic*cough) connection with the Tardis via The Web Planet!

Overall, I’ve grown very fond of One. He has his foibles and his faults, but don’t all the Doctors? I really enjoy Hartnell’s face, I have to admit.

Companions and Other Characters

We’ve now said goodbye to everyone we started with - we lost Susan early on in the season, as well as Ian and Barbara towards the end of it. It was sad to see Susan and Ian and Barbara go. Susan’s leaving the Tardis especially hurt, since that line has been quoted SO MANY TIMES across the fandom...

That said, it was also a ton of fun to meet our new companions, Vicki and Steven! Sadly, I don’t really think I have a feel for either of them yet. I’ve only seen two episodes with Steven (and tbqh it was more like one and a quarter) and while I’ve seen a bit more of Vicki, she’s also been tough to pin down. I genuinely forgot that she was in The Web Planet, and I barely remember anything about here from The Chase. She and the Doctor have a fun dynamic though, from what I can tell!

On the other hand.... I have SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THE MONK FROM THE TIME MEDDLER!!!!!! I love this guy so much! He’s such a funny and affable villain, he has weaponized evangelical Christianity (which I lol’d so hard at!) and he has such OUTRAGEOUS goals as a character!! This guy just wants to change the entire history of England apparently for shits and giggles. I love the anachronism, I love his whole character, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Plus, we get to see another Time Lord - the first one (other than Susan if she counts????) we’ve seen that isn’t the Doctor. I really *really* hope he shows up in other episodes, because this guy is an absolute riot!

Episodes

I gotta say, overall this season’s episodes are really strong! Four of my five favorite One episodes were in this season, which makes me wonder if Season 3 can possibly top it.... (since so many episodes are missing the answer is probably “no”)

Planet of Giants - A neat little episode. I loved the giant sets here, and the B-plot was really well executed. Apart from Barbara holding the idiot ball and a couple of dropped plot hooks, this was a really good ep!

The Dalek Invasion of Earth - Good ep! I really enjoyed a lot of the side characters introduced in this, and it was a lot of fun seeing Daleks again! The location filming was awesome, and I really liked Susan in this ep. It was awful to see her go at the end.... I’d rank this as one of my Top Five One episodes!

The Rescue - A clever episode, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I loved meeting Vicki, and I really liked the locked room mystery! Plus, as I mentioned, it had one of my favorite plot structures, with the climax of the episode featuring the Doctor confronting the monster alone and logicking him to death. (Okay not quite but still). I really liked this one!

The Romans - I couldn’t stand much more than 20 minutes of this episode, so I skipped it. The sarcasm was On Point, but the general vibe and atmosphere were too much for me to handle. I don’t usually like historical episodes like this, and The Romans continues to fit the pattern.

The Web Planet - This is genuinely one of the weirdest episodes of Doctor Who I’ve ever seen and yet I also love it to pieces. As strange and poorly paced as it was, I really, REALLY enjoyed it! I’d rank it as one of my top five favorite One episodes.

The Crusade - Skipped entirely. Next.

The Space Museum - I liked this episode! We had some fun playing around with time travel, and Vicki got a moment to shine. It was a surprisingly anti-colonial message for 1960s Great Britain, and I liked it! I don’t remember much more than that about it though...

The Chase - I had SO MUCH FUN with The Chase - especially the episode in the Haunted House! It was just so much fun seeing the Daleks again and watching this crazy chase across time and space. Plus, the episode with the phony Doctor was AMAZING! I was so tense and sure something awful would happen the entire time! We got to meet Steven... and said goodbye to Ian and Barbara. I’d say this is another one of my top five favorite One episodes!

The Time Meddler - GOD I cannot stress enough how much I loved this episode! I don’t feel like I need to go on and on about how much I liked it, because it was just SPOT-ON PERFECT. It is *easily* my new favorite One episode, and has safely ensconced itself as one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time!

Favorites (Season Two)

Episode - The Time Meddler

Character(s) - The Doctor, The Monk

Line - “You’re still my grandchild, and you always will be.” I KNOW EVERYONE GOES FOR “I SHALL COME BACK” BUT THIS IS THE LINE THAT ACTUALLY *HURT* ME OKAY.

Ships - None. I didn’t get much shipping chemistry off anyone this season. Susan/David wasn’t a bad ship, though.

Favorites (Overall - ranked)

Episodes - The Time Meddler, The Sensorites, The Chase, The Web Planet, The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Characters - The Monk, The Doctor, Cameca, Barbara Wright, Susan Foreman

Ships - Doctor/Cameca

annnnnd i think that’s everything! which means I’m all set to finally start season three with GALAXY 4!!!