Classic Doctor Who 1x07/8 "The Escape"/"The Ambush" full reaction
Added 2021-06-27 08:15:59 +0000 UTC"Extermination, then."
Comments
Yeah, Terrance Dicks was a National Treasure. He was actually the first Doctor Who person I ever met about 12 years ago and he was such a character and, of course, an excellent writer. I definitely agree that the Target novels are always worth checking out. <3
Nicole Mazza
2021-07-01 05:56:17 +0000 UTCYeah the music in that scene is great and ups the tension a lot as the Daleks slide back out of view. Although that scene also demonstrates one of the down sides to classic Who, as things were on such tight schedules and budgets episodes sometime were a few minutes too short to fill the run time and so there is sometimes repitition, just to pad it out. In the case of the Daleks sliding back out of view we get that twice. The first is the longer one with the excellent music but then they show it happening again with the Daleks doing the same thing just before the Thalls enter. This in extreme cases can even stretch to entire episodes being put in stories which are just placeholders - where stuff happens but everyone ends up back where they were as now the proper next episode has been written and is ready. The way the BBC and Unions interacted back then meant strikes, delays, walks outs over trivia, the constraints that production had to finish at 5 as everyone just switched everything off and walked off set at 5 all meant early Who was often being made on a wing and a prayer and nearly always at the utter last minute. I never saw any 1st, 2nd or about half of the 3rd Doctors episodes until probably the 90's. I started as a very young child with Pertwee's Doctor in his last series, I mainly remember being delighted more in his car than the TARDIS. And with there being not even video recorders yet and the BBC never repeating any earlier Who my introduction to the early Doctor's as a child was solely through the Target novelisations of the episodes, many written by Daleks and later Lead Writer Terence Dicks. They have all been reprinted since then I think and I can recommend them as a great way to experience some of the missing episodes - Web of Fear terrified me as a kid reading it and I consider it the first horror book I ever read. Actually if I'm honest, it still terrifies me if I read it today!
BobBob
2021-06-30 12:46:47 +0000 UTCI always forget how much I love the trippy music in this one -- especially when the Daleks are hiding from the Thals after putting out food for them. <3 And it's been fun rewatching it after so many years (I think my last Classic Who MEGA MARATHON of all the episodes was about a decade ago), especially since I actually recently re-watched the Cushing movie version, so that one is more fresh in my mind and so it's been fun comparing the two. <3
Nicole Mazza
2021-06-30 04:48:15 +0000 UTCTheres a lot of firsts here, first glimpse of the Dalek inside the shell, first 'exterminate!' and the first hints of the history of Skaro (I'll come back to this much later when you reach later episodes, especially concerning the Dals). Daleks will develop over time, these Daleks have never had cause to leave their city so the manner of how they manouvre using static electricity has served them so far. But as implied here Daleks were scientists and philosophers, they have the smarts to adapt when need arises, they justhavent had the need, so far. In general classic Daleks are more talkative among themselves, less uniform and have more clearly individual personalities. Its a double edged sword writing wise however as long conversations between Dalek voices can becoming a bit grating or tedious just because of how they speak, but I do miss in NuWho the less animated personalities of the individual Daleks. As you note we do get a few exceptions here and there in NuWho, and the individualism is still retained more in other mediums such as Big Finish Dalek stories.
BobBob
2021-06-27 10:20:18 +0000 UTC
