*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Some might be milder than others, but spoilers all the same ~ at least, for people who don't like to expect anything when watching Classic Who, like me, kinda...
And so it begins...
Several weeks ago, I bought the "Dalek Wars" boxset of two Jon Pertwee stories regarding the Daleks; Frontier In Space and Planet of The Daleks. They're the first Classic Who stories I've managed to watch back-to-back in chronological order to the whole series, and so far they're among my favorites.
First was "Frontier In Space"... Beforehand, the only two 3rd Doctor stories I've seen were Colony In Space and Day of The Daleks. Though my expectations of Frontier weren't fairly high, I've found myself pleasantly surprised.
Right off the bat, the basic plot of the whole story is quickly laid out and explained. It appeared to start of fairly slow paced but kept itself steadily going after the first episode. For a story from the 60's, the Cold War seemed to be a very heavy influence on the plot and philosophy of it. However, I'm sure that wasn't the first war caused by tension and war-fixated paranoia...
At any rate, another fantastic aspect of the story was The Master. His entrance had a very familiar but powerful presence in it, you could've probably suspected his role in the scenario to begin with but even still it had a powerful effect. Here (at least for me) The Master's whole character seems to be very thoroughly laid out through his actions. His character is equally as powerful as The Doctor's, and he's portrayed in a manner that makes sense out of some classic villain cliches.
The Master aside, the overall story has some very excellent acting in it altogether. Even the make-up of the Draconians is surprisingly convincing. It made room for me to believe they had quite a bit of elbow room in their budget when this serial was made.
To anyone new to Classic episodes of Doctor Who, I can't really say it would be a great place to start off but absolutely a milestone to watch after getting some background on the 3rd Doctor, his companion (How's it spelled? Joan? Jon? Jane?) and The Master. I don't have many others in my collection to compare it to, but even still it would be a rarity worth getting.
If I had to rate this one, I'd give it a 4.5/5.
Now for the second part of the "Dalek Wars" boxset: THE PLANET OF THE DALEKS!
Right off the bat: You'd expect a lot of Dalek action after the quasi-cliffhanger at the end of Frontier In Space. Heck, I even suspected the Master to have a brief role in it as well.
However, for the first part The Doctor goes into a brief coma as the TARDIS lands right in the middle of a strange and dangerous new world. Seeking help, his companion goes out and ends up tangled in a mess with the Thals.
The story doesn't lay down it's entire synopsis until an episode or two in, and lacked the same consistency as it's predecessor did.
For those of you who might be curious, the Daleks appear to have gotten an update on their silly sounding voices since their last Dalek-centric story. However, they've seemed to have gain a new quality with their speech; they sound nearly terrified as anyone else would trapped inside a shell like that with claustrophobia. They sounded nearly as deranged as they did Dalek.
Back on the serial itself, things really began to get set in motion when the Daleks capture the Doctor as a prisoner. For some reason, though, they couldn't identify him as easily as they last did - but maybe that's because they didn't catch his name so quickly.
So by now, the basic elements of the plot are established; the Daleks are on a mission to master the technique of invisibility, a rag-tag team of Thals are on a suicide mission to stop them, and the Doctor has to throw his hat into the snafu because an army of invisible Daleks must not be something you can just ignore.
After the first two episodes or so, the entire story begin to move along a lot more quickly. The scenes where the Doctor and company have to sneak out and in and around the Dalek's base are especially suspenseful. The Doctor's priorities are even more deeply intensified when he discovers an army of hibernating Daleks readied for activation, but even then he manages to role with the situation and think things out.
The arrival of the Supreme Dalek and the Dalek interactions around then even became comical, as the Daleks grovelling before their Supreme leader lowered their character below the Supreme's - and the tension of the Dalek's operations became intensified as failure kept swallowing their plans. It's not often you see Daleks pushing themselves with such motivation, and I found this especially fun to watch.
Enough elaborating on the plot of this one, Planet of The Daleks essentially started off slow and then built off the intensity as the plot thickened and concluded in a satisfying manner. There's no cliffhanger or anything after this one like their was in Frontier, and even though it's not my favorite Doctor Who serial, it's still a fun Dalek story over all.
This one gets a 3.5/5, especially since Frontier in Space was a tough act to follow.
And so it begins...
Several weeks ago, I bought the "Dalek Wars" boxset of two Jon Pertwee stories regarding the Daleks; Frontier In Space and Planet of The Daleks. They're the first Classic Who stories I've managed to watch back-to-back in chronological order to the whole series, and so far they're among my favorites.
First was "Frontier In Space"... Beforehand, the only two 3rd Doctor stories I've seen were Colony In Space and Day of The Daleks. Though my expectations of Frontier weren't fairly high, I've found myself pleasantly surprised.
Right off the bat, the basic plot of the whole story is quickly laid out and explained. It appeared to start of fairly slow paced but kept itself steadily going after the first episode. For a story from the 60's, the Cold War seemed to be a very heavy influence on the plot and philosophy of it. However, I'm sure that wasn't the first war caused by tension and war-fixated paranoia...
At any rate, another fantastic aspect of the story was The Master. His entrance had a very familiar but powerful presence in it, you could've probably suspected his role in the scenario to begin with but even still it had a powerful effect. Here (at least for me) The Master's whole character seems to be very thoroughly laid out through his actions. His character is equally as powerful as The Doctor's, and he's portrayed in a manner that makes sense out of some classic villain cliches.
The Master aside, the overall story has some very excellent acting in it altogether. Even the make-up of the Draconians is surprisingly convincing. It made room for me to believe they had quite a bit of elbow room in their budget when this serial was made.
To anyone new to Classic episodes of Doctor Who, I can't really say it would be a great place to start off but absolutely a milestone to watch after getting some background on the 3rd Doctor, his companion (How's it spelled? Joan? Jon? Jane?) and The Master. I don't have many others in my collection to compare it to, but even still it would be a rarity worth getting.
If I had to rate this one, I'd give it a 4.5/5.
Now for the second part of the "Dalek Wars" boxset: THE PLANET OF THE DALEKS!
Right off the bat: You'd expect a lot of Dalek action after the quasi-cliffhanger at the end of Frontier In Space. Heck, I even suspected the Master to have a brief role in it as well.
However, for the first part The Doctor goes into a brief coma as the TARDIS lands right in the middle of a strange and dangerous new world. Seeking help, his companion goes out and ends up tangled in a mess with the Thals.
The story doesn't lay down it's entire synopsis until an episode or two in, and lacked the same consistency as it's predecessor did.
For those of you who might be curious, the Daleks appear to have gotten an update on their silly sounding voices since their last Dalek-centric story. However, they've seemed to have gain a new quality with their speech; they sound nearly terrified as anyone else would trapped inside a shell like that with claustrophobia. They sounded nearly as deranged as they did Dalek.
Back on the serial itself, things really began to get set in motion when the Daleks capture the Doctor as a prisoner. For some reason, though, they couldn't identify him as easily as they last did - but maybe that's because they didn't catch his name so quickly.
So by now, the basic elements of the plot are established; the Daleks are on a mission to master the technique of invisibility, a rag-tag team of Thals are on a suicide mission to stop them, and the Doctor has to throw his hat into the snafu because an army of invisible Daleks must not be something you can just ignore.
After the first two episodes or so, the entire story begin to move along a lot more quickly. The scenes where the Doctor and company have to sneak out and in and around the Dalek's base are especially suspenseful. The Doctor's priorities are even more deeply intensified when he discovers an army of hibernating Daleks readied for activation, but even then he manages to role with the situation and think things out.
The arrival of the Supreme Dalek and the Dalek interactions around then even became comical, as the Daleks grovelling before their Supreme leader lowered their character below the Supreme's - and the tension of the Dalek's operations became intensified as failure kept swallowing their plans. It's not often you see Daleks pushing themselves with such motivation, and I found this especially fun to watch.
Enough elaborating on the plot of this one, Planet of The Daleks essentially started off slow and then built off the intensity as the plot thickened and concluded in a satisfying manner. There's no cliffhanger or anything after this one like their was in Frontier, and even though it's not my favorite Doctor Who serial, it's still a fun Dalek story over all.
This one gets a 3.5/5, especially since Frontier in Space was a tough act to follow.
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