All done Classic Doctor Who! This is a project I started
over two years ago on grave shifts, back when Classic Doctor Who was on Hulu.
So for two and a half years I’ve used a combination of Hulu, Netflix DVDs, and
Britbox to watch all available Doctor Who. So minus the missing and incomplete
stories from the First Doctor and Second Doctor eras, I’ve watched all the
Doctor Who stories. So without further ado, here’s the Seventh Doctor.
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| The new Seventh Doctor with the diguised Rani |
Season 24
Top Story: Time and
the Rani
This story gave a soft reset to the Sixth Doctor era. It
also gave the Rani a second run. Wonderful use of her character. I liked it a
lot more than her previous story in the Sixth Doctor era. Better use of her character.
Better use of the Doctor. Just a good starting point. On a side note, I would
love to see the Rani back, with or without a regeneration sequence. Since
Gallifrey is back, it’d be so easy to give an already-regenerated Rani.
Flop Story: Delta and
the Bannerman
So overall, just…. What was going on? The action of the episode
seemed to be an action movie/mystery feel, but then the music reminded me of a
comedy. To top it off, I don’t even really remember what was going on. The Doctor
and Mel found a vacation spot, which turned into a mystery (not surprising) but
it was just weird. Just weird.
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| The "Dragonfire" TARDIS team |
Honorable Mention:
Dragonfire
The episode itself was a little odd, but there were several
reasons I enjoyed it. Firstly, with Mel leaving, we had a smooth transition to
Ace. I wish we had more of that in Doctor Who. I’d imagine more feeling of continuity
in the show, if we didn’t just abruptly leave the Doctor without any companion
all the time. So just for the double companion nature of the story, I liked it.
In addition, we had the return of Glitz. Also take note that the “cliffhanger”
of the Doctor hanging from his umbrella reappeared in “The Name of the Doctor”
with the Clara Oswald splinter seeing the Doctor.
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| Do you think we also punish people for being sad? |
Season 25
Top Story: The
Happiness Patrol
A bit of a convoluted story, but I really liked it for the
message. Similarly to “Smile” in the Twelfth Doctor era, this story had the
premise of any emotion besides joy being bad. I liked the emphasis of happiness
being just one part of the spectrum of human emotions. As demonstrated by even
the big bad of the story, grief and sadness have their place in life. It’s
normal and healthy to mourn and be sad at times.
Flop Story: The Greatest
Show in the Galaxy
I really liked the premise of the story, but the execution was
off. That was kind of how I felt about several stories at this point in Doctor
Who. If one of the four episodes had been chopped off and the pace of the
episode increased, this story would have probably worked. But as it was, it had
some slow, dull moments that turned me off.
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| Epic Ace. Who else could kill a Dalek with a bat? |
Honorable Mention:
Remembrance of the Daleks
Honorable mention because of how much it hearkened back to the
first story of Doctor Who. I wanted to make note of the return to Coal Hill and
the return of Susan’s book about the French Revolution. We even got some answer
about why the Doctor was in 1963 when the series began. We also had the return
of the Daleks and the return of Davros (last time until the Tenth Doctor era).
We also had the Doctor pretending to apply to be the school’s caretaker (like
he eventually does in the Twelfth Doctor era). Also, just how awesome is Ace,
taking out a Dalek with an amped up baseball bat.
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| The Doctor and the Master face off. |
Season 26
Top Story: Survival
So despite Season 26 being dull, I enjoyed Survival. It was
the last appearance of the Master, as played by Ainley. It also gave some backstory
to Ace. I know Season 26 tried to give some history to Ace, but I found it hard
to follow. This story, however, was a perfect example of why the three-episode
stories worked well. This story was well paced, but any longer would have been
exhausting.
Flop Story: Ghost Light
And to contrast “Survival”, this story was another four-part
story that was too long. It was slow and convoluted and I felt like there was
too much going on. There was a ghost story, references to Darwinism as an
underlying theme, aliens, and then a weird personification of light and
control. Other than some backstory on Ace, I didn’t really see what the point of
this story was.
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| For possibly the last time, the Doctor reunites with the Brig. |
Honorable Mention:
Battlefield
This story had all the stuff I like of Doctor Who: an alien
mystery, a tie-in of literature, and a popular recurring character. We had the reference
to Arthurian legend, as visitors from a parallel world, and then we had the
return of the Brigadier. Oh and we also had a future incarnation of the Doctor
revealed to be Merlin. It reminds me of River Song’s line: “I hate good wizards
in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.” Now imagine if we saw a modern
Doctor being Merlin in the story that would have chronologically happened
before this for Camelot. (There’s another idea for a post: good wizards the
Doctor could be and which Doctor would be which)
COMPANIONS:
Mel (6th Doctor)
- Dragonfire
Ace Dragonfire -
UNKNOWN
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| Ace: Obsessed with explosives |
Favorite Companion:
Ace was a wonderfully complex character. Her backstory and character arc were a
bit too convoluted and not well developed. That being said, I didn’t need to
see her backstory to enjoy her character. She was a confident, kick-butt
companion, who didn’t need to hide behind the Doctor. It kind of reminds me of
how Ian Chesterton and Harry Sullivan were used to be the action heroes for the
First and Fourth Doctors, but in this case we didn’t need a male action hero
because the female companion already kicked butt.
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| Holy 80s! Look at those shoulder pads! |
Least Favorite Companion: So if you remember from my Sixth
Doctor post, I like Mel. And I really liked her in “Time and the Rani” but she
didn’t hold a candle to Ace. She also didn’t seem to mesh as well with the Seventh
Doctor as she did with the Sixth Doctor (never thought I’d say that about
anyone). So she wasn’t a bad companion, just the screamer companion I guess.
So what do you think of the Seventh Doctor? What other “good
wizards” do you think the Doctor has been? You can expect one Doctor Who post
each month now. Next month will be about the Christmas special with the First
and Twelfth Doctors and then in the new year I’ll address the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth,
Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors.
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| Because the series was cancelled abruptly, we never see what happened to Ace. When meeting Sylvester McCoy at SLC Comic Con, he said he hoped Ace had gotten into politics. Alternatively, in the Sarah Jane Adventures, it's noted that a "Dorothy" (Ace's legal first name) who knew the Doctor, was raising millions for her charity organization. |
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