The Doctor In The TARDIS

Due to forum maintenence over the weekend we are day behind with this weeks story but we will be back on track for the next one. For this weeks story we turn to the Sixth (and Second) Doctor for 1985's The Two Doctors.

The Sixth Doctor arrives at Space Station Chimera and bumps into an old friend, Jamie. The two incarnations of the Doctor join forces to stop Dastari and Chessene from performing dangerous experiments in time.

The Two Doctors was the fourth story of Season 22 of Doctor Who. It marked the first appearance of the Sontarans since Season 15's The Invasion of Time, and the return of the Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton, and Jamie McCrimmon, played by Frazer Hines, who had last appeared in the twentieth anniversary special The Five Doctors. It was the first Sontaran story set on contemporary Earth. This story also marked Peter Moffatt's last contribution to the show and Robert Holmes' first Sixth Doctor script.

After the success of The Five Doctors, Nathan-Turner was keen to do another multi-Doctor story and quickly secured Troughton as the returning incarnation. It was suggested that the story be set in New Orleans, but Holmes found it to have little merit as a setting and the idea was quashed when funding was pulled. Venice was chosen by Nathan-Turner, but this was too expensive, leaving them with Seville, a Spanish town. Holmes reluctantly agreed to a rewrite, disappointed he would have to cut his jokes about the differences between British and American English. As a vegetarian, Holmes wrote The Two Doctors as an allegory of meat-eating, hunting and butchering.

The next story will be posted on Sunday April 15th

I think a 3.5 is fairest, but I'm not feeling generous so I marked down to a three. It's the script that let's it down. It looks great and the guest cast are all on form, but the story get's muddled along the way

You know I went into this with very little knowledge and no idea of what to expect. It's a DVD I got in a set ages ago and have never got around to watching, but I wish I hadn't put it off for so long because I really enjoyed it. I wasn't mad for the Sontarans, but they were still watchable. I've given it a 4/5.

Just as aside, whenever we watch new episodes we usually have a thread for the 'not fans' to see how it went down. Well this week I am back on Childrens Ward and so a little cheekily, and because it's a short one, I took this in for 'DVD Time' today ;D Some of them are big fans of Doctor Who but wouldn't believe me that it was the same show. It took some convincing at first but for the most part they really enjoyed it and asked me to bring in more. I may have converted 13 kids to the classics today. And with a Colin Baker story no less.

I love this story. Robert Holmes's great last hurrah (Trial of a Timelord should have been but wasn't). I barely know where to begin. The supporting cast were amazing - Shockeye, Dastari and Servalan made great pantomime baddies, Oscar Botchaby was wonderful and I always like a sneaky Sontaran. The companions - Jamie and Peri are wonderful, adding genuine peril to the situation. The music, the sets, the dialogue - everything is magic.

My highest praise, however, must go to the two Doctors, Colin Baker and Pat Troughton. Yes, I know we have to overlook the fact that their meeting was totally lazy (c.f. "You're bound to bump in to each other" with "that is strictly forbidden by the first law of time" as they said in the Three Doctors). I genuinely don't care about this little continuity oversight. This, in my opinion, is one of Colin Baker's finest performances (matched only by Terror of the Vervoids) and Patrick Troughton just slips into the role like he'd never been away. The sparky dialogue between them, the twinkle that they both have in their eye. This is just the type of romp that every Doctor Who should aspire towards.

I absolutely love this story - 5/5 every time for me.

4/5 from me. I'm not the biggest Colin Baker fan by any stretch but he deserves credit for a fine performance here. The story was good, Two and Jamie were great and there really isn't much to complain about.

For the second week running, I hovered between 4 & 5 but went down.  A fine story, and possibly my favourite Sixth Doctor one - I've no actual complaint for the mark-down, just that there are a lot of stories I love more.

Oh, and congratulations, Roranicus - saving the world for classic Doctor Who one child at a time 8)

I'm going to be brave and give it full marks. I'm sort of marking it in comparison to other Sixth Doctor stories as apposed to alongside everything else though. It's one of the strongest stories from the era, made better by the inclusion of Two and Jamie. Really enjoyable.

I've gone with a three. The acting was great and the overall plot was ok but the Sontarans felt a bit wasted and some of the story required too much stretching of the imagination. I don't dislike the story but it's very average.

My biggest complaint, and my reason for taking a point off, is that the Sontarans were really annoying in this story. I usually like them but they frustrated me here. The rest of it though I thought was great. 4/5

I watched The Two Doctors not that long ago and really enjoyed it over all.  Colin Baker is fantastic in this one--even when the script goes wonky (it gets a little preachy against those of us who aren't vegetarian), he's really quite amazing.  A very fine actor and a fine Doctor who got short changed in the role both because of poor scripts and BBC politics.  In fact, this particular story was one of those that really won me over as a Six fan.  As for Two, well, I simply adore Pat (the scenes with Two and Shockeye are hysterical--if farfetched) though I've always wondered why they didn't wash the grey out of his (Pat's) hair for this...  Jamie is always a bonus and I love the scene when Six finds him.  Well played by both.

There are some odd bits and some odd, out of character dialogue--Two's harsh response to Jamie's Scot's dialect bothers me, for instance.  The death scene seemed unnecessary and worse is the way Two and Six "get over it" and just lark off.  The Second Doctor's transformation is pretty lame, but Pat is so convincing I find I can just go with it.  Then, when Colin's Doctor begins to feel the repercussions (and even cats look tasty) is pretty entertaining.