"Black Orchard" was a 'topping' story, but it was NOT sci fi!

P.S. Stop dissing Davison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time Warrior = Classic

Death to the Daleks = Anti-Climax (Daleks without their Death Ray Guns wtf?????)

Planet of the Spiders = Cool (I would have loved the Whomobile)

Attack of the Cybermen = Not Colin Baker's Fault! (and use you are right Axelf, the writer for Attack was credited as Paula Moore, Eric Saward's Girlfriend, but it really was Saward who wrote it and it reaked of his unprofessionalism)



Most Pathetic One Liner = "Do I have the right?" Tom Baker







heheheheh just kidding

I'm starting the Torchwood round robin as a thread, and sending interested parties the email. If you want to send us your addy AxlF we'll add you to the list. Same for anyone else.

Apologies to all the Season 11 fans, but I thought that the season overall was lacklusture compared to the previous Pertwee ones, and it was obvious that the production team were running out of ideas.



Pertwee and co made the correct decision to leave at that point.



I mean, could anyone imagine Pertwee continuing on and starring in Genesis of the Daleks???

Tread carefully here, Axel F.!!!!!



Season 11 was classic stuff!!!!!!

Ok - forget about the Peladon story (yuk!!!!), the woefully bad special effects in "Invasion of the Dinsaurs" and the bloody annoying incidental music in "Death to the Daleks"........but apart from that, it was a classic season and stand tall among Pertwee's other years as the Doctor.

> However - you're right, only Baker could havde delivered those lines about humanity's will to survive ("they are indomitable!") in "The Ark in Space", and "Genesis of the Daleks" was written for him........none of his predecessors or contemporaries could have done it better. Baker just had such a unique and wonderful voice - so good for delivering sombre/impressive lines and for doing sililoquies/narration. He really did define the 'alien' aspect of the Doctor and made him into a cult figure. A hard act to follow (just read Davison's intervoews about how he fely about standing in Baker's shoes!).

So what's everyone's thoughts on Season 7?



Spearhead From Space was a wonderful story, one of the classics.



But I think the other 3 were far too long, at 7 episodes each.



The Silurians and Inferno were good - but could have been better had they been cut down a bit.



I'm not going to mention Season 11 again, so that I don't feel Jimmy's wrath!!!!!!

For me Spearhead and Doctor Who and The Silurians were excellent, Inferno was great, and the other one was there.

The Ambassadors of Death was the other one.



That one seemed to be the weakest story of Season 7.  Dragged on way too long.



Frazer Hines has often said that he would have been happy to have stayed on with the Pertwee Dr.  Now that would have been an interesting combination.  Better than him with Liz Shaw, who I never liked much.

Time is not on my side right now, so I'll be brief in correcting y'all, and kick ya asses real good later on!



"The Ambassadors of Death" was one of the most action packed stories that Dr Who has ever given us!

It also stands out as being the most adult oriented story ever produced in the seies' canon.

It showcases the UNIT team doing a bit of the 'ultra violent' and it has lots of fights.

The chase scene with Liz Shaw (I can't remember if it was at the end of Part 4 or 5) was bloody fantastic. It had all the action and sexiness that made Diana Rigg so frigging erotic in "The Avengers".

.......and this was also the same story that had scientists being served bombs for dinner, the BEST incidental music by far (bass, guitar AND drums - no synthesisers!)....lots of action, intelligent storyline and a great performance from Pertwee.



> Now, I have work to do, but let it be known all ye Whovians - Season 7 was Pertwee's best....every strory was a classic.

"Ambassadors of Death" rocked, and so did the other 3.



Beg to differ, and I shall have to ask for your address, and whether you would prefer to use pistols or swords!

If by action you mean padding, then yes, it resembles a store Santa in this regard. The other two seven parters in that season dealt well with the increase in story length.



And a cheap, nasty and disreputable store Santa at that.

I agree, Season 7 on the whole seemed very stretched out.  The only story that was the right length was Spearhead From Space - 4 parts.



They could have fitted in another story had they cut the other 7 parters down.  A Cybermen one perhaps?

Right, that's it!



You guys have gone too far!!!!



Cheap Santas! CHEAP SANTAS!!!!!!!!!!!

Those seven parters were very cool, and helped to define the new era of earth - bound adventures.

They DID NOT have cheap production standards - and "The Ambassadors of Death" was fantastic!



Pistols or sword, gentlemen?

I'll be waiting!



Deep breathing. Tries to relax. Takes Valium.



P.S. Ok, if they cut down one of the seven parters, though I can't think for the life of me which one (DO NOT SAY "Ambassadors of Death"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), a Pertwee Cyberman story would have made Season 7 worthy of A+ in it's grading.



Season 7 rocked!

I stand by my comments...Season 7 was very stretched out, and should have had 5, 4 part stories in it.



I think  a Pertwee Cyberman story would have been a great one.



I'll take the sword Jimmy....!!

They were cheap, don't doubt it! There was a strike at the studio, so they spent most of the bugdet filming Spearhead from Space on location only. To make up the reast of the season they comissioned three seven parters--same props and sets for seven stories.

The 'filmed' look for Spearhead from Space was very good though.



I'm not sure if the story would have had the same impact had they done it on video.



It gave a more polished look for a season opener. Especially as it's first colour episode as well.

This is a cartel that I'm facing - I stand as the lone advocate for Season 7 while I face off against Martin and this Axel F. chap - well, swords it is then



Seriously, I'm VERY fond of Season 7, but if you guys have your opinions, that's cool. I just think that it was the most sophisticated and adult oriented season of Dr Who at that time, and held that status until Hinchcliffe and Holmes took the reigns for Seasons 12 - 14 (the penultimate era of Dr Who)



As for Season 7 looking 'cheap' I never noticed it. And I'm NOT being biased.



And "Spearhead From Space" was bloody fantastic - the shooting of it on film made it look so.........good (I can't think of any other adjective!). It looked different to the other stories, and like Axel F says, it would be hard to imagine it done any other way.

> This story, and "The Christmas Invasion" are by far the best opening stories that the Doctor has ever had. Let's hope that Tennant's era will match or outlast Pertwee's 5 year stint........are we in agreement there, guys?????

Yes, we're in agreement with that one Jimmy!



Spearhead was a great intro story, as was Christmas Invasion.



My main gripe about Season 7, was that the stories were too long.  I agree totally that the new 'adult' style of storytelling was great, and it set up the future of Dr Who for years to come.



Had Pertwee just played the Dr in the comedy persona that was he known for at the time, I doubt that the series would have lasted much longer.



Pertwee was the right actor for the role at the time.

You're quite wrong there--about us being a cartel, or anti-7! Craig White wrote a laudatory piece on 7 for CF 77, and it was all pretty good! Seven had the same budget for 25 episodes as  8 did, and inflation corrected as 9, 10, 11 did for 26. The difference is it had the most uneven spend in the show's history. Usually you'd see the largest minority of the cash go on the first story, or last story, or some new special effects system they just *had* to have. If you're talking about the '80s. Then there'd be some poor relation story, usually locked up in the dark, dark depths of the middle of the season, made up of secondhand props, sets or the horror of blue screen!



Seven is unique in the balance of spend going into the first 4 episodes--leaving them to make another 21. So you get three 7 part epics. Two of them made the jump to brontosaurus size well. Doctor Who and the Silurians hid the join by shifting the traditional cliffhanger appearence of the monster from episode 1 to episode 3. Inferno did it less successfully by changing scene between the two dimensions. The Ambassadors of Death did it least well of all by having the bad guys identified, then prevaricating while they do fiendish things. There is some repetition as a consequence--Reegan gets past the boom gate and does something to the Doctor. UNIT triangulates the transmissions and locates the bad guy's base.



Sadly it also suffers more from the lack of colour than the other two would. The attack of the Ambassadors is left as men in wellingtons who made a grey streak appear. Tch.

It's funny how the classic series arranged it's order of stoies. It always did seem like they saved the worst for last. I think that's especailly evident for Season 17. "City of Death" gets the ball rolling with the most successful Dr Who story ever, and then crawls into a pit (literally) with it's last three installments (esp. "The Horns of Nimon" - what an emabassment!!!!!!)



> Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't "The Creature From The Pit" the first of the stories to be recorded? I recall Lalla Ward saying in an interview that that was the first one she did and that she got to have her say as to what she was going to wear (and didn't she look good ) 



P.S. "The Ambassadors of Death" did really suffer from that constant cutting in and out from black and white to colour. However, I still maintain that it was a classic story - BUT after much consideration, I agree that it was the weakest link in Season 7 (NB: that the other three stories were 'A' graders, and "Ambassadors" was a 'B ' grade - using the Australian Secondary School grading system)