The Yeti stories on that dvd set are great!  Still very scary stuff all these years later.



I didn't mind the Cybermen stories, but I hated their 'metalic' sounding voice.  After awhile it drove me mad hearing it!



The rest of the stories on the set were ok.  I do agree that The Space Pirates was below average - even after only seeing the episodes that exist.



The stories seemed to get bogged down a bit towards the end of Troughton's reign.



It is shocking that most of his stories are 'missing'.  Sort of like the ABC junking a lot of the early Countdown episodes.



To think we might never see Sherbert play on that show again......but that may be a good thing!!

Sometimes you couldnt understand some voices like the Cybermen in Tomb of the Cybermen

I know, in fact that would have to be the worst story where you can't understand what they were saying.



Thankfully you can understand everything on the dvds if you put the subtitle option on.

I have bought a special edition of SFX Magazine Collection today (Which has a Free Novel) and a feature on the first doctor has all the stories he did and one listed was, "The Massacre of St Bartholomeves Eve" and i said what the hell is that!!!!





So What is It?

That was during Hartnell's 2nd season I think.  Set during the French Revolution. But I could be wrong..



Martin, care to elaborate?

The writer, John Lucarotti, was annoyed at being given such an obscure historical event to make a show out of, which probably tells you something right there. The event was about two hundred years prior to the revolution, and I imagine it was only known at all to the production team because it's one clear cut example of the Catholics picking on Protestants (and so was on the school sylabus).The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve is the story after The Daleks' Masterplan, and is more commonly known as just The Massacre.



Wikipedia has a great entry on story title contorversy, check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_story_title_controversy

So Its 'The Massacre'

yes.



I've heard that 'The Unearthly Child' goes under another name as well.  Although I might be confused with the individual titles they gave to the early stories...

In a nutshell: developed under the title The Tribe of Gum, which Anthony Coburn's scripts reflected. BBC documents show it recorded as 100000 BC. It was also called a varitey of themetic titles (Cavemen, Stone Age) by the BBC and fans following this broadcast. ABC's publicity refrers to it under individual titles only, and the 1973 Radio Times tenth anniversary special began the tradition of naming individually titled adventures under the first episode title--in this case An Unearthly Child.



Or you can call it Serial A.

And what a classic story it is!



"An Unearthly Child" parts 1 and 2 were the genesis of Dr Who - and they are almost like antiques to watch.



It's amazing to see how The Doctor's character has changed over time. Can you even begin to compare Eccleston or Tennant with Hartnell? There is no similarity at all!



> and could you ever imagine Rose Tyler drawing a blot painting and then panicking at her work!!!!



Watching the differences between the pilot episode and the actual transmission of "An Unearthly Child" is fun. Hartnell really is sinister in the pilot. He laughs menacingly like Vincent Price when Ian and Barbara find that they are trapped inside the TARDIS. The BBC actually toned Hartnell down for the actual transmission as he was considered too scary - and when you watch the pilot, you can see why!

I think an interesting comparrisoon would be something from that era--The Wednesday Play or Armchair Theatre. If anyone's got any. Or the Pathfinders trilogy. or even something without Sydney Newman.

Out of 'The Caves of Androzani' 'City of Death' and 'The Deadly Assassin' which do you think is best?

Hard choice.



I would have to go for The Deadly Assasin, because it had the Doctor on his own and having to rely on his wits to defeat a more evil and dangerous Master.

I wouldn't put City in their league at all! And I think Caves works better as a story, although I like Assassin more.

Well the SFX Magzine Special 25 said that City of Death was THE best story!

SFX also described Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle as a script he was writing for Doctor Who. Mind you, that's an error of fact, and there are no wrong opinons--just ones held by wrong people...

City of Death is a great story to watch, but in terms of character development, then I would put the Deadly Assassin as being the best.



The dvd for City of Death is pretty good though, love the documentary on the making of it - they should do the rest of them in that style.

"the Caves of Androzani", "The Deadly assassin" and "City of Death" are 3 stories that regularly featur in most serious Dr Who fans top 10 or 20.



The three of them are classics in their own right. But as I said in another forum, "The Deadly Assassin" is (arguably) the best of them all. Closely followed by "Genesis of the Daleks", then "The Caves of Androzani", then "Eatrthshock", then "Spearhead From Space", then "City of Death", then "The Sea Devils", then "The Seeds of Doom", then "The Face of Evil" and then "Kinda" (with "The Five Doctors" and "The Three Doctors" as runners up)



...........well, that's my top 10 (+2)!!!!!

Hmm--couple of controversial ones there! Something I've seen done in Blakes 7 fandom is a squash table ranking of the stories. You stick them in a column in no particular order, and the fans get to vote on which ones deserve to go up--or down!

Hey!

We should definitely do that!!!!!



Do you care to start the new Forum and get this ball rolling, Martin! (and tell us how to do the "squash table ranking of the stories")