Doctor Who 101: A Viewer's Guide To The Classic Series - Part 2

By Matt J. Popham / August 9, 2013

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Colin Baker understandably declined the invitation to return for a single regeneration story after being dismissed under a cloud at the end of Doctor Who€™s 23rd season. As a result, season 24 begins with the TARDIS being attacked by the Rani, and when we first see the Doctor, he has collapsed on the floor and is already in the process of regenerating. The short, dark haired man who would later awake in the Rani's lair couldn't help but look even more clownish than his predecessor in the now comically oversized coat of many colors that all but swallowed his small frame...

Sylvester McCoy was a comic street performer with a knack for slapstick, outrageous stunts and sleight-of-hand magic tricks when he was tapped to replace Colin Baker as the Doctor. Given the BBC mandate to make Doctor Who lighter, more child friendly and comedic, McCoy's manic energy, approachable warmth and unabashed silliness made him a perfect choice for the lead role...

Even when the Seventh Doctor shed the mismatched, patchwork obscenity worn by his previous incarnation and donned his own more muted outfit - a rumpled, beige absent-minded professor ensemble - the clownishness remained. By all appearances, in fact, this new Doctor was little more than a buffoon, given to pratfalls and dundrearyisms, bumbling his way into saving worlds in need. It seemed that after struggling for years to evolve, mature and change with the times, Doctor Who had been tamed by the BBC.

Of course, as time would tell, appearances can be deceiving...

After his first particularly weak and toothless season, Doctor Who began peeling back the layers of the Seventh Doctor€™s persona, hinting at dark secrets and darker personality traits. The madcap silliness was revealed to be little more than a shell game - a calculated distraction designed to keep his adversaries constantly guessing and underestimating him. Underneath his bumbling exterior lurked a sharp and shadowy intellect, a brilliant strategist, a chess master who seemed to be playing a game so large and complex that only he could fully understand it.

McCoy, to his credit, proved more than up to the task, layering his performance with skillful shifts of tone and tenor. Never losing the warmth, comic eccentricity and professorial whimsy that had become the character's hallmarks, at a moment's notice, he could drop the clownish aspect like a tattered outfit, allowing a dark, piercing brilliance and smug superiority - at times, even a cruel disgust - to surface.

By the end of his third and final season, McCoy's Doctor had fully emerged as an icy, master manipulator in sheep's clothing, given to using his own companions as pawns in his long game, and routinely tricking his enemies into orchestrating their own, sometimes savage, demise. In a near-perfect inversion of the Sixth Doctor€™s intended dramatic arc, McCoy's amiable, slapstick Seventh evolved, in two short years, into the darkest Doctor in the series' history.

The Essentials

Remembrance Of The Daleks (Season 25, Episode 1) Doctor Who€™s 25th season hit the ground running with this spectacular serial, easily the finest Dalek story since Season 12€™s magnum opus, Genesis of Daleks. What will be most immediately noticeable to those coming from previous seasons is the series€™ new, faster pace and more contemporary feel. Even the production value seems to have improved, and though obviously it€™s not to current series standards, it€™s miles ahead of the threadbare designs that, in preceding years, had often punctured the suspension of disbelief with the suggestion of sad neglect. More importantly, Remembrance of the Daleks marks the launch of what became known as the Cartmel Masterplan, script editor Andrew Cartmel€™s scheme to inject a little darkness and mystery back into the Doctor€™s character, and it€™s here that the Seventh Doctor really starts to come into his own. McCoy introduces a shadowy, introspective edge to his performance, casually throwing away hints about the Doctor€™s history and his true nature and, by the end, addressing his old adversaries with newfound, barely-contained bile. Both the Doctor and his streetwise companion, Ace (Sophie Aldred) are finally given quality material and their cryptic professor/troubled student relationship would, from this point on, become the heart and soul of the series. Set in 1963, there€™s a host of clever references to past episodes, but the sincere desire to reinvent and redefine the program makes them feel organic rather than forced. Exciting, funny, invigorating, and surprising, Remembrance of the Daleks kicks off the beginning of what would be an all-too -brief renaissance for Doctor Who --> --> The Curse Of Fenric (Season 26, Episode 3)

Much like its protagonist, The Curse of Fenric operates on multiple levels, and does so beautifully. All at once, a historical war story, a horror movie steeped in Norse mythology, a philosophical meditation on questions of faith and the nature of evil, a coming-of-age drama for Ace, and another chapter in the Cartmel Masterplan, what€™s most impressive is how all these elements coalesce into a complex and cohesive whole. Structured almost like one of the chess games central to the Seventh Doctor€™s byzantine strategies, the story takes its time moving its many players €“ each of whom has a significant role €“ into place, building tension and dread, while also leaving room for revealing character moments, intellectual musings, and even touches of playful comedy, before launching into one of the most intense and cinematic climactic battle sequences in the classic series€™ history.

Here again, the Doctor/Ace relationship - their undeniable connection, chemistry and camaraderie - provides the story€™s emotional anchor, rendering the final episode€™s revelations that much more affecting when we momentarily find ourselves at sea. Expertly crafted and exquisitely entertaining, The Curse of Fenric is one of the series€™ strongest and most powerful serials. Doctor Who has not been this deep, dark and thoughtful since Tom Baker€™s early years. The DVD features two versions of the serial: the broadcast version, broken into four episodes, and a Special Edition, recut into a feature length story with several minutes of extra footage. Opt for the latter.

The Exceptional

Ghost Light (Season 26, Episode 2) The crowning achievement of Doctor Who€™s final season, this intense and intimate, sublimely creative serial possesses all the levels and layers of Cure of Fenric, but rather than presenting them with an epic grandiosity, it twists them into a tight, taught (and, yes, slightly knotty) tale of a haunted mansion. Somewhat divisive among fans, due to its dense complexity and occasionally surreal, nightmarish tone, it€™s true that Ghost Light may require repeated viewings to fully understand and appreciate its intricacies, but that€™s cause for celebration, not derision. The story is a minefield of subtle clues, not-so-subtle references and winking asides, trusting the viewer to pick up the pieces and assemble them to realize their thematic and narrative significance. This is also McCoy€™s finest hour, offering him the opportunity to present the Seventh Doctor at his most full (and sometimes, cold) blooded. Racing through the shadowy corridors of Gabriel Chase, he is, by turns, focused, funny, fatherly and even genuinely frightening, employing multiple strategies in his grand game, determined to, quite literally, get to the bottom of the manor€™s many mysteries. Even Ace discovers what it€™s like to be one of his pawns, and her anger at his manipulations, despite their noble intent, dramatically tests their relationship. Weird, witty, smart and sophisticated, Ghost Light is a twisty, turny funhouse, the strongest serial in an already strong season. Originally intended as the season finale, but reordered for broadcast, save it for last and let the classic series go out with a beautifully haunting bang.

The Expository

Survival (Season 26, Episode 4) €œI felt like I could run forever€€ Too right. Coming out of the trials and tribulations of the Colin Baker era, Doctor Who was just beginning to hit its stride when the BBC, still bruised and bitter, dropped the axe. Production had already been completed on the 26th season, and John Nathan-Turner and Andrew Cartmel, feeling that they lacked a serial with an appropriate sense of finality, inexplicably decided to alter their original broadcast order and end the classic series with Survival. By far, the weakest serial of Season 26, it is bafflingly lauded by fans and critics alike, despite its meandering narrative, silly digressions and superficial attempts at philosophical musing. Yes, it does feature the final appearance of the Master in the classic series, but he€™s largely incidental, as the main plot concerns muppet cheetahs from another dimension invading suburban London, while McCoy€™s Seventh Doctor spends a ridiculous amount of time impersonating a stray cat. A baffling, tiresome test of patience, Survival avoids being included amongst the Execrable only because it was the last episode of the classic series to be broadcast, and ends with a nice closing monologue scripted by Andrew Cartmel, and dubbed in post-production by Sylvester McCoy after news of the series cancellation came down. Even the strongest seasons of the series have their low points, and Season 26 is no exception. A nosedive following the heights hit by Curse of Fenric and Ghost Light, it€™s a mystery why the decision was made to let 26 years of television history die with Survival.

The Execrable

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Survival aside, unless you care to see Doctor Who at its lightest, slightest and most mind-numbingly mild, you can pretty much sidestep the trite, trivial and tremendously silly Season 24 in its entirety.

A Few Extras:

Battlefield acceptably rounds out the remarkable Season 26. Though not as superlative as Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric, it€™s an entertaining enough story involving Arthurian legend. It also adds another piece to the Cartmel Masterplan puzzle, and features the last classic series appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.