5. It Was Far More Atmospheric
Has the classic series ever bettered the likes of ' The Daemons' for sheer scares? I think not, even if the Master's Azal-summoning incantation is just ' Mary Had A Little Lamb' backwards! And there are countless others that follow in its wake ' Genesis Of The Daleks' and ' Earthshock' for example, which do for genuine emotion what ' The Daemons' had for near pant-wetting fear. Does the ' new' series have that? I don't reckon so of course there are short, sharp shocks (Blink is an obvious example), and as 'The Angels Take Manhattan' showed, Who can still tug at the heart-strings like nobody's business. But those honourable examples aside, will people look back and say the revived programme drew them in every week? Will the new generation ever experience nail-biting fear so vivid they'll have to gnaw their toes as well as their fingers? Again, I don't reckon so. If they're young enough, probably, but where's the stuff that'll keep them watching as they grow older, and maybe even introduce it to their own children? Surely we can't deprive them of that 'widescreen' sense of fear, eyes boggled and jaws dropped as emotions do battle like the Fourth Doctor and Morbius's famous mental duel from 'Brain Of'?' At the moment all we get is a crushed sense of what might have been, but it's not too late to transform everything from a pity party to a full-blown celebration of everything that makes people like us want to drink from the full well of time and space. Yes, that includes the scary bits who doesn't feel a pang of longing every time they hear a First Doctor-era fan talk about how they had to watch the Daleks through their fingers? We need more of that today.