Dipping into Old School

[drakyndra]

So, in a Doctor Who disc swap (Don't ask...) I asked for a random Old School DVD and got given... The Five Doctors.

I'm ten minutes into it, and whee! It makes no sense, and the special effects are incredibly dodgy, but damn it's fun.

Also, it keeps giving me flashbacks - well, flash-forwards, technically - to New Who episodes.

*runs off to watch more*


- Why the hell is there a road in the Death Zone?

- Two and the Brigadier are love. Srsly.

- But I don't like fake!One. I want the real One back.

- That was a seriously dodgy ankle twist, Susan.

- The Raston Warrior Robot is crack in a silver leotard. I want one.

- ...Did Three just cop a feel of Sarah Jane?

- Fake!Zoe is wearing a bubble-wrap dress. A bubble-wrap dress! *dies*

- I heart Borusa's goth!evil!outfit.

- "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!" *cheers*

- "Immortality is a curse." O_O Now that's familiar.

- Two and Three fighting is the Best. Thing. Ever. I love them both.

- I love how at the end the Doctor just flees after being made President. Seriously awesome.

- I love my cracktastic show. Seriously. Even when it is bad, it's endlessly entertaining.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know someone whose first episode ever was The Five Doctors. He said it made him crazy, because every time he asked "So, who's that guy?" the answer was always "That's the Doctor."

It's one of my favorites... for pretty much your stated reasons.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I pity that poor guy. Really.

But it's like complete and utter crack, and I can't help but love it. So much fun!

[kniblet.livejournal.com]

Have you ever watched the First Doctor? We watched the first story arc a couple weeks ago. It was truly bizarre and the Doctor very unlikeable. He was pretty much the polar opposite of the current Doctor persona.

We're planning to skip ahead to Third Doctor next.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

The first story arc? That's the Unearthly Child, right?

He gets nicer later on - I saw The Dalek Invasion of Earth a while back, and he was nice there.

And do tell me your thoughts.

[kniblet.livejournal.com]

Yep, Unearthly Child and the three that came after to complete the story. Basically, the Doctor was just a crotchety old xenophobe. He freaks out like a big freaky out thing, advocates killing off the people they encounter, and gets saved by the two lovely teachers whom he kidnapped in the Tardis so that they wouldn't reveal his identity. And the granddaughter basically squealed and panicked the whole way through.

Sorry, hope that wasn't too spoilery.

We were planning to watch The Dalek Invasion of Earth, just to see how it all began. I'm happy to hear it should be better.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

He did get a bit nicer later on. He was apparently even nastier in the first version they shot of the first episode, but they reshot it to make him a bit nicer.

But he lightens up in later series.

And DIoE isn't the first Dalek story - that'd be The Daleks, which is the very next story after the one you saw, I believe.

[kniblet.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, we may have to stick with First Doctor after all. For a whiole, anyway.

I do love that the Doctors seem to get younger with every regeneration.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree, it is a fun tendancy.

[off_coloratura]

Flash-forwards to the New Series? Like what? Please spoil!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Five does lots of very Ten-like pocket acting. And when he passes out at one point, he does the hands-on-two-people's-shoulders like Ten does with Mickey and Jackie in TCI.

Um, there's also Sarah Jane being upset and slightly odd around the Doctor, which might just be me retcon-ing stuff after School Reunion.

Oh, and there's a line about Immortality being a curse, which I quite liked.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Five is so Tennant's Doctor. At his age, Four would be his first, but he's so clearly imprinted upon Five in so many ways.

Possibly part of why I (a year and a half his senior, and a Five-favorer since early adolescence) adore him so...

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

He's got Four's mad grin. But I remember reading that his gran knitted him a Fourth Doctor scarf. And then after the regeneration, knitted him a cricket jumper.

But that's so sweet.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

He's got bits of all of them, really, which is so traditional.

You MUST see "Castrovalva," if for nothing else than for Peter's dead-on impressions of all his predecessors in the course of the regeneration crisis. Especially his One, which is positively eerie -- channeled through all 6'1" and 30 years old of him! And Peter has said that Two was his favorite (even though One would be his first, since he was 12 when the show started), and you can see a lot of little homages in his mannerisms when you know that, even though he's so very much his own Doctor and uses them so very much his own way.

Tennant has built on that history in much the same way -- lots of Five mannerisms, but a very different persona. Nos posted something early in the season about how people were saying Ten was like Five, but she couldn't see it except that they were both young. And I agreed with her at the time, but as the season progressed I saw more and more little pieces, just arranged in a completely new way.

My hubby describes him as "like a hyper Peter Davison." Which I can see, but then it's a very childlike, Four kind of hyper. Which can turn on a dime, Seven-style, from "harmless and silly" to "scary as hell and answerable to nobody, without the slightest question of what is right." Those three are the main ingredients he's rearranged (plus the new stuff he brings in) to make a new Doctor, but there really are bits of everyone in there. It's such a delight.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

There was a fab thread in the OG just after The Christmas Invasion, listing moments from that in which he was like previous Doctors.

And I am fascinated by your Doctor analysis, even if I haven't seen enough of the past Doctor to judge it's correctness. I seem to recall a lot of remarks about Ten being like Four, Seven and Two, though, if that tells you anything.

...And now I want an icon with "Splendid fellows, all of you." and pictures of all ten Doctors on it.

[off_coloratura]

Awesome. I'll have to check it out!

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

When you finish watching it, go read the five minute version. Because, bwahaha!

My favourite bit is when Three rescues Sarah Jane from the bottom of that very gradual sloperavine by tying a rope to his car and dragging her out. *facepalm*

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I almost forgot Zoe's bubblewrap dress. Look out for it. ;)

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

The Five Minute version is For The Win. Srsly.

And yes, I am rather fond of that, too. Poor dears, and they try so hard to make it look serious. Like Susan and her ankle twisting.

But Zoe's bubblewrap dress owns my soul. I now have an outfit for my next costume party!

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

It so is. I love them all to bits.

The classic eps are entertaining on so many levels, I think. And at least one of those is looking out for wobbly sets and boom shadows. What have you got lined up next?

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

They are fun, aren't they?

Yes, it is rather fun, isn't it? Next up is my DVD of City of Death sometime this weekend. And then I need to hunt some more DVDs down.

[koshiroryuu.livejournal.com]

If you like bubblewrap, then you really need to see Ark in Space. It's got whole villains made of bubblewrap! Bubblewrap and awesomeness!

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

That is just so far the win.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

Two and Three fighting is the Best. Thing. Ever. I love them both.

You should watch the Three Doctors then. Troughton vs. Pertwee never gets boring ^^

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I have not seen that one. But I have the Target Novelisation. God, I'm sad.

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

*Lol*

You on broadband? It's up on Mininova. It's hilarious because the Brig's so annoyed most of the time... even more than in the Five Doctors *g*

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I have extremely limited memory on my computer right now. I might try and get a lend from my friend when I return Five Doctors.

[cryptile.livejournal.com]

The Five Doctors. Known alternately by its shooting title Okay We've Got 50p and Some Duct Tape and the Whole Country of Wales, Let's Leave the Cameras On For Eighty Minutes And See What Happens.

Oh, who am I kidding? It's great ;)

Two vs. Three is love.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Two vs. Three is love.

I would so watch the two of them snarking at one another for half an hour every week.

[breo-saighit.livejournal.com]

The Five Doctors! Oh, how I love that! It's just...lots of Doctors, all together, snarking and doing what they do best. What's not to love?

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Nothing! It is teh win!