A Quick Guide to Classic Who Season 22

0:16 changes appear soon season twenty-two ran from the fifth of January until the 30th of March 1985 and by the time it started people have been stewing over the utter failure of the twin dilemma for almost a year high up in the BBC had it in for the show and used his influence to cancel it a cancellation that came into effect after the season

1:02 now how Colin Baker got the role of the doctor was odd he was the first person to play the part who was already a massive fan of the show he had seen an earthly child on initial broadcast as a law student and was immediately hooked he was also the first person who did not have to audition for the part there was no second choice for the Sixth Doctor what happened was this while playing max Hill he became friends with one of the crew and was invited to their wedding soon after he attended and was such an effortless rock on tour that jnt' who was also attending decided on the spot that he would be the perfect doctor now Colin was one of the few doctors who had no say in how his doctor dressed he wanted to dress in black and basically be mr. Darcy the suave space bastard

1:48 but jnt' overruled him and gave him that costume the structure of the stories had changed to last season resurrection of the Daleks had been put out as to 45-minute episodes and they liked the results so much that all of season 22 was to be handled like that unfortunately that had the side effect of giving the doctor out of the story for a little longer than usual traditional story said the doctor getting directly involved in the action near the end of episode 1 but some of the writers in season 22 were still in that mindset so the doctor often only really gets involved near the end of episode 1 or halfway through the story the best example of this is revelation of the Daleks where Perry and the doctor spent 45 minutes wandering around in the snow now before we begin do you want to

2:37 know something odd Pierce Brosnan nearly got the role of Maxell now I'm not saying that if he had then Pierce would have played six and we would have got Colin Baker as James Bond but we can imagine can't we and the way we start with attack of the Cyberman yet another story where they spend some time being mysterious the identity of the villains unaware that the title has already spoiled it this is a direct sequel to resurrection of the Daleks and an inferior copy and it's also a sequel of source 2 half of Doctor Who history it features slash references the junkyard from an earthly child the cyber tombs on tellus from tomb of the Cybermen the destruction of the Cybermen's home planet mon das from the tenth planet Cybermen in the london sewers a la the invasion and of course

3:24 returning face from resurrection and the Daleks in Litton Litton was a Dalek agent in resurrection who turned against them and this he's working for the crayons the natives of Telos who'd like the Cybermen to leave their planet alone they're also fish lesbians one of the noteworthy parts of this story are the doctors attempts to finally fix the chameleon circuit which results in hilarious scenes like this very neat this is getting ridiculous I'm not saying of course it's back to

4:09 normal by the end of the story like resurrection this story is very very violent from a cyber beheading to listen getting his hands crushed to countless deaths by shooting and even the doctor gets in on the action yeah doctor yeah show them why you're the man who never would yeah but like pretty much all of this season it's not that great sorry this season is three settings crap less crap and okay I'd file this under less crap the next one vengeance and virus is okay it's the planet virus where society is run by a particularly extreme form of democracy where the people often vote in the leaders performance and if they don't like it he dies of course they

4:54 vote on other people's deaths too almost everyone's voting and televised deaths are constant in life and virus it's a shitty planet and the government tries everything they can to distract the people from that fact at least until the people vote to execute the governor from being and then the new governor tries again also hanging around is the best creation of the Colin Baker era sill a small weaselly unscrupulous alien and a parody of insane capitalism yes doctor who invented the Ferengi a punishment down we sell tapes of what happens there sills are representative of a mining corporation here to buy some rare or that virus has four ridiculously low

5:40 prices the Nagus would be so proud and what's Perry up to she's being turned into a bird because sometimes reality TV executions aren't quite spicy enough this is the first of the seasons okay stories it was clever to find inspiration in video nasties they were extreme videos that were newly available in the UK and causing controversy still is a wonderful character and I really wish he'd come back Jason Connery turns up as a space-filling non actor and revolutionary and there's a scene where lots are convinced that the doctor murders people with an acid bath he doesn't if he did I would be the first to admit it / use it to support my tiresome obsession with proving the doctor's daughter wrong forgive me if I

6:27 don't join you but I do admit it does look a bit dodgy the mark of the Rani introduced the last recurring Time Lord villain in the show the Rani she's a renegade scientist with little or no interest in ethics or anything that could slow down her research she's cold utterly amoral and her worst crime was when she used to chameleons arch and pretended to be human to get a role in dynasty what's she doing stealing the brain chemicals that allow people to sleep from some yokels which has a side effect of creating Luddite riots you see she rules an alien planet and her experiments have stopped many of her subjects from sleeping so she's collecting the chemicals to give to her subjects she teams up with the master those less a team up and more like Margaret Thatcher being irritated by a brain-damaged Boris Johnson yes the

7:14 master is alive again he was last seen burning to death are you beginning to see why I don't think they needed to explain how he survived in the last of the Lawrence it says thing and he never explains how about that last mad scheme of yours had finished you for good you're just of course I'm indestructible the whole universe knows that this is one of the weirdest horrible ideas in classic who won that sounds really really silly but it gets worse the more you think about it the rani lays mines which turned people who step onto them into trees their conscious and mobile and unable to get help waiting for one day to be cut down and that day might be a long time in the future it's so silly but at the same

7:59 time it's terrifying kind of like a worse version of locked-in syndrome so do you remember when I said that aimless master generally use disguise is better than Delgado's I take that back for this story because like time flight he has dressed up for no reason but this time he's dressed up like a scarecrow because it's perfect following the doctor where what with scarecrows usually being a mobile and all this is one of two celebrity historicals this season they were very unusual for classic whoo and getting to in one season is just weird and this story it's George Stephenson the inventor of the steam train overall I call this story less crap it could be worse but it could be much better I like the Ronnie he ran away

8:47 she suffers badly and every other TV appearance she has she basically turns into the master with tits years before that actually happened in a Steven Moffat story killed a couple I'm not nice tits the two doctors comes next the only non anniversary TV multi doctor story Patrick Troughton had so much fun film the five doctors that he asked to come back for another story I've heard a rumor that he enjoyed doing the two doctors so much they talked about wanting to appear again unrecognizable as a background monster but I've never confirmed that and it definitely didn't happen as Patrick Troughton died within a few years of filming this story Fraser Hines came back as Jamie -

9:33 meaning we have my two favorite doctors and my two favourite companions and it's written by robert holmes the best writer the show ever had so logically I should love this well no this is half good and half terrible it has the single worst looking Sontarans in the entire show's history look at these guys they were so proud of this look that they reuse the prosthetics and actors for short call to fix the Sontarans which I'll talk about in another video the disastrous look at the Sontarans is just the visual representation of what's wrong with this story something interesting and good hamstrung by idiocy and fuck-ups so what's good it introduced one of my favorite one appearance aliens in the and ragam their race of space garments

10:20 obsessed with food and they don't give a [ __ ] about the welfare of what they eat I love the scene with the tenderize Jamie for eating while he's conscious and feeling everything nervous reflex primitive creatures don't feel pain in the way that we would like usual robert holmes was inspired by things that annoyed him this time he's being an angry vegetarian what's bad most other things really even the Sontarans are as pointless as they are terrible looking basically the second doctor has been captured and is being slowly transformed into an androgen and the Sixth Doctor and Perry team up with Jamie to rescue him to undo it before six becomes an and rhythm as well a set ups go that's not

11:08 awful it's stupid yeah but it's not awful but it's completely reversed it should be six it gets captured and two that has to rescue him that way they don't need to come up with hand-waving explanations of why six can't remember where two was in the story plus there's the fact that we know that two doesn't stay in and rhogam so there's no tension they try to create tension by having six slowly turn into one in the show but it doesn't work why he's not an Andrew gum well there's more to it than that like the Sontarans what the secrets to the wrathful and immature Time Lord biological alterations that make TARDIS time travel possible this is the last bit of foreign location shooting used in the classic show the

11:55 next time they'd leave the UK would be the McGann TV movie and then fires a Pompeii with David Tennant they filmed this in Seville Spain after they discovered they didn't have enough money to film in the originally scripted locale New Orleans and that brings me to a dramatization of how I imagined this story came to be warning this didn't really happen your era Robert I loved your Androzani script we'd like to handle another one in season 22 of course I have a great idea already it'll be about food and animal rights sounds perfect for parts I want to doctors set it in New Orleans girl New Orleans the food capital of the world perfect the other doctor which one the

12:42 one with the flute the one who gets sent on missions for the Time Lords they even the same one you're walking out go finish that script is some of the best work I've ever done this is amazing slight problem I need it to be six pots go six pots John I had to fudge a few things and add some padding but it's finished still pretty good I love it slight problem everyone loves returning monsters and you invented the Sontarans add some but there's nothing intelligible for them to do that's the spirit I knew you'd agree go John

13:30 added the effing Sontarans it doesn't make any sense but they're there can I go now hmm this story needs something what I don't know yet by the way this season will be done as 45-minute episodes rather than 25 do I need to double the length of my script oh no no no no just sort of edit the episodes together 1 on 2 3 & 4 5 & 6 that sort of thing but the structure will be totally ruined I have faith in you Robert go don't undone and done and done I need an effing holiday guru where are you going oh I was thinking about Spain good choice by the way we can't afford

14:17 New Orleans and I suddenly think we should set this in Spain so we write the story to fit the whole story is based on food there's nowhere in Spain that fence that's why you're the writer use your imagination and make things happen go this show will be the death of me and now you know how I imagined this came to be and that bit where they weren't sure which doctor was working for the Time Lords that's broadly accurate sort of in the story the second doctor is press-ganged into working for the Time Lords even though it was the

15:02 third doctor who is regularly forced to do missions for the Time Lords and not the second the words Time Lords weren't even introduced to the show until the second doctor's final story the war games Robert Holmes assumed the doctor always did missions for the Time Lords and didn't think to check it's understandable as it had been 15 years plus earlier but it led to something brilliant season 6 be a piece of fanon which entered the extended universe and even has its own page on the BBC Doctor Who website making it roughly as close to Canon as Doctor who gets the theory went like this we never saw the second doctor regenerate in the war games he was sucked up into the void and that appeared as three the next season but here he was in the two doctors working

15:48 for the Time Lords this can't have been before the war games because the first thing they did after making contact with the second doctor was try and execute him plus he's visibly much much older the idea was that he was grabbed before the execution was carried out that he was forced to do missions for the Time Lord Secret Service the celestial intervention agency that was introduced in the deadly assassin season 6b also explains his appearance in the three and five doctors without using the shortened the time differential as well it also explains where the second doctor had a TARDIS recall device in the two doctors a TARDIS recall device that the sixth doctor had said that he always wanted where did you get that I've always

16:33 wanted one of those some of us have earned these little privileges he was given it by the Time Lords to make him a more efficient agent then they removed it later on and messed with his memory for reasons the only big problem with the theory is Jamie they mentioned Victoria so if this is in season six B this should be said during season four but he's clearly much too old but the Time Lords are capable of messing with memories the theory says that the doctor requested Jamie's assistance and so the Time Lords returned his memories but they're slightly wrong who only thinks Victoria is travelling with them again or that the doctor picked Victoria up again for some reason the theory is not perfect but it makes more sense than the same

17:19 story without it I think season 6b is the best explanation for the continuity fuck-ups in this story and was personally really glad when the BBC kind of accepted it but anyway the two doctors is like a decent story with the Aneke alien race has been drowned and unnecessary crap it's not the best or worst thing this season but Colin and Patrick are great together they've known each other for years and it shows the next story time wash is one of the crap stories it's about the planet carful ruled by the evil borad who's trying to instigate a war with a neighboring planet now like Varro skarphol has a unique system of justice people are thrown into the time lash a time-space corridor that deposits people in a place that's a fate worse than death

18:04 Scotland yes Scotland once I never going back not never my aunt lives in Scotland she said it's quite nice well she's wrong an away the doctor sent into the time lash to recover an amulet taken by a woman who fell into it as parry teams up with the usual plucky rebel types in Scotland the doctor finds the woman the amulet and a very young HD Welles making this the second celebrity historical of the season this story is full of references to Welles has an incredible performance from Paul Darrow and what I remember the Morlocks are over endowed

18:51 with intelligence now we're looking hard to be said of our beloved leader the borad of carful the most luminous force in this part of the galaxy really and honestly features some of the best makeup in the show's history just check out the borad that's better than Star Trek we'll be doing for years to come the rest of the makeup this story is mad but the boride is brilliant looking this is hated because of its garish design and overall ridiculous plot and it's a fair point I personally can handle the design the plot less so this story was randomly referenced in an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures when Joe Grant turned up and carful there's a mural of the third doctor and Joe on an unseen adventure and Joe

19:36 mentioned that adventure when she turned up in the Sarah Jane Adventures it was a reference that Russell the Davies had to explain to her in the commentary for the episode one of these scenes you mentioned about a car fell dude and you know what that is that references yeah yeah better cover that's a Colin Baker story where he goes to a pinnacle cafe and they discover that Jon Pertwee and and Joe Graham wanders visited there's a story you never did oh I didn't know that but you did off stage I was then referred to on screen so I kind of closed the thirdly if I means you were really there so even famously bad who sometimes gets referenced in the new stuff anyway this is bad I file it under crap luckily our last story of the season revelation of

20:23 the Daleks is much better it's so much better that it's the closest thing this season has to classic it's almost good it's the funeral Planet necross and since blue is the Galactic color of mourning six gets to try out his best ever look that blue cape is pimp as [ __ ] this is Eric's a word at his best he's truly channeling his inner Robert Holmes here the story is dark bleak and terribly funny he even uses a patented Holmes ish double act in it what's going on is this Davros has set up shop on necross under the guise of the great healer there he's been feeding the galaxy with dead bodies I love that he's

21:16 also mutating dead bodies and turning them into a new generation of Daleks that are fiercely loyal to him and we get a horrifying scene as Arthur Stan goes an old friend of the doctor is slowly being physically and mentally turned into a Dalek and I bet you thought asylum of the Daleks was original also involved a couple of space mercenaries sent to murder Davros one of which appears to be the war doctor but if the war doctor was less famous and more dr. ish and the other is Sancho Panza also involved or a squad of Daleks sent by an opposing Davros hating Dalek faction we have a full-scale Dalek Civil War here there's a few interesting things here like when we see Davros hover we have the first on-screen confirmation that Daleks can fly there had been evidence before but never on

22:02 screen there's a weirdly touching scene where a mutated former dead person attacks the doctor and is beaten back to death the role of the mutant was offered - so Laurence Olivier because he said he wanted to be in Doctor Who and because he never did appear in Doctor Who I guess he felt insulted there's crap about a gravestone that makes no sense and finally comedian Alexei Sayle does the impossible and takes a really irritating supporting role and manages to make him even more irritating those of you the mercenaries are great creations Davros is at his best here Clyde Swift he played mr. Cochrane void

22:47 to the damned turns up the dialogue is funny and the story is dark this is the best story Colin Baker had on television and it's almost good if this was the standard for season 22 then this season wouldn't be infamous it would be average with a very interesting doctor but the high up and the BBC had his way and the show was canceled for 18 months during that time there was a massive outcry and when it came back they tried a new direction to take the show in unfortunately it was even worse than this one Colin Baker was and is a fantastic doctor Nicola Bryant is and was fantastic as peri terrible accident that is neither of them were treated fairly by the BBC the public or the show itself I'm delighted to say that when

23:33 finally given a fair shake and audio they usually out class the other teams seriously check out some of the Sixth Doctor audios they're usually great the season has a reputation for extreme violence and it is more violent than usual but I'm not really sure it's any more violent than any of the Hinchcliffe seasons but it is offensive in the worst way it's bad join me next time for the second season long Ark the trial of a Time Lord where we'll finally see Brian Blessed and dr. who will meet a race of vagina headed space flowers and gain the worst companion since Adric mr.