A Quick Guide to Classic Who Season 21

0:00 [Music] know youology Treasures of History [Music] to of time all the Hand Works remain only [Music] Dre season 21 was unusual

0:46 constructionwise for the first time since season 4 we had a season that straddled two doctors The Fifth Doctor regenerated at the end of the penultimate story so the sixth doctor got his debut in the finale rather than in the next season and like season 4 the entire cast changed if you only watched the first and last story of season 21 the only reason you'd think they were from the same season at all is because both the opener and closer are this season includes the best story of the Peter Davidson era 8s who in general and possibly the best story of the classic show and it's immediately followed by the worst story of the Colin Baker era ats2 in general and possibly the worst story in the classic show it's amazing it's like the show collectively felt they couldn't go any higher and so threw themselves off the mountain season 21 ran from the 5th of January until the

1:32 30th of March 1984 it opens with Warriors of the deep and the long awaited return of both the silurians and the Sea Devils it's 20084 and the world is embroiled in a cold war rather similar to the one the world of 1984 was in the world's paranoid and on the brink of nuclear war the Tardis lands on SE base 4 as the silurians and sea Devils arrived to take over the base fire the missiles and Kickstart a nuclear war so that can hopefully destroy humanity and eventually get their Planet back it's a good concept it's nice to see a call back to the classic trout in your base Under Siege style and as a story it's dark as hell it's just sabotaged by absolutely everything on screen from the costume and makeup on the supposedly militaristic human characters to the

2:18 redesigns of the silurians and sea Devils which make them look like semi- disabled Muppets I was in a better story with John bwe from letting someone light the sets with flood lights to the design of their living super weapon the Mera the star of one of the funniest moments in classic Doctor [Music] Who that was so terrible I think you gave me cancer by the way that timer horror Legend ingored pit kick in the Mera the silurians and sea devils are also calling themselves silurians and sea Devils even though they were nicknames that the humans had for them in previous stories this story was doomed from the start it was a mess behind the scenes and apparently came close to being shelv entirely and I'm

3:03 not sure that would have been a bad thing here's the story summed up in a line there should have been another way next is the Awakening another two-parter and depending on how you view the trial of a Time Lord it might be the last two part are made up of 25-minute episodes the doctor takes Tean to visit her grandfather in the village of little hodom and amazingly they arrive at the right time and place on the first try alas a local idiot and some historical reenactors of the English Civil War have awakened the malice a giant alien evil ridiculous looking wall head that feeds on negative emotions and it sending projections of the original English Civil War battle that they're reenacting to the present tan gets captured and narrowly avoids being burned alive the toast of little hodom turlo gets locked

3:51 up with Tan's grandfather and a nearly companion who wasn't travels through time from the English Civil War era to the modern day this story d VI The Fifth Doctor second costume and I bet you didn't even notice such is the amazing difference between the two this is the last story that Barry Newbury worked on he was a production designer who had worked on the show on and off since the very beginning the most interesting thing about this story is how much stuff they managed to fit into it two parters tended to be very simple because they'd have the usual running time but this is crammed with stuff it's not a brilliant Story the English rural weirdness type thing was done better in the demons or in Amy's choice in the new show but it's much better than Warriors of the deep

4:36 frontios comes next and it's pretty dark the last vestages of humanity are barely surviving on a desolate planet called frontios constantly bombarded by meteors and sometimes being swallowed with the planet itself the setup is a bit like Utopia from the new show crossed with the hungry Earth the Tardis is destroyed when it gets swallowed and borrowing underground are the tractates an insectoid is race that were responsible for the near genocide of turlo people the tractates are controlled by gravis the only one of their species was sentients and when he's not over the humans he's having his people dig to the center of the planet using a machine that's powered by the humans who were earlier swallowed by the planet what's he going to do at the planet center the usual turn the planet into a massive

5:23 space ship and Conquer places even if they succeed the DS will kill them for stealing their idea this this is the strongest story thus far it's Bleak dark and the tractates are the least ridiculous insectoid dis race this season so does the Tardis get fixed yeah probably they're in 1984 in the next story resurrection of the Dos it's tean's last the Dos have set up a time Corridor between the present day and a ship in the far future they're attacking a prison ship and killing everything on site in order to rescue Davos the daks are desperate because they lost their war with the mellons the D were no match for their style n the mellons used a virus that killed the hell out of the Dal and they need Davos to create a cure they're also busy cloning people to

6:09 create agents and plan to use a doctor replica to assassinate the time lord High Council by the way that was redcon to be an early part of the time War by Russell the Davies so Davos begins altering the minds of DX to be loyal to him and only him andway lots goes on on this story lots and lots and lots and most of it involves killing people things clones mutants and other people this is one of the most violent stories in classic who it is a higher death toll than the Terminator but weirdly has a scene where the doctor intends to gun Davos down but in the end doesn't not because he doesn't want to but because he hesitates a bit 1 2 3 and four wouldn't have hesitated and the story would have been a quarter shorter since it's 1984 and therefore the right year

6:55 for her tan decides to stay where she is she seen too much violence and seeing as this season has thus far featured a story where almost everyone dies a story where the monster feeds off violence a story where the human race is almost wiped out and this the story with the highest onscreen death toll she might be right about this if you stop enjoying it give it up tan it's stop being fun doctor this marks the debut of Terry Malloy as DAV Ross he plays the role until the end of the classic show and an audio to this day he is my favorite Davos now the most memorable thing about this story is the violence the story is okay it's not bad but the death toll overpowers everything else but at the same time it works dramatically with Tan's departure from there we go to the

7:42 planet of fire and the latest piece of foreign filming the island of lanzerotti this is tur's last story and we pick up a new companion in Perry an American botany student though her accent doesn't really resemble Earth American accents oh you've done on it the fire's out Perry was instantly very popular with some of the audience but over time she became one of the less popular companions I really have no idea why after Jamie she's my favorite companion larti plays both itself and the planet SAR the titular planet of fire what's going on is this chameleon remembers that he exists and gets mind controlled by the master and therefore shape changes into him so they don't need to use the

8:28 robot the m was trying to fix his tissue compression Eliminator which is a weapon he uses to shrink people to doll size which kills them alas it went off and he was working on it and now he's the size of a doll and not dead for some reason he needs to be brought to S so the planet's healing gas slf Flames can bring him back to size yes really Al last the healing gas SL Flames get turned to not heal and he apparently Burns to death turlo decides to leave and the doctor kills chameleon destroy me which was for the best for everyone especially me because I finally get to reveal that the doctor is not only the man who would but also the man who would

9:14 totally shoot his companions if it came down to it game set and match Doctor's Daughter the location filming was nice it's always good to see Anthony anley and the master wasn't quite as silly as he sometimes is but I'm not a massive a fan of this story for me it stuck between two much more interesting ones I was very sad to see turlo go he was selfish cautious and secretive a far cry from the companion stereotype anyway it's now time for the myth the legend the caves of Andrew Zan a story so good that I personally got offended when it was referenced in the doctor the Widow in the wardrobe It's the final adventure for the fifth doctor he and Perry go to Andrew Miner which looks a little bit

9:59 like a sand pit they get stuck in a conflict between an evil and Theatrical Corporation and an evil Subterranean super villain who really wants to Perry to make things worse both the doctor and Perry get poisoned with a lethal dose of spectrox toxa and the only cure is the milk of a giant alien bat and there's a really looking magma Beast running around I swear I'm not trying to make this sound bad because it's not it's one of the best who stories ever made and not only because it kills off five even if he lived did it still deserve to be in the top 10 easily the Cliffhanger for part three is the best in the show's history the doctor is piloting a spaceship about to crash onto a planet with some unwilling passengers and just check it out for yourself now I hands in the end

10:45 over here why because I'll kill you if you don't not a very persuasive argument actually St because I'm going to die soon anyway unless of course I'll give it count of three unless of course I can find the antidote I owe it to my friend to try because I got her into this S A SE I'm not going to let you stop me now brilliant this was another Robert home script and he was on the top of his game unfortunately it's the last great thing that he wrote for who he started out badly with the space pirates and the crotons and he ended just as badly this was the first bit of who directed by Graham Harper and like earthshock the directing is much more cinematic than usual there's a reason that Harper is the only man to direct both classic and new who amusingly there was a miscommunication between the actor

11:31 playing morgus one of the villains and Harper which resulted in him giving a soliloquy directly at the camera The Accidental Shakespeare in this it worked so well that it was kept in it's one of the most memorable parts of the story now the doctor finds the antidote for the poison but there's only enough for one and so happily gives it to Perry no whining no cursing and no delay this is what the End of Time aimed for in its regeneration and had no chance of achieving there's not much much else to say really this is a brilliant story so we'll end with [Music] this and now on to the last story of the season

12:16 the twin dilemma I did a whole review of this story explaining its many types of crapiness so feel free to Google Twin dilemma who if you want to see that if you don't here are the bics Dr unstable drct strangles Perry evil space slugs insane planetary physics insane macgyvering horny Klingons unable to run around planet and terrible child acting a pair of twins are kidnapped by a Time Lord who used to rule a planet called jaconda the twins have amazing mathematical abilities so an evil space slug that now rules jaconda wants them for his plot a plot which involves exploding jaconda and sending his Race's eggs flying through space and therefore Conquering the Galaxy the biggest dilemma you have about the

13:01 twin dilemma is whether to burn your copy or keep it as a warning to others but it does have one piece of incredible honesty and insight my last Incarnation I was never happy with that one whyever not it had a sort of feckless charm which simply wasn't me what absolute rubbish oh but this has been a timely change damn right this story's reputation as one of the worst in the show's history is very well earned and the fact that the audience had its terribleness to Stew on for months and months and months before Season 22 was one of the reasons the sixth doctor didn't do very well but I'll talk about how bad the sixth doctor era was and how much I personally love the sixth doctor himself next time join me then for the return of the second doctor a new

13:48 recurring Time Lord villain and a season that is so bad it's very best story is merely okay me the mystery and the sound taking up time [Music] sorry about that don't ever do that again of course

14:36 not you were right do I look otherwise