More First Doctor viewing!

[ghost2]

My quest to see all the First Doctor serials in order continues! I made little progress for a few days because, in an extremely OOC fit of saintliness, I took time off of viewing to help my grandmother figure out her income taxes. Don't remind me of the fact that I haven't even STARTED to work on my own yet, plus will owe money.

Anyway, when I got back to DW viewing, I finished The Keys of Marinus and then zapped through The Aztecs and The Sensorites.


KEYS OF MARINUS was great. Barbara and Ian took center stage, which was fine by me. If I hadn't shipped them before, this serial would have fixed that for me. They are lovely together. As for the other characters, Susan was pretty much sidelined and the Doctor had little to do most of the time, but things picked up for him towards the end. Lots of action/adventure in this one, and I think it's going on my list of favorite serials.

I had seen THE AZTECS before, of course, but it was no hardship to watch again. Barbara as a goddess? Ian, fighting a warrior? The Doctor, accidentally getting engaged? Susan, doing, um, very little? Okay, three out of four will have to suffice. It was a fun action story and the Doctor got to speak out against interfering with history.

I liked THE SENSORITES a lot as well. This time around, Barbara was marginalized for large chunks of the story while Susan played more of a role than usual. She also had flashes of rebellion against the Doctor, but their close bond won out. I liked the aliens and the mysteries; could have done without quite so many scenes featuring plotting Sensorites, but the FF button was there when things became too repetitive. That didn't happen too often. Another solid effort.

Will start on THE REIGN OF TERROR tomorrow. It sounds fascinating. The more First Doctor serials I watch, the more I find myself enjoying them.

Comments

[tigerkat24.livejournal.com]

Barbara was marginalized for a lot of the Sensorites because Jacqueline Hill got kidnapped by her husband to Bermuda or something so they had to write her out. It wasn't a deliberate effort on the side of the writers or anything.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Actually, a vacation to anywhere sounds really nice to me right about now! Anyway, I missed Barbara, but OTOH I liked seeing Susan with a bigger role than she had in the preceding two serials.

[bibliophile1887.livejournal.com]

I find it so gratifying to see fans discovering the wonderfulness that is the First Doctor era.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

I'd seen some of his serials before, but going through all of them in order is very rewarding. A "fan" who bashed this era inspired me to watch these serials--I couldn't disagree more with her very dismissive opinion.

[bibliophile1887.livejournal.com]

It is, perhaps, my favorite era. Always jostling with the Sixth Doctor era for favorite, but still very, very good.

[usuallyhats]

I like Susan's bits in The Aztecs - you're right, there isn't much for her to do but what there is is quite nice.

[ghost2.livejournal.com]

The others all had such important parts in that one, I guess they just couldn't work Susan in more. But I agree that she was good in the scenes she was actually in.