DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 7th MEET-UP - THE REIGN OF TERROR

Sunday 6th April 2014

Another Sunday and, after a last minute switch from Jason's house, we all met up around Leigh's to watch the last serial of the first season of Doctor Who!!

"The Reign of Terror".

Sadly Mark was not able to join us for this meeting (making me, Jim and Jason the only ones to attend all the meet-ups!).  So, once we got the "hello's" and teas out of the way, we proceeded to put the shiny DVD into Leigh's machine and we were off!

This was a six parter with two missing episodes (4 and 5).  However, like all 60's Who, the soundtrack exists so the missing parts have been re-created by animation overlaid with the original soundtrack.

Photo 1: Jason (holding open-eyed Mark!), Leigh (with sign)
and MJ posing around Leigh's house.

For a longer story I really quite enjoyed it - set during one of the bloodiest periods in French History (i.e. The Reign Of Terror) it set out to educate the 60's children about that period in history.  That may make it sound quite dull, but it was filled with a lot of humour, well written (and acted) characters and, for 60's Who, very impressive sets!

Photo 2: Jason (holding open-eyed Mark!), Leigh (with sign)
and Jim posing around Leigh's house.

We did have a brief pause in the middle when Jim's phone went and he had to nip to the shop for his wife, before they closed! (see photo!)

Photo 3: Jim around Leigh's house.

His wife on the phone needs something bought from the shop!

As far as acting goes there were some strong performances - I particularly enjoyed the very Yorkshire sounding jailer - obviously from the very north of France!  And the Doctor who, along with his usual fluffs, gave a very strong performance.  Arguing and tricking the bully-type guy on the road to Paris and later bluffing his way into the Bastille as a fancily dressed dignitary!  He really seemed to enjoy pea-cocking around!

Photo 4: Jason around Leigh's house.

Proudly protecting his groin with new "Mark On A Cushion"(™)

I think the only thing, for me, that let the serial down was the animation.  The style was great as was the sets and the drawings - however sometimes it wasn't overly clear who was being animated.  This would have been get-overable (if that's a phrase!) if it wasn't for the fact that they had so many quick-cut shots.  This may be how it would be with modern animation but did not match the style of how they would have made the 60's shows - which used longer shots with not too much quick cutting.  A shame as I've seen other animated episodes which have been of a much higher quality!  But apart from that niggle I did enjoy the serial - did you like it Jim?


Jim: "I was worried that it may be a let-down after The Sensorites.  It wasn't as good as that but as a non-sci-fi one it was enjoyable.  Actually, all the historical ones have been good, probably better than the sci-fi ones which is odd for a sci-fi show!"

So, rather brilliantly, we've reached the end of Doctor Who Series 1 and it's taken us 12 weeks!  Not too bad but we still have a long way to go...!

Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 08-04-14

Extra.... Thursday 17th April 2014 - Mark's Catch Up!

So on a dark Thursday night I popped over Mark's to watch "Reign Of Terror" with him and to get him up to date with the rest of us!

Photo 5: Mark and MJ around Mark's house for the Reign Of Terror Catch-up!

Photo 6: Mark (with his eyes permanently closed) 

at his house for the Reign Of Terror Catch-up!

I think I actually enjoyed it a lot more watching it the second time and even enjoyed the animation better!

Shaun (after his catch-up on 08/12/14): “The Reign of Terror took a long time to grow on me.

The first couple of episodes were general fare, historical event, Doctor wanders off for a charming little adventure, Ian meets historical figure and befriends him, Barbara and Susan in danger, blah, blah, blah.  Seen it all before.

This may seem unfair, as RoT might have been the first historical serial to be set up this way, and so becoming the template for future ones, but even so it wasn’t a very thrilling start.

I did enjoy the Doctor’s meanderings, though, especially conning the tailor.  That was pretty funny.

Once the threads started coming together, though, with Ian being betrayed, The Doctor being arrested and forced to find the rebel, and the team getting a little hands on with the actual events, it became a lot more interesting and entertaining.  As Jim said (later) about The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, it probably wasn’t very forgiving if you knew nothing of the era, but it set things up better (probably a benefit of being a longer arc), had a smaller pool of characters and I knew a bit about this time anyway, enough not to be lost at any point”.