DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 23rd MEET-UP - THE SAVAGES & THE WAR MACHINES (PARTS 1 & 2)

Tuesday 23rd December 2014

Wow!  So near to the end I can smell bad-times a-coming for Hartnell....!  Anyhow we all decided (as a pre-Christmas treat!) to meet up at Mark's and watch six more Hartnell tales!

This time we had a four part re-con and the first two parts of an existing tale to watch! Exciting times indeed!  Sadly we lost two members of our crew (Jim and Leigh) but we did gain a Gavin!  So with this in mind we put on the four-parter "The Savages".  In this tale the Doctor, Steven and Dodo land up in the far distant future.  After leaving the TARDIS they meet the elegant Elders who seem to know who the Doctor is.  It seems they have been admiring his travels from afar and predicted that he would soon be arriving there. 

Photo 1: Gavin, Jason (holding the sign),
Shaun and Mark (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house.

Well the Doctor is greeted as an old friend and they are all made very welcome and all seems lovely....but of course it isn't and it's up to Dodo to find out what's really going on.  What we discover is that the Elders are getting all there re-newed energy by kidnapping the Savages, zapping them of their life force in a transfer device, then dumping them out in the scrub lands to recover!  With their secret out the Elders guards chase Dodo and Steven out into the scrub-lands where they meet-up with the Savages and find them to be a friendly but sorry lot!

The Doctor isn't so lucky!  After confronting the Elders and telling them off about their wicked ways the leader of the Elders, Jano, tells the Doctor that what they are doing is in the name of progress!  And who cares about the Savages outside, eh?  This surely is for the greater good!!  The Doctor of course takes umbrage with this and Jano decides the best thing to do is to drain] the Doctor of his life-force and takes it for himself!  Which he does!

Photo 2: Gavin, MJ (holding the DVD cover - honest!),
Shaun (with the sign) and Mark around Mark's house.

Meanwhile in Gotham City - ahem I mean meanwhile outside Steven and Dodo having chatted to the sorry old Savages, who have given up on life it seems - why fight when the Elders have Light Guns (oh yeah - sorry the light guns capture their prey in a beam of light and keep them frozen!  Shame we only have re-cons as I'd like to see how they did this!).

 

Photo 3: Gavin, MJ (holding the DVD cover),
Shaun (with the sign) and Mark around Mark's house.

Anyhow Steven manages to attack one of the pursuing guards nick his light gun and get back to the city where they find a very weak Doctor!  The third episode ends with them with the weak Doctor, trapped in a corridor filling with gas.  The one silver-lining seems to be that Jano, after his transfer with the Doctor is now developing some of his personality and is getting a conscience about what bad stuff they've done.  In fact the actor does a very fun thing - mixing his performance with a vague impression of Hartnell's Doctor.  It's quite fun and quite subtle in many ways.

Photo 4: Gavin, Jason (with the sign),
Shaun and Mark (holding the DVD cover) around Mark's house.

Anyhow the last episode finishes with Jano encouraging Dodo and the others smashing up the transfer equipment and the Savages, with Steven's help, overthrowing the Elders and meaning everyone can live in harmony.  Thing is they need a strong leader!  Jano wants the Doctor (who refuses) but the Savages leader Chal wants only one man - Steven!  So we finally say a farewell (which thanks to a fan we can see on some flickering cine-camera footage) to our Space hero Steven.  Quite sad in a way as I felt he was way underused in stories - he should have been used a lot better as I like Peter Purves the actor.

As far as the tale goes I did like it but do wish it existed so I could see things like Jano's Doctor impression and Dodo and the Doctor smashing up the equipment!

Anyhow with such thoughts lingering our TARDIS crew (The Doctor and Dodo go into our next adventure "The War Machines").

Photo 5: Gavin, MJ (holding The War Machine DVD cover),
Shaun and Mark around Mark's house.

This is another story that exists and is actually the last story of Season 3 of Doctor Who!
Another milestone to be proud of!  Anyhow we decided to just watch the first 2 episodes of this tale set back on modern day (well, 1960's) Earth!  We start in London, 1966, and seen as Police Boxes are in common use the Doctor hangs an "OUT OF ORDER" sign on the TARDIS - right before a Policeman comes along and tries to use the TARDIS phone!  They both notice that the Post Office Tower has been completed and the Doctor gets a weird feeling like when he met the Daleks (to Dodo "Oh that's right you never met them did you"  I wonder if she ever will... (no - is the answer!).  He decides he must go and visit the tower.  They both do this with the Doctor pretending to be a computer specialist!  He is of course welcomed (by Professor Brett) and shown around the place finally facing the new super computer WOTAN (pronounced "Votan").  They ask it some questions - square roots and the like before Dodo asks it what "TARDIS" means.  Spookily it answers correctly which worries the Doctor!  Dodo then becomes to mesmerized by the machine and starts to hear a buzzing in her ears!  She starts to complain but says she thinks she'll be alright if she can maybe have a rest - so Professor Brett's Secretary, Polly, invites her to a club with her.  the nattily named "Inferno Club"!

Photo 6: Gavin (holding The War Machine DVD cover), Jason, Shaun (holding the upside down sign) and Mark around Mark's house.

Here Polly and Dodo come across (behave!) a Sailor on shore-leave who looks glum!  This is Ben!  They have no luck and leave him to his grumpiness.  Then some sleazy type tries to come onto Polly and Ben springs into action!  Starting (then ending!) a very quick bar fight!!

Anyhow I shan't talk about ALL the plot here - suffice to say Dodo gets hypnotised and tries to get the Doctor to go back to see WOTAN ("WOTAN - why are you so fat, WOTAN?" - sorry Grange Hill reference!)!  In fact the computer says "DOC-TOR WHO IS NEE-DED" rather strange as he's NEVER called "Doctor Who" usually!  I guess nobody told the guy who wrote this script!  Anyhow back in a guy called Sir Charles office the Doctor finds out that Dodo has been hypnotised and puts her to sleep.  Thus keeping her out of the story.

Photo 7: A close-up of Shaun (holding the sign) around Mark's house.

The Doctor does find out that these War Machines are to be placed within strategic points around the country - to do what I don't know as they are quite bulky slow things!  Still The episode ends with Ben in a warehouse (a warehouse in which the baddies had tested out the War Machines earlier by killing a poor tramp in cold blood!! Boo to WOTAN/VOTAN/RO-LAND!!!) being threatened by one of the War Machines! Scary stuff!

I did enjoy these two episodes, they felt pacey and it was nice to be back in the "modern day" Also I do like Ben and Polly!  The feel fun and new!

Until the next time I shall return, yes, I shall return...

MJ 27-12-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 22nd MEET-UP - THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER (PARTS 3 & 4) & THE GUNFIGHTERS

Sunday 14th December 2014

The year is slowly reaching it's end and the same goes for our viewing of Hartnell!  Once again we all met around Jason's (except Shaun who had better stuff to do!) to complete two stories.  For a nice change we only had 1 re-con to watch as the other 5 episodes exist!So firstly we had to complete our viewing of The Celestial Toymaker and last time we had the invisible and mute Doctor (Hartnell was on holiday again!) playing his trilogic game against The Celestial Toymaker - at the same time Dodo and Steven had just escaped from some living dolls!

Photo 1: Jason (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover), Mark, Jim (with the sign) and Leigh (with the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Jason's house.

So we started with the re-con of the third part ("The Dancing Floor") and Steven and Dodo find themselves in an old fashioned kitchen.  Here cook Mrs. Wiggs (Edith from "'Allo 'Allo" - or the female clown/Queen playing card from the previous games) and soldier Sergeant Rugg (the King Playing card from the previous game) are bickering - whilst another character (a Kitchen Boy who looks very like the Knave of Hearts) is asleep.  Our travellers find they have to get through a locked door and so have to play "Hunt The Thimble" (or "Key" in this case!).  Steven is getting annoyed with these games and meeting lots of silly characters who seem to keep slowing them down!  Dodo however appeals to the Sergeant to help her find the key - especially as she's a lady he is a gentleman!  Anyhow after lots of plate smashing (which infuriates Mrs. Wiggs), bickering and the like they find the key in a pie!  Escaping the kitchen they see another TARDIS - but blocking the way are lots of dolls.  Steven bravely tries to dash at them but gets forced into a dance!  He's not alone as Dodo, Sergeant Rugg AND Mrs. Wiggs also try to get past but end up dancing with dolls!  Eventually Steven ends up dancing with Dodo - which seems to break the spell and they end up getting to ANOTHER fake TARDIS.

Watching all this the still invisible Doctor laughs - angering The Celestial Toymaker who sends out another character that he thinks will do the job better - a tubby Billy-Bunteresque schoolboy called Cyril (basically a tubby actor who was in his 40's at the time!), recognisable as the Knave of Hearts AND the kitchen boy.  After electrocuting Steven with a buzzer in his hand he sinisterly directs them to the next game, which will be played against him!

Photo 2: Mark, Jason (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover), MJ (with the sign) 
and Leigh around Jason's house. 

So we finally got to the final part (not a re-con) "The Final test" and the game will be "TARDIS hopscotch".  Each player rolls a die at his turn, moves the number of triangles indicated and the first to reach the TARDIS is the winner!

Simple enough - any tricks?  Oh, yes, the ground in between is electrocuted!  Anyhow they have to play the game with Cyril trying out a few mishievious deeds (catapulting the back of Steven's neck, adding slippery powder to one of the later blocks and pretending he's hurt his leg with fake blood).  The latter trick makes Dodo leave her stand to see if he's alright (thus breaking the rules by moving off her square and having to go back to the start)!  Cyril then only needs 5 to get home and, would you know it, rolls a 5!  Yaroo!  He rushes home....only to slip on his forgotten slippery powder, falling to the floor and electrocuting himself!  He ends up as a doll - like the other charcters did.  This leaves Steven and Dodo as the winners and they make their way up to the ACTUAL TARDIS (with Dodo nearly slipping on the powder herself!).

In the meantime the Doctor is now again fully visible and only has one move to make - he has won his game and goes to meet the other at The TARDIS!

Problem is the Doctor hasn't won yet - he has to make the last move, but if he does that then the Toymaker loses and thusly The Toymaker's world will be destoyed - along with the TARIDS and it's crew.  They also can't leave the land until the last move.  For some reason the Doctor tries out an idea where he imitates the Toymaker's voice to make the last move - whilst Steven simultaneously throws the TARDIS switch and they de-materialise as the Toymaker's world is destroyed.  This is where I found it a little confusing until I chatted it through with Jason again and of course it's obvious!  The Toymaker all THROUGH the game had been advancing the game onwards to speed things up, saying things like "Go for move 930!" etc.  The Doctor, by imitating this voice, forced the game to end and the world to destroy itself - whilst Steven got them the hell outta there!

Phew!  Well that was the end of that.  So, the whole story?  Well, it was silly, odd, not something you'd want every week (or again!) but I did enjoy it as something different.  The sets and characters were inventive and there seemed quite a lot of fun to it!

But what did Jason think!?
Jason: "I don't really know how I feel about this one. I like that we got a new adversary with lots of promise, apparently infinite abilities and resources. The Toymaker had a god-like presence that reminded me of Q from Star Trek. I accepted early on that it was going to play out like a game-show with our heroes having to compete through various levels. I was pleased that the Toymaker didn't just stick to his word letting them go at the end and instead it required some trickery from the Doctor, but … meh.

It just didn't completely work for me. Maybe it suffered by being a reconstruction. It seems a very visual story. So much happened yet none of it really grabbed me. I wanted it to feel more threatening and other-worldly. On reflection maybe a potentially very good story and villain suffered because it had to be written around a Hartnell holiday.
[Having already seen the 2nd-Doctor story 'The Mind Robber' I saw a lot of parallels and couldn't help but compare them. I may have appreciated 'The Celestial Toymaker' more if I had seen them in the order they were originally broadcast.]
I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love it.
4/10."

Fair enough!  Anyhow after a break we moved onto the last Hartnell story that I had never seen - "The Gunfighters".  All I knew of this tale was it's reputation of being bad, with dodgy accents and an annoying song!  Well I have to admit I was happily surprised to see that it was better than it's reputation suggests!

The previous story had ended with the Doctor eating one of Cyril's sweets and hurting his tooth - meaning he needed to go to a dentist.  And where better to see a Dentist than the wild west!!  In fact (apart from that brief trip to the top of the Empire State Building in "The Chase") it was our first trip to America!
 

 

Photo 3: Mark (his eyes are open!!), Jim (holding The Gunfighter DVD cover),
Jason (with the sign) and Leigh around Jason's house.

The story is also the last story of the classic series to have individual episode titles.  From now on they would be called "Story Title - Episode 1/2/3/4 etc...".

So we kicked off with "A Holiday For The Doctor" and our travellers arive in the Wild Western town of Tombstone and the Doctor is grumpy about his toothache!  He's not sure whether he should get his tooth fixed here (and I agreed!  Why not go to a future age and get it done by someone more professional AND with anaesthetic!!??) but Steven and Dodo are excited to be in the Wild West and convince him that it's fine and get changed into fancy dress cowboy gear.  "Yes Doctor, you go ahead and have torturous dental surgery whilst we get dressed up in fun Western gear!"

Anyhow the Doctor gets his tooth sorted by Doc Holliday himself!  Whilst this happens Steven and Dodo end up having to sing and play piano to satisfy a bunch of outlaws who are out for blood.  They also meet Wyatt Earp and many other well known people of the time.

Photo 4: Mark, Jim (holding The Gunfighter DVD cover), MJ (with the sign) 

and Leigh around Jason's house.

I won't bang on about the whole plot (read elsewhere if you want to know!) but I must say, whilst some of the American accents sounded dodgy, I was quite a fan of the old timer playing Doc Holliday!  I thought he came across as fun and menacing at the same time.  It wasn't all jolly - as the very dark character of Johnny Ringo proved.  Just on a whim he decided to shoot the poor bar man, Charlie, who seemed a simple fellow and I don't think deserved to die like that!  Elsewhere I thought Steven and Dodo came across well in this tale and had lots of fun stuff to do.  The Doctor too seemed on top mischievous form and the whole thing ends in a gun-fighting blood-bath (with no blood of course!).

I think I need to re-watch it again to see how I feel about it properly, but I don't think it is AS bad as it's reputation suggests.  Yes it drags a little in places - and there is a bizarre song (sang by the unseen Lynda Baron - Nurse Gladys Emmanuel from the sitcom "Open All Hours"!) that weaves in and out of the story which seems to narrate what's going on.  This was a fair bit distracting and started to annoy a little.  I'm sure if you were to watch one episode a week (as it was intended) then it might be fine but, well, yes...

Photo 5: Mark (his eyes are open!!) and Jim (holding The Gunfighter DVD cover)
around Jason's house.

But enough of that!  What did Jason think!?

"'The Gunfighters'
Overall I enjoyed the Gunfighters. I like westerns anyway, so that probably helped. One of the things I enjoy about Doctor Who is its ability to change up the atmosphere and even the genre of the show each week. Though not entirely successful, I like that they attempted some western tropes such as more dramatic camera angles and tied it all together with the accompanying ballad. In particular it reminded me of 'High Noon'.

There were lots of deaths and drinking. I loved Hartnell's Doctor here. His reluctance to use a gun was illustrated with great comic timing and yet again he is mistaken for a local figure. Steven and Dodo had several great interactions as well as time to shine individually.
Dodo seems to have had some difficulty regaining her regular 'northern' accent after using her cowgirl voice. She now has much more plummy southern tones. This may be down to an issue with the Tardis' translation unit as it also regularly affected the rest of the townsfolk.
I found the Gunfighters to be a fun little adventure with both comedic and dramatic moments and included pretty good gunfight at the end.

The moral: Don't accept sweets from Billy Bunter as it may get you shot.
7.5 /10"

So there we are - anyhow next time our story will be set in "the far future in an age of prosperity." (or so the Doctor states at the end of this episode) and leaves us with the image of a savage man running down a hill...

Until the next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 15-12-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 21st MEET-UP - THE ARK & THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER (PARTS 1 & 2)

Sunday 30th November 2014

So the last day of November and this meet-up has been quite a chore to organise - people being busy and all.  Still at least we’re back to a Sunday meet-up!  Hoozah!  It was great to have the full gang along once more!  Oh, except that it WASN’T the full gang!  We sadly lost a Shaun....

...Oh, and Leigh.  Bugger.  Well we decided the best thing to do would be to meet up anyway and they play catch-up!  With so few Hartnell left to get through we need to plough on!  So, Mark, Jim and I ambled over to Jason's house to watch the four part story "The Ark". 

Photo 1: Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover), Mark (with the sign)and MJ giving the thumbs up around Jason's house.

Still, keeping in mind that we have a lot to get through and we’re SO close to the end of Hartnell’s reign of absent-mindedness, we decided to go ahead with just the four of us.  So four of the Four Whores-men met around Jason’s house on the last day of November.  Our objective?  To watch a four parter that exists!!  Wow!  We haven’t had THAT happen in a while!  Yes the story “The Ark” is complete and, not only that, it was also a story which I had never seen before as well!  In fact it was so new to me that Jason had bought it for me on DVD for my birthday!

Anyhow - the story starts with the Doctor, Steven and the newly picked up Dodo arriving in a jungle.  Steven wonders if they are back on Kembel (from the Daleks’ Master Plan) and Dodo for some reason is dressed in some kind of knave outfit!  It actually seemed like we’d missed a story or something!  However it’s explained that she found the dressing up box and was just playing around - she also didn’t believe they were on an alien planet - instead thinking they were in Kew Gardens in London.  Especially when they chance upon an elephant and other earth creatures!

However this is not the case - they are in the far future (almost ten million years you know!) on a space-ship version of Noah’s Ark.  The Earth was dying so a load of humans and animals took to the stars to go to a new planet - with many of the humans having being shrunk and stored in stasis.  They are aided by another alien race - The Monoids - a servant race that can’t speak, have a single eye where their mouths should be and seem to don Beatle-type hair-do’s!

Photo 2: Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover), Mark (with the sign) 
and Jim around Jason's house.

The future humans welcome our TARDIS crew on board and show them around their ship.  they tell our chums that they are the remainder of the human race on a destination to an Earth-like planet called Refusis II.  As this will take nearly 700 years to get to they, as an amusement during the journey, are building a vast hand-carved statue, depicting a human being.  Well that’s all lovely and friendly but what’s this?  Dodo starts sneezing!  Oh, she must have picked up the common cold before she came along in the TARDIS - no biggy you’d think?  Ahh but these future humans eradicated the common cold thousands of years ago and now have no bodily defense against it!

Neither do the poor Monoids and both races soon start dying off!  Of course the Doctor and his gang get blamed and sentenced to be shrunk down and ejected into space!

As you can guess after some to-ing and fro-ing the Doctor comes up with a cure and everything seems to be solved after just 2 episodes.  Having never seen this serial before I was quite surprised and wondered how they were going to pad out 2 more episodes.

Well this is where things go different for early Who - the TARDIS takes then BACK to the Ark and to the very same spot but 700 years in the future!  The crew think the humans must be nearly at their destination and notice that the statue is complete - but it’s not a human!  It’s a Monoid!  Yes, having staged a coup during the long journey, the Monoids are now in charge (with numbers to distinguish them) and can now speak through a special translation device!  The poor old humans are slaves and Steven is sent to join some to work in the “Security Kitchen” - if such a thing is needed!  Steven tries to get a revolt going - which fails!

Meanwhile as they finally approach Refusis II a landing pod is prepared and the Doctor, Dodo, Monoid 2 and a subject Guardian named Yendom fly off to the new planet.  The new planet, although seemingly deserted, is occupied by invisible giants (which must have been kind on the budget!) who are very welcoming.  However the naughty Monoids (which isn’t all of them - some are nice chaps!) have constructed a bomb inside their statue and plan to escape the ship leaving the humans on board to be blown up!   
 

Photo 3: MJ hovers over Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover) and
Mark (with the sign).

Anyhow the whole thing ends with the bad Monoids being overthrown, the bomb being ejected off the ship and the remaining Monoids and the humans are left to live together in peace on the new planet.

We are left with the cliffhanger of the Doctor being turned invisible!

Honestly I really enjoyed “The Ark”.  I don’t know if it was because it was the first full story we’d seen in a while, but I liked it a lot!  I liked the way the TARDIS crew interacted with the aliens, I liked the sets and I especially loved how you thought the story was over but they went back to it thousands of years later!

But what did Jason think?
Jason: “As we haven't all seen these yet, I'll try to not to give too much of the plot away.

I really enjoyed 'The Ark'.  It might just be the novelty of the actors actually moving, but the whole thing entertained me and didn't drag along at all.  Sometimes with Doctor Who I feel the there can be be a lot of padding to the stories.  Not in this case.  At times it was both visually and thematically reminiscent of the 1960 film version of HG Wells' 'The Time Machine' which as far as I'm concerned is surely a good thing.

Dodo wasn't as annoying as I predicted from her first appearance.  Her accent is still in 'Daphne from Frasier' mode and she currently feels a bit more - for want of a better word - spunky than some of the other females.  I find her easy acceptance of time & space travel bit unbelievable, but I take it she's just a very easy-going character who does and says whatever she feels like at the time.  I enjoyed the Doctor's disgust for her unacceptable slang words such as 'Fab', 'Gear' and, of course, 'O.K.'.

I liked the concept and design of the Monoid race.  Though I understand this is to be their only appearance in Who, I believe they could have been developed more in the way that they would later do with the Ood race (but that's in the future!).

Overall a good solid enjoyable story.  8/10”.

After that we decided to watch the first two parts of the next story “The Celestial Toymaker”.  As a lot of stories in this season we’re missing a lot - the first 3 out of 4 episodes to be precise!  Still we sat down to watch the 1st 2 recons of this mad little tale!

Photo 4: Jason (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover),
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.

It starts with our heroes stepping outside into a strange room where the Doctor reappears, saying he recognises the place they are in....

Photo 5: MJ (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover),
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.

...They are in realm of the Celestial Toymaker, an eternal being of infinite power who sets games and traps for the unwary so that they become his toys and playthings.  The TARDIS is removed to prevent their escape and hidden with hundreds of copies so that can’t tell which is which.  The only way of escaping is for Dodo and Steven to play a series of puzzle games against various foes (firstly against a couple of clowns and then against some real life Playing Card people) and for the Doctor to play a Trilogic game with the Celestial Toymaker himself (played wonderfully sinister by Michael Gough (later to become the butler Alfred in four Batman movies))!  There is plenty of scope for comedy and daftness but it all has quite a dark edge as most of the games will end with the death of one or more of the players!  Oh, and I didn’t say that the Doctor has been turned invisible again (I guess it was time for another Hartnell holiday!).  But what did Jason think?

Photo 5: MJ (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover),
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.

Jason: “I'll reserve most of my thoughts on 'The Celestial Toymaker' until I've seen the next 2 episodes.  However, I'm liking it so far.   I was pleased that the Doctor already knew of the 'Toymaker' before they arrived.  This might be the first non-historical where this occurs.  I do hope it deviates from the simple 'bad guy decides to set various pointless gameshow challenges for 'The Who gang' on a whim and then lets them go if they pass them all'.  I want him to become a proper evil bugger as they near the end and not just a bored bloke.  I'd really like him to be another time lord.  We shall see.  So far 6/10.”

Well, I look forward to seeing the conclusion of this all next time.  So, until next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 02-12-14

Extra.... Tuesday 10th December 2014 - Leigh & Shaun's Catch Up!

So before we met on the next Sunday the two boys needed to catch up on what they’d missed so we gathered around Leigh’s on a dark Tuesday night to watch “The Ark” and the first two re-cons for “The Celestial Toymaker” - not much to say but they seemed to go down well on a dark, cold night.  Which was nice.

Shaun: "The Ark was an interesting and different storyline that benefited greatly from splitting into two different time-periods, almost giving us two mini-stories with the same set-up.

It’s always interesting seeing the Doctor actually being a scientist, something often mentioned but rarely seen, and Dodo’s cold causing the problems was a nice twist.
I can’t lie, Dodo was really irritating at first, but did begin growing on my after a few episodes.

The Monoids were interesting and understated in the first two chapters, and their mysterious origins and seeming subservience leant a decent level of suspicion to the audience.
On arriving at the later time period, it was clear that the Monoid rebellion was fairly recent and they overcame the humans because of the mistreatment they had suffered over generations. They wanted to turn from slaves to masters, as generations of resentment turned to hatred (at least in some). This was a solid motivation and, in typical Doctor Who style, the leader was the worst.

I enjoyed Number 4’s story, it was steadily plotted as he slowly turned on Number 1 and gave a hopeful ending of reconciliation.

On reaching Refusus, we meet our second(?) invisible species. These benevolent creatures were once physical entities, evolved by a cosmic accident (or whatever) into beings of pure energy. I always appreciate the invisible creatures, and the way the limited technology of the time is used to bring them to life (still easier than using a person in costume convincingly).
I always like seeing The Doctor talking to another being about humans, making it clear he isn’t one. I enjoy being reminded that he is beyond us, that, despite appearances, he is something far older and greater than we could ever be, and talking like we’re a young species trying its best for all our faults.

Ultimately, everyone learns a lesson about peace and tolerance, and it all seems to work out nicely.

This may be an odd point to pick up on, but at the start the Guardians freeze a guy for 700 years (until they reach the new planet). Although this is important for showing how the Guardians deal with justice, and allowing us insight into the duration of the journey, I found it strange that this character didn’t play any part in the outcome of the storyline.
Finally, the greatest thing about the storyline, my favourite part, and even the most outstanding character: the slow-moving baggage truck. It survived over 700 years, and slowly transported several things and characters integral to the plot. It even got to end out a scene (and made the recap) by slowly backing away as the TARDIS fades into the time-stream.

I salute you, slow-moving baggage truck!"

Catch Up Photo 1: Leigh and Shaun around Leigh’s house for The Ark catch-up!



Catch Up Photo 2: Leigh and Shaun around Leigh’s house for their The Celestial Toymaker catch-up!

Catch Up Photo 3: A rubbish selfie of Leigh, Shaun and MJ trying to hold both DVD covers and signs around Leigh's house.