The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

I never liked the Third Doctor. Arrogant, flamboyant, prone to his 'moments of charm' and surrounded by a ridiculously camp military team that couldn't army their way out of a shoe box and, for the most part, a dumb blonde companion who was the epitome of 'The Screamer'. Yes, his first story was a Classic - everybody knew that - but after that first series the show descended into silly childishness with too much CSO, an alien invasion every week and a daft arch-nemesis dressed as Evil 70s Guy who was always the one behind it all. Granted, I only started watching the show in 1987, so my first exposure to the Third Doctor would likely have been the repeat of 'The  Dæmons' following that episode of 'Tomorrow's World' which explained the colourising process. Over the next few years, I'd get to see 'The Sea Devils', 'Planet Of The Daleks' and 'The Green Death', and whilst these are all regarded as some of the very best ...

Planet Of The Spiders: Part One (04/05/14) SO  much better this week! Mike Yates has gone to a meditational retreat in the West Country and stumbled across some fellow residents  up to some funny business with a Mandala in the basement. So he's brought journalist Sarah Jane Smith in to investigate in the hope that she'll be able to bring in the Doctor and UNIT - something he wouldn't be able to do having helped out the bad guys of Operation Golden Age. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Alistair (that's the Brigadier's first name!!!) have been to the theatre and invited the psychic Professor Clegg back to UNIT for some tests. After a quaint telekinetic sequence with some no-bad CSO, Benton turned up with a parcel from Jo (all the way in the Amazon) asking someone at UNIT to look after the Blue Metebilis crystal the Doctor gave her as a wedding present as the natives think it's bad magic! However, whist the Doctor was reading her letter and Professor Clegg was examin...

The Monster Of Peladon: Part One (23/03/14) YAY! We're back on Peladon and there's more shit going down! It's fifty years later and King Peladon's daughter, Thalira, is on the Throne accompanied by her slightly-less-psycho-than-the-last-one High Priest, Ortron, along with Alpha Centauri. The Galactic Federation is at war with Galaxy 5 and have a mining expert (Vega Nexos - a weird bird/satyr creature) and Human Eckersley overseeing mining for Trisilicate (which is basically very rare but essential for everything). Someone obviously doesn't want them doing this, as an image of Aggedor keeps appearing and vaporising people, including Vega Nexos and several Pel miners (who all have badger-Afros for want of a better description). Anyhow, after being caught in the temple of Aggedor, mistaken for spy-assassins, brought before the Queen, acquitted due to Alpha Centauri's intervention and witnessing an unplanned (by the Pel mining leader, at least) uprising by the...