The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

Vengeance On Varos: Part One   (19/01/25) Well, that wasn't a bad episode, more straight forward than the last story and obviously limited y being studio-bound but nonetheless interesting and a further step towards the Doctor Who  we all know. The start wasn't great, to be frank, with the writing of the new Doctor being a little too reminiscent of the easily defeated, petulant and self-centred characterisation of the early episodes of The Twin Discrepancy , but once he and Peri arrived on Varos he became the Doctor we've been following for the last 20-odd years, albeit filtered through Colin Baker's boisterous personality. So, Varos! It's an ex-prison colony where the descendants of the prisoners live as second class citizens with an impoverished lifestyle where they're fed a diet of violent torture and executions of dissidents via a live stream and the requirement that they frequently vote for their puppet Governor in a mock of democracy, whilst the descendants...

Attack Of The Cybermen: Part One (05/01/25) Firstly, that was a massive improvement on Colin's debut story on almost every level. The style echoes last year's Dalek story, unsurprising since it sees the Doctor encounter one of his big enemies in modern day London, features Lytton from that story making contact with said Big Bads via a jewellery heist, and is directed by Resurrection 's Matthew Robinson and shown in 45 minute episodes. I'm not entirely sure about the double-length episodes. Yes, it brings it bang up to date with a lot of other (mostly American) Sci Fi shows and drama series, but it worked for Resurrection because it gave the serial an 'event' feel. I'm just wondering if 45 minute episodes might be a little too much to absorb for a teatime family Sci Fi series? Second thing of note is that this story is written by a Paula Moore - following Season 20s Enlightenment it seems they've finally commissioned another story by a woman writer. Tw...