All rested from my trip to Gallifrey (the convention) I now resume my 40th Anniversary Doctor Who marathon at 7:30 PM PST with Castrovalva (episodic version.) Davison’s debut as the Doctor is an interesting tale, but a bit too complex (or to use a nifty phrase from the program “ambient complexity”.) The Master has set a trap, and a back-up trap – one that is more elaborate (and more far-fetched than anything he’s ever done before…) It’s a good introduction for the new Doctor, but not a great story. 3/5
9:00 PM PST Four to Doomsday (episodic version.) I apparently fell asleep while watching part 2, so I resumed from where I last remembered at around 9:00 AM PST. It has been a while since I’ve seen this story, and I found it to be better than I remembered. Former Z-Cars star Stratford Johns does well under make-up as Monarch, the Urbankan megalomaniac. The Doctor and his companions are very ingenious in this story, though quickly in the season we see that Adric is very susceptible to crossing over to “the dark side”… 4/5.
10:20 AM PST Kinda (episodic version – with pledge breaks from 1983!) One of my favorites of the Davison era, deals with demons from the dark places of the mind – whether they are actively malicious (as the Mara is) or just a plain madness (in Hindle’s case.) The Doctor is routinely called “idiot” (which is fun) and this time Adric pretends to change sides… 4.5/5.
Well, that’s it for this go. I’ll slowly get to the rest of season 19 over the next week or so.