Here’s a question for you: is Doctor Who Season 7 better or worse than the rest of the Jon Pertwee era? We don’t know, but Christian Cawley and James McLean certainly had a good go at discussing it in this week’s podKast.
Other topics include a bunch of unglamorous weirdos picking of the Radio Times Audience Award BAFTA for Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor while the production team suns itself works really hard filming in Lanzarote, some talk about David Tennant being described as the “quintessential Doctor” by Doctor Who Season 7 honcho Terrance Dicks and speculation over the Series 8 start date.
Oh and we start off with the most unusual Kasterborous discussion yet. Believe us, we have no idea how we ended up doing that…
Shownotes
- Doctor Who Quick Read: Made of Steel
by Terrance Dicks
- Classic Coronation Street on YouTube
- Recommendations:
- Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds,
- Prey episode 3 starring John Simm,
- Life on Mars
,
- Ashes to Ashes
,
- Doctor Who: Legacy,
- Verdigris
by Paul Magrs
Remember, if you enjoy the show, find us on Apple Podcasts, where your reviews will help the show considerably.
Season 7 is literally one of the greatest Doctor Who seasons ever made. From the visually stunning Spearhead from Space, to the political The Silurians, to the scary Ambassadors of Death, to the dystopic Inferno, Season 7 sets one of the best standards of stories and variety.
But it also has the first non-stereotypical female companion since Hartnell: Liz Shaw.
The later years of Pertwee’s run get bogged down in camp and formula.
I feel the same way. I was thrilled with Season 7. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Pertwee’s later stories (especially sword fighting the Master), but I can’t help but grind my teeth when the Doctor and Jo have to get captured once per serial. And break out. And get captured AGAIN.
Also Season 7’s lack of belief in itself, as mentioned in the podcast, helps. The sense of danger is heightened.
I enjoyed a great deal of the Pertwee era but yes, season 7 was easily the best of his run. Each Doctor has a period where they’re still off balance or still fleshing out all the nuances of how they play the character and at the same time, the whole production team, the writers, etc., are feeling their way around, even the producer. I feel this often leads to the best results, before everyone gets “too comfortable”.
Hartnell did some of his best stuff right out of the box in his first year and a half with the original Tardis team. Tom Baker’s first three seasons with Hinchcliffe and Holmes, ‘Nuff said. I felt that one of the very best stretches of the Tennant run was in his first season with Tooth and Claw, School reunion and Girl in the fireplace, as he was really feeling his way around. And I thought some of the best Smith was in series 5 when he was just finding his footing.
Since the producers never knew if they were going to be getting a season 8, there is no worry about it having to play safe. As a result it feels much more adventurous than later ones where they knew they had an ongoing show to produce. I love the fact that it was produced to be edgy and a new direction.
As bad as it is, I want to say “Aliens of London” would work with Pertwee. During the Liz Shaw era, due to the role of UNIT in that story.
Recent story that Pertwee would of been great in, HIDE. At least he would of known how to say Metebelis three, lol.
A good recent story for Jon Pertwee, how about Victory of the Daleks? I can just picture the 3rd Doctor with Churchill and scoffing a jammy dodger in front of a bunch of Daleks.
I still love Season 7, it’s one of the most mature and bold seasons ever made. One of the most violent as well, people falling off great heights, horrible viruses and the Brigadier must have shot more people in “Ambassadors of Death” than Connery did “Diamonds Are Forever”.
I agree it has a very “Avengers” feel to it. I far preferred Liz Shaw over Jo Grant any day, the latter of whom I’d also say was a step down.