• A Real Person reviews Season 22

    From Agent Jakanov@3:633/280.2 to All on Sun Mar 17 16:08:53 2024
    This is an actual review written by an actual person, not some fake
    ChapBot.

    I'm going to take a more holistic approach, and I won't be rating
    individual stories or getting too deep into them.

    Season 22 often gets derided by fandom as the point where things "went
    wrong" in 1980s, and many blame the creative decisions such as making
    the show darker and grittier, and having the Doctor be more erratic and self-centered.

    To be sure, this didn't come out of the blue. The show became
    progressively darker leading up to it. In the previous season, the Peter Davison's Doctor was becoming less patient and less of a nice-guy
    schmuck. And a very important foreshadowing was one of his last lines
    before regenerating: "It feels different this time."

    As a series of adventures, most of the stories were very strong,
    especially the first two and the season closer. In fact, I remember
    reading academic articles which used both "Vengeance On Varos" and
    "Revelation of the Daleks" as examples of good television scripts.

    Many heavy, allegorical themes were dealt with. Unfortunately, one of
    the valid criticisms that can be leveled at it is that it was too much
    of a slow and intense burn, and it didn't feel like it was leading up to anything. Even the companion complained about their journeys feeling
    like aimless wanderings, to which the Doctor gave a bullying response.

    Another criticism commonly leveled at this season was that it was too continuity heavy. It did feel excessive to bring the Master back and
    not even explaining how he managed to survive the Planet of Fire, and
    also retconning the 2nd Doctor era. But apart from that, the contuity
    with past Doctor Who actually worked pretty well and enhanced the
    stories.

    More problematic was how this season treated the historical setting in
    The Mark of the Rani (implying the Luddite uprising was caused by the
    Rani's interference) and H.G. Wells in Timelash (very unflattering
    portrayal, and also implying he got his ideas from encountering the
    Doctor).

    Overall, despite its flaws, this season felt more consistent in tone
    than many of the others did in the 1980's. The strong opening and
    closing stories, which were both crafted by the same writer, make it comparable to some of the 21st Century Doctor Who series.


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    * Origin: TWA (3:633/280.2@fidonet)
  • From Blueshirt@3:633/280.2 to All on Mon Mar 18 09:19:46 2024
    The Doctor wrote:

    In article <ut5tt5$3buk9$1@dont-email.me>,
    Agent Jakanov <mouth@onlegs.org> wrote:
    This is an actual review written by an actual person, not
    some fake ChapBot.

    [Snip]

    Overall, despite its flaws, this season felt more consistent
    in tone than many of the others did in the 1980's. The
    strong opening and closing stories, which were both crafted
    by the same writer, make it comparable to some of the 21st
    Century Doctor Who series.

    Timelash was lame! THe rest rocked !

    The best stories of Colin Baker's era was within S22 anyway...
    IMHO. A great actor doing the best he could with - at times -
    shoddy tools.

    Revelation of the Daleks 8/10 !!

    A bit over-generous there I think Dave... on a good day I'd give
    "Revelation of the Daleks" a 6/10, on a over-critical day a 5/10.

    Like all stories from the JNT era if you ignore the flaws the
    stories could be enjoyable enough, but if you wanted to nit-pick
    then there were plenty of things to find fault with.

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    * Origin: Eternal-September (3:633/280.2@fidonet)
  • From The Last Doctor@3:633/280.2 to All on Mon Mar 18 23:31:47 2024
    Daniel65 <daniel47@nomail.afraid.org> wrote:
    Blueshirt wrote on 18/3/24 8:27 am:

    <Snip>

    Timelash is an anagram of you know what... nuff said.

    "Anagram"?? Mix the letters up to make another word!

    'Timelash'??
    'Ashmelit' ... Nope!
    'Litmeash' ... Nope!
    'Litemash' ... Nope!
    'Shamelit' ... Nope!

    I give up!!

    Lame shit, Daniel.

    --
    “The timelines and … canon … are rupturing” - the Doctor

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    * Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)
  • From Mickmane@3:633/280.2 to All on Tue Mar 19 05:12:00 2024
    On 18.03.24, Blueshirt <blueshirt@indigo.news> wrote:

    [Season 22]
    I didn't really like the Rani story either... I would have
    preferred the Rani to be used on her own, not in a team-up with
    the Master. But the truth is I never really like Ainley's Master
    anyway.

    I liked her comments on the Master, made him being in the episode
    bearable.

    Timelash is an anagram of you know what... nuff said.

    Tha slime?

    /me sees rest of thread...

    Oh.

    --

    Mickmane


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