Monster of the Day #1076

When in the history of Who did this guy come from? He looks memorable, but I’ve never even heard of this one before.

Went on the Sci-Fi Sea Cruise in 2013 and Pamela Salem was one of the GoHs. She appeared in “Robots of Death”.

Tom Baker era — I grew up watching these on Channel 2 PBS in Boston (probably TMI)

Leela was always my favorite of the Dr’s companions. She wound up as the ruler of his home planet, Gallifree.

I just remember being surprised when Bob Cratchet from the 1970 “Scrooge” turns up in this one. I am pretty sure every actor in Great Britain is contractually required to do Doctor Who at least once. Come to think of it, this wasn’t the only time a Bob Cratchett made a Who appearance. Richard E. Grant (The Great Intelligence) played the part opposite Patrick Stewart’s Scrooge a few years ago. Prefer the Finney though.

No, the guy who took the gig left the planet just as soon as he could.

You’d think so. Yet his series keeps on proving otherwise…

You sure you’re not thinking of the Timelady Ramona, the Doctor’s next companion who I believe was stated somewhere took the office of president? (seemed a little silly to me since she would have only been about 200 or so and on her third-fourth regeneration at the time)

Thanks for sharing that title. I’ve never seen a lot of Who so this is all very new to me.

Lee’s non appearance being particularly puzzling given his “anything with a paycheck” work ethos. Though with the exception of some horror documentaries, I don’t know that he did *any* TV work, which may be the reason.

Ack! After consulting the IMDB, I just remembered that Lee made several appearances on the 90s version of “The Tomorrow People” which makes his non-appearance in Who even more baffling.

Warner did an episode in 2013, “Cold War”, featuring the return of the Ice Warriors.

I loved how utterly debauched everything was in this episode. Everyone lounging about in combo Egyptian/spaceman nighties and pajamas, playing chess and getting massages, while ordering about robots and calling it work, all the while sniping at one another and needling each other about relative social status and other petty bickering. You don’t seem to get that sort of subtle background stuff in nuWho. In the new series, if someone came up with a novel culture it would either be shoved in our face, front and center (think Sunmakers on overdrive) or else dropped in favor of something less interesting, like a retread of an earth culture or historical era, or some facile steampunk nonsense. I know, asking for flames, but I just don’t find the new series quite as interesting. (Yes, the old had a number of perfectly awful episodes, even some very weak seasons, but even those had a few interesting ideas tossed in, while the new series seems to be best described by an image from the “Space Titanic” episode. Seeing the Doctor carried between two robot angels rushing off to save the world from a Space Titanic pretty much spells out exactly what the Doctor has become. Though, now that I think about it, the end of the “Sound of Drums” arc was pretty telling as well, when he became superstar Tinkerbell space Jesus Doctor because everyone loved him soooo much, that said a lot about the new series as well.)

OK, climbing off the soapbox now. Really only meant to point out this was one of my favorite episodes (along with Weng-Chiang and Fendahl).