Monster of the Day #1578

Updated on June 7, 2017 By Ken Begg 9 Comments

These guys have been rebooted in a major way recently, but I don’t know, as fantastic as the make-up and prosthetics are now, I still kind of prefer the old clunkier version. Partly nostalgia, I’m sure, but also because they look less human.

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  • Gamera977

    ‘No I don’t have any Jelly Babies, so please stop asking me for them.’

    Another couple of episodes I really need to get around to watching. Sad to say I haven’t seen many of the Third Doctor episodes though the Second Doctor I’m almost totally unfamiliar with.

  • bgbear_rnh

    I have never watched any so I am either “Dr. Who deprived” and/ or you are all showing your “Dr. Who Privilege” ;-)

    My reaction to the above is “Hey, It is Alfred Pennyworth’s father”.

  • Flangepart

    “Doctor, could you help me unbutton my trowsers, because…webbed fingers.”
    “How did you get them buttoned in the first place?”
    “Um…trained monkeys?”

  • While I am partial to Tom Baker’s run, Pertwee and Troughton had their share of excellent adventures (though alas much of Troughton’s is lost viewing wise.)

    This particular one was written by Malcolm Hulke (no relation to the Jade Giant), a Who writer I’d rank up with Robert Holmes as one of the best who worked for the series. This particular one I haven’t seen in a while, but I remember it being quite good.

  • Rock Baker

    Interesting history on this batch of episodes. Prior to video releases, the master tapes for this serial were accidentally erased, leaving only a black and white kinescope on 16mm. Fortunately, somebody has taped the original broadcast, and that made available the original color footage that could be layered over the sharper 16mm image. With the arrival of digital technology, the slight shift in the color caused by the curve of the TV screen was adjusted so the current version is absolutely pristine.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    When Jon Pertwee met the Silurians, they could fire a death ray from their third, central eye. When Peter Davison met them, that eye just flashed when they spoke. I don’t think they can do either now, but I must admit I don’t follow the current Doctor Who series.

  • “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” and “City of Death” are probably your best starting points.

  • For one thing, they just have the two eyes now. They have prehensile tongues though. They are also a race of proud and vicious warrior women whose men are the pacifist scientists. They actually work pretty well, but it’s patently absurd to call them the same race.

  • As far as preferring the old versions of certain monsters, I don’t think Cybermen have ever been as truly creepy ever again as the were in “The Tenth Planet” and “Tomb of the Cybermen”, The more cinnamon bun headed ones introduced in the late 60s just got sillier and less scary with ever succeeding iteration (although they did indirectly result in Adric’s death, so that’s a point in their favor). And the new Cybus ones, while very slick and wonderfully massive, just don’t have the same creepy vibe. Maybe because the earliest ones were still recognizably human, just beneath the surface, it made their nature a little closer to home. That we could choose to be these monsters too.