Monster of the Day #623

No surprise after yesterday, I guess.

Although I had seen, way back in the day, the Doctor Who movies when I was a tyke, my sorta of first exposure to the Doctor was catching–sadly, right before they ended showing it–the John Pertwee run on our local PBS channel.

Several years later they started showing it again, although I was pretty confused with the idea that the Doctor was now a completely different guy. Remember, this was in the ’70s, so there wasn’t an Internet, and what limited print sci-fi magazines there were didn’t really cover the show. All I knew of the show was what I gleaned by watching it.

Anyhoo, I was quickly in love with it, and unsurprisingly (like many) consider Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen to be the ur-Doctor and Companion. Given this, and against the general long-term trend of the show and it’s many fans, I’ve always preferred the Doctor on Earth, fighting off aliens alongside UNIT.

This is a terrific story arc that for some reason never really hit DVD or even VHS, although thankfully it’s finally due to be released later this year. Can’t wait to catch up with this one again.

  • Flangepart

    “And remember, no calamari for lunch. I know some of those guys.”

  • Ericb

    You have to give the costume and set designers some accolades for managing to do so much from so little. They literally made costumes like this out of bubble wrap, styrofoam and tape. One of my favorite things about the dvd releases are the audio commentaries. They really give you and idea on how shoestring these productions were, and, no matter how goofy these things look now, show the pride that the people put into their work.

  • Gamera977

    Personally one of my all time favorite Who aliens. Nice work even down to the raspy voice the actors playing them used. And pretty much the perfect episode, the only real flaw is as mentioned yesterday the Loch Ness Monster/Skarisan looking very much like a sock puppet in some scenes. But as Eric said it’s amazing they were able to do so much with so little.

  • The Zygons are ripe for a return.

  • Scrounging materials is pretty-much SOP for building monsters on a budget. My brother keeps a supply of bubble wrap on hand for that very reason! (Pop the bubbles, then coat that stuff with latex and paint and it looks like scales!) When he and Pop built a Resident Evil “licker” they needed a material to simulate exposed muscle tissue. They used yarn! And it looked perfect when it was finished!

  • How about a week devoted to the many versions of the Frankenstein monster? You could probably do a month of those, in fact!

  • Ken_Begg

    And Dracula. I have those in reserve (although I think I did the Edison Monster as well as the Karloff).

  • I THINK you also did the Japanese giant “Frankenstein” but to be honest there’s been so many at this point I couldn’t say for sure! Oh, you DID post a pic of the Monster from LADY FRANKENSTEIN, that I remember.

  • sandra

    Tom Baker was my favorite Dr Who, but I don’t know which of his companions Elizabeth Sladen played. I hope she was Lila of the Seveh Tem ; I think that was her name. She was a sort of cave girl in a leather minidress, who wound up becoming ruler of the Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey. She even won the Doctor’s robodog, K-9, away from him. By the way, did everyone else take it for granted, as I did, that he was sleeping with his little friends ? I couldn’t think of any other reason why he would haul teenaged girls around the cosmos with him.

  • FEnM

    No, she was Sarah Jane Smith. Leela was played by a woman named Louse Jameson.

  • FEnM

    Meh, I’d rather just have Zygons be be-gones.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    Er, “Louise,” not “Louse”!

  • Ken_Begg

    “By the way, did everyone else take it for granted, as I did, that he was sleeping with his little friends?”

    You and Russell Davies, apparently.

  • Ericb

    Baker tried to make the character as sexless as possible. Thankfully Peter Moffitt (at least in the last 2 1/2 series, I hope he continues this trend with the new companion) has gotten rid of the “sexual tension” stuff between the Doctor and his young companions. I mean really, I liked David Tennant but having a 900 year old alien pine over a teenager was just plane creepy

  • Gamera977

    I pretty much saw all of the Doctors from the original series as the benevolent uncle rather than any hanky-panky. The whole idea being the somewhat jaded Doctor getting a kick out of showing the universe to someone young that finds it all exciting and new. I figured there might have been something going on with him and Romana, who being only about a hundred herself might be a little creepy I suppose but not quite the same!

    I loved the episode where they brought back Sarah Jane on the new series but what was with the whole catfight thing between her and Rose? Sarah Jane meet the Fifth Doctor in ‘The Five Doctors’ and companion Tegan (who frankly was a lot more attractive than Rose) and didn’t seem to have any issues at that time. Nor did she seem to have any expectations that the Doctor was going to come back for her, she seemed to have gotten on with her life. I guess people change but it doesn’t really fit, I assume Davies saw the episode and just ignored it because he thought it would make a better story if he did.

  • Ericb

    Well, as Terence Dicks said in one of the DVD extras (I can’t remember whether it was in the audio commentary or one of the documentaries) Davies’ background was in high soap opera so he brought that element into the series. Moffitt avoids that by making his plots more Rube Goldbergesque, so things move so fast and crazy that there is less time for all the weepy stuff.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks Eric, I’ve enjoyed most of Moffitt’s episodes but haven’t seen any since he took over the series. I need to get around to seeing the last couple of seasons – that sounds more like the original series!

  • Ericb

    The biggest difference is that Moffitt cut out all the drama about the companions’ families. In the two seasons I’ve seen of his you meet Amy’s family exactly once (and then only briefly). You don’t meet Rory’s family at all.

  • sandra

    From the Third Doctor (John Pertwee) on they were generally young and vigorous enough for the audience to suspect hanky-panky.

  • Cullen Waters

    That’s changed. Rory’s pop appears this current series. All of twice. He’s great.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    And of course, The Doctor did marry Romana. Well, in real life Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were married, though it didn’t last.