More Doctor Who

[abigailbrady]

I skipped Snakedance due to non-DVDness.

Then to Mawdryn Undead. I liked this, both in concept and execution. It is about as timey-wimey as Who got in the original run, and isn't just a straight linear narrative (I can't even remember seeing a flashback while recounting a story thing before in old who - I may have missed them but it's rare anyway). The Brigadier wasn't the first choice of companion for the story, but he works well. The setting is still a school because of Ian and because of Turlough but I don't think it would have worked so well with Ian. The brig is accustomed to the Doctor popping in and out of his life with new faces, but for Ian it would have been a huge, possibly life changing event meeting the Doctor again, let alone twice as a plot device. Black Guardian here acts very much like the Trickster in SJA. I wonder if Turlough belonged dead. Story drags once they all are reunited on the ship. Like the way it ties itself up at the end. There was a bit where Turlough spouts technobabble
to the Doctor, I think that ought to have given the game away that he wasn't a 20th century Earth schoolboy. We'll see if that gets followed up...