On Doctor Who; the Third Doctor

[scripsi]

Being on a Doctor Who trip as I am, you will have to stand me burbling away. I never had anyone to talk Doctor Who with before! I started watching old Who a couple of years before New Who started, though I didn’t see every episode then. I am currently re-watching Old Who and now I will watch every episode. I have just started with the Sixth Doctor. But I feel the need to discuss some of the previous ones. It’s been a little too long since I saw One and Two, so they will have to wait- I jump in one Three. I liked DW from the start, but it was with Jon Pertwee that it really came to be a show I loved, so it seems fitting.


The Doctor



One of the charms with DW is how it re-invents itself. In 1970 there wasn’t just a new Doctor; there were a lot of other things as well. Being in colour, for example. It also saw the Doctor stranded on Earth for budget reasons. With the knowledge of how to fix the TARDIS by the Time Lords, the Doctor is basically made impotent (especially of you consider the TARDIS the Doctor’s wife…), so no wonder that he is grouchy at times. The new Doctor, even if he was in his 50’s, was also a much more active personality. One and Two usually had a male companion for the action bits, Jon Pertwee took those on himself. I mean, in his very first episode we get to see him in jus a towel. And doesn’t he look mighty good for his age?

Three does something that no Doctor except Eleven ever does- he settles down. He may be stuck on. Earth for ages, so he gets a job and collects friends in a different way than other Doctor’s. He is also not so much alien as he is an eccentric. He can be rude, she speaks his mind, drives an obsolete car and insist on evening wear in the laboratory, but he passes as human much more easily than many other Doctors.

The companions



Companions in Old Who are often said to be under-used and lacking in personality or just to be eye-candy. I can agree that we get little background, not lie New Who were we get to know the companion’s families and their concerns. But I don’t think the companions of the 70’s lack personality and even if they are pretty and nice to look at, they are not treated as sex object until we arrive in the 80’s. Not even Leela- you just know she would do something nasty to anyone who tried to be frisky with her.

We have, of course, UNIT, with the Brigadier, Benton and Yates. I adore the Brigadier because he is kind and caring underneath his military clothes he and Three have such a nice chemistry. They clearly like each other a lot, even if they have very different world views and often clash. Mot notably in The Silurians. There we also get a bit of what I dislike the most with Old Who- a tendency to not address psychological issues, but just go on as nothing have happened.



Elizabeth Shaw, who is Three’s companion in his first season, falls into the category of Brainy Companion. We also have Plucky Companion and Bitchy Companion as well, but Liz, even if she can be plucky too, is a scientist. She is one of my favourite companions in Old Who because she is smart and kind and often contributes to the solution. I can, kind of, see why the producer’s felt they wanted a companion who was a better viewer’s substitute, but I’m still sorry that she didn’t get a proper send-off. I would also have loved to see her return for a later episode; I think she and Jo would have been very fun to watch together.



So we get Jo Grant instead who is bubbly and bright (whatever she says), but certainly not an intellectual. She also has an enormous empathy and kindness. Even if she leaves a bit abruptly, her future life is just the right for her. I really loved it when she turned up in The Adventures of Sarah Jane and was just the same.

Then, of course, we have Sarah Jane. She did have several adventures with Three, but I consider her so much a companion to Four, so she will have to wait.

The Master



What can I say. No one reading this journal can have missed that I adore Rodger Delgado. He was my first Master and the best, even if Anthony Ainley is a pretty close second. Delgado’s Master sports a lot of cliché’s, but I wonder if they were such clichés 40 years ago. He is over the top, sometime hammy, evil, suave, steals scenes from everyone, charming and ultimately always defeated. He even looks evil with his widow’s peak 8which Delgado didn’t have IRL), beard and mesmerizing eyes. And he is always so well-dressed, at least on Earth.

I didn’t know much about him when I first saw DW and I remember feeling quite shocked when he first emerged. That he is a bad guy who kills people we get to know early on, but it happens off stage. And then we get to the scene were he is calmly watching a man suffocate at his feel and you realise that he doesn’t have to do that. He could kill him quickly, of get an Auton to do it, but he opts for slow and awful because he likes it.. He is charming, soft-spoken and polite and gets his kicks from watching someone die in terror. Rather chilling.



A lot have already been said about Pertwee’s and Delgado’s friendship and how well they play off each other, and they really do. I know many thinks Simm’s Master fits Ten because they are both rather whacky and talks fast and a lot, but Three and the Master are much more opposites in personality and I think that works much better. TV Tropes says that this regeneration of the Master just wants to take over/kill off Earth and spend time with the Doctor and that sums it up pretty well. I mean, it would be so much easier to NOT be on the same place as the Doctor if you want to succeed in you evil plotting.

The costumes



One thing to remember when you watch DW from this period is that this is what people wore. True, the Doctor is almost always wearing evening wear with his velvet suits and frilly shirts, but they are fashionable clothes for the early 70’s. I’m born in 1971 and I remember my father’s best suit very well- midnight blue velvet paired with an orange, frilly shirt. Jo is often accused to be dressed for fan service, but again, what she is wearing was what a young woman wore back then. Mini-skirts were in. My mother, who is born the same year as Katy Manning, got married in a mini-dress in 1970 and it wasn’t considered the least shocking. I get a real nostalgia trip watching Jo, because basically everything she is wearing are clothes of the same style that my Mum wore. Well, she didn’t have any go-go-boots. And Liz Shaw, who dresses a bit more conservative also were fashionable shirt length. I also remember a friend of my parent’s wearing her red hair in exactly the same chignon style as Liz.

Comments

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I'd heard the cliches about oldschool companions just screaming a lot.

I think they mostly don't. There is often a frustrating lack of rounding off the character of a companion, but they all have distinct personalities. The companions who fare the worst are the ones in the early 80's, both Tegan and Peri gets a really short stick there.

Yes, you can tell these episodes are 40 years old at times and at times one do want to smack the Doctor. But on the whole they do have a lovely chemistry.

[nenya_kanadka]

Yes, they really are individuals with personalities and different ways of interacting with the Doctor (and other people). I'm very fond of basically all of them. :D