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stratosfyr (stratosfyr) wrote in scans_daily,

I only started watching it in 1989 as a wide-eyed young innocent. I thought it was great, except for my two big concerns: the original opening sequence and theme was the only one that was any good, and the Doctor was going to run out of incarnations way too soon because at five episodes a week, he was regenerating every two or three months. (I had mixed feelings when it went off the air with 6 incarnations to spare.)

I watched the new series last year, then started on the old series with the knowledge that the Time Lords were all doomed anyway. (And a weird delight that the Doctor would miss them even though he sometimes despised them.) With the new series canon pretty firm in mind, I could happily ignore all the weird expanded universe stuff that I didn't like.

Strangely, I find I don't mind a lot of episodes that people say are the "worst ever." I didn't even dislike Adric that much. (Tegan is another story.)

The Deadly Assassin, although I mostly enjoyed it, I mainly have to blame on a small cast and budget. I don't think you see more than 20 Time Lords in the entire episode, and mostly you just see one or three in a corridor or a room smaller than the TARDIS' console room. It just had no sense of grand scale. The "grand hall" was about a tenth the size of a high school auditorium. Gallifrey itself seemed terribly unimpressive in this and later episodes. (There is also never more than one Time Lady in any episode. Weird that.)

It could have done with some exterior establishing shots or something -- c.f. Star Trek TNG episodes where you see a painting of a Klingon city from the air, and suchlike.

The personalities of the Time Lords didn't bother me too much. They had to be smart, but they also had to be boring, difficult, and corrupt. The Doctor left for a reason.

The novels are really a mixed bag. Some of them are just dire, while a few (like Alien Bodies) have some great ideas and/or good character moments. But I've really loved the Big Finish audio dramas, which I tend to think of as slightly more canonical (usually) if only because the actual actors are involved.