Doctor Who : Best Episode In Tom Baker's 1st Season

Companion thread to Doctor Who : Best Episode In Jon Pertwee's 1st Season

I wonder what will win this one.....

Two of these stories are light years beyond the other three.

Revenge Of The Cybermen is the only one i've seen, and is K-Classic. is it on DVD yet?

YOU NEED TO SEE THE ARK IN SPACE AND GENESIS OF THE DALEKS IMMEDIATELY

You are not wrong... I should consult my nearest library...

Indeed

Haha, I knew those were the two Dan was talking about.

I don't remember these. Is it blasphemy to prefer Peter Davison?

Nope! I prefer Davison myself but some of these are nigh-unfuckwithable.

Haha okay I am glad not to have been immediately stoned!

I should rewatch these as I believe all are on Netflix.

I prefer the b&w era, myself.

Allegedly if all of the Troughtons still existed, he'd be considered far and away the best Doctor.

"Genesis" will likely win this poll. It's my favourite of the first TB season. "Robot" is a bit of a left over Pertwee story with it's attendant silliness (UNIT! A huge robot!).

"Genesis" will win this poll EVEN THOUGH IT SHOULDN'T ("The Ark In Space" is one of my five favorite stories of all time).

Genesis will win, and I even voted for it, but The Ark In Space is the best Harry, I think.

Ark in Space easy. Genesis is a bit draggy.

I only saw Ark In Space recently, and wasn't particularly blown away.

I'm voting for Genesis of the Daleks because while it's true that it's overlong, it's got the "Do I have the right?" scene, which is surely Tom Baker's best Who scene ever.

Hmm, that's very similar to my justification for choosing Bad Wolf in the nu-who poll, actually. Maybe I just generally prefer great scenes to great stories, or something.

^^^ I'd argue that TB's scene with the completed "Key to Time" (some bits of perspex) is better. Holding-two-bits-of-wire in "Genesis" is a bit more subtle though.

Genesis! Davros is so loveable.

ark ftw

Is ark the one where the doctor says that Harry's only qualified to work on sailors? That was hilarious.

Revenge is kinda crap, but I have a fondness for the Sontaran Experiment. Maybe it's the location.

YOU NEED TO SEE THE ARK IN SPACE AND GENESIS OF THE DALEKS IMMEDIATELY

-- HI DERE, Saturday, 12 April 2008 02:44 (7 hours ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^^^^^^^^^ should be taught in schools

instead of assemblies

ark in space was SCARY when i was 11.

I never watched Dr Who when i was a kid

Im a 90s UK Gold guy. Though actually i did watch Sylvester McCoy's last season when it was on.

I am downloading this whole series already, but I've prioritised Ark in Space.

Is it blasphemy to prefer Peter Davison?

yes. Dr Who peaked with the first two to three Tom Baker seasons.

Wonder who would win a favourite tom baker companion poll....

LEELA!

Is it blasphemy to prefer Peter Davison?

not at all. he ususally comes in close to tom in popularity polls across many fan cliques.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

bump for tom d

http://www.doctorwhotoys.net/tombaker.jpg

lol action figures

Wonder who would win a favourite tom baker companion poll....

-- Herman G. Neuname, Monday, 14 April 2008 11:39 (3 days ago) Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LEELA!

-- The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 14 April 2008 12:02 (3 days ago) Link

OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM

Another one of your girlfriends, Dan?

YES

Any others?

(Leela)
(Tegan)
Romana I
Zoe
Peri

That should be a poll!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

poor robot

3 for Sontarans? wtf?!

indeed. I hate the sontarans

Harry Sullivan's only on board for like a single season only, isn't he? I think I liked Mickey better.

poor robot

Robot is one of my favourites, and not just because it is the first I saw. I love the OMG moment when the robot grows to enormous size. It was also kewl when he was charging around disintegrating the soldiers.

I didn't think Ark In Space was very good at all, mostly because the resolution was so shoddy. Maybe I'd been misled into thinking that nu-Who was worse at endings than old-Who but that would have been embarassing even in an RTD story.

Also is there a canonical fixed point for the Earth being swallowed up by the Sun that all generations of Who writers have agreed on, or do they just plonk it wherever they fancy?

Harry is grebt though.

I think they just plonk it wherever they fancy: at one point Earth wasn't destroyed by the Sun at all, but instead dragged halfway across the universe and left somewhere else (Trial of a Time Lord, I think?).

Harry is grebt though.

This is true. It is also grebt that after leaving the show Ian Marter wrote a Target novel abt Harry as a tough James Bond-y navy spy dude, obviously hoping that it would take off into a series!

http://www.drwhoguide.com/spinoff/comp02.jpg

one of my crazy friends has started claiming that some recent nu-Who season has been better than this season.

This season is mostly not very good, except Genesis of the Daleks which rules totally. Ecclestone series > this one. I still heart Harry though.

I'm still a bit annoyed that all generations of Who writers haven't managed to agree on a piffling little thing like the date of the Earth's destruction.

Robot and Ark in Space are great too, Matt. Srsly.

robot much less so.

haha Alan otm

I think the whole connected narrative through this season is awesome.

robot > revenge of the cybermen. this cybermen story is such a waste of time, though there are some small bits of set dressing that ISTR are quite nice. isn't this where the 'seal of gallifrey' symbol makes its first appearance? - as a vogan symbol that the designers liked so much they snuk it back in as a time lord thing.

Yeah I like the whole 'when the hell are we going to find the Tardis?' thread running through it.

I really don't get what the big differentiator in quality is between the Ark in Space and the other non-Genesis stories. Except it does have the best 'Doctor winding up Sarah and Harry' moments.

Robot is a great story... the fact that it is the first one I ever saw proved this.

C'mon guys, the laser gun that vaporises people in such a way that you see their insides first... or the way the robot turns enormous in the last episode... if this is not TV greatness, what is?

Ark in Space is so scary! The bit where SJ is trapped in the glass room and the smoke is filling it up, OMG.

http://tom-baker.ytmnd.com/

Bloody hell. "Distilled whippet shit!" "The Princess of Wales must have written this!"

Lovely sprawling interview by the Doctor Who Online Podcast people:

http://www.thewhocast.com/episode/DWO-WhoCast-episode-173-Tom-Baker-Interview

Gonna finally get around to watching Genesis this week. Yay!

Watching Genesis for the first time tonight. Here we go...

after leaving the show Ian Marter wrote a Target novel abt Harry as a tough James Bond-y navy spy dude

re-read this five or six years later and realised Marter had written Harry as a bumbling doofus in the book as well, who solves the spy plot m/l by accident

so rather than "best story" like this poll asks, thoughts on best individual episode of the season? maybe i'll re-watch once i get a blu-ray player.

I can’t even think of these broken down into episodes

Me neither. A ton of Tom Baker eps have gone up on amazon in the last few wks, been enjoying revisiting them