Doctor Who: Best episode in Sylvester McCoy's Third Series

'The Mouse And The Eggs' FTW

Went with "Bob and Carol and Ted and K'zzzthrewng" in the end.

"Faust Arp"

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How I brought back Sylvester McCoy as Doctor Who

...The fictional show I invented within my episode – The Lollipop Man – is about a time traveller who, whilst hiding out on earth, gets a part time job as a school crossing patrolman, but his lollipop stick can take him anywhere in time and space: so he takes children on amazing journeys…he mostly takes them on journeys of self-discovery, so, for example, with a child who’s upset because his granddad has died, the Lollipop Man takes him back to the Second World War, where he gets to meet his granddad as a small, scared evacuee…and they get to play together one last time, even though it’s a kid his own age he’s playing with. That’s what the Lollipop Man does – he helps people over the road, both literally and metaphorically. And that’s what Sylvester did for me twenty years ago: he helped me through a difficult patch in my life, and when the world around me seemed bleak, he was there, full of colour, full of inventiveness, full of hope.

Thanks Sylvester.

Doctors: The Lollipop Man is on BBC1, on Monday 13th October 2008 at 1.45pm.

spotted here

dammit:

http://io9.com/assets/images/io9/2008/09/31698.jpg

someone point me to the alternate universe where this isn't a terrible, terrible idea

What, casting McCoy as a bitter, washed-up actor best known as the hero of a children's science-fiction show?

Today in Glasgow i saw dr who fans getting their photo taken with Colin Baker at the police box in Buchanan St.

'70s Porn Colin needs a presence on regular ILX, too:

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/7909/2pobazlfr9.jpg

Watching 'Curse of Fenric' now thanks to Netflix.

While the production standards aren't quite up to snuff and the 'studio video' look to everything looks way off, I'm surprised at the much more modern pacing & editing of the ep. They cut between shots far quicker, almost to RTD-era standards, keeping the energy level higher than what the possibly worse-written script would allow for. Far more close-ups, and even better lens usage.

Another thing, why was it so apparently fucking hard to write decent scripts for this era? The years of great Big Finish Audios(McCoy's or not) demonstrate that the last two pre-restart Doctors were fine enough actors, but were given crap to work with during their inital broadcast runs. Was it merely a matter of production level of that point in BBC history, or did just not enough people care?

Oh yeah, and depending on your tastes, there are lolz to be had with one of the dvd extras, featuring convention vid of Sophie Aldred from 1990 sporting corn-rows.

Another thing, why was it so apparently fucking hard to write decent scripts for this era?

kingfish you are crazy btw fyi

I make no claims upon any drunk-posting from 5 years ago

S25 and S26 are at least the second-most consistently scripted era of the show, and contain four of the best, ooh, twenty or so classic series stories ever. And in S24, the gap between the last pre-Cartmel story and the first Cartmel-commissioned piece is the greatest gulf in quality in the entire history of the programme.

also dunno if you know / what Netflix sent you five years ago, but there's a movie-style re-edit of Fenric on the DVD that's differently-paced. some of the tight cutting in the serial version was losing middles of scenes for timing reasons (the BBC imposed rigid time limits in this period that the show never had before or since), and having to reorder things to be able to cut back from something else, to the end of a scene

The problem I have with most 7th Doctor stories is that there is often a massive deus ex machina set up that is supposed to show that the Doctor is manipulating his foes into destroying themselves but comes across like the story hits a magic win button because the Doctor always wins.

The years of great Big Finish Audios(McCoy's or not) demonstrate that the last two pre-restart Doctors were fine enough actors, but were given crap to work with during their inital broadcast runs.

I listened to a few of these but usually found them a bit underwhelming, though Davison, C. Baker and McCoy were always great. Does anyone have recommendations for particularly good ones (esp featuring McCoy if possible?)

I liked this one, McCoy is not in that much, though

http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/protect-and-survive-330

here's my recommendations from last November: Sea Devils And Die: GeroniMoffat's Doctor Who In The 2010s

I like the McGann big finishes.

I really liked McCoy's tenure, partly because they were the first ones I watched right as they became available (prior to that catching Dr. Who depended on what era the PBS station was running). Still think Remembrance of the Daleks is one of the top stories of the entire series.