Favourite Story - 4th Doctor

[jjpor]

Okay, following LL's example and trying to stimulate a bit of debate and traffic on the boards not relating to bloodily massacring the Doctor's companions (not that there's anything wrong with that!), what's your favourite Four story (just following along in chronological order - maybe we can get ten of these threads going eventually...)??

I'll admit, there are a great many very fine Four stories, to the point that it's a bit difficult to choose one...Talons, Genesis, Pyramids, Brain... And then there are the later Four stories which maybe aren't as objectively brilliant, but which are all sorts of loveable.

My favourite (maybe not the BEST, but my favourite), is probably City of Death. It's one I keep going back to, and keep finding things to enjoy about. It's basically a comedy, but I still find myself laughing out loud at some of the dialogue. Julian Glover makes an ace baddie (all of him!), Duggan is a great supporting character, and it's the story that made me some sort of pathetic Romana II fanboy (although whether that's a good thing I leave up to the reader...). I could start quoting especially rib-tickling scenes or lines of dialogue, but it would just get long and embarrassing, and I think there's at least one thread already devoted to that. ;D

Anyway, what's your favourite Four story?

[clocketpatch]

My favourite Four story is Terror of the Zygons, because really, robot Loch Ness Monster? Body snatching aliens? Harry wearing Four's scarf? Benton? The Brig in a kilt?

Objectively it's not a *classic* ground-shattering Four story, but it's elements read like a check list in awesome and it improves with each re watch.

There are many, many other Four stories which fall under the awesome banner though, and JJPOR's named many of them. I'm quite fond of the Deadly Assassin as well, which probably says something maybe not so good about what kind of person I am. I claim Four in the wet poet's shirt as my alibi.

As for City of Death, I was under the impression that it was one of THE classic episodes of the series, penned by DNA himself, don't forget, and with the Monty Python guest appearance! I love Duggan, and am quite convinced that that bumbling detective we saw in Planet of the Dead is somehow related to him.

[librarylover]

May 21, 2009 20:49:14 GMT jjpor said:

what's your favourite Four story (just following along in chronological order - maybe we can get ten of these threads going eventually...)??

I definitely want to get all 10 going eventually.

I think with 4 we may need to allow 2 choices, since he did spend twice as much time as the others. I just watched "City of Death" and really loved it for all the reasons previously mentioned. And Clocket I think you may have a point about the detective in Planet of the Dead! He even looks a bit like the guy who played Duggan. There may be no funnier Tom Baker moment than when he first arrives at the chateau and plays the scene on his knees. "What a wonderful butler, he's so violent!"

[magnusgreel]

Weng-Chiang, you want a longer story when you're stranded on an island with no electricity so.... never mind. Anyway, my favorite story. Sun Makers though has the classic perfect Holmes melding of deadly serious and absurd, and it's the ultimate Leela story. Though that might be Face of evil. Then again Robots of Death is perfect so...

[lynda]

Four... hmm. I actually didn't like Talons of Weng-Chiang, but maybe it because I couldn't get past the racism.

My favorites, though, wouold be Robot, with Tom Baker bouncing around and bewildering everyone who's used to Pertwee, or The Hand of Fear (Eldrad must live!), or the vampire one, isn't it called State of Decay or something?

[jjpor]

May 21, 2009 22:33:14 GMT librarylover said:

There may be no funnier Tom Baker moment than when he first arrives at the chateau and plays the scene on his knees. "What a wonderful butler, he's so violent!"

That whole scene is quite possibly the funniest bit of comedy I've ever seen in Doctor Who; where Duggan goes to hit the guy with the chair and Four's like "please, that's a Louis Quinze!", and Romana effortlessly opening the puzzle box (with a huge, self-satisfied grin too), and of course the whole "My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he looks." "Nobody's as stupid as he looks!" (which made me grin like an idiot when they included it in that Confidential special about all of the Doctors - see, RTD isn't all bad!).

While we're on the subject of late-period Four stories, one I really like, a lot, is Warriors' Gate. It's very weird and surreal, and doesn't make 100 percent sense on a first viewing, but at least manages to give the impression that it doesn't make sense on purpose. And apart from the Doctor and company, all of the other characters are either baddies, or...slightly less bad baddies. And the most likeable characters in the whole story are a gang of degenerate scumbag slavers without a moral bone in their bodies. Greatest Romana II scene of them all when she's talking to the crewmen outside the TARDIS (although I accept Romana II is like Marmite - upper-class, dodgily-acted Marmite - so your mileage may well vary). And even Adric's great in it, in an obnoxious-teenager sort of way.

[magnusgreel]

May 25, 2009 20:11:08 GMT jjpor said:

While we're on the subject of late-period Four stories, one I really like, a lot, is Warriors' Gate. It's very weird and surreal, and doesn't make 100 percent sense on a first viewing, but at least manages to give the impression that it doesn't make sense on purpose. And apart from the Doctor and company, all of the other characters are either baddies, or...slightly less bad baddies. And the most likeable characters in the whole story are a gang of degenerate scumbag slavers without a moral bone in their bodies. Greatest Romana II scene of them all when she's talking to the crewmen outside the TARDIS (although I accept Romana II is like Marmite...).

You're the only other person whom I've ever heard say this about Romana running rings 'round the slavers in that scene! It's hard to say why or how she's so magnetic there, it's a bit magical for me. It's a bit "abstract".

Great, now I have to google "Marmite"...

I didn't take much notice of Warrior's Gate until the emotionally disconnected union slavers hit me. What a great comment on callousness in real, everyday life...