Less concerned with who’s first up against the wall than with how to decorate it

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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

10 Comments

  1. Matthew Celestis
    June 20, 2011 @ 3:01 am

    Great review.

    Have you experienced the revamped return of the Krotons in Lawrence Miles' novel Alien Bodies?

    Reply

  2. Spikeimar
    June 20, 2011 @ 9:07 am

    I first saw 'The Krotons' in the 5 faces season and previous to this my only exposure to either Hartnell or Troughton was the Targets and the listings in the Radio Times 10th Anniversary special and I remember my amazement at the witty banter between The Doctor and Zoe, whom I fell in love with, but was surprised that the Targets seemed to have totally missed Jamie's character if this story was anything to go by.
    I enjoyed this story of all the 5 faces offerings as bar the first episode I found the story for 'An Unearthly Child' just too tedious and 'Carnival of Monsters' I vaguely remembered. 'The Three Doctors' I adored but even I could tell the story was just padded to death. 'Logopolis' was as pretentious as it had been the year previously. 'Krotons' seemed to have a very clever story and the creatures themselves were impressive, even their Brummie accents.
    Having rewatched it on my Ipod recently I think it stands up better than a lot of the Troughton era, despite a relatively dull cast. And in the new cleaned up print you get to see the moment poor Wendy Padbury shreds the shoulder of her favourite jacket!

    Reply

  3. Electric Dragon
    June 20, 2011 @ 11:50 am

    Minor point: Apollo 8 was not the first to take pictures of the far side of the Moon. That honour fell to the Soviet probe Luna 3 in 1959.

    Reply

  4. landru
    July 11, 2011 @ 10:56 am

    I find this story difficult. Of course, the acting is horrible from the support cast and Jaimie's absurd fight in episode one seems like padding. The Krotons have silly names and silly bodies … and attack Patrick Troughton with a phalic thing that would make the Creature from the Pit blush!

    But, all in all, it does have the spirit of DW in that he comes and helps this colony of morons who don't seem able to think for themselves.

    Reply

  5. landru
    July 12, 2011 @ 4:40 am

    Philip Sandifer Gond!

    Reply

  6. William NZ
    April 22, 2012 @ 8:50 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  7. William NZ
    April 22, 2012 @ 8:51 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  8. Henry R. Kujawa
    July 7, 2013 @ 6:39 am

    Someone mentioned that a "STATE OF DECAY" seemed to be basically the same story as "THE KROTONS". Remote village, every so often, the "best" are chose to go into the "castle" and "serve" the masters– while in reality, they're KILLED. Having just watched "SOD" 3 days ago, I dug out "THE KROTONS" last night. Whatta ya know, they were right!

    Driving it home even more was the scenes in both stories where you have one leader who wants to ATTACK– NOW!! –while another leader stresses the importance of being patient and waiting until they've "learned more" first. I know JNT's run was overflowing with "tributes" to earlier stories, but I never noticed this one. (Then again, I saw "SOD" when it first got here, but didn't see "THE KROTONS" until it got here– at the same time as the Colin Baker AND William Hartnell stories.)

    No question, the scenes with The Doctor & Zoe (she's so adorable!!) are the best in the story, possibly in the entire season (what I've been able to see of it). Even there, a somewhat-goofy Doctor teamed with a girl who's a cute genius is so similar to Tom Baker & Lalla Ward. (Does that make Jamie the "tin dog"?)

    A shame Philip Madoc doesn't get to be more than a one-dimensional character. He had more personality in the 2nd Peter Cushing film.

    Actually, the scenes of Jamie & Zoe each agreeing that "You know how he gets" makes me think having Turlough hang around after Peri joined would have been a really good thing.

    Reply

  9. John Binns
    September 26, 2013 @ 6:57 am

    All of the seasons from 7 to 22 were 26 episodes long except for three? I make it seven (7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 20, and 22).

    Reply

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    March 8, 2015 @ 7:33 am

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