I loved series 25, it marked a real uphill start to the writing of Doctor Who and a real departure to what was before! I really wish Andrew Cartmel had more room and time to stretch his legs as the script editor and pushing the story! What could have been :(
I can't believe Doctor Who would decanonise the novel that explains that the universe specifically shifted to have the I.M FOREMAN sign be spelt wrong for this one episode, smh
@@peterjoyfilms Bless them but I dread the sofa with Janet and Sarah. I will never watch the Season 2 Behind the Sofa again. As a fan I love a good moan about the show but watching the "stars" moan about it is wounding. It was especially awful as the edits they watched of the stories clearly didn't show Barbara as the star of season 2 which she so often is - they just regarded her as a stuffy school teacher - Justice for Barbara!!!! At least Janet's sofa redeemed themselves for me on season 25 by enjoying Greatest Show.
@@Darren79! I always was amazed they would watch these whole stories so I’m not surprised to hear that they watch edited versions? How edited down are they?
Glad you enjoyed the special editions, Josh! Your name was mentioned several times during the models shoot when we were discussing postive, wholesome Who content creators 😊
The take about Greatest Show was definitely unfair. The entire story is a meta-commentary that pokes more fun at the show itself than it does any type of fan who consumes it. They just use loose archetypes to drive the point home. The BBC execs who want to kill the show (Gods of Ragnarok), a twisted version of the Doctor and Ace (Cooke and Mags), non-fans who find the show cringe (stall lady), fans of violence, fans of how it used to be, people sacrificing art for self-serving ends, all looking towards the show in their own different way, with the main issue being the BBC themselves, making life difficult for all of them, even those who are compliant. The fact they got away with it (or managed to film it at all) is a miracle.
Josh: “I fell in love with ace and I thought she was the coolest character in doctor who, watch out Nyssa” Nyssa: “Excuse me?!” Raises stazer Josh: “no Nyssa it’s not what you think!” Nyssa: “I believe it is former CEO of the Nyssa appreciation society” Josh: “noooooooo” Nyssa fires stazer Josh Snares dies Nyssa: “and let that be a lesson to you all don’t cross Nyssa of Traken”
Also love Happiness Patrol. Love the theatrical feel and brilliant dialogue. Superb speech, one of the Doctor's best. Even the dodgy go carts can't ruin it. Many fans at the time trashed the production as misguided, a throwback to the excesses of the last season, grumbling about the Candyman and the pink TARDIS. Crazy.
Great review, Josh. Really interesting to hear your rankings and reasons. On transmission, I was embarrassed by most of The Happiness Patrol, feeling it was a huge comedown from Remembrance. With time, I've come to appreciate it more and the extended edition is certainly excellent. I watched all the versions of Silver Nemesis and I still think it's a mess - for me, the worst of the season and not one that I'll be watching again. I love The Greatest Show in the Galaxy which is my close second place to Remembrance. I wish they had the material to extend the other 2 episodes of Greatest - a little more backstory on how the Circus got ensnared by the Gods and why the amulet worked against them would have been welcome (but may not have been explained anyway!). We are indeed lucky to get these extended versions and all the fantastic extra features. It's great that the Behind the Sofa panels are 'honest' and interesting to hear the different takes!
It is really fascinating to hear this review, being someone who saw (almost) everything in order starting in 1978 (Season 13 first transmission here). Eighties Who could be terribly and maddeningly inconsistent from week to week - everyone knows the general critical opinion of Androzani being followed a week later by Twin Dilemma. It made it to be hard to be a fan, when even within a single story (Trial) an astonishing episode rewriting much of what we know about the Doctor (Part 13) is followed by an abominable clunker (Part 14). I found Season 24 a mediocre and embarrassing relaunch with Sylv on first transmission in Oz; and Remembrance felt like with Ben A.’s first writing credits, and some really excellent practical effects, Doctor Who was back to its best. And then the rest of the season felt like it was retreading Season 24. I got all of the DVDs (after getting many of the audio tape / CD / VHS releases) and being in some penury from time to time, I felt I could not indulge myself purchasing these stories a second (or in some cases a third or fourth) time. I’d said to myself, I’ll get Season 7 (as I missed getting a BluRay of Spearhead when it was in circulation), but the sheer enthusiasm of this review makes me genuinely keen to get the Season 25 box, because the bulk of the season cried out for some extra love and attention, such as Season 26 already had with the superb Battlefield and Fenric releases. Yes, I too would love a version of Ghost Light that makes all the cryptic pieces fit together.
I'm stuck in the US with NO release date as of today! Ugh!! Josh, absolutely loved all your takes on each story. Season 25 was also my first time seeing McCoy and I've got so many fond memories of each episode, I wouldn't know where to begin! For "Remembrance", did they restore the background music from the diner scenes? I know originally songs like The Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret" were heard, but then removed because of licensing. Did those get restored? Love from the US Josh, keep up the fantastic work! ❤
Thank you for the review. I am looking forward to the release in the USA. Now you have made me wonder which version to watch! I might give the new ones a try for sure.
See the pic of you with Whizzkid and think "wow, they do look the same, just different glasses" ... cuts back to you and your glasses are now identical to Whizzkid's lol.
I feel like Greatest Show in the Galaxy doesn't really belong in Season 25 ... tonally it really belongs more in Season 24, especially with the treatment of Ace's character. When I saw it on TV at the time it was a bit of a let down coming after Remembrance of the Daleks, which is perhaps why Silver Nemesis (at the time) seemed to be a bit of a return to form in terms of the questions that the show was broaching about the Doctor's mysterious past. I found the Happiness Patrol to be witty, thought-provoking, and exciting, even though I was too young to pick up on the Thatcher references (I am Australian and didn't see much of Thatcher on TV). I like to imagine an alternate timeline where the Greatest Show went out in Season 24 and Battlefield was co-opted into Season 25. The broadcast version of Battlefield has many problems, but it does fit with S24's approach of dynamic action, explosions, the mysteries of the Doctor (albeit his future), etc. And it would leave S26 to end with some of the most adult and innovative Doctor Who of the time, i.e., Curse of Fenric, Ghostlight, and Survival.
@@DrWhoFanJThanks, my memory did deceive me! I haven't watched them in sequence since they were originally broadcast in Australia. (Of course I have watched them on DVD individually, though.)
@@iianneill6013 Your memory didn’t deceive you. In Australia, both when premièred in 1989 and on first repeat in 1990, ABC aired Season 25 in the following broadcast order: 7H (Remembrance), 7J (Greatest Show), 7K (Silver), 7L (Happiness), owing to following the alphabetical order of BBC’s production codes rather than the order they had gone to air in the UK, which tallies exactly with what you described. During the 2003-06 repeat of the majority of what was available to put to air, the ABC rectified the order to be the same as originally transmitted by the BBC, however during that run they did not have the rights to air Remembrance owing to a legal dispute with the estate of Terry Nation, so that Happiness followed directly after Dragonfire (ending season 24).
The special edition for Remembrance of the Daleks wasn't able to include all the extra footage - there was a big continuity booboo in part 4 - the special weapons Dalek blows up all the renegade Daleks in Ratcliffe's Yard but all the footage recorded there after the event showed the inactive Daleks sitting there intact. Terry Nation Army on TH-cam has a great video on what likely happened.
You’re bang on with the Greatest Show assessment. There’s so much good in it and so you want to like it more than you end up doing. It’s got the ingredients but definitely needed more cooking or even marinating to bring the flavours together. Doesn’t quite meld. What a season overall though. Even if Silver Nemesis is crap, it’s good crap 😂 Love these weekly vids!
One thing I found strange is in the Remembrance special edition they used the alternative music tracks in the radio scenes, but I thought the licencing was ok now as it had been restored in the standard edition. Do you know the reason for this?
i suppose it is an unpopular opinion but i adore how camp and colourful this era is. especially the costuming and design. and i like the integration of somewhat serious themes to bring it back to earth (so to speak, lol) or reality a little bit.
@@JoshSnaresspeaking of costume design, will we ever get another episode of Doctor Who Fashion Review? The Romana episode was so fun and i’d love to see what you and Jemma make of Jo or Sarah’s outfits especially :)
I’d have an opinion here but I don’t want Josh to get snarky at me again, thanks for the video though, well done and informative. 😅. I’ll say some of those 3d sets are a bit jarring though, they needed to “dumb” it down a bit (reduced the quality).
One of my favorite seasons, and as an American who will not get the set for months, this really wets my appetite for it! - I hope future videos might include the fate(s) of various companions. :)
I've always loved Happiness Patrol. It's campy and fun, but when you scratch the surface, there's a lot of dark and creepy undertones to balance it out. The soundtrack is exceptional - flitting from lonely and creepy strings that sound straight out of the original Resident Evil game, to either happy or sad harmonica jingles that fit the current moment, all of which sounds great. The acting is fabulous, and the Kandy Man is brilliant if you ask me. I love how the character constantly swaps between a polite, creepy and psychotic serial killer to a petulant child having an immature temper tantrum on a whim, though the real star is definitely Helen A. The sniper speech, the final monologue, and many other memorable moments stand out.
Great reviews, Josh. Really looking forward to seeing the upgraded sfx on Season 25, which is easily one of the best seasons of 80s Who. Fir me it is beaten only by any serial featuring Nyssa being especially badass!
03:41 that’s Priscilla P, babes 💚 I know, I have seen this story over 50 times! It’s my favorite, I don’t claim it’s the best episode of Doctor Who, but it’s my favorite!
Being an American sucks sometimes. I’m still waiting on my Season 15 boxset, and now I’m super jealous of the 25 boxset. On my watchthrough in 2022, I remember feeling like this season as a whole was a fascinating attempt to make something of Doctor Who again. While this season mostly runs but occasionally walks (Silver Nemesis), next season runs the entire time. I’m excited to check this season out in its new glory here in a few months!
That VHS cut of Silver Nemesis is seared into my brain from childhood. Always loved that story for the over the top performances and cool action sequences. Also, I'm a massive fan of the Cybermen so seeing them here in a more everyday setting was interesting. Never had a problem understanding the story but maybe my child brain skipped over the parts that made no sense. I lived about an hour away from Windsor castle so I would always imagine Cybermen wandering around the grounds when we drove past it. Great review as always. Wish I could get my hands on this set. The first 3 stories of the season were always in the VHS player when I was a kid.
Currently finishing up Hartnell’s era, but this video has solidified that I MUST take a break to watch S25 before I start my first ever viewing of Patrick Troughton’s era.
I was around real time when this came out (on local PBS in the USA anyway), and you could see everybody stepping up their game in the wake of ST:TNG, but I don't think the show had a chance at this point even if it had more support from the BBC.
Completely get what you mean regarding Greatest Show. I went the same way with the Troughton era, which used to be one of my favourite periods of the series when I was first getting into it. I still like a few stories (The Invasion and The War Games being 2 of my favourites) but I rarely want to revisit it these days. Compared to the fresh and creative Hartnell era, it feels very formulaic and the closest that Doctor Who ever got to being aimed exclusively at kids.
Season 25 is my all time favourite season of classic Who, and I cannot wait to get my grubby little protuberances on this set!! Without writing a whole essay, I wanted to say your reviews on the episodes have given me thoughts and ideas which I'd never even considered before, so thankyou for that
I am so exciting for this release- Sadly being from Canada we havent even gotten an announcement on our release. :( These releases have certainly slowed down for us here- I am so hungry to see these!
It’s delightful to watch you opine about the Happiness Patrol! One of the favorite things I ever did with this story was turn down the color and watch it in black and white - the German expressionist sets really pop like a film noir or a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Give it a try and see what you think with the original edit (you kind of need the claustrophobic small sets for this version).
Surprised you were so down on Greatest Show. I watched it for the first time when I was 4 and didn't really get all the referential stuff, and it worked brilliantly. Later when I got all of that I just loved it even more.
I've been passing up on the Collection editions, as I still have my full DVD collection. By the sound of it, this set justifies a purchase, especially for my favorite Doctor!
I love Season 25 aswell. And Seven was "my" Doctor. I'd seen repeats of old Doctor Who's but McCoy was the "new" guy when I was a kid. I loved him instantly.
Even the opening theme of this era in 5.1 sounds like it would be incredible. I've always loved how aggressively 80s Keff's rendition is, and that title sequence is very charming.
This was the season that got me back into Doctor Who again in 1988. I am so glad that they put the work in to The Happiness Patrol, with making it more obvious that it's meant to be happening in city streets. Remembrance of the Daleks is one of my all-time favourite stories - The first time that the Doctor starts taking the fight to his enemies.
Thanks for a great video. I loved it. The simple slip of the tongue in Remembrance feels so much more satisfying and successful than the promise of the Timeless Children. It just invites exploration, without demanding that the entire history of the show is upended. Personally, I'd love to have more consequences of ancient time-lord history. It surely allows for a more emotional return of Omega, or some hints at their conflict in that time. So much better than the Doctor being the prime Timelord,... or Sutekh having clung to the Tardis since the seventies. Sorry, they just didn't work for me.☹
One of my faves of this season is The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I always thought there was no additional material for this story. The one part that still sends a chill down my spine is Bellboy's death you don't see it and heavily implied as you know what is happening. Love the Chef Clown one of the underrated villains.
I thought it was interesting that on Behind the Sofa of Remembrance of the Daleks Sophie Aldred says the story of her attacking the hero Dalek prop instead of the stunt Dalek was apocryphal, but on the outtakes you see it happening!
This kind of thing is why I prefer the shorter season Collection releases. As far as I'm aware, every set has roughly the same budget. So when you have 14 episodes across 4 serials, you just have so much more left over for extra stuff that's not necessary like special editions and extra documentaries and interviews. It's a bummer that things like the season 2 set feel almost bare-bones in comparison because more of the budget is used to restore the larger quantity of episodes and more episodes of Behind The Sofa(which personally I'm not a big fan off but I get it). So all you get outside of that is a Looking For documentary and a few interviews. Which is great, but it would've been awesome to have a couple special editions and new behind the scenes documentaries.
I'm pleasantly surprised to hear how much you like _"The Happiness Patrol."_ I was so disappointed to find people trashing it online whenever it's mentioned. In a way, it's kind of like _"The Celestial Toymaker"_ with happy and fun things that are actually deadly. I love _"Silver Nemesis."_ I saved my VHS copy to keep the extended scenes with The Doctor and Ace finding a portrait of her that she doesn't remember because it's from her future! I guess the business with the Nazis does complicate things but I've always been captivated by Fiona Walker as Lady Peinforte. Richard suggests that a bear is somewhere in their vicinity and she dismisses his fears by saying, _"Now, come. The bear will not pursue us. Such things happen only in the theater..."_ _"Rememberace of The Daleks"_ is funny and Sylvester is firmly *_The Doctor_* in this story! The other characters, Gilmore, Rachel, Allison, and Mike all have striking resemblances to The Brigadier, Polly, Barbara/Liz Shaw, and Ben, respectively, making them callbacks to the show's early days! (The Doctor even mistakenly calls Gilmore _"Brigadier."_ ) The only complaint I have about _"The Greatest Show in The Galaxy"_ is the Ring Master "rapping" before introducing the acts! I don't like rap music as it is and this actor isn't all that good at rapping. (Not all black people can rap, nor do they need to!) I guess because I was not the glasses-wearing nerd I never gave a lot of thought to Wiz Kid being a meta Doctor Who fan, nor did I see The Gods of Ragnarok as DW viewers. TGSITG is one of my favorite Sylvester stories because of the way he defeats the Gods and, while their domain is exploding around him, he just tips his hat and calmly strolls away... *_Coolness!_*
I'm kind of glad that the collections are delayed a few months for the USA. It gives me a window of time to see what everyone else thinks of it. Ideally this informs whether or not I will buy it but being honest with myself I'm gonna buy it no matter what at this point. 😅
Considering Remembrance was about celebrating the history of the show for the 25th, maybe they should have made it a multidoctor story with Jon Pertwee in it. It would have felt right considering it was based on Earth with the involvement of the military. It's also possible they would have included Patrick Troughton if he'd lived for a few more years, Sydney Newman wanted him to do more appearances after The Two Doctors, but it wasn't meant to be.
I personally didn't mind Silver Nemesis, maybe because of the feeling of a Tennant episode which I have so much nostalgia for. I was pleased they released an extended cut of it, cos there were some moments that made more sense like De Florres somehow having Cybermen 'headphones' and his easy escape by throwing gold dust at the Cyberleader.
Having just watched this season, for the first time ever, on steam powered DVD [I don't care about owning newer films enough to get a Blu-Ray drive for mu laptop, I only buy cranky old sci-fi / horror tv serials], your views are really interesting. My take on post-hiatus Classic Who is that i/ it is bravely creative and fresh, ii/ the supporting cast are often so good [and so well written] that it makes it a lot easier to paper over any moments of 80's DW scripting/directing cheese that doesn't quite work, iii/ a lot of the time, 7th Doctor serials feel like they might be fishing for extra TARDIS companions, with how well they integrate with The Doctor and Ace - I loved Mags, and think she'd have been good to have along as well - especially since 'Survival' is apparently about people morphing into hybrids creatures..??? I totally agree about TGSITG - for me episode one drags, and only leads up to the tent entrance... which is a total non-cliffhanger! Episode four also drags once the Doctor confronts the Gods - who are just too static and really don't rise to the occasion when everything around them is crumbling. Even the wonderful supporting cast can't lift this story higher, because it just 'creaks'. I'd rate Silver Nemesis higher in my list, because despite the 6 man budget 4th Reich, Anton Diffring chews great scenery and I love the interaction between the Lady and her man servant - they really steal the show, for all the right reasons. So, for me - Rememberence, Nemesis, Happiness, Galaxy.
The two Doctor Who stories that mean the most to me are Blood of the Daleks, (which I'm sure you know by now 😉) and Remembrance of the Daleks, so I would be very hard to please. Yet the extended edition really surprised me! I wouldn't consider it definitive for two reasons. The edited audio, (which as far as I'm aware you can't turn off in the extended cut) doesn't always hit, I know this story so we'll that I can tell you the Dalek gun sound effects were switched around in the final battle to better match the first, and it sounds a lot more hollow, less punchy. And a few Dalek lines were swapped out for alternate takes for some reason, and most of them didn't vibe with me, like the "under attack" line sounds a bit naff now. And the second was that bloody Supreme Dalek model during the self destruct scene! For a team that went as far as to add the E back into Foreman, which I didn't even notice until I watched a video showing off all the changes, how could they give an 80s Dalek the 60s prop shape? I reanimated it, will release it at some point as a video, but I much prefer my version.
On Helen A being like Thatcher, at a message board I had asked why NuWho doesn't seem to be affected by industrial action unlike its predecessor and the answer I was given is that essentially it is because of Thatcher. It is because of Thatcher that unions no longer have the same kind of power they had before. It is curious that this wasn't mentioned on Strike! Strike! Strike!, the documentary that was included on the Shada DVD as it looked into the history of industrial action on Doctor Who but strictly on classic Who. The only NuWho reference to all this was at the end with a clip of the Eleventh Doctor working in a store in Closing Time which I found frustrating that it left hanging like that of why NuWho doesn't seem to be affected by industrial action.
18:35 their gloves are cricket gloves I don’t know why they used them for this story it looks ridiculous, I’m expecting Davison to show up any moment and bowl them out.
Random thought re. Creatives tackling their audience ala Whizz Kid. What's your take on Misery, which is surely the ultimate example of a negative commentary on superfans?
@@JoshSnares i don't mind silver nemesis and I think the extended SE makes it more coherent. Stephen Wyatt mentioned on his FB post how he felt the SE of Greatest Show was inferior to the transmitted version
Season 25 is probably one of the best and I can enjoy any of these episodes even nemesis as they are all just good fun. I am also trying to get one of my friends who is a new series fan to watch this and season 26 as in opinion they are some of the best of all doctor who
With Silver Nemesis being the 25th anniversary story, its writer Kevin Clarke said at the time that he would come back to do the 50th anniversary episode which he called Golden Nemesis. Nevertheless this makes me wonder what would The Day of the Doctor had looked like if it was written by him.
I loved series 25, it marked a real uphill start to the writing of Doctor Who and a real departure to what was before! I really wish Andrew Cartmel had more room and time to stretch his legs as the script editor and pushing the story! What could have been :(
I can't believe Doctor Who would decanonise the novel that explains that the universe specifically shifted to have the I.M FOREMAN sign be spelt wrong for this one episode, smh
😅😅😅
lol
It still did for the later shot of the open gate, where the E has vanished again.
Awesome ranking
Janet, Sarah and Wendy shitting on the happiness patrol in behind the sofa hurt me on a deep emotional level 😢 😭
😭😭😭
I love them but they have terrible doctor who takes quite often
@@peterjoyfilms Bless them but I dread the sofa with Janet and Sarah. I will never watch the Season 2 Behind the Sofa again. As a fan I love a good moan about the show but watching the "stars" moan about it is wounding. It was especially awful as the edits they watched of the stories clearly didn't show Barbara as the star of season 2 which she so often is - they just regarded her as a stuffy school teacher - Justice for Barbara!!!!
At least Janet's sofa redeemed themselves for me on season 25 by enjoying Greatest Show.
I felt the same way.
@@Darren79! I always was amazed they would watch these whole stories so I’m not surprised to hear that they watch edited versions? How edited down are they?
Im always so gratified to find there are others out there who adore The Happiness Patrol. There Special Edition is glorious
i love being jumpscared by a josh snares upload after refreshing my feed
😅😅
At last, someone else appreciates the Happiness Patrol!! I knew it would happen, one day. It's been over 40 years to wait!
I always liked this story
It's the best Mccoy story.
yay, there's 3 of us now!
@@johnlochness That makes four of us!
Oh man, the Candyman scared the hell out of me as a kid! Absolutely terrifying!
Glad you enjoyed the special editions, Josh! Your name was mentioned several times during the models shoot when we were discussing postive, wholesome Who content creators 😊
Oh thank you! That’s very nice to hear 💕💕
Another fantastic video! 😊
Just started watching Remembrance, and I adored how they added the John Smith and the Common Men track to the cafe scene! Nice touch!
Excellent review ❤❤
It's always a good day when Josh uploads a new video 🎉
🥰🥰
Honestly a top tier video. These recent reviews have such polish to them, proper good stuff!!
Looking forward to seeing these special editions!
The take about Greatest Show was definitely unfair. The entire story is a meta-commentary that pokes more fun at the show itself than it does any type of fan who consumes it. They just use loose archetypes to drive the point home. The BBC execs who want to kill the show (Gods of Ragnarok), a twisted version of the Doctor and Ace (Cooke and Mags), non-fans who find the show cringe (stall lady), fans of violence, fans of how it used to be, people sacrificing art for self-serving ends, all looking towards the show in their own different way, with the main issue being the BBC themselves, making life difficult for all of them, even those who are compliant. The fact they got away with it (or managed to film it at all) is a miracle.
Loving the weekly videos, Josh. Keep it up!
Sold.
Great video, thanks. Your enthusiasm is infectious!
Wonderful video!! I look forward to diving into the set and the different versions!😊
Josh: “I fell in love with ace and I thought she was the coolest character in doctor who, watch out Nyssa”
Nyssa: “Excuse me?!” Raises stazer
Josh: “no Nyssa it’s not what you think!”
Nyssa: “I believe it is former CEO of the Nyssa appreciation society”
Josh: “noooooooo”
Nyssa fires stazer Josh Snares dies
Nyssa: “and let that be a lesson to you all don’t cross Nyssa of Traken”
Once again Josh, thank you for the grand review! I'm excited to pick this one up :)
Another banging video, Josh. Great to see you meeting Sylvester at the con.
Also love Happiness Patrol. Love the theatrical feel and brilliant dialogue. Superb speech, one of the Doctor's best. Even the dodgy go carts can't ruin it.
Many fans at the time trashed the production as misguided, a throwback to the excesses of the last season, grumbling about the Candyman and the pink TARDIS. Crazy.
I’m sat in A&E with a fractured elbow and this beauty uploads! Josh, you’re an angel. ✨✨✨
Omg no!! Hope you get better soon!! 💕
@@JoshSnares Thank you!! Your words heal me more than any splint or painkiller ever could. 😊
Great review, Josh. Really interesting to hear your rankings and reasons. On transmission, I was embarrassed by most of The Happiness Patrol, feeling it was a huge comedown from Remembrance. With time, I've come to appreciate it more and the extended edition is certainly excellent. I watched all the versions of Silver Nemesis and I still think it's a mess - for me, the worst of the season and not one that I'll be watching again. I love The Greatest Show in the Galaxy which is my close second place to Remembrance. I wish they had the material to extend the other 2 episodes of Greatest - a little more backstory on how the Circus got ensnared by the Gods and why the amulet worked against them would have been welcome (but may not have been explained anyway!). We are indeed lucky to get these extended versions and all the fantastic extra features. It's great that the Behind the Sofa panels are 'honest' and interesting to hear the different takes!
It is really fascinating to hear this review, being someone who saw (almost) everything in order starting in 1978 (Season 13 first transmission here). Eighties Who could be terribly and maddeningly inconsistent from week to week - everyone knows the general critical opinion of Androzani being followed a week later by Twin Dilemma. It made it to be hard to be a fan, when even within a single story (Trial) an astonishing episode rewriting much of what we know about the Doctor (Part 13) is followed by an abominable clunker (Part 14). I found Season 24 a mediocre and embarrassing relaunch with Sylv on first transmission in Oz; and Remembrance felt like with Ben A.’s first writing credits, and some really excellent practical effects, Doctor Who was back to its best. And then the rest of the season felt like it was retreading Season 24.
I got all of the DVDs (after getting many of the audio tape / CD / VHS releases) and being in some penury from time to time, I felt I could not indulge myself purchasing these stories a second (or in some cases a third or fourth) time. I’d said to myself, I’ll get Season 7 (as I missed getting a BluRay of Spearhead when it was in circulation), but the sheer enthusiasm of this review makes me genuinely keen to get the Season 25 box, because the bulk of the season cried out for some extra love and attention, such as Season 26 already had with the superb Battlefield and Fenric releases. Yes, I too would love a version of Ghost Light that makes all the cryptic pieces fit together.
Grearest show in the galaxy will always be my favourite story in the shows history.
I'm stuck in the US with NO release date as of today! Ugh!!
Josh, absolutely loved all your takes on each story. Season 25 was also my first time seeing McCoy and I've got so many fond memories of each episode, I wouldn't know where to begin!
For "Remembrance", did they restore the background music from the diner scenes? I know originally songs like The Beatles' "Do You Want to Know a Secret" were heard, but then removed because of licensing. Did those get restored?
Love from the US Josh, keep up the fantastic work! ❤
No, sorry, no beatles still
Thank you for the review. I am looking forward to the release in the USA. Now you have made me wonder which version to watch! I might give the new ones a try for sure.
With Greatest Show, I saw the Gods as Michael Grade and his treatment of JNT and the creators as the circus members buckling under that pressure.
See the pic of you with Whizzkid and think "wow, they do look the same, just different glasses" ... cuts back to you and your glasses are now identical to Whizzkid's lol.
I feel like Greatest Show in the Galaxy doesn't really belong in Season 25 ... tonally it really belongs more in Season 24, especially with the treatment of Ace's character. When I saw it on TV at the time it was a bit of a let down coming after Remembrance of the Daleks, which is perhaps why Silver Nemesis (at the time) seemed to be a bit of a return to form in terms of the questions that the show was broaching about the Doctor's mysterious past. I found the Happiness Patrol to be witty, thought-provoking, and exciting, even though I was too young to pick up on the Thatcher references (I am Australian and didn't see much of Thatcher on TV).
I like to imagine an alternate timeline where the Greatest Show went out in Season 24 and Battlefield was co-opted into Season 25. The broadcast version of Battlefield has many problems, but it does fit with S24's approach of dynamic action, explosions, the mysteries of the Doctor (albeit his future), etc. And it would leave S26 to end with some of the most adult and innovative Doctor Who of the time, i.e., Curse of Fenric, Ghostlight, and Survival.
@@DrWhoFanJThanks, my memory did deceive me! I haven't watched them in sequence since they were originally broadcast in Australia. (Of course I have watched them on DVD individually, though.)
@@iianneill6013 Your memory didn’t deceive you. In Australia, both when premièred in 1989 and on first repeat in 1990, ABC aired Season 25 in the following broadcast order: 7H (Remembrance), 7J (Greatest Show), 7K (Silver), 7L (Happiness), owing to following the alphabetical order of BBC’s production codes rather than the order they had gone to air in the UK, which tallies exactly with what you described. During the 2003-06 repeat of the majority of what was available to put to air, the ABC rectified the order to be the same as originally transmitted by the BBC, however during that run they did not have the rights to air Remembrance owing to a legal dispute with the estate of Terry Nation, so that Happiness followed directly after Dragonfire (ending season 24).
@@Xanthe_Cat You are a goldmine of information, thank you! And I can't believe my memory of the broadcast order was actually right. 😀
The special edition for Remembrance of the Daleks wasn't able to include all the extra footage - there was a big continuity booboo in part 4 - the special weapons Dalek blows up all the renegade Daleks in Ratcliffe's Yard but all the footage recorded there after the event showed the inactive Daleks sitting there intact.
Terry Nation Army on TH-cam has a great video on what likely happened.
You’re bang on with the Greatest Show assessment. There’s so much good in it and so you want to like it more than you end up doing. It’s got the ingredients but definitely needed more cooking or even marinating to bring the flavours together. Doesn’t quite meld. What a season overall though. Even if Silver Nemesis is crap, it’s good crap 😂 Love these weekly vids!
One thing I found strange is in the Remembrance special edition they used the alternative music tracks in the radio scenes, but I thought the licencing was ok now as it had been restored in the standard edition. Do you know the reason for this?
Loving these recent vids on the missing episode animation and the new VFX comparisons
i suppose it is an unpopular opinion but i adore how camp and colourful this era is. especially the costuming and design. and i like the integration of somewhat serious themes to bring it back to earth (so to speak, lol) or reality a little bit.
Same!!
@@JoshSnaresspeaking of costume design, will we ever get another episode of Doctor Who Fashion Review? The Romana episode was so fun and i’d love to see what you and Jemma make of Jo or Sarah’s outfits especially :)
I’d have an opinion here but I don’t want Josh to get snarky at me again, thanks for the video though, well done and informative. 😅. I’ll say some of those 3d sets are a bit jarring though, they needed to “dumb” it down a bit (reduced the quality).
Where can I watch the special editions? Do I need to buy the Bluray Collection?
One of my favorite seasons, and as an American who will not get the set for months, this really wets my appetite for it!
- I hope future videos might include the fate(s) of various companions. :)
Another banger from Josh, do you think you'll ever do some Big Finish audio reviews?
Not really an audience for them, I’m afraid! Plus, I don’t feel like I retain the episodes enough to really comment on them
I've always loved Happiness Patrol. It's campy and fun, but when you scratch the surface, there's a lot of dark and creepy undertones to balance it out. The soundtrack is exceptional - flitting from lonely and creepy strings that sound straight out of the original Resident Evil game, to either happy or sad harmonica jingles that fit the current moment, all of which sounds great. The acting is fabulous, and the Kandy Man is brilliant if you ask me. I love how the character constantly swaps between a polite, creepy and psychotic serial killer to a petulant child having an immature temper tantrum on a whim, though the real star is definitely Helen A. The sniper speech, the final monologue, and many other memorable moments stand out.
Ace switching off the TV used to be cut? Strange, because it was present on the version I saw on a local PBS station in the US in 1989 or so.
( 12:44 ) We need the Josh Snares cut! 😂
I loved the Quatermass / British Rocket group reference in Remembrance too.
Great reviews, Josh. Really looking forward to seeing the upgraded sfx on Season 25, which is easily one of the best seasons of 80s Who. Fir me it is beaten only by any serial featuring Nyssa being especially badass!
16:40 This was a reference to something that was for Lungbarrow that was apart of The Cartmel Masterplan!
03:41 that’s Priscilla P, babes 💚
I know, I have seen this story over 50 times! It’s my favorite, I don’t claim it’s the best episode of Doctor Who, but it’s my favorite!
Oops! I’m a fake fan!!! 😭😭
Being an American sucks sometimes. I’m still waiting on my Season 15 boxset, and now I’m super jealous of the 25 boxset. On my watchthrough in 2022, I remember feeling like this season as a whole was a fascinating attempt to make something of Doctor Who again. While this season mostly runs but occasionally walks (Silver Nemesis), next season runs the entire time. I’m excited to check this season out in its new glory here in a few months!
That VHS cut of Silver Nemesis is seared into my brain from childhood. Always loved that story for the over the top performances and cool action sequences. Also, I'm a massive fan of the Cybermen so seeing them here in a more everyday setting was interesting. Never had a problem understanding the story but maybe my child brain skipped over the parts that made no sense.
I lived about an hour away from Windsor castle so I would always imagine Cybermen wandering around the grounds when we drove past it.
Great review as always. Wish I could get my hands on this set. The first 3 stories of the season were always in the VHS player when I was a kid.
😂 Josh, that isn't really a younger you, is it. Whizz Kid incarnate!
Currently finishing up Hartnell’s era, but this video has solidified that I MUST take a break to watch S25 before I start my first ever viewing of Patrick Troughton’s era.
I must think about getting this boxset
Love this set. Is it just me getting things wrong, or is The Greatest Show Special Edition difficult to access?
Yeah, it’s so complicated. Pressing play all, THEN pressing special edition - so weird
@JoshSnares - it's more puzzling than the plot of Silver Nemesis! 😃
can't wait to tuck into this
I was around real time when this came out (on local PBS in the USA anyway), and you could see everybody stepping up their game in the wake of ST:TNG, but I don't think the show had a chance at this point even if it had more support from the BBC.
Completely get what you mean regarding Greatest Show. I went the same way with the Troughton era, which used to be one of my favourite periods of the series when I was first getting into it. I still like a few stories (The Invasion and The War Games being 2 of my favourites) but I rarely want to revisit it these days. Compared to the fresh and creative Hartnell era, it feels very formulaic and the closest that Doctor Who ever got to being aimed exclusively at kids.
Season 25 is my all time favourite season of classic Who, and I cannot wait to get my grubby little protuberances on this set!! Without writing a whole essay, I wanted to say your reviews on the episodes have given me thoughts and ideas which I'd never even considered before, so thankyou for that
I am so exciting for this release- Sadly being from Canada we havent even gotten an announcement on our release. :( These releases have certainly slowed down for us here- I am so hungry to see these!
It’s delightful to watch you opine about the Happiness Patrol! One of the favorite things I ever did with this story was turn down the color and watch it in black and white - the German expressionist sets really pop like a film noir or a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Give it a try and see what you think with the original edit (you kind of need the claustrophobic small sets for this version).
When I saw this on my recommendations on release day, it felt like a lovely birthday present despite being a day after.
Can’t wait for the Season 25 set to release in America. The look of these special editions makes me so excited to view.
Surprised you were so down on Greatest Show. I watched it for the first time when I was 4 and didn't really get all the referential stuff, and it worked brilliantly. Later when I got all of that I just loved it even more.
They should have offered a b&w version of Happiness Patrol, like they'd originally planned... I know - easy enough to do these days.
I've been passing up on the Collection editions, as I still have my full DVD collection. By the sound of it, this set justifies a purchase, especially for my favorite Doctor!
I love Season 25 aswell. And Seven was "my" Doctor. I'd seen repeats of old Doctor Who's but McCoy was the "new" guy when I was a kid. I loved him instantly.
Even the opening theme of this era in 5.1 sounds like it would be incredible. I've always loved how aggressively 80s Keff's rendition is, and that title sequence is very charming.
Hahaha the Australian attempt at building a Ray gun 11:12
This was the season that got me back into Doctor Who again in 1988. I am so glad that they put the work in to The Happiness Patrol, with making it more obvious that it's meant to be happening in city streets. Remembrance of the Daleks is one of my all-time favourite stories - The first time that the Doctor starts taking the fight to his enemies.
Thanks for a great video. I loved it. The simple slip of the tongue in Remembrance feels so much more satisfying and successful than the promise of the Timeless Children. It just invites exploration, without demanding that the entire history of the show is upended. Personally, I'd love to have more consequences of ancient time-lord history. It surely allows for a more emotional return of Omega, or some hints at their conflict in that time. So much better than the Doctor being the prime Timelord,... or Sutekh having clung to the Tardis since the seventies.
Sorry, they just didn't work for me.☹
The spin-off we didn't know we needed!!: Ace and Nyssa get badass with a baseball bat and a stun gun!
One of my faves of this season is The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I always thought there was no additional material for this story. The one part that still sends a chill down my spine is Bellboy's death you don't see it and heavily implied as you know what is happening. Love the Chef Clown one of the underrated villains.
My favourite bit of music from Remembrance of the Daleks was when Mike knocked out his guard as he makes his escape.
I rank these stories in the same order you do, Happiness Patrol is easily my favorite of the season.
I thought it was interesting that on Behind the Sofa of Remembrance of the Daleks Sophie Aldred says the story of her attacking the hero Dalek prop instead of the stunt Dalek was apocryphal, but on the outtakes you see it happening!
This kind of thing is why I prefer the shorter season Collection releases. As far as I'm aware, every set has roughly the same budget. So when you have 14 episodes across 4 serials, you just have so much more left over for extra stuff that's not necessary like special editions and extra documentaries and interviews. It's a bummer that things like the season 2 set feel almost bare-bones in comparison because more of the budget is used to restore the larger quantity of episodes and more episodes of Behind The Sofa(which personally I'm not a big fan off but I get it). So all you get outside of that is a Looking For documentary and a few interviews. Which is great, but it would've been awesome to have a couple special editions and new behind the scenes documentaries.
I'm pleasantly surprised to hear how much you like _"The Happiness Patrol."_ I was so disappointed to find people trashing it online whenever it's mentioned.
In a way, it's kind of like _"The Celestial Toymaker"_ with happy and fun things that are actually deadly.
I love _"Silver Nemesis."_ I saved my VHS copy to keep the extended scenes with The Doctor and Ace finding a portrait of her that she doesn't remember because it's from her future! I guess the business with the Nazis does complicate things but I've always been captivated by Fiona Walker as Lady Peinforte.
Richard suggests that a bear is somewhere in their vicinity and she dismisses his fears by saying, _"Now, come. The bear will not pursue us. Such things happen only in the theater..."_
_"Rememberace of The Daleks"_ is funny and Sylvester is firmly *_The Doctor_* in this story! The other characters, Gilmore, Rachel, Allison, and Mike all have striking resemblances to The Brigadier, Polly, Barbara/Liz Shaw, and Ben, respectively, making them callbacks to the show's early days! (The Doctor even mistakenly calls Gilmore _"Brigadier."_ )
The only complaint I have about _"The Greatest Show in The Galaxy"_ is the Ring Master "rapping" before introducing the acts! I don't like rap music as it is and this actor isn't all that good at rapping. (Not all black people can rap, nor do they need to!) I guess because I was not the glasses-wearing nerd I never gave a lot of thought to Wiz Kid being a meta Doctor Who fan, nor did I see The Gods of Ragnarok as DW viewers.
TGSITG is one of my favorite Sylvester stories because of the way he defeats the Gods and, while their domain is exploding around him, he just tips his hat and calmly strolls away...
*_Coolness!_*
I like how you said Happiness Patrol got expanded, because I remember a blog from a decade ago saying HP was an episode too long
I'm kind of glad that the collections are delayed a few months for the USA. It gives me a window of time to see what everyone else thinks of it. Ideally this informs whether or not I will buy it but being honest with myself I'm gonna buy it no matter what at this point. 😅
Considering Remembrance was about celebrating the history of the show for the 25th, maybe they should have made it a multidoctor story with Jon Pertwee in it. It would have felt right considering it was based on Earth with the involvement of the military. It's also possible they would have included Patrick Troughton if he'd lived for a few more years, Sydney Newman wanted him to do more appearances after The Two Doctors, but it wasn't meant to be.
I personally didn't mind Silver Nemesis, maybe because of the feeling of a Tennant episode which I have so much nostalgia for. I was pleased they released an extended cut of it, cos there were some moments that made more sense like De Florres somehow having Cybermen 'headphones' and his easy escape by throwing gold dust at the Cyberleader.
Having just watched this season, for the first time ever, on steam powered DVD [I don't care about owning newer films enough to get a Blu-Ray drive for mu laptop, I only buy cranky old sci-fi / horror tv serials], your views are really interesting. My take on post-hiatus Classic Who is that i/ it is bravely creative and fresh, ii/ the supporting cast are often so good [and so well written] that it makes it a lot easier to paper over any moments of 80's DW scripting/directing cheese that doesn't quite work, iii/ a lot of the time, 7th Doctor serials feel like they might be fishing for extra TARDIS companions, with how well they integrate with The Doctor and Ace - I loved Mags, and think she'd have been good to have along as well - especially since 'Survival' is apparently about people morphing into hybrids creatures..??? I totally agree about TGSITG - for me episode one drags, and only leads up to the tent entrance... which is a total non-cliffhanger! Episode four also drags once the Doctor confronts the Gods - who are just too static and really don't rise to the occasion when everything around them is crumbling. Even the wonderful supporting cast can't lift this story higher, because it just 'creaks'. I'd rate Silver Nemesis higher in my list, because despite the 6 man budget 4th Reich, Anton Diffring chews great scenery and I love the interaction between the Lady and her man servant - they really steal the show, for all the right reasons. So, for me - Rememberence, Nemesis, Happiness, Galaxy.
You missed that the Dalek story is based the day after te first episode. Ace picks up the book the Susan left on the desk.
The two Doctor Who stories that mean the most to me are Blood of the Daleks, (which I'm sure you know by now 😉) and Remembrance of the Daleks, so I would be very hard to please. Yet the extended edition really surprised me!
I wouldn't consider it definitive for two reasons. The edited audio, (which as far as I'm aware you can't turn off in the extended cut) doesn't always hit, I know this story so we'll that I can tell you the Dalek gun sound effects were switched around in the final battle to better match the first, and it sounds a lot more hollow, less punchy. And a few Dalek lines were swapped out for alternate takes for some reason, and most of them didn't vibe with me, like the "under attack" line sounds a bit naff now.
And the second was that bloody Supreme Dalek model during the self destruct scene! For a team that went as far as to add the E back into Foreman, which I didn't even notice until I watched a video showing off all the changes, how could they give an 80s Dalek the 60s prop shape? I reanimated it, will release it at some point as a video, but I much prefer my version.
Really hoping season 7 gets the same treatment. Especially Inferno.
On Helen A being like Thatcher, at a message board I had asked why NuWho doesn't seem to be affected by industrial action unlike its predecessor and the answer I was given is that essentially it is because of Thatcher.
It is because of Thatcher that unions no longer have the same kind of power they had before.
It is curious that this wasn't mentioned on Strike! Strike! Strike!, the documentary that was included on the Shada DVD as it looked into the history of industrial action on Doctor Who but strictly on classic Who.
The only NuWho reference to all this was at the end with a clip of the Eleventh Doctor working in a store in Closing Time which I found frustrating that it left hanging like that of why NuWho doesn't seem to be affected by industrial action.
Was it ever explained why Kandyman is spelt with a K because I can't remember.
18:35 their gloves are cricket gloves I don’t know why they used them for this story it looks ridiculous, I’m expecting Davison to show up any moment and bowl them out.
Random thought re. Creatives tackling their audience ala Whizz Kid. What's your take on Misery, which is surely the ultimate example of a negative commentary on superfans?
I think Misery is more a commentary on parasocial relationships rather than fans being obsessive! Love Misery, Kathy Bates is an icon
I think the production team on Greatest Show were mostly fans themselves, whiz kid is ae least partially self mockery 🙂
Good video.
This video is just what I need after london comic con let down a bunch of us.
Yeah saw those lines - what a nightmare
I couldn't make it due to finances - what happened?
11:12 I spat out my tea
Gotta shout out an Aussie legend!!
The cybermatts look identical to the ones from mick tuckers' concept art for silver nemesis which is such a cool touch
I loathed The Happiness Patrol on original broadcast. Am off to watch it now for the second time after your critique. Thanks Josh. Will report back.
So jealous. Still don’t have the preorder for this in the states yet.
I just ordered it from the UK!
@ I would but so far I’ve collected only the US releases so the packaging of the UK version would totally mess up my whole aesthetic! 🤣
The Happiness Patrol is my favourite new SE for this boxset.
Though did we really need four versions of Silver Nemesis? 😂
We don’t even need ONE version of Silver Nemesis!! 😅
@@JoshSnares i don't mind silver nemesis and I think the extended SE makes it more coherent.
Stephen Wyatt mentioned on his FB post how he felt the SE of Greatest Show was inferior to the transmitted version
@@IsaacWhittakerDakin five versions*
Season 25 is probably one of the best and I can enjoy any of these episodes even nemesis as they are all just good fun. I am also trying to get one of my friends who is a new series fan to watch this and season 26 as in opinion they are some of the best of all doctor who
LOL at the Raygun callout
With Silver Nemesis being the 25th anniversary story, its writer Kevin Clarke said at the time that he would come back to do the 50th anniversary episode which he called Golden Nemesis.
Nevertheless this makes me wonder what would The Day of the Doctor had looked like if it was written by him.
They cut the Doctor Who joke??? Killjoys.
UP THE KILLJOYS!
As someone who prefers faster paced stories, this season definitely provides that!
26:01 Cool guys don't look at explosions. They turn around and walk away.
I enjoyed Greatest Show in the Galaxy on its own merits with all that commentary about the show itself going right over my head.
There’s not even a date yet for the release in America 🙃🙃🙃