Thank you to everyone for watching Part 21 of our documentary series, the History of Doctor Who Viewing Figures! If you enjoyed, please leave a like on the video and subscribe to the channel for more Who content and future instalments of this series! See you next time for Season 22!
From season 19 onwards you could add million viewers for each episode of those who recorded on VHS video tape because by then, from my memory being a child, it was more common. My memories of recording Superman when it and others were first shown. The warmth from the tape player and the sleeve. AND THE labels each tape came with. Like emojis now each tape had a series of stickers of what it was ie movie camera and a long one to write the title. I remember when Star Wars and Indy were shown for the first time. Happy memories from so long ago 🥳😪❤
In his autobiography, John Nathan-Turner tells a saucy anecdote about the amply-proportioned Ingrid Pitt: _"During rehearsals for [Warriors of the Deep], I'd been on a trip to America with Jon Pertwee. A favourite pastime of mine was to visit American supermarkets and bring back candy bars with very peculiar names; at the time, 'Snickers' bars were unheard-of in the UK, for example. Jon was riveted by the fun of this shopping-spree and joined in. I'd been telling him who was in the guest cast of the current story and, as the voluptuous Ingrid Pitt was an old chum, and he'd worked with her on Doctor Who, he gave me a bar called 'Mounds', which he said I was to give to Ingrid with his love. The cast and crew were highly amused, as was Ingrid, when her 'Mounds' were presented just before the Producer's run-through"_
Another great instalment in your series, Adam. Thank you! S21 was a strong run. Not all of the stories hit home runs, but they all strived to. In addition to that, it marked a year in which none of the initial core cast made it to the end. It was a lot to take in at the time!
They certainly did all strive for big things! I'm sure it was quite a lot to process! Especially taking in a brand new Doctor and then having to wait 9 months for more!
@AdamMartyn 9 months of "ugh, do I bother?" 😢 being in America at the time, I had no clue of the season structure, didn't hate TWD (it was fresh and exciting and being fresh off literature class, I loved 6's references), and ATTACK had shown next week and it was an improvement. But the UK audience and their reactions to the show are far more interesting as they had this unique experiment going on...
Excellent video Adam. Now I’m not a massive fan of Davison’s era, but this season is great. Aside from Warriors and Twin Dilemma, for me, these stories are great. The awakening is short but sweet, Frontios is a very engaging watch, Resurrection is terrific and so is Caves. I also love the darker tone of this season
One of the things I liked about Caves, was the way Jek was portrayed as an antagonist, early in in the story, but gradually became more of a protagonist, as time went on; and particularly once the reason he was so bitter was revealed. Bob Holmes managed to blur the line between friend and foe, with Jek, and that made for a more plausible storyline, as a result, and added depth to the character; drawing the audience in to feeling some sympathy for him, by the time he died.
@@whocrusader5179 I read somewhere that Patrick Troughton advised Peter Davison to step down from the role after his third year to avoid being typecast. At the same time, Davison later said that had he been given more high-quality scripts like The Caves of Androzani, he would have stayed for a possible fourth year.
@@whocrusader5179Peter Davison is only ever going to be remembered for Doctor Who whether he likes it or not and he hasn't had the same level if success with anything else he's done.
A difficult season for me to watch in Australia in 1984..first the house we had just moved into was missing a TV antenna and then later episodes of the season were delayed by "overseas supply problems"..which turned out to be the censors here not being impressed by a few episodes.
Saward hits his stride as script editor here. Is it just me or was tha5 red/gold Crossroads set be used in the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day"? Season 21 felt invigorated after the somewhat stale 20th. Twin Dilemma may feel uneven but it's got more going for it than the generic gun runner story that preceded it. How this scifi show could makea generic gun runaround more entertaining than actual sci-fi, I will never know! Great reviews and ratings overviews, thank you much!
Thank for your kind words towars the video and the series! 😁 I agree that there feels like there is a new life to the show compared to the previous year! And it definitely does look like the Red Dwarf set, good to recycle I suppose 😂
A very decent season imo. I feel from 'Frontios' is the start of the grim vibe of mid 80s who and can easily imagine colin's doctor in every story from frontios onwards. Decent idea having the new doctor at the end of the season, kind of wish they did that for 'The stolen earth/Journey's end' would have been very interesting. 'Warriors of the deep' - 4/10 'The awakening' - 8/10 'Frontios' - 7/10 'Resurrection of the daleks' - 7/10 'Planet of fire' - 4/10 'The caves of androzani' - 9/10 'The twin dilemma' - 3/10
Sometimes seen as the start of the 'ultra violence' in 80s Who (rightly or wrongly) but benefited from a "more adult" slot just like Capaldi and McCoy. As well as the absence of Michael Grade casting aspersions. I can see parallels with Colin B and Capaldi's Who in wishing to occasionally shock and challenge the audience, but there are loads of stitch up theories surrounding Grade's 'cancellation' of Who and the fact they put it on a "young children's" "family" viewing slot 4 hours before the accepted "watershed", and with ZERO censorship or top floor intervention.
The Dalek story popularity only cemented the test of using more violence and longer runtime. Season 22 didn't consistently keep up with the experiment, but isn't without positive moments...
Stability at 7 million and able to get in to the top 50s several times, but not much growth. Interest was strong for the Daleks as usual, and at least at first for the novelty of the Silurian & Sea Devils together. Shame Frontios yo-yo'd so much and Planet of Fire 2 was weaker, they knocked things down the most. As for the stories themselves, Caves is a triumph, Twin & Warriors are rather duff (though Warriors is strangely watchable) and the rest are consistently there or thereabouts. Mostly, after two fairly carefree and optimistic seasons, Season 21 is interesting for the Fifth Doctor being pulled into much more tragic and cynical events. Always look forward to these :)
A much better season than season 20 it has two of my favourite 5th doctor episodes in it with resurrection of the daleks and caves of androzoni (then its followed with one of the worst dr who episodes with the twin dilemma) its a shame with warriors of the deep with the villains costumes and the murhah lol I think I read somewhere that because Peter Davidsons second season was not great it made his decision to leave but then regretted it once the quality of stories was better this season sadly the 22nd season was a low point for me so looking forward to the next part looking at colin bakers doctor
There's only one programme on BBC Television from 1984 I remember even more than "The Caves of Androzani." I think we all know what that programme was.
@@AdamMartyn I'm not sure what came out in 2004 (I don't think anything did?), but that CD you had was the narrated soundtrack which was in the Monsters of Earth soundtrack
I quite like Season 19 and its more thoughtful, conceptually lofty and even quite aesthetically abstract stories. Season 20 was more of that but also constituted a deeper exploration of philosophical and holistic / spiritual themes reminiscent of the Buddhist motifs of later-season Pertwee, whereas Season 21 really was a back-to-basics monsters + running up and down corridors, _shoot-‘em-up!_ romp. Overall the Davison era was a perfect little trinity of seasons that covered the full gamut of what _Doctor Who_ can / should be. I always wanted more of the Fifth Doctor, but upon consideration perhaps Davison was quite wise to follow Troughton’s advice and leave after his three season arc.
I don't mind Colin's doctor. Yeah, the new Doctor choking Perri was a little rough, and I can understand the backlash. But Colin settled and wasn't a bad Doctor at all❤.
there's also the director's cut a planet of fire which I think is great but I thought her director's cut of enlightenment previous year was great as well
Again another 5th Doctor season that makes me wish it had been shown on Saturdays but maybe starting with Warriors of the Deep on 3rd December 1983 a week after The Five Doctors which could have been used as a lead-in to Season 21. In doing so we would have had all four parts of Warriors of the Deep leading up to Christmas (and the finale on Christmas Eve) and then resume two weeks later. As for competition in December BBC1 showed reruns of Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em which is certainly TV gold but being reruns could have been pushed aside to another slot in favour of new productions which naturally take priority. From then until the start of March it would have been up against CHiPs and 3-2-1 between 6pm and 7pm which may have beaten it and were popular but from Easter onwards the competition would have been Whiz Kids (a short lived US sci-fi series that CBS cancelled after one series) and the Michael Aspel game show Child's Play which I think would have been far more beatable and less of a rival. A better scenario?
Another amazing video Adam! This is most likely the last season with good viewing figures as after this we’ve got to put up with Michael Grade and the Corry rivalry in the McCoy era. This season is a mixed bag for me as I love Caves and Resurrection but I think Warriors is garbage and didn’t really like Frontios or Planet of Fire. Twin Dilemma is quite good though Also, I love the A-Team so much that I honestly don’t mind it taking away a few of the viewing figures
Seems dull to say Androzani is the best but I have watched it, well, fifteen times. But that's including an edit without the magma beast so maybe it doesn't count.
Superb work as always. As someone who was watching at the time it was a bewildering season, certainly livelier than the previous one but frequently missing the mark. The Awakening has such good things in it but has a very odd feel to it, as if we just wander in and out of it and never quite get to the core. Your videos are terrific. But please… it’s pronounced “aitch”, not “haitch”. This widespread pronunciation horror is threatening to collapse western civilisation.
For the next episode, could you begin the video with the Mirror Globe 3 and end it with the COW? This is because whilst Season 22 was on, BBC1 underwent a huge revamp in terms of scheduling on 18 February, and the COW globe was introduced to mark the occasion.
I'm in two minds about that currently. Whilst I acknowledged the idents changed during the run, part of me wants one ident at the beginning and the end for symmetrys sake. I suppose we'll see which option I went for in the next video!
I've wanted to make this series for years but put it off for fear that no one would want to watch 😂 just gotta go with your gut sometimes haven't ya, no matter how niche!
He seemed decent in series 8 and 10. Viewers left big-time in 9, and it's easy to see why, but 10 was a decent return to form and Bill and Nardole are terrific replacements.
season 20 and season 21 save the doctor for me I did not like season 19 because basically they wrote Jon Pertwee stories and had Peter Davison trying to play you on Broadway and at the time they could have just had drawn but we come back what's funny is years later watching and listening to the DVD I've season 20 and 21 Davidson was having the same problems I was having with seasonunhappy that season 20 and 21 turned out as good as they did and they have an honorable place in my video library
From worst to best: 7. The Awakening 6. Frontios ----------- 5.planet of fire 4. The Twin Dilemma 3.Warriors of the Deep 2. Caves of Androzani 1. Resurrection of the Daleks
Warriors of the Deep- So the ratings weren't so good last season.... how's this for a solution? Let's do a story so chock full of continuity backstory that anyone who started watching the show any later than 1973 is going to have no luck comprehending it. Maybe we'll even re-endear audiences to the new Doctor by portraying him as more criminally negligent and unfit for purpose than ever. And let's top it off with the Doctor's inspiring message that in times of war, violence is bad so it's morally better that you just let the enemy kill you all. Seriously I'm surprised this televised fanfiction with nothing of substance to offer but the crank preachings of a creepy suicide cult, held as steady in the ratings as it did. It's a scandal it was allowed to air at all. The Awakening- Yeah, in the end it was too short to feel like any of it had time to matter. And really in this era where thoroughly nasty characterization is default, it's difficult for this story to convey anything out of the ordinary with the humans under the influence here. Overall, The Daemons did it all much better. Frontios- I'm afraid after a strong first episode it all rather loses me, and the conclusion feels a bit too tied up in a bow. Still I must say hearing that tragic backstory about why it was recast at the last minute because some lunatic out there felt the need to murder someone, gave me real pause. Sometimes it's hard to make sense of this world. Resurrection of the Daleks- The first time I saw this story at 15, I felt I'd already started to outgrow such gratuitous violence and misanthropy, and by the end I was left feeling I'd outgrown the show completely. I think much of this season suffers from the fact Eric Saward wanted to somehow backlash against the light-weight tone of Season 19 and 20, and he thought ridiculous bodycounts were the way. Resurrection was supposed to achieve that effect at the end of Season 20, but when it got postponed over strike action, I think it frustrated Saward into starting Season 21 forcing that effect from the outset. As with Warriors of the Deep, any moments where characters lament or protest all the horrid violence just come off as tokenist and insincere. Planet of Fire- A rather convoluted long-way round to wrap up Turlough's backstory, replace him with Peri and kill off the Master finally. And in the end one of these three tasks will be undone. the Master's probably the best thing in it, but it all in the end feels very patchy and ultimately like less than the sum of its parts. Caves of Androzani- Well there's not much more I can say to add to the praise. A very well-crafted domino effect of consequences, with a lot to say about the shady business of wars for profit. I used to think Morgus' corruption rap sheet was a bit far fetched until Hillary's wikileaks happened. It's so good it almost redeems Davison from his criminal negligence at the beginning of the season. Much of the defences of the Eric Saward ultraviolent approach come from the fact that this story made the strongest vindication of that approach when it worked. Infact the only real fault with it in the end was probably how after a poignant regeneration scene and goodbye for Peter, Colin's first lines instantly kill the mood. The Twin Dilemma- It took me eight years to get past episode 1's cliffhanger. I don't know to this day whether it was more that the cliffhanger was so stupid (having the Doctor threatened by someone lying at his feet who he could easily boot the gun out of), or more that I just already finally didn't care if Hugo killed him or not. The strangulation scene was proof of the old Pertwee maxim that there's a considerable difference between bravery and reckless stupidity, and from that point on, I think even in the best Colin stories I struggled to find a reason to care if he survived the latest cliffhanger or not. Overall I just found it a horribly mean-spirited season, and the point where for me, excusing the JNT era's nadirs went from being difficult to downright impossible. The latest Doctor Who season isn't supposed to leave you feeling like it'd be better if the show never lasted this long. But that's what this horrid season does.
I vividly remembered the Silurians and Sea Devils from their debuts and was excited to hear they were returning - but, boy, was I disappointed! "Warriors" lacked the imagination and flair of the earlier stories, and the returning reptilians paled in comparison to what they once were. The Sea Devils in particular were so much more effective the first time round... and it wasn't just nostalgia; rewatching these stories decades later only confirmed how I felt in 1984.
@@ftumschk For me I discovered the show later through the 1993 repeats and the video releases. Certainly when I first saw The Sea Devils aged 14 I was left hoping for a comeback where the Doctor would get another chance at making peace, having come so close here. But in hindsight that would've probably been the better, tragic note to have left the reptiles on. What could a comeback story ever really do except have the same downbeat outcome happen all over again? Which is what nags me about JNT's era. The whole idea of keeping the show moving with the times and having it still work is a delicate one, and usually works best when producers recognize that some elements of the past only worked at that time, and are best left behind. Because the times had moved on, and moreover the Doctor as a character had, so you couldn't bring back those old scenarios with the Master or the Sea Devils without in some way requiring the Doctor as a character to completely regress. JNT seemed to lack that distinction at all, and thought he could bring back everything and have it work. Warriors of the Deep seemed to epitomize that. Surely it would've been simpler all round to just have the Sea Devils without the Silurians. Furthermore here the Doctor's required to act like he never forgave what the Brigadier did in 1970, barely an episode after being perfectly chummy with him in The Five Doctors. If it was going to work it needed to at least be thought through. Yet everything about Warriors of the Deep smacks of a 'this'll do' attitude. That sequence in The Sea Devils of Pertwee's Doctor nearly shaking the Sea Devil leader's hand, before the navy attack.... the images of navy boats depth charging the waters and bringing Sea Devil corpses to surface, all says it perfectly about mankind's blind aggression. It's a short sequence that conveys the story's message better and more coherently in five minutes than Warriors of the Deep ever manages to in ninety. Warriors just depends on treating the fan audience as chumps who are just meant to accept that somehow the Doctor using the gas is some unthinkable moral dilemma, but him blinding Nilsen and leaving him to stumble into Sea Devil fire, isn't. We're to just accept on the Doctor's say so that the humans are in the wrong here, even though they're the ones who end up taking a bullet for the Doctor in the climax. The story as Johnny Byrne had written might've been just about passable and redeemable until Eric Saward got his hands on it, but each rewrite just made it worse and worse, and the final product, to this day, just reeks of coming from an unpleasant workplace. I remember when first reading about Warriors of the Deep being a cold war allegory, I imagined in my mind it maybe being about the two reptile races being driven so underground (or rather under ocean) that they'd started to actually come into conflict with each other over their few scraps of territory left, and it'd be the Doctor's job to mediate between them. I can't help but think something like that could've been a much more imaginative and involving story than what we got.
Recommend you check out the original outline and script for Warriors if you haven't yet. Byrne was really ill-served by Pennant Roberts and JNT. The Industrial Action is not a great excuse given many of the oversights were avoidable and the weaker aspects of production were PLANNED due to a poor grasp of the writer's wishes. Johnny Byrne was inspired by Peter Benchley as mentioned and his ambition of seeing The Myrka as a (shark-like?) biomechanical half man half amphibian would have truly been something with the technical know-how. Also Sea Base was invisioned as a kind of complex of Submarine type claustrophobic spaces. Also Byrne hadn't planned the Silurians and Sea Devils to be mucked about with either? Shame - a potentially great story I think. This season won't be for everybody, but Season 20 was definitely weaker.
@@GyitMulhaneski-GloriousYears I'd certainly like to check out the original script, but I've never been able to find it online. Going by the DVD production notes it was far better and didn't write the Doctor quite as moronically. It looks like all the things I found unforgivable about the story (the Doctor being a misanthropic crank, Preston and Vorshak dying taking a bullet for his idiocy) were added in by Eric Saward's rewrites. Both JNT and Eric Saward were becoming a problem by this point, but I think these videos have given me a better appreciation of how much the show at this time was dependent on JNT's good promotion skills. Which lends me to my position that if any one of them needed to go sooner, it was Saward. He was the one who ultimately shaped the heart of the show, and by now the stories under him were beginning to just feel like the bitter product of a miserable workplace. And that couldn't really stand if the show was to remain popular.
![TEEDEE TADA - DIAMOND NARAKORN X LEGO LYKN [Special Dance Performance]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QgtZedFeumA/mqdefault.jpg)
Thank you to everyone for watching Part 21 of our documentary series, the History of Doctor Who Viewing Figures!
If you enjoyed, please leave a like on the video and subscribe to the channel for more Who content and future instalments of this series!
See you next time for Season 22!
Is that Friday the 30th when it comes
From season 19 onwards you could add million viewers for each episode of those who recorded on VHS video tape because by then, from my memory being a child, it was more common.
My memories of recording Superman when it and others were first shown. The warmth from the tape player and the sleeve.
AND THE labels each tape came with. Like emojis now each tape had a series of stickers of what it was ie movie camera and a long one to write the title. I remember when Star Wars and Indy were shown for the first time.
Happy memories from so long ago 🥳😪❤
In his autobiography, John Nathan-Turner tells a saucy anecdote about the amply-proportioned Ingrid Pitt:
_"During rehearsals for [Warriors of the Deep], I'd been on a trip to America with Jon Pertwee. A favourite pastime of mine was to visit American supermarkets and bring back candy bars with very peculiar names; at the time, 'Snickers' bars were unheard-of in the UK, for example. Jon was riveted by the fun of this shopping-spree and joined in. I'd been telling him who was in the guest cast of the current story and, as the voluptuous Ingrid Pitt was an old chum, and he'd worked with her on Doctor Who, he gave me a bar called 'Mounds', which he said I was to give to Ingrid with his love. The cast and crew were highly amused, as was Ingrid, when her 'Mounds' were presented just before the Producer's run-through"_
A hilarious and seemingly very J-NT anecdote 😂 she did her best in Warriors bless her!
The awakening is my 2nd favourite peter Davison story
A solid choice James! What's your first?
Caves of androzani my fav classic who story. In my top 5 fav dr who stories of all time.
It is an absolute classic!
Another great instalment in your series, Adam. Thank you! S21 was a strong run. Not all of the stories hit home runs, but they all strived to. In addition to that, it marked a year in which none of the initial core cast made it to the end. It was a lot to take in at the time!
They certainly did all strive for big things! I'm sure it was quite a lot to process! Especially taking in a brand new Doctor and then having to wait 9 months for more!
@@AdamMartyn Those 9 months seemed endless. Little did we know...
@AdamMartyn 9 months of "ugh, do I bother?" 😢 being in America at the time, I had no clue of the season structure, didn't hate TWD (it was fresh and exciting and being fresh off literature class, I loved 6's references), and ATTACK had shown next week and it was an improvement. But the UK audience and their reactions to the show are far more interesting as they had this unique experiment going on...
Another great part to this amazing series my favourite story from this series is caves of androzani followed by warriors of the deep
Excellent choices for favourites Lewis! I'm glad you enjoyed this instalment! 😁
Excellent video Adam.
Now I’m not a massive fan of Davison’s era, but this season is great. Aside from Warriors and Twin Dilemma, for me, these stories are great. The awakening is short but sweet, Frontios is a very engaging watch, Resurrection is terrific and so is Caves. I also love the darker tone of this season
It's such an underrated season I think! Especially Resurrection for me! The darker tone works great!
Fantastic work Adam… a wonderfully informative journey through early eighties hit ‘n’ miss Who. Davison is a favourite Doctor. Gx
Thank you very much Gerry! Hit and miss is certainly an apt term for 80s Who!
One of the things I liked about Caves, was the way Jek was portrayed as an antagonist, early in in the story, but gradually became more of a protagonist, as time went on; and particularly once the reason he was so bitter was revealed. Bob Holmes managed to blur the line between friend and foe, with Jek, and that made for a more plausible storyline, as a result, and added depth to the character; drawing the audience in to feeling some sympathy for him, by the time he died.
I agree wholeheartedly. Aside from Jek keeping the Doctor and Peri prisoner, I don't find him a villain at all.
I still forget that Warriors of the Deep and The Twin Dilemma are in the same season.
I often do too! But as the Twin Dilemma is a part of it, I felt I couldn't leave it out
A new episode! And there is a new Doctor already!
Feels so quick after the 7 year stint of Tom Baker doesn't it!
@@AdamMartyn Very quick indeed!
A favorite season
This series of yours definitely fills niche in the DW fan docs on this platform - and is also rich with actual footage too.
More! 👏👍
Thank you very much pal! More will be coming! 😁
@@AdamMartyn
🎆👍
Another fantastic video 👏🏻👏🏻❤❤
Lovely video as always Adam
Thank you Oliver! 😁
I really wish Davison elected to stay for a fourth year.
That certainly would have been an interesting outcome!
But it was his decision to leave, you why? Because like Troughton the actor who portrayed the Second Doctor, Peter didn’t want to be typecast
@@whocrusader5179 I read somewhere that Patrick Troughton advised Peter Davison to step down from the role after his third year to avoid being typecast.
At the same time, Davison later said that had he been given more high-quality scripts like The Caves of Androzani, he would have stayed for a possible fourth year.
Yes I think he should have done as well , it wouldn't have done any harm.
@@whocrusader5179Peter Davison is only ever going to be remembered for Doctor Who whether he likes it or not and he hasn't had the same level if success with anything else he's done.
A difficult season for me to watch in Australia in 1984..first the house we had just moved into was missing a TV antenna and then later episodes of the season were delayed by "overseas supply problems"..which turned out to be the censors here not being impressed by a few episodes.
I can imagine the censors had a field day with stories like Resurrection and Caves!
@@AdamMartyn They sure did..Caves took a particular beating.
Saward hits his stride as script editor here.
Is it just me or was tha5 red/gold Crossroads set be used in the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day"?
Season 21 felt invigorated after the somewhat stale 20th. Twin Dilemma may feel uneven but it's got more going for it than the generic gun runner story that preceded it. How this scifi show could makea generic gun runaround more entertaining than actual sci-fi, I will never know!
Great reviews and ratings overviews, thank you much!
Thank for your kind words towars the video and the series! 😁 I agree that there feels like there is a new life to the show compared to the previous year!
And it definitely does look like the Red Dwarf set, good to recycle I suppose 😂
A very decent season imo. I feel from 'Frontios' is the start of the grim vibe of mid 80s who and can easily imagine colin's doctor in every story from frontios onwards. Decent idea having the new doctor at the end of the season, kind of wish they did that for 'The stolen earth/Journey's end' would have been very interesting.
'Warriors of the deep' - 4/10
'The awakening' - 8/10
'Frontios' - 7/10
'Resurrection of the daleks' - 7/10
'Planet of fire' - 4/10
'The caves of androzani' - 9/10
'The twin dilemma' - 3/10
Sometimes seen as the start of the 'ultra violence' in 80s Who (rightly or wrongly) but benefited from a "more adult" slot just like Capaldi and McCoy. As well as the absence of Michael Grade casting aspersions.
I can see parallels with Colin B and Capaldi's Who in wishing to occasionally shock and challenge the audience, but there are loads of stitch up theories surrounding Grade's 'cancellation' of Who and the fact they put it on a "young children's" "family" viewing slot 4 hours before the accepted "watershed", and with ZERO censorship or top floor intervention.
@@GyitMulhaneski-GloriousYears Season 7 is perfect classic who being a bit more 'grown up'
The Dalek story popularity only cemented the test of using more violence and longer runtime. Season 22 didn't consistently keep up with the experiment, but isn't without positive moments...
This was the season that made me a Whovian. For real.
A wonderful season to jump on! Some of my favourite Fifth Doctor stories here!
Stability at 7 million and able to get in to the top 50s several times, but not much growth.
Interest was strong for the Daleks as usual, and at least at first for the novelty of the Silurian & Sea Devils together.
Shame Frontios yo-yo'd so much and Planet of Fire 2 was weaker, they knocked things down the most.
As for the stories themselves, Caves is a triumph, Twin & Warriors are rather duff (though Warriors is strangely watchable) and the rest are consistently there or thereabouts.
Mostly, after two fairly carefree and optimistic seasons, Season 21 is interesting for the Fifth Doctor being pulled into much more tragic and cynical events.
Always look forward to these :)
Been looking forward to this
I hope it was worth the wait Thomas!
@@AdamMartyn it certainly was 😊
A much better season than season 20 it has two of my favourite 5th doctor episodes in it with resurrection of the daleks and caves of androzoni (then its followed with one of the worst dr who episodes with the twin dilemma) its a shame with warriors of the deep with the villains costumes and the murhah lol I think I read somewhere that because Peter Davidsons second season was not great it made his decision to leave but then regretted it once the quality of stories was better this season sadly the 22nd season was a low point for me so looking forward to the next part looking at colin bakers doctor
I agree that this feels like a stronger season than the one before! Resurrection is one of my all time favourites!
There's only one programme on BBC Television from 1984 I remember even more than "The Caves of Androzani." I think we all know what that programme was.
7:23 Just making sure you understand that’s a narrated TV soundtrack (like the missing episodes get!), rather than a reading of the novelisation!
I've got that recording, and it seems to work better without the visuals, oddly enough. Or maybe it's not so odd, given how shonky the visuals are ;)
I definitely could have made that point clearer! My apologies!
@@AdamMartyn I'm not sure what came out in 2004 (I don't think anything did?), but that CD you had was the narrated soundtrack which was in the Monsters of Earth soundtrack
Great work Adam.
I quite like Season 19 and its more thoughtful, conceptually lofty and even quite aesthetically abstract stories. Season 20 was more of that but also constituted a deeper exploration of philosophical and holistic / spiritual themes reminiscent of the Buddhist motifs of later-season Pertwee, whereas Season 21 really was a back-to-basics monsters + running up and down corridors, _shoot-‘em-up!_ romp. Overall the Davison era was a perfect little trinity of seasons that covered the full gamut of what _Doctor Who_ can / should be. I always wanted more of the Fifth Doctor, but upon consideration perhaps Davison was quite wise to follow Troughton’s advice and leave after his three season arc.
40:26 Hurrah Hurrah for Colin Baker 😀
Doctor Maxil 😁
Cool video how are you Adam
1983
The year when the tv show The Bill started
I didn't know the Bill started that long ago! And I'm good thank you! Bit too warm in all this heat 😂
@@AdamMartyn Yeah it was 28 degrees on Saturday 38 years ago when the bill started
I don't mind Colin's doctor. Yeah, the new Doctor choking Perri was a little rough, and I can understand the backlash. But Colin settled and wasn't a bad Doctor at all❤.
there's also the director's cut a planet of fire which I think is great but I thought her director's cut of enlightenment previous year was great as well
The directors cuts are a great optional extra! I wasn't too enamoured with the new effects but again, all for optional extras!
Again another 5th Doctor season that makes me wish it had been shown on Saturdays but maybe starting with Warriors of the Deep on 3rd December 1983 a week after The Five Doctors which could have been used as a lead-in to Season 21.
In doing so we would have had all four parts of Warriors of the Deep leading up to Christmas (and the finale on Christmas Eve) and then resume two weeks later.
As for competition in December BBC1 showed reruns of Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em which is certainly TV gold but being reruns could have been pushed aside to another slot in favour of new productions which naturally take priority. From then until the start of March it would have been up against CHiPs and 3-2-1 between 6pm and 7pm which may have beaten it and were popular but from Easter onwards the competition would have been Whiz Kids (a short lived US sci-fi series that CBS cancelled after one series) and the Michael Aspel game show Child's Play which I think would have been far more beatable and less of a rival.
A better scenario?
Another amazing video Adam! This is most likely the last season with good viewing figures as after this we’ve got to put up with Michael Grade and the Corry rivalry in the McCoy era.
This season is a mixed bag for me as I love Caves and Resurrection but I think Warriors is garbage and didn’t really like Frontios or Planet of Fire. Twin Dilemma is quite good though
Also, I love the A-Team so much that I honestly don’t mind it taking away a few of the viewing figures
You’ve betrayed us 😂
Seems dull to say Androzani is the best but I have watched it, well, fifteen times. But that's including an edit without the magma beast so maybe it doesn't count.
FACE IT TEGAN, HE'S DROWNED
An unintentionally hilarious line I find! 😂
@@AdamMartyn *cliffhanger intensifies*
DROWNED IN CONTBLINBUBIBLY! blubblubblub... 😳😵💫🤯🤭
Superb work as always. As someone who was watching at the time it was a bewildering season, certainly livelier than the previous one but frequently missing the mark. The Awakening has such good things in it but has a very odd feel to it, as if we just wander in and out of it and never quite get to the core. Your videos are terrific. But please… it’s pronounced “aitch”, not “haitch”. This widespread pronunciation horror is threatening to collapse western civilisation.
Thank you for the kind words and feedback! 😁
For the next episode, could you begin the video with the Mirror Globe 3 and end it with the COW? This is because whilst Season 22 was on, BBC1 underwent a huge revamp in terms of scheduling on 18 February, and the COW globe was introduced to mark the occasion.
I'm in two minds about that currently. Whilst I acknowledged the idents changed during the run, part of me wants one ident at the beginning and the end for symmetrys sake. I suppose we'll see which option I went for in the next video!
@@AdamMartyn Cool! Thanks for letting me know!
Love how you acknowledge how niche this is 🤣
I've wanted to make this series for years but put it off for fear that no one would want to watch 😂 just gotta go with your gut sometimes haven't ya, no matter how niche!
They tried to do the dark doctor with the 12th and it failed there.
He seemed decent in series 8 and 10. Viewers left big-time in 9, and it's easy to see why, but 10 was a decent return to form and Bill and Nardole are terrific replacements.
season 20 and season 21 save the doctor for me I did not like season 19 because basically they wrote Jon Pertwee stories and had Peter Davison trying to play you on Broadway and at the time they could have just had drawn but we come back what's funny is years later watching and listening to the DVD I've season 20 and 21 Davidson was having the same problems I was having with seasonunhappy that season 20 and 21 turned out as good as they did and they have an honorable place in my video library
From worst to best:
7. The Awakening
6. Frontios
-----------
5.planet of fire
4. The Twin Dilemma
3.Warriors of the Deep
2. Caves of Androzani
1. Resurrection of the Daleks
Warriors of the Deep- So the ratings weren't so good last season.... how's this for a solution? Let's do a story so chock full of continuity backstory that anyone who started watching the show any later than 1973 is going to have no luck comprehending it. Maybe we'll even re-endear audiences to the new Doctor by portraying him as more criminally negligent and unfit for purpose than ever. And let's top it off with the Doctor's inspiring message that in times of war, violence is bad so it's morally better that you just let the enemy kill you all.
Seriously I'm surprised this televised fanfiction with nothing of substance to offer but the crank preachings of a creepy suicide cult, held as steady in the ratings as it did. It's a scandal it was allowed to air at all.
The Awakening- Yeah, in the end it was too short to feel like any of it had time to matter. And really in this era where thoroughly nasty characterization is default, it's difficult for this story to convey anything out of the ordinary with the humans under the influence here. Overall, The Daemons did it all much better.
Frontios- I'm afraid after a strong first episode it all rather loses me, and the conclusion feels a bit too tied up in a bow. Still I must say hearing that tragic backstory about why it was recast at the last minute because some lunatic out there felt the need to murder someone, gave me real pause. Sometimes it's hard to make sense of this world.
Resurrection of the Daleks- The first time I saw this story at 15, I felt I'd already started to outgrow such gratuitous violence and misanthropy, and by the end I was left feeling I'd outgrown the show completely. I think much of this season suffers from the fact Eric Saward wanted to somehow backlash against the light-weight tone of Season 19 and 20, and he thought ridiculous bodycounts were the way. Resurrection was supposed to achieve that effect at the end of Season 20, but when it got postponed over strike action, I think it frustrated Saward into starting Season 21 forcing that effect from the outset.
As with Warriors of the Deep, any moments where characters lament or protest all the horrid violence just come off as tokenist and insincere.
Planet of Fire- A rather convoluted long-way round to wrap up Turlough's backstory, replace him with Peri and kill off the Master finally. And in the end one of these three tasks will be undone. the Master's probably the best thing in it, but it all in the end feels very patchy and ultimately like less than the sum of its parts.
Caves of Androzani- Well there's not much more I can say to add to the praise. A very well-crafted domino effect of consequences, with a lot to say about the shady business of wars for profit. I used to think Morgus' corruption rap sheet was a bit far fetched until Hillary's wikileaks happened. It's so good it almost redeems Davison from his criminal negligence at the beginning of the season. Much of the defences of the Eric Saward ultraviolent approach come from the fact that this story made the strongest vindication of that approach when it worked. Infact the only real fault with it in the end was probably how after a poignant regeneration scene and goodbye for Peter, Colin's first lines instantly kill the mood.
The Twin Dilemma- It took me eight years to get past episode 1's cliffhanger. I don't know to this day whether it was more that the cliffhanger was so stupid (having the Doctor threatened by someone lying at his feet who he could easily boot the gun out of), or more that I just already finally didn't care if Hugo killed him or not. The strangulation scene was proof of the old Pertwee maxim that there's a considerable difference between bravery and reckless stupidity, and from that point on, I think even in the best Colin stories I struggled to find a reason to care if he survived the latest cliffhanger or not.
Overall I just found it a horribly mean-spirited season, and the point where for me, excusing the JNT era's nadirs went from being difficult to downright impossible. The latest Doctor Who season isn't supposed to leave you feeling like it'd be better if the show never lasted this long. But that's what this horrid season does.
I vividly remembered the Silurians and Sea Devils from their debuts and was excited to hear they were returning - but, boy, was I disappointed! "Warriors" lacked the imagination and flair of the earlier stories, and the returning reptilians paled in comparison to what they once were. The Sea Devils in particular were so much more effective the first time round... and it wasn't just nostalgia; rewatching these stories decades later only confirmed how I felt in 1984.
@@ftumschk For me I discovered the show later through the 1993 repeats and the video releases. Certainly when I first saw The Sea Devils aged 14 I was left hoping for a comeback where the Doctor would get another chance at making peace, having come so close here.
But in hindsight that would've probably been the better, tragic note to have left the reptiles on. What could a comeback story ever really do except have the same downbeat outcome happen all over again?
Which is what nags me about JNT's era. The whole idea of keeping the show moving with the times and having it still work is a delicate one, and usually works best when producers recognize that some elements of the past only worked at that time, and are best left behind. Because the times had moved on, and moreover the Doctor as a character had, so you couldn't bring back those old scenarios with the Master or the Sea Devils without in some way requiring the Doctor as a character to completely regress.
JNT seemed to lack that distinction at all, and thought he could bring back everything and have it work. Warriors of the Deep seemed to epitomize that. Surely it would've been simpler all round to just have the Sea Devils without the Silurians. Furthermore here the Doctor's required to act like he never forgave what the Brigadier did in 1970, barely an episode after being perfectly chummy with him in The Five Doctors.
If it was going to work it needed to at least be thought through. Yet everything about Warriors of the Deep smacks of a 'this'll do' attitude. That sequence in The Sea Devils of Pertwee's Doctor nearly shaking the Sea Devil leader's hand, before the navy attack.... the images of navy boats depth charging the waters and bringing Sea Devil corpses to surface, all says it perfectly about mankind's blind aggression. It's a short sequence that conveys the story's message better and more coherently in five minutes than Warriors of the Deep ever manages to in ninety.
Warriors just depends on treating the fan audience as chumps who are just meant to accept that somehow the Doctor using the gas is some unthinkable moral dilemma, but him blinding Nilsen and leaving him to stumble into Sea Devil fire, isn't. We're to just accept on the Doctor's say so that the humans are in the wrong here, even though they're the ones who end up taking a bullet for the Doctor in the climax.
The story as Johnny Byrne had written might've been just about passable and redeemable until Eric Saward got his hands on it, but each rewrite just made it worse and worse, and the final product, to this day, just reeks of coming from an unpleasant workplace.
I remember when first reading about Warriors of the Deep being a cold war allegory, I imagined in my mind it maybe being about the two reptile races being driven so underground (or rather under ocean) that they'd started to actually come into conflict with each other over their few scraps of territory left, and it'd be the Doctor's job to mediate between them. I can't help but think something like that could've been a much more imaginative and involving story than what we got.
@@sadako24 An excellent and insightful post. I couldn't agree more with what you say.
Recommend you check out the original outline and script for Warriors if you haven't yet. Byrne was really ill-served by Pennant Roberts and JNT. The Industrial Action is not a great excuse given many of the oversights were avoidable and the weaker aspects of production were PLANNED due to a poor grasp of the writer's wishes.
Johnny Byrne was inspired by Peter Benchley as mentioned and his ambition of seeing The Myrka as a (shark-like?) biomechanical half man half amphibian would have truly been something with the technical know-how. Also Sea Base was invisioned as a kind of complex of Submarine type claustrophobic spaces. Also Byrne hadn't planned the Silurians and Sea Devils to be mucked about with either? Shame - a potentially great story I think.
This season won't be for everybody, but Season 20 was definitely weaker.
@@GyitMulhaneski-GloriousYears I'd certainly like to check out the original script, but I've never been able to find it online. Going by the DVD production notes it was far better and didn't write the Doctor quite as moronically. It looks like all the things I found unforgivable about the story (the Doctor being a misanthropic crank, Preston and Vorshak dying taking a bullet for his idiocy) were added in by Eric Saward's rewrites.
Both JNT and Eric Saward were becoming a problem by this point, but I think these videos have given me a better appreciation of how much the show at this time was dependent on JNT's good promotion skills. Which lends me to my position that if any one of them needed to go sooner, it was Saward. He was the one who ultimately shaped the heart of the show, and by now the stories under him were beginning to just feel like the bitter product of a miserable workplace. And that couldn't really stand if the show was to remain popular.