Dr Who

Horror Channel "The Deadly Assassin" (Tom Baker).

Hated by a lot of fandom at the time for making the Time Lords look too "human" - devious, back-biting, and comical : contradicting the previous image of them as wise old paternalist guardians of the Universe.

Think Dr Who at this point was probably just reaching its 1970s peak in quality/popularity in UK before a gradual spiral down during Tom Baker's latter years once the Mary Whitehouse brigade censors got hold of the BBC and the series had to "comedy up" to compensate.

It's a strange one-off kind of story : no regular companion, only the second time at that point in the Classic Series that the Doctor visits his home planet, the return of The Master albeit in an unrecognisable and degenerated form; and an extensive "dream sequence" in which the Doctor fights a mental battle in a nightmarish Matrix - years and years before Keanu Reeves.

Would have actually made a good feature film for all of those reasons ? - a kind of stand-alone one-off spectacular; if only they'd had the money and there was any kind of film industry in Britain interested in putting money into it at that point in time ?
(US didn't really care at that point either).

Robots of Death next a personal favourite as the Androids were really scary.

Also has the great line "Please do not throw hands at me"

^ Also like that story. The New series ripped off the whole look and voice of the Robots in the Kylie Minogue Space Titantic Christmas special.

Chris Boucher (the writer of Robots of Death, and creator of companion Leela) did a handful of good Dr Who stories before he jumped ship to Blakes 7.A lot of the talent that had worked semi-regularly on Dr Who in the early-mid 1970s did the same.

Blakes 7 was probably seen as more "adult" and "serious sci-fi" by writers/producers at precisely the same time as Dr Who was having to cut back on realism & horror for being "too scary" ? Hard not to think that Dr Who suffered as a result.

Hard to believe these days that in the late 1970s/early 80s BBC1 was showing a fairly cheaply made sci-fi show at 7:15pm in the evenings on Mondays or Tuesdays and getting 10 million viewers.
Even allowing for a supposed increased in appetite for sci-fi in the wake of Star Wars.
Weird times.

Attack of the cybermen later on Horror with the return of Lytton.

Nicola Bryant and Sarah Greene for the dads

^ Sarah Greene is unrecognisable in that costume ? Not really "Dad" material I suggest ?

Nicola on the other hand.....that was the season of shorts and leotards



Ah...the 1980s...there were some well-thumbed pages of Doctor Who magazine in my adolescence.

Depends if you like your babes dressed in what Sarah used to make in Blue Peter

^ ....ok...well, I'll still take Nicola thanks

She completely spoilt (or made) Peter Davison's regeneration scene depending on your POV and Peter had a great view!

^ THE DOCTOR : " Is this death....?.....It feels..different..this time...."





credit to original uploaders

When I get regenerated that is the way I wanna go nestled into my companions breasts! Although I'll be pissed off at coming back as Colin Baker!