Before moving on to the twelfth season of Doctor Who, I wanted to say a few words about its eleventh: THE ELEVENTH SEASON OF DOCTOR WHO: The eleventh season was comprised of 26 episodes apportioned among five stories: 1) The Time Warrior (4 episodes) 2) Invasion of the Dinosaurs (6 episodes) 3) Death to the Daleks (4 episodes) 4) The Monster of Peladon (6 episodes) 5) Planet of the Spiders (6 episodes) In my opinion, the eleventh season was not the Third Doctor’s best season. Arguably, its best story was “The Time Warrior”, but the rest don’t rate quite as highly. To be sure, there are no real duds – all the stories are passable – they just aren’t great. Many theories have been put forward as an explanation for this – from Jon Pertwee having become tired of the role to Elisabeth Sladen and Jon Pertwee not having the same chemistry as Katy Manning had had with the lead actor – but in the end it doesn’t really matter. This all happened 39 years ago. During the eleventh season, the Doctor faced both new enemies and old, including the Sontarans, actual dinosaurs, the Daleks, the Exxilons, Aggedor, and the spiders of Metebelis Three. In addition, he visited four planets (Earth, Exxilon, Peladon, and Metebelis Three) and three different time zones (the present, the Middle Ages, and the distant future). The first story of the season introduced a new companion – Sarah Jane Smith. Adroitly played by Elisabeth Sladen, Sarah Jane became the only companion from the classic series to make the transition to the new. She is easily one of my favorite companions. In the second story of the season, Captain Mike Yates of U.N.I.T. joins up with the baddies and is forced to resign at the end of the show – however, he makes a surprise return in the season’s final story in a somewhat redemptive role. Finally, the biggest cast change came at the very end of the final story when Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor regenerated into the Fourth. The production staff continued with their stability – Barry Letts continuing throughout as the show’s producer and Terrance Dicks continuing in his role as script editor. This was nearly the fifth straight season with Barry Letts as producer (he hadn’t produced the Third Doctor’s first story – “Spearhead from Space”) and just over the fifth straight season with Terrance Dicks as script editor (he had begun in that role with the Second Doctor’s last story – “The War Games”). As far as head production staff is concerned, this was one of the most stable periods in all of Doctor Who history. The writers of the eleventh season stories were Robert Holmes, Malcolm Hulke, Terry Nation, Brian Hayles, Robert Sloman, and Barry Letts. The directors of the stories were Alan Bromly, Paddy Russell, Michael E. Briant, Lennie Mayne, and Barry Letts. And now on to the twelfth season! ~ CL
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 20:22:44 +0000
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