Tainted Doctor - Tom Baker, Fourth Doctor

[choochooguy63601]

0:52

[choochooguy63601]

carpet at 0:42

[typefourty]

Is there still a debate whether Classic DW was just for kids? It might have started out that way, but it did become family programme. There was a book in the 80's called Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text which went into detail about things like viewer age demographics and how over the years it drew more viewers than just children.

Yes the SFX were dodgy, but there is more to good story telling than just eye candy.

[hughbreidenbach]

"Is there still a debate whether Classic DW was just for kids?"

In my humble opinion, No.

As a 36 year old kid I still love 'em

[6Man666666]

@hughbreidenbach thia Matt Smith crap is for kids- they run run run then a magic wand comes out and the problem is solved. Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee before him had a more thinkng man's approach.

[strellasmith777]

Erm, the guy at 18 seconds is Sergeant Benton, Mate. Played by John Levene.

[Jman555555]

Does anyone else think the guy at 18 seconds looks just like John Travolta?

[flukky77]

YEP

[Franquay]

Yes Actually, From that angle (just like the guy who looks like George Harrison in "The Mummy"). But John (Levene) is totally different from the front (to John Travolta) goo pickup (And I bet U are a Yank !!!)

[zelda7792]

I like to call the old effects "lovingly cheezey" because they're so cheezy but I love them.

[webstersafc]

i renember watching this 1 on UKTV Gold.

[sophomorictrash]

Considering what they had to work with on a 1970's television budget, they did pretty damn well. I'd certainly take these effects over the crass and soulless CGI phantasms of today.

[prayfertrey]

Agreed.

[Adom]

Mark me down for that as well. This was the standard basic effect of the day. Chroma-key, forced perspective, guys in suits, etc. It's just that on a tight budget and worse, tight schedule, these things are hard to pull off.

[frangipanii]

he he lolz! loving the King Kong moments in this! Still one of my fav episodes!

[sitemountain]

Although it WAS for kids as a 9 year old I was dismayed by the fact they used an Action Man toy tank in this scene. [not seen here]. I recognised it because my friend had one.

I went to a Sci Fi convention years after this was made and according to a guy there who was from the BBC special effects dept. this episode was handled by a freelance company while the usual team were away. This episode was hilarious -even to kids like me!

[Fattyrat]

i loved the bit of this ep with the tank and u can c the arail of the clearly remote controled toy. LOL

[prayfertrey]

It was for kids so they didn't care if the effects were dodgy.

[oxmys]

Dr Who was always aimed at a family audience actually, it's just that the BBC never wanted to allocate the extra money or time needed for a TV series that used a lot of special effects.

[prayfertrey]

All children's tv programming is "family audience". I don't know what kind of issues fanbois have that they need to cry hot tears and insist "it's not fer kids, dammit!" What part of "children's television playhouse" don't you understand?

[oxmys]

Why are you jumping down my throat, mate? I was quoting people in the BBC who said they made it for the family, not just for kids.

[prayfertrey]

I beg your pardon, although I don't see a quote from the bbc anywhere. Also, often they weren't even trying; and a condescension for "that kind of thing" just stank up the place. Take Logopolis. A little figurine shaking back and forth is Tom Baker hanging from a scaffold stories up!? Or Meglos. A hand just off screen picks up a model space ship is the effect they used for a space ship taking off! What!? Come on! Obviously JNT's only agenda was making a show Jar Jar Binks would enjoy.

[oxmys]

(Shrug) well, if you insist on a quote just listen to any DVD commentary on a Doctor Who episode from this era. The directors are always complaining that the BBC rostered the same amount of time as they would for a cop show or living room drama, so there was never enough time to do the special effects properly. And if you're just making this for kids you don't need to keep casting cute dolly birds in miniskirts or leather leotards as the Doctor's assistant.

[prayfertrey]

As I recall, every DVD commentary mentions that it was "for the dads". And being formulaic and generic and all that is just the vagaries of tv (unless there's creative control). It's even more like that today! And, what would have been hard about having a scene where a pilot says, "taking off" instead of filming an obvious model which is just far enough off screen so that a shaky human hand can pick it up and fly it away!? Or, heck, just point the camera at a rock and play a take off sound...

[mystykit]

Amazing how well the music goes with this episode! Thanks for blending these two!

[gilmour70]

this song was 6 years later!

[metaphysik]

Quality

[arasurabe]

I remember seeing this... maybe a month ago ^_^  I thought that the robot's claws were hilarious! Is this the one where they bring in a "tank" (toy) to try and destroy the robot?

[SpaceBob]

Gotta love how the guy with the bazooka misses the GIANT Robot altogether during the opening of that shootout. That's a pretty wide miss when he hits the building!

[bobsonofbob]

Ha! well done! I love the "I've got to run away" bit (around 1.05) when all the troops run off on que in that camp half-arsed manner! good stuff

[patchcali]

Man, I love that bit, too.

XD

[squidfartz]

Hahahahahahahaha... that is hilarious.

Thanks for posting this.

[daredevil71]

great

[doctorwho62]

i think that was coped from king kong lol

[Cosmoline]

Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow was in EVERY Pertwee episode.

[greengrendel]

not! :)

[Cosmoline]

Reverse the polarity of the synthpop flow!

[slightlyevolved]

I don't use bad pop music, just really really clever ones. ;)

Bonus points if you can remind me what episode that line came from, because I forgot.

[Fattyrat]

Yay the cure!

Is this epsiode Robot?

[slightlyevolved]

SoftCell, actually. Yeah, it's "Robot"; I believe it's the first (?) of the Tom Baker episodes.

[Fattyrat]

yeah it was...

[acerlutra]

Yup.

[casescenario]

That actually seemed to fit the rythm of the video. Quite nicely, in fact. Funny how that works out sometime... go robot!

[gregfujita]

keep in mind this was cheapo british effects circa 1973. but, when youre 7 years old, this is the best stuff youve ever seen!!!