One where I often switch my Opinion on it, my first real Recon for any Doctor Who Story I believe (I don’t even remembered why this one, I guess I wanted to go through this one quicker because I heard the Audio is the worst out of the missing ones, which unfortunately is true, but it’s really not that bad as many people made it out to be).

I always love my pure Historicals, I think they are some of the best things Who has to offer and especially that’s true for the Hartnell Years, big Reason why I do like Season 3 so much despite it being a messy Season at times Quality wise.

I am not too fond of Vicki exiting (since I adored her) and I am always a bit left puzzled with the cliché of a companion leaving because they felt in love. (The worst offender is leela, just what.) But here it works pretty fine I find, at least they did try to put some work into it, so it’s believable that both would develop some feelings for each other.
I do love how you can tell that despite the Doctor feeling hurt that yet another Companion, but letting her go without much fuss (unlike what he did towards Ian and Barbara) is great Character Stuff.
The same goes for most of his Part in that Story, him trying his best not to build the horse, him pretending to be Zeus and I especially love this line:

“I am not a doc, and I am not a god”.

Katarina doesn’t really get to introduce her at all and just kinda gets thrown in, I will talk more about her and some stuff relating to her, when we finally reach Daleks Masterplan.
Steven has some fun bits, especially when he tries to get capture.
I do think the Setting is well-chosen and used as well as you possibly could, and most of the side characters are memorable.

When it comes to the Comedy, I am a bit unsure, some scenes work great isolated but overall? Yeah, there is something to be desired, although the humor is more dialogue based which is good due to its missing status (I don’t want to imagine how some comedic bits would just fell flat if the Romans were missing, since that one is more so visual humor in my eyes). But I’d have to rewatch it to know if the humor would hit for me more, it’s been a while.

Overall, when it comes to that Story, I usually see two massive Statements to be made about it “doesn’t work for me” or “adore it”, which is interesting since I would have expected this Story to be seen less in those “extremes”. But it’s an intriguing observation to make (even if it’s of course more complex than that, but I think most will get the point I am trying to make).

I think anything that could be said about this has been now said, although the Music at the Beginning of Episode 1 is horrendous in my eyes.

Oh boi this will be a long one. For me this places second for the Hartnell Years, only beaten slightly by the Massacre, and it’s easily one of my favorite Stories when it comes to Who in general.

It’s a great shame so much of it is missing, especially true with Episode 12, that being said while it does arguably have some flaws, I cannot stop loving it.

Having only really got myself into the Classic Series almost two Years ago, this one was, the one I heard many mixed Things about and while I usually do split up longer Stories (at least at that time), I found myself bored with nothing better to do, so I decided to give the Recon a watch. And while yes, since the Material to be used was lacking and at times the Recon can be a bit tough to watch, I still have to say this one surprised me.

As many correctly pointed out this was an ambitious Epic, one which the 60s wouldn’t beat, maybe a point could be made about the War Games, but that’s a topic for another Time. Does it really need all those Episodes? I’d argue not, especially Feast of Steven feels like a black sheep and should at this point just be counted as a weird Oddity without much else. That being said the first half is paced incredibly well, at no point did I feel like I watched 5–6 Episodes, they all went by quickly and felt very organic, while yes it is at times slow, it builds tension so very well leading to some breathtakingly good moments such as Katarina's Death.

Katarina, while I would have liked to seeing more of her, since I think Hill does give a pretty great performance, having her die here worked really well and the build up to this death feels quite intense. What the Doctor says about her afterward is just beautiful and only one of the many great Moments presented here.

Many compared this one to The Chase, rightfully so since the second half is pretty much in the same vein and while I don’t argue against it, it feels here more earned compared to the Chase. And also gives a great opportunity to have some more Stories with Sara!

And I haven’t mentioned her yet, have I? Jean Marsh is superb as Sara, even through she has only one Story under her Bell (televised at least), she does it all with the Material given to her. Makes it even more a shame that she wouldn’t survive this Story, her death feels also affective, and I am quite sad to see that we don’t have that scene in the archives anymore.

One Thing which hasn’t been mentioned here are the Daleks itself and going by their previous appearances, I’d argue they are at some of their best. They have some hilarious lines thrown here, but you always have this feeling of them being treated as a Threat not to be joked with, which the Chase utterly failed. Mavic Chen is a great Villain as well (if we look past the horrendous yellow face), the Actor gives a superb Performance and while not his best Who Performance, it’s easily one of the most memorable for a Villain in the 60s easily.

While the Monk’s Return feels maybe out of the pocket. I’d argue having Butterworth back was not only lovely, but he gets some great moments in here, while yes he gets overshadowed greatly by all the other Stuff happening, I still think he was used pretty well all things considered.

The whole World Building done here is easily my favorite of all of Who, if Nation was good at something, it was with his Ideas of different Worlds, shown pretty well here. The Council or even the Planet of Kembel itself are just superb.

Oh, there is a lot to talk about, surprisingly Hartnell and Purves himself weren’t mentioned here too much. I do say they both give some of their best in this Story. Hartnell especially has so many little wonderful moments or acting choices, makes it even more saddening knowing that his physical performance might be for the most part lost to time. Purves I feel like gets to show off how great Steven can be, while he was superb in the Time Meddler, I feel like his last two Stories used the Character pretty underwhelming (although I liked a few bits with him in Myth Makers), this one does not. I love especially his confrontational nature around the End, pointing out to the Doctor that they haven’t really won after all the Deaths.

Bret is great, I like him! What is more to say, everybody likes Bret, that’s all 

The Story overall ranks very highly for me. While it’s huge, it does know how it paces itself and I’d argue even through I really didn’t care for Feast, at no Episodes did I feel bored about this Story. It builds up a lot of tension and uses it quite well in my opinion, the first half as I said is paced superb. The second half, while not as superb, still offers some fun to be had and basically does the travelling to place to place much better. The bleak Tone and the bleak ending is wonderful, and there are a lot of little Parts I adore.

I do think this Story deserves the Animation Treatment and I really hope we can that, while the likelihood of it happening is low due the scale of it all, perhaps some day they decide to do two different releases for that Story, similarly as how they have done it with the Target Novel. But who knows, only Time will tell.

Personally? Big fan if you didn’t notice it already, lots of great Stuff to love here!

Oh hey, it’s the infamous Sex Gas Episode!!

Hot take, but the Concept of the “Sex Gas” itself is not bad. Does it border on being a bit too edgy and just well… feeling like something slightly trying too hard? Yes, for sure, but on paper such a concept could work. Do I think it works here? No not really, with stuff such as that you have to balance it somewhat so it doesn’t come off as immature and well this Episode just kinda doesn’t do it, in my Opinion.
The Highlight here is easily Gwen, who kinda needs to find her place in Torchwood and I think it’s done rather well for the most. We also get some lovely Moments, but ehhh… I simply don’t like it, it feels a bit too much.

I feel like the odd ones out here, because some of the criticism I hear are some of the strongest points for me. It’s definitely much more flawed as a Story than the other two that follow, but, and this is a big “but”, as BF goes for that time period, I think they nailed it (for the most part).
Especially the first Half of the Story is incredible. Ending with such a good Cliffhanger Ending, easily one of my favorites. The second half loses some of its focus and at times can be frustrating, still the good outweigh the bad for me.

A Highlight here is easily Ian Collier, who returns from Arc of Infinity and while there is a point to make that every time Omega returned, they didn’t nail him as they did the first time. For me while weaker, it’s still an improvement over Arc and gives Collier more quiet Moment, which he works much better than the more shouty approach we are used to Omega. Some Exploration of Omega was done rather well, I thought, even if at times it fell into the trap of the Timelord feeling too much like human society. They are at some of their best, when we get the more alien aspects to them.

Davison gives here a stellar Performance, the other Voices do a solid job and nobody fells too out of place.

As far as a first Who Script goes (Fountain apparently wrote a Benny Short Story before, but this is its own thing entirely), I think it’s marvelous, despite being consumed by some of its ambition.

Pretty okay. I love the whole concept and how it already plays with the format of Audio (seriously, this one couldn’t be told through any other medium than audio). Unlike Slyvester and to a certain extent Peter too, Colin slips into the Audios with more ease. For a first solo outing for 6 in the MR it very much does the job, Nicola and Colin still have such a fun dynamic between each other that can be felt here also. There are a lot of good bits and overall I think it’s quite a solid one, but I must admit despite having listened to this one more “recent” I don’t recall too much of it. It’s still one I very much enjoyed and compared to the first two, it’s the highlight of those bunches!

I enjoyed it! I must say I was surprised by it, I went in not knowing what to expect by that title, but I must say it’s pretty good, actually. It’s not a masterpiece by any mean but from the early plays I listened from BF they did have some struggle to remain memorable in my head, for example it’s been longer since I listened to Dust Breeding, but I can’t remember much of it, besides the aspects I liked, this one on the other hand? Memorable for sure! The Idea is one that I am surprised wasn’t done much before (referring to the Idea of a “Fraud Doctor”) and the Comedy in this story really gives Colin a lot to work with in his Performance. In many way this feels like a much better Execution of the Core Idea of the Next Doctor, even if both differ from each other with having one being aware of being not the real thing and the other doesnt.
Overall, I enjoyed it!

Ah, the first MR Release, and an interesting one at that!
While the sound design still had a long way to go, I think it’s still an impressive task that they pulled off pretty solid!

I love the idea of having for each Doctor an episode before we hear all of them at the end. Those can quite vary from the Quality sadly and some were more intriguing than others to me. I think at the end, it’s the novelty of new doctor who and the promise of new stuff from the 80s Doctors and later 8 that makes me sympathized to that release.
On its own, it’s very fine. A fine enough multi doctor story, but I respect it a lot.

I think this one is quite flawed but held by a great Idea, great Cliffhangers and wonderful Character Dynamics (especially with Six and Evelyn or Evelyn and Darwin). I am not sure where to place it, it’s definitely better than “just solid”, but I can’t really place it too highly, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe some Ideas went a bit unexplored for my liking, but overall it’s definitely a good first Outing for the Silurians on BF (at least I believe so?)

It’s been a while since I listen to that one, but from what I can recall, I really dig this one. Having Romana here is lovely, she and six have such an interesting dynamic, Evelyn is as lovely as ever.
This one was one that had a much bigger scale, some may say a bit too ambitious, but I appreciate that BF early on this did this already. That said, it can get messy very quickly. That also being said: It has Romana, which makes it go higher if it didn’t have her.
Overall a flawed Story, that I still enjoy.

For me this is one of the best Hartnell Stories, one of the best Historical and one of the best Showcase for a Companion. While i always enjoyed Steven already (he is superb in Time Meddler, Daleks Masterplan, solid in Myth Makers and ehhh in Galaxy 4) this is the one where he really makes a mark on the Show. This is easily his finest hour. In general, this one feels unique, one might even make a point of calling this the very first doctor-lite Story at its core. While I can definitely see the flaws, for me there is so much good in it, even if it suffers from being basically the most destroyed serial there ever was (barely any production pictures, no telesnaps, one of the poor audio recordings and so on).

Following Steven in this one is brilliant, especially for how dark and morbid it can get, Purves really can show off here. Hartnell as well is great here, both as the Doctor and as the Abbott, it’s a great shame we can’t see it, but even his voice is very distinct which works so well. Having it being kinda ambiguous at the start if he is or isn’t the Doctor works great and of course that final Monologue with Hartnell at the end is superb and his best Performance in the Role. Ann Chaplet works really well here too, and the Actress does the best with the Material she is given. And from what we can see the Costume are top notch as it was always the case with the Historicals.

I honestly must say it being so dialogue heavy is great, because unlike some other Stories, it works much better with solely the Audio, while I would love it being recovered, as with any missing Episode, stories such Smugglers and Myth Makers do suffer slightly more from being missing due some of their Action. As for the Pace, while I do I agree it’s pretty slow, for me, it’s very effective, while the chosen historical Moment for me is one that I haven’t tipped my toes into before I saw the Story, just from the Title alone, it works for me pretty well. It being so slow kinda makes you dread, and I think the last Episode gets enhances because of it, since when the Doctor returns it’s so hectic, there is no “But i can’t say Goodbye”, just “We must leave NOW!” For me, this slower Pace builds a dreading Tension that gets solved greatly at the end of the Story with Steven getting angry with the Doctor about Ann’s possible Death. It works especially great with the knowledge of the previous Story, and even some EU Stories add more to that Moment.

One of the very best for me.