THIS STORY IS SO MUCH. THERE'S SO MUCH RANDOM SHIT HERE AND IT'S SO GOOFY AND SILLY AND FUN. I recognize this is an extremely unorthodox take but "quality" be damned, this is literally the single most entertaining serial out of the entire UNIT era. Drags a little with the sudden shift in focus in the last two episodes but there's one genuinely good scene and a lot of memorably silly stuff near the end that keeps it going.

I watched the second half of this with my cousin who had never seen any Classic Who before and I think it really heightened the experience. The politics surrounding colonialism and capitalism are kinda up and down in this one but also oh my god look at that weird space baby guy why does he just live in a box

Favorite season 8 story and it's not even close. Finally some decent pacing, a cool alien concept with some weird science to boot, a bit of time travel f**kery – it's just what I like from Doctor Who. And oh my god can we talk about those costumes and set designs?? Genuinely some of my favorite work in all of the classic show up til this point.

I'm kinda surprised this one seems to be considered middling-to-bad among other reviewers, but I suppose I'm more here for the concepts than other people are – and if you're not as excited about the set design as I am this story will probably land less. My personal main criticism is that the Master didn't need to be here but that's just Season 8 in a nutshell.

Man I was so interested in the international conference here, and it just kinda goes away after the first couple episodes. And the "show people their greatest fear and then they actually die from it" thing had so much potential, and we do get a bit out of that with the references to Inferno, but beyond that it all just becomes weirdly bland. And almost every scene after the first couple episodes is either set in the world's most sad-and-boring-looking prison, or is a military action scene, which doesn't do much to get on my good side.

Its just spearhead from space but worse but also it has evil killer chairs and killer flowers so i think it about evens out

The plot itself isn't gonna make any top 10 lists but it's a great introduction to the UNIT era that immediately got me excited for what was to come. Liz is cool, the Autons have some pretty creepy moments, and this is probably one of the funniest Third Doctor stories I've seen what with the Doctor's regeneration sickness. Oh, and while it wasn't really on their minds at the time, the fact this was shot entirely on film leads to one of the best-looking stories in all of Classic Who.

PEAK. My god this story is just so unrelentingly creative and fun, I don't think there's anything in Doctor Who like this. I love it when Doctor Who does these weird trippy concept episodes, and this one doesn't just have a good hook but really sees it through the whole way. It just keeps throwing crazy ideas at you, there's never a dull moment. They've traveled to NOWHERE! The TARDIS gets blown up! Jamie's face got switched around and now he's played by some other dude! Oh look Gulliver's here but he can only speak in quotes from the book! Super-cool stop-motion Medusa! Whatever the f**k the Karkus's deal is! Oh no they're gonna get turned into fiction! The climax is just a fanfic battle! I love it so much.

I know this story is kinda bad and the political satire leaves something to be desired but i'm just so happy to be done with the torrent of base-under-siege that was season 5 that i almost don't care anymore

Banger. I have a soft spot for suspenseful horror things, ones that are more creepy than scary, and god this delivers on that front. The heartbeat sound got me every time, the possessed workers were unnerving, and the general dreary atmosphere and setting works perfectly for a story like this. And god that scene where Mrs. Harris walks into the sea is just impeccable. The vibes are great here, and more than enough to carry a six-episode serial.

It's a real shame this serial is part of season 5. I appreciate that it tries to do something new with Victoria, but she's still Victoria, and the whole "weaponized screams" thing almost feels like some sort of satire of the way 60s Who writes female companions. And while it's probably the most successful base-under-siege story for me, it loses its impact a little after a whole season of stories with the same format.

But still, I love this one. I said in my Daleks' Master Plan review that if I could resurrect a single episode it would be episode 12 of that serial – if I could resurrect a whole serial it would be this without a question. The animated reconstruction carries this well enough, and probably improves it in the case of the helicopter scene – but the whole time I was left wondering, wouldn't this story and this audio work better if it wasn't being delivered via clunky puppet animation?

(with all the love to the animation crews of course – I know just how hard they work on these things)

I have no idea how it happened but in the middle of Doctor Who's most excruciatingly cookie-cutter season ever, we get an epic tale of international drama and espionage and it's the best thing ever. Among other things I'm a big fan of how it makes up for The Massacre by actually using the "Doctor doppelgänger" concept in an interesting way, with Salamander and the Doctor continually impersonating each other. The plot twist with Salamander's underground base is kind of ridiculous but I'm all for ridiculous plot twists in my Doctor Who.

I kinda don't get the acclaim for this one. The setting's interesting but the character drama is a bit dull, and while I normally try to forgive problematic elements in 60s stories as being products of the time, the sexism and racism in the writing here is just too prominent to ignore.

So a fun fact: this was originally intended to be the final Dalek story ever, since the creator of the Daleks, Terry Nation, wanted to make his own Dalek TV series, and the Doctor Who crew thought they were gonna lose the rights to use them. I think it's a really good finale, and honestly I wouldn't have minded if this was the last Dalek story ever made.

So the plot is, the Daleks have captured these two guys and are blackmailing one and bribing the other to go along with their plans to find the "Human Factor," the mysterious factor that makes humans triumph over Daleks every time. (spoiler: it's compassion, bravery, camaraderie, curiosity, etc, all that good stuff.) And the Doctor, meanwhile, seems all too keen to go along with their plans. Seeing how everyone reacts to the manipulation is really interesting, with one guy being nervous about the outcome, and the other guy being all too keen to go along with it.

It's set in Victorian England for most of its runtime and I really like that; the whole thing has a bit of a gothic feel to it, and especially with the animation's color being able to grant some additional atmosphere, the setting really comes alive.

I do think it kinda drags in the middle, but that's just most long Classic Who stories. This one honestly keeps up its intrigue most of the time, which I'm glad about considering that it's a seven-part story and it would be a really rough watch if the pacing didn't hold up. The climax is worth it, anyway.

What happens near the end is, three test Daleks gain the Human Factor and gain compassion, which the Doctor predicted to cause a Dalek uprising. But as it turns out, we meet the Supreme Dalek, who reveals that they were never looking for the Human Factor – they wanted the Dalek Factor, everything that humans aren't, and they want the Doctor to spread it across Earth.

This was a fantastic twist that really hooked me, and the climax involved the Doctor almost being infected with the Dalek Factor, then tricking all the Daleks into gaining the Human Factor and revolting against the Supreme Dalek. This moment really shined in the animation especially, and I love the whole idea of the Daleks gaining humanity and rising up as a final end for them. I almost wish it would've stuck, but the Daleks won't be back for a while at least anyway.

I really liked this story!!! It's about shapeshifters who run an airline and are slowly replacing the human staff at an airport; there was a real tenseness with how the enemies can look like anyone, and the story kept up a real sense of mystery throughout most of its runtime as we wondered who was who and what the shapeshifters' ultimate plan was. And then in the last two episodes, Jamie hitches a ride on one of the planes, it goes into space, and things get really wacky.

I also really liked the airport setting. It's still a closed space, good for studio recording, but it allowed for a lot of diverse sets within the episodes that made the area really feel sprawling.

One thing about this story is that it's the final departure for Ben and Polly, two of the companions. Honestly I'm not too fussed; I was sad to see Steven and Dodo from season 3 go at the end of that season, but in Ben and Polly's case, I just can't seem to muster too much enthusiasm for them... they never really developed interesting personalities to me, and it probably doesn't help that most of their episodes are missing. I liked them, and they had some interesting moments... but they did feel underdeveloped compared to some other companions, and I'm kinda glad that Jamie can get a little more breathing room.

Oooh this one is really cool! The premise might seem a bit basic but it really hooked me, we've got a space colony where everyone's lives are very tightly controlled, but that tries to maintain the illusion of happiness. A man named Medok has uncovered a conspiracy to hide the existence of these giant crabs called Macra, and the Doctor wants to help him pursue it.

The whole thing's really engrossing! I particularly liked the plot point where companion Ben is subjected to brainwashing and slowly works his way out of it throughout the course of the story. The animation, while still kinda lacking in character acting, helped sell the scale of the story really well, with bigger sets and bigger monsters. This is just a standard Doctor Who story done well enough to elevate it to absolute classic territory for me, one of my favorites alongside The Mind Robber and The War Games.

Another note is that this was the first story that was actually written with Jamie as a consistent cast member in mind, as the previous two scripts kind of had to awkwardly stuff him in at the last minute; it's nice to see him doing more, with a particular highlight being the scene where he gets mistaken for a dancer and escapes by doing a dance called the "Highland Fling," where at the end of the dance, you fling yourself out of the room.

...I mean yeah it's The Tenth Planet but again? There's a base and they're trying to stop the Cybermen from invading Earth, and near the end they figure out a way to defeat them and save the day, this time by using a bunch of chemicals to melt them, and later by realizing they can use a gravity machine that they've had for the whole story to fling the Cybermen into space.

It's still an entertaining story, certainly, I liked it more than The Highlanders, but I don't have anything specific to say about it. Polly and Ben get another good moment when they figure out how to melt the Cybermen's tech; the setting of a moon base is really cool and allows for it all to feel very clean and distant, something that works well for a Cyberman story.

Oh, I should talk about the reconstruction real quick!! The first and third episode of this serial, along with the final episode of The Tenth Planet, were animated by Planet 55. I really like their work. It feels very close to the original in its rotoscoped animation and black-and-white visual style, as well as the framing, which ensures there's less dissonance when switching between live-action and animation. The animation for this serial also has a slight blue tint which helps sell the cold vibes, which was a nice touch.

Oh. My. GOD. This is the most ridiculous Doctor Who story I've ever seen. Atlantis is real, and there's an evil doctor named Zaroff who wants to "raise Atlantis" by draining the ocean and blowing up the Earth as a result. For the achievement. And also he turns people into fish people for some reason. It's so absurd.

I've seen some vitriol online for this story that I just cannot understand; sure, it's poorly written, the plot makes no sense, and Zaroff's actor is insanely hammy, but there's a joy I get from watching the ridiculousness unfold. I have no idea how you can dislike this story.

Also shoutout to the two minute sequence of fish people randomly swimming around in episode three. It feels like abstract art and I love it.

Yeah okay so this is another historical, and actually it's the last pure historical (i.e. story set in the past with no science fiction elements) until the Fifth Doctor's era. Honestly I can't say I'm that fussed to see them go, I just could never get into these that much; this one isn't really an exception, and as with The Smugglers, the fact that it's entirely missing doesn't really help.

Don't get me wrong, I found some things entertaining here. Patrick Troughton had a penchant for disguises and that shows up a few times here, it's very charming. The doctor one was especially entertaining as he used it to mess with his enemies. This is also probably the best story for companion Polly, as she's paired up with a female episodic character and gets a smidge more to do this time around than run around and scream or play secretary to the men.

Aaand the Second Doctor's era starts off with a bang, as we get a Dalek story! I generally run kind of hot and cold on the Daleks, because I find them boring as shit in and of themselves, but when you manage to focus a story on how others are affected by them, then we start to get somewhere interesting.

This did precisely that, being a drama about a space colony where Daleks are being revived and used as servants. Every party wants to use them for their own means: to gain power, to serve the colony, etc. It becomes almost a political drama, but I found that interesting enough.

The part of the story I was most interested in, though, is the character of Dr. Lesterson. He's the one trying to revive the Daleks, and goes insane when he realizes that they're using him for their own means, despite pretending to be servants. I don't quite know what it is, but the sort of Victor Frankenstein character type really engrossed me.

The Second Doctor himself is also fun here. I think they did a really good job introducing this new character to skeptical audiences, and I found him to work well, balancing the right amount of silly and serious that would define each Doctor going forward. Honestly it's a real shame that this and so many other stories from this season are missing, because as much as they try, the puppet animation being used here just doesn't do his performance justice. I do believe that the Doctor is entertaining here, and he definitely gets his moments, but I just wish I could see more of the original character acting.

Obviously it's a landmark story, being the intro of the Cybermen and Hartnell's last episode. These things lend it some points at a base level, but what about the story itself? and I think it's probably one of the best use of Cybermen in the show purely by virtue of focusing some on their origin story. Ultimately they still kinda amount to generic baddies but there's something about the way they used to be human that comes through in their design and the way they talk in this episode, that never quite feels the same in later appearances... well, until 2017, but that's another story.

What else to say? The American guy is funny, Hartnell's great as always especially near the end, and this is probably Ben's best episode as he gets a chance to take down the Cybermen. We even see a bit of his softer side when he shows a moment of upset after killing that one Cyberman. (meanwhile Polly's reduced to the one who makes the coffee, but that's the 60s for you.)

I did find the actual solution to the invasion kind of disappointing, where they just have to wait til Mondas takes too much energy and everything gets destroyed – the Cybermen's plan was always doomed to fail. You could make a case that it's trying to say something about the Cybermen's brute resolution and lack of humanity, but in the episode itself it just feels lazy. Still, we do get a more proper climax with Ben using radioactivity against the Cybermen, which helps.

This is perhaps a more notable serial for its place in the show's history than its actual plot, but I do think there's things to enjoy in it as a story, even if it never quite rises above the ranks of other "fairly good" stories. Also, props to Planet 55 for what I think is probably some of the best animation of any missing episode in part 4!

Sometimes with these missing episodes you ask yourself "would I enjoy this more if I didn't have to watch it in slideshow format?" And sometimes the answer is "yes but not enough for me to want to give it more than one star"

This one is a weird one to rate. I enjoy the premise and I enjoy what I saw from the reconstructions, but my rating is severely affected by the fact that the visuals for so much of it are missing. It's a very physical story, and it's hard to tell what works and what doesn't when I can't see most of what's going on – between that and the sheer excitement of the premise, I feel like I'm rating this story more based on what it could be than what it is.

Loved the worldbuilding and the plotline about the common cold, and then an absolutely FANTASTIC cliffhanger halfway through, and then my eyes glazed over for the rest. This is two stories jammed into one serial. Half stars for half a good serial

(I did like in the second half when the Monoid was like "oh there's someone hiding from us in this house, we should just SMASH ALL THEIR STUFF UNTIL THEY COME OUT." Peak writing)

Probably one of the most watchable black-and-white Who historicals, with some good tension and a shocking finale. It does feel like there's some missing potential here, though. The plot element of the Abbott looking like the Doctor is a great gimmick in theory but doesn't really come into play much, and in the end you're kinda led to wonder why they did it at all.

The drama in this serial's final episode is particularly compelling, with Steven's outrage at the Doctor's inaction during the massacre. You get a rare peek at Hartnell's Doctor as a distant alien determined not to interfere with history, as a resigned traveler who's seen too much and lost too much – and the way it clashes with Steven's good-hearted and very human instincts to stop the massacre and save Anne. It's great, dramatic character work... for all of five minutes before Steven comes rushing back into the TARDIS having seemingly stopped caring, and then you're led once again to wonder why they even bothered.

Still, though, three stars for the good bits.

Shockingly watchable for a 12-part Hartnell story where 9/12 episodes are missing. The whole thing does get a little repetitive and meandery at times and I'm not the biggest fan of the Daleks, but it jumps around enough in setting to keep the whole thing going, and the climax in the final episode absolutely pays off. If I could bring back one single missing episode of Classic Who, it might just be episode 12 of this.

Oh, where to begin here. I loved the first, mm, 80% of this book?

The three plot threads the book follows are all very interesting – my personal favorite was the character arc of Tiffany Korta, a surprisingly-sympathetic pop star on a quest to find herself. Her arc was oddly relatable – feels sorta trans-coded – and the idea of someone whose media self is becoming sentient was fascinating to me. The thread about Inangela's quest to perform a ritual was a little meandery, but the characters were fun enough, and if nothing else Inangela's journey worked because of the atmosphere alone – that of a lonely War-torn town, which is written impeccably. Like, the vibes of this book are great, and they carry each plot thread even at points when the plot itself is less than engaging. Which brings me to the terrorist paramedic Valentine, perhaps the least interesting of the three... his arc was the most straightforward, and there wasn't much personality to him. Still, sheer intrigue about what his plans were kept the momentum going there. Every plot thread had something going for it.

The narration style is something that folks seem to be divided on – either you love or hate Lawrence Miles's snarky commentary in the way he tells this story. Personally, I was a big fan, and found the style helped keep things engaging and approachable, in the character/plot-driven segments and otherwise. Miles often goes into asides where he waxes philosophical about society, culture, and the media, which for the most part worked, as they intertwined with the plot and added another layer to proceedings. And while I didn't agree with everything, some of his musings had me genuinely reframing the way I looked at the nature of the world.

God, though. The ending. As this book neared its end, Miles became increasingly blatant about his cynical views on society and its future that I just could not connect to in the slightest. I just found the words "okay, okay, we get it, shut up now" rolling around my head... perhaps it's a cultural divide, seeing as I was born in the early 2000s and thus wasn't around for the post-9/11 cultural landscape that this book was written in. Miles's perspective on society as having been shut down by good taste in the face of catastrophe seems in direct contrast with modern internet culture where if anything, people are too vocal. I simply didn't get to experience the era of pop culture that created this book, and that might well be its undoing for me – and in fact I'd pay money to see a version of This Town that takes into account modern cultural trends like social media and generative AI. Even if it had the same cynicism, the more modern perspective on culture might connect with me personally more. (or would that just make Miles's rambles more obnoxious...?)

The cynicism the book espouses bleeds into the plot, where everything seems to end in failure. Valentine doesn't make an impact, and the bombing of the buried TARDIS instead destroys culture and meaning forever, which also happens to sabotage Inangela's own goals. Tiffany is the only one to get people talking, but her core-self is nowhere to be seen and her media-self has become a self-aware villain gleefully advocating for murder. It's a total downer, where none of the characters you cared about get a good ending. I feel punished for caring about the characters. And, like... I don't even mind bad endings in service of strong messaging, but when said messaging feels more like blind cynicism than anything else, it loses me. At least it could've painted itself as a criticism only of contemporary society, in which case it would've been a lot more digestible – but no, our culture is doomed forever and ever, and whatever hope there was for change has been near-destroyed, and that's the book. It's just tiring.

I don't know what to rate this. On one hand there's so much of the book I liked, but I feel like even that's not faultless, because in retrospect it was leading towards this ending all along. Everything was in service of it. But looking at it as a whole, I'll go with a very tentative 3.5/5, because I was hooked for long enough to make reading this more than worth it. I'm a Tiffany Korta stan now, great job guys.

Some unorganized thoughts:

• The way this book depicts a TARDIS interior is cool as f**k. Miles's brand of conceptual sci-fi f**kery was on full display there and it was glorious.
• I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else mention that, evocative as his scenes were, the Black Man's depiction feels pretty sketchy from a representation standpoint. Ooo scary african man!!
• The ending kinda lost me with the apparitions of Horror and Tiffany in the Ship, and the version of Tiffany that murdered the reporter. Wouldn't mind an explanation, maybe it would shed some light on some parts of the book I was frustrated with.