usuallyhats | The Black Guardian trilogy (Reply)

I only took notes for the first two episodes of "Mawdryn Undead", and it's been weeks since I watched it, so I don't remember much about the second half. I did really enjoy it, though!

Turlough inna hat!

WACKY DRIVING MUSIC.

Oh noes, Turlough is having a near death experience!

BRIGADIER ACTION.

Ooo, I LOVE Nyssa's new outfit.

"Oooh, Matron." TURLOUGH.

Turlough refused to join the CCF? SENSIBLE CHILD.

This story is getting full marks for sets and locations so far, I have to say.

The Brigadier doesn't know the Doctor? Nooooo!

I am ignoring the line about Benton selling second hard cars, because it is wrong. Other than that: so much name dropping! Hurrah! And flashback clips too! TWO LOVELY TWO! THREEEE! GIANT ROBOT! FOUR! THIS IS THE BEST STORY. "Well bless my soul. So you've done it again, Doctor." ♥ ♥ ♥

Ooo, timey shenanigans! "Not much call for that in the A-Level syllabus, Doctor."

Visible brains, never a good sign.

After that I remember liking Tegan taking charge, tiny Nyssa and Tegan, the French farce bit with everyone wandering around on the spaceship trying not to meet, and Tegan's fed up expression when the Brigadier ordered her and Nyssa to stay in the TARDIS. (I would also like to take a moment to salute Stephen Garlick's excellent running skills, he was really going for it, arms and legs everywhere.)

"Terminus" suffers due to me liking the stories on either side much more, but it wasn't that bad. (*damning with faint praise*) Nyssa's actual leaving scene was really lovely (it made me cry, but I am always crying at TV) and also, space pirates! In bubble helmets made ridiculously huge to accommodate their massive eighties hair! I could never entirely hate a story with things like that in it.

"Enlightenment" on the other hand was entirely awesome. So brilliantly weird, but not in a gratuitously wacky fashion.

Marriner appearing on the viewscreen was a particular highlight of weirdness. The actor was really good too; he was great at being just that bit off in all his scenes. Very creepy.

TEGAN'S DRESS :DDDDD Seriously, why isn't she always that well dressed? She looked fantastic.

The sailing ships in space looked so beautiful, and so right, somehow.

I really liked how much Five seemed to be taking care of his companions in this story. Yes, he rolled his eyes at Tegan a bit, but he was so tender with her too, especially in that scene where she's clearly distressed and asking to go back to the TARDIS. And I also liked the moment in the first episode where he makes sure to tell Turlough that he can go back to the TARDIS if things get bad.

Speaking of Turlough, I LOVED the bit where he realised the Doctor might be dead, and had FEELINGS about it. ♥

The regulars were pretty good in this one! OK, Mark Strickson got a bit ...carried away a few times, but it amused me, so I didn't mind.

I did wonder, when I got to the last episode, how all the plot was going to get resolved in twenty minutes. I thought the fate of Wrack and Mansell wasn't very well handled, in the end, but other than that it was nicely tense and well paced.

Some nice little moments for Five: acquiring new celery, and tossing a coin to decide which way to go and then tossing it again when he didn't like the outcome.

So, overall, two stories I loved and one I ...didn't, so I declare this trilogy a win. I was going to say that I haven't seen many of the rest of Five's stories, but then I checked and that turns out to be a lie. I've seen most of Six's first series before too, but after that is tons of new-to-me episodes (I've never seen any of Mel's stories, for a start). Exciting! If you are me. Which I am.