Doctor Who Twitch Watch: recommendations of the day 07/02
By James Aggas
The Fourth Doctor encounters an ancient goddess and some very dangerous stones in The Stones of Blood.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: BBC.)
The Key to Time season continues today on Twitch, as the Fourth Doctor encounters vampiric stones, android doubles and a giant monster in three classic Doctor Who serials!
I hope you’ve been enjoying The Key to Time season so far. While season sixteen might not be the strongest season of Doctor Who, it has a decent sense of variety to it.
That variety continues today. We get a mixture of horror, swashbuckling adventure and even a giant monster story today. But which one is worth watching the most?
The Stones of Blood
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The Stones of Blood is a story of two distinct halves. The first half of the serial feels like a return to the Gothic horror of the Hinchcliffe era. There are deadly cults, monsters that feast on blood, and even an ancient goddess!
Of course, this being Doctor Who, there’s a sci-fi explanation for what these things really are. But it still revels in being a gloriously stylish and horrific watch. One scene with two innocent campers is particularly graphic.
The second half of the story is much closer to science-fiction in general. Featuring an alien spaceship and the Doctor defending himself against alien machines, it’s a nice way of shaking the story up. While I have more of a preference for the Gothic horror style of the first half, it’s also nice that The Stones of Blood avoids dragging that out too much.
Overall, The Stones of Blood is a very enjoyable story, one that gloriously captures the Gothic style of the Hinchcliffe era while telling something new.
It’s a story of heroic princes, evil counts, and android doubles in The Androids of Tara!
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: BBC.)
The Androids of Tara
I adore The Androids of Tara. It won’t be a story that ever appears in a list of the top ten greatest Doctor Who stories, but it is a joy to watch.
Admittedly, it’s more than a little inspired by the novel The Prisoner of Zenda. In fact, the original working title for it was The Androids of Zenda. So it certainly owes a lot to that story, to say the least.
But The Androids of Tara is just so much fun. Mostly because it does a great job of capturing the swashbuckling style. It has romance, adventure, and a lot of charm to it.
The Fourth Doctor gets a lot of witty dialogue in this one, too. It’s particularly hilarious that this time, he’s really trying hard to take a break from saving everyone, but of course, just gets involved in the world’s politics far too quickly.
With princes to save, evil counts to fight and princesses to rescue, The Androids of Tara is an absolutely shameless swashbuckler. There’s even a great scene of the Fourth Doctor taking part in a sword fight! Try watching it without a smile on your face.
On a jungle world, the Doctor and Romana encounter a giant monster in The Power of Kroll.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: BBC.)
The Power of Kroll
The Power of Kroll is a bit of a disappointing story. It’s not just the fact that the story of a gigantic monster should be a lot more fun to watch. It’s also the fact that it’s written by one of Doctor Who‘s greatest writers ever, Robert Holmes.
One thing that lets The Power of Kroll down is a rather obvious split-screen effect used for the monster. Perhaps asking the effects department to create a giant monster was a big ask. But splitting the screen cleanly in half with the model monster on top and the actual landscape below just wasn’t convincing.
The characters aren’t much better, either. Robert Holmes has written so many of the best characters in Doctor Who. Characters that really stood out, like Jago and Litefoot, or Garron and Unstoffe from earlier in the season.
The Power of Kroll features no such characters. While there’s an interesting theme of natives versus corporate invaders, no character really stands out. Especially as there’s no color to any of their dialogue.
Even the gun-runner Rohm-Dutt, who would usually be exactly the kind of amoral character that would be fun to watch in a story like this, fails to stand out.
With a disappointly bland script by a veteran writer, and production so weak, there’s a moment when the set literally wobbles, The Power of Kroll is easily the weakest Fourth Doctor story this season.
Overall recommendation of the day: The Stones of Blood
This was a tricky one, I must admit. I’ve admitted that both The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara are stories that I enjoy greatly. Despite being from the same writer, they’re also two very different stories.
But today, I’ve decided to go with The Stones of Blood. It’s a great horror story, and nicely balances between horror and science-fiction. Overall, it’s a good example of what Doctor Who does best.
Having said that, if you do enjoy a good swashbuckler, then definitely check out The Androids of Tara. Like I said, it’s just heaps of fun to watch.
Next: Torchwood review: Goodbye Piccadilly (audio)
Which story are you looking forward to watching today on Twitch? Do you have a particular favorite from today’s choices? Let us know in the comments below.