Doctor Who's Third Season

We've made it through Doctor Who's third season, AKA the season where the show transitioned into the form it would retain for the next 60 years. The Doctor is our wise hero accompanied by a plucky companion providing the human element. It's an uneven season--some of the best serials the show has ever done and...really no bad serials but some that are very unmemorable.

We'll discuss the season overall: the behind-the-scenes chaos, its thematic threads, what it introduces into the Doctor Who formula, the good, the great, and the ugly. 

NOTE: In the round-up of  which serials to watch, for some reason I forgot to discuss The Dalek's Masterplan. Possibly because it's hard to say whether to struggle through the reconstruction or not. It is easy to follow with the audio and stills. It genuinely is a great serial with great characters, a complicated but interesting story, a lot of commentary....but it is LONG (12 episodes), and it probably only needed to be 6 episodes. If you listen to the three-part podcast on that one, I mention you can basically watch the beginning and the end and leave out the middle strange side quest (even though that means missing the Monk, and who would want to miss the Monk?). Basically, watching still and audio for 5 hours is an investment. But if you want to make that investment, it is a rewarding story. Maybe someone has put out a condensed version somewhere? If not, at the very least check out the last episode--it is the bleakest ending the show has ever permitted.
 

NEXT TIME:

Serial #28: The Smugglers
4 episodes, all missing:-(
Pirates looking for buried treasure? Count the Doctor, Ben, and Polly in! Our last first Doctor historical.
Monday, January 2nd

Special thanks to Cathlyn "Happigal" Driscoll for providing the beautiful artwork for this podcast. You can view her work at https://www.happigal.com/

Do feel free to get in touch to share the love of all things Doctor Who: throughthevortexpodcast@gmail.com