Who is Doctor Who? We continue to answer this question, covering the Third and Fourth Doctors played by Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, as well as Berry Letts.
Ross’ Notes
- Jon Pertwee’s son, Sean Pertwee, is indeed Alfred Pennyworth on the TV show Gotham. If you haven’t seen Dog Soldiers (2002), I think it’s worth a watch. It’s a werewolf movie.
- Hard Light Holograms. I think it’s a ridiculous concept.
- Here’s a link to that Barry Letts book on Amazon:
- We talk all about Spider-Man in film in our next episode.
- Best Episodes for the Third Doctor (my own list):
- The Green Death
- The Planet of the Daleks
- The Three Doctors
- The Daemons – Another very controversial story.
- The Time Warrior
- Yes, I deliberately said “can of fish”, conflating “can of worms” and “kettle of fish”. There’s probably a word for this.
- Doctor Who Magazine was launched in 1979 and is still going strong today. I pick up an issue every once in a while myself.
- Terrence Dicks was also along-time serving story editor for the original series, as well as a later writer. He is probably the best person to answer the question “Who is Doctor Who?” In fact, it completely slipped my mind until just now that Dicks co-wrote one of the first in-canon book material for the Doctor in the 1972 book The Making of Doctor Who, which was part in-canon biography, part behind-the-scenes material. For many young British fans this was the first comprehensive look at how a TV show is made and many of those children were set on course for a career in television. I’ve read it, it’s pretty interesting:
- Top episodes for the Fourth Doctor:
- The Genesis of the Daleks
- The Brain of Morbius
- The Deadly Assassin – Got the title wrong on this one, but this is the story with The Matrix in it.
- The Talons of Weng Chiang – Another story that was famed for being scary.
- The Pirate Planet – A Douglas Adams story with some top-notch acting from Baker.
- The City of Death – Consistently voted the best Classic episode.
- I am a fan of the E-Space trilogy. For some reason I keep coming back to State of Decay.