shadowhive: (Dalek WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEA?)
shadowhive ([personal profile] shadowhive) wrote2023-03-20 11:35 pm

Timey wimey stuff

So the Doctor Who season 9 boxset did come today, albeit late in the afternoon. Thanks to the tracking I did realise it had been delivered not here but to the other house with the same number so I was able to pick it up before the van even left the square.

If it had come earlier I’d have started watching this afternoon (though I’m glad it didn’t it meant I could watch Shoto get to 1 million which was cute) but instead I watched it tonight.

However I did read some of the info booklet for the season this afternoon. Usually these are pretty interesting but this one seemed a bit odd. Not only did it not mark which disc had the special edition of the first ep, but I also noticed a bunch of typos which felt strange. I only read about the first two stories before it got too dark so hopefully there’s not more issues.

So tonight I watched the first ep which was Day Of The Daleks. The two discs dedicated to the story has three versions: the original broadcast eps, an omnibus addition (new to the boxset since the original version was lost) and the special edition. The special edition was the one I chose to watch.

Day Of The Daleks is an odd episode in that it’s the first Dalek episode in colour and yet…. It doesn’t feel like a Dalek ep. This is for good reason, while I’ve not yet watched the special features the booklet (and tardis wiki) notes that this wasn’t written as a Dalek episode, they were added in at the last minute when the ep that was supposed to have them fell through. As such it’s a Dalek episode in name only.

This is shown by the fact that they hardly appear and that they hardly interact with the doctor.

However that doesn’t mean the episode is necessarily a bad one. In fact in some ways it’s got some interesting ideas. Mainly that the whole thing is actually a temporal paradox. Also it marks the first appearance of the ogrons which are pretty effective as mooks go. Also the ep made me realise how much I’ve missed the third Doctor as it’s been awhile since the last boxset. (And Jo is so sweet and naive.) also the controller is a dick.

As I mentioned the version of the ep is the special edition one originally made for the dvd. Most of the time episodes don’t get changed when they get released on dvd, though occasionally effects are updated. Usually it’s just one or two things but for this one? It’s pretty obvious a LOT was done to it. I have to wonder why it was given so much attention (maybe the special edition making of will explain why). The effects all look great and they do seem to improve things but it does seem strange an ep gets this much attention (and makes it especially annoying invasion of dinosaurs didnt, though hopefully the blu ray ep does).

In short it’s a decent enough ep, with an interesting idea, but it’s not one of the best. Although I am glad to be back with the third doctor again.

I’ll go through the special features tomorrow (or maybe later tonight) and then the curse of peladon is this weekend.
turlough: laughing Doctor & Jo in the TARDIS, Third Doctor adventure 'The Time Monsters' ((dr who) team tardis)

[personal profile] turlough 2023-03-22 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Day of the Daleks is quite an odd one. As you say, the Daleks are only very tangential to the rest of the story. I think I would probably have liked it better (it's not one of my favourites) if there hadn't been any Daleks at all in it. The whole timetravel plot is fascinating and I really like the rebel leader - she's so cool. And yes, I don't understand why this episode got upgraded when Dinosaur Invasion - which is a much better story - didn't!