A lot of Doctor Who fans love the early purely historical tales. I think they were often good but rarely achieved excellence because once you're familiar with the historical events themselves the story starts getting a little predictable and it becomes a case of 'how are they going to fit the Doctor into this story?' almost every time. "The Reign of Terror" is a solid, entertaining historical story but it never achieves excellence because for the most part the plot and characters are predictable and one-dimensional, and very ordinary.
What is clearly worth discussing about "The Reign of Terror" is the visuals. It really is a shame that 60's Who was produced in black and white because based on set photos etc. it is clear that many of the costumes and sets for these historical stories were wonderfully convincing and great to look at, perhaps more so than with 70's and 80's Who. There is a real sense of authenticity to "The Reign of Terror", which is hugely impressive for a serial surely shot in BBC studios.
At one point, of course, "The Reign of Terror" was completely lost, but since then all the episodes except the fourth and fifth have been found. The widely-available reconstructions of those episodes are reasonably good considering what there was to work with (not much). Still, they are watchable and bridge the gap nicely between episode three and episode six.
"The Reign of Terror" was the debut story for Dennis Spooner and it's a nice, strong first script from him. Well-drawn if predictable and perfunctory characters, solid dialogue, some decent attempts at humor. In general it's a good, solid script that never rises to excellence.
The direction is reasonably good here as is the acting, and the lush costumes and sets help the story come alive but it isn't quite among the better historical stories.
Episode 1: 8/10, Episode 2: 7/10, Episode 3: 6/10, Episode 4: 7/10, Episode 5: 7/10, Episode 6: 7/10.
Average: 7/10
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Reflections on Season 1: Season 1 of "Doctor Who" is actually fairly good, despite my indifference towards "The Aztecs" and "The Keys of Marinus" and dislike of "The Sensorites". "Marco Polo" is a wonderful adventure, "An Unearthly Child" quite involving, but mostly worth seeing for the first episode, "The Daleks" very good, and "The Edge of Destruction" extremely underrated.
The average rating for the stories in season 1 is 7.073/10.
What is clearly worth discussing about "The Reign of Terror" is the visuals. It really is a shame that 60's Who was produced in black and white because based on set photos etc. it is clear that many of the costumes and sets for these historical stories were wonderfully convincing and great to look at, perhaps more so than with 70's and 80's Who. There is a real sense of authenticity to "The Reign of Terror", which is hugely impressive for a serial surely shot in BBC studios.
At one point, of course, "The Reign of Terror" was completely lost, but since then all the episodes except the fourth and fifth have been found. The widely-available reconstructions of those episodes are reasonably good considering what there was to work with (not much). Still, they are watchable and bridge the gap nicely between episode three and episode six.
"The Reign of Terror" was the debut story for Dennis Spooner and it's a nice, strong first script from him. Well-drawn if predictable and perfunctory characters, solid dialogue, some decent attempts at humor. In general it's a good, solid script that never rises to excellence.
The direction is reasonably good here as is the acting, and the lush costumes and sets help the story come alive but it isn't quite among the better historical stories.
Episode 1: 8/10, Episode 2: 7/10, Episode 3: 6/10, Episode 4: 7/10, Episode 5: 7/10, Episode 6: 7/10.
Average: 7/10
__________________________
Reflections on Season 1: Season 1 of "Doctor Who" is actually fairly good, despite my indifference towards "The Aztecs" and "The Keys of Marinus" and dislike of "The Sensorites". "Marco Polo" is a wonderful adventure, "An Unearthly Child" quite involving, but mostly worth seeing for the first episode, "The Daleks" very good, and "The Edge of Destruction" extremely underrated.
The average rating for the stories in season 1 is 7.073/10.