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Finally got around to watching my BD for Power of the Daleks. Grabbed it at release but hadn't gotten round to it till yesterday.

It's a really great story, and one of the incredibly few that does something unique and interesting with the Daleks. It wasn't my first time going through it having sat through the reconstruction years ago, but that just made me all the happier to go through it again in a much more engaging way. It's a great release and I do hope we can get more animated reconstructions like it in the future.

More detailed review in spoilers since it's a bit long.
[HIDE]The story opens as the very first post-regen story and it's absolutely perfect at making the audience feel uneasy with this new Doctor (taking it in the context of the time when there's no precedent for what just happened). He doesn't act the same, he has some very suspicious moments, even Ben doesn't trust him and most of all he seems to flip himself between talking about "The Doctor" as another man. On the other hand, he seems to remember and know things that only The Doctor would and Polly seems to trust him, giving you just enough trust in the idea that he may still be the Doctor. What makes it work so well is that Troughton is such a wholly new Doctor, and Troughton is such a secretive Doctor which makes it so easy to be suspicious of him. Obviously the aim of the story is to convince you that this man is in fact the same Doctor, and what's the best way to do this? Have the Doctor defeat his greatest foe the Daleks.

The Daleks in this are intelligent, threatening and manipulative, it's just great to see Daleks downplay themselves and manipulate others into giving them what they want in seemingly innocent ways when only the audience and the Doctor know better. It's a rare well paced 6 part story for the classic show, creating an interesting separate but overlapping story to complement the Dalek story. The characters are well put together and most have their own motivations that are well constructed, and the strength of this story is what allows the Dalek side of it to so effectively be put aside to a slow building threat in the background. All story you know the Daleks are coming, and as it progresses you really see them amount a terrifying force, but it's not until right at the end when the Daleks roll out in thier full force and unleash a mad slaughter. If the non-Dalek parts of the story hadn't been so well done it'd just be a dull story you wait for the Daleks to finally appear, but thanks to the strength of the story it allows the Daleks to be more menacing and intimidating as this slowly mounting threat unlike we've ever seen them before and just gives the story such amazing suspense.

Of course by the end of the story The Doctor has done some amazing things and saved the day from the Daleks who even seemed to instinctively recognise him, so surely this man must be the same Doctor we've always known even if in many ways completely different. It really is to Troughton's and the writers and producers credit that his Doctor is so different and yet the story really by the end convinces you he must be the same man. Had we just had Hartnell-lite it's very hard to imagine people being as interested in the show long term and it'd have made it much less likely the people making the show in later eras would look for something so different and unique from each new Doctor, which is where the shows greatest strength really lies.


The animation itself is very clearly a budget effort, but that's to be expected given the niche appeal of such a release. Given the budget nature of it, I think it's a wonderful job, it tries really hard to capture the feeling of the era and there's a great faithfulness in capturing the exact motions from the surviving clips as best they can. It always very apparent the limitations of the animation, it's at times jerky and you always have a sense of assets being moved independently, but it's not far short of other current successful budget animations like Archer and definitely strong enough to keep the story engaging and entertaining and very of era. It very much is a great effort from the animators that they could put together such a good product on what were definitely limited resources and I really hope to see more lost serials brought back to life in this way. It's so much easier and more inviting to sit down to an animation than any of the other options available for a missing story and I can now come back to one of my favourite Troughton stories without a moan and a groan about having to sit through either a dull clipshow reconstruction or an audio drama of a story not designed as one.[/HIDE]
 
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p04w075s.jpg

It's been announced that episodes 11 and 12, the two-part series finale, will feature the Cybermen as they looked back when they were first introduced when the First Doctor encountered them. This is being called their 'Mondasian' form.

Source
 
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B-B-BUMP!

The official Doctor Who twitter channel has stated that the actor playing the 13th Doctor will be revealed this coming Sunday.

The Wimbledon tennis championship is one of the four grand slams and the men's singles finale typically gets massive ratings in the UK. The championship is being broadcast by the BBC in the UK, and the big reveal will follow this match.
 
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Looking forward to the next series! :D

Quoted for truth.
Also, I hope this increases the chance of a male companion. One that the Doctor actually chose herself, and not one that was there coincidentally because of the original female companion. I've been wanting to see a male companion even before Capaldi, and I think this increases the chance of it happening. There are many story ideas that could be drawn from it. :)
 
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It's almost time (less than four hours as of posting), and I must admit I'm starting to feel hyped. Let's have some fun!
 
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Premiere episode aired. Loved every second of it! Doctor Who is still Doctor Who, the gender changed nothing about the show.
And I guess I sort of got my wish. The Doctor has two male companions so far. She didn't necessarily choose them herself, they just kind of fell into the roll, and either one of them could drop out at any time. But for now, it's great!

Digging that homemade Sonic Screwdriver! If you can make one with materials on Earth, can you make a Tardis too?
 
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The series has come and gone, and...yep, quite polarising, with a dire audience appreciation score on Rotten Tomatoes vs an impressive critic score.
 
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