Yeah, whatever I said however many weeks back when I said whatever it was... forget it. Not happening, primarily because the way my life's going at the moment I can't be bothered to watch the 75 minutes of boring that are An Unearthly Child episodes 2-4. Though there is some skull-crushery in Ep 4. Children's program my @$$.
Speaking of deaths, how about Tom Baker's plunge at the end of Logopolis? Love the absurdly fake miniature effects, the pointless grab-the-support-thingy, the fact that the Master gets away while the Doctor dies... Everybody talks about The Caves of Androzani being the greatest exit story, but really that thing's absurdly nihilistic. Everybody dies, Rose... just this once, everybody dies! Tom went out saving the entire freaking Universe, and all Peter managed to save was one girl with a fake American accent. (Granted, she was the only person in that serial worth saving, except the real Maj. Salateen, but hey, this being a Robert Holmes script and him being a somewhat bitter survivor, he was a walking dead man from the word go.) Not only that, but take a look at the villains the Doctor has to ally with. 4 has to work with the Master, the most evil evil evil evil ad nauseam person in the entire Universe (bar possibly Davros). 5 has to work with the Phantom of the Opera's cousin.
(That's another thing. Holmes already did the Phantom bit in Talons of Weng-Chiang, and oh he did it well there. Sharaz Jek was a somewhat disappointing re-do of Magnus Greel. Hell, Greel's costume beat Jek's gimp suit.)
The thing that's really cool about Logopolis is the fact that the Doctor knows, after a discussion in the second episode, that he's going to die. Gee, wait, in Caves, the Doctor also finds out that he's dying in the second episode.
I like the political complexities of Androzani, but in a post-9/11 world they leave a bit of a sour taste - the government's corrupt, the President's a tool, the army is apparently run by a corporation of some sort (can't really remember Morgus's deal at the moment), and the terrorist is just out for some well-deserved revenge. As I said, sour taste. At least there wasn't an economic crisis. Oh, wait, there was a hint of that too when they were talking about the Spectrox shortages. (I like how everybody was a Spectrox junkie. Not sure what the subtext there was, but I liked it.) Oh well, at least there was no Swine Flu. (Insert jokes about the Doctor being retarded enough to not immediately administer the antidote to himself when pigs fly here.)
See, when the Master tilts that platform, 4 knows it's the end. He's gonna yank that cable out, and then he's gonna fall. (Gee, cult television show, high platform, very bizarre and poorly-explained setup/solution that requires the main character to go splat in order to save the Universe... history sure doesn't repeat itself does it?)
The 5th Doctor's last word is "...Adric?"
The 4th Doctor's last words are "It's the end... but the moment has been prepared for."
Which is better? Seriously?
-James
Oh, and in case you had to ask, yes, that other show did it a hell of a lot better... but it was still poorly set up.
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