The first point to make to a viewer contemplating diving in to watch "The Two Doctors" hoping to relive some of the whimsy of the black and white Patrick Troughton years of Doctor Who... is to say that this is not a family story.
Almost none of the essence of Troughton's Doctor is permitted to shine through the dirge and nastiness that afflicted the program through too much of the 1980s.
Momentary glimpses of Troughton and companion Jamie's true worth do peek through between dark themes of cannibalism, knife fights, and Colin Baker's bullying and erratic performance of The Sixth Doctor.
Inexplicably, the Sontarans also appear. Don't ask me why. Their connection to the story is tenuous at best. As is the setting in Spain.
In place of witty repartee, Troughton's Doctor (tied down for much of the story) engages in a series of shouting matches with one-dimensional villains.
And the only moral of this story? Apparently we should all be vegetarians.
For the un-initiated, it should be explained that all these things were not what the Classic Series had been built on through its long heyday in the 60s and 70s (and brief renaissance in the late 1980s with Sylvester McCoy's first stories).
After putting the plane together whilst flying it through the First Doctor's wobbly-setted reign, the strength of witty scripts, good stories, and strong character-acting always overwhelmed the weakness of wobbly sets, outlandish costumes, and frequently implausible plots for most of its first two decades. Within the implausible plots, the characters behaved - for the most part - plausibly.
But by the Colin Baker era, the show was overly-lit in set design, and overly-dark in story theme. The costumes were garish, the violence too graphic for children, and the central casting pretty woeful. And in this story from 1985, we have Patrick Troughton and Jamie McCrimmon - two of the great characters of the program's Heroic Age - returning for a mostly unworthy swansong.
Ah well. What can a fan do except... watch.
As for the rest of you... I doubt any of it will make much sense.
Almost none of the essence of Troughton's Doctor is permitted to shine through the dirge and nastiness that afflicted the program through too much of the 1980s.
Momentary glimpses of Troughton and companion Jamie's true worth do peek through between dark themes of cannibalism, knife fights, and Colin Baker's bullying and erratic performance of The Sixth Doctor.
Inexplicably, the Sontarans also appear. Don't ask me why. Their connection to the story is tenuous at best. As is the setting in Spain.
In place of witty repartee, Troughton's Doctor (tied down for much of the story) engages in a series of shouting matches with one-dimensional villains.
And the only moral of this story? Apparently we should all be vegetarians.
For the un-initiated, it should be explained that all these things were not what the Classic Series had been built on through its long heyday in the 60s and 70s (and brief renaissance in the late 1980s with Sylvester McCoy's first stories).
After putting the plane together whilst flying it through the First Doctor's wobbly-setted reign, the strength of witty scripts, good stories, and strong character-acting always overwhelmed the weakness of wobbly sets, outlandish costumes, and frequently implausible plots for most of its first two decades. Within the implausible plots, the characters behaved - for the most part - plausibly.
But by the Colin Baker era, the show was overly-lit in set design, and overly-dark in story theme. The costumes were garish, the violence too graphic for children, and the central casting pretty woeful. And in this story from 1985, we have Patrick Troughton and Jamie McCrimmon - two of the great characters of the program's Heroic Age - returning for a mostly unworthy swansong.
Ah well. What can a fan do except... watch.
As for the rest of you... I doubt any of it will make much sense.