Yes! The Big Finish audios are absolutely delightful and you can just feel Louise and Tom’s joy at being the Doctor and Leela together again. “The Demon Glass”, “Storm Crow”, and “The World Traders” have been my favorites so far.
Watching your reaction to K-9's arrival on the show is perhaps my most anticipated of your reactions and you certainly didn't disappoint! One of the most joyous fan "squeees" I've ever heard!
Your reaction to K-9 showing up was brilliant. "Contact has been made" one of the most underrated creepy villain catchphrases, it's up there with "Hey, who turned out the lights?" and definitely above "Delete" and "Sontar-ha!" "Are you my mummy?", "Exterminate!" and "I am the Master and you will obey me" are still the reigning champions though.
"Contact has been made" might be a conscious or unconscious reference to the first episode of "The Quatermass Experiment," which was called "Contact Has Been Established," and the story revolves around an Astronaut infected by *something* from outer space.
K9: Affirmative. The Kilbracken cloning technique replicates from the single cell as a short-lived carbon copy. Efficacy of individuation not completely guaranteed. Leela: Can you explain simply? K9: Negative.
In addition to K9's introduction and the return to the primary control room, this episode also features Louise Jamison's natural (blue) eye color. She had been wearing brown contacts as Leela, up until this point, which the actor had found irritable. The change in color is explained by the lighthouse blast at the end of Horror of Fang Rock.
And this is a perfect example of why we don’t give any spoilers for what’s coming up. If Sesska had any idea K9 was going to turn up now the reaction wouldn’t have been anywhere near as delightful. 😊
I watched this on first transmission. The excitement I had at that part 2 cliffhanger, knowing we were going inside The Doctor's body was insane. That's entertainment!
The MVB (Most Valuable Boy) of Doctor Who is here! Also, I hope this is another interesting reunion for you Jess, the lovely gentleman/ringleader is none other then Michael Sheard, who appeared many times in Dr Who and was last in Pyramids of Mars-- he was the sweet brother who sadly died 😢
Best K-9 reaction ever! Even though The Invisible Enemy isn't a favourite of mine, this is still an important story as it introduced the now-famous K-9, who became part of a trend of cute robot sidekicks that began in various sci-fi movies and TV shows around that time, which reached its peak in Star Wars. K-9 was practically the brainchild of this story's writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Its purpose was to have someone who could narrate while the miniaturised clones of the Doctor and Leela were inside the Doctor's body during the events of The Invisible Enemy. Also, Martin's own dog had been run over by a car around that time so K-9 was a car-proof tribute. K-9 was not even originally intended to be a companion, but producer Graham Williams liked the concept so much that the decision was made to keep him on as a regular companion, in order to appeal to younger audiences.
Michael Sheard (aka Grange Hill's Mr. Bronson) previously appeared in The Ark, The Mind of Evil and Pyramids of Mars). Frederick Jaeger previously appeared in Planet of Evil (and The Savages).
Oh we’ve waited so long for this reaction! And to think, K9 was only intended to be in this one story but they changed their minds once they saw the prop and realised he would be a hit with children, so kept him on.
This story is set in the year 5000 which is the era from where Captain Jack, River Song and Magnus Greel come from and when The Ice Warriors takes place.
Back to the old control room. They were going to keep using the wooden secondary control room but they got the set out of storage after the previous season and found that the panelling had warped and was unusable.
Tom just signed a pic of him featured with Leela and K-9 for me last week. I'm hoping to meet Louise Jameson and John Leeson to sign it as well. Perfect timing for my own re-watching for 60th and watching alongside you. Loved seeing your reaction to K-9 appearing here.
I got to meet John Leeson in I believe 1984-5 or so at a convention in Phoenix where he signed a photo of K-9 in my now lost Key to Time book. He was a very lovely fellow who was most kind to a young megafan of the show. Tom has spoken of his affection for John in multiple interviews which is easy to understand having met him. I have many of the Big Finish audios with Tom and Louise and would love the opportunity to meet them someday but realize time is running out for that opportunity. I think I would just lose it if I ever got the chance to meet Tom...🙂🙃😁
Leela is my favorite companion. It was interesting watching you scream; you have a bit of a spoiler in that you already know K9. When I watched this back in the 70s, I didn't know him.
Leela MIGHT be my all-time favorite companion. I really like most of them for different reasons, but Leela and Ace keep rising to the top when I think of my favs.
To be fair, changing producers and writers from the 'Golden age' of Doctor Who will mean the stories aren't as good as the many seasons before, but that's just natural, doesn't mean it's an overly bad era. Not the best, not the worst. K9 and Leela rock :)
We’ve been waiting for your reaction to K9’s first appearance in Doctor Who and the fact that you were wrong about his return in the Sarah Jane era (and thus didn’t expect him at all now) just makes this surprise reveal reaction so much better.
Michael Sheard, a great Scottish actor, as Lowe there, having previously appeared in other Doctor Who stories (The Ark, The Mind of Evil and Pyramids of Mars). Some may recognise him as Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back, others from his role in Hitler: The Last Ten Days, as Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as Heinrich Himmler in The Death of Adolf Hitler, as Adolf Hitler in Rogue Male, as Adolf Hitler in The Tomorrow People, as Adolf Hitler in The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, in an episode of 'Allo, 'Allo! entitled "Hitler's Last Heil" or as Adolf Hitler in Hitler of the Andes. Most of a certain age, however, will recall him as Mr Bronson in Grange Hill. I particularly remember the episode where he turned up to the school disco dressed as Adolf Hitler
Tbh the first two stories I actually really enjoy. This story is slightly under rated. The special effects in this story are so under appreciated I think they’re brilliant. They look terrific. Glad you’re enjoying it!
The behind the scenes reasoning behind the Doctor returning to the original console as opposed to the wooden Gothic-style secondary console was because during a break in filming between the 1976 and 1977 seasons, the console was put into storage and unfortunately, the wooden panelled walls warped out of shape and was unable to repair, which meant a new set had to built based on the first console room, but with updated features.
Oh how happy i am for you. Yes the invisible enemy introduces K9. The invisible enemy was another story from my wilderness years of who. I remember i enjoyed it! Especially later on in the story which I won’t mention yet. Again this was another story I borrowed from the library then many years later i got it from my local charity shop.
I've been looking forward to you reaction to K9 for about three years now. It was worth it! The Supervisor guy was Lawrence in the Pyramids of Mars, who you also liked. K9's best friend the Professor was also another Professor in Planet of Evil, where he was a bit less friendly, turned into a monster and started killing people.
Looking up his IMDB credits, Michael Sheard (supervisor/Lawrence) was in 6 different seasons, with four different Doctors (Hartnell, Pertwee, Baker, Davison, McCoy).
Well, that was just a blast to watch! Yeah, this story, despite iconic K9 and Leela scenes, really is the beginning of the decline fans see in the late 70s Tom Baker era. New producer, new script editor, less budget. But it's just so fun to watch you have so much fun with it. Cheese ain't cheese when it's tremendous fun.
This was the first Doctor Who story I ever watched. I was channel surfing and came across this episode, and was immediately amazed by the great Tom Baker! I had grown up on American Television and there was no other hero on TV like the Doctor (when I watched this I didn't know that anybody else had played the Doctor). Leela and K9 were great too! I was immediately hooked and decades later, it's still my favorite show! Thanks for a great reaction!
In all the times I've watched this story I've never noticed the explanation for why the secondary Control Room hasn't returned before (in reality the makers of show thought it wasn't visually interesting enough and it had warped in storage )🎩
Finally! I knew you'd love seeing K9, but not that happy! This is an underrated story; each part taking place in very different places. The idea of an intelligent disease is something too good to not be done again in the future! Next, a trip inside The Doctor's brain!!!
K9 always gets the love for the story from reactors - and understandably so. But I always loved the production designer made the decision to have all signage be either pictures (The eye section, with a big eye) or phonetics my favorites being Imerjensee egsit and isolayshun ward, predicting a devolution of spelling and language long before textspeak came along
Love your reaction to K-9. I watched this on first transmission and fell in love the the tin dog. He will always be one of my favourite companions. You're in for a treat. Enjoy.
Your enthusiasm for K-9 is so infectious. :D Leela and K-9 are the dream team. When you said "Doctor who?" at 23:21, I don't know if that was intentional or not but it was a great moment. Also, I don't think this season is a dip for the Fourth Doctor but I actually think NEXT season is when he really comes into his own. I prefer his character.
K-9 was conceived by Dave Martin because he had recently lost his dog to a traffic accident and he wanted to imagine an indestructible dog. Because Baker and Martin were freelancers, they retained the rights to the character of K-9, while the BBC owned the design (as it was done by an employee). This is why Baker was able to get the Australian K-9 series off the ground, with a new design, and also why K-9 in the SJA was off fixing a black whole a lot if the time (Baker wanted to limit his appearances to not take focus away from his series). Some negotiations meant that the BBC design was allowed to be used in the first K-9 story and that K-9 got some SJA appearances, at around the same time.
I personally love this season. It doubles down on being very seventies but by the end of it it starts entering the 80s more than a year in advance of that decade. It has some of the most creative an out-of-the-box story ideas for Doctor Who and has some of the best twists and turns of the show's entire history. It's a history that this season ads enormous amounts of structure to the DNA of the show. It's full of and creates new iconography that has lasted till this day. So yeah some of the story ideas are so ambitious that their budget and Technology can't keep up with it but they sure give it at the college try and when I saw it as a kid add jump-started my imagination more than most seasons.
11:18 - *there's* the reaction we were waiting for. Yes, *the goodliest of doggos is here!* And we have Leela, who's capable of violently killing someone, with K9... who is also capable of violently killing someone.
Brilliant! You make me love this story more than I have in a long time. It is fun and I think I was around 14 when I (consciously - I may have seen it many years earlier but forgotten in its first run) saw it back in the '80s. Since then I might have been sucked in to the general panning the story (and this mid-late Tom era Who) tends to get from the critics. As a much younger child Tom Baker (late era) was my first Doctor and K9 was always part of Who pretty much as far as I knew, until he kind of disappeared. It was weird when part way through Davison's run my TV channel went back to some of the Troughton stories then to Pertwee and on. I definitely remember wondering the whole time exactly when it would be that K9 would turn up (hard to imagine him in black and white and alongside Pertwee's Doctor and Liz Shaw facing off against (say) the Silurians or the Ambassadors of Death (I had no access to the internet or any other reference). And of course finally there he is in The Invisible Enemy... Seeing your reaction to his arrival and how you noted that you had been wondering when he would turn up, made me remember all that :) So exciting to see DW enjoyed by fully grown-up people, too. That's how it should be, and its great we can live in that kind of world now. Back then you were kind of made to feel a bit weird for liking things like this once you hit the age of 18 or so (especially if male). Sounds daft to say it, but I do reckon the people in the 24th century will look back on this stuff the same way we look back on Shakespeare (not this episode, perhaps, but who knows).
Cue behind the scenes footage of Mark 1 K-9 going haywire as his remote control frequencies get tangled with the cameras. And yet, somehow, genius. There are still some people hanging onto the suggestion that he was designed as a response to the droids in Star Wars, but the timeline doesn't really support this. And, in any case, the original concept drawings were for a bigger dog. He's more like a terrier.
Brilliant reaction, Frederick Jaeger the professor in this , remember him with 3rd story with the Anti matter story , he was obsessed with the anti matter rocks.
The reason you may have found Michael Sheard (Supervisor Lowe) familiar is that he was in Star Wars: The Empire Striles Back (Admiral Ozzel) and in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Adolf Hitler).
Looking forward to this reaction. Obviously Jess was going to freak out on meeting K9. Bit annoyed that the monitor on his side never gets used again. Love the Swarm interesting to see a sentient virus. Wish they come back
It did for me. My lovely Grandad made me a fab wooden version of K9 complete with hidden wheels, spring-mounted ears and working lights. He also added his own personal design for the monitor on the side that you mention - a biro-penned image of the solar system with a little moveable arrow at the centre you could turn to point wherever you wanted to go to...
For the third time (i think) but not the last time my friend Michael Sheard appears in Doctor Who. He was an actor who appeared in tons of tv shows and even some films (If you have seen ... and the holy grail you will have seen him as Hitler) (not for the first time as those old enough to remember the tomorrow people can testify)I can still remember the last time i talked to Michael not knowing that that it would be the last time. RIP Michael Sheard
I like stories from all Who eras,but,split Classic who into 3 eras:"Gold": "An Unearthly Child" to "Talons" (Plus for me,personally,"Fang Rock");"Silver":"Fang Rock"/"Invisible Enemy"- "C.O Androzani";"Bronze":""Twin Dilemma"-1996 TVM🎩
@@alexhodgkinson6718 I enjoy most of S15, S16-18 are for sure more of a struggle, and I find most of the 80s stuff an overall downgrade in quality though I do love parts of it (especially S25-26).
Merciful Mogg! the way you screamed, one might assume Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger all ganged up to attack you! 😳 I am so glad I was not wearing headphones, ear buds or some similar auditory technology at the time!🔈🔉🔊
This is just a hunch and I may be way off base here but, were you excited to see K-9 in this story? 😂 Your enthusiastic reaction to this is delightful. Looking forward to seeing your reaction to the second half.
look at her channel: she's reacted to all of New Who (which she started with originally), and is working her way in series order through Classic. Her channel page has it all sorted.
The first 3 seasons of the Fourth Doctor are brilliant and represent a golden age for the programme, but I don't think the programme "dips". I think it became a lot more fun, and the production team had to become more and more creative as 1970s inflation kicked in.
The only "dip" in this season maybe was in the science...e.g shouldn't those clones of the Doctor and Leela have been naked? Mind-brain interface? Still, I love this story, part Andromeda Strain, part Body Snatchers, part Fantastic Voyage. And the intro of K-9!!
Make sure nobody spoils anything on a certain 5th doctor story when she gets to that okay. I have a feeling her reaction might be something to remember
Leela was always one of my favorite companions. Love all her episodes although like many companions they really didn't do her departure justice on the show.
