I just clocked that Dennis Chinnery, who plays the twins' dad, also plays Gharman in Genesis Of The Daleks. Somehow, this guy appeared in arguably the most popular Classic Who story and the least popular one, too. Amazing. I was also on tenterhooks for that "Tut, tut. How sad" for the entire review and you did not let me down.
"It introduces one of the least popular Doctors, made him violent and unstable, contains a ton of cringe worthy moments and is a complete disaster on pretty much all fronts..." Sounds like my teenage years.
Despite how the decisions backfired I will always love the 6th Doctor as my favourite incarnation almost entirely due to Colin being a near perfect casting for the Doctor something Big Finish decided to prove with incredible stories and character development for Sixie.
I've always had fun with Twin Dilemma, but one thing in particular that stood out was how interesting the idea of a genuinely untrustworthy Doctor is. You never have any idea if he's as capable as he thinks or if he's deluded, you can't rely on him to behave heroically or consistently in any situation. It's like the moment in Deep Breath where Twelve just leaves Clara, only you actually buy it here. Also am I the only one who really likes the "I'm the Doctor, whether you like it or not" scene?
Love that scene. Really thought that decision with 12 leaving Clara was brave and interesting in Deep Breath. Wish Capaldi had a chance to do a properly darker Doctor instead of reverting to the Smith/Tennant template after his first season.
I liked his final line originally but I later, on rewatch, realized it's the most direct example of 4th wall breaking. a little polish would have made it fit the story narrative, which would have been perfect. Anything more rough would have had the Doctor look not at Peri but at the camera instead. so I don't dislike it. 😊
The interesting thing about Six as an abrasive new Doctor is how in a way, it's actually sort of what they did later with Nine and to a degree Twelve- make the audience question the Doctor and their motivations. The problem is you actually have to prove they've got some charm and have a plot that's compelling, and that's what's missing from The Twin Dilemma imo.
I can’t defend The Twin dilemma, but I will defend season 22. I enjoy Attack of the Cybermen, Vengeance on Varos, The Two Doctors and Revelation of the Daleks. Obviously Vengeance on Varos is the standout story, however most of the stories do have merit to them.
agreed fully though I find fans opinions on quality tend to not only vary greatly over time but also tend to be hypocritical when looking at stuff people consider to be "classics" or whatever. Most supposed masterpieces aren't nearly as good as they're made out to be and most the time they are quite comparable to later media that is supposedly just an imitation.
I loved timelash as a kid. of course I'd later grow up and see so many flaws and poorer character treatment. still, Paul vs Colin hamming it up never gets tiresome and that'd probably why they went over the top. they had to!
One of the most annoying things about 80s who before Andrew Cartmel is the great potential a lot of the characters had which was never or barely acted upon. People always use the likes of Nyssa, Kamelion and Turlough as excuses for the lack of variety for companions these days, however all three had great character arcs which weren't given focus. Nyssa's life was completely destroyed by the Master, she has a personal connection to him and all this got was about 3 lines. It's the same for the 6th Doctor, they only seemed to half commit to this really interesting arc, and ultimately kill him off without even completing it.
I just saw "Paradise Towers" again the other day and I thought it was good. Not great but good. It has that classic "Doctor Who" trope of people trapped in a given area and, over time, building their own societies, having their own slang, and so forth. I like that.
I actually have some history with this story... I first saw it at my very first Doctor Who convention, back in '85, when I was still a fifteen year old kid in high school. Back then, being a U.S. fan during the '80's meant being at the mercy of whatever your local PBS affiliate was able to afford, or having a friend in the video-sharing community and access to a VHS player (I didn't have the former, and only had the latter after '86), or hump it to a con, and greedily consume whatever they were showing. As a result: I f**king loved this thing, when I first watched it. Me and my best friend watched it in cramped side-room, with like fifty other hard-core fans, and we all seemed to think that Colin Baker was the best Doctor ever, and that Twin Dilemma was the show at its very best. Isn't interesting what youthful exuberance, combined with crushing scarcity, can do to one's sense of good-taste?
Twin Dilemma suffers one of the same problems as Time Flight: it comes off an episode with a large shakeup, the death of companion or the regeneration of The Doctor, but pretty much has to go on like business as usual, instead of letting the audience digest what has happened the previous week. But in Twin Dilemma's case, the writers had nothing. Probably the biggest example I'll remember involves an exchange between Peri and 6: Peri complains about the Doctor rushing to help; the Doctor agrees and changes his mind, then Peri immediately complains about this action that she herself suggested. If they wanted to do something to shakeup the dynamic, they should have waited the year and thought about how to do it.
Enjoyed that you tackled and acknowledged the issues with the script right away to get right to what is good and interesting about the serial, ie. Colin Baker having to figure out how to try to develop this character to eventually be more moderate and tolerable persona within the confines of this massive shift in the relationship of the Doctor with his companion. Also never appreciated just how traumatic these circumstances were for Peri as a character was until you pointed them out...appreciate that!
I think of the most effective summations about the failed ambitions of Twin Dilemma is in SF Debris' mini-documentary about Classic Who's cancelation, where he immediately cuts from the Sixth Doctor's statement that "I am the Doctor whether you like it or not" to a news report of DW being put on hiatus for 18 months. While the show's issues (particularly with Michael Grade) certainly can't solely be laid at this episode's feet, it was an ominous sign of both the further troubles to come and the showrunners' inability to really find a direction for Who until the damage was already done.
Silver Nemesis is great if you interpret it as an action-comedy, there are some great moments with the Cybermen ("Is this the Human condition of madness, Leader?") it gives Ace one of her most badass scenes wiping out a platoon of Cybermen, it adds some mystery to the Doctor's character, and its generally just a really fun romp
To be honest I'd rather watch "The Twin Dilemma" than "Love and Monsters" and the reason is Colin Baker. Sure his first outing as the 6th Doctor is most controversial but what can I say I love his stubborn and dramatic attitude even if it is a bit strong at first. Thankfully it does gets a little better in even during the later TV appearances and then Big Finish got the perfect balance for audios. In a way the 6th Doctor is similar to the 1st Doctor who could be rather insufferable and self righteous himself and whose selfish actions led himself and his companions into danger more than once. One example includes how he treated Barbara and Ian when they followed Susan his granddaughter into the TARDIS in the very first episode. He not very hospitable towards them and was in fact rather threatening. Another example is the first serial with Daleks where 1st Doctor lies about needing a part for the TARDIS so they would explore the city on Sakaro where they would come across the tin plated despots for the first time. So yeah the 1st Doctor was not the innocent naive old man that his appearance suggests, and the 6th Doctor in way emulates that although in a physically younger version.
I like the depiction of 6 a lot more in this story after listening to his Big Finish audiobooks, they really gave him a great character arc, with the contrasts in this first story just making it feel more powerful to me. It reminds me a lot of the development Hartnell's Doctor went through, though obviously a little more extreme. The story itself always felt like self-parody to me, everything about it is so garish and badly thought out, that I've never really felt motivated to re-watch the full thing, which is pretty rare for me with Who. I actually enjoy the rest of Colin Baker's TV run a lot more, I consider a lot of Season 22 a guilty pleasure, with Vengeance on Varos and Revelation of the Daleks being genuinely great in my opinion, and I admire the concept behind Trial of a Timelord, even if I don't think the season lives up to it in any way.
Yes I agree with this so much. There's so much of Hartnell in Baker's performance it HAS to be intentional, and a lot of his mannerisms seem so self aware (or at least Baker seems self aware of his lines) that they HAVE to be purposely poking fun at the Doctor
The Twin Dilemma isn't the worst thing ever if you watch it out of context but if you understand all the decisions behind it, it's baffling. El Sandifer put it best. Yeah it might be brave to air a regeneration as the last story of a series, yes it's brave to go dark with a new doctor but doing them together weponises stupidity And the rest of the story is just bog standard Dr Who that doesn't fit the tone of the Doctor going dark and not suited to being the finale of a season.
This definitely isn't the only time that the finale should have been the previous story (time flight) I do really like Colin Baker and his doctor. And I do really like season 22,but yes there definitely are many things they did wrong
Couple of points: The maths genius twins were pretty much lifted from Robert A Heinlein's "Space family Stone". The problem with The Doctor's costume is that pretty much everyone else had to be dressed in a similarly garish fashion turning the series into an eyesore.
I just finished watching Timelash as part of my Six Doctor project and it really is jarring just to watch 6 just yell at Peri while she covers her ears and closes her eyes. She comes off as more a hostage than anything that the Doctor isn’t even sure he wants to keep,
Warriors of the Deep review: "You aren't about the defend The Twin Dilemma on my channel are you? Because I can banish you to the inky void with a keystroke here."
Shitcanon is bloody awful. I'm finally glad that Love and Monsters has started to actually be thought about, instead of just being given immediate hatred. And I feel that what they could try is have the Doctor go slowly madder until the Regenerative Trauma wears off.
I Respect what you mean Stu, and I, kind of agree with you too. So many brave out-of-the-box ideas. Colin was good, enjoy his craziness, but they should have scraped the slugs, the kids, the space policeman with the camp shirt. Basically, should have got Robert Holmes to have written it back-to-back with "Caves" would it have cost that much. This is probably Chibnall's favourite episode!
This approach to the Doctor could maybe have worked with a different incarnation. A huge reason Six's first impression is so bad is that Six's mood swings aren't different enough from his baseline in this story to be put down to regeneration trauma. If someone like Five or Eight had the occasional violent psychotic break, it would be such a sharp contrast from how they usually act that it'd be obvious that they weren't themselves at the time. But Six is already so needlessly hostile in this story that it's just an escalation from verbal to physical abuse, which feels uncomfortably plausible.
Okay, I’m going to bring up something that no one seems to notice. (Admittedly I didn’t notice this until I watched a few episodes a few times) The thing that no one notices is that the doctors relationship with Peri actually gets better as his era progresses. I mean, in twin dilemma he’s terrible, but in attack of the cybermen he’s more calm and doesn’t yell or patronise Peri. In vengeance on varos, they argue, but in a sort of married couple kinda way that makes it funny and the doctor even saves Peri’s life. In the two doctors he’s there for Peri the entire episode, unfortunately in timelash we go back to square zero and he’s a dick again. But in revelation of the Daleks we’re back to the married couple kind of relationship but he still looks out for Peri. Six’s relationship with Peri does get better, it just happens slowly.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes aspects of the story. I thought I was going insane when I actually liked the episode when I watched it a few months ago.
'Okay yes, this was the 80s and back then that sentence didn't sound nearly as creepy as it does now' Given that the 80s was the decade when Stranger Danger became a hot topic, chances are it probably would've sounded that creepy back then
The 6th was too extreme a Doctor for the viewing audience to warm too and frankly, we weren’t ready for him yet. Peter Davison should have done another season to properly flesh his Doctor out. And the writers were shit too.
The trouble with stories that tell a story backwards, with the results, feelings, reactions etc. but the events and reasons are only given at the end, is you don’t know why you care about any of it, and then need to rewatch it all. Why anyone thought that could that work on episodic TV drama in the 80s is beyond me.
It was Colin's bursts of Bat-Sh*t-Craziness that made me like him. Not that anyone really loved this particular story, but I really did like much of what came in the next two series with Colin. And it was entirely because of Colin that I later dipped into Big Finish. I just listened to the final BF Main Range release yesterday... yes I bought and listened to all 275 of them, and not just the ones with Ol' Sixie.
The lines "Change my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon" and "I am the Doctor. Whether you like it, or not," are such good lines. I love them so so much. They exude so much confidence towards the future and of the 6th Doctor. So much confidence that, when rewatching those scenes, it feels a little bit like watching a recording of the Titanic and everyone aboard setting out on it's maiden voyage. The lines are almost baiting the viewers to look negatively towards the 6th Doctor, and maybe that was the point, since many have said that the 6th Doctor was supposed to have a character arc of some kind. But whether on purpose or not, the writers wrote the "unlikableness" too well and he'd never really get much of a chance to self-correct on the show itself. The 6th Doctor is my favorite Doctor, almost entirely through big finish, but I like him enough that I can watch enough of his episodes and still be excited to see where the character started at. And I feel like the 6th Doctor needed the years between the show and when he entered big finish just so people could have a fresh perspective on him again after everything.
I've always loved The Twin Dilemma. I'd go so far as to call it my favorite post regeneration Doctor story simply for how unpredictable and off the wall Colin is in contrast to his predecessor. I think Colin is utterly magnetic in this story.
I've always loved Love and Monsters but I do understand why people don't like it. I do find it sad that the Abzorbaloff is the focus of the criticism because the episode isn't a monster of a week the focus is on well written characters reacting to this world that now seems so Alien and the lose created by that world.
Truly a sad situation, particularly considering how Colin was able to prove how much of an astounding Doctor he can deliver in the hands of people that actually know how to write interesting stories. I love the Sixth Doctor and he'll always be my favourite incarnation. But it's undeniable how the circumstances of the era ended up impacting his whole tenure.
You know, I don't know why I like The Twin Dilemma. I know it's not a great episode of Doctor Who but I think most of the Jodie Whittaker era was terrible. I feel sorry for poor Colin Baker. He played The Doctor the best he could and The Sixth Doctor wasn't The Doctor he had set out to play. The Doctor was obviously unwell in the story and was suffering from PTSD causing him to get confused, paranoid and violent which explained his behaviour in the story and why he thought Peri was a alien spy and why he attacked her. I looked up the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and confusion, paranoia, Irritability and violent behaviour. Maybe The Twin Dilemma should had happened at the beginning of the following season.
Seeing me drawn in the video at 0:26 may genuinely be one of the hypest things to happen to me over the course of the pandemic (yes it’s been that much of a drag) thanks so much Stu, keep up the good work! :D
Would love for a modern series to have a regeneration where the Doctor just turns into the worst version of himself, and forces his companion to kill him to save themselves from his psychotic urges, and then he regenerates & he has to make up for the trauma his previous self inflicted upon his companions. My god, would the fucking rollout be nuts. You announce your new doctor, have your sendoff story...only for him to transform into someone totally unexpected, have a full episode go about wiht the audience scratching their heads, and at the end regenerates into the actual new guy. Will people hate this? probably. Is it better than anything Chibnall's done? That's for yall to decide!
I think every fandom has the concept of ‘shitcanon’, that some entries are inarguably the good ones and some are inarguably the bad ones. As you said, Doctor Who having so many episodes exacerbates the problem as it means there’s less time to rewatch it all, but I don’t think it’s solely a DW fandom thing. Off the top of my head: with ‘Twin Peaks’, all the episodes of Season 2 after Laura Palmer’s murderer is revealed (except for the finale) is shit. With James Bond, ‘Die Another Day’ is shit. With The Simpsons, ‘The Principal and the Pauper’ episode is shit. Just a few I can think of but I’m sure there are more examples.
It was recognizing glue guns from the craft store used as guns when the Twin Dilemma first aired that made it even more difficult to get into it. I still have a hard time conceiving what the writers and showrunner were thinking having the doctor almost strangle Peri. Thank you for pointing out some positive points.
It's not as bad as its reputation but it's not great. It was a brave idea but Saward was one of the worst things to ever happen to Doctor Who and Steven Mofatt would show how this idea could work when he did it with the Twelfth Doctor. The 45 minute stories of season 22 should have been a gift for this idea of an unstable Doctor. It seems like a brave idea, putting the new Doctor at the end of the season but they had no more money and it shows. The performances from the boys and Dennis Chinnery are awful. It really should have been a two parter. The dying Azmael scene is beautifully played though.
The main reason for The Talons of Weng-Chiang being critically divided is the racism that's in the production and the writing. The "It's a product of it's time" excuses fall flat because the racist aspects of The Talons of Weng-Chiang have gotten backlash since it was broadcasted. Liking The Talons of Weng-Chiang doesn't automatically make you racist, but just be aware that it's racism has made it aged poorly and will be harder to forgive. I just find The Talons of Weng-Chiang to be an average story and it's racism makes it stick out sorely.
What I don’t get is Talons is now considered shit for its racism yet Tomb of the Cybermen (which also has some dated views on race & gender) gets a free pass & is still considered a classic.
It started much earlier than this...see The Gunfighters, The Dominators and The Space Pirates for early examples! BTW, the novel of The Twin Dilemma is quite respectable and salvages a misguided central premise.
Timelash is worse. It doesn't have the stark comparison of a much better story next to it and is just kind of boring. There's very little to talk about besides Paul Darrow, the production values and keep an eye out for That Space Sofa. Whereas with The Twin Dilemma, there's a hell of a lot more to dissect what the hell wrong. Oh it's bloody awful of course, but it's awful because it's a mistake. It's not awful because nobody was giving a shit, JN-T absolutely was albeit in the worst way possible.
Twin Dilemma was actually the last Colin story I saw. I'm very much a TV!6 apologist (to the point where I prefer his grumpy TV version over the post-character development version on Big Finish. There's my hot take). Within the context of season 22, you do notice that his and Peri's clashes are more like an old married couple (for the most part), with Peri more often being right and The Doctor getting huffy about losing the argument. Even Timelash, where it does appear to be more like verbal abuse, has a moment or two where you can see that they do care about each other (he literally throws her out of the TARDIS to go on a suicide mission to keep her safe). So I was going in hoping to defend Twin Dilemma's portrayal of Six... I could not defend it. The Doctor is just horrid throughout, even ignoring the obvious scene. And he and Peri never come off as friends at all whatsoever. It's a vicious cycle of watching two characters I really like being unpleasant to each other, spliced between the really boring and daft plot with the kids. One might even call it... A Twin Dilemma.
Season 21 really REALLY should've ended with Caves of Androzani. The season would've ended on a very high note and more viewers would've tuned in the following year to see the 6th doctor for the first time. Having Twin Dilemma at the end of season 21 completely lost any traction Caves of Androzani had created and put an extremely bad first impression on Colin Baker (that wasn't his own fault) that ultimately put off a lot of the viewers before the following year. An incredibly stupid decision.
I haven't seen Twin Dilemma since it aired here in the states, probably around the mid-eighties or so? I don't remember any of that stuff and I'm kind of glad I don't. Does anybody think the idea that the Doctor is "eccentric" or pompous stems from the interpretation of the first Doctor, Hartnell, and that while he didn't portray the character as so "out there" as all these others have been, he was mimicking the English authority that didn't like to be challenged, like a school professor or something. Troughton and Pertwee managed this as well, with the few companions they had, but with Tom, it took its different turn, and Tom's take was interpreted as anti-social, which he never was, and again, it came down to the companions working with him, but with Davison, he was much too boyish looking, so when he got irritable and cantankerous, he came across nearly as a bully toward Tegan and Adric, and this was propelled further with this one, Colin Baker. Who remembers all the nonsense about Colin Baker being a return to Troughton? Wow, that didn't happen, even when they brought Troughton on there. It was all the more apparent they weren't similar. From what I've seen and recall of McCoy, there was an attempt to tone it all back, but the damage was done, and truthfully, with Matt Smith, who was much too young, this 'odd behavior' comes across as frightfully boring, which often happens when characters strive to be amusing and then their 'humor' becomes dated. It takes a different turn.
The Twin Dilemma is flawed but I honestly quite like it! There are some funny moments like at 9:53 (ironic or not) so I will defend it simply so you can have a bit of fun Also, Timelash is great and Paradise Towers is bad whilst you like it so sh*tcanon is definitely stupid
I respect the boldness of THE TWIN DILEMMA, but it's like respecting Tori Amos' covers record, STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS...I'm a big fan of early Tori, but, maybe three great songs aside, it's bad. Which is to say, taking a risk is admirable, but if it doesn't pay off artistically, it remains a failure. And so it was with STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS and THE TWIN DILEMMA.
I don't understand why they made this the last episode of Season 21. It doesn't make sense for Colin Baker's first serial to air at the end of Peter Davison's final season.
I occasionally wonder what happened to the acting twins. They can't act and the script and direction just makes it worse, but it can't feel good to have all your ambitions torperoed by your very first effort.
According to the DVD commentary, one is now a television producer. When this comes up, Baker, Bryant & McNally start singing the praises of the twins' acting ability.
Well stubagful well your evil of the daleks prediction was wrong as it comes out September 27th and no word on the abominable snowman yet but web of fear special edition releases August 16th
The Twin Dilemma is a story I like for various superficial aspects, like Azmael, Mestor's voice and the Jacondans (the bird people) as well as Lt. Lang, but yes, the Doctor is embarrassing and cringeworthy, the twins are bad actors, and the plot is wafer-thin. However, I really enjoyed the novelisation of the story, which featured a lot of extra little side-stories for the various technologies and locations, really fleshed it out if you ask me.
I never really think of episodes as being irredeemable, except in glaringly obvious circumstances where it was clear not an ounce of love was put into it. There are episodes that had something salvagable, and there was, at the very least, a decent idea going into them, but was sadly lost due to circumstances being less than optimal. It's why I am not as harsh towards "Time and the Rani" for instance, because most of the problems are in large part due to it being originally written when the actor playing the Seventh Doctor hadn't been cast, which results in a quite erratic personality for the most part, but the costumes and effects aren't the worst, and, given a bit more well established cast, the plot could just about work. I cannot say the same for, say, "Resurrection of the Daleks", where there was a LOT of off screen drama, leading to a very clunky production by crew who weren't familiar with the premise, written by someone who didn't enjoy watching all the previous Dalek stories as research for a jumbled story, performed by a normally stellar cast who were very heartbroken by the ending and almost didn't want to go through with it.
imagine you haven't watched dr.who since Tom Baker left, you didn't really resonate with the 5th doctor and you turn on this to check out the new guy. i honestly wonder how much this episode just confirmed to lapsed fans dr.who jumped the shark and it was all down hill from here. i bet it was quite a few people, and that is what makes this episode kinda inexplicable to me. like there are good episodes this season why would they choose this one?
I don’t mind the Twin Dilemma, every season 24, love monsters Colony in Space, The Mutants, Timelash, Two Doctors, Fear Her, Everything from the Shittaker era I hate.
The first episode was so off-putting when I rewatched it for a recent review. The second half isn't bad as such, just very dumb. So many questionable decisions. If the Doctor had been like Attack of the Cybermen's characterisation in this one, he would still have been a bit course but more manageable.
In the novellization, author Eric Seward mentions that amongst the Time Lords, the worst crime ever is for a Time Lord to switch sexes. Don't kill the messenger, I am just telling what is written in the book. I didn't write the book. I did not say I agree with the Time Lords. It is just a book. A science fiction book. Nobody should take it seriously. Dr. Who shouldn't be canceled because of a few pages in one book that isn't even part of canon,but part of shit canon. Oh, wait....
I'm also a Paradise Towers fan! And Time and the Rani is... meh IMO? It's not great but not terrible. I enjoyed Silver Nemesis. Love and Monsters is every bit the piece of shit people say it is. why.
brave ideas but not polished. With "Androzani" setting up regeneration failure with the Doctor saying "feels different this time" as a result of (a) holding it back long enough so he can save Peri all while (b) succumbing to a toxin ravaging his body, the result of manic instability should have been ironed out in those 4 parts. The story was wracked with delays and even the script editor had to take over its development, as later episodes have a different feel - but with a production deadline they wear stuck with it. Colin and Nicola worked overtime to make a muddled disaster of a story be even remotely entertaining. ditto for the actors playing Edgeworth and Hugo. for everything JNT wanted that finale needed to have been developed a lot earlier if they really wanted to sell the biggest contrast between Doctors ever. And unlike Love & Monsters, Twin Dilemma is actually trying to be sci-fi and not trite meta about its audience. Oh "Twin" has some major blunders, but older stories also goofed up on then-common scientific principles too. if only Twin Dilemma was universally good instead of a mess with missed opportunities.
