Season Eight Recap | Doctor Who Marathon From The Beginning | A Stumble Following Pertwee's Debut? 

60th Anniversary Doctor Who Marathon...Take 2 "Season 8" TV stories The Daemons (9/10) Colony in Space (8/10) Terror of the Autons (8/10) The Mind of Evil (7/10) The Claws of Axos (6/10) I felt that the relationship between the Doctor and Jo was a bit toxic. A bit like his original relationship with Ian and Barbara back in season 1 (but not quite). I dunno, it seemed like the Doctor was more grumpy with his exile and overreacted by Liz's departure and taking it out some on Jo. Although I do think by the end of Season 8, the Doctor/Jo relationship is improving. I love Jo Grant. Wanting to be helpful, her curiosity and her initiative are things that seem to define her character even decades later. Her friendship with Mike Yates seems to be one of a brother/sister type bond and I've been enjoying that. So...now for the "elephant in the room"...the Master was a huge presence throughout the season and I love the Delgado incarnation. His chemistry with Pertwee was incredible and I look forward to more between them in the next 2 seasons. I would consider him crazy even now, and with the character of the Master, I've always liked that. The Mind of Evil has an interesting moral dilemma I feel. The rehabilitation of dangerous criminals by wiping their memories to reintegrate them into productive members of society (instead of just killing them). The way I feel about that personally...I think I would rather die. And depending on what exactly the crime is, I wouldn't want to see the person out among the general population. Memory wipe or not. I may be in the minority, but I feel that "living" plastic is a rather boring and dull concept for a monster. It's pretty much all they are. However, the stories that they've been in so far (Terror of the Autons this season, and Spearhead from Space the previous season) have been rather good with the main and secondary casts. The Daemons was a really great story. As someone who is somewhat familiar with the word "Beltane" I perked up immediately. I'm a bit impressed that the story had a pretty unbiased view of what a witch is (the good witch of course) and that the story didn't decide to kill her off. The Master of course was great as usual and probably shined more here than in previous stories. For best ally of team Tardis, my pick is Olive Hawthorne. And for best villain, the Master is way too obvious a pick, I say goes to Captain Dent from Colony in Space. Big Finish The Sacrifice of Jo Grant (10/10) The Sentinels of the New Dawn (7/10) The Magician's Oath (7/10) This season had a rather sparce Big Finish output. It is mostly due to the fact that not much has been made within the 1971 season of the show. Sentinels and Magician's Oath are both strong 7/10s, but the best by far is the Sacrifice of Jo Grant. Technically, it's a 3rd part of an Anniversary box set (Legacy of Time), but it stands quite well on its own. Also...I do admit that I cried a little during the final 10 minutes or so. Companion rankings Vicki Jamie Zoe Brigadier Ian Chesterton Steven Taylor Polly Barbara Wright Jo Benton Liz Victoria Ben Yates Oliver Sara Susan Dodo Katarina

My season rankings so far: 1. Season 7 - 4.75 2. Season 4 - 3.66 3. Season 8 - 3.6 4. Season 5 - 3.5 5. Season 3 - 3.44 6. Season 6 - 3.14 7. Season 1 - 3.12 8. Season 2 - 3.11 As a season with three classic stories, I'm actually surprised to see Season 6 so low, bought down by too many duds. Slightly surprised to see Season 8 so high too - but I think having fewer stories means fewer duds - although Season 9 could be an exception to that rule!

Great point about Pertwee being a little too comfortable and Delgado forcing him to up his game in their scenes together - I've always thought Pertwee is at his best as an actor when being challenged

But season four is my favourite season of all 😢

I like Season 8 quite a bit, but once we get halfway through season 9 to halfway into season 11 it's my favourite run of stories until the 80's so I'm a bit a of a fanboy about this period.

Will the season ranking be back for season 11 recap? 🙏 (also season 4 is best season in the show smh)

The Doctor is trapped on Earth. Caged. He's bitter and angry and frustrated. Pertwee plays this journey to perfection. His frustration is at a peak in season 8.His optimism that he can wangle an escape in season 7 has gone. Season 9 sees acceptance and then his freedom is restored in season 10. Its a bold, thought through take on the character. I love it.

My first doctor,2 best for me only just below tom baker 👍

I can see where you are coming from about the Doctor's attitude but he is an alien trapped on one planet in one time. At no other time in his lives has he been in this situation. So he will be cranky and contradictory at times. He doesn’t work for UNIT - he's offered his services to help and he points out to Liz and Jo quite rightly when they overstep the mark in their comments about their superior (not his so he's not being a hypocrite).We are now in that blurry period of working relationships before becoming the cosy UNIT family around the end of Season 9 which is where Letts and Dicks were heading. For me there are two great stories in season 8 - The Mind of Evil (great concept and setting and a definite hang over from season 7 in tone) and a trip into the supernatural with the Daemons. Season 7 is my all time favourite so sadly season 8 doesn’t get close but does give us Roger Delgado, my favourite Master, but he is overused this season. And with the new tradition of a Christmas omnibus we head into season 9 and the return of the Daleks.

this comment might be a bit random and rambly, apologies in advance. Regarding the new seasons ranking list, you may not find listing them in order of how you rated the episodes the best way to judge and rank the seasons because as you mention the result you get may not be the one that you feel like you shouldn't have gotten. For instance last weekend I rated every episode of new who out of 10 and basically made a season ranking list with that data and it the results were shockingly different to what I would have said if you asked me to rank the seasons. I really dislike season 2 and do not overall enjoy it and would have listed it the worst season but according to my rankings it ended up being like 8/14 or something , however despite rating it like that I still enjoy it and think of it less fondly as seasons I rated worse sorry for the ramble, I'm definitely not trying to tell you how to do things, I just recently did something similar so wanted to share my two thoughts

Your opinions on the stories this season are basically the opposite to mine, Mind of Evil is my favourite of the bunch, followed by the Daemons, Terror of the Autons, The Claws of Axos and then Colony in Space (which is my overall least favourite of Pertwee's run), but I always love hearing conflicting views to my own. Looking forward to your take on Season Nine.

Honestly, Season 8 is pretty much the weakest Pertwee Season. (Its a Pertwee Season so its far off being one of the bottom ones when it comes to Who for me at least). Degaldo is superb as the Master and Manning is wonderful as Jo, but really gets her best material around the next two Seasons. Overall, it felt like a little step-down from Season 7 to me, but how can you top like that? Overall mixed feelings on that Season as a whole.