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Post by Cyggy on Mar 4, 2022 22:01:25 GMT
Please rate and review this story.....
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Post by Cyggy on Mar 11, 2022 19:22:49 GMT
I do think this one is a bit overlong too. But I like the atmosphere it conjures up. Pertwee barking... "Right! Cut it open!" always strikes me as a memorable moment and an unusually hard-edge for his Doctor?
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Post by GC on Mar 13, 2022 1:53:16 GMT
Dunno about this one. Something's always seemed a bit off with it for me, like as if it was done on the quick. Rushed. Dunno could be wrong, been a while since I last saw it, that's all I recall thinking at the time. It's certainly not up to the same standard as the rest of the season 7.
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Post by GC on Mar 13, 2022 1:55:20 GMT
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Post by Servo on Jun 12, 2022 13:24:48 GMT
All this aliens being benevolent malarkey sounds a bit woke to me.
And Carrington, despite being a xenophobic arse, is more misguided than anything else.
So the lack of any real obviously evil villain is a bit disconcerting, but I don’t mind this one.
Sure there’s the usual Pertwee endless running around and it’s far too long, and you have to suspend belief more than once, but having said that I rather like it.
Always thought Reegan was the most interesting character. The amoral gun for hire who does his own thinking.
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 9, 2022 20:52:32 GMT
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Post by GC on Jul 24, 2022 22:19:36 GMT
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Post by Cyggy on Jul 31, 2022 16:27:08 GMT
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Post by rapscallion on Nov 24, 2022 11:33:39 GMT
I've got a lot of love for The Ambassadors Of Death, as I have for Season 7 as a whole. 7 episodes is definitely pushing it, maybe it could've been tightened up to 6 episodes, but I don't think that it suffers from any more noticeable padding than The Silurians or Inferno.
I think Ambassadors gets unfairly overlooked, but not to worry, it's a favourite of mine.
At just three stories into the role I love how Pertwee exudes such confidence in his portrayal of the Doctor.
I think Ambassadors has got some wonderful cliffhangers and some truly memorable scenes. High up the list as standout moments for me are.... 1) The shoot-out at the warehouse between the Brigadier and Carrington's gang. 2) The Doctor barking at one of Carrington's gang after he is arrested in order to prove that he is a trained soldier. 3) The scenes at the forest clearing with the landed recovery rocket, and the Doctor managing to stop Carrington's stooges by using Bessie. 4) The dumping of the bodies at the gravel pit and the changing of the sign on the side of the van. 5) Liz being chased in Bessie until she is caught on the weir. 6) The ambassadors themselves being held in the hut in a forest and the experiments on them. 7) Reegan's duping of Taltalian and that brief case explosion. Reegan is a great character, sly, cunning and self-serving. 8) That eerie shot of the ambassador walking into the base with the sun reflecting on it. 9) The ambassador looming over the Doctor with its arm outstretched as he's looking at Quinlan's dead body.
Season 7 was a great run of fantastic, gritty, action stories. And despite the length of the latter three stories, I can really immerse myself into everything that's happening.
It's a real shame to think that this is Liz's penultimate story and that she'll just disappear at the end of the next one with no on-screen send off. I think Caroline John was great in the role and I like Liz.
I know that some 25 years later there was a book written (Wages Of Sin?) where Liz joined up with the Doctor and Jo and went back to the time of Rasputin. I've never read the book and know very little about it, but I think it's sad that Barry Letts never opted to include Liz alongside Jo in such a way throughout the Pertwee era. I think they could have been a great trio.
Oh well, nonetheless Liz was the star companion of 4 brilliant and highly respected Pertwee era stories.
8 out of 10, (although it would be 8.5 if that were actually an option).
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Post by rapscallion on Nov 24, 2022 11:45:58 GMT
Very interesting read. Seeing Terrance Dicks state that he "inherited this nightmare called 'The Ambassadors Of Death'. I guess that's why it was many years before he novelised the story. One he didn't like so much maybe, or reminded him of frustrating times. I had no idea that it was originally a Troughton story. A potential UNIT story between The Invasion and The War Games maybe?
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Post by Black Orchid on Mar 3, 2023 12:35:13 GMT
"The Ambassadors of Death VHS cover, if it was a random 1970's sci-fi horror film." by Oliver Arkinstall-Jones twitter
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Post by Black Orchid on May 5, 2023 11:58:13 GMT
Colourised by Clayton Hickman
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Post by Black Orchid on May 5, 2023 11:58:45 GMT
Colourised by Clayton Hickman
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Post by Black Orchid on Jul 20, 2023 13:55:32 GMT
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Post by dsjr on Aug 14, 2023 11:29:58 GMT
Not watched this for so long it's like a first time viewing. Despite adjusting the recently acquired player and TV for best visual output (I set it back to pal rather than the NTSC which the player looks to have been set to on receipt - cough, the shame I didn't check before), the picture on my DVD still seems to vary a lot, but as with last time, so glad we have it at all! Lots of obvious killing and so on which wouldn't be allowed today - they genuinely seemed to aim this era at a teenage upwards (male?) audience rather than sub-teen girls as with too many recent NuWho stories. Plenty of outside work as well in the peeing rain with mud flying everywhere - does make it more realistic I think. JP has the role absolutely nailed I think (playing himself I reckon as I remember that same very kindly but 'commanding' presence when I attended one of his 'evenings' which should have been over two or three evenings, he'd done so much in his life - an early one of the tour, the first half merely covered up to the outbreak of WW2!!! ). Does it go on a bit? Well, the stories did back then, but it allows a slow build of suspense and to get to know some of the supporting cast better I think.
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