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Post by Future-Diver on Aug 7, 2024 21:44:12 GMT
I always liked Vicki more than Susan.
This story always feels to me like the moment when William Hartnell's Doctor finally became the HERO of the show. Before this, it was Ian. But with Susan gone, The Doctor took a nap to relax, maybe for the first time in years, who knows. And when he woke up, and went out to confront the bad guy... it just feels to me like the whole dynamic of the series changed right at that moment.
People who came in with Pertwee or Baker not might understand this, and most people I knew who watched the show in the US NEVER gave Hartnell's run a chance and so completely missed his evolution as a character!
I get what you're saying about Hartnell's Doctor and agree, but he still never became a completely heroic character. Despite being wise, kind and grandfatherly, he could also be bad tempered, impatient and mischievous. And he was a far more interesting Doctor because of it.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 7, 2024 21:57:16 GMT
I sometimes wonder... HOW did we ever wind up with Peter's Cushing's "Dr. Who"? I'm sure Cushing COULD have played Hartnell's Doctor... but that's NOT the personality he's doing at all.
He's closer to the dotty old scientist Boris Karloff played in THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU.
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Post by Future-Diver on Aug 8, 2024 6:04:06 GMT
I sometimes wonder... HOW did we ever wind up with Peter's Cushing's "Dr. Who"? I'm sure Cushing COULD have played Hartnell's Doctor... but that's NOT the personality he's doing at all.
He's closer to the dotty old scientist Boris Karloff played in THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU.
To give the Doctor wider appeal to the international audience - Cushing's version is the archetypal daffy old professor/inventor- a character-type that film-goers would have been more familiar with. He's softer and more kiddy-friendly than Hartnell's (sometimes) abrasive Doctor. I'm a big fan of Peter Cushing and I love those two Dalek films, but I sometimes think that they were the '60s equivalent of NuWho - in both cases, we see a simplified, less outlandish version of the Doctor, in an attempt to make him more human, more likeable and ultimately more popular with the mainstream audience.
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 8, 2024 15:37:14 GMT
Having seen what was then currently available in the 80s, William Hartnell's Doctor goes thru DRASTIC evoltion over a period of time. I knew some people at work who were familiar with Tom Baker, or even Peter Davison, who took one look at Hartnell's first story and just STOPPED dead. They could not be bothered sticking around to see what followed. Obviously, oblivious to the fact that in the early stories, Ian Chesterton was the show's nominal hero.
But 2 of my favorite stories are historical comedies-- "The Romans" and "The Gunfighters", and in both, Hartnell's Doctor is MUCH more likable. Again, I'm sure Peter Cushing cold have done any version of Hartnell's Doctor, but you'd think he might have done the later version, which was the then-CURRENT version on TV.
But I guess somebody (Milton Subotsky?) had other ideas.
The story I've heard is that the 1st movie made a ton of money in England... but the TV fans really didn't like that the TV actors (and their versions of the characters) were not in the film... so the 2nd movie did mt' do well, EVEN THOUGH it is arguably 10 times better of a movie. (It remains to this day, my FAVORITE Daleks story.)
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Post by profh0011 on Aug 8, 2024 15:38:42 GMT
Whenever I watch this, I tend to think this is the 1942 equivalent of the 1st AND 2nd Doctors... heh.
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Post by Future-Diver on Aug 8, 2024 16:55:18 GMT
I knew some people at work who were familiar with Tom Baker, or even Peter Davison, who took one look at Hartnell's first story and just STOPPED dead. Why would they do that? The first episode of 'An Unearthly Child' is superb (even if the following three aren't anywhere near as good). Was it because it was in black and white? Or was it because the Doctor's a bit grumpy in those early stories? Why would this necessarily turn people off? Lots of fictional characters are quite different to begin with, before the writers have had a chance to develop them. Sorry, If I'm being obtuse again...
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