I re-watched Planet of the Daleks tonight

[lyssie]

And it is pure crack. No, srsly. IT IS LIKE THE BEST THING EVER. Wobbly sets! Hilarious jungle! Padding that makes you go "...did we just spend an entire episode with the Doctor mumbling to himself in a cell?"

Also, there is something about watching Jo Grant accidentally blow up an entire Dalek patrol that gives you a sort of warm feeling. (she does it again later on, ok, so there's some Thal dude involved, but Jo was totally the instigator; also, she deactivates bombs and steals explosives)

Then there's the bro!TP of The Doctor and that Thal dude who spends so much time stuck in a cell with him. Like, at the end I was all "oh, c'mon, guys, just kiss already" (I do not have the usual slash goggles).

NO SRSLY. They build a barricade out of random shit at one point, and the DALEKS SPEND LIKE TWENTY MINUTES RAMMING IT. It is classic.

Anyway. Bedtime for me now.

Comments

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

In other words a typical early Who that made us oldies(I was late teen when I saw the first broadcast of the first episode) fall in love with it. And Jo is my favourite companion, she had the sense to leave and get married to a Welsh man(The Green Death)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. But at the time, I don't think I noticed things like that. I was mostly all "YAY DALEKS AND THE CREEPY JUNGLE AND JOOOOOOOOOO"

...which, come to think about it, isn't that different from my current reaction. I think I just appreciate it more.

I keep getting surprised about how much Jo actually does in episodes. My childhood memories aren't particularly good, and usually what people see/are told when that era is talked about is, well Jo's costumes, and how she gets captured a lot, and how she's always asking "Oh, Doctor, what do we do?" and being a glorified tea girl.

But that isn't really the whole picture--it's like Three has this weird Field of Stupidity, wherein everyone who gets close to him suddenly loses all ability to reason and plan (in Planet of the Daleks, the Thal commander basically can't do anything without Three's brains--this despite the plan that he must have been trained and also has survived in the jungle for weeks. And yet, Three has to tell him what to do).

So, Jo on her own is resourceful, intelligent and courageous. When she's around the Doctor, she suddenly can't do anything. It's very weird.

Hrm. That got longer than I'd thought it would.

Basically, I wanted to be Jo Grant. With her rings and her clothes and her bravery--and I was blonde as a child, so it worked.