Tournament of Time – The Masters
Given random pairings of eight screened portrayals, we decide which Masters are more important to the full Doctor Who story, and who we’d most love to see again.
Classic Rewatch: Frontier In Space
Doctor Who has always been rife with complex backstories and themes of conflict drawn from the news and events of the time. Call it “present day problems, presented in another day”, if you will. From workers striking against the regime, to species in tense stalemates on the brink of war, to contending with the horrific aftermath of genocide and mutually assured destruction, the program has used our own chaotic world and its occupants as the inspiration for otherworldly tales. When […]
Classic Rewatch: The Claws of Axos
The most interesting fictional adversaries have more in common than they do in conflict: Holmes and Moriarty. Gandalf and Saruman. Kenobi and Vader. Burger King and Ronald McDonald. What may make their ‘familiar contempt’ even more intriguing, perhaps, are the instances where they must put aside their differences and work towards a common goal — typically their own survival. We present, as a grab-your-popcorn-and-just-enjoy examples, the Doctor and the Master trying to jointly outwit an alien force that is quickly outgrowing […]
A Masterful Villain
It makes perfect literary sense. How do you create a villain who is legitimately threatening, an engaging and interesting match for the protagonist’s strengths, but is not over-powerful? Simple solution: You take the hero, and make them evil. If someone is so near to your intellectual and capable equal in nearly all counts, the “chess match” is all the more balanced, and victory that much harder to attain. So it makes sense that Doctor Who showrunners would nurture such a perfect foil, and […]