In the wake of the extreme progressivism of recent Doctor Who, a lot of people - myself included - said that the show in its classic era (1963-89) was never this “woke”.
In the 1980 Who serial, The Horns of Nimon, there might have been some pushback against the progressives. That serial was about a group of Horned aliens taking over another planet trhough mass migration, as per the dying old man to Doctor Who, 'At first there were only a few of them.'
The Nimon were a parasitic alien race who travel via artificial black holes between planets, draining their planetary resources, before moving on to conquer new worlds. The Nimon referred to this activity as "the Great Journey of Life".
Great episodes. I have several Doctor Who epidoes on DVD and (believe it or not) VHS.
I'm going to add this one to the collection soon.
I might even order a vinyl Nimon figure to decorate my book shelf :)
Never seen Dr Who, but the old episodes you describe seem to portray a world very degrading and horrible for women. Glad to see how much women have progressed, how much less women today have to shrink so that the 'hard-headed patriarch' can feel big and tough and clever. Our great-grandmothers, even grandmothers, were subjected to this; we should never forget what they suffered, and how grateful we ought to be to them for moving the needing and giving us a chance in life.
The top two Conservatives of the 1970s were Edward Heath and Douglas-Home. The only achievement of the first was to change the public holidays from Ascension to late-May bank holiday and the Assumption to the August bank holiday ! In a nominal Christian country. The second achieved nothing. Conservative was a misnomer then as now.
Saying Dr Who was always woke is like saying Britain was always diverse. It takes a historical example, which in itself is true, but then stretches it to justify what they want now.
It's funny, My son and I (I'm 61 and he is 30) have been watching Classic Doctor Who regularly of late. It's a safe place to be... You don't have the angst you get from modern "entertainment". You don't have to worry that you will get your knuckles rapped by a Wokie who just has to tell you how it should be, at least until the commercial break.,, We too have been talking about the progressive slant of even early Doctor... Has it been part of a greater plan to ruin our society since then? That's a long game to play. Is it Gramsci's Cult of Resentment that is driving this, and as much damage as it has done to people on the right, how much has it done to the Lefty... I live in a very liberal state, in a liberal county in a liberal town with liberal thinkers everywhere... They cant even come to the debate table in good faith. Broken is the word... So enjoy your early Doctor Who, relax and be grateful that we have this little gem to fall back on. Gratitude is important, it is an inoculation against the Mind Virus of resentment.
Under The Time Monster, you missed out that they made the God Kronos gender-fluid, being played by both an actor and an actress.
Notes on Marriage in Colour Dr Who:
Off the top of my head, the last Dr Who companion to leave in order to get married was as late as 1978*, this being Leela at the end of the 6-part Invasion of Time.
However, companions leaving to get married was once a common practice, including Jo Grant at the end of the aforementioned Green Death. (She gets engaged to Professor Clifford Jones, who is white. She may have been the blonde with whom the black scientist danced, I'd have to watch it again).
Indeed, despite Professor Jones being a hippy, he tells Jo that she can only join him if they get married. No situation-ships for him.
In fact, we know that Jo and Clifford went on to have children because she actually pops up in the Sarah Jane Adventures with one of her grandsons. (I was at the older end of that show's target audience when it first aired).
The last companion who left the Tardis in order to get married was Leela at the end of The Invasion of Time in 1978.
Though 5 years later in 1983, in Terminus, there is enough subtext to imply that Nyssa and one of the raiders will form a relationship. However, the word "marriage" is never said, and she frames her decision as a scientific endeavour to turn the titular ship from a leper colony into a real hospital.
A year later in 1984 we have the story Planet of Fire, which includes a straight-up creeper shot of Nicola Bryant's Peri in a bikini.
*That said, Iit just occurred to me that in Trial of a Time Lord, someone mentions that she becomes Queen to Brian Blessed's King Yrcanos, though that happens off screen. This means that 1986 is the last time that a companion left the Tardis to get married. However, unlike with Leela back in 1978, we don't actually see her make the decision.
When leftists say 'Doctor Who was always woke' they are lying to themselves to pretend to win an argument. If 1970s Doctor Who was, say, 10-15% woke, the modern version is 90%. As there was a small amount of woke in the past, leftists pretend nothing has changed. An obvious lie, but they tell themselves it is true. This is supposed to refute recent criticisms that the show has become too political.
Jon Pertwee was a very masculine Doctor, a James Bond type man of action. Compare him to Ncuti Gatwa. But the show "hasn't changed."
Apart from that, there's the context of the times. In the 1970s it was taken for granted there'd always be an England, and it would be majority-white. Heterosexuality and the family were the norm. Britain had a strong character and culture. Etc. In this safe, comfortable setting, some progressive posing by middle class Doctor Who writers was fairly harmless.
In the 2020s, England is a chaotic multicultural nation, Britain is shamed for its history, the family has broken down, trans was recently mainstream, and the Great Replacement is real. There's no long any good reason to be a leftist, when its effects are so obvious. If those 1970s Doctor Who writers could see Britain today, they would be shocked.
Looks like a drop of poison every now and again in something otherwise good, and now today we're served a pure bottle of poison and they don't bother to hide the label anymore.
I hope that at some point I can enjoy this particular Dr Who run and be able to just let the poison run off my mind without irritation. I really love the aesthetic it goes for.
"The first two Doctors, is a beast that I just can’t bring myself to enjoy watching."
A misjudgement. It would be a gateway into the immediate post-war world for you, those happy days before all the women has passed Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch around for example.
In the 1980 Who serial, The Horns of Nimon, there might have been some pushback against the progressives. That serial was about a group of Horned aliens taking over another planet trhough mass migration, as per the dying old man to Doctor Who, 'At first there were only a few of them.'
The Nimon were a parasitic alien race who travel via artificial black holes between planets, draining their planetary resources, before moving on to conquer new worlds. The Nimon referred to this activity as "the Great Journey of Life".
Great episodes. I have several Doctor Who epidoes on DVD and (believe it or not) VHS.
I'm going to add this one to the collection soon.
I might even order a vinyl Nimon figure to decorate my book shelf :)
Never seen Dr Who, but the old episodes you describe seem to portray a world very degrading and horrible for women. Glad to see how much women have progressed, how much less women today have to shrink so that the 'hard-headed patriarch' can feel big and tough and clever. Our great-grandmothers, even grandmothers, were subjected to this; we should never forget what they suffered, and how grateful we ought to be to them for moving the needing and giving us a chance in life.
It was all designed to entertain the sheeple
and program and misdirect the truth about
the created world we reside in
The top two Conservatives of the 1970s were Edward Heath and Douglas-Home. The only achievement of the first was to change the public holidays from Ascension to late-May bank holiday and the Assumption to the August bank holiday ! In a nominal Christian country. The second achieved nothing. Conservative was a misnomer then as now.
Note: Most-if not all of these episodes or full stories- are up on YouTube courtesy of the BBC on its Classic Dr. Who channel: https://youtube.com/@classicdoctorwho?si=oqDsXjnI279_qyo6
Spearhead from Space was the episode that made my son want a wheelchair for his birthday so he can go fast down the road in it like the Doctor.
Also Roger Delgado played the best Master.
Delgado was excellent, but Anthony Ainley is also very good in Survival.
Saying Dr Who was always woke is like saying Britain was always diverse. It takes a historical example, which in itself is true, but then stretches it to justify what they want now.
It's funny, My son and I (I'm 61 and he is 30) have been watching Classic Doctor Who regularly of late. It's a safe place to be... You don't have the angst you get from modern "entertainment". You don't have to worry that you will get your knuckles rapped by a Wokie who just has to tell you how it should be, at least until the commercial break.,, We too have been talking about the progressive slant of even early Doctor... Has it been part of a greater plan to ruin our society since then? That's a long game to play. Is it Gramsci's Cult of Resentment that is driving this, and as much damage as it has done to people on the right, how much has it done to the Lefty... I live in a very liberal state, in a liberal county in a liberal town with liberal thinkers everywhere... They cant even come to the debate table in good faith. Broken is the word... So enjoy your early Doctor Who, relax and be grateful that we have this little gem to fall back on. Gratitude is important, it is an inoculation against the Mind Virus of resentment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Newman Hulkes collaborator and originator of Dr Who. Says it all.
There's a difference.
Woke TV characters in the 1970s would have been novel and interesting to watch.
But today, wokism is a controlled psyop to fundamentally alter society and create conflict between groups and undermine society.
and please , write about the new odyssey movie.
Under The Time Monster, you missed out that they made the God Kronos gender-fluid, being played by both an actor and an actress.
Notes on Marriage in Colour Dr Who:
Off the top of my head, the last Dr Who companion to leave in order to get married was as late as 1978*, this being Leela at the end of the 6-part Invasion of Time.
However, companions leaving to get married was once a common practice, including Jo Grant at the end of the aforementioned Green Death. (She gets engaged to Professor Clifford Jones, who is white. She may have been the blonde with whom the black scientist danced, I'd have to watch it again).
Indeed, despite Professor Jones being a hippy, he tells Jo that she can only join him if they get married. No situation-ships for him.
In fact, we know that Jo and Clifford went on to have children because she actually pops up in the Sarah Jane Adventures with one of her grandsons. (I was at the older end of that show's target audience when it first aired).
The last companion who left the Tardis in order to get married was Leela at the end of The Invasion of Time in 1978.
Though 5 years later in 1983, in Terminus, there is enough subtext to imply that Nyssa and one of the raiders will form a relationship. However, the word "marriage" is never said, and she frames her decision as a scientific endeavour to turn the titular ship from a leper colony into a real hospital.
A year later in 1984 we have the story Planet of Fire, which includes a straight-up creeper shot of Nicola Bryant's Peri in a bikini.
*That said, Iit just occurred to me that in Trial of a Time Lord, someone mentions that she becomes Queen to Brian Blessed's King Yrcanos, though that happens off screen. This means that 1986 is the last time that a companion left the Tardis to get married. However, unlike with Leela back in 1978, we don't actually see her make the decision.
When leftists say 'Doctor Who was always woke' they are lying to themselves to pretend to win an argument. If 1970s Doctor Who was, say, 10-15% woke, the modern version is 90%. As there was a small amount of woke in the past, leftists pretend nothing has changed. An obvious lie, but they tell themselves it is true. This is supposed to refute recent criticisms that the show has become too political.
Jon Pertwee was a very masculine Doctor, a James Bond type man of action. Compare him to Ncuti Gatwa. But the show "hasn't changed."
Apart from that, there's the context of the times. In the 1970s it was taken for granted there'd always be an England, and it would be majority-white. Heterosexuality and the family were the norm. Britain had a strong character and culture. Etc. In this safe, comfortable setting, some progressive posing by middle class Doctor Who writers was fairly harmless.
In the 2020s, England is a chaotic multicultural nation, Britain is shamed for its history, the family has broken down, trans was recently mainstream, and the Great Replacement is real. There's no long any good reason to be a leftist, when its effects are so obvious. If those 1970s Doctor Who writers could see Britain today, they would be shocked.
Looks like a drop of poison every now and again in something otherwise good, and now today we're served a pure bottle of poison and they don't bother to hide the label anymore.
I hope that at some point I can enjoy this particular Dr Who run and be able to just let the poison run off my mind without irritation. I really love the aesthetic it goes for.
I hope you're doing okay, btw, Tripper.
It's lovely. Lots of really enjoyable stories.
"The first two Doctors, is a beast that I just can’t bring myself to enjoy watching."
A misjudgement. It would be a gateway into the immediate post-war world for you, those happy days before all the women has passed Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch around for example.
Pre-2nd wave feminism days were not happy for women. They had to shrink to make small men like you feel big. Glad we're free today.
My grandmother thought that the old days were the best, my mum not so much. Opinion was divided at the time!