The three jaunty fellows were pleased as punch to commentate on one of the high points of Tom Baker’s career, “The Talons of Weng Chiang,” a fantastic set of episodes by the late, great Robert Holmes (though unfortunately marred by the casual racism of the period.) Since Talons is longer than a trip on a Victorian steamer to the colonies, we decided to split the commentary into two parts. Warren will be at San Diego Comic-Con next Sunday, but he’ll do his best to get Part 2 off his hard drive and onto the Internet in a timely fashion.

One of the worst things about Youtube is the sheer volume of “tribute” videos and other such poorly edited codswallop that gets in the way of searching for a clip of, say, Doctor Who. But amongst the junk there are a few gems, including this mashup of the interminable flight sequences from “Time Flight” with James Bond and the Death Star (amongst other wackiness):

Then there’s this bit of remixery which makes a complete hash of the Five Doctors in brilliant fashion:

Part 1:

and Part 2:

Just lovely.

The dark times begin as we enter a solid half year with no new Who, but the august crew at Radio Free Skaro have ably responded to this gulf in quality televisual spectacle with a new series of Classic series commentaries, beginning (sort of) with Black Orchid, a Davison two-parter done on the cheap and set in the 1920s. Sarcasm and japes, anyone?

According to sassy yet informative sci-fi blog Io9, Davros should have been left to rot after his stellar appearance in Genesis of the Daleks. Though I think they’re right to criticize both Destiny of the Daleks and The Wheeled One’s non-role in Rememebrance, I always thought he was decent enough in Resurrection, and creepily malevolent in Revelation of the Daleks. Still, read their screed and see which side you fall on.

After last week’s mind-melting funfest, things could only go downhill…and they did! The Three Who Rule were unsparing in their criticism of a finale episode that had its moments but seriously underwhelmed. Still, that didn’t stop Warren, Steven and Chris from staying mostly on topic and ranting about what will be the last bit of new Who for quite some time. Next week, a Black Orchid commentary, take it or leave it!

“The Stolen Earth,” the penultimate episode of Series 4, was a barnburning spectacular of fanwankian proportions, and the RFS crew did their level best to keep their geeky selves in check before effusively praising (or in the case of Chris, begrudgingly praising) a jam-packed episode full of danger, Davros, Daleks, derring-do, and other things starting with the letter “D”. Delightful!

The BBC, in their infinite wisdom, decided sometimes in the late Sixties or early Seventies that they needed space for new shows in their tape library, and destroyed many of the original tapes containing Hartnell, Troughton, and even a few Pertwee stories. Despite the odd find each decade of a lost story molding away in some backwater, many of these classic Who tales are lost in the mists of time…until now.

It turns out many a fan recorded the audio from the shows as they were broadcast, so almost all the soundtracks have been preserved. But a cadre of fans spread across the globe are taking things a step further and animating the classic lost Doctor Who adventures to recreate the Doctor’s first adventures. The BBC did this officially with “The Invasion,” but as stated in the Guardian story, animating is a tremendous amount of work. Fans don’t care, though, they want their Who and they’re willing to put noses to the grindstone to get it.

Chris absconded to Las Vegas this week for liquor, gambling, and other licentious pursuits, so it was left to the other two pillars of RFS to hold the fort, which they barely managed. The subject at hand? “Turn Left,’ which served as not only this season’s “Doctor Lite” episode but also as a fantastic return to the series for Billie Piper, not to mention a sterling performance by Catherine Tate. The usual digressions and drivel-making were of course present, but without our tall co-host’s derisive sneers and seething hate, it wasn’t quite the same.

There’s an interesting article up on Blogcritics.org about the visceral, often angry reactions from online fans towards their favorite TV shows. It’s mostly told from the point of view of players in the industry, but it does raise some interesting points as to just how much sway fans should have over the making of a show, and how a loud reaction doesn’t necessarily equate to anything more than a small number of vocal complainers.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree. I see a lot of fans who nitpick the living hell out of their favorite shows (something I’m not adverse to myself, given that I produce a podcast about Doctor Who) and while everyone’s free to voice their opinion, sometimes I wonder why people watch the show in the first place if it makes them so angry and bitter. Of course I’m only one member of the triple threat that is our podcast, and my co-hosts might have different opinions.

For once, the Three Who Rule were in total agreement that “Midnight,” the psychological thriller/Donna-lite episode of this season’s Doctor Who, was a fine bit of viewing. That left us with little else to do besides mock Who overseer Phil Collinson and engage in many a ridiculous digression, as per usual. Next week, Rose, dead Doctors, and atomic weaponry. Allons-y!