Season 23 vs Season 24

Most seem to classify these seasons as the weakest of 80s Who and the original series in general, but which season is stronger?

24. I like a lot about 24, Sylv especially, and I still get a kick out of Delta and Dragonfire.
I really don't like anything about Trial these days.

Season 24 is my favourite classic season. The likes of Rani and Delta never fail to put a huge smile on my face. I often reach for them if I'm feeling low or just want to be thoroughly entertaining. Paradise is also very good.

Season 23. It had more of a bell-tolling atmosphere and some vertigo-inducing dark ideas.

Season 24 I'm afraid I just found rather insipid and patronizing.

Thinking about it, I think both are pretty shit. Season 23 is more atmospheric and cerebral, but incoherent and badly thought out with a narrative that is easily torn to shreds upon further analysis, and it looks cheaper than basically any season before or since, though I don’t mind The Ultimate Foe as it seemed to play on that cosmic horror aspect that Who does so well (and it harkens back to The Deadly Assassin, possibly my favourite Tom Baker story).

Season 24 is definitely less cheap, and features a generally fresher style, is more energetic and features a better soundtrack, but features a rather patronising (as Tanmann points out) pantomime tone that sadly set the precedent for Classic Who being mocked as crap and cheap TV (though 23 can be accused of this too), and largely crap acting (though I will stand up for McCoy’s era and say that his last two seasons are fucking superb). It also has very little in the way of ideas or thematic subtext to play with. It strives for less than Season 23, but comes across as a little more endearing in places, though ultimately more hollow as well (sorry Maxil!), whereas 23 is more portentious. Hmm...

And I'm the rude one? You really are a big meanie, Bernard. I thought we were mates?

Don’t worry- this is all really in jest.
Honestly, it’s really just a reaction to the chaos on the other threads.
We’re still friends.
To be honest, I like every era of the classic series, as I’ve alluded to Tanmann on a few threads. I’m just winding you up.

Not keen on either but Trial is better by a hairs whisker. But i am not inclined to watch either tbh.

OK- I’ll weigh it up properly. I enjoy Delta and Dragonfire more than basically all of season 23 (actually, I probably enjoy Ultimate Foe more than Dragonfire), although TATR might be worse than all of 23. Paradise Towers is one I’m still not really sure of...
I’ll go for 24.

23.
Mainly because it's not S24.

Season 24 isn't without some merit.

TATR had some really good sfx (the bubbletraps for instance) and some good performances by Wanda Ventham and Donald Pickering,

Paradise Towers - i liked Richard Bryers, the creepy old ladies in the apartment and the character of Pex was a bit of a laugh. Clive Merrison is always good - elsewhere he was a brilliant Sherlock Holmes imho.

Delta and the Bannermen was well lit. The woman playing the queen was very pretty.

Dragonfire: Edward Peel was good and Tony Selby provided some light relief. The creature was well designed (reminded me ever so slightly of the creature in Ridley Scott's Alien but not as impressive). In fact if I was to pick a season favourite I would say Dragonfire. I am however surprised Ace was on the station though. I would have thought she would have been refused entry by immigration on the grounds that she was not hot but there you go.

I'm surprised her hotness didn't cause the whole place to melt. Sophie really does make my dick throb sometimes.

stengos wrote:

Delta and the Bannermen was well lit. The woman playing the queen was very pretty.

I am however surprised Ace was on the station though. I would have  thought she would have been refused entry by immigration on the grounds that she was not hot but there you go.

That's some weird taste right there dude.

A lot of the women in the McCoy era were very pretty. You can't expect a fandom as stupid as ours to truly appreciate Sophie's beauty.