Graham Williams Era appreciation thread

Easily the best era of the 1970s. Consistently entertaining stories, awesome companions, an abundance of humour and a fresh feel. Terrific stuff!

Agreed. My favourite era overall. Tom really came into the part after Sarah left in season 14, meaning he's at his absolute best in this era. The stories are wonderful, the companions are wonderful, the overall warmth, fun, magic and humour are unbeatable. Season 17 is a prime candidate for my favourite season ever, but 16 is still in my top 10.
It's telling as fuck that the only really good story in season 18 is a leftover from this era!

iank wrote:Agreed. My favourite era overall. Tom really came into the part after Sarah left in season 14, meaning he's at his absolute best in this era. The stories are wonderful, the companions are wonderful, the overall warmth, fun, magic and humour are unbeatable. Season 17 is a prime candidate for my favourite season ever, but 16 is still in my top 10.
It's telling as fuck that the only really good story in season 18 is a leftover from this era!

No surprise that most fans don't rate this era highly. This fandom is infested with humourless bores.

I've been saying that for a long time.

I see it as the show more in a state of post-Whitehouse purgatory rather than decline. A very shaky transition period, but one that nonetheless gave us City of Death which made it ultimately worth it. Perhaps a pity the series didn't just end there.

Certainly I think as an era, it had much more soul, character, delicacy and imagination than what came after.

I love it. I'm prefer the Hinchcliffe era personally but I've always had a soft spot for the Williams era. Many classics and some lovely intelligent and well written comedy with the odd turkey or two. It's my chicken soup era.

It's my Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodle era. Very tasty even if it isn't quite as good as some of the other flavours.

It's the era I was most surprised by when I first saw it, mainly because you rarely heard much about it, and if you did, it was yawny boring people being yawny boring because it wasn't a Hammer movie rip-off. Yet most of them were great fun to watch.
Season 17 was the most surprising of all when I saw it on Aussie telly in the early 90s. Nimon in particular I remember just adoring (still do) and thinking of these types who put in the worst stories ever list, "What is wrong with these fucking cunts?"

I think the first season for a new producer looks more like the last season of the old one. Season 12 is way more like 11 than 13. S15 is more like 14 than 16. And 18 (at least at the beginning) was more like 17.

In this way I would divide these eras up more like:

11-12
13-15
16, 17-18 (through either Meglos or Warriors Gate)
18 (starting with Full Circle or Traken) - 20

While 13-15 has some stories that I rate very highly, I prefer the overall vibe in 16-18 and 18-20, which are really my favorite periods of the whole show - although I think it peaks with JNT in seasons 18-20 rather than with Williams in 16-17. I think Keeper of Traken through Four to Doomsday is really Who at its finest.