The John Wiles era (or Season 3)

After two seasons of off the wall magical tales from Verity Lambert. John Wiles came onto the scene and immediately brought a new style with him. Going for a more darker, bleaker tone and a shift towards space opera style tales and a more fallible Doctor. As well as some major behind the scenes changes as well such as the rumored sacking of Maureen O Brien and a more difficult relationship with the shows leading man.

What did you think of this short lived period? Did you like the change in pace or felt that it was a mistake?

Going by runours I've heard, I'm just glad it wasn't Vicki who ended up getting spaced in Daleks' Master Plan instead of Katarina.

It's possible however, based on the ratings of that season, that it might've gotten too dark too fast for the casual family audience.

I've always said 1-2 were better than 3, but then so little of it survives it's hard to say. Of the three complete stories, I do like War Machines and tend to watch it regularly. Of the stories with missing episodes I think Galaxy 4 and Myth Makers are underrated.

I don't think he had much of a clue, to be honest.

I’ll agree that Wiles’ decisions concerning companions weren’t especially well thought through (especially in relation to Dodo), but in terms of the stories he produced, I’d say that three out of the four (The Myth Makers, Daleks’ Master Plan, The Massacre) were very good indeed, so I can’t say I can necessarily fault the stories he made too much. I look forward to seeing DMP receive the animation treatment, without a doubt- episode 12 is just phenomenal on every level.

That being said, the Lambert era was certainly the more coherently structured era of the two. She had infinitely more vision and integrity, mind- although I like the stories he made, it’s fairly obvious that Wiles didn’t have much of a clue when it came to his dynamic with Hartnell and actually organising a long-term plan for the series. I put the success of the three stories mentioned above down to the direction, performances and the scripts commissioned (presumably under Lambert anyway) as opposed to Wiles’ involvement, I suppose.

In terms of offing companions, I thought it was very strange that in doing a Dalek story, where it would make sense for them to have a companion die by Dalek fire, to show what a force they are to be reckoned with, they instead decided to have Katarina's death happen at the hands of a random criminal, and Sara's happen by the doomsday weapon the Doctor activates, and right when the Daleks are dying.

I like S3 more than S2, but not as much as S1. It's a mixed bag, but stories like Masterplan and The War Machines are amongst my favourite Hartnell stories. Although The Gunfighters and Myth Makers are amongst the worst.
Overall though, I view it as positive. More good than bad.

I dont even know who he is.

I agree with Richard about the Dalek Masterplan though. I woud love to see it be animated. I have the BBC Audio Collection release but i find all of those really difficult to get into. In contrast, the animated stories so far issued have been enjoyable. Even if some of the animation itself has not been without fault.

Daleks Masterplan and Massacre are awesome stories.

The highest benchmark of the whole Hartnell era.