Season 12-14: Overrated?

Phillip Hinchcliffe's three seasons of Doctor Who are a key point in the series with their move towards gothic horror and a darker tone after the rather cozy and safe Barry Letts era. The era is regarded as being one of, if not, the best periods of the show and many fans revere it as being the golden age

However, some out there argue that Hinchcliffe's run isn't the golden age many make it out to be and that it has aged poorly or it was never great to begin with....

Discuss.

Overrated bollocks.

I think so, to a degree. Season 14 is brilliant, and I think has a lot to do with the rosy glow the era casts. 13 is a mixed bag, though has some great stuff like Seeds of Doom.
12 is the one I struggle to get on with. Sontaran Experiment and Ark are okay, but Genesis is wildly overrated and Robot and Revenge are quite poor. It doesn't really feel like the Tom Baker era somehow, and I rarely reach for it when I want a Tom fix. Tom doesn't quite have the presence he had later either.

I think the Hinchcliffe years are an excellent era of the show. It outstrips the Williams period and many of Pertwee's stories. It had an adult tone and the best lead actors of the show's entire run. Supporting actors/actresses were also generally of a high standard, The writing was generally very well paced and plotted  and the production team didn't go for gimmicky casting - as in Beryl Reid, Hale and Pace, Michael-on-the-buses-Robbins, Ken-fuckin'-Dodd or Bertie-friggin'-Basset.

I like eighties Who - i am a fan of JNT - but it doesn't match up to the Hinchclife/Holmes era. IMHO.

Indrid Mercury wrote:The era nowadays is regarded as being one of, if not, the best periods of the show and many fans revere it as being the golden age.

What do you mean nowadays? It's not a recent thing.
The 70's (with the Hinchcliffe era as the peak) has always been regarded as the Golden era ever since the ratings started to drop in the '80s and it was eventually cancelled because it got too shit.

I think Season 12 is way overrated, but 13 is partially, and 14 is wholly deserving of the high reputation:

Season 12:
Watching Robot is like watching Tom Baker do a Jon Pertwee story, it doesn't quite work.

I like Ark in Space, but it's not anything exceptionally good.

Sontaran Experiment, Genesis, and Revenge are all one giant snooze-fest.

Season 13:
Planet of Evil is ok.

Terror of the Zygons and Android Invasion are good, but not great.

Pyramids of Mars and Brain of Morbius are two of the best Who stories ever.

Seeds of Doom is boring as fuck.

Season 14:
Masque of Mandragora, like Pyramids and Morbius, is another 10/10 story.

And the whole rest of the season (Hand of Fear, Deadly Assassin, Face of Evil, Robots of Death, Talons) is all solidly in the 9/10 territory.

Not overrated at all.

Those three seasons are probably what kept the show's good will and legend alive for decades to come, in spite of the garbage that came after.

Of season 12 i feel Revenge is probably the weakest mainly because it is surrounded by quite high standards - Ark and Genesis in particular - but it still feels like a solid, good story to me. Its great to see the cybermen back, i liked their costumes, i could actually understand what they were saying and i thought the Vogans were a good adversary. The lead cast all gave excellent performances.

Robot worked for me as Baker's first story. Yes reminiscent of the Pertwee years but I don't see a problem with that. It was a fond farewell to the highly successful set up of Unit and earth bound stories. Yes the tank effects were dodgy but I rarely judge the show on its sfx if i can help it. The performances of the whole cast were very good, particularly Pat Maynard who played the hard nosed business woman (Ms Winters) to perfection. She seemed so natural in the role.

On the whole, 12 was a great season for Baker although i accept things improved in 13 and 14.

Ludders wrote:

Indrid Mercury wrote:The era nowadays is regarded as being one of, if not, the best periods of the show and many fans revere it as being the golden age.

What do you mean nowadays? It's not a recent thing.
The 70's (with the Hinchcliffe era as the peak) has always been regarded as the Golden era ever since the ratings started to drop in the '80s and it was eventually cancelled because it got too shit.

The quality of the series had nothing to do with the decision to take it off air in 1989. That's a baseless and outdated lie.

Maxil wrote:The quality of the series had nothing to do with the decision to cancel it. You're spouting a well known and outdated lie.

I'd say it had something to do with the decision.

A better quality show interested in entertaining more than just the fringe of fans might've won more sympathies of the BBC higher-ups sooner. It wasn't, and didn't.

Tanmann wrote:

Maxil wrote:The quality of the series had nothing to do with the decision to cancel it. You're spouting a well known and outdated lie.

I'd say it had something to do with the decision.

A better quality show interested in entertaining more than just the fringe of fans might've won more sympathies of the BBC higher-ups sooner.

That wasn't the case by then. The McCoy era would have been watched by more people had the BBC not purposely sabotaged it by putting it up against a ratings juggernaut on ITV. His era wasn't just made for the die hard fans hence why the content in his stories was broader than in previous years.

Maxil wrote:

Tanmann wrote:

Maxil wrote:The quality of the series had nothing to do with the decision to cancel it. You're spouting a well known and outdated lie.

I'd say it had something to do with the decision.

A better quality show interested in entertaining more than just the fringe of fans might've won more sympathies of the BBC higher-ups sooner.

That wasn't the case by then. The McCoy era would have been watched by more people had the BBC not purposely sabotaged it by putting it up against a ratings juggernaut on ITV. His era wasn't just made for the die hard fans hence why the content of his stories were so much broader than in previous years.

Maybe, but the damage was largely already done by then. And before Grade had anything to do with things.

It's only a lie to those who find the truth unpalatable. S24 was the slow poison that killed DW.

Ludders wrote:What do you mean nowadays? It's not a recent thing.
:

That was an accidental insertion. My bad.

That can get you arrested, you know.

Ludders wrote:It's only a lie to those who find the truth unpalatable. S24 was the slow poison that killed DW.

It wouldn't surprise me if you masturbate to the 1988 audience reaction report.

Maxil wrote:

Ludders wrote:It's only a lie to those who find the truth unpalatable. S24 was the slow poison that killed DW.

It wouldn't surprise me if you masturbate to the 1988 audience reaction report.

I leave the wanking to you mate.