Is this episode an episode that if you were trying to show your friends or family Doctor Who would you show off this episode.
Also the hope of this is, if you haven't seen the classic episodes and liked the episode that just aired(Example Dinosaurs on a Spaceship) you know a good(maybe) episode to check out and get into the classics.
So if you couldn't tell by the pictures above Dinosaurs on a Spaceship is going to be compared to the classic episode Invasion of the Dinosaurs.(An obvious choice, but they won't always be.)
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is a Third Doctor story played by Jon Pertwee and the lovey Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.
The episode takes place in 1970 London where Dinosaurs are mysteriously appearing.
Now there is not much in common between the episodes, the biggest one is the Dinosaurs and the mystery as to why they were there, and of course The Doctor's overwhelming care of anything living, even Dinosaurs, unless they are trying to kill him and his friends.
The reason I picked this episode is to show how far Doctor Who has come, I figured this would be a good first pick.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs is not the best of the classics, its not awful, but its not the crown jewel of the classics.
The biggest(and best) thing that has changed is the special effects, normally I wouldn't blame anyone for that cause as time moves so does the tech, however in this classic who episode I believe they could have done WAY better. On the other hand Dinosaurs on a Spaceship kept wowing me with its CGI dinosaurs! The budget was put to good use with this episode all around. In Invasion they used puppets and blue/green screens to get the "desired" effect which was not done well.
But like I said this post is also supposed to get you to want to see the classics, maybe even this episode, in my opinion this episode is one of the more important episodes for the Third Doctor stories. Just like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship its well written, both have problems that would bug a strict Doctor Who fan, but both have amazing surprises and extra characters(Invasion has the ever popular UNIT team) that are well written and both episodes add to the characters story and personality. Both even have good one off character(Like Rory's Dad).
If you can get past its little and big problems, and loved watching Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, or just love Dinosaurs really give this classic episode a try!
Now to get to the question, is Dinosaurs on a Spaceship a "classic". While I loved this episode I'm going to have to say no, this episode, while awesome didn't have the flair I was looking for, I think the first episode of the new who you show off, should have a bang to it, and after watching it I didn't come out feeling like it met the standards of being a classic, I didn't come out of it loving Doctor Who more then I did before, as some episode cause me to do. I think you are better off showing them something like Asylum of the Daleks or Silence in the Library two parters, or maybe an episode that has yet to air this series.
Again these are all my options as a Doctor Who fan and are not the options of all who write for this blog, and as readers you more then welcome to disagree, in fact I'd love to have conversations about this. Please feel free to post on the comments and tell me what you think. Start a discussion with me a the other Doctor Who fans, and maybe, if you haven't already check out a classic like Invasion of the Dinosaurs. You can watch it by clicking on the link on the left hand side.
But now for the fun part, at least for me, what if you don't want to watch it online or you want all the special features that a DVD would offer you. Well these posts, that will come after every episode of Doctor Who, will also have a giveaway attached to it!
The key to these are simple I ask a question about the episode that just aired, In this case Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, you answer, get it right, I round up all the names of the people who get it right in the first two days and draw one at random and the winner gets sent a copy of the classic episode I just compared it to, in this case Invasion of the Dinosaurs! (Lucky for non-US reader cause you get the whole UNIT Files box set!)
All I need from you is a valid email(to contact you with), name(to call you by), and address, US,UK,Canada, or Australia(To ship it to you)
The DVD will be shipped by Amazon, to make things simple, and that is all I will be using your info for, that and a Christmas card!(No really I wont be sending you one its just a joke)
So on to the question:(please don't post answer in comments below to avoid spoilers and to not ruin the fun! Also please only answer once.)
Thanks and I hope to do more giveaways(Not just these) cause I love our readers and Doctor Who fans, but please do remember, we don't have ads and this blog is 100% non-profit making, so all these are coming out of my pocket, well I guess my wallet, well my bank but anyway, enjoy!
Also you may be asking what about Asylum of the Daleks you didn't do a post for that episode, well we'll call this a two for one, out of everyone who gets the question right I'll draw one for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and another for Asylum of the Daleks! The DVD for Asylum is the first appearance of the Daleks!(and again its the whole box set!)
5 comments:
Previous responses shows peoples addresses. O_O
Fixed SO SO sorry about that!
This is a new thing and the submission forum will only be getting better with each giveaway, come on FREE STUFF!
Wow, now that's a kind thing to do! That's really a great idea. Too bad people from, say, France ;-) can't submit an answer, but still it's great!
As for the episode, I don't see it as a classic either. It was a nice episode, really funny in places, but the end was way too easy to guess. I like a good plot twist, one that makes me think: "The clever bastards, I would never have thought of that!". But there was no such thing this time.
Still, I enjoyed the episode very much. I spent the 1st half of it with a childish smile on my face, just like the Doctor's when he sees the dinos for the 1st time!
Very nice idea for an article. Of course, the comparisons are probably being made by lots of fans subconsciously (if not consciously), but nice idea to view it as a 'how far we've come', without just slandering the old for the benefit of the new.
Might I suggest working on your structure for these sorts of articles? For instance, you're still explaining the reasons behind your article almost halfway down; this sort of information could have gone into a prologue, followed by the main review of both stories.
As for reviewing the stories, you could either do them in parallel (eg. reviewing effects of Spaceship then Invasion, then characterisation of Spaceship then Invasion, then plotting, etc) or consecutively (eg. reviewing all aspects of Spaceship, then all aspects of Invasion to compare). As it is you have several paragraph fragments without very much to back them up: eg. 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs is not the best of the classics, its not awful, but its not the crown jewel of the classics.'.
After you've reviewed and compared the two stories, then you could even have a new heading for 'But Is It A Classic?' to answer the main question, with the final heading being the competition.
Other than that, it's a great idea for an article and a lovely and considered way to present views on two very different but related stories, and allow us to think on both.
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