New Old Who thread -- Sarah Jane!

[RoyGreen]

well, time to start up the whovian discussions again...

I just bought the new DVD of Genesis of the Daleks.

GotD was the first Dr. Who I ever saw. In 1980 I was visiting a girlfriend who was working the check-in desk at a local hotel, and the lobby TV had on a blurry image being broadcast from somewhere other than Atlanta. I think it was on WGN Chicago at the time and our cable system sometimes had a hard time picking it up, but I digress. The image was of the Doctor, sitting talking to Davros. Don't know why, but I got hooked in fairly quickly. Maybe it was when Sarah Jane Smith showed up the first time! Sigh... heart going pitter patter, and all that.

So, after I watched a few of the old eps, I switched to the second disk, and the first thing was a fairly new BBC special on the making of that story. Imagine my delight to see Lizzie Sladen telling her stories about the filming. Then they put a split screen of her 30+ years ago with her now, and I was struck how much she hadn't changed --- and by that, how much she *had* changed.

She's 58 but she has the tell-tale signs of either a decent facelift or she had just been to the botox peddler. Her eyes looked stuck open! I still sat, transfixed on her every word. She was my idea of womanly perfection back then --- at least until I saw Felicity Kendal, and rediscovered Terri Garr

Anyway, a few minutes later, there's Tom Baker on the screen, aged gracefully and gone all jowly. At least he doesn't have the puffy heart failure medicine face of William Shatner or Andy Griffith.
I thought he was sort of a recluse as far as it went with Dr. Who. Sort of a "I Am Not Spock" attitude. So when did he recover his inner Whoness?

 

[propbeany]

Maybe when the new series turned out to be popular and extremely well made.

 

[propbeany]

I almost forgot -- Sarah Jane makes a guest appearance (along with K-9) in the "2nd" new season!

 

[kenobi65]

Originally posted by RoyGreen
I think it was on WGN Chicago at the time and our cable system sometimes had a hard time picking it up, but I digress.

Might've been WOR out of New York; at that time, it was another of the "superstations" (along with WGN and WTBS). I only note this because (a) I first saw Doctor Who on WOR, on my cable system in late 1982, and (b) according to my bride, who was living in Chicago at the time, the Doctor was being shown on WTTW, the PBS station.

 

[JRThro]

Since I'm a big Genesis fan and not much of a Doctor Who fan, "Sarah Jane" made me think of the Genesis song "Me and Sarah Jane," especially once I saw the episode title "Genesis of the Daleks."

Yes indeed, I was confused.

 

[RoyGreen]

Originally posted by kenobi65
Might've been WOR out of New York; at that time, it was another of the "superstations" (along with WGN and WTBS).

Yep, that was it! memory officially jogged.

 

[kenobi65]

Originally posted by RoyGreen
Yep, that was it! memory officially jogged.

Glad to be of service.

I recall that the big difference between watching Doctor Who on WOR, versus public TV, was this:

On WOR, they showed it in the original half-hour episodes, as it appeared on the BBC. On public TV, they tended to show it one "story" at a time...and most stories spanned multiple episodes. This was especially problematic for some of the Jon Pertwee-era stories, which spanned 7 or 8 episodes...you were in for a 3- or 4-hour marathon.