I should probably be preparing for Erlangen, updating my comic lists and looking for a new trolley and such but since I have one more week to go than I thought ( and there´s nobody announced I have a special interest in ) there is still time to do a few posts. So I thought one thing I could do is give my readers an update on my DOCTOR WHO viewing especially now that I have started with the Fifth Doctor. And it´s about time because Tom Baker´s stint on that show is almost longer than his signature scarf.
I mean, nothing against Tom Baker, he´s really great and THE iconic version but there comes a point where you are craving for a new Doctor.
I WANT A NEW DOCTOR, ONE THAT WON`T HURT MY HEAD
The strange thing is I could never remember Peter Davison´s name but as soon as he became the new Doctor I could - although I forgot some of the other Doctor´s names. As for my new Doctor I have to say he hasn´t won me over one hundred percent yet but I guess that´s how it always goes. At first you don´t like him, then you get to know him better and when you have finally grown fond of him something happens and he regenerates.
And you don´t see him again unless a multi Doctor story happens. Which is always a good thing. And I got THE FIVE DOCTORS still ahead of me which has the most Doctors in it - so far. Yes, I have skipped a bit ahead and already seen it once but now I have not only seen and experienced all the different incarnations of The Doctor, I also know who all those companions are to which I was quite oblivious when I first watched it.
And speaking about the companions, Today I watched ENLIGHTENMENT ( the last part of The Black Guardian Trilogy ), which must be THE best story with Tegan Yovanka in it. I have to say, Janet Fielding has really won me over although at first Tegan was a bit of an annoying character.
COME FLY WITH ME ( IN THE TARDIS )
Although in her defense I must say she probably had the most reason to be since she practically gets hijacked. Okay, she does walk into the Tardis willingly, but then she is thrust head first into something she doesn´t quite understand and there is this weird guy who promises to bring her back to Earth at the exact moment and place she left but he never does.
There´s always something else coming up that´s much more important and while it´s nice to save the universe once or twice it also would be nice to get home sometime. And it´s not like The Doctor treats her very nice, he´s almost condescending in her behavior towards Tegan. Okay, she may not have the academic intellect of Nyssa or be a mathematical genius like Adric but come on, isn´t it The Doctor who always says that everybody is special ? So it´s no wonder that she´s a bit burned out after all her adventures especially after being taken over by an evil presence.
I`M LEAVING IN A BLUE BOX, DON`T KNOW WHEN I`LL BE BACK AGAIN
But what really blew me away was how unceremoniously The Doctor just dumps her at Heathrow airport after TIME FLIGHT. It´s like " Oh, we must get away, no time to wait for Tegan. Good riddance. " and that´s all.
There´s no way around, it was appalling. And so quick after loosing Adric. But hey, that´s how it goes with The Doctor. So I kept watching and next is THE ARC OF INFINITY which begins with two students in Amsterdam, one of them mysteriously disappearing. Now the other one has to go to the airport to meet with his friend´s cousin that has just flown in from Australia and who turns out to be none other than Tegan Yovanka.
( Tegan´s highlight in THE ARC OF INFINITY : episode two 14.57 min )
Lost her job, got a new haircut, a new outfit and just when she thought it was safe again to go to an airport she gets sucked into The Doctor´s shenanigans again. I should have known when Australia was mentioned.
WELL, I´M IN SUCH ECSTASY, I´M A BOOB TUBE DEVOTEE
Anyway, after everything is resolved Tegan´s back again in the Tardis, tag teaming with gal pal Nissa and this time her stay was more enjoyable because she WANTED to be in the Tardis. I really like her pixie haircut and her new outfit better although I had to look up the word " boob tube ". I always thought that was only used for the television because there is either one in front of it or there is a pair of it on screen. So color me surprised when I found out it´s also used for a piece of women´s clothing.
Which Janet Fielding fills out quite nicely if I dare say so myself.
But that´s not the only way in which she fills out her role much better ( pun intended ) the second time around. There is also a second encounter with Amara in SNAKEDANCE - the snake spirit which possessed her in KINDA - and I almost couldn´t find this four parter on the internet.
But I´m glad I did because not only is the civilization they come up with in the story done well, Janet obviously is having a ball playing the bad girl.
( Tegan´s best parts from SNAKEDANCE are in the second episode )
And her interaction with Nyssa is also different now that Adric has left the trio ( I´m not going to spoil how ). There is just a different dynamic.
YOU AND ME AND THE DOCTOR MAKES THREE
Which is soon replaced by a very different dynamic once Turlough is on board. I´m not going to spoil what his part is but Tegan doesn´t trust him from day one and rightfully so. What kind of name is Turlough anyway ? I never heard such a name. Is it even a real british name ? Anyway, by the time ENLIGHTENMENT begins Nyssa has already left the Tardis crew.
( Tegan´s second best performance : TERMINUS episode four 5.50 min )
So Tegan is the only female companion and since The Doctor and Turlough stick together investigating - as always - she gets a bit of a spotlight on her and has her best scenes when she´s simply breathing heavily.
It´s no wonder this alien is so hellbent on getting to know her better. He is trying to get his poetry going all " You´re my everything. Without you there is no existence. " and stuff but Tegan wants none of that and simply says " Goodbye, you Douchebag ! " after which he vanishes into thin air.
I know, for a lot of people the best scenes in ENLIGHTENMENT of " the mouth on legs " ( I´m not sure if that means she talks a lot or she has very nice legs ) are the ones when Tegan wears that dress at the party.
But for me just gimme Tegan in her tight white outfit breathing heavily.
Now I know that the whole post must give you the impression that I´m some kind of sick perv ( Which I most certainly am, let´s be honest. ).
And that I´m meticulously watching each episode of DOCTOR WHO hoping to see some female skin ( especially since I have added not only the particular episodes but also the exact minutes of Tegan´s highlights ) but to tell the truth I had to go and re - watch all the Tegan episodes because prior to ENLIGHTENMENT I hadn´t really paid any attention to that.
Yes, I liked Tegan´s new outfit better but mainly because I thought it fits her better ( no pun intended here ) and I was that happily engaged in the stories. There might have been the short moment in TERMINUS where Janet´s " talent " came to the forefront but I very quickly got back to enjoying the series. I´m not the most perceptive guy ( the whole thing about TORCHWOOD being an anagram for DOCTOR WHO had to be explained to me ) and in this case it really took Janet Fielding almost popping her boob tube in ENLIGHTENMENT to make me take notice.
I may be biased in my oversexed ( or is it undersexed ? ) reasoning for this being the best Tegan story but it´s also the best I have seen so far.
Now for my german readers it´s quite difficult to get Classic Doctor Who on DVD but at least in the UK there are various DVDs. There is a set that includes TIME FLIGHT and THE ARC OF INFINITY and another called MARA TALES which has KINDA and SNAKEDANCE. But if you want the best of the best with Tegan just get THE BLACK GUARDIAN TRILOGY set which includes MAWDRYN UNDEAD, TERMINUS and ENLIGHTENMENT as well as many extras like Peter Davison and Janet Fielding recounting a well - known tale they´ve told for years on the convention circuit about what happened one day when Janet was wearing her " boob tube " and Peter asked her to put her hands in the air ... ( click here for the DVD specs )
By the way, I want to give thanks to the person who picked this outfit but I´m not sure who it was ( again, no pun intended ). According to Janet she had more input in her second stint and even got to pick her own outfits but on the other side Peter Davison mentioned that she was always complaining about her top being uncomfortable and pushing her stuff up. Which could have totally been an " after the feact " thing because that´s how the 80s were : you picked your clothes depending on the current fashion trends only to find out later how uncomfortable they were.
So kudos to whoever decided on that particular outfit for Tegan.
DOCTOR, DOCTOR, GIVE ME THE NEWS ( ABOUT SEXY COMPANIONS )
And to keep things balanced Tegan is almost totally covered up in the next story. No kidding, she´s wearing like a huge blanket for most of the time.
At least I think that´s what it is since I haven´t seen it yet. Oh, come on, a big part of the female companions on the Doctor Who tv show has always been to draw more male viewers in ( or the Dad´s like I read in one article ) as this newspaper or tv mag clipping I found online proves.
And speaking about sexy companions and newspaper clippings one of the things I´m looking forward to is Nicola Bryant who plays Peri Brown.
Her tenure on the show was met with raised eyebrows in some quarters as series producer John Nathan - Turner admitted that his intention was to pump up the sex appeal of the ageing series by casting the young actress who was often seen wearing low - cut outfits in the show.
Nicola on her costumes : " Displaying cleavage was not an in - character move for Peri, but it was a very in - John Nathan - Turner thing to do."
Now Peri´s Hello also means saying Goodbye to Peter Davison in THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI which most Whovians consider one of the best stories with the Fifth Doctor ( although Peter said in a behind the scenes feature that his death scene was upstaged by Nicola Bryant´s cleavage ).
b.jpg)
It also means that I get one of the most controversial Doctor´s as Colin Baker has been described as the worst Doctor ever as well as the most unlucky one because he was a big fan and while he wanted so much to make it work ultimately he was given the short end of the stick . I bet he counted himself lucky to have Peri on board to soothe the waves a bit.
Ah, yes, you can say what you want about those Time Lords but you can´t fault them for their uncanny taste in women. I mean even the Master took Peri hostage and not because there wasn´t anybody else around.
He´s totally planning to knock boots the way he´s checking out her butt.
The master may be an evil genius but he´s also a man of refined taste.
Back to Peri Brown, while some of the outfits on Doctor Who mean bad 80s fashion fads like headbands it also means gratuitous cleavage
spandex in all colors ( the producers were very fond of spandex )
and even some bikinis - Yay ! I just hate it when they have a good looking girl on a television show and they callously squander all that potential.
" I mean, basically...as far as I was concerned...my character got started in a bikini and never got dressed, it seemed ! What a good start ! "
To read more about Nicola on Peri, costumes, working with the Doctor´s, joining Doctor Who, leaving Doctor Who and more follow this link . And here´s a long interview from 1992 with Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker.
So that were my two cents about Tegan Yovanka and I´m excited ( not in that way, sheesh ) to watch THE KING´S DEMONS after finishing this.
Now normally there are links I mention that helped me to make this post but since I have decided to wrap things up at the computer at least at one o clock I will either include them Tomorrow or put them in the next post. Because there are just so many interesting Doctor Who related sites that I found and it would be a shame to bury them at the end of the post.
And speaking about the end of the post, that " wibbly wobbly timey wimey " at the bottom is just a little something I put at the end of the post until it´s finished and it has nothing to do with Janet Fielding´s or Nicola Bryant´s breasts even if it may have looked so while I was writing this.
Since I can´t find a good Tegan video on YouTube in time ( you can look for yourself if you want ) here´s another installment of Stan Lee´s COMIC BOOK GREATS series with icons Harvey Kurtzman and Jack Davis. Enjoy !
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
He should have told me that's what he wanted. I coulda shown him Brisbane.
