This is a first (of sorts). Classic Capitology drops by with the last Sylvester McCoy story to be fully capped with a new set of caps for Delta and the Bannermen. With the exceptions of the more ‘limited Doctors’ for lack of a better term like Paul McGann or John Hurt, the Sylv section is the first wing of the Tour to (more or less) be complete. Every story (perhaps with the slight exception of The Curse of Fenric) has now been capped to Tour Honchos satisfaction. It should be noted that as the Tour is ever evolving no section is ever truly complete. New images are always falling within the watchful eyes of the Tour so little additions are always in the pipeline somewhere, but the is the first classic era to reach a sense of conclusion.
As for Delta and the Bannermen. Yow. As mentioned when Time and the Rani was capped, the experimental tone of the program during the direst of Doctor Who seasons, the 24th, seems almost unforgivable 27 years later, and Delta is particularly guilty of this. Delta is such an odd mishmash of style and tone. Ken Dodd just being goofy, Stubby Kaye (really?) as the designated American, and Don Henderson, at least taking the proceedings seriously, looking quite stern, even as he chomps on a turkey leg (or whatever that was).
Holiday camps, 50’s doo-wop, intergalactic buses and peapod aliens. Did it have to make sense? No but it would have been nice. At least the cast had a blast making the story. Shame the same couldn’t also have been said of the viewer (or at least this viewer).
For Doctor Who historians however, the good news is that this is largely where the experimentation ends.
Although exercises into different storytelling would continue with The Happiness Patrol and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, at least these stories would make better sense in the end than either Delta and the Bannermen or Paradise Towers. Dragonfire was right around the corner. And flawed though it was, it at least made marginal sense.
As for Classic Capitology … Expect much more of a concentration towards early Doctor Who … perhaps as early as next week.
