I'd count Mindwarp as a bigger failure than Twin Dilemma or Timelash. In fact, I'd say it's probably the worst classic Doctor Who story ever made. It's really only topped in the ranks of purely terrible by Love and Monsters from the new series.

While some would say "The Daemons" is the definitive story from the Pertwee years, I'd argue "Mind of Evil" fits as the "Pertweeist of Pertwee stories"  It has just about everything from the era in spades and it's one of my favorites of the era.

Nope.  It's got the original televised version on one disc and the new movie edit on the other disc.  And while the new movie edit does incorporate much of the extended footage from the VHS version, there are still some differences between them.  Certain scenes are shifted around.

I'm with you on the VHS version being the best of three Fenrics out there.  The movie version has its moments but classic Who was designed to build up to cliffhangers.

What you see as a weakness (the cliffhanger to episode 3), I see as one of the bigger selling points on the serial.   This is one of those stories that works well enough in isolation, but in terms of the bigger scheme of what Cartmel was trying to do with the last two seasons of the classic show, it's just one of…

Except that the a)Nation didn't write the finale of Blake's Seven and b)the final episode (while having a great ending) was never intended as a series finale.

You forgot the use of a virus of some kind in there…

Are you referring to the scene from Destiny of the Daleks?  If so, that's a combination of Tom Baker and Douglas Adams deconstructing the Daleks on-screen for the humorous value.   Forget that the script itself is a fairly tedious one that feels like Nation wrote it just to get a quick check…

Yes, it's got padding. But I think the production team was going on the assumption that it would be a week between episodes and people might skip one or two without the ability to watch them to catch up.  How people lived before VCRs, much less DVRs and On-Demand, I just don't know…LOL

If you look at all the 60s Cybermen stories, you'll notice they all fall the same "pattern" discussed here—namely the Cybermen lurk in the shadows for the first half of the story, are the cliffhanger for the half-way point and then emerge in full force for the rest of the serial.

But the thing to recall about classic Who serials is they're designed to be watched one episode at a time.   While I love them being out on DVD in complete stories, I think it can be a disservice to the structure and pacing of the stories.  (This is especially true of most Pertwee six parters).

Most of the 60s serials have the audio available and "telesnaps" which are images taken of the episode every few seconds.  So, you have enough of a visual reference to start the re-animation process should the BBC and 2|Entertain ever decide the investment will pay enough of a return.

There's also the comment in one of the extras about how Waterhouse's performance as Adric is always like a fan who's found his or her way onto the set and is looking around, hoping no one figures out he or she shouldn't be there….

You have a point on the preview.  That said, I still think pulling off a major twist reveal like what audiences experienced with Earthshock in the 80s would be next to impossible these days.

Actually there is an audio story by Big Finish in which Adric comes back…it's pretty silly too. 

"Earthshock" is one of the bigger examples from the 80s of how style won out over substance.   It's essentially the same plot done twice—Doctor and company show up, are suspected of mysterious deaths and must prove they aren't behind them while trying to stop a bigger threat.  On Earth, it's the bomb, on the starliner…

When it comes to classic Who, I'm glad the DVDs give us the option to see the new effects but also to have the originals there as well.

Holmes was famously unhappy about how the Sontarans were used in "The Invasion of Time."

The initial comment about liking the new show but being afraid to dip your toes into the classic series pool is why I don't play well some new Who fans.

As a big seventh Doctor fan, I am sad that the one representation from that era for a while will be "Time and the Rani." That said, I can understand that given the lower number of stories for six and seven, why you'd want to not necessarily put them in the rotation for each time through. Perhaps once every two or…