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Classic Who "The Twin Dilemma" Parts 1&2 Full Reaction! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-10 13:45:01
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2026-06
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Classic Who - "The Twin Dilemma" Part 1/2 Full Reaction - EA

Download Full Reaction (3.4 GB) Full Reaction You are now able to stream the full reaction directly from this website. Alternatively, you can download it to your computer using the button underneath the video player. You

Comments

Azmat Mahmood

How they went from Caves of Androzani to this in the space of one week is astonishing. Caves often ends up at the top of best stories polls, this almost always ends up at the bottom. I wouldn't put this one that low because there are quite a few Moffat era (sorry Jess...) and Chibnall era stories that I think are worse, but this is my second least favourite story of classic Who. Only Invasion of Time is worse imo.

Ryan

This is nigh-universally considered the worst of the classic series, so completely botching the all-important job of introducing a new Doctor that poor Colin was never given another chance by most fans and suffered a ton of hate finally getting to play the role he'd loved for so long. Add on some horrific events in his personal life at the time and it's a wonder he's still willing to talk about this time at all. But somehow he's persevered and is always happy to talk to fans, and gives some very fun and engaging commentaries. Of course the most infamous part is that goddamn coat, which I've never particularly minded that much, but many fans still act like it ran over their mother. Much more damaging is his strangling Perry immediately after Five sacrificed himself to save her, and there wasn't even a season break to dull people's memories of that. I get what they were going for in making his regeneration illness more violent than ever before, and I usually applaud this kind of boundary pushing, but we end up getting so little of Six's true personality after it wears off that it's just about impossible to remember anything else from him. But my favorite part is definitely Womulus and Wemus, two kids who can't act or pronounce their own characters' names and were obviously only hired due to being identical twins to cut down on the effects budget. Even with that restriction, I have to think they could have done better than this.

Thomas Corp

Here now, we come to it. The Doctor who ends up last on my ranking of the Doctors. Much like the Thirteenth Doctor who is second to last on the list, this is by no means anything against Colin Baker. He is great. I am aware that Six is both an unpopular and popular Doctor amongst the fandom, depending on who you talk to. As I understand it, Big Finish has helped Six tremendously. Now I say this to impart my opinion. You, of course, will have your own opinion, Jess, and I look forward to seeing what that will be. They often do say that first impressions are lasting impressions. And with Six, as I see some of the fellas have already said, has a pretty tall order of escaping the shadow of the first impression. Colin does go for broke. We do appreciate the sheer gusto he put into this. Six is abrasive. Considering Twelve is my Doctor and the close second for you, neither one of us is one to talk much there, though we can still observe that Six does take the abrasiveness just a WEE bit too far. Talk about two of the most widely known aspects of Six. First, the coat. You have spoken about wanting to get to that. He did suddenly realize that the seventies were some time ago, so he renounces the fifty shades of beige and brown that was that decade and moves onto the infamous coat. It’s tasteful without being gaudy. The butter cream color of his pants is surprisingly complimentary to the coat as well. It isn’t strictly speaking the worst look I’ve ever seen. A little outrageous, even for the standards of Doctor Who, but honestly not the worst thing ever. Then there is the topic of the regeneration sickness. The regeneration sickness is awful this time round. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant concert. The big moment of that awful regeneration sickness is the INFAMOUS strangulation of Peri. You heard about that one long before you ever saw it. I was hoping that similar to the nuking the fridge scene in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fans largely exaggerated some. Alas, no such luck here. I will say that the one subversion of expectations was given the way the scene is described, I expected Six to strangle Peri right out the gate, and it took a while for it to happen. Still plenty unpleasant to see, and I can tell that you were not spoiled, as your reaction was striking. To your one point, it is very intriguing when a Doctor has trouble acclimating to his new face. (Well, in this case, I guess it would be an old face that he’s seen before.) It was an aspect of Deep Breath that I greatly enjoyed where Twelve was initially loopy whilst dealing with the new brain rebooting, and how Clara was struggling to the change as well. Here, like you said, it is a bold approach that really doesn’t quite land as well as it could have. Nice how Peri calls Six out on being all Walter White, being the danger and all. (Though in this universe, Wilf is the one who knocks.) Then there’s the guest star of the great Kevin McNally. Who would later return to the Whoniverse as the mighty impressive Professor Eustacius Jericho. Which also means that Kevin appears as a character during the runs of my two least favorite Doctors. ...What a bizarre coincidence. Other quick small notes. The game the children played; how you said it had Cones of Dunshire vibes. Little bit, yeah. The description of the breaking down molecules and putting them back together made me ask, “They got Wonkavision in this story?” So, halfway through a not particularly great introduction to a Doctor, yet your reaction is most superb, Jess. I look forward to next week for the concluding half of the reaction to this story. Until then, thank you for the terrific reaction, Jess.

Thomas Corp
>>160888211

My ranking Six last on my ranking of the Doctors notwithstanding, it is rotten how the fans, more so back then, never really gave him a fair shake following this story, plus the horrific events in Colin’s personal life at the time. It is nice that anymore, he is willing to talk about it and is very nice to the fans. Same here with not terribly minding the goddamn coat all that much. It is oddly hilarious how everyone seems to act like the goddamn thing “ran over their mother” as you put it. Shared sentiment to what you and Jess said. I understand what they were going for in having Six go through the violent regeneration sickness, and by extension shows bravery in pushing the envelope. The actual execution of that does not come over well, at all. Not least of which is the strangulation. That’s not the only problem, but it is probably the most notable problem of the efforts of what they tried to do with Six’s first hour. Of course, Doctor Who always has the differing approaches that you can learn from with the recastings. And speaking of recastings, word came through this morning about Baylan Skoll, who in this upcoming season of Ahsoka, we should ask him if he’s going to be working with Thrawn, and he’ll probably reply, “...Narp?” Concerning the twins, I was distracted more by the names than the stilted acting.

Ryan
>>160909394

The best post about Bryant's death I've seen is "Jim never vomits at home. Oh wait, wrong line." I've also been taking the opportunity to sell people on the Rifftrax of her anti-drug short Drugs Are Like That. Whatever you're thinking it's like, you're way off. It's pretty painful now to see Six talk about how Peri will inevitably grow to love him, when that never did happen with the fans and he ended up as the only Doctor actor to be fired from the role. It's been great to see him get his due in more recent years as more people learn what a cool guy he is.

Andrew Vignaux

What a contrast from the last story. These "The Twin Dilemma" episodes are not the highest level Classic Who has ever achieved. I think, perhaps, the only times I have watched these episodes were (a) when they were originally on TV, (b) when the discs were originally released, and (c) when I was doing a marathon Who watch. They don't get grabbed off the shelf just to view. There were times in New Who when people would moan about "Love & Monsters" or "Fear Her" and I would shake my head and think "Well, you haven't seen *The Twin Dilemma* - have you?". BTW: I like "Love & Monsters" and can appreciate "Fear Her" - there are episodes in the Moffat-era that I would rank lower (sorry, Moffat-era fans). At this time of year, sesskasays Classic Who reactions get released for me at around 2am local time. Sometimes I stay up past midnight to watch them, sometimes I set an alarm and wake up to watch. But for these episodes, I decided to just leave it to the next morning and wake up at a reasonable time. Displacement Activities: So, after waking up I checked my emails (etc.) and grabbed the full reaction video. Then I noticed that someone had released a YouTube-edited reaction to "The Return of the King" - so I watched that first. Then, I decided to have breakfast. Then, I watched a just-released New Who reaction. Finally it was time to watch these episodes. "No, not even a fairy. An alien spy, sent here to spy on me. Well, we all know the fate of alien spies.", The Doctor, "The Twin Dilemma" I think I prefer a Doctor Who episode that doesn't involve strangling the companion. "A noble brow. Clear gaze. At least it will be, given a few hours sleep. A firm mouth. A face beaming with a vast intelligence. My dear child, what on Earth are you complaining about?", The Doctor, "The Twin Dilemma" This pompous post-regeneration Doctor is quite fun - but I still prefer an episode that doesn't involve strangling the companion. N.B. Of course we've recently seen Five shoot Kamelion - but I was mostly ok with that. "You can't go out dressed like that. ... It's, oh, yuck.", Peri, "The Twin Dilemma" I always like the Doctor looking through a wardrobe looking for his new costume - among other things we see the 2nd Doctor's trousers and fur coat and the 3rd Doctor's jacket and cape. "Brave heart, Tegan.", The Doctor, "The Twin Dilemma" I quote this merely because I've always quoted that line previously. "We'll still be here when you get back.", "And so will the universe.", Romulus and Remus, "The Twin Dilemma" The twins: sorry, the actors just flatten every scene they are in. Actually, their performance in this story caused anxiety for me seeing Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films - hoping they cast for acting ability rather than just being identical. But I needn't have worried - the Phelps brothers were great. The most interesting thing about these twin actors is that their father was a long-running Classic Who extra with roles going as far back as the First Doctor's "The Massacre" and as recently as playing one of the gun runners in "The Caves of Androzani". "Very well. I must revitalise.", Professor Edgeworth, "The Twin Dilemma" When Edgeworth/Azmael is getting revitalized, we see two hearts, I think. I think you noticed that too. "You destroyed my entire command. Now I'm going to kill you.", Hugo Lang, "The Twin Dilemma" Here's where a slight change of history could have made a huge effect on my tablet's speakers. If the person responsible for casting this story had turned right instead of left one morning, then the role of Hugo Lang, the pilot who finds a change of costume in the TARDIS, could have been played by - Peter Capaldi. My speakers would not have been able to take it.