PodKast with(out) the Bakers!

A little later than usual, it’s time for the podKast! This week, Christian, James McLean and Brian Terranova discuss the horror that is….

Pip and Jane Baker!

The husband-and-wife team had four sets of scripts on Doctor Who in the 1980s: Mark of the Rani, Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe part 2 (both from the Trial of a Time Lord season) and Time and the Rani. Some of these adventures are considered okay… others the very nadir of the show’s almost-fifty years.

But: were they really to blame? Is their reputation as a pair of clueless hacks deserved? Was it simply a case of two capable and experienced writers left to do too much… has their reputation as professionals been sullied by Time and the Rani?

It’s a complex topic, one that we thought we should tackle!

Please note that during the recording of this episode we were… let’s say “challenged”…by circumstances beyond our control. As a result this podKast comes with warning as it includes adult language.

2 thoughts on “PodKast with(out) the Bakers!

  1. I was actually quite surprised when I recently sat down to watch Time and the Rani. Its so easy – and trendy – to criticise the serial, but I thought there was much to recommend it. It certainly didn’t deserve to be reviled the way it is- for me, Attack of the Cybermen should – and deservedly often is – be the true target for these sentiments.

  2. Pip and Jane Baker had nothing to do with writing “Attack Of The Cybermen”. That was Paula Moore (nee Woolsey), who actually might have been script editor Eric Saward. I think that they were prime examples of “jobbing” writers, brought in by production teams to write “spec” scripts to order. They were not without talent, as “The Mark Of The Rani”, “Terror Of The Vervoids”, and “The Ultimate Foe”, their other contributions were all not without merit. These were actually fine enough episodes (personal tastes aside, as everyone has an opinion), objectively speaking, and I agree that the trainwreck that was/is “Time And The Rani” had more to do with production failures than any fault on their part. They did and probably wrote what they were asked to, and their marching orders were shortsighted, wrong footed, and/or inexplicable at best.

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