To be fair, I began the original Doctor Who after watching the first 9 seasons of NuWho. It wouldn't be fair to compare the cgi, even if some is comparable to the melting trash bin. The effects in general are bad enough to plunge the average episode into mediocrity. There's a big difference between laughing at Tom Baker's wit and laughing at an arm covered in green bubble wrap. However, when the writing plays a larger role than effects, I can become decently immersed in an episode. For example, I thought the Ribos Operation was excellent. The writing was clever, the characters were interesting AND well acted and it minimized the special effects. The Land of Fiction was interesting enough to hold my interest even without the excellent Tom Baker. Actually, with 2015 graphics and Baker, Tennant or Smith it probably would be an amazing episode. Then there's this episode. With a cheesy new title sequence and an even worse theme song, it wasn't off to a great start. But like I said, those are things I can look past. The story slogged from scene to scene. Something something tachyon, something something enemy. War, reduplicator tachyon tachyon. Yet despite having my favorite original Doctor and the preferred Romana, the characters were even flatter than the storyline. Baker's lines were rarely as clever as he deserved and Romana's lines were more fitting for her predecessor, not the spunky Romana II. Then there were the Formasi. Truly a sight to behold. I know to expect little from Original Who's effects department but this conjured up memories of Drashigs, Gel Guards, Bubble Wrap and octopi. To be fair, up until the last few years effects had a tendency to detract more than add to a story. Not everyone can be the guy that did the Predator makeup, I get that. But judging from the books in my library (some of which I've even read), I'm pretty sure that writers were just as capable then as they are now. They even lazily threw in something at the very end of the last episode about how they should really be doing their job looking for the black guardian. At least I think that's who they said, I'm not sure. They mentioned him once after two hours of running between tachyon stabilizers and reduplicators. In the end, The Doctor and Romana were worthy of much better dialogue and we, the avid viewers, deserved a better show.