Doctor Who

[Davros sock drawer]

Fang Rock is brilliant, and thankfully the screen version is just as good. Depending on what day of the week you ask me it's my favourite Dr Who story. Either that, Robots of death, or Caves of Androzani.

[linkster]

The Horror of Fang Rock was a fantastic book, I got properly obsessed with it as a kid, I think half my English class creative writing stories at the time were terrible rip-offs of it. I suppose because episodes rarely got repeated, the books ended up being more important as you could go back time and time again.

Every year we went on holiday I'd rent it out. Tragic

[Flub]

The Horror of Fang Rock was a fantastic book, I got properly obsessed with it as a kid, I think half my English class creative writing stories at the time were terrible rip-offs of it. I suppose because episodes rarely got repeated, the books ended up being more important as you could go back time and time again.

That was the first Doctor Who book I ever bought

[Cthulhu Steev]

Those pictures have made me decide to go up into the loft tomorrow and look at my collection. I have the E-Space Trilogy box set of books, and I don't think I ever read them, so I need to remedy that.

[El Pibe]

I really want some hardback copies, but they don't come up very often.

I had absolutely loads of them as the library used to sell them off and they Put them aside for me as they knew I loved them. Dad took all my Who books to the tip when I was at Uni. I had well over 100

[Davros sock drawer]

The tip!?

[cassidy]

the books ended up being more important as you could go back time and time again.

That's not just the Targets, it applies to Who fiction as a whole. My favourite Who will always be the books due to no budget constraints and some truly fantastic writing.

I too though have great memories of Hardback WH Allen who books in the library. Terror of the Autons had a really freaky cover IIRC.

[linkster]

That's not just the Targets, it applies to Who fiction as a whole. My favourite Who will always be the books due to no budget constraints and some truly fantastic writing.

Yep. I was really enjoying the 8th Doctors but then there was one with a really quite upsetting plot line and I just kind of stopped

[El Pibe]

Some of the hardbacks go for quite a bit on eBay. Bollocks!

[Davros sock drawer]

So I saw earlier today. I also saw that the book about the Target novelisations is also ludicrously expensive, which is a shame as it looks awesome.

Anyway I borrowed a few DVDs off a mate the other night. Currently on episode 3 of State of Decay. It's wonderful stuff, and about 10 times more atmospheric and creepy than anything in New Who.

[Sprite Machine]

The Three Doctors

(Blog has pictures)

So, ten years. I've managed to watch nearly ten years' worth of Doctor Who in under ten months. This calls for an anniversary special...

When the very universe itself is threatened by an antimatter-spewing blackhole controlled by an ancient ex-Time Lord called Omega, who can the council of Time Lords turn to to save the day (and every other day)? By breaking the laws of time itself, they pull the Doctors of the past into the present. When one Doctor isn't enough, it’s time for the power of three!

[Picture: Omega, the man with no face.]

This is a very silly premise, purely an excuse to get William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton back for a special event... but I can't help finding it a lot of fun. Frankly, any excuse to get Patrick Troughton back is fine with me, and he's absolutely the highlight of this particular serial. He plays it perhaps a tad more jovial than he used to, exaggerated for effect I suppose, but he's superb.

[Picture: The Doctor's recorder quite literally saves the universe.]

William Hartnell is another matter. In 1972/73, he was very ill, and whatever role they had planned for his character was downsized to some pre-recorded segments, the idea being that he was trapped outside in a vortex and couldn't join the other two in person. But this does suit his character well enough, as he is able to offer his wisdom and advice from afar. His eccentricities are largely absent here, understandably so – he gives quite a sober performance. I was sad to learn that this was the last bit of acting he did, and he sadly passed away a couple of years later. Quite remarkable that he managed this role one last time.

[Picture: Trapped outside while in transit, the first Doctor can only offer advice through the Tardis monitor.]

Still, it's Pertwee's Doctor that does most of the heroics, but he plays off of Troughton well, and their little arguments are amusing to watch – Troughton obsessing over his lost recorder and Pertwee losing his temper, it really shows the difference between the two of them. Naturally, the Brigadier is mightily confused by the whole ordeal, refusing to believe to reality of the situation happening before his very eyes. But meeting the Doctor he recognises from years ago, and trying to explain to headquarters, is fun. I hadn't realised, but none of the UNIT lot had been inside the Tardis before this... and presumably, this is the last time they will.

[Picture: The Brigadier is confused, often. He's great, though.]

Having put their collective heads together, Omega is tricked into releasing them all and destroying his blackhole. Having saved the Time Lords, they grant the Doctor his freedom, ending his exile, and the Doctors of the past are returned to their time zones. Omega is a tragic character, revered for his work in making time travel possible, but abandoned by the very people he helped, and trapped forever in a world he created but cannot leave. It's the sad side to this rather fun coin.

And it was fun. I got a kick out seeing these three versions of the character together, as I'm sure fans did back in the day as well. For once, I would have actually liked the story to be longer!

[Exidor]

Matthew Sweet reviews the forthcoming JN-T: The Life and Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner book in The Guardian. Sounds... interesting.

[Fireproofradiator]

Ack. Wasn't expecting that. I wouldn't describe JNT as a hero but he's an important person in the show's history. Horrible to read about the abuses alleged in that book. I've started to fall back from admiring figures from the 70's in expectation of appalling revelations about their character.

[linkster]

It's an era of the show that holds no interest for me as I drifted away from watching it owing to the tone and general quality. Might be interesting to see just how he hung on so long though, craven cowardice at the BBC not to nuke it of they really wanted to.

[Exidor]

It was always my understanding that he hung on for so long because no one else wanted the job and he didn't have the breadth of experience to walk off the show and get a similar job somewhere else. The BBC couldn't just nuke it because it was a national treasure but they did their level best to kill its ratings by cutting budgets, moving it around and scheduling it opposite Corrie.

[linkster]

I remember Mary Whitehouse and others laying into how violent it had become - didn't it in fact go off the air for a few years? National treasure is certainly not how I remember it, I was target audience and thought it was shite. Are they saying the cross over point was JNT? At what point did the BBC management decide they wanted to run it into the ground as doesn't make sense to kill a genuinely successful and popular show

[Davros sock drawer]

Mary Whitehouse was complaining about the show in the early seventies. She called Terror of the Autons something like "Teatime terror for tots" and she took particular exception to the drowning cliffhanger in The Deadly Assassin. So the show ran into concerns about violence long before JNT took over.

He is often held responsible for lots of terrible decisions regarding the show however. The casting of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric for one thing. Colin Baker for another. But then he also held the Cybermen off the cover of Radio Times for Earthshock, thereby giving me one of my fondest childhood Who memories.

[linkster]

No there was an episode in the Peter Davison years when somebody was gnawed by a rat and it made the fucking evening news. Am I wrong about the show going on a break around then?

Best thing that probably came from that era was Turlough

[Exidor]

It went on hiatus after Colin Baker's first season. Michael Grade was DG at the time and absolutely hated it. There was a bit of a fuss in the press and amongst fans and it was eventually relaunched with the barnstorming Trial of a Timelord story sequence.

[Davros sock drawer]

You sure you're not thinking about the giant rat in Talons of Weng Chiang? Nothing like that in Peter Davison's era. Someone did get their face melted off in Resurrection of the Daleks though!

The show went on hiatus for 18 months after Colin Baker's first season. When it came back it had gone from just being terrible to being the worst thing ever.

[linkster]

Haha no I am not getting confused, I might be remembering whatever the scene was incorrectly though.

[MDY]

Reminder: the Dr Who special episode of Pointless is on BBC1 at 7pm tonight

[Mogster]

The Three Doctors

(Blog has pictures)

Yay! I absolutely love The Three Doctors. I found The Five Doctors a bit disappointing by comparison.

[linkster]

God I LOVED the Five Doctors, was unbelievably excited about that coming on, didn't disappoint, apart from absence of Tom

[linkster]

To be fair also think i crapped myself at the reveal in Destiny of the Daleks

[Mogster]

By the way, the Bells of Saint John prequel webisode is out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016r6pw

It's a rather lovely little scene.

[Fireproofradiator]

That Pointless photo has got me wondering how they'll sort out a multidoc story. Here's my breakdown.

Tennant - A shoe-in.

Eccleston - 50/50. Left cos he didn't like how the show was run.

McGann - Dark horse. Probs the Doc with least cheerleaders cos he's neither nu or old Who, but I think he could be really great. Would love a spin off show about his doc.

McCoy - Loves the show, would deffo come back, but from hereon in there's there question of how to deal with actors being a couple of decades older than their Doctors. I'd like a McCoy as the elder statesman doc.

C Baker - Lovely chap, and some great performances on Big Finish but not for me.

Davison - Yes. Can do the same 'time distortion' explanation they did for Time Crash.

T Baker - Double yes. No CGI - either the same explanation as Time Crash or a parallel dimension 'old doc' would be great.

I'd love a Troughton appearance as well cos he's probs the closest personality-wise to Matt Smith.

Reckon my dream lineup would be McGann, McCoy and Troughton with Matty. Plz.

[Davros sock drawer]

God I LOVED the Five Doctors, was unbelievably excited about that coming on, didn't disappoint, apart from absence of Tom

Me too, it caught me at just the right age. It's a mutual childhood memory for me and my gf, so it gets quoted a lot ("you've maddened it!" from the Brig in particular), and watched on DVD a fair bit too.

The Three Doctors (another nice write up btw Sprite) less so. The scenes with Troughton and Pertwee are great, but Stephen Thorne does another shouty performance (he also plays Azal in The Daemons and Eldrad in The Hand of Fear).

Carnival of Monsters up next though, one of my favourites. Robert Holmes again. Then Frontier in Space which is pretty epic by Who standards of the time. I think it was Pertwee's favourite story as well.

[Gregory Wolfe]

That Pointless photo has got me wondering how they'll sort out a multidoc story. Here's my breakdown.

Tennant - A shoe-in.

Eccleston - 50/50. Left cos he didn't like how the show was run.

McGann - Dark horse. Probs the Doc with least cheerleaders cos he's neither nu or old Who, but I think he could be really great. Would love a spin off show about his doc.

McCoy - Loves the show, would deffo come back, but from hereon in there's there question of how to deal with actors being a couple of decades older than their Doctors. I'd like a McCoy as the elder statesman doc.

C Baker - Lovely chap, and some great performances on Big Finish but not for me.

Davison - Yes. Can do the same 'time distortion' explanation they did for Time Crash.

T Baker - Double yes. No CGI - either the same explanation as Time Crash or a parallel dimension 'old doc' would be great.

I'd love a Troughton appearance as well cos he's probs the closest personality-wise to Matt Smith.

Reckon my dream lineup would be McGann, McCoy and Troughton with Matty. Plz.

erm...

[Fireproofradiator]

You think they're not already poring through footage to see if there's material they can use for a multi-doc story? Five Docs used Shada material so there's precedent for repurposing.