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FishyFish

By FishyFish
in Film, TV & Radio

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Gregory Wolfe

Gregory Wolfe

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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.

Considering how little the ageing doctors look like their younger selves, they could get someone else to play a young or older Troughton.

It occurred to me that a good friend of mine who recently graduated from his degree course in acting, as a mature student, would make an amazing Troughton era Doctor. No doubt helped in no small part that Troughton was his favourite Doctor.

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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Already posted but here's a youtube vid of the bells of saint john prequel episode:

As for discussion of the 50th:

It seems that Colin Baker has said a little too much. His official fanclub has an official twitter and talked to him about plans for the 50th anniversary special.

The idea seems to be that the Doctor has paintings of his older bodies that can still age and appear in person, thus neatly explaining how both Baker's would look nothing like their younger counterparts.

The link is sadly gone and the twitterpost that had that has also been removed but this info does stack up against the 'paintings' hint that Matt Smith gave.

Also: the BBC is looking into making the 50th special a television movie of which will either clock at 60, 75 or 90 minutes.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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I'm re-watching it again on the train. Some real "groovy" dialogue from the scientists in the first episode. Hilarious sped up Bessie business as well. But yes, Delgado is great in it.

I also watched Day of the Daleks for the first time yesterday. Rather enjoyed it, despite some risible action sequences. The Tricycle bit was just ludicrous, the Ogrons are going as slow as they can so as not to catch them, whilst simultaneously trying to look like they're in hot pursuit. As for the "climactic" battle scene. Well, what do you expect when you try to shoot three Daleks in a lumpy field. It's all good fun though, Pertwee is much better in his last two seasons IMO.

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Teabag

Teabag

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It's been a good day for salacious gossip in Doctor Who. First the reviews of that JN-T biography reveal such gold as when he spat in Peri's face at a 1996 convention, then I read in Private Eye about Moffat having a stand up row at a trade event with just-quit producer Caro Skinner, yelling he was going to erase her from Dr Who.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Carnival of Monsters

(Blog has pictures)

The Doctor and Jo accidentally materialise inside a 'miniscope', a collection of human and alien lifeforms inside a machine used for amusement by a couple of travelling carnies.

There are two plot threads running parallel here: firstly, the carnies trying to entertain the emotionally muted inhabitants of the planet to which they've hitchhiked, which is funny because they have no concept of amusement and think the carnies are spies or part of an invasion fleet, and the situation grows more and more ridiculous.

[Picture: What is this "fun" of which you speak?]

Then we have the Doctor and Jo trapped on what initially seems like 1920s cruise ship, but is actually an artificial environment within the machine. This is also funny as the people get stuck in a loop and keep repeating the same sequence of events, repeatedly discovering the stowaways and then forgetting about them.

[Picture: Yoink!]

Things get interesting when deadly giant worm-like creatures from another part of machine escape and run amuck. Once the Doctor is able to escape the machine and return to full size, he then does his usual holier-than-thou routine to give the aliens a telling off for allowing the miniscope to be used, because they've been outlawed. Using the Tardis, they are able to deactivate the machine and return the creatures and people to their homes.

[Picture: The miniscope, banned by galactic law.]

There's certainly a colourful cast of characters in this. I like how the carnies' attire is completely at odds with the aliens' bland uniforms and grey faces. The looping events inside the machine were quite amusing, and the bits with the giant worms were well-realised and reminded me of the film Beetlejuice. Overall, I thought this was interesting and decent enough.

[Picture: The drashigs, giant worm-like things, hunt the Doctor and Jo through a swamp.]

Noteworthy mention: apparently, the BBC experimented with new title music in this season, but it proved unpopular and they decided not to use it. For some reason, some versions of episode 2 of Carnival of Monsters mistakenly retain this new music. I can see why they didn't use it, it sounds all sped up and boingy-boingy. Saying that, they've kept basically the same music for the last ten years, so I didn't mind hearing something new.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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One of my favourite stories that. I think it's partly because it was repeated in the early 80's on BBC2 as part of the 'Five Faces of Dr Who' re-runs, but I watched it again the other week and it stands up very well.

It's also a great Robert Holmes script though, with his usual flair for double acts. Michael Wisher is great, as ever (he was the TV reporter in the Daemons, and will shortly appear in a much more famous role in Tom Baker's era), the stuff on the 1920's ship is fun, and the Drashigs are well realised and memorable.

Also, did you not think this had some fairly prescient things to say about reality TV? Very ahead of its time really!

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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Frontier in Space

(Blog has pictures)

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of... a blue police box.

The Doctor and Jo materialise in the 26th century and just happen to get in the middle of a plot to set the two galactic empires, Earth and Draconia, at war with each other.

[Picture: The Draconians.]

This is another story by Malcolm Hulke; much like his earlier one, 'Colony in Space', he seems to have a desire to build a rich and consistent future universe, with all the politics and history worked out. This kind of world-building can make for some compelling sci-fi, as it paints a broad picture of where we are as a species and where we're heading, the trials we may face and the ideals we must stick to. While there are some warmongering characters in this, the Earth President (a woman, how about that?!) is level-headed and reasonable and tries her best to avoid all-out war.

[Picture: The Doctor is sent to prison on the moon. Draconian laws, haha!]

There are two good reveals in this story. Firstly, in part three, that it's the Master who is manipulating the two galactic powers to fight each other (using a hypnotic device to create illusions of the enemy), and then secondly, in part six, minutes before the story comes to a conclusion, that the Master has been working for the Daleks! I genuinely did not see that coming. With these two very bad dudes working together, the Doctor has no choice but to call the Time Lords for help, and so the story ends without resolution, to continue into the next serial. Okay, that's a first.

[Picture: The true masters appear at the end.]

It's a little too convenient that the Doctor should happen to meet the Master, yet again, in his free travels. I do like the Master, but he risks becoming overused as a villain when it's the same thing time after time. I would have liked to see the Master and the Daleks come to a head, but maybe that's something that will happen in the next one. After all, the Master cannot be anybody's ally in the long run, and the Daleks obey nobody but themselves. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Jo continue to develop a rapport; their dialogue is becoming more friendly and natural, which is nice to see. I may not think much of Jo, but the one thing she seems to do well is make the Doctor mellow out a bit. He's become much more bearable lately.

[Picture: Look ma, no strings! The Doctor does a spacewalk. Twice!]

There's a lot to like about this story and I think it's visually quite remarkable for a BBC TV show from 1973, years before the likes of Star Wars hit cinema screens, in which we have spaceships flying about through hyperspace, flinging missiles at each other and so forth. The sets, props, costumes, prosthetics and miniatures are all very accomplished and well-made for their time. The Draconian make-up is excellent, very alien without looking too much like they've got rubber on their heads. The dimwitted Ogrons also return (this should have been my clue that the Daleks were involved, duh!), so again we have this sense of world-building, pulling in familiar elements and using them in new ways.

[Picture: On location, this building has a kind of futuristic look to it.]

Will the war be averted? Will the Daleks take over the galaxy? Will the Master finally conquer the Earth? Find out in the next exciting adventure!

----

Incidentally, I'm not starting the next serial until I've watched New Who on Saturday. I don't want to get my timestreams muddled up. :)

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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I'm halfway through re-watching this one myself Sprite. The Draconians really are a great design, no wonder they were Jon Pertwee's favourites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KiiHtLAl68

I do find it rather hard to take the location filming seriously though. It's the South Bank Centre at Waterloo! I used to go past it on the train every day!

Sadly I suspect you might be rather disappointed by the next story...

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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My interest in New Who is at an all time low. Saw the trailer just now and found it hard to reconcile it with the show I loved from my youth. I watched the first half of the current series on my phone, weeks after transmission. They need to go back to grass roots IMO, I'm sick of these feeble season arcs.

I'm far more excited about the Docudrama.

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womblingfree

womblingfree

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My problem with Dr Who since Christopher Ecclestone has been David Tenant and Matt Smith. I've found them pretty dull Doctors, decent but unimaginative actors playing him like the office loony. With the very best Dr's the actors themselves had real character and imagination plus a genuine eccentricity and gravitas.

Still, despite not following any series in its entirety for years the episodes I have caught on occasion have often been quite intriguing. I thought the last Christmas special was decent and I'm liking the development of Jenna-Louise Coleman's character, I also find her less annoying than Pond.

Might peruse Netflix for the series I've missed. Skipped to the end of one series and enjoyed the resolution of the River Song storyline despite not being a fan of the actual actress who played her.

Going to give this series a go in its entirety and see if it can win me back.

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Commander Jameson

Commander Jameson

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I'm not hugely fussed about this series, sadly. I'll watch it, because, in the end, it's still Doctor Who. But the last Christmas special put me right off the Clara character. I've been watching a few of the older Who episodes like Ambassadors of Death, Logopolis, Castrovalva, Time-Flight and I'm finding that I still enjoy those runs more than these new ones (and very much enjoying Sprite's write-ups).

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Mogster

Mogster

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My problem with Dr Who since Christopher Ecclestone has been David Tenant and Matt Smith. I've found them pretty dull Doctors, decent but unimaginative actors playing him like the office loony. With the very best Dr's the actors themselves had real character and imagination plus a genuine eccentricity and gravitas.

Personally that's exactly how I see Smith's Doctor, with the latest prequel webisode being a perfect example. I find that even when he's in full on nuts mode he always seems to be burying his more sombre self. It's been commented on a few times that Smith does a great job of putting across the sheer age of the character despite being the youngest actor to play the role.
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Mogster

Mogster

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Re 50th Anniversary Special casting

I just read that myself. Multi-Doctor story confirmed then! I'm rather hoping they somehow convince Eccleston to come back too (unlikely), and maybe even McGann! Heck I'd like to see as many past Doctors as possible, but it would get a bit hectic having to manage so many Doctors in a single story.

Just having Tennant back with Moffat's writing is amazing though. Moffat's scripts always seemed to bring up a better performance in the RTD era.

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