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FishyFish

By FishyFish
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So after next week, we've got the special in the Autumn and then the Christmas special and that's it for 2013? Bit sparse for the 50th Anniversary.

By the way, if anyone fancies watching some old Doctor Who.

http://www.combom.co.uk/

We also get An Adventure in Time and Space

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Adventure_in_Space_and_Time

At the BAFTA Moffat seems to have confirmed November for the special. Not sure if that was known before.

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Sprite Machine

Sprite Machine

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When's Sprite back?

*waves*

Terror of the Zygons

(Blog has pictures)

Apologies for the short break in updates, but I've been in Scotland. By an astonishing coincidence, so has the Doctor!

The Brigadier and UNIT are back again. I must admit, I have missed them a little. They've been a mainstay of so many episodes now, the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton have probably been in more episodes than any regular travelling companion. This time, they've been having a problem in Scotland with some oil rigs being destroyed, and as it turns out, a giant cybernetic monster has been attacking them. Not only that, but it's being controlled by a race called the Zygons, another in a line of rubber-suited aliens. The costumes are getting more ambitious on this show by the week.

[Picture: The Zygons are a visually interesting bunch, like bipedal octopodes.]

As villains, they are not especially unique. Separated from their planet, they are ruthless because they have nothing to lose, and they want the Earth for their own. Their ability to transform into copies of humans makes them quite similar to the aliens from 'The Faceless Ones' - in fact, why not just bring those back? I can't really see why the Zygons were popular enough to be revived in the upcoming 50th anniversary special, but maybe it's just nostaligia. And why not? Their ship interior design is at least quite interesting, very organic and gloomy, like a living creature itself. More could be done with them, certainly.

[Picture: The Zygon ship reveals itself.]

I also like how the Zygons' monster turns out to actually be the Loch Ness monster; taking a legend and making it real is a fun way to put the frights into the kids watching at home. This was an ambitious story, with the creature attacking London at the end, before disengaging its attack. Nevertheless, despite its ambition, it was a somewhat mediocre serial overall.

[Picture: Nessie attacks!]

More concerning is it appears Harry is staying behind with UNIT! I was getting used to the two-companion dynamic, but maybe this is for the best.

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Planet of Evil

(Blog has pictures)

In a change of scene, we now head into space, far in the future, at the very edge of the known Universe. A remote mining mission is being investigated by the military after it failed to report in. Most of the team is dead, killed by a mysterious creature, but one survivor remains.

[Picture: Vishinsky meets a gradually unhinged Sorenson.]

There's an intriguing "dual reality" theme in this, at least initially. As the creature kills, the victims literally disappear, only to reappear later as dehydrated corpses. Since the creature only attacks at night, I was hoping there would turn out to be some night/day duality at work, but this doesn't turn out to be the case. Instead, the plot evolves into a more standard monster story, with it infecting the crew and running amuck. The disappearing/reappearing trick doesn't happen anymore and isn't questioned again. Disappointing.

[Picture: The Doctor and Sarah are brought aboard the ship.]

The monster does avoid the usual "obvious rubber suit" problem by being largely invisible (using a clever visual effect). Elsewhere, general production values are quite high. The rayguns use a nice practical glow effect. The ship interiors look good, but the uniforms are unflattering. There's also a lot of grisly deaths/bodies and a sense of dread and terror, which is appealing.

[Picture: The antimatter creature emerges from the pit of nothingness - a void between our Universe and its anti-matter equivalent.]

I think the main issue with the this one is that the threat of suspicion from the space officers is greater than that of the monster itself. The Doctor and Sarah often find themselves being accused of bringing danger with them, just because they conveniently find themselves amongst it. Here, they are almost executed, whereas the monster barely threatens them. Only a level-headed commander (Vishinsky) saves them from pointless death.

[Picture: The Doctor and Sarah are almost ejected into space.]

Overall, this wasn't bad. I did enjoy the sciency elements, and antimatter made for a good McGuffin of the week, but the plot could have been more ambitious instead of falling back on clichés.

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Pyramids of Mars

(Blog has pictures)

I can usually tell when a good story is about to unfold, and this is the case with Pyramids of Mars, too. In an immediately refreshing change, the scene is set in 1900s Egypt, with an excavation of a pyramid tomb releasing an ancient power from its sleep. Shortly thereafter, we join the Doctor, who pilots the Tardis towards an energy reading that takes them to UNIT HQ... only decades before the present day when it was the site of an old mansion.

[Picture: The Doctor and Sarah in the treasure room.]

The Egyptian theme makes for an interesting change, and this is another story that uses aliens as legends and gods, this time the Osirans, who were an ancient and powerful race of aliens who imprisoned Sutekh away millennia ago.

[Picture: Sutekh attacks the Doctor with a mind-control beam.]

Sutekh, the "devil", god of destruction, the most powerful creature in the known universe, must never be released. For much of the story, he communicates from his 'prison', while he uses the body of archeologist Marcus Scarman as a puppet. His dead-eyed expression and convincing performance are put to very good effect. In fact, a lot is done with very little, very few sets, a small cast, and a seemingly small budget, despite a visit to Mars in the final episode, and an excellent peek at a (possible) desolate future through the doors of the Tardis.

[Picture: Marcus Scarman, the puppet of Sutekh. Look at those cold dead eyes.]

I am enjoying these shorter four-part stories a lot. This one doesn't drag at all and the storytelling is well-paced and makes sense. If I have one complaint, it's that the ending is somewhat sudden and contrived, with the Doctor able to trap Sutekh forever in a timey-wimey portal. This seems unnecessary, as Sutekh could have been defeated by beating Scarman to the Eye of Horus at the end (through the temple of riddles), but instead Scarman gets there first and destroys it. The mansion burning down at the end nicely sets history back on track.

[Picture: The robo-mummies guard the missile aimed at the Mars control station.]

Overall, this is a very enjoyable serial. The plot is interesting, the robot mummies are good, and the dialogue between the Doctor and Sarah is more natural and witty than normal. They also have a good team dynamic, working together well. Success!

[Picture: Death by hugging. Ouch!]

A couple of noteworthy mentions. Firstly, Sarah confirms that she is from 1980, which is the first time UNIT has been been given a definite date in time. (This would put the Third Doctor's adventures in the late 1970s.) Secondly, after Sarah tries on some different clothes, the Doctor distractedly calls her Victoria, remembering his former travelling companion. A nice touch. There's also a moment where the Doctor admits to being tired of being a UNIT employee, tied down to one place. This is perhaps the start of a breakaway from Earth, or at least the end of the Brigadier as a regular.

-------

If anyone is at all interested in my opinion of the last two NuWho episodes, I thought the Crimson Whatever was pretty boring, like a mash-up of overly familiar stories, and the moment where the Sonic Screwdriver saves the Doctor from red painty death was too miraculous for me. The flashback format was unnecessary. I do like Strax, though (sorry Davros!).

The Cybermen one was good. The kids didn't annoy me and I liked the twist. Matt Smith did some serious Actual Acting with himself here, which was excellent. Visuals were good and the Cybermen design was fine, although they are basically the Borg now.

Generally too much bombastic music and the manic pacing is sometimes infuriating, but otherwise good. I don't particularly care who Clara is, but it hasn't impacted on anything so far, and if they can get a good finale out of it, then great. I'm intrigued by the spoilers (I shouldn't have looked, bah!), so I look forward to seeing what happens with that.

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Davros sock drawer

Davros sock drawer

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I was hoping you'd like Pyramids of Mars. I re-watched it a week or so ago, and I still think it's excellent. You can tell that Baker is really hitting his stride, and his moody performance is a highlight for me. I love the scene in the Tardis at the start:

I love how detached he is in this, in the scene with him and Sarah finding Lawrence Scarman's body he is wonderfully Alien. Marcus Scarman is brilliant as well. I love the scene where the poacher tries to shoot him. Pretty creepy really, I'd have been behind the sofa for sure.

The main villain is also a genuinely nasty piece of work, the scene where he tortures the Doctor is gripping, and all with no more than a green light and the power of acting.

As for the resolution, I liked that they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but with a believable explanation (the time delay between Mars and Earth). Better than just beating him to the Eye of Horus I thought. Certainly better than just talking the baddie into losing, like Nu Who!

Quite surprised you found Terror of the Zygons mediocre, that's a bit of a fan fave. I haven't seen it for a good while though.

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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What a beautifull coincidence that Sprite just posted his new reviews, because today someone at the BBC decided to leak a previously lost episode:

The Underwater Menace, episode 2 has finally returned to the BBC archives. Meaning that only episode 3 of the serial now remains missing. The great thing is that it's a Troughton Episode to boot. If you look for it you will find it 'out there'.

Lovely, shows there is hope just yet to finding all the old Who episodes.

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Ebook news. The Kindle store is now selling more Faction Paradox books (Including Of The City of the Saved and the excellent Dead Romance which is the other side). There's also a load of Big Finish books up including three Bernice Summerfield books I've never read.

*Edit* Also if anyone didn't get a chance to read So Vile a Sin first time around

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Adventures-Doctor-Who-ebook/dp/B00CPTFGGW/ref=sr_1_207?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368452281&sr=1-207

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I'd just like to say that while expensive The Infinity Doctors is worth every penny. The Amazon listing describes it as an 8th Doctor novel but it isn't. It's an unspecified Doctor that may or may not belong to a parallel timeline. (Although I believe one character featured later in the 8th Doctor books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Infinity-Doctors-ebook/dp/B0056GJHX4/ref=sr_1_55?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368473744&sr=1-55&keywords=doctor+who

During the Dark Time, the Gallifreyian scientist Omega leaves his wife to travel to the star, which when he causes it to go supernova, will give his people the power to become Lords of Time. But things do not go as planned and Omega is lost inside a black hole. Millions of years later, an unknown version of the Doctor, his friend the Magistrate and star pupil Larna, together with the rest of the Time Lords are preparing to host a peace conference between the Sontarans and the Rutans to end their thousand year war. But behind the scenes a masked figure arranges a kidnapping and robbery in the Doctor's rooms and a strange anomaly appears across the universe, which seemingly has the power to alter the past and future. The epicentre of the effect is a black hole at the end of the universe to which the Doctor and his friends must travel to prevent disaster.

[edit]

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Yeah. It's suss. The only spoilers I can find are a set of rumours that have been floating around for a few weeks. Also out of 1000s of people who got the dvd early nobody has shared online? Not even screencaps? I don't buy it.

If this had leaked I'd have had a copy by now. I'm calling shenanigans

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sweetdaddyg

sweetdaddyg

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I'd just like to say that while expensive The Infinity Doctors is worth every penny. The Amazon listing describes it as an 8th Doctor novel but it isn't. It's an unspecified Doctor that may or may not belong to a parallel timeline. (Although I believe one character featured later in the 8th Doctor books.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Infinity-Doctors-ebook/dp/B0056GJHX4/ref=sr_1_55?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368473744&sr=1-55&keywords=doctor+who

a fantastic book. Lance Parkin is my fave who author. I would have to say I too reckon this is an alternative doctor, however consensus seems to be its either the first as a young man before leaving gallifrey or the 8th at some point...I lean towards a young first.

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sweetdaddyg

sweetdaddyg

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I definitely think it fits better outside continuity

yeah, like a big finish unbound style story...

I have a copy of the infinity doctors in paperback....I think I also have one of the last new adventures that I have never read

I have a real spoiler. Seriously. A real one. A big one.

It's an image link.

http://i.imgur.com/8MMqNtc.jpg

Going deep diving now

is it just me or does she look seriously hot in that image?

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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The entire episode has pretty much been spoiled a few weeks ago, I don't really mind to much. At least the sypnopsis didn't sound like such a mess like The Wedding of River Song and the reviews of the finale have been raving about it.

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Harsin

Harsin

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I watched The Two Doctors on that streaming site I posted earlier. Hoo boy, where to start?

Bit of context first. I read quite a lot of the Doctor Who novelisations when I was a kid as my parents used to buy me them from the second-hand book stall at the local market, which had loads. So I knew most of the stories, but didn't actually see that much of it on TV, which was probably for the best as my imagination was much better than the BBC prop department was capable of at that time. But I remember quite vividly getting The Two Doctors novel, in particular that it had a fancy gold logo on it and a signed introduction by the producer (naive young me thought he'd actually signed each copy). This must be a very important story I thought! My only recollection after that was thinking it was weird and not liking it much. So I was interested in revisiting it to see why I came to that conclusion.

You have to take into account the limitations of the time, but even given an 80s BBC budget some of the stuff in this was pretty awful. A future scientist who looks like an ageing glam rocker in a silver shellsuit, the villainess has an awful wig that sometimes doesn't completely cover her own hair, the Sontarans look ridiculous with collars that don't even attach to their suits (and you can see the actors own lips moving behind their mouths like a 50p Halloween mask from the local Spar) and I'm not sure an old luvvie was the best casting choice for the scary man-eating barbarian race. The pacing is all over the place and there's a strange attempt at creating mystery of who kills everyone on the space-station, even trying to pull a swerve and hint it was the Time Lords, which may have worked if there wasn't a scene near the start where they say Sontaran ships approaching complete with ominous music.

But the main thing that struck me was how downright nasty it was. The comedy relief gets shanked in the chest with a big fuck-off knife and then his lying their bleeding to death is played for bizarre laughs. Shockeye (the aforementioned man-eater) takes a big bite out of a rat, admittedly it's an unconvincing prop rat, but still. He's also constantly going on about eating humans in graphic terms that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Hannibal. The Sontarans get attacked with acid grenades and stumble around melting like the guy at the end of RoboCop, the silly string for blood does lessen the horror. But most shocking was the Doctor straight-up murdering Shockeye by sneaking up behind him and holding a rag soaked in cyanide over his face, then delivering a Sean Connery as Bond style quip to his dead body, technically it's self-defence but David Tennant's Doctor conveniently forgot about this when he was blathering on about the 'man that never would'.

There is some stuff to like. Patrick Troughton is good fun, it's just a shame he spends most of the story tied to a table. I also liked the genuine sense of peril and vulnerability to the Doctor. Far too often nowadays he's portrayed as all knowing, fearless and running rings around the bad guys. Look at the latest episode, the Cybermen are taking over his mind and he seems more annoyed than anything. Even in the episode earlier in the series where he flat out says 'I am afraid' it didn't feel particularly convincing. Here Colin Baker get stabbed in the leg and chased by Shockeye and he looks like he's positively bricking it. The companion also wears a skimpy bikini-top and jacket with her large knockers wobbling about prominently in every scene she appears in. Which was nice.

After I finished I went on Wikipedia to see if they had actually filmed in Spain, since it's so superfluous to the story and the majority of it could have been achieved with a vaguely looking Spanish building in the home counties and some old footage from Wish You Were Here. But no, they did film there at great expense, methinks the team fancied a foreign jolly.

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Exidor

Exidor

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The only thing I remember about that story apart from the sontarans and Troughton is the line "I'm going to have a scout round the back" which amused me no end at the time. Even after reading that post, nothing much is coming back to me.

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Fireproofradiator

Fireproofradiator

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Was The Two Doctors the one they were going to shoot in Venice before rearranging? I've tried to watch it a couple of times but, well, everything Harsin said really. It's horrid, and a real waste of Big Pat and Jamie.

I watched Full Circle today, mesen. Late Tom, early JNT. Never saw it when I was little but remember thinking the swamp monsters looked cool. They are, but it's a pretty poor show otherwise, despite Discontinuity's favourable report...

First body blow is when you realize this story contains maths wanker Adric. His first story, in fact, and there was also the realisation he looks a bit like an ex-girlfriend, which was a bit weird. I wondered whether he borrowed his shouting certainly lines from Tom, who pulls the same trick in this story a few times and despite being a good watch comes across as a bit knackered. The twist you'll work out in the first ten minutes cos it's one Who has used a few times before and the music isn't that bad but it's almost constant and eventually drives you mad. 'Woo-woo-woooo, woowoowoo', indeed.

I'm tempted to watch Warriors Gate cos that's meant to be dead good but might just skip straight to State of Decay cos that's smart.

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MrPogo

MrPogo

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Nope, but it does seem someone has informed him the episode leaked during the Bafta's. Here's a picture of him right after being told apparantly.

IRlHep3.jpg

I've never actually seen him before, and always pictured him looking like Stephen Merchant. Possibly just because of the similar first name...

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Skip to Earthshock for the reward for putting up with the twat

I'm tempted to watch Warriors Gate cos that's meant to be dead good but might just skip straight to State of Decay cos that's smart.

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HarMGM

HarMGM

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Bit of a shame that the once great Robert Holmes couldn't keep up on his quality as he wrote the Two Doctors I believe.

That reminds me: what's everybodies favourite Doctor story per actor who played the doctor part?

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