The Doctor Who Thread

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Had a bit of a Doctor Who binge recently.

I'm plodding through Reeltime Pictures The Sylvester McCoy Years dvd. Six hours of interviews with Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Angela Bruce, Andrew Cartmel, Jessica Martin and Lisa Bowerman.

The Sylvester McCoy one was quite dull to be honest. It was filmed at the location of 89's Battlefield but the interview focused on none Who work for the bulk of the hour and was pretty forgettable.

Angela Bruce was fun, a big personality and talked about all her career including the sheer joy of playing a Brigadier and working with Nick Courtney.

Of the three i've seen so far, Jessica Martin, filmed in 2016, was by far the best. She seems really entertaining to talk to, happy to do impressions and delighted to have taken part in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I reckon she'd be a perfect date.

I was sucked underground by Tractators in the classic Frontios last night. One of my favourite Davison stories. It's incredibly grim throughout and to say it was a studio bound production looks pretty good. The Tractators themselves work for me (As long as you don't look at their feet) and the series has a strong guest cast including William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop and Peter Gilmore, but it's Mark Strickson as Turlough who stands out, especially with his fear of the Tractators.

[Susan Foreman]

Who: Before And After #310

Name: John Levene
Year(s): 1968 / 1970-1971 / 1971 / 1972 / 1972 / 1973 / 1973 / 1974 / 1975 / 1975 / 1975 [73 episodes]
Stories: The Invasion episode 1 – The Invasion episode 3, The Invasion episode 5 – The Invasion episode 6, The Invasion episode 8 / The Ambassadors Of Death episode 6, The Ambassadors Of Death episode 7 / Inferno episode 1 – The Terror Of The Autons episode 2, Terror Of The Autons episode 4 / The Mind Of Evil episode 1, The Mind Of Evil episode 3 – The Claws of Axos episode 4 / The Daemons episode 1 – Day Of The Daleks episode 2, Day Of The Daleks episode 4 / The Time Monster episode 1 – 4, The Time Monster episode 6 – The Three Doctors episode 4 / The Green Death episode 1 – The Green Death episode 6 / Invasion Of The Dinosaurs part 1 – Invasion Of The dinosaurs part 6 / Planet Of The Spiders part 1, Planet Of The Spiders part 2 / Robot part 1 – Robot part 4 / Terror Of The Zygons part 1 – Terror Of The Zygons part 4 / The Android Invasion part 1 – The Android Invasion part 4
Character(s): Sergeant Benton / Platoon Under Leader Benton, Benton Primord / RSM Benton
NOTE: Appeared in 'The Moonbase' as a Cyberman and 'The Web Of Fear' as a Yeti. Appeared in the direct-to-video story 'Wartime'. Appeared as Sergeant Benton in the 1984 stage show 'Recall UNIT: The Great Tea-Bag Mystery'; the Big Finish audio range for The Third Doctor Adventures ['The Scream Of Ghosts', 'Poison Of The Daleks']; the Companion Chronicles ['Council Of Wat'] and UNIT: The New Series ['Assembled', 'Call To Arms' and 'United']. Is sometimes credited as John Anthony Blake

Before Who:
Films: The First Freedom (1967)
Television: Undermind: Waves of Sound / Adam Adamant Lives!: A Sinister Sort of Service / Z Cars [13 episodes as Police Constable] / Les Misérables: Release / Detective: Crime of Passion

After Who:
Films: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970), Zeppelin (1971), Double Take (1972), The Death Wheelers (1973), The Blockhouse (1973), Dark Places (1974), The Executioner (1975), CanniBallistic! (2002), Planetfall [Voice only] (2005), Automatons (2006), Satan Hates You (2010)
Television: Softly Softly: A Quantity of Gelignite / The Expert: A Question of Guilt / ITV Playhouse: The Friendly Persuaders / A Handful of Thieves: The Fireworks Party / Special Branch: A New Face / Germinal: Mob Rule / ITV Sunday Night Theatre: Lay Down Your Arms / Paul Temple [13 episodes as Paul Temple in the opening titles] / The Troubleshooters: The Order of the Good Time / UFO: Close Up / The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Affair of the Tortoise / The Regiment: The Fortunes of Peace / Callan: I Never Wanted the Job / The Pathfinders: Our Daffodils Are Better Than Your Daffodils / The Adventurer: I'll Get There Sometime* / Whoops Baghdad!: Genie of the Bottle / The Jensen Code [2 episodes as Military Policeman] / Carry on Laughing!: The Baron Outlook / The Growing Pains of P.C. Penrose: The Peeper / BeetleBorgs: The Curse of Mums' Tomb

[Susan Foreman]

The complete television and radio listings for the London area on November 23rd, 1963

The first episode of 'Doctor Who' on BBC at 5:15

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The cover of the past Doctor adventure Verdigris by Paul Magrs.

It was released in April 2000 and featured the third Doctor, Jo Grant and Iris Wildthyme.

[Susan Foreman]

The TARDIS as seen in 'Image Of The Fendahl'

Note that the BBC prop department forgot to take the lamp used on top of the police box for the location shoot!

[trebor8273]

Watched these.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

A new hardback coming soon

She’s got ice in her heart and a kiss on her lips… and so has she.

1939, New York. Private Eye, Melody Malone, is hired to find a stolen ruby, the Eye of Horus. The ruby might hold the secret to the location of Cleopatra’s tomb but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. Can Melody escape the ruby’s curse?

1939, New York. River Song, author of the Melody Malone Mysteries, is forced to find a reality-altering weapon, the Eye of Horus but everyone who comes into contact with it dies. River doesn’t believe in curses but is she wrong? From the top-security confines of Stormcage to the barbarism of first-century Egypt, River battles to find the Eye of Horus before its powers are used to transform the universe.

To succeed, she must team up with a most unlikely ally her own fictional alter ego, Melody. And together they must solve another mystery- Is fiction changing into fact – or is fact changing into fiction?

[Susan Foreman]

Who: Before And After #311

Name: Sally Faulkner
Year(s): 1968
Stories: The Invasion episode 1 - The Invasion episode 2, The Invasion episode 4 – The Invasion episode 8
Character(s): Isobel Watkins
NOTE: Also appeared in the Big Finish 'Doctor Who' audio story 'Winter for the Adept' and the Big Finish 'Bernice Summerfield' audio story 'The Secret of Cassandra'

Before Who:
Film: Hot Millions (1968)
Television: Boy Meets Girl: A High-Pitched Buzz / BBC Play of the Month: Girls in Uniform

After Who:
Films: The Body Stealers (1969), Layout for 5 Models (1972), Vampyres* (1974), Whose Child Am I? (1976), I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight (1976), Confessions of a Driving Instructor* (1976), The Deadly Females (1976), Prey (1977), Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair (1979), Jaguar Lives! (1979), The Fool (1990)

Television: The Newcomers [4 episodes as Nina Priestley] / ITV Sunday Night Theatre: A Walk Through the Forest / NBC Experiment in Television: A Bad Case of Shakespeare / The Culture Vultures [4 episodes as Vivienne] / Scene: £60 Single, £100 Return / Softly Softly: Task Force: Set Us Alight / Z Cars: Miller / The Sweeney: Jackpot* / Dixon of Dock Green: Domino / Target: Fringe Banking / Bird of Prey: Mode Murder / The Professionals: You'll Be All Right / Jury: David / Murder Not Proven?: Open Season / Minder: Hypnotising Rita / EastEnders [2 episodes as Ingrid] / Just Good Friends [2 episodes as Bev] / Ffizz: Lilies of the Field / Brookside [5 episodes as Mrs. Downs] / The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Silver Blaze* / The Bill [5 episodes, different characters (1988-2010)] / Me and My Girl: Only the Lonely / House of Cards / She-Wolf of London: Can't Keep a Dead Man Down / Coronation Street / Chancer: Ashes / Hope It Rains: Cover Girl / Kinsey: The Waste Watchers / Emmerdale Farm / Growing Pains: Someone to Watch Over Me / An Independent Man [3 episodes as Tory Councillor] / Casualty: Compensation / Pie in the Sky: This Other Eden / Hollyoaks [2 episodes as Mrs Anderson] / Frontiers: Two Teenagers Kidnapped / Grange Hill / Wycliffe: On Offer / Forgotten [3 episodes as Mrs. Arthur] / Pure Wickedness [2 episodes as Nora Shelley] / Big Kids: Performance by Hypnotist / Silent Witness: Tell No Tales / Doctors: Pills and Pork Scratchings / Identity: Somewhere They Can't Find Me

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Prentis (Paul Kaye) and the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) in ghost form in Before the Flood (2015)

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I finished off The Sylvester McCoy Years dvd.


Sophie Aldred, was basically Sophie Aldred. We all know her, we all love her (probably) and it was interesting to hear how her character of Ace was developed as they went along.

Andrew Cartmel was as insightful as ever. He talked about every story he script edited and about what might have come next. I always enjoy his interviews on the regular dvd's so this was a bit of a treat. He didn't seem too keen on Eric Saward when this was filmed.

Finally, last but certainly not least was Lisa Bowerman. She was brilliant, such enthusiasm for her work. I had no idea she was now a Big Finish director as well as performer. She clearly loved the Jago and Litefoot range of audio adventures.

Naturally she talked about Bernice Summerfield and the audio stories but also Survival too for quite a while. She showed quite a few photos from her private collection on the sets of the story, all of which were new to me. Lisa's interview was from 2018 so quite up to date, she even talked about Peter Capaldi leaving the role of the Doctor.

After watching the first interview (McCoy) i was thinking the six hours of chat would be a bit of a chore, but thankfully it was all rather enjoyable. Sylvester, surprisingly, was the least interesting, with Jessica Martin, Andrew Cartmel and especially Lisa Bowerman, the best.

I'm thinking about purchasing The Peter Davison Years next. - Davison, Waterhouse, Fielding, Sutton, Strickson and the one i really want to see - Anthony Ainley.