The Doctor Who Thread

[Gothmogxx]

So The Time Monster.

The final Pertwee story I had yet to see and it's... Both great and bad.

Its a conflicting one. There is good in here.

As usual the conflict between the Master and the Doctor works wonders. Even simple stuff like them spending a lot of time bitching at each other over their TARDIS scanners. They keep constantly one-upping each other and its a joy to watch.

Production wise the stuff in Atlantis (whatever happened to the Fish People?) looks really good. In particular the stuff in the courtyard and just the sets in general.

I also appreciated the Doctors story about the hermit he used to know back when he was young. Such a simple tale but delivered with such conviction from Pertwee that it sells it.

I have never really laughed at anything in the show so far. But this Story brings with it not one but two really funny moments. The first one is the Master begging for mercy from the Doctor at the end. Its just funny to see him reduced to begging when he's faced with eternal torture, especially as he's having to ask the Doctor for mercy. The second one is the last 10 seconds. Benton got turned into a baby earlier on and he turns back into an adult stark naked. Its just his reaction that got me, easily the best line of the season.

The issue is again, I feel it really drags for the first 4 episodes in particular. There are exceptions: the Master sending troops from the past to fight UNIT for instance, and Bessie outclassing the Brigs land rover in terms of speed but too much of it consists of nothing happening and people just talking without any real substance.

Also... I have to bring up TOMTIT. Okay so... this story revolves around a device called TOMTIT. This really, really needs to be emphasised... A main part of the plot of this story is called TOMTIT... What?? Surely somebody working on this had to have questioned this decision? Did not a single person point out that TOMTIT was a name likely to make any viewer not totally devoid of humour, or dead, laugh? What were they thinking? Could they really not come up with a more sensible name than that? Seriously though just why? I couldn't take it seriously.

I hate to also bring this up but... The Doctors portable time sensor. Couldn’t the Doctor have designed a device that was a little less... Phallic? It looks like Jo is reading those numbers off a testicle. Again like TOMTIT, how exactly was I supposed to take it seriously?

On a plus note though I have actually met somebody from this story. Twice. That is actor David Prowse. Darth Vader gets to play the minotaur. He doesn't really get to do much though, which is sad.

So yeah its the weakest Pertwee so far. Daemons was close but it benefits from a cracking first episode or two... But it says something that Pertwee's weakest is still better than other Doctors best.

[Gothmogxx]

I'm at the double digits in terms of Seasons! Bring on Season 10! Troughton is coming back!

Season 9 rankings-

1. The Mutants (yep)
2. The Sea Devils
3. The Day of the Daleks
4. The Curse of Peladon
5. The Time Monster

[Susan Foreman]

May 22nd: Today in WHO-story

Births
1934 - Jean Challis (Beatty in The Idiot's Lantern)
1942 - Cavan Kendall (Achilles in The Myth Makers)
1949 - Cheryl Campbell (Ocean Waters in the Sarah Jane Adventures story The Vault of Secrets)
1954 - Vaune Craig-Raymond (Cleaning Woman in The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
1963 - David Schneider (Ernst Bratfisch in the Big Finish audio The Silver Turk)
1965 - John Sponsler (co-music composer on the TV Movie)

Deaths
2001 - Jack Watling (Professor Travers in The Abominable Snowmen, The Web of Fear and Reeltime Pictures' Doctor Who spin-off Downtime; father of Victoria Waterfield actress Deborah Watling and Big Finish Productions actor Giles Watling) aged 78

2010 - Jonathan Battersby (Winder in The Beast Below) aged 57

Episode
1965 - The Chase, Episode One ('The Executioners'): 10.0 million viewers
1971 - The Daemons, Episode One: 9.2 million viewers
2010 - The Hungry Earth: 6.49 million viewers

Documentaries
2010 - Doctor Who Confidential: After Effects

Releases
1980 - Issue 33 of Doctor Who Magazine (Marvel)

1995 - The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara (VHS)
2008 - Issue 65 of Doctor Who Adventures (BBC Magazines)

2015 - Toby Hadoke's Who's Round 121 (BBC Magazines)
2017 - Ghost Stories, Part Seven (Titan Comics)

Behind-the-Scenes
2008 - Recording of the Big Finish audio The Doomwood Curse took place
2009 - Recording of the Big Finish audio Blue Forgotten Planet took place
2012 - Recording of the Big Finish audio Destroy the Infinite took place

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Slitheen as seen in the 2005 two parter Aliens of London / World War Three.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Sainsbury's will be stocking the Big Finish blue vinyl release of Energy of the Daleks from this Friday. Priced £18.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Sainsbury's will be stocking the Big Finish blue vinyl release of Energy of the Daleks from this Friday. Priced £18.

Be quick (and lucky!)

It's limited to 1,500 copies!!

Mind you, if you miss it or don't have access to a record player, you can also get the story direct from Big Finish on CD (£10.99) or as a download (£8.99)

Energy Of The Daleks | Big Finish

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

Be quick (and lucky!)

It's limited to 1,500 copies!!

Mind you, if you miss it or don't have access to a record player, you can also get the story direct from Big Finish on CD (£10.99) or as a download (£8.99)

Energy Of The Daleks | Big Finish

I have the cd release. To be honest i don't rate it that much.

1500 copies is quite a lot of something as niche as a Big Finish Doctor Who story on vinyl. Arctic Monkeys hold the record of 25,000 sales in a week with their latest album since 1992.

[Susan Foreman]

The Beatles on 'Top Of The Pops', recorded April 15th, 1965, performing 'Ticket To Ride'

This historic footage was the last time the group recorded a mimed performance exclusively for the show. It was broadcast on the evening of Thursday, 15th April and later wiped by the BBC

Luckily, this excerpt was saved for posterity when it was included as something observed by The First Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Vicki on the Time-Space Visualiser in the first episode of 'The Chase' ['The Executioners']

The original idea was the have the band film a cameo appearance for the show, where they appeared in old-age make-up, supposedly playing at the Festival of Ghana in 1996. Apparently all four members of the group were excited by this proposal, but ultimately the idea was vetoed by manager Brian Epstein. [Seeing as Lennon was murdered in 1980, I wounder how this time paradox would have been later explained!]

[Gothmogxx]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Slitheen as seen in the 2005 two parter Aliens of London / World War Three.

Now that is a modern day story that is under-rated. Like Day of the Daleks, its main issue is the main monsters themselves. Everything else worked fine, its another really clever story (I still can't believe it was broadcast during a General Election campaign when you consider how far they go to mock the "weapons of mass destruction" via implying the Slitheen also possess them. If Blair is a fan of the show he must have watched it that week with gritted teeth). In fact when you consider the fact that the Slitheen disguise themselves as human beings... If this were re-written slightly, you could easily have used the Zygons instead. I think that would have been much better for a lot of reasons. The Slitheen have good motivation as villains but I can't take them seriously for one, very obvious reason that I don't need to mention

[Gothmogxx]

OH MY WORD. THE THREE DOCTORS

Is it perfect? No. But as an anniversary special does it work? Yes.

I like the other anniversary specials but I like to see the other Doctors interact. Two Doctors, as fun as it is, has Baker and Troughton barely on-screen together, which always bothered me (and when they are onscreen its perfect! So why weren't they together more often?!?).

Here though, excluding Episode 2 and some of Episode 3 when they get split up, Troughton and Pertwee are sensational to watch as a double act. I can't take my eyes of them when either one alone is onscreen, let alone both of them!

Together they alone make this worthwhile to watch.

William Hartnell. I often wonder what could have been had he been well enough to get involved physically but all things considered, I enjoyed seeing him again. You can tell he loves this role, which is why its such a shame he couldn't have got involved more directly. But I appreciated seeing him again, along with his usual humour deployed against his successors "a dandy and a clown".


On the subject of what could have been: Jamie and Zoe. Both were supposed to come back. In the case of Jamie however, Frazer Hines was busy on Emmerdale Farm and Jon Pertwee objected to having too many characters. As it stands, Benton got a lot of Jamie's lines and work, obviously re-written so suit him. But I love Benton, he's such a fun character (and I still don't know why Yates is superior in rank to him). So, whilst we'll never know what it would have been like having Jamie and Zoe, it doesn't bother me with Benton standing in for them, he's easily capable of doing it well. Especially compared to say Baker or Eccelston not appearing in the Five Doctors and Day of the Doctor for instance, that bothers me. At least in this case all the Doctors were technically present.

Omega doesn't really work. He's basically just Azal again (with the same actor with the blazing voice). He's better designed though and the twist about him having no face works well. The Gell guards are decent enough though. Not perfect but adequate. Omegas palace on the other hand is a marvel to look at. I'd actually forgotten how nice it looks. And the nice music you get when they're going through the corridors is a good touch.

I also love Benton and the Brigs first reaction to the TARDIS and traveling through time. Brig "Doctor this time you've gone too far: There's... There's sand everywhere!" Troughton "Oh splendid, who's for a swim?". I actually liked having Troughton helping out UNIT for a change instead of Pertwee, if only because of how much it clearly angers the Brig.


As an anniversary special, it works. I liked it a lot, the Pertwee/Troughton double act is worth watching it for alone, let alone all the other good stuff.