Doctor Who ‘The Giggle’

Where to begin…

The entire world is going mad through as thinly veiled jab at online forums only we barely see any fallout from this aside from litter and the occasional traffic obstruction.

References to cancel culture, anti-vaxxers, online dating and “kids with their joysticks” (someone tell Davies it’s not 1978).

Some bizarre image that never existed infected every single TV screen ever with a sinister giggle.

More past companions are hired by SHIE-er… UNIT.

A reference to a missing story with Neal Patrick Harris playing a reject from Cabaret.

Donna (or Shouty McWorkingClass, as I call her) knows computer logic now.

The Doctor totally loses his cool and has a series of near nervous breakdowns as Tennant place him as being totally unhinged.

Davies rewrites the rules of regeneration (again) and the new Doctor uses ‘Toymaker magic’ to create a duplicate TARDIS all ready for the new spinoff.

The Toymaker is defeated by a game of catch (I cannot believe Davies tried to make that dynamic… it’s catch) and even though the Giggle is erased, many are dead which doesn’t add up but nothing in this story does.

More awkward gender politics and of course she’s vegan. Equally awkward racial statements (‘do you come in a variety of colors?’).

Ncuti was quite good, though Donna’s joke ‘Do you come in a variety of colors?’ was worrying. How will Davies write for Gatwa?

If you’re thinking this should have been better written, so could the episode. As poor as the previous two were, this one was the worst of the lot. There was nothing celebratory about any of these specials and if the 60th episodes and the ‘Goblin Song’ are what we should judge this new era by, I think I may just sit this one out.

Doctor Who -Wild Blue Yonder

Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi series in television, is celebrating its 60th anniversary with three specials by once show runner Russell T Davies. The program has survived the 60 long years through innovation and self-recreation; re-inventing itself every few years with a new producer, script editor and lead actor. This is the second time a past producer has returned and this time it was in the face of cancellation as the ratings for the past three seasons (and specials) were quite poor. I posit that this had less to do with the quality of the program and more to do with the lack of promotion and distribution alongside fair weather fans who had jumped ship as each led actor had departed. In fact, many of the current viewers have stated that they had stopped watching 15 years ago and are only tuning in now as fan favorite David Tennant had returned to the role.

The previous week’s special was a (very) loose adaptation of the comic strip The Star Beast. The latest special was wrapped in secrecy with only Tennant and Davies expressing great anticipation of the viewers’ reaction to what they promised to be an altogether unique and “shocking” adventure. Shortly before it aired, Davies stated it was one of the greatest experiences of his life. So… stakes were quite high. As there had been nothing very celebratory so fr in the specials and the final installment was known to feature the Celestial Toymaker, rumors flew far and wide that Wild Blue Yonder would feature past Doctor Who actors Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi (previous anniversaries had united past Doctors on screen)… but nothing doing.

Wild Blue Yonder is yet again poorly written, lazily produced and cheaply directed. A story set aboard a spacecraft on the edge of the known universe, the first 12 whole minutes are spent recycling three facts; Donna is concerned that her family are waiting for her, they have lost the TARDIS and they don’t know where they are. These facts are regurgitated endlessly as if the audience has experienced a concussion. The lead actors wander around a green screen environment consisting of poorly conceived cgi imagery and chat to each other about the song “Wild Blue Yonder.” For a program that was hinted at being the most exciting and shocking yet and possessing the largest budget that it had ever seen, it looked incredibly cheap.

I have been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation at night recently and the award winning series has not disappointed. Each installment has been impressive with its storytelling, character development and top notch special effects. Given that it ran for roughly 23-26 episodes a season, not all of the stories are mind blowing but at worst it is gripping drama. The latest episode I watched was “Schisms,” a mystery that slowly developed. It starts with Commander Rider experiencing difficulty sleeping. He becomes increasingly on edge and out of sorts and soon more crew members aboard the Enterprise report similar symptoms. Ship counselor Troi brings the affected crew members to the holodeck where they compare notes on what they can recall about their lost time and scant memories. Using the ship computer’s hard light holograms, they recreate the dream scenario and are left with an examination table complete with surgical apparatus. It’s a chilling moment and slowly unravels the plot in front of the audience’s eyes.

That’s how you tell a mystery; have the characters slowly unravel the clues with plenty of mood and atmosphere while maintaining a high level of sophistication and drama. Wild Blue Yonder simply has the characters chatter at each other nervously and discover magic buttons that assist them in solving the mystery.

Soon, the pair are separated (for no clear reason- Donna suddenly pleads with the Doctor to not leave her when she could have simply left with him) and each is joined by a duplicate of the other. Even though the duplicates (or No-Things as the subtitles describe them) are in plain sight, they have exceedingly long arms, a visual trick achieved by very dodgy looking visual effects. Davies falls back on ‘quirky’ dialog with the line “my arms are too long” repeated several times before the Doctor and Donna realize that they are in the company of some alien being.

The pair rejoin each other then are chased by the creatures which distort into mammoth monster parodies of themselves. In fact, that term suits this episode quite well; parody. While watching this episode I had great difficulty hearing the dialog as the lead actors mumbled and the score played over their words. I also had my patience tried as the plot was stretched out painfully over the long running time. This was the celebratory set of specials and we were being “treated” to a trumped up theatrical two-hander on a green screen soundstage. At one point, The Doctor and Donna are separated between several floors and the Doctor appears to descend a ladder… onto the same set with the same camera angle. My son and I howled with laughter at this. At another point, Donna experiences a “jump scare” as a door closes on its own. The “scare” was so poorly made that I was more perturbed by the laundry I needed rot tackle that weekend. There was no tension, no drama and no danger as the pair of actors scurried about a small series of sets and yammered at each other, trying to work out the mystery.

As was evident in his previous turn as show runner, this story is a first draft. It could benefit from tightening up, adding some more danger or intrigue along with drama. The end result is a poorly written and cheaply made episode that made me embarrassed for the program. I kept thinking that a friend would mistakenly see this and realize that I am a huge Doctor Who fan and wonder if there was something wrong with me for loving something like this so much.

Both Tennant and Tate play the Doctor and Donna along with the No-Thing duplicates and try to act all sinister and evil; contorting their bodies, growing scary vampire teeth and behaving in a bestial manner. It’s all terribly embarrassing as they overact to the moon and back and lost all integrity.

There is a kid to the previous season as the duplicate No-Thing Donna acquires the Doctor’s memories and talks to him about the past fifteen years (surely to was far longer for the Doctor) and how he not only discovered his true origins but also experienced the Flux that destroyed a great portion of creation. Both are sterling stories that I quite enjoyed and fans have been split as to how or of Davies would acknowledge them. Disappointingly, he simply jury-rigs both story ideas into the new Time War and has the Doctor express intense grief and responsibility over the Flux. What a waste.

The quirky adventure ends (just as The Star Beast did) with a magic button press and the TARDIS magically appearing in the air as “Wild Blue Yonder” is belted out. Eventually, the Doctor and Donna escape and are on their way to another adventure. They land on contemporary London where they encounter Donna’s granddad, Wilf, who had been waiting for them. This is a heart string-tugging moment as the actor Bernard Cribbins (who had previously appeared on not only the new series but one of the 1960s feature films). Soon after the reunion, all hell breaks loose and Wilf pleads with the Doctor to do something. This is almost exactly like the End of Time finale many years ago when the Master took over the world.

There are no new ideas in Davies’ head. He had stated that he *had* to return to Doctor Who as he had so many more stories to tell but Wild Blue Yonder is a mishmash of several old ideas we had already seen before told with computer effects that are not up to snuff with today’s top sci-fi programs. There is a classic Doctor Who story called Underworld that was almost entirely shot on green screen to save money and Wild Blue Yonder is essentially the 21st century answer to that experiment.

I am not against experimental stories or two-handers, but have some ability to tell a compelling adventure is all I ask. Don’t have the characters rehash facts over and over as if you are trying to desperately fill up the run time and don’t try to fill the production with computer trickery unless you are sure it looks impressive.

This is hardly a celebratory adventure. It’s filler to kill time before the finale. As my son put it “this is great because it completely empties your head before the next episode!” and that sums things up quite well. This was a vapid experience that meant nothing and did nothing with its time.

And the less said about the “mavity” joke and Sir Issac Newton opener, the better.

One out of ten. Total waste.

Doctor Who – The Star Beast

I’ve been watching Doctor Who since I was a little tot in the 70s. That’s not me gate keeping or trying to impress you, just my way of saying that I have some skin in this game; I’m invested in Doctor Who.

For ages in the United States, all we had to watch on the public television channel was Tom Baker episodes. From the mid-70’s until about 82, it was the same 6 seasons of Tom Baker back-to-back. There were some areas that got Jon Pertwee episodes, but predominantly all we had was the guy in the scarf. Then all of that changed with the new theme tune, new credits and eventually a new younger Doctor and all new companions. A couple of years after that he left and we got an entirely new actor and yet newer credits, them another new actor… we had a lot of changes to keep up with and each time the program shifted greatly. My friends who had inducted me into the fandom jumped ship when Colin Baker arrived but I was hooked. After the new episodes ended, we got the black and white material and I became educated in the rest of Who; then the comics and novels… for a period when the program was off the screens there was a lot of Doctor Who to digest.

This all brings me to the latest “special,” The Star Beast. The modern iteration of Doctor Who, to be fair, is not my preferred way to watch. I much prefer the original ‘classic’ series. However, with some adjustment, I can appreciate it. It’s lighter, moves faster (much faster in some cases) and is more centered on character than plot. So I have to make some provisions when watching the new episodes. Even so, when I learned of Russell T Davies returning to the program, I was not enthused for a couple of reasons; one was that I thought that the series should move forward with new voices rather than backwards and secondly I never really liked his vision of the program. Davies’ vision of Doctor Who is bombastic, garishly vibrant and filled with soap opera elements rather than sci-fi adventure. So I prepared myself for this special as best as I could. I knew that at its best it would not be what I wanted.

Nothing could have prepared me, however, for what came to pass. The introduction featured a pair of narratives explaining events that took place thirteen years ago on screen as if they were the most important events ever. The program had moved well beyond these events and it was very strange to me that Davies couldn’t find a better way to convey all of this than just having the characters tell us. Whenever a character physically faces the camera and states facts… you’re in trouble. Here we had both the Doctor and Donna explain that they once had adventures together then he had to take all of those memories away to save her life. If she ever remembered their time together, she would DIE (all caps).

But on to our jolly Christmasstime adventure. The TARDIS arrives in contemporary London and the Doctor twirls out, sauntering about in a giddy haze. He had just regenerated, but there seemed to be no post-regenerative state as there usually was. He had inherited a past face for some reason but that was not explained either. Then he suddenly bumps into the one person he should definitely not see; Donna. Then he meets Donna’s daughter Rose (a name that causes the Doctor to look about as if someone had tugged at his heart strings. Then a space craft crashes nearby and Donna refuses to notice… for some reason. The Doctor hails a cab which just so happens to be driven by Donna’s husband. He directs the cab to the space craft crash and learns a bit about how his friend has been living.

From here there are three plot threads that are hammered home several times over; an alien is stranded in London, Donna gave away her lottery money and her daughter is transgender. All are treated with the same level of importance. Star Beast, I should note, is an adaptation of a beloved comic strip by Pat Mills and Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons. Both are credited in the opening credits and both were paid by Bad Wolf Productions (they didn’t *have* to do that). The comic strip is a grand adventure and introduces the bizarre Beep the Meep. This one does as well… only with less success.

The Doctor encounters UNIT soldiers at the crash site along with the latest scientific advisor who is wheelchair bound (I only mention as the script makes a fuss out of this). The soldiers try to enter the fallen craft while the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to draw diagrams in the air as it can now make holograms. The soldiers are overcome by a weird light emanating from the capsule and get taken over.

The Meep finds its way to just outside Donna’s home where Rose brings it in to her shed in. the back. They share some copyright infringing ET moments and she attempts to hide Beep from her mum. Donna discovers the Meep, the Doctor arrives (even though he has expressly said that he cannot see Donna at the beginning of the episode for fear of killing her with memories) and highjinx ensue.

Some alien soldiers and possessed UNIT soldiers ,one of whom is a Sikh (I only mention because the camera focuses on him a lot even though he never does anything unique or noteworthy), fight through the Noble residence and the Doctor creates a pair of force fields (another new thing the sonic, a device that Davies notoriously used as a get to of jail card several times over during his tenure, can do).

Some running about and highjinx continue as all of the characters escape to a car park where the Doctor puts on a judge’s wig and magically brings the alien soldiers to him for a trial. There he exposes the Meep for not being a fuzzy innocent creature but instead a vicious monster. More high jinx and the Meep regains its place in the spacecraft (which I guess can now take off fine… so why didn’t the Meep just leave earlier?) where Beep activates the deadly star drive which will destroy much of London if it takes off. The Doctor leaves the Noble party in safety and jumps into a part of the rocket filled with switches where he proceeds to madly contort his body and hop around as he activates different buttons. Donna insists, for some reason, to join him and he directs her as to which buttons to press as a dividing wall drops between them (what this wall is for I cannot guess).

Suddenly it becomes necessary for the Doctor to forcibly cause Donna to not only recall who he is and what adventures they had but also all of the power that she ounce possessed as the “Doctor-Donna” thirteen years ago. Yes, this will kill her. Keep in mind that the Doctor is just randomly pushing buttons and was perfectly capable of directing Donna a moment ago. Also keep in mind the importance of Donna’s memory coming back as it will kill a dear friend. Got all that? I don’t think Davies had.

Donna becomes part Timelord again and madly flips switches as Beep the Meep is frustrated. All the while, London is being torn apart; great rifts tearing through the streets. Somehow all of this succeeds and the Meep is ejected from the rocket which shuts down and somehow all of the damage to London is undone as if someone wiped it away with a cloth. The alien Wrath Warriors take custody of the Meep who for some strange reason. refers to Rose as a “weird kid.” There is a nod to someone higher up above the Meep being in control who the Doctor will eventually have to answer to and they’re off. The Doctor then is faced with the dilemma ofd Donna’s Timelord powers which somehow Rose also obtained (she played a role in defeating the Meep) and Donna says it is a shame the Doctor isn’t a woman anymore. Donna and Rose simply let go of the energy and free saved.

Huh.

The Doctor is about to say goodbye to the Nobles and asks Donna along for just one trip. Keep in mind the last time they traveled together she almost died and her family lived in fear for the past thirteen years that she may remember the Doctor and suddenly die. In the face of all that, everyone present agrees that it can’t hurt and the pair enter the TARDIS which is now a disco roller rink. Donna dramatically spills coffee into the time rotor and the craft jerks as it dematerializes for some doom-laden location.

So… the first of three 60th anniversary specials that reintroduces the Tenth Doctor as the Fourteenth and rings in the celebratory season… what utter crap.

Your mileage may, of course, vary, but as I had mentioned previously, I have taken issue with Davies’ writing previously as he a) ignores large important plots for family drama, b) fails to resolve plots in a satisfactory way and c) uses magical resolution devices. In this story we are told over and over that Donna cannot remember who the Doctor is yet he not only allows this to happen, he forces the situation on her. In order to defeat the Meep, the Doctor just presses random buttons.

This happens a lot in Davies’ scripts. He has no idea how to defeat any foe, so instead he just has the Doctor press lots of buttons because he has seen that resolution in big budget films (I’m guessing). The soap opera angle of the episode is played up very strongly, despite the fact that the episode has such great material to adapt. I know that Mills and Gibbons were invited on set and while I think it is great that they received recognition, their material was given a distinct disservice.

And finally, allow me to address the elephant in the room; representation.

I’m all for representation and I’m all for stories that tackle important issues and well as entertain but… this isn’t how you do it. Just reiterating that a character is trans over and over and having characters express undying love (Donna says something dramatic like I would burn down whole galaxies for you) is not how you do it. Likewise the Sikh and the wheelchair bound UNIT scientific advisor who later fired rockets from her chair.

There is an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation that addressed gender politics in 1992 (The Outcast). The story featured an androgynous character who asked crew members of the Enterprise to define what it meant to be male or female and described a society that denied both in favor of a race without gender. It is a poignant and erudite episode that addressed some important issues in an adult way.

Davies (an award winning author) gives us none of this and instead has Rose bring up pronouns, a couple of kids yell at her in an alley, her grandmother admit befuddlement as to how to deal with her and an alien call her weird. This is damningly inept and fails to properly address the issue. In short, if you can’t do it… don’t. Rather than provide representation, Davies shows transgendered individuals as bizarre in some way and if they are capable of being loved, they must get all of the love in the most expressed way possible.

The Start Beast was anticipated as the beginning of a new “Golden Age” of Doctor Who as the series had fallen in public regard since the 50th anniversary and ratings had fallen. A deal was struck with Disney+ for worldwide distribution and an enhanced budget. This would be the most expensive production budget Doctor Who had ever enjoyed and a much bigger audience as well.

Star Beast had an overnight ratings result of 5.08 million. The previous episode, Power of the Doctor, received 5.3 million. This was not a roaring success. Reviews have been mixed. Many had said that Davies had grown as a writer since he was last at the helm of Who in 2010 and Davies himself has said that we should expect something new… but this was all something we had seen many many times before. We got the same tired jokes, the same tired dramatic resolution and the same focus on soap opera rather than sci-fi. Additionally, for such an expensive program, it all looked so tiresome and cheap. The cinematography was predictable and flat, the effects and location work we had seen countless times before and the rubber monsters frankly embarrassing.

I never want to speak ill of something (even in the face of all that I have said). Doctor Who has held a special place in my heart (and in my home where countless collectibles hold court), but this was a major disappointment and from what I am seeing online, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Additionally; the sonic screwdriver, which was already a magic wand device capable of anything, is now even more powerful. My mate Philip even proposed that Doctor Who be renamed “Sonic, the Screwdriver” and adventures would simply consist of the TARDIS landing, the Doctor leaning out the door and waving his device about, then the door would close and the TARDIS would leave. There is obviously no dramatic tension. anymore, so why not take up this approach? It would certainly save us all some time.

Two stars out of ten

Doctor Who – The Eight Doctors

Following the exciting adventure on the eve of a new millennium in San Francisco, the rejuvenated Doctor is ready for a whole new universe of adventures. Unfortunately, he has to slog his way through this novel first.

The Eight Doctors is BBC Book by Terrance Dicks, the same author who penned hundreds of novelizations of classic Doctor Who stories and a few original ones as well when Virgin Press got a hold of the franchise in the 90’s. This guy know what’s what in Doctor Who. He can tell his Ogrons from his Zygons and which Doctor has an ‘old – young face.’ He can also tell a ripping yarn and while there are good parts to this novel, it is by and large a chore. It feels like homework that must be done before game time on a school night.

In the book, the Doctor wanders in to check on the Eye of Harmony (which the author quickly notes is not really the actual eye which is located on Gallifrey and supplies all TARDISes with power). He notices a bit of grit in the Eye. The grit is actually a booby trap left by the Master and takes away an indeterminate amount of the Doctor’s memories. He wanders again into the classic all-white console room and has a compulsion to ‘trust the TARDIS.’ He starts on a journey through his past starting at 76 Totters Lane, the junkyard a short drive from Coal Hill School.

The Doctor meets Samantha Jones who is in deep trouble with some local school kids who want her to sell crack (the author notes the experience of crack for anyone unsure). The Doctor ends up in jail, charged with possession (yes, this really happens) and will only tell the policemen the truth; that he is a time traveling alien. Through a series of events all parties end up right back at the junkyard by the TARDIS and the Doctor runs right back inside and leaves. He leaves Sam with the angry members (but keeps the bag of crack – because priorities, I guess).

What follows is a by the numbers series of episodes in which the new Doctor meets an old incarnation during a key moment of their lives. The two lock eyes and the Doctor gets a skoch more memory, chats to himself for a bit then leaves. That is the formula, more or less, until he reaches the Sixth Doctor during his trial. Then things get sticky and the plot so convoluted that poor Terrance spends far more time explaining the story he is pulling from than telling a new one. This is followed by the Master exposing the corruption on Gallifrey via TV. The Doctor tries to quell a revolution from the Shobogans in a pub and… it’s all a mess and not really worth getting into.

In the end the Doctor regains his memory and has a sudden flash of realization that he left Sam to the mercies of a gang of armed drug pushers. He flits back to hurl the bag of crack at the leader of the gang just as the police arrive and Sam runs into the TARDIS to become his new companion. She doesn’t question his alien-ness or the spaceship because she is a teenager well versed in pop culture (much like Izzy from the comic strip and in some ways Rose).

I have recently started in on this series of Eighth Doctor adventures with Dreamstone Moon being my first (which I recommend). I recall reading that this book had a bad reputation and I can certainly see why. It’s a slog and so chock full of continuity that it has little reason to exist. Little light is shed on the classic stories to even make this a nostalgia cruise. It’s a video game a fan would be excited by at first but as the prospect of reliving old stories became being told those stories instead, it would get decidedly dull.

Next up, Vampire Science.

Also, some B-movie reviews. So bookmark this page!

Once More Unto the Breach – The War Doctor Returns

A secret incarnation of the Doctor forgotten after the horrors of the Time War, the era of the ‘War Doctor,’ as he became known, is still a mysterious chapter in Doctor Who’s long history.

Played by Sir John Hurt, CBE, the War Doctor was invented by Steven Moffat after he was unable to obtain the services of Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. This left a new avenue open to the program that seemed contrived in the lead-in story ‘Name of the Doctor,’ but blossomed into one of the most unexpected and fantastic casting moments. A knight became a Doctor!

This scraggly angry incarnation of the Time Lord was forged in the fires of war, a persona chosen by the Doctor’s eighth incarnation as he lay dying on the planet Karn during the Time War. Stricken from the Doctor’s personal history, he redeemed himself in the 50th anniversary episode when he teamed up with twelve other incarnations to end the Time War and save his home world of Gallifrey rather than destroy it. He of course quickly forgot this cooperative encounter before transforming into the grief-stricken and traumatized Ninth Doctor.

Yes, one of the greatest incarnations of the Doctor is without a number and is known only as ‘The War Doctor.’

Glimpses of the War Doctor have been seen since he was last on screen (such as the flashback in ‘Listen’) but he has not enjoyed any further adventures… until now.

Thanks to Big Finish, fans will be getting more of the John Hurt in the TARDIS with a special audio adventure box set and a preview was just revealed.

Via The Radio Times:

Exactly two years after John Hurt stole the Doctor Who 50th anniversary show, we have the very first clip of his return as the War Doctor.
Hurt is coming back to Who for a series of 12 all-new episodes from audio drama producers Big Finish. The first box set, Only the Monstrous, is set to be released this December.

This exclusive clip comes from the first episode of the new run, titled The Innocent, which finds the War Doctor in the midst of the Time War, before the events of 50th anniversary episode The Day of the Doctor.

“I’ve seen too much of this war already,” Hurt’s weary voice says in the clip – although by the sound of it, he has plenty of tricks (OK, explosives) up his sleeve to help him in the Time Lords’ battle against the Daleks.

And for all the fighting, the War Doctor clearly still has a touch of humanity, saving two “patsies” from approaching Daleks.

Hurt’s character has not been seen since the episode marking the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, where the War Doctor (or ‘Captain Grumpy’, whichever you prefer), appeared alongside Matt Smith and David Tennant’s Doctors.

The new audio dramas are written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, who says he couldn’t wait to explore Who’s 50th anniversary back story in more detail.

“The story of the Doctor who refuses to call himself the Doctor in order to do the unthinkable upon the ultimate battlefield — all of space and time — was irresistible to me,” he said.

“Such a deeply disturbing and engaging character created by the formidable talents of writer Steven Moffat and actor John Hurt. It’s such a privilege to be working on this.”

Changing the Face of Doctor Who

Throughout its long run, there have been many actors to portray the time-travelling adventurer, and many more also-rans or could-have-beens. William Hartnell imbued a sense of magic and humanity into Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton gave the character a vitality so strong it can still be felt today. Jon Pertwee made Doctor Who a household program, and Tom Baker became a legend of television…. but it all could have gone so differently.

From the earliest days of its development, there Colin Brockhurst (The Day of Doctor Who) is at it again with this amazing trip through an alternate timeline of Doctor Who and the many actors who could have (or should have) played him. Painstakingly assembled from archive photos skillfully manipulated into new ‘classic’ images, Brockhurst has poked a hole through the fabric of reality to grant fans a glimpse of an entirely different version of Doctor Who with many different faces.

Rik Mayal as the alternate Eighth Doctor Who

Ron Moody as the alternate Third Doctor Who

Richard O’Brien as the alternate Sixth Doctor Who

Brian Blessed as the alternate Second Doctor Who

Geoffrey Bayldon as Doctor Who

After purchasing and framing The Day of Doctor Who, I can proudly vouch for the high level of professionalism and attention to detail in Brockhurst’s work. There are so many lovely touches such as telesnaps of Brian Blessed as the Second Doctor Who, an image of Young Ones star Rik Mayal regenerating in ‘Night of the Doctor,’ numerous references to stories that were not produced, the mini-badge featuring a cartoon image of Ron Moody as the Third Doctor and the inclusion of Peter Cushing as the Master!

If you are a fan of Doctor Who, this needs to be in your collection.

For more info, click here.

On a side-note… who is you favorite ‘alternate Doctor Who’?

Big changes on the way for Doctor Who and a familiar face returns

Doctor Who was once a sad program screened late at night on public television (that’s free TV). It featured wobbly sets, scripts full of action and ideas, reputable actors of stage and screen along with fully functioning robots that screamed and rolled their eyes. It was a cult series that attracted roughly 4 million viewers on a bad day. It lasted from 1963-1989 when it was thought lost forever (the 1996 film doesn’t count… unless Moffat says so).

Since it’s return from obscurity in 2005, Doctor Who has grown from strength to strength with each successive series. Record viewing figures in BBC America where it trounced Top Gear and reruns of Are You Being Served? have made it a massive success in the United States while the BBC Wales production continues to air every week in its native land. But each year, the Doctor Who production team has taken chances, sometimes bold ones, such as setting the series in England, casting a woman as the companion or allowing comedian Peter Kay to appear on screen.

But this coming year will be the big game-changer. Producer and head writer Steven Moffat has been keeping all the secrets under wraps but a member of the catering staff stole a copy of his hard drive so the cat is out of the bag.

Get ready…

Logo by jjbkwrm1991

2015/16’s ninth series will be the biggest yet with a year-long thread called ‘The Search for Gallifrey.’ Viewers may recall that the Doctor discovered the location of the home of the Time Lords last year, but the villainous Missy has protected it with a temporal scatter field. As he approaches his goal, the Doctor will become fractured in the time stream, causing him to regress into previous incarnations.

The series opener ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ will introduce the new companion, Manny (played by famed Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao), a vampire-hunter from the 16th century trapped in the basement of a Harrod’s in the East End of London.

Story number two will center on Stephen Fry’s script (delayed since 2005), ‘The Man in the Ant Hill,’ will see the return of the Zarbi in what promises to be the most unforgettable adventure.

This story will be a thinly veiled stab at comedian and newscaster Russell Brand. Dialog for the evil force controlling the Zarbi known only as the Animus will be made up of old Brand material and his features will be digitally hidden in the monster’s face for eagle-eyed viewers.

In the third story, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties,’ written by Neil Gaiman, David Tennant will once more wield the controls of the TARDIS. Details are few, but they involve an exclusive cocktail lounge in limbo run by River Song. From there, the search for Gallifrey picks up steam when the TARDIS is caught in a temporal funnel, returning the Tenth Doctor to his timeline. Neal Gaimen’s script is of course top secret, but passers by have reported that a musical number could be heard booming from the recording studio. The Pet Shop Boys, Moffet’s favorite band, are rumored to have recorded a new song for the special, a cover of the Nilsson/Lennon song ‘Many Rivers to Cross.’

David Tennant has regrown his popular ponytail for his hotly anticipated return.

The TARDIS is trapped in Canada for the fourth script ‘Caverns of Alberta’ by the creator of Father Ted, Black Books and the IT Crowd, Graham Linehan This will see the return of the Ice Warriors and also feature Rowan Atkinson as the Valeyard, the Doctor’s evil twin.
In this story, the Doctor is again briefly reverted to a previous incarnation, a specially computer-generated version of Sylvester McCoy. The Valeyard and the Seventh Doctor have a duel on mopeds through the streets of Alberta. This episode will also be the first time Doctor Who was filmed in Canada!
The series will see a major climax in the Christmas Special ‘The Advent of Evil’ when the Doctor reaches Gallifrey only to confront the Curator played by Tom Baker (previously seen in Day of the Doctor). This was Moffat’s long game, forcing the Doctor to face his past and future all at once.

In a battle of wills, the Doctor and Curator play a game of cosmic chess, the Doctor using past companions and the Curator old foes such as the Family of Blood, Max Capricorn (from Voyage of the Damned), The Empress of the Racnoss (from Runaway Bride) and the evil Miss Foster from Partners in Crime.

Tom Baker as the Curator with his Cybermen bodyguards

This will all lead to a mid-series shift in producer from Moffatt to… Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro has been working along with Mofat for years in secret and his reign promises to be the most exciting and dynamic to date.
Peter Capaldi, having recently signed on for a third year on the program after the announcement of Maffet’s departure, is thrilled for what is to come. Del Toro reportedly has plans to ‘sort out the Cybermen‘ and return the silver giants of old to Doctor Who, much to Capaldi’s delight. Through special arrangement, K-9 will also be back in the TARDIS in 2016.

Happy April Fool’s Day.

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Doctor Who – Rose

ROSE

Art by Tim Doyle

Story 1.01
Written by Russell T Davies
Transmitted 26 March 2005

Rose Tyler’s day started like any other. But when she was chased through a department store by living plastic mannequins only a stranger in a leather jacket armed with a screwdriver and a bomb stood between her and certain death. Rose met the Doctor and her life was never the same. After she witnessed the shop she had worked in for ages blown sky high, she was in a daze, unsure if any of it had even happened. Then the Doctor returned, tracking a rogue plastic limb back to her apartment. The Doctor deactivates the limb after it attempts to kill him, explaining that it was under the control of an alien intelligence. He tries to swan off, but Rose is like a bad penny and follows.

Investigating the Doctor online, Rose meets Clive who has been collecting evidence connecting the Doctor to historic disasters including the sinking of the Titanic, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and more. While she confers with Clive, her boyfriend Mickey is replaced by a plastic replica. The Doctor comes to Rose’s rescue once again, but it is Rose herself who not only manages to locate the transmitter used by the alien consciousness to control the plastic Autons, but also save his life.

The Doctor is clearly on the run from a past that has changed him into a pariah, a dark and mysterious figure. While he is in touch with the movement of the universe he is no longer the dashing hero of old. This Doctor is a scarred and tragic figure who just happened to find Rose, a girl who could guide him into finding new purpose and rediscover his true persona.

It had been fifteen years since the familiar sound of the TARDIS had graced the TV screens in a new adventure. Still regarded as a national icon, the program had been considered for a return in various guises (from a cable series starring Rutger Hauer to a feature film with Dudley Moore and even a cartoon) over that duration but Russel T Davies is the man who brought Doctor Who back to the small screen and introduced it to a new generation.

Casting the Doctor was a challenge but former collaborator Christopher Eccleston (who had previously worked with Davies on The Second Coming) was a surprise choice. An established actor and a private man, Eccleston wasn’t a fan of the program, admitting in interviews that he felt alienated by the posh upper class approach and preferred playing out in the yard. Convinced by Davies’ reputation, Eccleston hoped that the modern Doctor Who would appeal to a family audience and provide intelligent, progressive and exciting entertainment.

As the Doctor, Eccleston brought plenty of presence, but seemed painfully out of place during moments of forced comedy. The quirkiness of the Doctor never sat well with him. However, the chemistry with co-star Billie Piper was strong and he managed to breath life into the dialog which made what could have been an embarrassing and silly program a roaring success.

A relative unknown (aside from a brief stint as pop idol), Billie Piper was an ideal actress to play the companion, providing a perfect foil to Eccleston’s Doctor. She was feisty, opinionated, sensitive and brave, charging headlong into danger. Viewers of the classic program could easily see hints of Ace in this companion, but the major difference was that she brought with her a supporting cast of characters from her mother to her boyfriend. Doctor Who was no longer just a science fiction/fantasy adventure series, it was also a situation drama.

When it was first broadcast, Rose was a major media event but still appealing to a core audience. It did not have the strong following it does today and viewers were almost entirely unprepared for such a program. After each episode of Doctor Who, a ‘confidential’ special followed that chronicled the classic 1963-1989/95 episodes along with the production of that night’s adventure. It was a novel idea that hammered home that this was not just any other program, it had a legacy.

I still remember the excitement that I first watched Rose through a dodgy connection on my PC. Just hearing the signature theme was a thrill and seeing the classic Autons return (complete with the same sound effects) was wonderful. But there are some painful moments in this premiere that haunted it throughout its second life. The reliance on pop culture references (Heat magazine) felt cheap and out of place. The special effects ranged from impressive to woeful (the wheelie bin burp still rankles) and the script was clearly not finished (the ‘lots of planets have a North’ line making no sense at all as former script editor Christopher H Bidmead was happy to point out).

But Rose was something entirely new in 2005. This was a different time, back before we knew Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, back before it was cemented that this was a continuation of the classic program. The premiere feels a bit unsure of its identity, in my opinion. In its defense, in 45 minutes Rose combines moments of humor, drama and fantasy. The contemporary setting of the council estate is the only touchstone with the familiar. In Rose, a curtain is pulled back revealing a world of wild horror and only the Doctor can defend us from it.

2005’s Rose rejuvenated Doctor Who in ways that even the production team did not imagine possible (Davies figured that it might last for a series or two at most). Rose was such a hit that it was not long before the BBC saw it for what it was and the initial 6 part series was lengthened into one 12 part long series… a double bumper year’s worth of stories!

After witnessing the danger that surrounded the Doctor, Rose raced into the TARDIS to experience the unknown. ‘The trip of a lifetime.’

Ratings:
10.5 million overnight viewers (10.81 including recordings), a 44.3% share

(Note: I’m revisiting these episodes thanks to the Doctor Who: Series 1-7 Limited Edition Blu-ray Giftset which presents the first four series in high definition for the first time and I heartily recommend it. It also comes complete with a nifty sonic screwdriver remote control!)

Next time: The End of the World

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The Forgotten Dr. Who (who never was)

Doctor Who may be one role, but well over thirteen actors have played the part, each in his (or her) own way. In some circles, playing the Doctor is the most coveted part one can play. So it should come as no surprise that one actor would audition several times over. The only oddity is why we have not heard of Barrington Black before.

The many faces of Barrington Black as he auditioned for the part of the Doctor over many years.

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Nicholas Briggs uncovers the previously never told secret history of this enigmatic personality in a tell all interview courtesy of Myth Makers.

Every Doctor Who story 1963-2013

From an Unearthly Child to Mawdryn Undead to the Big Bang and Day of the Doctor, Doctor Who has run the gamut of adventures throughout a fifty year-long life on screen and off. One fan decided to chronicle all of them in an amazing video tribute that needs to be seen.

Words fail me at the hours of work that must have gone into this.

Be sure to check out his other videos too.