New Doctor Who is older, trickier, fiercer (and fun)

Once a rather obscure British science fiction show in the United States screened late at night on public tv stations, Doctor Who has become a cult phenomenon (again).

In a short time, Peter Capaldi will debut as the latest incarnation of the time traveling lead hero, taking over from heart throb Matt Smith. There is a great article on the Sunday Times that gives fans a glimpse of what’s to come and what a wild ride it has been so far…

Being the Doctor… is a challenge for any actor, but for Capaldi it’s bigger because he is an aficionado. Make the mistake of asking him a simple Top Trumps question — are Daleks better than Cybermen? — and what feels like a whole morning can slip by on the answer. Because, you see, it depends whether you’re talking about the Mondasian Cybermen, which came from the planet Mondas, circa 1966, or those that arrived from a parallel universe in 2006.

“There is a conflict among fans,” Capaldi says gravely, “but I’m trying to get the Mondasians back.” Which doesn’t answer my question, but in case there are lots of different types of Dalek as well, I move on.

His earliest memories are of Daleks emerging from the water in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964), and it’s a bad idea to sully them with talk of toilet plungers and wobbly sets. “Everybody slags it off now,” he says, “but these programmes weren’t made to be viewed over and over again. When you just consumed them in that way, at the time, they were magical.”

Of course, back then, Daleks couldn’t go up stairs, so there was no need for Capaldi, age five, to hide behind the sofa in his third-floor tenement (his Italian father ran the ice-cream parlour on the ground floor). Instead, he built sets from shoe boxes, collected autographs — he ticked off three of the first four Doctors (William Hartnell was ill, so he got his wife’s autograph instead). He wrote fan mail to the producers; they sent back old scripts — “It was like being allowed inside the Magic Circle, the point I knew I wanted to be part of this world.”

His mother helped, sending him a Doctor Who annual every year. When I ask how long into adult life this continued, he starts laughing. Then he’s laughing so much that he starts struggling for air. Eventually, just at the point when I’m thinking I should call for help, he regains control: “By the time the show came back [in 2005], she must have thought I was too old. But I suspect it will start again now.”

Capaldi comes at a good time for the programme. Since its recommissioning after a 16-year hiatus, the Doctors have been regenerating into ever-younger lunchbox candy. Christopher Eccleston (41), David Tennant (34), then Matt Smith (28). With it, the plot lines, much to the chagrin of die-hard Whovians, have become more Twilight. There has been flirting and smooching. There has been a will-they, won’t-they dynamic between the Doctor and his sidekick, Clara. We were one nibble short of a hickey.

Following the age trajectory, the next Doctor would have been 23, and all would have been lost. Or, to be terribly 21st century, he could have been a she. Or Idris Elba — a favourite, although he may have been the unnamed black actor who turned down the role last time. Instead, the BBC went for a TV geriatric. Capaldi, 55 and counting, is joint oldest time lord with William Hartnell.

In the translucent flesh, he looks a good 30 years younger than Hartnell, thanks largely to the fact that he gave up alcohol years ago (and Hartnell liked a drink). But he’s still old enough that the BBC has a chiropractor on speed dial. More awkwardly, he’s old enough to be Clara’s father. This regeneration lark can have disturbing Freudian implications. So will the relationship with Clara, played by 28-year-old Jenna Coleman, continue to be romantic?

“There’ll be no flirting, that’s for sure,” he says. “It’s not what this Doctor’s concerned with. It’s quite a fun relationship, but no, I did call and say, ‘I want no Papa-Nicole moments.’ I think there was a bit of tension with that at first, but I was absolutely adamant.”

What will there be, then? Is the 12th Doctor an old codger like Hartnell? Will he be a more modern fiftysomething, a time lord who can work an iPad? Executive producer Steven Moffat has said he’ll be older, trickier, fiercer. Mark Gatiss, the best writer on the show, says the new doctor “has a madness in his eyes”.

“All that’s true,” says Capaldi, “but he’s also joyful. One thing the show does well is balance the epic and the domestic. You can go from the edge of the universe to a pedestrian precinct. This Doctor loves watching stars being born in Andromeda; he’s also thrilled to see litter blowing across the supermarket car park at dawn.”

More here http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/article1435733.ece?shareToken=b613ab08469db8495ce06f369cc90f32

 

Excited about the New Doctor Who? Why not make a Peter Capaldi paper doll!

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So you wanna watch Doctor Who?

With the announcement of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor Who, there is an influx of new viewers clamoring at the screen just as there are many devoted fans screaming that they will never watch again.

Doctor Who has been described as a ‘madman with a box’ or a fairy tale in which the hero travels through a magic door into a new adventure each week… but that’s really not true, For a time, the Doctor was exiled on Earth, or on a mission from the White Guardian, or on a systematically wiping out his enemies. It has also been a wholly historical, purely whimsical and deeply disturbing program influenced by Hammer Horror movies.

Doctor Who is a lot of different things to different people. So, in my own small way, here is a suggested watch list to prepare you for the next year.

Everything up to season six is on Netflix. There will likely be a marathon of season 7 on BBC America leading up to the next special.

Tier One- ‘Need to Know’

– The arrival of Matt Smith as the Doctor and head writer/producer Steven Moffat meant a paradigm shift for the program. It also meant a hard reset for new viewers. To hammer home this point, for his first finale, Moffat re-initiated the Big Bang. If you want to be prepared for the new guy based only on the previous guy… this’ll do.

The Eleventh Doctor- Matt Smith

“The Eleventh Hour”-Matt Smith hits the ground running as the 11th Doctor. Additionally, Any Pond is introduced, a companion who would become vitally important over the next three years. The story is pretty basic, but it’s Smiths performance that makes this one so important and the shift from one approach as Moffat imitates Davies to a new one when Moffat develops his own style.

“The Time of Angels”
“Flesh and Stone”-The Weeping Angels and the time-travelling River Song both feature in this story which is fill of ropy ideas and horrific monsters. Again, Smith holds this one together and Karen Gillan is stellar as Amy.

“The Pandorica Opens”
“The Big Bang”-The first big finale, this story wraps together a year’s worth of story lines all about the explosion of the TARDIS. This is key to the workings of New Who as each year seems to include an overarching story that is concluded at the end… kinda.

I skipped a lot here because so much of the intervening years were missable and centered on incredibly convoluted ideas. You’d thank me if you knew. 

“Cold War”-There are so few stories this past year that I would recommend, but this one is quite good and features David Warner, references to 80’s pop and the Ice Warriors. While it doesn’t exactly have any key concepts of the program it’s a great story and shouldn’t be missed.

“The Name of the Doctor”-The most recent cliffhanger is almost beyond description. It’s all a run around of cobbled together ideas and weird references to the classic program. But if you want to be in on what’s going on when you watch the next special (and you do), you need to see this one.

Tier Two- ‘Best of the Past Seven Years’

– A total of 82 stories have aired since Doctor Who came back in 2005. This was such a different take on the program that it is referred to as series 1-7 rather than 27 and up, picking up the numbering from the 1989 series.

I have lots of issues with the new series, from the acting to the casting to the writing and special effects, so if you are a fan and are reading this… close your eyes.

The list is still a bit long… so I have noted some choices that are debatable.

“Rose”– It’s a no-brainer, but the series premiere resets the entire franchise for a new audience.The Doctor is an entirely new character -a tragically damaged soul who survived a catastrophe which cost the lives of so many alien cultures he would encounter in the year to come. The tone of the program is new as well, blending pop culture, humor with a whimsical sense of adventure and fantasy. Oh and Rose is in it. She was the first companion to be more important than the Doctor for the next four years.

The Ninth Doctor – Christopher Eccleston

“Dalek”– Everything you need to know about Daleks in one episode. This one is key because it reintroduces the most memorable foe from the classic series and with so much adoration and attention in Gareth Robert’s script. If you are going to watch Doctor Who, you need to know what a Dalek is.

Debatable-“The Empty Child”/“The Doctor Dances”– Written by Hugo award-winning author and future show-runner Steven Moffat, this is regarded as the first real hit of the new series. Set in WWII, the Doctor tracks a canister through the space-time vortex only to encounter the rogue-ish Captain Jack Harkness. A young girl named Nancy is attempting to maintain order for the many orphans in bombed-out London. A strange virus seems to be transforming everyone into monstrous gas mask-wearing zombies who lurch toward their victims with the weirdest battle cry ever, ‘Are you my mummy?’

This really is a superb story with relatively few flaws. It also gives Christopher Eccleston plenty to do and boy does he shine.

Debatable-“The Parting of the Ways”- I refuse to recommend part one of this story as it is so poor. The second part has the first regeneration of the series, so it is important for that fact, but you can glean much of this from the next episode. It also features the first major ‘magic button’ resolution which would become all too familiar in the following years as the Daleks are whisked out of existence… only to return again and again.

“The Christmas Invasion”– The first regeneration story, this one is key on many levels. The Doctor is remade from an emotionally scarred being into a sexy and flippant being with god-like powers. So much what’s to come is hinted at here from the Doctor being a sex symbol, to the Earth invasion and the focus on Rose’s family.

Oh, and David Tennant also takes over as the Tenth Doctor Who and would be regaled as the most important and popular actor to play the part… ever.

The Tenth Doctor – David Tennant

“School Reunion”– The return of two previous companions and the confirmation of several key factors of the classic Doctor’s past make this episode important. It also features some guy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Debatable-“Rise of the Cybermen”/”The Age of Steel”-The TARDIS ends up in a parallel universe where… blimps float about. Honestly, there are very few differences other than that and the fact that Rose’s dad is alive. The story is meant to reinvent the Cybermen, the second most popular monster after the Daleks, and in some ways it succeeds in this regard. However, the story loses its focus quickly and instead ends up being all about, you guessed it, Rose.

Debatable-“The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit”- This remains one of my favorite stories in the Tennant era. One of the few stories set on another planet, the visuals in this story are stunning. The Ood are introduced as an alien race who later become somewhat important. A planetoid is impossibly in orbit around a black hole. A skeleton crew mans the station with the assistance of the Ood, a slave race. Deep within the ‘impossible planet’, a strange being yearns for release.

Voiced by the great Gabriel Woolf who starred earlier as Sutekh in the Tom Baker classic serial Pyramids of Mars, the ‘Beast’ is a monster so impressive that head writer/producer Russell T Davies had no idea what it would look like.

Sadly the second part suffers greatly as the quality dips, possibly due to massive rewrites in the script. All I know is that the author refused to talk to the press afterwards and never returned. Davies admitted that he was at a loss to the identity of the Beast, which always struck me as odd as he didn’t write this one, leading me to think that he rewrote this one and made a mess of it. Additionally, the guest cast ids phenomenal, including Will Thorp, the lovely Claire Rushbrook, Danny Webb, Shaun Parks and the adorable MyAnna Buring. There’s a lot of repetition in this story by way of exposition that will have you screaming at the TV, but it’s still quite atmospheric and the first genuinely scary story of New Who.

Don’t be distracted by Rose’s weird giant eyes and mouth… or excessive makeup and bad dye job.

“Doomsday”– The Daleks and Cybermen fight each other… but all of this is sidelined by… you guessed it… Rose. Granted, there are a lot of Daleks and Cybermen fighting each other, but they do almost nothing in the end and despite the ‘magic button’ ending, it all pales in comparison to the excessively long closing scene in which Rose makes what many of my male friends have referred to as ‘the face’ when she sobs her way out of the series.

Debatable- “Human Nature”/”The Family of Blood”- One of the most loved of the Tennant era, this story is an adaptation of a novel that was released when the program was off the air in the 1990’s. In the book, the Doctor felt the need to punish himself and also discover his humanity and empathy. Thus he becomes a school teacher in a small English town and falls in love.

The reasoning is less clear in the televised version, but the production value is superb… in part one. Part two takes a nose-dive but even so this remains a moving story that is regarded as the finest material of the new program. It does feature another of those moments where the Doctor plays God and brutally murders his opponents which is interesting and actually pays off in The End of Time. Tennant is really in amazing form here and gives what is likely his best performance as the Doctor in this story. Jessica Hynes of Spaced fame is also a welcome guest star. When fans were polled, this story ranked among the most popular and for good reason.

Debatable- “The Sound of Drums”/ “Last of the Time Lords”-The Doctor has gone through much of the series claiming to be the last of the Time Lords, but in this story we discover that he is very very mistaken. The villainous Master has escaped the Time War, just like the Doctor, and has concocted a mad revenge tactic using the Doctor’s favorite people, humans. There was a lot of anticipation for this one and in the end it was a bit rubbish. But seeing as how the Master is so important in the next story and he doesn’t appear in any other stories, I am including it here. There are so many dire dire moments such as the Master’s iTunes playlist, but what can you do?

Even the most devoted fan of Doctor Who and David Tennant found this one excessive. But if you really want to appreciate how the program can change so drastically, this one needs to be seen.

This story also challenges the limitations of the ‘magic button’ to the extreme.

New companion Martha Jones was a welcome change from Rose… but she is largely overlooked by fandom.

“Silence in the Library”/ “Forest of the Dead”-Where would we be without River Song? This character challenges the importance of the Doctor that you may find yourself saying ‘Rose who?’ as she ended up taking precedence over all other concepts. In fairness, this story does have a decent monster, but they can’t harm the Doctor thanks to the script and that magic device, the sonic screwdriver.

Pay no attention to the new companion Donna.

“The End of Time”– The big big finale that saw the exit of David Tennant and Russell T Davies. This followed a series of ‘specials’ that are all mostly miss-able. This story is so absurd that it needs to be seen to be believed. The Doctor and the Master actually exchange what appear to be force lightning bolts from Star Wars and the Master eats a lot… no kidding.

The Master – John Simm

Despite its massive success (and given the amount of press it receives on a regular basis in the US, it is definitely no longer a cult TV phenomenon), fans have become frustrated with the lack of quality in the program.  The longer it has run, the more the new series has been cited for sloppy scripts that fail to properly set up challenges for the Doctor, fail to resolve them properly and also seem to find difficulty in using the resources at hand. Currently head writer Steven Moffat has come under fire for setting up impossible conclusions to conundrums that are absurdly steeped in confusion and over-writing. The concept of death also seems to be beyond the understanding of Doctor Who, as nearly every character who has died has returned to life…. several times.

Compared to the woefully limited amount of funds and time that produced the jaw-dropping Daleks in 1963 or Talons of Weng Chiang in 1977, the new series has no real excuse to not create an amazing classic each week. The impediment seems to be, again- IN MY OPINION, the point of view of the head writer/producer. While Davies saw the Doctor as perpetually looking for love, Moffat sees the Doctor as a magical imp capable of nearly anything. The need to market Doctor Who to a tween audience is also a handicap that the BBC seems reluctant to change. Compare this to the 1960’s when the series was a family program or to the mid-late 1970’s when the script editor/producer saw the benefit of writing to an older audience and you can see how Doctor Who can be so many different things.

Tier Three- ‘Tell Me Everything’

– Ok. You have watched everything in the above list and you want to know more. Maybe you got hooked and want to delve into the classic series. This is frankly where my heart lives, so I am biased. Sure, it’s flawed and sure the quality control is all over the place but at its heart it was a ground-breaking TV series where innovations in special effects, music and production were being made.

Here’s a list of my personal favorites mixed with some stories that are important in understanding the program as a whole or getting a taste of the different eras and approaches that were taken throughout the 26 year-long run. Some of these are available streaming, but you may need to find VHS tapes or borrow DVDs of the others from some well-meaning Whovian.

The First Doctor- William Hartnell

The First Doctor – William Hartnell 1963-1967
An Unearthly Child
The Daleks
The Aztecs
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The War Machines

The Second Doctor- Patrick Troughton

The Second Doctor – Patrick Troughton 1967-1969
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Mind Robber
The Seeds of Death

The Third Doctor- Jon Pertwee

The Third Doctor – Jon Pertwee 1970-1974
Spearhead from Space
Terror of the Autons
The Dæmons
Day of the Daleks
The Time Warrior

The Fourth Doctor- Tom Baker

The Fourth Doctor – Tom Baker 1974-1981
Genesis of the Daleks
Terror of the Zygons
Pyramids of Mars
The Robots of Death
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Image of the Fendahl
City of Death
Warriors’ Gate

The Fifth Doctor Peter Davison

The Fifth Doctor – Peter Davison 1981-83
Castrovalva

Kinda
The Visitation
Earthshock

       Enlightenment

Frontios

The Caves of Androzani

The Sixth Doctor- Colin Baker

The Sixth Doctor – Colin Bakrr 1983-85

Attack of the Cybermen
The Mark of the Rani
The Two Doctors

Mysterious Planet (Trial of a Timelord parts one through four)

The Seventh Doctor- Sylvester Mccoy

The Seventh Doctor – Sylvester McCoy 1987-89
Remembrance of the Daleks
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

Ghostlight
Curse of Fenric 

Doctor Who and the Asylum of the Daleks

‘Asylum of the Daleks’

Written by Steven Moffatt
Story 7.01
Transmitted 1 September, 2012
“They’re subtracting love… don’t let them.”

Deep in space there is a planet where the insane and scarred Daleks are kept under close supervision, an asylum. However, strange transmissions have started to emanate from beneath the asylum’s impenetrable force field. Fearful of the threat of their own deranged brethren, the Daleks have kidnapped the Doctor and his companions to solve their problem for them. Using nano-cloud technology, the Daleks have transformed human beings into their agents and sent them after their most hated enemy, their ‘predator,’ the Doctor.

The 50th anniversary season of Doctor Who is here and the opener is a blockbuster story featuring the Doctor trapped on a planet populated by insane Daleks. However, the ‘real story’ is Amy and Rory’s falling out and the Doctor fixing their marriage. Yep, we have taken a step back to 2006 where nothing is more important than the companion, or in this case, the companions finding love for each other.

The plot for Asylum of the Daleks could be written on the back of a match book. For a story running almost an hour in length, there was a lot of dead air in which characters asked stupid questions, wandered down corridors slowly (even when they ran it was in slow motion) and the very monsters the viewer was meant to fear failed to do anything at all other than scream and wander around like old rusted dodgem cars.

I know that Nicholas Briggs is a die-hard fan of classic Doctor Who and I have long enjoyed his Big Finish audio productions such as the stellar Dalek Empire. Therefore it is always painful when I hear him voicing the Daleks in drek like this. Honestly, the CGi mob of Daleks all shouting the same thing was about as impressive as the cardboard cut out Daleks way back in 1966’s Power of the Daleks. The only problem is that Power of the Daleks was actually about something, included rich compelling characters and a gripping drama that established the Daleks as a very real threat. It’s also Briggs’ favorite classic Dalek story.

“While it was interesting to open the story on Skaro where the Dalek Empire is horrifically powerful, there is something inherently wrong with a Dalek story in which the Daleks do not kill a single character and the Doctor’s big win is to get his enemies to forget who he is then dance through the TARDIS as if this makes anything better.”

Asylum of the Daleks opens with one of those woeful scenes that are all too familiar now, a narrator telling no one at all about how deadly and powerful the Doctor is and how he is the only person the Daleks fear. Again, the script fails to show this and instead just tells us because it has no faith in its audience or in the material (at least they are right on one count). The Doctor is summoned by a woman desperate to get her sister out of a Dalek slave camp on Skaro, a blasted ruin of a planet (I still say the rumored title ‘The Ruins of Skaro’ is a far better one than ‘Asylum of the Daleks’). The Doctor can see that this is a ruse but before he can escape he is zapped as the strange woman sprouts an eyestalk from her head, a gun from her palm and becomes a humanized Dalek.

This is quite possibly the goofiest idea in Doctor Who and will be an unimpressive action figure.

Meanwhile Amy Pond is pursuing a modeling career (I think she’s cute, but… a model?? Amy???) and Rory interrupts her photo shoot to get their divorce papers finalized. Then they are both kidnapped by humanized Daleks and taken off to to a Dalek spacecraft. Despite the publicity that this story would feature every Dalek ever, there are far more of these silly humanized ones than anything else.

Cornered by the Daleks

Overemotional Amy

The Daleks have taken over the asylum

Crazy zombie Dalek humans

Cute Oswin (Jenna Louise-Coleman)

The Doctor confronts the Parliament of Daleks

The Doctor waits patiently to be killed by the Daleks but instead is hired by a contractor to infiltrate an impenetrable force field. Sure, it’s impenetrable unless you hurl a person directly at it. Breaking through the impenetrable force field is a radio transmission of Carmen (which of course the Doctor played in… isn’t the writer silly?). A spaceliner has crash landed on the asylum leaving one survivor, a cute-as-a-button gal named Oswin, who has managed to call for help. So human bodies and opera are the only things that can get through this otherwise damned impressive force field. The Daleks are terrified that if the crashed space-liner could get through (so human bodies, opera and massive space ships can break through the honestly pretty impressive force field) the incarcerated Daleks might too. Given that the longer this story goes on more things can break through the force field, I have to agree with the Daleks on the need for immediate action.

The Doctor and Amy get separated from Rory who comes into contact with the flirt short dress wearing Jenna Louise Coleman who is baking souffles and listening to music while happily recording a diary while she waits for rescue. She flirts with Rory (really?) and acts as a more resourceful plot contrivance than any sonic screwdriver ever could. While it’s unclear why there is an asylum at all, why the Daleks can’t solve this problem, perhaps by shooting zombie Daleks at the planet or another space-liner or just leaving… who knows. But what makes matters less clear is that Oswin can somehow hack all of Dalek security and talk the Doctor and his companions through every step of their mission which never made any sense in the first place.

The Doctor and Amy encounter another survivor of the crash, who takes them into his sunken escape pod, but it is soon revealed that he too is a humanized Dalek and that the pod is full of zombified humanized Daleks. It’s not a bad visual, but unnecessarily spooky for the kids in my opinion and it serves no real purpose since they can be stopped by just closing the door on them. In fact none of the monsters in this story are capable of opening a door. Bad luck, that.

Rory narrowly avoid an army of kill crazy Daleks (including a special weapons Dalek who can’t even be bothered to move!) and is reunited with the Doctor and Amy… who has lost her magic wrist watch which was meant to shield her from the cloud of nano bots that are now transforming her into a humanized Dalek. But the Doctor has a cunning plan to not only save Amy’s life but her marriage to Rory as well despite the fact that Amy has pointed out he can do no such thing.

See, the transformation into a Dalek can be halted by just loving a lot. Coincidentally this is also the Achilles heel of the cyber conversion process. So all the Daleks and Cybermen need in order to stop killing everyone is a good loving relationship. Huh. Thanks, Steven Moffat, for once more transforming Doctor Who into a soap opera/comedy. It’s Coupling with space/time travel! Rory forces the magic bracelet that prevents you from becoming a Dalek because he knows he can last longer since he loves her more than she loves him. They then have a couples’ fight over who loves who more, get all puffy-faced and cry a lot then realize that the Doctor has saved their marriage. Ta-da. As if I really cared about that plot thread. What about the Daleks? Why does the asylum exist? How did Oswin survive? At least one of these questions gets answered.

The Doctor leaves the couple to sort this out while he tries to rescue Oswin but must walk down THE CORRIDOR OF THE DALEKS! Here, survivors are kept from conflicts on Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks), Aridius (The Chase), Kembel (Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks’ Master Plan), Vulcan (Power of the Daleks), and Exxilon (Death to the Daleks). Why they all look liker the McKinstry MKI Dalek rather than classic ones, I don’t understand.

The good Doctor has a freak out as he waits for Oswin to open the way out and then gets the shock of his life (the only impressive moment for me in this story), Oswin is not a trapped human but a fully transformed Dalek wrapped up in a delusional fantasy to cope with her situation.

Even though she is a Dalek, Oswin really really really doesn’t want to be one so she betrays her programming and helps the Doctor escape into the middle of an army of Daleks on board their mother ship. Rather than kill him outright (again), the Daleks are confused as to why they cannot remember the Doctor at all (because Oswin erased his record from their database) and rather than shoot him they just chant ‘Doctor WHO?’ over and over, waiting patiently for their nemesis to leave.

After the impressive Dalek back in 2005, fans have been waiting patiently for another good outing for the most popular of Doctor Who’s monsters (Doomsday came close)… but this was not it. There was zero potential for this story to rise above passable but it failed at even that thanks to the nonsensical plot, sorry special effects and the woeful focus on Amy and Rory’s love life.

Next time: ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ (in which Rory deals with a deadbeat father that never loved him while historical characters fight… dinosaurs on a spaceship)

“Brothers and sisters, we are here to get through this thing called life.”

_______________________________________________________

Overnight ratings from Doctor WhoTV:

1. Asylum of the Daleks – 6.4 million (overnight)
2. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
3. A Town Called Mercy
4. The Power of Three
5. The Angels Take Manhattan

Doctor Who – The Eternity Clock trailer

The Doctor and River Song race against the clock and a horde of monsters ranging from the Daleks to the Cybermen, Siluruans and the Silence. Traveling to a dystopian London (similar to that seen in City of the Daleks), historic London, the interior of a futuristic spacecraft and the corridors of a massive prison, the game looks quite impressive.

From BBC and Supermassive Games, the latest in the Doctor Who Adventures Games series will arrive in March 2012.

The trailer below gives fans a glimpse of the gameplay and graphics. I’m not much of a fan of River Song, but as a playable character in a video game, I can see how she would be useful… just.

Side note: There’s a great article here chronicling the history of Doctor Who games, including the world famous pinball game!

Doctor Who – The Wedding of River Song

“The Wedding of River Song”

Series 6
Episode 13
Transmitted 1 October, 2011

“All this flirting… do I have to watch?”

Facing his inevitable death at Lake Silencio, the Doctor attempts to discover the secret of the Silence and why they are determined to kill him. In learning the truth, he finds that his end is unavoidable and appears to willingly accept his destruction. River Song, however, disagrees and saves his life, causing a fissure in time and breaking all of reality. History is happening all at once and in order to set things right, the Doctor must die.

The second half of the sixth series of Doctor Who under BBC Wales has received some damning reviews and for good reason. Self-indulgent and empty, the adventures have hardly been the best of the program’s run. The centerpiece of the year has revolved around the resolution to the Doctor’s death seen in its first episode. Along the way, hints were dangled before the viewer but mainly it was a game of biding time before the magic trick that Moffat would undoubtedly unveil in the finale. By definition, the resolution had to be a magic trick as there was absolutely no other way that the program could get the Doctor out of this trap and frankly, the program is not interested in clever escapes or in intelligent resolutions at all. It’s invested all of its faith in ‘magic.’ By magic, I am referring to a cheap stunt that stands a situation on its head and makes up into down, left into right, etc and everything is back to normal.

The Wedding of River Song was a run around.

Full of outlandish visuals and turnabouts of character (sort of), it was a Möbius strip of storytelling that began and ended at the same point. Moffat no doubt thinks this kind of thing is clever, but it’s just a narrative trick that serves no real purpose if the meat of the story is absent. The Doctor and Emperor Churchill have a nice series of expositions in an absurd reality where ‘history happens all at once’ yet talk shows are still all the rage and no one seems all that bothered. Additionally, ‘history happens all at once’ apparently implies that all of the past is placed in the most vapid representation of present day life ever, obsessed with current trends and fashions. Will this moment in time really be remembered with a hash tag or an ironic photoshopped kitten image?

The Doctor, dressed as an ancient Roman soothsayer, explains that time has become broken and that it is all because of ‘a woman.’ Of course, River Song is the unofficial star of the show, why not? The Doctor attempts to tell Churchill about his clever detective work in finding out just why the Silence want to kill him, a journey that demands he visit some bizarre places. Once again, as in last year’s finale, Moffat has mistaken Doctor Who for some other program and provides seedy bars full of weird aliens, live chess tournaments with space vikings and other concepts that have no place in Doctor Who and seem like they are from some MMORPG or something. Maybe Moffat’s script was mixed up with a pitch to some game developer or something. I will say that the bit where the Doctor ripped out a Dalek’s datacore was neat… but it really didn’t mean anything.

The path leads to a man who is apparently dead but has actually been replaced by a robot replica timeship driven by the Teselecta… you remember the footnote addition to ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’? No? Don’t worry, the program replays that moment for you. The Teselecta confirm that the Doctor has to die, etc. The Doctor then finds the head of the goofy blue alien guy from last year’s finale and more empty dialog is spouted re-establishing what we already know. It’s painful.

As the backstory is slowly unveiled, it is revealed that the Doctor and Winston have been fighting the Silence and forgetting them over and over. Before the two are overcome by the monsters they are saved by a crack team of paramilitaries led by Amy Pond. Of course. Why wouldn’t Amy be the leader of a paramilitary force? It makes as much sense as last week’s revelation that she was a model.

Amy takes the Doctor back to her HQ, an office on a train filled with scrawled drawings of her time with the Doctor and a Papier-mâché TARDIS (cute). Why she would keep these drawings stuck to the wall where her staff could see them I have no idea. I know that if my boss covered his office with drawings taped to the wall of himself dressed as a pirate, vampires and silly robots I’d look for another job immediately. But she’s cute as a button and can pull this off.

Area 52, as the pyramid states on the side, is full of Silence preserved in water. Amy reveals, hastily, that the eyepatches that she and her staff wear are mini-drives that maintain the memory of the silence.

This could be the only pertinent piece of information that Moffat gives in the entire story.

Madam Kovarian is captured and being held by River Song who for some reason is revealed in a fashion that implies it is a surprise she has returned. Now I know what it was like in 1973 to continually see the ‘reveal’ that the Master was back. OF COURSE RIVER SONG IS BEHIND IT ALL!! In any case, more exposition and padding takes place and the Doctor attempts to unwrite history by touching River but it doesn’t take for some reason (why? no idea). The Silence break free and Kovarian reveals that they were never prisoners, they allowed themselves to be brought to Area 52 to kill the Doctor because they knew he would come. Of course. Additionally, the eye patches that have become so handy are actually death traps as well. Of course. This is nothing new. Doctor Who has been pulling this trick since it returned in 2005.

This is the same crap kids in my neighborhood tried when we played in my backyard. I’d shoot them and they’d claim to be wearing an invisible bullet-proof vest. Then I’d snicker-snag on them. If I could do the same to this episode, I would.

Everyone retreats to the roof of the pyramid and Amy kills Kovarian. On the roof, River reveals that she has sent a beacon up asking for help to save the Doctor. Outraged, the Doctor says that she has embarrassed him (never a truer word was spoken) and reluctantly agrees to marry her and reveal the ‘biggest secret ever’ to her. It has been established in her first appearance that River was the Doctor’s wife and that she knew the Doctor’s real name, so this was Moffat scratching another item from his list… or was it?

Oh-ho-ho! The big big big revelation is that the Doctor is alive after all even though we have seen him get disintegrated several times in this one episode. His master-stroke was to replace himself with a robot full of tiny people off-screen and let it appear that he was dead. Additionally, River reveals that she doesn’t know the Doctor’s name after all, he lied and so did she! Oh-ho!

Urgh….

Despite this episode being the crystallization of everything wrong with the new Doctor Who (poor writing, over the top silly special effects, an over-reliance on love conquering all), the coda involving the blue head guy being brought back to his cell (why??) is the icing on the cake. Of course the Doctor is the shrouded figure who happily drops his cloak. Interestingly, he reveals that he must ‘drop back into the shadows,’ suggesting a possible change in tone next year that I am curious about. However, the ‘question that must never be asked’ is revealed as ‘Doctor Who?’

Really?

No… really? That’s what is so important that an alien race would unite to hunt the Doctor through time and space, create a Timelord assassin to infiltrate his TARDIS and risk all of reality? Doctor Who? Didn’t Moffat watch Silver Nemesis back in 1988? I mean, fair does if he didn’t, it’s awful. In that story, the Doctor’s identity is offered up as some powerful information that could rock all of creation to dust. It was immediately disregarded, however. No one cares. Really. No one.

I have had a love/hate relationship with the BBC Wales Doctor Who and watched its quality wane to disastrous lows in the fourth series and specials. The fifth year got me re-invested with some clever scripts and a well-suited leading man. This series, however, was mostly awful and when it all dances on a finale as terrible as this was, it loses more of its appeal. Smith still shines as the Doctor and manages to make the program watchable, but only just. Upon closer examination, this season was a collection of self-indulgent trite stories about nothing at all aside from moving characters across the screen.

The drama of saving the baby disappeared when it was revealed that the baby was growing with Amy and Rory all along as their best friend. The drama of River Song became less interesting as it was made plain she was a walking plot contrivance, able to stop bullets, rewrite history or do any other impossible thing that the story needed of her. The Doctor’s death never happened at all, really, and so therefore all of the hand-wringing over his demise was for nothing. The secret of the silence was so thin that it involved putting a question mark next to the title of the program. Any problem at all became pointless as the phrase ‘the Doctor lies’ became an unofficial mantra of the series. It under-writes any drama and offers the writer an escape hatch when the script contradicts itself or writes itself into a corner.

I can’t say that I was shocked by my disappointment with the finale. The new Doctor Who has traditionally shown itself as a program with no interest in storytelling or adventure. It is more interested in quirky weird visuals that challenge your HD TV, undying romance, and explosions. In that sense, it delivered fine. In the sense of the most imaginative and far-reach science fiction TV series ever developed, it fell so flat it’s two dimensional.

I have been reading up on the origins of Doctor Who back in 1962 and was stunned to see the numerous proposals that Sydney Newman passed on as they were too contrived or pat. He was determined to craft a program that would challenge the viewer as well as entertain with an intelligent adventure. He also insisted that only one ‘out there’ concept be allowed in a script as having too many crammed in reduces the credibility of the product and turns it into a cartoon. I’m not saying Newman said anything new or that he was entirely correct with all of his views, but his vision of Doctor Who could not be further from what is on the screen today.

Doctor Soothsayer and the Wedding of River Song

Nothing but spoilers below.

Doctor Who – The Girl Who Waited

“The Girl Who Waited”

Series 6
Episode 10
Transmitted 10 September, 2011

Thinking that he is bringing his companions to the second most amazing holiday planet in the galaxy, Apalapucia, the Doctor finds that he has instead made a grave error of judgement that places his newlywed partners in dire peril. The planet Apalapucia is under strict quarantine to combat a plague so deadly that the treatment involves placing the infected into separate time streams to make the loss of the victims easier on the family members on the other end of the temporal visiting mirror. While Timelords are not immune to the plague, humans are, but the cure offered by the clinic is just as deadly. Unfortunately, Amy and Rory find themselves on different time streams thanks to a clumsy mistake.

The Doctor attempts to merge the two time streams and rescue Amy from the clinic, but unfortunately he is too late, a few decades too late. By the time Rory finds his wife she is a survivor of 36 years of solitude dressed in the discarded armor of the facility robots and self trained in sword play enough to stay alive. The Doctor and Rory face two problems, how to solve the fissure in the time stream (easy-peasy) and what to do about there being two Amys in the world.

The author of the series 2 Cybermen story Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, Tom Macrae, vindicates himself with this episode. Fast-moving and utilizing the ideas of time travel in order to tell a different type of story is exactly the kind of thing Doctor Who needs to do more of. Never mind that we get more of the ‘time wimey’ nonsense that was stolen from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure of all places, it’s a step in the right direction. Trapped in a different time stream, Amy hardens as a person and becomes full of resentment and hatred not just for the Doctor and Rory for not saving her but for herself. It’s a rather adult concept to show the potential of something going horribly wrong for the companion and I’m glad that this episode explored that idea.

The facility itself was brilliantly executed with that mixture of simplicity and complexity that Doctor Who excels at. White walls with magic doors that link to other sets or exterior locations. Nice. The ‘temporal engines’ being located in what appears to be the boiler room was a bit laughable, I have to admit. Why does modern Doctor Who keep going back to the same industrial complexes when a super scientific setting is called for?

Industrial complexes are the new quarries, apparently. In twenty year’s time fans will make pilgrimages to rubber factories and visit where the ‘Love Triangle of the Sea Devils’ was filmed.

While the direction is almost as dire as Murray Gold’s musical score (why so much slow mo? Why so many close ups? Am I meant to be brain dead?), the plot is actually quite clever. However, in order to tell its story,The Girl Who Waited utilizes an accepted conceit that the program is based entirely on love. Since the program returned in 2005, the theme of romance has been a part of Doctor Who. The Doctor and Rose were presented as the greatest love that there ever was, only to be torn apart in the finale of series 2. Series 3 saw Martha pine after the Doctor but he could never be hers because he loved another… a woman whom he could never see. More recently the Doctor revealed his deep longing love for the TARDIS itself.  The idea continues here but in this case Moffat has had a stroke of intelligence by removing the Doctor from the equation and instead inserting a pair of lovebirds in his place. It’s still unnecessary and crass, but it works given that Rory and Amy have already been through so much together and the actors can pull it off. The sappy scenes of Rory and the future Amy crying on opposite sides of the TARDIS door, however, followed by future Amy telling the facility interface about her great love while looking at a hologram of the Earth (I know that’s what I do) is unneeded.

I called it when he first appeared as a regular, but Arthur Darvill is just magnificent. I am a sucker for the well-meaning klutz character and he embodies that so well with Rory. While the Doctor knows exactly what the script needs him to, Rory must not only make do but often stumble about making mistakes until he gets it right. His character also genuinely cares about people, exemplified by his relationship to Amy, a girl who brushes him off at each opportunity but is still the most amazing woman in his life. He has time and again risked his life for others but dared anything to save Amy. As I say, this serves the marketing demographic that the program is looking to reach who apparently needs to have a couple in deep undying love on screen in order to pay attention, but if you’re going to go in this direction… this is how to do it.

Karen Gillan won me over almost immediately as new companion Amy Pond last year. Steven Moffat obviously has a thing for forthright heroines (nearly every script he has written for Doctor Who not only features one but is centered on such a character type), but for some reason in interviews refers to her as a ‘bad girl in the TARDIS’ which I think misses the forest from the trees. Amy is not a ‘bad girl’ at all, she’s ‘brassy.’ Think Tegan ramped up to 11 and add another. Not only does Amy take no nonsense from anyone, even the Doctor, she hardly waits around to be rescued. Case in point, in this episode she not only fights back against the situation she has become stuck in but she improves herself, hardening her survival skills to the point that she is not just deadly but brilliant (just how did she invent a sonic probe??).

I do think that this episode missed a great opportunity, however, in making the older Amy not dissimilar to the younger version. Sure, she was bitter and quick on the draw, but essentially she’s the same person. It would have been much more interesting if the older Amy was unappealing, making Rory’s decision over which one to save all the more complicated. No wonder he figured that he could save both of them, why not? By the end of the episode they’re both sexy assertive women. If the alternate future Amy was instead a more sinister persona, Rory would be faced with more shame and guilt around his decision. Sure, that Amy would not be the woman that he fell in love with, but could he just let her die? It would also color the inevitable conclusion, filling him with guilt over letting the other Amy go because maybe deep down he wanted to. Maybe I’m on the wrong track or maybe that’s just asking too much of this program.

'I'll go down fighting'- Amy clobbers an army of alien robots

Matt Smith is again in tip top condition as the scatter-brained alien stuck with a pair of humans to protect, but The Girl Who Waited is the third story in a row where the Doctor does almost nothing at all. In ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ he failed to save Melody, failed to procure an antidote, did nothing against the time traveling policemem and had no interaction with Hitler. In ‘Night Terrors’ his big moment was to convince a man telling his son he loves him was important (that’s two scripts that Gattis has put this into and I’m officially worried about the man). This week he chats on a video phone through Jarvis Cocker’s eyeglasses. I’m all for an ensemble program, but this is just bizarre.

Rory's two wives

The Girl Who Waited is a tightly written melodrama with science fiction elements and some keen action sequences. Over the top and saccharine-sweet at times, it is nonetheless an episode that tells a compelling story offering more depth to the characters and the concepts of the program. Given the choice, I’d gladly watch the Silurains or Dominators and even pay for pizza and beer too, but for new Doctor Who, this was quite good.

Next time: The God Complex

Get ready for Doctor Who series 6

Jaw-droppingly cool full-length Doctor Who Series 6 trailer
(tip of the hat to Doctor WhoNewsSite)

The BBC Wales series of Doctor Who is set to return in just a few weeks and fans are all agog with anticipation. I have to admit that I’m a bit humored by the article referenced below referring to the press coverage ramping up as the UK press never really stops promoting Doctor Who.

There are some spoilers and such in this piece, but on the mild side. At the conclusion of the article are links to sources that have far juicier details and come highly recommended. I’ve tried to stay in the dark this year as an experiment so I can view the program with fresh eyes (or at least less-jaded eyes).

BBC begins promoting new series of Doctor Who

The BBC has begun promoting its upcoming series of Doctor Who, which is due to begin broadcasting over the Easter weekend in the UK and North America.

The Impossible Astronaut, starring Matt Smith, will be broadcast in the USA and UK on Saturday, 23 April. It’s the first of a two-part story – written by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat (Sherlock) – which was filmed in Utah last year. Though not yet confirmed, episode two, Day of the Moon, is thought to be scheduled for broadcast on Easter Sunday (24 April).

Radio Times Extra, a monthly sister publication to the weekly Radio Times listings magazine, features Matt Smith in its April issue, out today, highlighting the new series of Doctor Who as one to look out for.

Doctor Who series 6 Trailer via DoctorWhoTV

Writing in Radio Times Extra, Alison Graham says, “After a surprisingly powerful and moving Christmas Day episode [A Christmas Carol, also by Moffat . . .] Smith returns for two chunks of Doctoring – seven episodes in the spring and another six in the autumn.”
Graham has nothing but praise for the new series: “Since taking over from Russell T Davies [Torchwood], Moffat has injected renewed verve into the series, while Smith is a triumph.”

Earlier this week, the BBC broadcast an Internet-exclusive prelude webisode, which revealed “a little of what we can expect from the adventure . . . and what the Doctor will be facing”, via its Doctor Who website. The mini-episode was written by Moffat and starred Stuart Milligan (Jonathan Creek) as President Richard Nixon.

Elsewhere, the BBC has begun broadcasting on its channels a number of short trailers from the new series in general and the opening story in particular.

Meanwhile, a Twitter exchange between several of those involved in the production of Doctor Who – Moffat, Neil Gaiman (writer), Edward Russell (brand manager) and Richard Clark (director) – has revealed a significant plot twist to the series, which, according to Moffat on the Doctor Who News Page, would “change the way you see Doctor Who forever forever – and that’s a hand-on-heart promise”.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/305157#ixzz1I1sWMJUL

I have refrained from posting rumors and such on Doctor Who series 6 as frankly other sites are doing a great job at this.

Here are a few tidbits on upcoming episode titles/details:

SPOILERS

Episode 1 and 2: ‘The Impossible Astronaut’/’Day of the Moon’ by Steven Moffat. Directed by Toby Haynes- filmed in Utah, featuring River Song and the Doctor from two time lines.
Episode 3:  TBA by Steve Thompson. Directed by Jeremy Webb- involving pirates, possibly a siren of the sea.
Episode 4: ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ by Neil Gaiman – set on an alien graveyard, rumored to include elements from the 1968 story The War Games.
Episode 5/6: ‘The Rebel Flesh’/’Gangers’ by Matthew Graham (‘Fear Her’)-rumored to deal with cloning, possibly involving Sontrarans and Cybermen.
Episode 7: ‘A Good Man Goes to War or His Darkest Hour‘ -by Steven Moffat. Directed by Peter Hoar. Images revealed show Amy Pond bearing ‘tally marks’ in a spooky house and a new monster/enemy called the Silence. Cybermen, Silurians and Sontarans rumored to be featured. The cliffhanger promises to ‘change the Doctor forever. Speculation involves the Doctor getting frozen ala Han Solo in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Apparently Character Options have already showcased toys based on this scene.

Series 6 part two
Episode 8: TBA (‘A Good Man Goes to War or His Darkest Hour‘ part two)
Episode 9: ‘House Call or Night Terrors‘ by Mark Gatiss (The Unquiet Dead, Idiot’s Lantern)- featuring very scary dolls.
Episode 10: ‘The Green Anchor’ by Tom Macrae (‘Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel)- no details
Episode 11: ‘The God Complex’ by Toby Whithouse(‘School Reunion,’ ‘The Vampires of Venice’)- featuring guest-star David Walliams (Little Britain and numerous Doctor Who Big Finish audios)
Episode 12: TBA– by Gareth Roberts (‘The Shakespeare Code,’ ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ and ‘The Lodger’) the Cybermen and Cybermats return along with James Corden and Daisy Haggard (both last seen in ‘The Lodger’).
Episode 13: TBA- by Steven Moffat- tying up plot threads from Rebel Flesh/Gangers and the ‘A Good Man Goes to War or His Darkest Hour‘ two-parter.

Images of upcoming episodes can be seen at DoctorWhoTV, lots of details are to be found at http://doctorwhospoilers.com/ where any hope of remaining in the dark can be dashed to bits. Both of these sites have so much information including casting announcements, videos of location shooting, on-site audio recording and more. Make sure to visit these sites if you want to know more as they are the authorities on Doctor Who Series 6.

Doctor Who Classics -The Seventies

What is a Doctor Who classic? To me a Doctor Who classic epitomizes its era, tells an intelligent and memorable story, has unusual visuals, and features above average performances. Doctor Who is the most mercurial and groundbreaking science fiction program of its kind, so already the bar is quite high for a story to rise from a crop of greatness.  The 1970’s is one of the most loved eras of Doctor Who, so selecting what I consider to be classics from this era is no easy task.

In my first of four installments, I explained that in my attempt to create a list of classic Doctor Who stories, I could neither align them from best to least best or limit myself to a small number. This is because of the massive amount of material and the shift from era to era that almost completely rewrote the direction of the program. For instance a great Jon Pertwee story would have no comparison to a great Peter Davison story and vice versa. I decided to break down the eras by decade and try to limit myself to a few select adventures and some notable ones.

I’m hoping the readers will be compelled to provide their own lists as well.

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1970’s Part One: Jon Pertwee

In the 1970’s, Doctor Who took a massive shift as a program and attempted to pay homage to many successful styles such as the Quatermass series, James Bond, Hammer Horror and more. It’s a varied era with some successful and less than successful innovations to keep the program appealing to a viewing family that was becoming more sophisticated as they aged and TV programing changed. For three years the Doctor was exiled to the planet Earth. Aligning himself with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart whom he had met on previous adventures, he became the scientific advisor to U.N.I.T., an taskforce charged with the defense of the planet from alien threats. The Doctor was a stylish and erudite intellectual and dandy who constantly challenged the Brigadier’s more conservative view. The two men clashed against each other producing some interesting stories (and other times seemed to completely alter their point of view depending on the script!). After saving the Time Lords from the power mad Omega, the Doctor regained his ability to control the TARDIS and was once more traveling through time and space, though he retained a connection to Earth and U.N.I.T.

This period saw the program’s viewing figures skyrocket (they had sagged in the Troughton era) and Pertwee became a household icon. A colorful wizard-like guardian, his incarnation of the Doctor was inventive and sympathetic to outsiders and aliens. The Buddhist sensibilities of producer Barry Letts infused a kind of holistic view of the universe while script editor Terrance Dicks’ near constant investigation of the New Scientist kept the program grounded in reality… unless it wasn’t. The Pertwee era lasted five long years and featured some of the most varied quality the program would see until Tom Baker arrived, but when it worked it was the most intelligently crafted period of the program in my opinion (with the possible exception of series 18).

Spearhead from Space

By far the best regeneration story of the classic series (the only contender aside from Power of the Daleks is Castrovalva), Spearhead from Space saw the shift in tone into a down to Earth adventure series with military action thrown in. The alien threat is decidedly creepy, the Doctor is dashing and brilliant and the story full of great ideas such as an invasion taking place through toys and the man-eating plastic chair. This one was also heavily influenced by HP Lovecraft as it featured a bodiless alien entity travelling through space as thought energy rather than in a space craft (this had been seen before in the Abominable Snowmen/Web of Fear).

Carnival of Monsters

Robert Holmes is one of the all time best writers of Doctor Who and has contributed scripts for 5 of the 7 classic Doctors. Of all of his stories, I really like this one. It’s a marvelous blend of comedy and science fiction along with social commentary which Russell T Davies got very excited about in 2005 but fumbled in comparison to the master of the craft. Trapped inside an absurd device along with blood-thirsty monsters and amnesiac humans used by a couple of vaudevillian entertainers, the Doctor’s troubles really start when he escapes. This one has so much going on in it and Pertwee really acts well as a centerpiece of sanity to the madness all around him.

The Dæmons

The Master made quite an impression when he first appeared. A Time Lord just as resourceful and brilliant as the Doctor, only evil at heart. Soon the character became something of a comic strip villain, however and his signature tune played over an entire series of stories grew somewhat tiresome. Even so, The Dæmons was a real winner thanks to an impeccable script and the great Roger Delgado rising to the challenge once again. Explaining black magic and the occult as alien technology is a bit glib but very enjoyable. The script, location work and cast makes this one a true classic.

The Time Warrior

An ideal starting point for a new viewer and the perfect breathing point before everything changes, the Time Warrior introduces an excellent new monster, the Sontaran. Trapped in medieval England, the Sontaran captain Styre steals scientists from the future to repair his craft only to attract the Doctor’s attention. Sarah Jane Smith tags along offering viewers a new point of view of the Doctor that is refreshing after three years of Jo Grant who happily tagged along to alien worlds. Again, Doctor Who’s audience was growing more sophisticated demanding a companion who asked questions rather than blindly following orders. The Doctor was hardly bothered by Sarah Jane’s attitude, however, and proved that he was every bit the hero that he claimed to be. A great adventure.

Honorable mentions:Five years of programming means more great stories, though there were some duds too. Some of the noteworthy tales include: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons, The Mind of Evil, Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

Silurians could be one of the most brilliant pieces of Doctor Who in the 70’s. Written by Malcolm Hulke (who contributed many Doctor Who scripts), the adventure invented a new menace that was not an alien at all, but the original inhabitants of the planet. The pacing is a little slow and the story a bit to long, but the same can be said about many 60’s and 70’s Who adventures. Ambassadors of Death is an inspired action/espionage/alien invasion gone wrong story. Terror of the Autons saw a welcome return of the Nestene Consciousness and the first glimpse of the Master at his nastiest. I enjoy the multi-faceted plot of Mind of Evil involving the treatment of prisoners, international politics and terrorism along with a machine that forces one’s deadliest fears into reality. I know many slate this one for many reasons, but Invasion of the Dinosaurs has one of the best first parts of Doctor Who full stop. The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in contemporary London only to find it deserted. The mystery surrounding the dinosaur attacks throughout the city is another great Hulke invention that is far more than a deadly plot.

(Peruse my reviews of Pertwee stories here)

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1970’s Part Two: Tom Baker

Relatively unknown actor Tom Baker was a risky casting decision as a replacement for Jon Pertwee, the man who had made Doctor Who so successful in the 1970’s. Of course it turned out to be the beginning of the most important and popular era of the program’s history as Baker made the role his own. When faced with the task of portraying a seven hundred odd year old alien, Baker decided to just play himself. Luckily Tom Baker a very eccentric and charismatic actor with a penchant for absurd humor. Returning monsters were rampant in Tom Baker’s first series, perhaps to ensure a smooth transition from one actor to the next, but after that point there were very few old faces to be seen. Ten companions were featured, the Master revived twice over, the origin of the Daleks exposed and the Cybermen returned after a long hiatus during Baker’s reign. With a handful of sweets, mad stare and colorful scarf, the new incarnation of the Doctor faced enemies with a fearless grin. The comedic element was greatly enhanced, often to the detriment of the drama on screen, but Baker’s iconic image is what nearly anyone who has ever heard of Doctor Who thinks of when the program is mentioned.

The 4th Doctor’s seven year-long era can be broken up into three portions according to the producer. Philip Hinchcliffe brought the Gothic horror elements and strong storytelling as well as an increase in on screen violence. Graham Williams had a taste for the wittier comedic touch while John Nathan Turner was assisted by Barry Letts and Christopher H. Bidmead in crafting a modern take on the sci-fi program that firmly established the series for the 1980’s.

Genesis of the Daleks

Terry Nation’s origin story for his Daleks is a major classic. A war story with pulp serial style cliffhangers and a crazed mutated scientist, this is a real golden story. On the planet Skaro, war has raged between the Thals and the Kaleds for generations, reducing the once mighty empires to shambles bent on genocide at any cost. Desperately searching for an end to the war, the twisted scientist Davros devises a method of victory that would forever change the universe. He creates the Daleks.

Only three stories into his reign on the program, Baker was challenged with a very moody script full of horrific imagery and violence that struck a cord with the viewers, war scenes depicted in slow motion while boy generals eagerly plotted their next move on the battlefield. While Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter are fantastic supporting actors, Michael Wisher and Tom Baker rule this story with gripping scenes full of quotable exchanges. Used sparingly, the Daleks are once again the terrifying monsters scaring little kiddies to their beds in tears.

Pyramids of Mars

The Hinchcliffe era is full of Gothic dramas that are somewhat repetitive and often derivative of the Hammer Horror films that they payed homage to. Nonetheless, Pyramids of Mars excels at creating an unforgettable mood and atmosphere that pervades the era with an even darker pall of doom and death. Set in the 1920’s, an army of robotic mummies roam the countryside killing anyone who attempts to halt the rescue of Sutekh the destroyer, a being of incalculable power imprisoned on distant Mars. I often find that when I meet someone of my generation with even a vague memory of Doctor Who, this was one of the stories they had seen and it left them with a terribly scary impact. It’s very simple in its goal, but boy does it deliver.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

When Hinchliffe left Doctor Who, his last story was a real corker. A Victorian murder mystery involving a stage mesmerist, a killer dwarf, giant mutated rats and a scarred war criminal from the future, this one has it all. Along with Genesis if the Daleks, this story is often regarded as the best of Doctor Who full stop in fan polls. Eager to prove public opinion wrong, I had viewed the DVD with a skeptical eye only to find that it really is that good. Again the plot is rather basic and the goal of the story straight forward but the execution is absolutely flawless making the end result a treasure.

The Image of Fendahl

Written by Chris Boucher (Robots of Death), this Gothic-style H.P. Lovecraft-like thriller also has some excellent characters that add a special kind of wit to the story. A horrific tale centered on an alien life-form that is so powerful that it is regarded as a myth to the Doctor’s people, the Time Lords. The action and mood are both gripping in this one and a somewhat restrained Baker gels with Louise Jameson. An unusual adventure as it feels more at home in the Hinchcliff-Holmes era, Image of Fendahl is one of my personal favorites and a great example of the humor/horror/sci-fi mix unique to Doctor Who.

Warriors’ Gate

I had to pick a story from Baker’s final year on the program as it was so distinctively different and risky. In the two previous series Doctor Who had become nearly sophomoric in its humor and lead actor Tom Baker, the man most recognized for the success of the series at the time, had become his own worst enemy often sabotaging recordings with silly ideas or egocentric fits. For his final outing, the scripts were just amazing, the most innovative and serious-mindedly imaginative in ages. Warrior Gate was for me the pinnacle of this period. An adventure taking place at the nexus of two realities, the Doctor, Romana, K-9 and Adric encounter a slaving craft full of creatures called Tharils that can navigate the portals between realms. Cruelly tortured by an idiotic crew,one of the Tharils escapes to take the Doctor through the mirrors that line the nexus to show him the history of his people.  The previously manic Baker is much more subdued and aged in this series, providing a level of development that we had never seen before in the character of the Doctor.

Witty, clever and gripping, this charming story has stunning visual design that stands up today as well as a superb supporting cast. It also saw the back end of Romana and K-9 who had long outlived their purpose in my opinion.

Honorable mentions: Terror of the Zygons, The Brain of Morbius, The Robots of Death, The Ribos Operation, Horror of Fang Rock, City of Death, Meglos.

There are so many great Tom Baker stories and fond memories that I associate with them that it is nearly pointless to attempt to list them and this blog post is already very very long. Suffice it to say that if you are a fan of Doctor Who there is something in this seven year stretch that you like and echoes of the modern era of Doctor Who abound for fans of the BBC Wales series.

(Peruse my reviews of Tom Baker stories here)

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I am sure that I left out a lot of stories that are favorites of  others (and my own) and hope that my readers will again chime in with their own lists. Remember, this blog is just me talking to myself without you.

More next time after Tom Baker departs and John Nathan Turner takes the reigns of Doctor Who for the last leg of classic Doctor Who.

56 Stupid Things About “The Trial of a Time Lord” (And 44 Cool Ones)

When reviewing Doctor Who stories, it is often difficult to retain a grasp of reason and logic as absurd ideas are alternately presented as laughable and serious often in the same episode. There is the added problem of creative issues, budgetary constraints and a lack of communication between the actors, directors and writers. 1986’s Trial of a Timelord has all of these problems and more, resulting in a bloated epic that teeters on the brink of classic and dross every few minutes.

In 1985, Doctor Who had come under fire from the BBC as being in need of a rest, After 22 years on the air, the series had become far too violent and lacked a certain quality that many had associated with the program. In some ways, Doctor Who was exactly the same TV series it had always been while the rest of TV had progressed and was receiving higher budgets, better actors and stronger scripts. In 1986, Doctor Who returned with a challenge to better itself. To reflect the challenge, The Doctor himself was placed on trial and asked to defend his behavior. The adventure spanned 12 episodes with four distinct arcs separating inter-linking scenes set in the court room where the Doctor and his prosecutor exchanged insults.

The folks at Kaldor City have compiled a list of the stupidest and best moments in the 12-part story. Here are a few of my favorites:

Episodes 1-4/The Wasteland/Robots of Ravolox/The Mysterious Planet/That Thing with Joan Sims in It

6. There are no animals on Ravalox. This flies in the face of everything we know about how ecology works.

13. Confronted with the accusation that he is breaking Time Lord rules by interfering with the affairs of others, the Doctor fails to respond with “oh yeah? How about your involvement in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, ‘Attack of the Cybermen’, ‘The Mutants’, ‘Colony In Space’, ‘The Brain of Morbius’, ‘The Three Doctors’…” and thus deserves everything he gets in the courtroom scenes.

15. “All that is known is within the Matrix.” “Oh, a micro-organism in a drop of water might think it knows the universe, all it knows is that drop of water.” One of the best exchanges in 1980s Who, but unfortunately it was cut.

Episodes 5-8/Planet of Sil/Mindwarp/Vengeance on Varos II: This Time, it’s Thoros Beta/That Thing with Brian Blessed In It

39. The effect of the pacifier appears to be to make the Doctor very suggestible, acting like Yrcanos when he’s around Yrcanos, and like Sil when he’s around Sil. However, the question remains as to at what point said effect wears off.

40. The Doctor’s behaviour in the story is cleverly written so as to leave it ambiguous as to whether his turning to the bad is faked evidence, the result of the influence of the pacifier device, or, perhaps, proof that the Valeyard is right about him, or a bit of all three. Complaints that it is confusing miss the point– it’s clearly supposed to be.

41. And anyone who thinks the Sixth Doctor is generally a nice, stable, unselfish chap should go and watch “The Twin Dilemma” again.

42. Philip Martin, on the DVD commentary, indicates that he sees the Sixth Doctor as “a bad guy pretending to be good.”

Episodes 9-12/The Ultimate Foe/The Vervoids/Terror of the Vervoids/John, Here’s That Thing You Commissioned From Us In A Lift At The Last Minute, Love Pip and Jane

57. The Doctor tells the courtroom that his evidence comes from his own future. We know from Episode 4 that the evidence presented in the courtroom is material recorded by his TARDIS, so how the hell can it record things it hasn’t been through yet?

67. JNT’s character description of Mel runs in part “one of those annoying young ladies, who is a ‘woman’s libber’ at all times, except at moments of great stress, when she relies heavily on playing the hard-done-by, down-trodden, crocodile-teared female.” Issues much?

73. The Vervoids originally killed their victims by strangling them with vines, and it was John Nathan-Turner who suggested the poison dart idea. Which makes rather less sense; who goes around genetically engineering servant races with a built-in weapon?

81. “I’m always serious about murder,” the Doctor says. Well, perhaps, but judging by earlier stories he’s not above having a laugh over GBH, manslaughter (or Raakslaughter) and accidental homicide.

82. Why are the Vervoids upset about humans eating plants? Generally, the consumption of part or all of the plant is crucial to its reproductive cycle, without which the species could not survive.

83. How do they even know that humans eat plants? Have they been reading books about gardening?

More here:http://www.kaldorcity.com/features/articles/trial.html

Thanks to http://doctorno1.amplify.com for posting the link to this list as well!

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