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Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 224: The Mind Robber, Episode Three

Dear diary,

The thing I'm finding odd about The Mind Robber is that I've got a snaking suspicion I shouldn't really like it. I mean, it feels completely out of keeping with pretty much everything we've ever had in the series before (despite all my comparisons to The Celestial Toymaker - this is weirder!) or since, and it really feels a bit out of place. In some ways, it's almost like they're really scraping the barrel of things to do with the programme.

I wonder if it's just that Season Five has completely altered my perception of what Doctor Who is supposed to be? During the Hartnell era, things were different every four-to-six episodes, sometimes swinging in wild directions (going for high comedy in things like The Romans or pure, educational history in The Aztecs, not to mention odd sidesteps into being an inch high or fighting the Daleks for twelve straight weeks), but the Second Doctor's era has felt far more uniform.

Suddenly, we're plonked down into this strange place, where following the white void and TARDIS behaving erratically stuff in Episode One, we're suddenly in a world of fiction, in which characters such as the Unicorn or Medusa can be perfectly real, and the Doctor can have a chat with Gulliver. It just feels like it's pushing the envelope that bit too far for me, and I really should be talking about how it simply doesn't work, and how it was one of the worst ideas in the show's long history.

And yet… there's just something about it that really, really, works. I'm finding myself genuinely caught up with it, and in a stark contrast to the last story, I can't imagine letting my attention wander - I'm simply glued to the screen. It's all pretty standard fare (the majority of today's episode revolves around the Doctor and his companions wandering through - essentially - corridors), but it really does keep you attached. I wonder if part of the praise needs to be passed onto our three regulars. While there's plenty of other characters in the episode, it still feels as though they're the only ones there. Maybe it's because we know that they're the only ones who can be described as 'real'? All the other characters come and go in the blink of an eye (Jamie clambering through the window to meet Rapunzel, only to find that she's vanished is great), making our heroes the only focal point.

It's great to have Frazer Hines back today, too. I spoke yesterday of how Jamie's face being changed felt perfectly in keeping with the story's theme of tests and surreal images, and the same is true of his return. In some ways, it feels like a shame to have the resolution be identical to the scene we saw yesterday - the Doctor having to put Jamie's face back together - but I think I prefer it to them just arriving somewhere to find that, ta-da!, Jamie is back to normal. Though Hamish Wilson turns in a fair performance as the highlander, no one can ever live up to Frazer - he is Jamie.

And he's back to being perfectly in keeping with the Second Doctor. There's a moment when they've entered the mysterious house, and the door slams shut behind them. In the exact same second, with the exact same Scooby Doo-like move, the pair turn in shock to find the source of the noise. Wendy pad bury also makes the turn, but she's not quite in time with the others. You get the sense that she's still finding her feet a little. That said, she's lovely when she's on screen alone with Troughton, and they way they hold each other close while the Medusa attacks is lovely.

It has to be said though - Zoe just doesn't get it, does she? In the opening moments of this episode, the Doctor manages to stop the charging unicorn by convincing his companions that it isn't real, so can't hurt them. He even explains this to them (and to us). A little later, they use the same trick to face off a minotour - but Zoe don't understand how it's not real when it's right there with them. The cliffhanger today is based on the same premise - the threat is only there because Zoe won't accept that it can't be. I'm hoping they'll slip in a few lines about how she finds it hard to accept because she's so used to dealing with facts, but I seem to recall having the same issue with this on my first viewing of the story.

Oh - and how has no one made a Weeping Angels re-edit of that cliffhanger?

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 223: The Mind Robber, Episode Two

Dear diary,

This story really is a spiritual successor to The Celestial Toymaker, isn't it? We've got the Doctor and his companions transported to a dimension outside their own, where they're forced to take part in strange games, while an omni-present figure watches on. I wonder if anyone watching at the time may have put two and two together and assumed that the Toymaker would be making his return here? We even get one of the regulars being taken away and replaced with a new actor (they didn't actually go through with it during The Celestial Toymaker, of course, and Jamie is only temporarily removed from events here, but still…)

The strange thing is… I'm not sure that I'd be totally against having the Toymaker return. Sure, his first story wasn't exactly a classic, but done in a style like this, where we're kept guessing and the whole episode is filled with a sense of dread, I think I'd be all for it.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an episode of The Avengers - The House That Jack Built - for the first time, and couldn't help but spend the rest of the evening imagining it as a Toymaker story for the second Doctor. No, no, hear me out!

The story largely concerns Emma Peel being trapped inside a large, country house which has been completely restructured inside using advanced electronics to confuse her and drive her mad, to the point that she tries to kill herself (at least, that's the plan). For a long time, Mrs Peel finds herself running round and round in circles, unable to escape the house until she smashes her way to the central control room, where she finds the mind behind all this.

He's an ex employee (I think… I'd sort of lost track by that point) who had set all this up to get revenge on her. He'd been dead for a long time, and his body was preserved, sitting inside a glass box in the centre of the room, taunting her. Having decided that it would be a good basis for a Doctor Who story, I couldn't shake the image from my mind of the Second Doctor reaching the centre of the maze and finding William Hartnell's incarnation sat frozen in the box. Admittedly, it might be a bit too sinister for the Doctor Who audience, but it's probably put my mind in the right place for this story! Troughton really suits a situation where he's left to piece the puzzle together, and we're seeing the darker, more serious side to his Doctor come out again - the threat feels all the larger because of it.

There's a lot to like in this episode. The removal of Jamie feels totally natural, and I'm not sure it would stick out as particularly odd even if I didn't know that he was away with Chicken Pox that week. It fits so nicely with the rest of the events we've seen today that it's perfectly reasonable to think that it was scripted simply to cover a week's holiday. It also serves as a great way to set up some of the odd things that we've got going on in this one - from Zoe being trapped in an over-sized glass jar, to the Doctor being surrounded by schoolchildren who proceed to quiz him with riddles to assertion if he'd be 'suitable' or not for some unknown task.

Then we've got plenty of great images to take away with us, from the forest of words (though it's a shame they don't really match up between the studio set and the shot of the letters from above) to the Clockwork Soldiers, marching through the 'trees'. They make a brilliant noise while they seek out our heroes - suitably creepy. And then we end with a unicorn charging towards us! As ever with things like this, it doesn't quite work, but it's good enough to be passable. I like that there's no answers to all this yet. I vaguely know where things are going, but it's been so long since I last saw the story that I can only remember bits and pieces from the resolution. I'm enjoying beings swept along with the tale, though. If anything, I might be a bit disappointed when we find out it isn't the Toymaker watching from afar…

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 222: The Mind Robber, Episode One

Dear diary,

The Mind Robber was the first Doctor Who DVD that I picked up on release day. Up to this point, I'd been dipping into the classic series DVDs based entirely on which cover appealed to me most in the shop (and what a wonderful way that was to experience the programme! These days, even the stories that I haven't seen occupy some place in my mind, with some scrap of knowledge about what's to come. Way back when, it was down to reading the blurb and looking at the cover art - which is why hit took me so long to pick up The Leisure Hive…), it was now March of 2005, and with the Doctor's return to TV imminent, my interest was starting to peak in the programme.

I can clearly remember lots of key bits from all five episodes of this story, so clearly it made some kind of an impression on me - I don't think I've actually seen it since the first watch eight years ago. I've always just had it filed away as 'a good one'. To that end, I decided that today's episode would be one to show Ellie. During the Hartnell era, I made her watch part of The Web Planet with me, because I wanted to see her reaction to a 'bad' Doctor Who story. I figured today was a chance to make up for it with what I'd call a 'good' one (even if I'd also call it 'the most bizarre episode of the 1960s'…)

We sat in silence right the way through the episode. Occasionally, I tried to say something, but was met with a firm 'shh' as she pointedly watched the screen. Having reached the end, I asked her to sum up her thoughts. She thought it was awful. At one point, she described it as 'worse than the one with the ants'. Ah. Worth a try, I guess.

Still, I was pleased to find that, having come through all the episodes before this one, I thought it was even better than I remembered. I was already making a mental note of how I wanted to write today's entry: commenting that it's completely unlike anything we've ever seen from the programme… but it's not! Just two stories on from The Wheel in Space, we've another scene in which the Fluid Links break (temporarily, this time) and the TARDIS console room is threatened by an outpouring of mercury vapour. A few minutes later, the scanner starts to show images of nice places (or, more specifically on this occasion, places that Jamie and Zoe would like to be) that aren't really there. I'm pleased that at least Jamie makes mention of the fact this has happened before.

It actually all works for the better that we start in such a dull (sorry!) and familiar way - everything in the second half of the episode feels so much more out of place and odd when it's come immediately after this real feeling of normality. Ok, yes, you can see the join in the set when Jamie and Zoe are out in the void (and once you've seen it, it's impossible to un-see). Yeah, when the robots turn up, they stand about six feet away from our two companions, who look at them several times before confirming that they're the only ones there (this was the only time Ellie spoke during the episode - asking if the robots were part of 'the Silence', and if Jamie and Zoe were forgetting them).

But in spite of all this, it's really rather creepy. The Doctor sitting in the chair, pulling pained expressions while he fights a mental battle with an un-seen force is well done, and then we end on that fab cliffhanger - the TARDIS blows apart! If you're putting together a list of brilliantly effective cliff-hangers for the series, this one would need to be somewhere near the top of the list.

While I've got strong memories of this story in my mind and a general feeling that I'd enjoyed it before, I also seem to recall thinking that things headed down-hill after the first episode. I'm hoping that the improvement of even this one since last time is a good sign of things to come!

a 

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 221: The Dominators, Episode Five

Dear diary,

You know that a story hasn't been all that successful when the thing that excites you the most about it is seeing the Doctor burn through a wall with his Sonic Screwdriver. He's clearly been tinkering away at the device a little bit since the last time we saw it, giving it a few extra functions. It's nice to see it starting to be more in keeping with the version of the tool we all know, and it really does help to give a feeling of evolution to the series. Enjoy me liking the device in these early days - there'll come a time, I'm sure, when I regret its invention!

…

Oh dear, it didn't take as long to praise the Sonic Screwdriver as I'd hoped it would. I've really not got all that much left to say about The Dominators, and I've not said much to begin with! I fear that I'm going to end up falling back onto old favourites, like praising the Quarks (I'm a total covert now. I'm a Quarkvert. I might get that made into a badge), or discussing how much I love the main cast of the programme.

Something that I do have to be thankful for is that this story was cut down from a planned six-episode length. I've discussed in the past how much I'm not a fan of six-part stories, and I fear that this one may well have finished me off for once and for all. I just can't see how they were planning to stretch things out over another whole episode before things came to a head - it feels like they're pushing their luck already.

I'm sorry to see Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln leave the series with this story, though. While I wasn't all that fond of The Abominable Snowmen (still lined up for a relisten after the marathon, though), I thought that The Web of Fear was one of the best examples of Doctor Who you could hope to find. If it existed in the archives, it's sure to be the 1960s story that you'd show to get people interested in the idea of 1960s Who.

Between them, they've been responsible for some pretty major additions to the Who mythos - the biggest of course being the Brigadier. Yeah, yeah, he'll evolve over the years (starting in just a couple of stories time) into a character basically unrecognisable from the one who turns up as a not-particularly-likeable chap on the London Underground but he still started with them.

Then, of course, we've got the Great Intelligence. Although the character has recently had his number of appearances considerably increased during the latest series, the character has always been among those hailed as a great Doctor Who villain. Barely a year has gone by since the programme returned in 2005 without someone asking for a return for the Yeti. The kind of reputation they have as monsters, you'd expect them to be in far more than two stories, both from the same season in the late 1960s.

I'm sorry that the behind the scenes fallings out meant that they never got to write the third Yeti story, in which the Great Intelligence would launch another attack on Earth, this time via Jamie's ancestral home (mind you, it would have played chaos with my Great Intelligence timeline), as I'm sure I'd have enjoyed it. The idea of the castle being surrounded by shaggy highland cows which stand up and turn out to be Yeti would surely be one of the best remembered cliff-hangers of all time. Bizzare yet brilliant - Doctor Who at its best.

It was partly the loss of that story which means that Jamie sticks around until the end of the Second Doctor's tenure, too. Regular readers will know it's no secret that I love Jamie as a companion, and I love Frazer Hines being on screen with his Doctor, but part of me would love to see him bow out early in Season Six, giving the Doctor a bit of time without him before he heads off to his exile. It makes the Second Doctor's tenure seem incredibly small to have this same human with him for all but one adventure…

a 

Forbidden Planet have teamed up with Character Options for another Exclusive Doctor Who Toy.

The 'Pyramids Of Mars Priory Collector's Set' collector's features Marcus Scarman, Sutekh and other sets and accessories from the Classic Series adventure; Pyramids Of Mars.

In this Fourth Doctor adventure, the TARDIS materialises on Earth in the year 1911 inside an old priory owned by Egyptologist Marcus Scarman. Scarman has been possessed by Sutekh, last survivor of the god-like Osirans, who is being held prisoner inside a pyramid in Egypt by a signal transmitted from a pyramid on Mars.

Sutekh wants to be free and instructs Scarman to use robots, which look like Egyptian mummies, to build a pyramid-shaped rocket with which to destroy the Martian pyramid. The Doctor blows up the missile but falls under Sutekh's control and is made to transport Scarman to Mars to cut off the signal controlling the prison. The Doctor, freed of Sutekh's influence, rushes back to Earth and uses the time control from the TARDIS to move the end of the space-time tunnel that Sutekh is travelling down into the far future where, unable to reach the end, Sutekh ages to death.

Contents:

•  Sutekh (in Helmet with light-up eyes).
•  Marcus Scarman (interchangeable head with Jackal from 1st Pyramids of Mars set).
•  Two Canopic Jars.
•  Sarcophagus with lenticular insert.
•  Coordinate selector.
•  Osirian War Rocket cardboard scenic display.

+  The 'Pyramids Of Mars Priory Collector's Set' is released October 2013, priced £29.99.

+  Preorder this product from Forbidden Planet!

[Source: Forbidden Planet]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 220: The Dominators, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Will Brooks has ventured out today down to his local newsagents, where he's surprised to find Dr. Who running into those fearsome robots, THE QUARKS…!

Such was the BBC's belief that the Quarks would be the next big thing in Doctor Who, they actually make their first appearance in the TV Comic stories on the same day that Episode Four of The Dominators was broadcast. It's a pretty staggering turnaround (even today, for example, Doctor Who magazine has to play catch-up with the comic, companions not turning up until sometime after they first appear on TV), and serves to really show how much faith the BBC had in these little robots.

Invasion of the Quarks is a pretty significant story, as it sees the departure of the Doctor's grandchildren, John and Gillian, from the comic - the Doctor dumps them at Zebedee university in this instalment, once he's told by a fortune teller that he'll soon have a 'rendezvous with deadly robots'. It's a pretty unceremonious departure for the pair, considering that they'd been the regular companions in the comic for almost five years. They're dispensed with in the fifth panel, and the Doctor heads off to his fate.

The TARDIS arrives in a Scottish castle at night, when the Doctor is surprised by the arrival of a flying saucer, from which come a group of the Quarks. The Doctor claims to have never encountered the creatures before (placing this somewhere before Season Six for him, apparently) but adds that 'their reputation for destruction is unparalleled throughout the galaxies!'

I'm not sure, then, if these are quite the same Quarks that we're watching in The Dominators, since they're slaves in that story, as opposed to the great galactic conquerers that they're made out to be here. Still they look absolutely brilliant in comic form - even better than they do on TV (no, I still don't know why I love them so much. Yes, I know they're really rubbish).

As the story goes on, the Doctor finds himself chased through the castle by his new-found enemies, and ends up tumbling down a flight of stairs in the darkness. As a Quark looms at the top of the steps ('THE INTRUDER IS UNCONSCIOUS.. A RAY WILL FINISH HIM!'), a suit of armour swings its axe down and cuts off the Quark's gun. Somewhat improbably, the suit of armour is the hiding place for Jamie McCrimmon, who the Doctor is 'pleased to see again'. Don't ask me what this would do to their timelines - the Jamie of this story has been living in an apparently contemporary Scotland, and got caught up in the events of this story while visiting his friend at the local tracking station.

Together, the Doctor and Jamie steal one of the Quark's spaceships and fly right into the centre of their invasion fleet before firing ray guns at the other ships. After this, the Doctor claims that there's only one remaining task… and he blows up the castle to dispose of the remaining Quarks. Hm.

As you can tell, it's all a bit silly, and it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense… but it's brilliant! Hah! It's quaint and fun, and perfectly in-keeping with the version of the Doctor that'd been traveling through TV comic since I last dipped into them during The Highlanders. My plan today had been to take a look at this one comic story, and then move on, but it ends on a cliffhanger - as the Doctor invites Jamie back aboard the TARDIS, and are tracked by the Quarks, who declare revenge against their enemies.

I ended up reading through several of the following stories. Most do contain the Quarks in some form (occasionally with their genetically engineered giant wasps in tow. Obviously), and they're great fun. I've been enjoying them on TV, but they really do suit the comic strips. I'll admit that the thought of the Quarks as some kind of galactic powerhouse isn't one that comes naturally, but it's great fun.

I'm not going to rate all the Quark comics, but I'll be giving their first appearance a solid 8/10.

(As for The Dominators Episode Four… I watched it with the commentary on. There were some brilliant discussions of the way that Doctor Who was made in this period, and Arthur Cox sadly admits that he's only ever done the one Doctor Who story, before discussion turns to the recent casting of Matt Smith. Hang in there, Arthur, you'll be turning up in The Eleventh Hour before you know it.

I did go back and flick through the episode afterwards for some edited highlights, but to be honest - it's really not for me…)

a 

Character Options have sent DWO details of the upcoming Doctor Who 50th Anniversary 12" British Icon Dalek.

Doctor Who 12-inch British Icon Dalek

This ultimate Doctor Who collectable 12-inch Dalek has been produced exclusively in Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary year. Beautifully displayed in the Union Flag, it celebrates the Daleks as a British icon and is ideal gift for all Doctor Who fans.

This limited 50th anniversary edition free-wheeling Dalek features poseable arm, head and eye. Also includes 8 Dalek phrases with lights and sound FX.

The Daleks were created by the Kaled scientist, Davros as travel machines. He had deduced that the years of radiation and chemical poisoning from an ongoing war would lead his race to mutate into immobile organisms. The Dalek travel machines would house these creatures and allow the Kaleds to survive. However, in the course of his experiments, Davros deliberately removed what he considered to be debilitating emotions from the mutants and a force of evil was spawned! Requires 4 AA Batteries. For ages 5 years and over. 

8 Dalek Phrases include;

•  Seek, Locate, Annihilate
•  Seek, Locate, Destroy
•  You will obey the Daleks, obey, obey!!
•  Halt or you will be Exterminated!
•  You are an enemy of the Daleks!
•  We are the Supreme Beings
•  Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! + Gun SFX
•  Exterminate! + Gun SFX

+  The '50th Anniversary 12" British Icon Dalek' is released Late August, priced £39.99.

+  Order this product from Forbidden Planet for just £35.79!

[Source: Character Options]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 219: The Dominators, Episode Three

Dear diary,

As The Dominators goes on, I'm finding myself more and more detached from it. Things started fairly well a few days ago, but I'm just bored now. After a while of staring at Episode Three, not really taking anything in, I actually returned to the menu screen of the DVD and switched on the Production Subtitles. I don't normally bother with this particular special feature, because - fascinating as they can be - I find it near impossible to keep up with them while also watching the episode. Thankfully, there's so little of interest happening in the episode today that I didn't mind missing long stretches of it.

Truth be told, I was hoping that the subtitles might give me something that I could talk about in today's entry, but even that seems to have fallen a little flat. It seems like a real shame that we've finally returned to a long stretch of the series being held in the BBC Archives, and this is the first example that we get! At least on audio, there's a chance that I could imagine the story being better than it really is. Can we give this one back and swap it for a few episodes from Season Five, instead?

On the plus side, the more the story goes by, the more I realise how much I love the Quarks. No, believe me, I didn't expect to be saying that, either. Even when this story started, I thought that they were silly and a bit naff as a Doctor Who monster (and try as I might, I can't look at one without picturing the skiing fridge from a Wallace and Gromit film), but I'm finding them more and more fun as time goes by.

There's a lovely shot in this episode where one of the Quarks is blown up (in another great explosion - the story is getting those right, at least), and its remains are scattered around the landscape. As the camera comes to rest on the remaining pieces of the creature, the head starts to wiggle slightly in the sand, independent of the body. It's actually quite effective! The one thing I did take from the Production Subtitles was a detailed description of the budgets allocated to Doctor Who, and specifically to the Quarks themselves: BBC Enterprises (the corporation's merchandising arm) was so sure that the Quarks would be the next big Dalek-like success that they actually contributed to the costs of the outfits.

While I love these little creatures, I can't say I'm all that sure about them being the 'next big thing'. They're plenty fine for here and now, but I can't imagine them coming back every few seasons to menace the TARDIS crew and posing any real kind of threat. They're the one thing that's keeping me interested in this story at the moment, though, so I'll thank them for that!

a 

It is with deepest regret that DWO announces the passing of Classic Series Doctor Who Actor, Kristopher Kum.

Kristopher was perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans for appearing in the Classic Series, 3rd Doctor adventure; The Mind Of Evil as Fu Peng.

Kristopher's other career highlights include; Revenge Of The Pink Panther, Gwendoline and The Bridges Of Fu Manchu.

DWO would like to extend our sympathies to Kristopher's family and friends.

[Source: Neil Marsh]

Silva Screen Records have sent DWO the final cover and full tracklisting for the Doctor Who Series 7 Original Television Soundtrack.

Fans of Murray Gold have patiently awaited the release of music from the most recent Doctor Who Series and they will not be disappointed. Packaged as a double CD, the soundtrack to the successful BBC TV show includes the following tracklisting:

Disc One:

1 They Are Everywhere
2 Save Us
3 Dalek Parliament
4 Oswin Oswald
5 Towards The Asylum
6 A Probe In The Snow
7 Amy And Rory Together
8 The Terrible Truth
9 Dinosaurs On A Spaceship / Pterodactyls
10 Brian
11 Take A Ride On Tricey
12 Make Peace
13 Welcome To Mercy
14 Out West
15 Gunslingers
16 The Salvation Of Kahler Jex
17 Our Little Town’s Prosecutor
18 Cubes
19 While We Waited
20 Brian’s Log
21 New York New York
22 I Am You
23 Melody Malone
24 Little Angels
25 My Husband’s Home
26 Hide The Damage
27 Almost The End
28 Together Or Not At All - The Song Of Amy And Rory
29 Goodbye Pond
30 Cumbria 1207
31 Monking About
32 Spoonheads
33 Clara?
34 A Turbulent Flight
35 Bah Bah Biker
36 Up The Shard
37 I Might Change My Mind

Disc Two: 

1 The Leaf
2 Something Awesome
3 Market Day
4 Merry Gejelh
5 God of Akhaten
6 The Speeder
7 Never Wake
8 The Long Song
9 Infinite Potential
10 Always You, Never A Replacement
11 Cold War
12 Skaldak
13 I Am A Ghost
14 A Machine That Makes Machines
15 Crimson Horror
16 Sweetville
17 Thomas Thomas
18 Hedgewick's World
19 Tiberian Spiral Galaxy
20 Upgrade In Progress
21 The Dream Of Cyberia
22 What A Brain
23 Can’t Win
24 Your Orders Come From Me
25 Other Good News
26 The Impossible Girl
27 Cyber Amy
28 The Emperor’s Wife
29 Some Wednesday
30 To Save The Doctor
31 A Letter To Clara
32 What Is His Name?
33 A Secret He Will Take To His Grave
34 Trenzalore
35 I Am Information
36 Pain Everlasting
37 Remember Me
38 Glasgow [Bonus track for iTunes]
39 Whisper Men [Bonus track for iTunes]

The CDs will be sold in a special gatefold wallet as shown (right) but this is limited to only the first 5000 copies, after which the packaging will be a double jewel case, so order quickly if you want one!  

+  The Doctor Who Series 7 Soundtrack is released on 9th September 2013, priced £11.99.

+  PREORDER this product on iTunes and get 2 Bonus Tracks!

[Source: Silva Screen Records]

Awesome Doctor Who band, Chameleon Circuit, have a brand new music video titled 'Teenage Rebel' to coincide with YouTube's Geek Week.

The music video, which is a rather touching look at how Doctor Who can change a person's life for the better, has already had well over 100,000+ views on YouTube!

Watch the music video for 'Teenage Rebel', below:

[youtube:CYB8MXWqLKI]
+  Check Out the Chameleon Circuit website at DFTBA, here.

[Source: Alex Day]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 218: The Dominators, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I know that I'm not really supposed to like the Quarks - they're an odd design, even by Doctor Who's standards. They're a bit clunky, they've got a silly (and difficult to understand) voice, and I have to stop a smirk every time the arms swing out… but there's something about them that really works for me! Hah! Maybe I've been at this marathon for too long? I think the thing that works in the biggest favour for them is their size. When they're in shots with the Dominators (especially aboard the space ship) they look really effective waddling around so much smaller than anyone else around.

Coupled with the child-like voices (always unnerving - Russell T Davies used a similar trick with the voices of the Toclafane in the modern series), they come across as far more sinister than they have any right to be. As I understand it, the original intention was that they're heads should spin around to suggest them operating like a radar, and I can see this being really effective had it gone ahead - their heads are probably the best bit of the design (the body just looks like a fridge). I'm surprised to find myself being won around to the creatures, but I'm going to have to add them to my list of 'monsters that need an action figure release!

I think it also helps that they seem to be under the command of Strax the Sontaran. Seriously, I can't be the only one who sees it? Having decided that the Doctor and Jamie are total idiots (more on which in just a minute), Toba's first reaction is to ask 'should I destroy them?'. His lust for destruction was evident in yesterday's episode, too, but I didn't notice how similar he is to my favourite Sontaran until now. There's one moment when - again - he asks if he can destroy something, and Rango replies that things are to be investigated, not destroyed. He seems quite hurt. Maybe he's been at the Sherbert Fancies?

Certainly someone has been, when designing the interior of the Dominator's space ship. Bloody hell - it's mad! You'd never get anything done working in a place like that, since there's distractions on every wall. That's not to say that it's a bad design (I rather like the Tomb of the Cybermen-style display screens, though they'd give me a headache after too long), and it definitely gives you something to look at while the characters are pottering about deciding what to do.

The stand-out moment from today's episode, though, really has to be the Doctor and Jamie pretending to be completely stupid, in an attempt to fail the Dominator's intelligence tests. It's pretty clear that when you give Troughton and Hines something comical to be getting on with, they'll give it all that they've got and it's very true of these scenes. The highlight is the pair trying to pretend they don't understand how a gun works ('I think you put something in here…' the Doctor ad-libs), but the whole section is great fun. That said, it manages to be fairly sinister at the same time. The Doctor's looks of pain as he tries to fail the puzzle put him in a state we rarely see him (it has a similar effect to the final episode of The Abominable Snowmen - also by these two writers - in that it ups the stakes for us when he's in such a weakened state), and the effect of the electrified floor works pretty well, too.

And yet, despite all these little things that I'm able to pick out for praise, The Dominators seems to be less than the sum of its parts. Frankly, I'm just bored. Yesterday I mentioned that even if I wasn't all that captivated by things, it was at least holing my attention. That's not as true today, and I can feel myself starting to get distracted while the episode is playing out. I don't know what I need to reinvigorate the story for me, but it's going to need something and fast!

a 

Our good friend, Cameron K. McEwan and his chums Elisar Cabrera and Jack Ayers are putting together a Doctor Who Fan Documentary called 'Who's Changing', and they need your help to fund the project.

The feature-length documentary about 50 years of Doctor Who fans, looks at how the nature of fandom has changed since the series returned to TV screens in 2005.

Filming has already begun, having started in the Spring, and the team have already met and interviewed some incredible people:

Louise Jameson ('Leela' - companion to the 4th Doctor); 
Sophie Aldred ('Ace', companion to the 7th Doctor)
Neve McIntosh ('Madame Vastra', companion to the 11th Doctor); 
Dan Starkey (Sontaran 'Strax', companion to the 11th Doctor); 
Simon Fisher-Becker ('Dorium Maldovar', friend of the 11th Doctor); 
Catrin Stewart ('Jenny', companion to the 11th Doctor);
Caitlin Blackwood (Young 'Amelia Pond', the first person to meet the Eleventh Doctor); 
Gary Russell (Doctor Who, Torchwood & Sarah Jane Adventures Script Editor and author);
Andrew Smith (writer of Fourth Doctor story, 'Full Circle'); 
James Moran (writer of the Tenth Doctor story, 'The Fires of Pompeii');
Spencer Wilding (Doctor Who creature actor in the 11th Doctor era); 
Eric Saward (Doctor Who Script Editor and writer); 
Jane Espenson (Torchwood, Buffy, Once Upon A Time writer); 
Jeremy Bentham (Writer Doctor Who Weekly and Co-Founder Doctor Who Appreciation Society); 
Tony Lee (writer of the IDW Doctor Who comic); 
Simon Furman (writer of Doctor Who Magazine and Transformer comic strips);
Dan Slott (legendary Spiderman Marvel comics writer and Who fan);
Richard Starkings (writer of Doctor Who Magazine comic strips and the Elephantmen comic book series);
Liam Dryden (YouTube star and Chameleon Circuit band member);
Josh Adams (American artist of Doctor Who comics); 
Alain Carrazé (French journalist & TV programmer)

and many more including lots of Doctor Who fans like yourself...

+  Help fund the project by donating at the IndieGoGo page, here.

Watch the trailer for the project, below:

[youtube:Nw5H6IT5YNk]

[Source: Cameron K. McEwan]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 217: The Dominators, Episode One

Dear diary,

Well this is odd. I’ve gotten so used to the format of the programme involving bases under siege either on or near the Earth that this episode has felt like a real shock to the system. For some reason, when we watch a spaceship descend on the planet and two people walk out, it put me in mind of The Space Museum (No, I don’t know why, either). As the episode went by, I realised that it was more a general feeling of a Hartnell story that I was associating things with. Aside from Telos – where we spent most of the time inside the Tomb – we’ve not had a proper alien world in ages. (Incidentally, this is the first time since The Tomb of the Cybermen that I've been able to put a DVD for an individual story in the player too - that felt like a novelty!)

Here, we’ve got a vast landscape, and it really works. There’s a shot early on when the passengers of the 'ship' run across the terrain, with the sky stretched out overhead and it looks simply fab. There’s a joke to be made about this episode seemingly being filmed in a quarry, but it’s pretty effective all the same. It helps that we get lots of chance to see the landscape in question, and it’s often shot from some pretty creative angles, really making the most of the area. The cliffhanger, for example, in which Toba appears on a ledge flanked by two Quarks actually manages to look pretty good, whereas they’re not the easiest of aliens to take seriously. It’s also doesn’t hurt that the studio sets match up pretty well with the actual location. There’s some shots where I wasn’t entirely sure which was which.

What’s strange is that the TARDIS doesn’t arrive today for a full 8 minutes. We spend the majority of that time with guest cast, setting up the situation on this world. There came a moment, about halfway through all of this, that I realised I was thoroughly bored by the whole thing. That said, I was invested in it. There’s been several episodes over the course of this marathon that have let my mind wander and which I’ve struggled to pay attention to… but this isn’t one. It's not good, but it survives!

That’s true for the rest of the episode, too, even after the Doctor and his companions arrive on the scene. It feels like the kind of Doctor Who that gets parodied on countless spoofs throughout the years – the TARDIS arrives on a planet the Doctor has been to before (even his description of it, 'It was so splendid, I didn't want to leave', sounds like someone mocking the way the Doctor speaks), and sinister men in silly outfits stalk around in an attempt to be threatening.

It’s a low-key start to the new season, and not exactly a bold way to kick off the Doctor’s new set of adventures. For the last of the black-and-white seasons, I was hoping that things would start with a real jolt of energy: the programme reinvigorated by the introduction of a new companion! It could yet happen before the story is out, but I’m not on the edge-of-my-seat.

Still, I am excited to be at Season Six. Right from the beginning of the marathon, I’ve thought of Seasons Three – Five as being ‘the difficult ones’. They’re the years where not a great deal survives (since Troughton took over, I’ve only been able to actually watch 21 episodes, and that’s including today’s). I knew they were going to be a challenge, but actually, they turned out to be a great deal of fun. Many of the lost stories benefit from not being in the archives, and there’s several others that are so good it doesn’t matter what format they exist in.

It was only at the end of today’s episode, knowing that I’m going into another surviving instalment tomorrow (and the next day, and the next day, and the next etc etc) that it really hit me. We’re out of the ‘missing’ period, and now I can really settle in to enjoy watching the show again…

a 

Amid much hype and speculation, Peter Capaldi was unveiled as the next Doctor during a special live television event on BBC One tonight.

Widely regarded as one of the biggest roles in British television, Capaldi will be the Twelfth Doctor and takes over from Matt Smith who leaves the show at Christmas.

Peter Capaldi says:

“Being asked to play The Doctor is an amazing privilege. Like the Doctor himself I find myself in a state of utter terror and delight. I can't wait to get started."

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer says:

“It's an incendiary combination: one of the most talented actors of his generation is about to play the best part on television. Peter Capaldi is in the TARDIS!”

Doctor Who companion, Jenna Coleman says:

"I'm so excited Peter Capaldi is the man taking on the challenge of becoming the Twelfth Doctor. With Steven's writing and his talent I know we'll be making an amazing show with an incredible incarnation of number 12. I can't wait to start this new adventure!"

Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One says:

"Peter Capaldi has all the genius and versatility needed to take on the mantel of the great Time Lord and make the role his own.  He'll bring his own particular wisdom, charisma and wit to the Twelfth Doctor and take the show into an exciting new era.” 

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning says:

“We started thinking Peter Capaldi might be the right person to take on this iconic part a few months ago. But it was only when he did a secret audition at Steven's house under the cover of darkness that we knew we had our man. He's an extraordinarily talented actor who can seemingly turn his hand to anything. We can't wait to premiere his unique take on the Doctor on Christmas Day and we are sure he's going to become one of the all-time classic Doctors.” 

Doctor Who Online, fan website says:

"The casting of Peter Capaldi has thrilled a lot of fans. Peter will bring a new angle on the character and mix up the Doctor / Companion relationship. The calibre of acting he brings to the role is stellar and we are incredibly excited to see his first scenes this Christmas. So good to see him introduced on stage during Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor; thumbing his blazer lapels in a Hartnell-style was a knowing nod for the fans, and it's awesome to know he is such a big fan himself."

See Peter introduce himself as The Doctor in the video below:

Peter Capaldi's Biography:

Peter Capaldi is an award winning actor, film maker and lifelong Doctor Who fan. He has enjoyed an illustrious career to date in both film and television.

Before securing the coveted role of the Twelfth Doctor, Peter first appeared in Doctor Who in 2008, playing Caecilius in the episode "The Fires of Pompeii".

Peter grew up in Glasgow and attended the Glasgow School of Art, while studying there he secured his first breakthrough role in Local Hero (1983). He has also had roles in Dangerous Liaisons, The Crow Road, The Devil’s Whore and Torchwood: Children of Earth.

It is his role as Government spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in the BBC comedy series, The Thick of It , that has earned Peter both international and award success. In 2010 he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Role and the BPG Best Actor Award. In both 2010 and 2012, Peter won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor.  A film spin-off from The Thick of It, entitled In the Loop, was released in 2009.

As well as appearing in front of the camera, Peter is an award winning film maker.  In 1995, he won the Oscar for Best Short Film (Live Action) for Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life.  He also wrote Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, which won the audience award at the London Film Festival, and wrote and directed Strictly Sinatra. Peter's stage credits include Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at the Liverpool Playhouse, which saw the play transfer to the Gielgud Theatre in London.

2013 has been a busy year for Peter who has been seen on screen in the film World War Z and in BBC Two drama series The Hour, for which he was BAFTA nominated. Not only will Peter film his first scenes for Doctor Who this Autumn, but he will appear in the forthcoming film The Fifth Estate and the Disney film Maleficent.

Peter is currently filming new BBC One drama series The Musketeers, in which he plays Cardinal Richelieu which will launch in early 2014.

Photo copyright to Rankin.

[Source: BBC]

Famed photographer, Rankin, has just confirmed he has photographed the new actor to play The Doctor, ahead of tonights Live unveiling on BBC One.

Rankin tweeted the news on Twitter this afternoon, but also let slip that the actor is male (not that we doubted it):

"Just photographed the next Dr Who for tonight's announcement. Let me know what you think of the photo? He's going to be an ace Dr."

Some further detective work on Rankin's 'recently followed' list on Twitter, lists DWO's own choice to take over the role, Aneurin Barnard (The White Queen, We'll Take Manhattan). It could very well be a coincidence, however.

All will be revealed tonight at 7pm!

+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in the UK on Sunday at 7pmBST on BBC One.
+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in the USA on Sunday at 2pm ET on BBC America.
+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in Australia on Monday at 4am EST on ABC1.

+  Follow @DrWhoOnline on Twitter!

[Source: Twitter]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 216: The Wheel in Space, Episode Six

Dear diary,

This is the part of the story where I should be complaining that, after all that, we get a total invasion of about eight Cybermen. And six of those don't even make it into the Wheel. You know what, though? I don't care! I've really enjoyed the ride for this story, and even the lack of Cyberman turning up as a really big invasion fleet isn't enough to dampen my spirits.

Being able to watch this Episode means that we get a chance to watch plenty of special effects. Indeed, I think this is the most obviously 'effects laden' episode we've seen since about as far back as The Ark. Oh sure things like The Web of Fear has it's web effect in the surviving episode, and The Underwater Menace has fish people bobbing about, but today we've got meteorites hurtling towards the Wheel! Jamie and Zoe making their way across space to the Silver Carrier! The crew of the Wheel blowing up the meteorites while our heroes dodge them… and that's all in the opening few minutes!

As the episode progresses we've got the Cybermen effects (the hypnotising thing we've already seen in Episode Three) and the Doctor electrocuting one of his foes, causing it to crumple up on the floor in a heap. You've then got the Cybermen's back up heading across to the Wheel, marching through space like a cold, unstoppable force!

Hm? Sorry? Oh, all right, then. Fine. Yes, the Cybermen heading over to the Wheel isn't the greatest of effects that the show has ever done, and I'll admit that it did let the ending down a little for me. Quite apart from the fact that they'd almost become transparent by the time they'd approached the Wheel, the Cyberman at the front insisted on walking along flapping his arms like a bird. It doesn't make for the most threatening thing we've ever seen them do. It's a shame, really, because a few seconds later he's trying to force open the doors to the loading bay, and that does work! It looks really effective! You can't have it all, I suppose.

The other effects in the episode - on the whole - are pretty good. The opening few scenes with Jamie and Zoe outside in space did put me in mind of a 1950's B-movie, but they did the job, and they didn't leave me disappointed - always a plus. We're now heading back to a period with a great many more surviving episodes (thanks to the animated release of The Invasion, I've only got five more episodes that I can't sit and watch from the rest of the decade), so I'm looking forward to keeping a tab on the effects in the series. Part of the fun in the early days was seeing how the team's confidence would build up, until they tried to do something that was just beyond their abilities.

I'm also pretty impressed with the design of the Wheel itself. I've been able to see it via the tele snaps right the way through the story, but today we get an especially good look at sections of it. The actual station itself, spinning in space, is as good as any ship ever designed for the programme, and it's nice to see some blueprints (of a sort) for it. As for the inside, the thing that really caught my attention was the bank of lava lamps! I shouldn't find them all that fascinating - I've got one in my flat, even! - by they do look fab in black and white, don't they? It doesn't hurt that they're much larger than your standard lava lamp, so they move in a slightly different way, too. I'm not at all sorry to admit that every scene they decorated the background of had me focussing largely on them as opposed to the Cybermen in front!

With the closing moments of the story, Zoe has slipped aboard the TARDIS and we're off into the third phase of the Second Doctor's era. I wasn't keen on her as a character when this story began, but I've warmed to her as the episodes have gone by (I think that's the intention, too. She's become more likeable and human as the story has progressed). I'm sure all her character will be stripped away over the next fortnight, but I'm looking forward to her joining the crew all the same.

Her first test as companion? Settle in and watch a repeat of The Evil of the Daleks. I've always found it odd that they wrote the repeat of a serial into the series itself, but even more odd, it's the story that introduces the previous companion! That must have been a bit jarring back in the day. I've always thought it might be better if they'd shown The Power of the Daleks instead - remind viewers of how the Second Doctor began. Actually, though, having watched through the series in this manner, I can see the logic behind choosing this one. It's got Jamie in, for a start, and Victoria is still fresh enough in the minds of the audience to make sense. Ben and Polly are our companions in Power, and they left the series a whole year ago - they're old news!

I had debated doing the serial again, to see if my opinion might have changed, but to be honest, I'm not thrilled by the prospect. I even considered spending tomorrow reading the Target novel of The Evil of the Daleks so I could at least claim that I'd tried. In the end, though, I'm keen to press forward with the series, so I'll be moving straight on to the next story, and trying something a little bit different…

(And no, I'm not going to bring up the Doctor's 'sexual air supply'…)

a 

ABC1 is set to simulcast LIVE to Australia the one-off BBC television special Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor, in which the next Doctor will be exclusively revealed to the world, this Monday 5th August at 4am EST.

Following the ABC1 broadcast the half-hour show will be available to watch on iview throughout Monday, and replayed at 8.30pm Monday evening on ABC2. 

Brendan Dahill, Controller ABC1 says:

“We are extremely excited to be able to reveal the highly anticipated next Doctor to Australia as the breaking news happens live, direct from the UK - a first for the ABC.”

Regarded as one of the most hotly contested roles in British television, the 12th Doctor will be unveiled during their first ever interview, in front of a live studio audience set against the backdrop of a swirling vortex, amongst Daleks and the TARDIS.

The special will also include live special guests, Doctors old and new, as well as companions and celebrity fans, and will feature clips and moments from across the show's 50 year history. 

Current Doctor Matt Smith and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will both give interviews about one of the biggest roles in TV and set out just what it takes to be the Doctor. 

Steven Moffat said:

“The decision is made and the time has come to reveal who’s taking over the TARDIS. For the last of the Time Lords, the clock is striking twelve.”

Keep up to date with all the latest news about the show and special guests by following facebook.com/ABCTV and twitter.com/ABCTV

The BBC released a trailer to promote the show which you can view below (UK only):

+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in the UK on Sunday at 7pm BST on BBC One.
+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in the USA on Sunday at 2pm ET on BBC America.
+ Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor airs in Australia on Monday at 4am EST on ABC1.

+  Follow @DrWhoOnline on Twitter!

[Source: ABC1]

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 215: The Wheel in Space, Episode Five

Dear diary,

Aha, now we’re starting to see Zoe coming in as the new companion, and she gets to share a cliffhanger with Jamie, moving through space towards the Silver Carrier. It’s an odd sort of cliffhanger to lead into the final episode – the Cybermen aren’t the focus of the threat but it’s much more about the impending shower of meteorites. That’s sort of true of The Wheel in Space as a whole, though: the Cybermen are there just to be the token monsters. Even the Cybermats are only there to help further the plot.

I’m quite fond of the way that everything we’ve seen so far – Jamie sabotaging the Wheel’s laser (which would have been the first point-of-call for the Cybermats anyway), the destruction of the bernalium supplies, the two crew members heading over to the Rocket… it’s all simply been happening as a way to get the Cybermen onto the Wheel itself. The crew are now of little importance and can be disposed of, but up to now, everything has been calculated.

The only problem? I’m not entirely sure that I buy the Cybermen’s motives. The Doctor claims that they desire the ‘mineral wealth of Earth’… but is that true? What use would the Cybermen have with Earth’s minerals? I guess he could simply be speaking poetically, and what he really means is that they simply want the Earth itself (that’s their goal in The Moonbase, after all, which is set sometime not too far from now), but I’m still not sure. It’s a shame, because everything else is really working for me, but my favourite baddies are just a bit redundant here.

What’s lovely though is that by relegating the monsters to more background roles, we’re given plenty of chance for the rest of the characters to shine. Jamie and Zoe get to share a lovely scene here, in which he reassures her that they’ll come up with some way out of all this mess and she confesses that she’s not too sure. It’s very reminiscent of a similar scene with Victoria from the last story, but on this occasion it’s being held with someone who doesn’t know the Doctor’s way of doing things.

It’s lovely when Zoe wonders what’s left for her after all this trouble has passed. The Doctor has broadened her horizons somewhat, and taught her that a blind reliance on logic isn’t always the right thing to have. It feels like a theme that commonly runs through the modern version of the series – the Doctor takes people and makes them better. I know that Zoe is likely to just slump into generic companion mode before too long, but it’s nice to think that there could be a real journey for her character, and that travelling in the company of Jamie and the Doctor really could be beneficial to her.

The big thing to mention with today’s episode surely has to be that it’s the last time I’ll be using the work of John Cura during this marathon. He continued telesnapping up to somewhere around The Mind Robber, but we’re about to enter a period of surviving episodes the likes of which we’ve not seen in months. I don’t think there’s any debate that fans of archive British television owe an awful lot to John Cura – without him, we’d have an awful lot less to look at from these early stories of Doctor Who, for a start!

Regular readers of The 50 Year Diary will be well aware that I’m not a fan of reconstructions, but I do tend to flick through Cura’s telesnaps either as I listen to the soundtracks, or afterwards before I write up my entry. Since the first load of snaps I used for Marco Polo, I’ve been through a fair few of them. It's a really novel idea for a business - capturing images directly from the TV and selling them to the people involved in a time before any kind of domestic video recording was thinkable at a reasonable price.

Without the work of Cura, moving through all these missing episodes would have been a lot more of a chore - it's lovely to picture the stories in my head and then get home and find out how close I was to the actual truth. After 216 days of the diary, I've become pretty well attuned to the look of 1960s Doctor Who, and it's lovely to have a series of photographs to refer to.

Cura's work has also been used on reckons for The Avengers, and is a way to see missing parts of many other archive programmes of which I'd consider myself a fan, so now is the perfect time to say thank you to John - for the foresight he displayed and the joy that he's managed to bring to millions by preserving these lost classics.

a 

a  a

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 214: The Wheel in Space, Episode Four

Dear diary,

This is quickly becoming another one of those stories where I really wish that I didn’t know what’s coming up. I know that Zoe becomes our new companion, because I’ve seen bits of Season Six. It’s not obvious, though, while watching this story. There’s plenty of candidates here that could go on to be the ‘new girl in the TARDIS’ – Gemma, for instance – and Zoe isn’t the most obvious of those they could choose from.

There’s a point towards the end of the episode, when things have started kicking off, where Zoe asks if she can be of any help. ‘No,’ is the rather abrupt response. She tries to protest, deciding that there must be something that she can do. Still no. It serves as another chance to show that Zoe isn’t really all that liked by her colleagues on the Wheel, but it also makes her look a little useless as a potential companion. At least she’s trying.

There’s more examples in this episode of that background detail that I’ve been enjoying all along, and it’s fleshing Zoe out nicely. We get something of an explanation for her being the way she is when she complains that her brain has been ‘pumped full of figures’ and we hear the kind of training that she’s received being described as ‘brainwashing’. It seems in some ways as though Whittaker is trying to draw a direct comparison between Zoe and the Cybermen – she keeps being referred to as ‘emotionless’ and all this talk of brainwashing comes at around the same time they start to notice the Cybermen hypnotising other members of the crew.

And then you’ve got that cliffhanger, in which the Doctor and Jamie go down into the loading bay and discover the crates used to bring the Cybermen across from the Silver Carrier. Surely this would be a great opportunity for Zoe to join them in their explorations? Really highlight her as being the one best suited to be a part of this team? On the plus side, the cliffhanger is the one that I’ve been expecting, in some form, since Episode One – the Doctor and Jamie turn around to see a Cyberman! Dun, dun, dunnn…!

Actually, though, it’s done very well. It helps that we’ve had to wait for this one, meaning that the Doctor isn’t confronting the Cybermen directly until the last third of the story. It’s been a bit of a slow burner so far (which might go some way to explaining why several people have been commenting on how boring they find this story to be), but that’s really working for me: we’ve been dropped into this world, and we’ve watched on as the Cybermen have mounted their (slow) invasion.

I think my only real complaint with the Cybermen on this occasion is that there’s only two of them. Part of the reason The Tomb of the Cybermen looked so impressive is because when they thaw out, there’s loads of the silver giants stood around. They tower over the archaeologists and form a very credible threat. Here, there’s only the two of them and they’re doing all the legwork. From time to time, they check in with the Cyberplanner, but then it’s all up to them. Where are the rest of them? I’m hoping that this pair is just the advance party, and that the creatures will be turning up en masse before the story is over, but coming at the end of the season, I can’t say that my hopes are high…

One thing I did want to draw attention to is a quick exchange of dialogue between the Doctor and Gemma. It’s only brief, but when I heard it I was holding the door for someone on my way out of a building, looking like a loon because I was smiling my head off. It’s a lovely exchange because it perfectly highlights the background texture that I keep banging on about in this story. The Doctor tries to attract Gemma’s attention by calling her ‘Miss Corwin’ and she replies that it’s actually ‘Mrs’. When the Doctor apologises, she explains that her husband died three years ago in the asteroid belt. It’s only a little exchange, and I’m sure that it’s not going to have any massive significance later on in the story (were this the modern series, I’d possibly expect one of the Cybermen to be revealed as her husband post-conversion), but it gives her character a bit of depth and background that you don’t always get when the crews of these bases are simply sketched in before being bumped off by the monster of the week.

The same is true of our commander today. We’ve had plenty of stubborn base leaders turning up in the series since The Tenth Planet, so it initially struck me as odd that the Doctor would be so confused by the presence of such a person in command on the Wheel. Actually, though, we’re watching him go through some kind of a breakdown as the story progresses. It’s another reason that a slower-paced story can be beneficial – we’ve seen him at the helm of this space station when he’s in his right mind, making decisions and giving orders, so it makes a real impact when things start to go off the rails for him. There’s a sharp change between his reaction to Bill Duggan being found with a dead body and talking of metal rodents, to later releasing the Doctor and Jamie from their guard – it’s not something he’d have been doing twenty minutes earlier.

We’re at the point of the story now where we can start to see some real pay off. Having gone through all this build up, everything is in place for an explosive finale to the season. We’ve got the Cybermen on the Wheel, Cybermats in tow, and the focus should now be shifting to the climax. It’s been a promising start, and it’s looking increasingly as though Season Five could be going out with a real bang!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 213: The Wheel in Space, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Stupidly, I'd forgotten that the start of today's episode would give us a chance to actually watch the cliffhanger for Episode Two - there I was pouring over the telesnaps! Yesterday, I praised the fact that we'd not had a full Cyberman reveal yet, but having actually watched the cliffhanger now, it's pretty clear just what is inside the eggs before it bursts out. To be honest, though, I think it works even better! It's still not quite a full reveal, but it's still very unusual - both for the series and for the Cybermen, and I think that the sheer oddity of the whole sequence would have kept talk in the playground rife all week long.

Now that the Cybermen have properly hatched (what? it's as good-a term as any!), we get to see plenty of them in today's episode: and don't they look fab? It's not a massive change in design to the one that we've been used to since The Moonbase, but it looks really effective here. We get a couple of shots with a pair of Cybermen sat facing their computer banks, and every time we cut back to it, I seem to find myself smiling. It just looks so good. Admittedly, it's not quite as effective once the shot starts to move in on one of the creatures, but it's not long before we're back to the better angle.

Director Tristan de Vere Cole didn't helm any other Doctor Who stories, so there's nothing else that we can compare him against, but based on his work here, I get the feeling that The Wheel in Space might have looked pretty good throughout. The standout moment in today's episode has to be the Doctor idly musing that while his memory has been lost, there's still something floating around at the back of his mind. 'Some warning,' he mumbles, 'some menace…'. The close up of his face then fades into that of a Cyberman accepting orders at the computer terminal - it's simple but very effective, and not something that we often get in the series.

It's not just a pair of silver giants turning up for the action today, though. They've brought the Cybermats back with them, and I'm still finding myself utterly entranced by them. As I said during The Tomb of the Cybermen, I've always somewhat written off the Cybermats as being a bit rubbish, but they're actually a pretty effective 'monster'. There's a shot late in this episode where four of the creatures surround a man, all advancing on him as their tails wag… and it looks really good! I'd not go so far as to say that it was scary, but it's certainly a great moment in the story, and does help to up the creatures in my estimations.

We've also got the first appearance in the series of the Cyberplanner, although it's not described as such. It looks pretty effective when it appears full-screen against a black background, issuing orders to the more conventional Cybermen. Also - it has a voice I can understand. I don't know if it's just me being out of practice with the Cybermen (it's been a little while since they last turned up - certainly it's the longest stretch we've had without them since they first appeared), but when they started giving out instructions to the two crew members during the episode's cliffhanger, I didn't have a clue what was going on.

The Cybermen aren't the only cold, emotionless, logical creatures to play a big part in this story - we've still got Zoe hanging around on the Wheel. I have to admit that I am warming to her today, but much of that seems to be the rather sweet way that she doesn't realise the Doctor and Jamie gently teasing her. Maybe it's simply that she's got a pretty thick skin: some of the comments made about her earlier in the episode (directly to her face) would certainly be constituted as workplace bullying. Just some of the ways she's described today are 'all brain and no heart', 'just like a robot', and 'a proper little brainchild'. Compared to this, Jamie's tease that she's 'a right wee space detective' seems quite innocent (although it has led to the theme song from Captain Zep, Space Detective playing round in my head on a loop ever since).

While the Doctor seems initially hostile towards Zoe, he soon warms to her. I think he's sizing her up as a possible replacement for Victoria - letting her work out the answers for herself wherever possible and leading her in the right direction by suggesting that there may be more to the solution than simply analysing the facts. This episode is home to another of Troughton's famous lines - his 'logic' speech to Zoe. I think Jamie is starting to come around to the idea of her, too, as he seems to be thawing out a little as the episode goes on.

It's nice to see that - even with the Doctor now awake - Jamie is given plenty to do in this story. He's mistaken as being a saboteur when he vandalises the Wheel's laser (admittedly, it doesn't look great when someone walks in on you purposely putting your only form of defence out of order!), and he's quick to help the Doctor along with his investigations, which are all conducted from his hospital bed. I think we're starting to see the early stages of the team most people declare to be the 'best' of the Troughton line-ups, and it's nice to think that we're headed in the right direction…

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Earlier today, Metro.co.uk leaked an embargoed BBC press release detailing a planned programme for this Sunday on BBC One, which will unveil the actor who will play the 12th Doctor.

DWO will be adding the full press release, as planned, just after midnight tonight, the details of which will be found below in this very news item.

Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor

In a special one-off live television event on BBC One this Sunday 4th August at 7pm, the next Doctor will be exclusively revealed to the nation.

Widely regarded as one of the most hotly contested roles in British television, the show's host Zoe Ball will unveil the 12th Doctor in the first ever interview in front of a live studio audience set against the backdrop of a swirling vortex, amongst Daleks and the TARDIS.

The half hour show will include live special guests, Doctors old and new, as well as companions and celebrity fans.

Excitement will reach fever pitch as they speculate and recall their favourites, plus feature clips and moments from across the show's 50 year history.

Current Doctor Matt Smith and lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat will both give interviews about one of the biggest roles in TV and set out just what it takes to be the Doctor.

Steven Moffat says:

“The decision is made and the time has come to reveal who’s taking over the TARDIS. For the last of the Time Lords, the clock is striking twelve.”

Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One says:

“BBC One is the home of big live events and this special live show is the perfect way to reveal the identity of the next Doctor and share it with the nation. The Doctor is a truly iconic role and I’m more than excited about the booking.”

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning says:

“We can't wait to unveil the next Doctor with everyone live on BBC1 on Sunday night.  Amongst all the speculation and betting, there has been lots of fun and intrigue at work as we've been using the codename Houdini as a decoy! It’s the biggest secret in showbiz, even those working with the new Doctor on other projects at the moment have no idea they are in the presence of the 12th incarnation.”

The special live show is made by BBC Entertainment and Events for BBC One, Guy Freeman is Executive producer and Pinki Chambers is Executive Commissioning Editor. Commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Controller BBC One.

The show will be simulcast live on BBC America.

The BBC have released a trailer to promote the show which you can view below:

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[Source: BBC Press Office]