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

Day 396: Planet of the Spiders, Episode Two

Dear diary,

After a great start to the story in yesterday’s episode, it suddenly feels as though they’re not really taking this very seriously. Half of this episode - half - is given over to a chase, which seems to simply be a way to let Jon Pertwee drive a few different vehicles before he gives up the role. I’ve always known about the extended chase scene in this story (a similar sequence during Invasion of the Dinosaurs felt like something of a precursor to it), but I had no idea that it was quite so… silly.

It starts with Lupton stealing the Whomobile (sigh, thankfully making its last appearance in the programme), and the Doctor instructing his friends to drop him at the airfield before they give chase in Bessie. He then takes to the skies in a little gyrocopter, relaying directions to the Brigadier at the wheel of his little yellow roadster. After a while, a police car joins the action, and eventually all the vehicles end up parked in one place. Lupton flees, but then when everyone has their back turned, he hops into the gyrocopter and takes to the skies! Never fear, though, because it turns out that the Whomobile is capable of flight (‘well ‘of course we’re flying), so they continue to keep right on his tail. After a while, Lupton runs out of fuel, so has to land. No worry, though, we’ve made chase on land and in the air, so he may as well steal someone’s boat and give chase across water, too! You can’t have the Doctor follow in another boat, though. Oh no, that would be too easy. There’s not enough spectacle in that, so Pertwee gets his hands on a hovercraft, and we get to watch him drive it over land and sea - and tramps - in pursuit of his enemy. After around twelve minutes of this, the spider on Lupton’s back gets a bit bored, and so teleports him away to safety. It seems to take a lot of mental energy to do it, but surely taking that action right back at UNIT HQ, leaving the soldiers to run around after thin air, would have been a bit more practical? We do however get another element to add to our growing list of ‘Pertwee-era Stalwarts’ turning up during the chase - one of the junctions involved previously appeared during The Dæmons a few years ago!

I shouldn’t really be all that bothered by it. This is, after all, Pertwee’s last outing, and we all know he has something of a love for chase scenes. He loves to get his hands on all kinds of new vehicles (heck, the only reason we’ve even got a Whomobile is because he personally commissioned the design and construction of the thing), so I suppose I can overlook it taking up such a large portion of the episode. It all just takes me out of things a bit. Episode One set up a really interesting story, and it feels at times like this second instalment is washing it all down the drain.

Still, it has to be said that the brief appearance of a spider at the very beginning is rather well done. Oh, I know, people mock the spiders in this story, and yes, I guess it’s not the most brilliant model in the world, but it would have freaked me out at 8 years old. I love the idea of it jumping onto Lupton’s back and then turning invisible as their minds meld, and there’s something really quite un-nerving about him explaining that the spider hasn’t gone anywhere, but is there with them all the time. I think keeping their appearances to a minimum is working wonders for the story - as I said yesterday, I’m not a big fan of the eight-legged creatures, but even I’m getting quite excited to see them arrive in the narrative properly…

With the reveal of The 12th Doctor's outfit earlier this week, we have been inundated with requests from fans wanting to know where they can buy it. DWO have done some digging, and we are thrilled to unveil our first 'Get The Look' guide!

View our image to accompany the guide, in the right-hand column!

Get The Look: The 12th Doctor 

Coat
by 'Crombie'
'Retro' Coat - Dark Blue with Red lining
Available at: www.crombie.co.uk

Cardigan
by 'Crombie'
Navy Merino Wool
Available at: www.crombie.co.uk

Boots
by 'Loake'
'Brogue' - Black, smooth leather
Available at: www.loake.co.uk or www.britboot.co.uk

Shirt
by 'Crombie'
White, 'Tommy Nutter' long-staple, cotton poplin
Available at: www.crombie.co.uk

Trousers
by Unknown Designer
Dark Blue

There have been online disputes questioning the designer of the boots, with the BBC initially reporting they were Dr Martens. DWO can confirm that the boots are in fact Loake's, and Peter Capaldi got them himself. Nicholas Roumana, the store owner of the Camden Town branch, told The Telegraph:

“Peter Capaldi came in a week or two before Christmas and said he was looking for a pair of smart dress boots. I suggested this one, because not only is it very smart, it’s exclusive to us and made in England. It’s a great boot. He bought it in size 10.”

What do you think of the costume? Leave your comments below, or in the DWO Forums!

[Source: DWO]

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Matt Fitton

RRP: £12.99 (CD) / £9.99 (Download)

Release Date: January 2014

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 31st January 2014

The search for the final segment of the Key to Time takes the Doctor and the First Romana to Ancient Rome. The Time Lady is appalled when her companion prefers to watch the latest Plautus comedy rather than complete their mission, and is even less delighted to meet the playwright himself.

But all is not what it seems, either onstage or behind the scenes…

In the far, far future, the Second Romana is destined to have her own encounter with a legacy of Rome, but Stoyn has been waiting. And his actions will set Romana on a collision course with her own past.

Quadrigger Stoyn wants his final revenge on the Doctor, and only Romana stands in his way.

Both of her.

* * *

The Stoyn trilogy comes to a close in the first Companion Chronicle of the year, and despite great ambition the story doesn’t feel quite as strong a finale as perhaps it could’ve been.

Luna Romana was originally written to have included Mary Tamm, but in light of Tamm’s recent passing, the story was rewritten. Tamm’s part is taken by Juliet Landau who portrays a future incarnation of Romana who first appeared in the spin off series Gallifrey VI. Landau proceeds to tell her side of the story as a recollection of her time as the first Romana during the events of the Key to Time.

Landau’s performance is certainly lovely but not as full of gusto as Lalla Ward when she takes over narration during the second episode. Indeed Lalla’s narration is perhaps the strongest part of this release and although Landau does a fine job, you really do begin to miss Mary Tamm’s presence. It would have been lovely to see a more authentic comparison between both incarnations of the character would’ve been fascinating but sadly of course this was not to be.

The Stoyn trilogy has been of a mixed run of stories for me personally. I found overall The Beginning by Marc Platt to be the strongest of the trilogy. The character is still played wonderfully by Terry Molloy but he does seem an odd choice of antagonist for a run of stories set to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Indeed the character’s resolution is rather horrible considering that the poor man was taken out of time by the criminal actions of the Doctor. 

Four episodes seems rather too much for this story as there are moments which can be quite easily written off as padding. This is a shame as there are some great ideas in the story but I personally think that it would’ve benefitted as a two parter, with the narrative intercutting between both Romanas throughout.

Whatever the story‘s faults, what cannot be overlooked are the very touching moments when it pays tribute to the first Romana and the legacy of Mary Tamm. Her contribution to the character and her contribution to Big Finish before her were tremendous and it is good to see it recognised here, and Juliet Landau delivers the closing lines with real compassion.

Luna Romana is an interesting but not entirely satisfying conclusion to an unusual trilogy of stories. 

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

Day 395: Planet of the Spiders, Episode One

Dear diary,

Throughout the course of The 50 Year Diary, I’ve been keeping a track of various loose ‘Story Arcs’. There’s quite a few of them in hindsight - The Doctor mellowing from the character seen in An Unearthly Child to the man we know now, the evolution of the Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor being on the run from his people before getting recaptured, and later his attempts to escape his exile before being set free after the events of The Three Doctors. What we’re seeing in this story, though, is Doctor Who’s first real attempt to resolved an arc, by drawing together various elements from across the last few years.

Obviously, we’ve got another return for UNIT in the form of the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton. Mike Yates has called up with something possibly worth them following up, and reference is made to him leaving the Taskforce and seeking some kind of new life for himself. Jo’s involved by sending back the Metebilis crystal last seen a year ago in The Green Death, and there’s even a reference to the fact that they’ve not found their toadstool yet during their travels in South America.

Even the cast is a throwback to Pertwee stories of old. Aside from Cyril Shaps, who shows up to play the shot-lived role of Professor Clegg (having previously appeared in The Ambassadors of Death), there’s also John Dearth (The voice of BOSS during The Green Death), Christopher Burgess (Terror of the Autons), Terence Lodge (Carnival of Monsters), Andrew Staines (who’s appeared in both of those last two stories, Terror of the Autons and Carnival of Monsters), and Kevin Lindsay (The Time Warrior). Those are just the names from this single episode, but there’s a few more connections to other tales before the episode is out, including Pat Gorman, Terry Walsh, Stuart Fell, George Cormack, Walter Randall, Max Faulkner, Ysanne Churchman, and - even though she herself had never been in Doctor Who before - Roger Delgado’s widow, Kismet Delgado. The thole thing is a great big Third Doctor fest.

I’ve always avoided watching this story before now (even when I bought the DVD, it went on the shelf with only a few of the extras being watched), mostly because of the title alone. I’m not all that fond of spiders, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m completely arachnophobic, and I can handle spiders (little ones, just), I’m not that keen on the idea of a whole story dedicated to a race of giant spiders. I’m glad that’s put me off for so long, though, because this story seems to very much be the end of the Third Doctor’s era. It’s a proper summing up and sending off from what I can tell, and I’m glad that my first experience of this tale comes having just watched all of Pertwee’s other adventures before it.

It’s very much being set up to prepare us for the regeneration, and some of the Buddhist ideas seem very fitting for the idea of the Doctor being reborn. It has to be said that one line in particular seems perfectly in tune with a regeneration story; ‘The old man must die, and the new man will discover to his inexpressible joy that he has never existed…’

And I’m already hooked into the story. I love the idea that Mike finds himself caught up in these events and that’s what brings the rest of the group in, and I really love that his way of making contact is to suggest it as a story to girl reporter Sarah. We’re a season on from her debut now, but her job is still being brought up and made important to the plot, and that’s rather nice. I know it gets mentioned a bit in Robot, but after that as far as I can recall it’s mostly forgotten about, so it’s good to see it being given a final stand here before Barry Letts bows out from the programme shortly.

The setting that Mike brings her to - a large country house - feels like just the type of location that’s right for a 1970s Doctor Who story, and there’s something genuinely creepy about the chanting that echoes down the halls. The set design is particularly nice, too, and a great example of how well the BBC do with something like this. I love the detail of the cobwebs lining almost every surface in the basement, and it works as something of a signpost towards what’s coming through from the meditation.

There’s also a lot of fun to be had with the episode. Sarah and Mike spark off each other nicely, each teasing the other when they do something particularly clever or manipulative. The highlight has to be the Doctor and the Brigadier off to see the shows at a gentleman’s club. I love the way the Brig’s attention perks up when they announce the ‘Exotic Turkish Delight of the East’, and his enthusiastic applause for the performance later on. Nick Courtney is a real source for humour throughout this episode, really, and his reaction to the story of his watch is great fun, too.

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

Day 394: The Monster of Peladon, Episode Six

Dear diary,

Poor Sarah Jane isn’t half being put through the wringer at the moment, don’t you think? A few episodes ago, she was told that when the Sonic Lance self destructs, anyone in the area (including the Doctor) will be killed instantly. She then watches in horror as the machine goes up in smoke, and the Doctor’s unconscious body vanished behind the fallout. For half of the next episode, she believes her friend to be dead. She cries, she mourns for him, she foreshadows his ‘where there’s life…’ speech from the next story… and then she finds out that he is, in fact, alive and well.

Today, she finds that he’s succumbed to the Refinery’s alarm system and is lying back in his chair, somewhat lifeless. She hurries down to see him and once again the tears start as she mourns the death of her friend. There’s a lovely shot with the Doctor’s body in the foreground as Sarah looks on through the hole in the door, and then she slowly enters the room and approaches her friend… just in time for him to wake up! Now it’s his turn for some foreshadowing, as he comes round, looks at Sarah, and questions: ‘tears?’

And then in the next story, she’ll have to go through this roller coaster of emotions all over again when she actually does watch him die! Crikey. It’s lovely to watch Elisabeth Sladen’s performance during her mourning - especially this time around, where the whole thing is played far more as though it were really the end of the Third Doctor. The shocked face she pulls when he starts to come round is hilarious and brilliant, and it really helps to shift the tone of the scene. Impressively, Sarah Jane doesn’t worry about the fact that she’ll be stranded on Peladon if the Doctor dies, that thought doesn’t even seem to cross her mind. It’s all about mourning her friend, the most alive man she’s ever known.

Something I quite like about the Doctor and Sarah’s relationship is that - at least for now - she’s not a full-time companion. ‘Come on, Sarah,’ the Doctor says as they enter the TARDIS, ‘it’s time I took you home…’. There have been earlier hints towards this, too, but it’s quite nice to see. In a way, it’s the same model that Liz Shaw and Jo Grant set up, although by the time the Doctor had gotten the TARDIS working again, the implication was that he’d been dragging Jo around the universe for longer and longer stretches at a time, and she was longing to return to Earth by the end of Season Ten.

With the TARDIS in (almost) fully working order by now, there’s no need for the Doctor’s companions to spent their every waking moment with him, and it’s a model that Steven Moffat seems to favour with his companions: the Doctor arrives, scoops them off for some adventures, then pops them home again so they can carry on with their normal life for a bit. I know that some people really aren’t keen on this way of TARDIS travel, but for me it feels like the most natural and realistic way to depict the Doctor’s various friendships. I’ve always thought that if I were traveling round in a battered old police box, I’d have a revolving set of companions whom I could take on various adventures most suited to their interests - you’d surely get the most fun from that! Maybe when Matt Smith’s Doctor isn’t picking up Clara for her Wednesday adventure, he’s got another few companions? One for every day of the week?

In all, I’m actually rather sorry to be leaving Peladon. I know, I never thought I’d say that, either. Our first trip here a few seasons ago wasn’t my favourite story (indeed, it averaged only 4.5 in my ratings, which places it towards the bottom of my list overall), and I’d been somewhat dreading this return journey. Several people had warned me that this was the worse of the two tales, but I’ve found myself going against the grain. Sure, there’s bits of this story which have left me a little cold, and without much to say, but then there’s that fourth episode, which was so close to perfect and had me completely hooked. It’s almost a perfect metaphor for how I’ve found the Pertwee era as a whole - better than I was expected, with one or two moments of near-perfection.

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special, The Day Of The Doctor was the third most-watched programme on BBC iPlayer for 2013, the BBC has confirmed.

The special episode, which saw The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) team up with The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) and John Hurt's War Doctor, received a total of over 3,144,000 individual requests.

Also making it into the top 20 were The Bells Of Saint John at position 9 with 2,610,000 requests and The Rings Of Akhaten at position 17 with 2,289,000 requests.

Victoria Jaye, Head of TV Content for BBC iPlayer, says:

“2013 has been a fantastic year for iPlayer. We’ve begun the journey to transform iPlayer from a TV catch-up service into an online TV destination in its own right with the introduction of iPlayer exclusive content and programme premiering. We’re delighted by the audience response to both. As we move into 2014, we will originate more exclusive programmes for iPlayer, as well as offer an ambitious range of content to complement our biggest brands and events.”

Dan Taylor, Head of BBC iPlayer for BBC Future Media, says:

“With 3 billion programme requests across over 1,000 devices, 2013 was another record-breaking year for BBC iPlayer. We're delighted that iPlayer is enabling more and more people to enjoy the fantastic shows we create when and where they want.” 

[Source: BBC Media Centre]

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

Day 393: The Monster of Peladon, Episode Five

Dear diary,

It’s a bit of a roller coaster this week, isn’t it? Some days, I have loads and loads to say about a story, and other days I’m left not really knowing what to talk about. Yesterday, for example, completely knocked me for six. I couldn’t believe how good the episode was, and I filled up a whole page with notes on things to talk about. Today, I’ve only written two things down.

They’re both in relation to the Doctor being ‘killed’ in the explosion at the end of yesterday’s episode. Sarah Jane is completely stunned by it, and refuses to believe that he’s dead. It’ her description of him that really got me, though, when she says that he was ‘the most alive man’ she’d ever met, so it was just impossible to think of him as being dead. She then goes on to tell us that the Doctor often told her that there was hope ‘where there’s life…’. Now, I don’t know if this is a conscious foreshadowing of his regeneration in the next story (after all, those are some of his final words), or if it’s just a lucky fluke, but it’s rather moving all the same. The only downside is that we’ve never heard him extolling this advice - I’m wondering if it would have given us even more of an impact?

I’m a bit concerned about the way in which Sarah notices the Doctor still alive and well, and it’s because the whole security set up on Peladon has been bothering me for a few episodes now. I know Eckersley is working as an undercover agent for the Ice Warriors, and as such it’s wise for him to keep an eye on events around the Citadel, but he seems to have a security camera everywhere that it’s needed. Sarah informs them all that the sonic lance is being held over in a remote cave across from the Citadel… so they’re able to check, because there happens to be a CCTV camera in that very cave*.

Later, when flicking through the various camera feeds, Sarah happens upon a couple of them from inside the Refinery! If there’s a direct feed to the place, why has it taken so long for anyone to check if it was empty before now? I’ll give you that Eckersley might simply have been skipping over that feed when he was looking through, to keep his secret safe, but surely my beloved Alpha may have looked? Or the Doctor? Or even Sarah, since she seems relatively proficient with the technology!

On the whole, this episode feels like a step back from yesterday. I’m under no illusion, again, that I’m watching an episode of the TV series Doctor Who, being filmed in a studio with a good cast. Yesterday, I was so caught up in the drama of it all. A shame, but fantastic episodes always make the next in line feel a little sub-par…

*Mind you, I am willing to award points for it cutting to a previously-unseen high-angle shot of the action in the cave. So often, with things like this, the security footage would cut directly to an angle that we’ve already been watching, which does somewhat take you out of events. Here, at least, it feels like they’re trying.

The BBC have unveiled the costume that Peter Capaldi will wear as The 12th Doctor!

The Doctor has a new look as Peter Capaldi’s era officially begins. In an image (pictured-right) released today by the BBC, Capaldi can be seen in the costume that will define his time as the Twelfth Time Lord in one of TV’s biggest roles.

Sporting a dark blue Crombie coat with red lining, dark blue trousers, a white shirt as well as black Dr. Marten shoes, the look was created by Doctor Who costume designer Howard Burden. 

Commenting on his costume, Peter Capaldi said:

“He's woven the future from the cloth of the past. Simple, stark, and back to basics. No frills, no scarf, no messing, just 100 per cent Rebel Time Lord.”

While lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat added:

“New Doctor, new era, and of course new clothes. Monsters of the universe, the vacation is over - Capaldi is suited and booted and coming to get you!” 

Filming for episode one of series 8 began earlier this month, after 10.2 million tuned-in on Christmas Day to get their first much-anticipated glimpse of Capaldi’s Doctor.

Charlotte Moore, Controller of BBC One, commented:

"Peter Capaldi's Doctor is officially recorded in history today with the unveiling of his new costume.  It's sharp, smart and stylish - The Twelfth Time Lord means business."

What do you think of the costume? Leave your comments below, or in the DWO Forums!

+  Find Out how to Get The Look, in our News item, here.

+  Series 8 of Doctor Who will air Autumn 2014 on BBC One. 

[Source: BBC]

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes, which stars Paul McGann as The Doctor and Ruth Bradley as his new companion Molly, has won Best Online or Non-Broadcast Drama at the 2014 BBC Audio Drama Awards.

The ceremony took place on Sunday, and the award was collected by Nicholas Briggs (writer, director, executive producer and voice of the Daleks), Jason Haigh-Ellery (executive producer) and David Richardson (producer).

Commenting on the win, Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat says:

"I am completely thrilled, I am air-punching. In the wilderness years, when Doctor Who was off the air, Big Finish did so much to keep the legend alive in the hearts and minds of the fans. Now, in this time of Who abundance, it is beyond exciting to see their excellent work recognised. Hopefully this award will bring the Big Finish audios to the attention of an even wider public. Recently, on TV, we saw how the Paul McGann Doctor died - now it's time to find out he lived."

Nicholas Briggs says:

"I'm really delighted. It's so lovely to receive such recognition. And the congratulations we've received from our listeners, people at the BBC and Russell T Davies *and* Steve Moffat make it doubly rewarding."

Executive producer Jason Haigh-Ellery says:

"I am thrilled that we have won this prestigious award for Doctor Who: Dark Eyes.  To be recognised for a production by the BBC is an achievement that we should be very proud of. After Nick did his very heartfelt acceptance speech, I nipped up to the podium to thank two people whose support over the years has been more valuable than they would probably want people to know.  I am of course speaking of Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat.  In addition to them, I would also like to thank the small army of people who have worked with Big Finish over the last 15 years of Doctor Who – it’s been hard work – but boy, has it been fun!"

Big Finish producer David Richardson says:

"Someone asked me recently how I might one day look back at working on these Doctor Whos for Big Finish, and I said I’d remember it as the happiest time of my life. For us to win an award while having the privilege of doing such gloriously happy work is indeed an honour. Congratulations to Nick who conceived, developed, wrote and directed Dark Eyes - the whole project was very much his baby, and I was just lucky enough to produce it. And also special mention to Jason, who has made Big Finish the happy and creative company it is, and to Andy Hardwick, for his phenomenal sound design and music."

+  Order Dark Eyes on Amazon.co.uk for £40.00. 

[Source: Big Finish]

Episode #313 of the DWO WhoCast, Doctor Who Podcast is Out Now!

In this week's episode of the DWO WhoCast...

Dave and Thomas take giant steps while walking towards The Moonbase as they look at the latest DVD release and have a natter about all things Cyberman. Also a look at the wacky world of lost episode rumours.  

Listen to Episode #313 of the DWO WhoCast in the player below:

+ Rate / Review the DWO WhoCast on iTunes!
+ Rate / Review the DWO WhoCast on the DWO Forums!
+ Follow the DWO WhoCast on Twitter!
+ Like the DWO WhoCast on Facebook!

[Source: DWO]

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

Day 392: The Monster of Peladon, Episode Four

Dear diary,

You know the stakes in a story are pretty dire when the Doctor regenerates! I was as shocked as you. For years, I’ve always thought that the Third Doctor dies at the end of Planet of the Spiders, but here, during the fight against Ettis, Jon Pertwee hangs up his frilly shirt, and a new actor takes on the part of the new incarnation…

TERRY WALSH IS THE DOCTOR!

Oh, ok, I’m being unfair. I think Jon Pertwee’s back problems had a pretty major impact on his final season in the role, so it’s no great surprise that we see Walsh jumping in to help out during this final battle. That said, it is a pretty clear shot we get of his face, isn’t it? I can’t remember the last time we got such a full-on view of a Doctor’s stand-in.

Still, that’s a minor quibble really because - and make sure you’re sitting down, because you’ll need to be - I bloody loved this episode. Literally, right from the start I was gripped. I try usually to give my full attention to the episodes when I watch them (long term readers may recall that in the early days of the Diary, my getting distracted away from an episode was a sign of it being a bit poor), but sometimes they’re on while I do other things. Today’s plan was to set up the episode on the computer and watch it while I folded some washing. Both things were chores, I thought (although Monster of Peladon is turning out to be far less of a chore than I’d been anticipating), so it made sense to do them together.

As I sit down to type out this entry, I’m only a few minutes from the end of the episode. Sometimes I’ll muse over what to write for some time - hours in some cases! - and other times, I just can’t wait to get sat down and start spilling all my thoughts out. Somewhere behind me, a single bit of washing has managed to get folded, because I’ve been too caught up in the events on Peladon to really care about anything else that needs doing.

It’s just so tense all of a sudden. It’s as though the Ice Warriors have turned up and made this into a proper drama. Of course, I knew that they’d be arriving in the story at some stage - though I was surprised to see it be so late - but it still made a nice surprise for me at the end of yesterday’s episode when they emerged from behind a door to confront the Doctor. I’d assumed, the first time Sarah saw something hiding in the refinery, that it was an Ice Warrior. ‘Ooh, clever,’ I’d thought - largely sarcastically - ‘this time the Ice Warriors are back to being the bad guys!’

But then all the stuff had cropped up about calling in some kind of peace-keeping force from the Federation and it rapidly became clear that these would be the Ice Warriors. Ok, I thought, so it’s a rebel faction on the planet? Or maybe it wasn’t an Ice Warrior at all? But no, it’s far more interesting than that. All these Ice Warriors seem to be in league with each other, and it’s all part of some greater scheme, which I’m not entirely privy to yet.

And then you’ve got Azaxyr. To say that he’s rapidly become my favourite Ice Warrior to ever appear in the programme would be an understatement (he even has to compete with the surprise cameo appearance of Big Head Ice Warrior later in this episode). He’s cold and calculating, he’s got some of the greatest dialogue in the story so far, and Alan Bennion is turning in a fantastic performance. Bennion was also under the mask of Slaar in The Seeds of Death, and Izlyr during our last excursion to Peladon, but I can’t remember him making such an impact during either of those stories as he does here.

Some of his dialogue should really be considered quite clichéd, but I’m lapping it all up. A particular favourite has to be ‘’You forget, Doctor, I am your judge. Your jury and your executioner, too… perhaps”. Rubbish, yes. In any other situation I’d probably be complaining about just how typical that line is at a time like this… but I loved it. So beautyfully delivered, and his later channeling of Judge Dredd (several years before 2000AD) is just as great.

But even aside from Axaxyr, the rest of the story has taken a very dark turn. The Miners taking control of the Federation’s weapons has - until now - been the biggest threat in the story, but then they’re gunned down by the Ice Warriors moments after storming the throne room. We’ve reverted to the 1960s style of Ice Warrior weaponry, too, so we get a nice ‘pinch’ effect when their hit by a shot. The whole thing is done so quickly, and so emotionlessly, that it makes a real impact. Until now, the Miners haven’t really been more than a group of characters that all merge into one beneath their wigs for me, but suddenly I actually care that we’ve lost so many of them.

They get their revenge, though. The idea of turning up the heat and then overpowering the Warriors has been going on for as long as they’ve been a part of the programme, but here the Ice Warrior guards aren’t just overpowered, we actually get a shot of the Miners beating one to death! Oh, of course, that’s not made explicit, but the way the creature lays on the ground as a group of men crown round and attack it with various primitive weapons leaves little other alternative to the imagination.

And then you’ve got Ettis becoming a terrorist. I’ve mused before that the Peladon stories are more political than many Doctor Who tales, but dear god! The way he explains his plan to turn the high-tech mining equipment on the citadel and destroy everyone - which, we’re reminded, will include all the women and children as well as the Queen and the Federation members - is terrifying. The man’s gone completely mad, and it’s a very dark theme for the story to bring in. That he then tries to kill his friend in an attempt to stop the information leaking out just makes it even more gloomy.

People often talk about the rapidly-approaching Hinchcliffe and Holmes era of the programme being ‘dark’ and ‘gothic’, and while I’m sure that’s of evidence throughout their time in charge (I’ve not seen enough to comment yet), this is the first time that I’ve ever seen Doctor Who do something quite so dark, or quite so close to reality. Of course, we’ve got the wigs and the Warriors and the Hermaphradite Hexapods, but there’s a real undercurrent of 1970s politics in all this that makes it genuinely quite scary. I never thought I’d say it about an episode from a Peladon story, but this is one of the very best bits of drama that the programme has ever given us.

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

Day 391: The Monster of Peladon, Episode Three

Dear diary,

You tend to find, when undertaking a marathon like this, that all sorts of strange coincidences are thrown up. A few years ago, when listening to all the Eighth Doctor audio plays in order for Memoirs of an Edwardian Adventurer, it was often the case that events in the stories would correspond oddly with things happening in the news, and both Nick Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen passed away just a week-or-so before we were due to reach their appearances in the stories for the marathon. With a programme that’s run as long as Doctor Who, there’s connections to pretty much anything you care to mention, so I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that sometimes things tie together in a slightly unusual fluke.

Today, for example, I found myself having a conversation with a client about radio series The Archers. I can pin-point exactly where the conversation came from – I was trying to sell them on some Big Finish audios! They’d mentioned about listening to radio plays, citing a lot of the old Paul Temple productions from the BBC, and I’d recommended them the fab new Avengers lost episodes collection, because it sounded right up their street. From there, the conversation shifted to the fact that they’d been an avid listener for the last 40 years of The Archers, and the conversation went on from there.

Because I’m a fan of archive telly, I’ve got a vague idea about archive radio, too. I’m by no means an expert (heck, It’s generous to even call me a novice!), so I find myself falling back on the few things that I do know if I find myself in a conversation about such things. For The Archers, the only thing I really know is that the night ITV launched in 1955, was the same night that the radio serial killed off Grace Archer, one of the main characters. I only know the fact because it’s been a topic of some contention since – was it a clever move by the BBC to overshadow the opening night of their first rival? For all that it matters, in my opinion, of course it was a clever trick!

It was only later on today that I remembered the actress who’d voiced Grace Archer was Ysanne Churchman – who appears in The Monster of Peladon providing the voice of Alpha Centauri! She’ll be back in the next story, too, voicing some of the spiders. As I say, with a programme as long-running as Doctor Who, it’s not great surprise that there’s connections to another long-running BBC programme (there’s loads more, too. Perhaps most famously, 1980s Davros actor Terry Molloy has voiced a regular character in the soap for over 40 years), but it is one of those odd coincidences that I should find myself discussing the work of Churchman while I’m watching this story – and completely out-of-the-blue!

I have to admit, I do love Alpha Centauri. How can you not? The voice is a real highlight (I could listen to it all day long! Time for an audio spin off?), but the whole character is just entirely watchable. Thinking back to The Curse of Peladon, Centauri was high on my list for praise then, too…

””I’ve always assumed that it was a fairly basic creature, with everything pieced together as best they could. Actually, it’s really well made. There’s a few moments when the head has to turn, and it just looks good! Usually things like this would leave me complaining that it doesn’t quite work out, but no! Hooray! I think if this story wants to do better in my estimations, we need more of Centauri!

More Centauri is something this story is giving us in droves, and they’ve even made a few modifications to the costume, so it’s even better here. I think the cape is different, for example, and spending so much time in the creature’s company means that I’m getting to enjoy all the little movements and gestures, too. The blink of the eye, to way the claws pinch and move in unison when gesticulating (an effect achieved, I presume, by the very basic application of a bit of string between the various appendages!)… it really is hard not to love this Hermaphrodite Hexapod, isn’t it?

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

Day 390: The Monster of Peladon, Episode Two

Dear diary,

Since picking up on it again during The Time Warrior, I can’t help but keep noticing just how great scenes shot on film look in this series. There it was sequences of soldiers storming a castle. In Invasion of the Dinosaurs, it was the Doctor watching two dinosaurs battle it out on the streets of London. In Death to the Daleks we had that lovely shot of the pepperpots taking command on the planet’s surface. Today… well, today isn’t anything quite as exciting as all that. It’s a simple scene of the Doctor stood in a tunnel, talking to a couple of the miners.

It’s not a particularly thrilling scene, and there’s very little action involved – there’s only a couple of alternate shots, for example – but it’s remarkable how it makes everything look so much richer. Even down to the Pel’s rather distinctive wigs, it looks like there’s more money being spent than there really is.

Not that I’m able to complain all that much, though. No matter how much I can moan on about the Peladon tales being far from the most thrilling of Doctor Who adventures, they do look very sumptuous. Everything from the look of the caverns, to the throne room, the costumes, and the rest of the Citadel is beautifully designed, and there’s a real cohesion to all the elements: You really get a sense of this as being a society which has developed over time as opposed to simply being erected in TV Centre for a few weeks every couple of years.

Indeed, the area where the design lets me down is the more high-tech Federation area, which comes across as somewhat bland and completely lacks the character of the other sets. It’s the same kind of design that you see in many ‘futuristic’ sets from this era, and we’ve seen one or two too many in recent weeks for it to make much of an impact here.

Perhaps my favourite piece of design, though, is Sarah Jane’s costume. I really like this one, and thinking about it, this may be my favourite of all her outfits. It’s a look that wouldn’t be out-of-place today, and there’s echoes of it in some of Jenna Coleman’s first publicity shots for the programme. When people talk about Sarah’s clothes, it’s usually to mention things like her Hand of Fear Andy Pandy outfit, or the one she rocks in The Five Doctors, and they’re usually brought up because they’re a bit more… out there. For me, this look doesn’t get enough of a look in – and it really should!

Here at DWO we regularly get sent some truly fantastic creations from fans, and the latest from Tom Kurzanski are no exception!

Tell your companion how you feel with brand new Who-themed "ValenTime" Cards from Tom Kurzanski's Etsy shop. $10 Limited Edition sets of ten 3" x 4" glossy cards with space on the reverse to fill in the recipient and sender.

Each card boasts a character from the Who-niverse paired with an appropriate Valentine sentiment. Follow the artist on Facebook for future Whovian goodies!

Cards ship worldwide - use coupon code: KIDNEYLOVE for a 10% discount!

[Source: Tom Kurzanski]

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

Day 389: The Monster of Peladon, Episode One

Dear diary,

As ever, wind and rain lashed at the walls of the Citadel of Peladon. Perched high on the side of a mountain, the fortress had stood the onslaught of such weather for centuries. Today we different, though, for today, there was another sound echoing around the large, grey halls. The wheezing, groaning of the TARDIS engines died away as the Doctor stepped out of the battered, blue police box. His new companion, Sarah Jane, followed close behind.

“The Citadel of Peladon, Sarah,” he announced, gesturing out into the room. “One of the most interesting…”

Before the man could finish, Will sat bolt upright, and stared at the screen in utter disbelief. Interesting? Interesting!? The last time the Doctor had visited Peladon, a couple of seasons ago with companion Jo Grant in tow, it had been far from interesting…

I don’t think it’s especially hard to guess that I’ve not really been eagerly anticipating this one. The Curse of Peladon left me completely cold (Indeed, it holds the lowest average rating that I’ve given to any Pertwee story), and the prospect of returning to the planet in a story that I’ve seen described as ‘a remake, but a third longer’ hasn’t especially been filling me with a great deal of excitement.

That said, I was actually quite pleased to see the Citadel again in our opening shot, being attacked by the weather. I’ve mused before that I like the Doctor having a few friends throughout time and space that he can drop in on now and then, and the idea that he’s been meaning to pop back in and catch up with things here is great – as we’re reminded several times throughout the episode, the Doctor is one of the key reasons that Peladon joined the Federation in the first place, so it makes sense that he should call round and make sure that everything is ok.

I think I’m actually surprised by how pleased I am to see all these elements making a return – the Throne Room, Aggador, there’s even mention of characters and situations from the first story, and it all creates a rather nice sense of nostalgia.

It also means – make sure you’re sitting down for this one – that I’m actually quite enjoying things! I know! Don’t get me wrong, I’m expecting this feeling to wear off by the end of the story (I’m already dreading this plot being stretched out over six whole episodes), but for now I’m actually engaged in events, and I’m interested to see where they go from here. I’ve always known that the first Peledon tale involved them debating whether to join the Federation, and that the second is more to do with the miner’s strikes of the time, but I don’t know where the story goes from here. I don’t know if Peleadon stay in the Federation, or opt to leave again, and I’m quite keen to find out.

Things are helped by the fact that the Doctor and Sarah’s relationship is growing better with every new episode. I love the way that she teases him here (the way she playfully calls him a ‘name dropper’ when he refers to the king as his good friend is a real highlight!), and the relationship reminds me somewhat of the one between Clara and the Eleventh Doctor, where she won’t take and of his grand ‘Time Lord nonsense’, and just cuts him down to size with a few well placed words and a smile. People always talk about the way Sarah Jane acts with the Fourth Doctor as being that of absolute best friends, but I think it’s clear that she’s pretty fond of the Third incarnation, too.

Doctor Who and Matt Smith both won awards for the categories they were nominated in at this years National Television Awards.

Doctor Who won the award for Drama, beating off competition from Downton Abbey, Broadchurch and Call The Midwife.

Matt Smith won the award for Drama Performance, beating off competition from Martin Clunes (Doc Martin), Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey) and Miranda Hart (Call The Midwife).

Smith couldn't attend in person to accept the award, with Steven Moffat and Jenna Coleman accepting it on his behalf. Matt recorded a thank you video, which you can view below:

[youtube:goz0PcQW66o]

[Source: National Television Awards]

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

Day 388: Death to the Daleks, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Somewhat ironically, just this afternoon at work, I was telling a college about the way I used to melt polystyrene. We’ve just been doing a rather large re-build of some sections, and we’ve amassed quite a big pile of polystyrene waiting to be crushed into little bricks for recycling. I was explaining how - when I was a kid - I used to cut up chunks of polystyrene to make shapes (usually castles, complete with cocktail sticks to put bars over the windows) and then allow drops of glue to melt away at the material. It used to fascinate me, the way that it simply ate at the polystyrene until there was little remaining.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I reached the end of today’s episode to find that they’d used pretty much that exact same technique to depict the city collapsing in on itself! It’s well done, and even though we get a shot of the beacon being blown up (one which, I’m sorry to say’ doesn’t really work for me. That entire part of the structure breaks off in one, which just makes it look more like a model), it’s nice to see that they’ve gone for something other than simply blowing up one of the main settings for the ending of this story. Makes a nice break with tradition.

It’s a shame that the city has somewhat bored me today. Having been impressed by the various logic puzzles at the end of the last episode, the ones here become increasingly dull - essentially boiling down to ‘spend some time in this empty room without either going mad or killing each other. And, of course, we’ve got the resolution to that bizarre ‘floor tiles’ cliffhanger from yesterday, too, which boils down - after some careful examination from the Sonic Screwdriver - to simply ‘don’t stand on the red tiles, now there’s a good chap.

That’s not to say there aren’t nice bits - the person watching on the screen adds a nice, sinister edge to the proceedings, and I rather like the idea that he’s been sat there so long that he turns to dust the second the air in the room gets to move again. The only downside is that all the tension the appearance of this mysterious figure is dissipated almost instantly, and then the Doctor simply has to fiddle with a few wires before making his way back out of the city once more! It’s even worse for the Daleks, who trundle along, getting a bit beaten up by the various tests along the way, are attacked by the ‘antibodies’, and then spin round and leave again! They’re not even the comedy Daleks from stories like The Chase, which is a pity, because I rather like the idea of a Dalek double act trying to make their way through a series of logic tests in a hyper-intelligent city!

You may have noticed that I’m not being all that warm towards today’s episode, and I’m sorry to report that it just hasn’t grabbed me. After such a strong start a few days ago, I’ve really gone off this story, and it’s turned out to be simply the slightly bland four episodes that I’d been expecting. Even the Daleks don’t really need to be there. The fact that they can’t use their weapons means that they’re not really all that integral to the plot, and the story might actually be more interesting were it to be a group of humans acting as the bad guys, who wish to take the minerals with them to spin a profit.

It’s a real pity in most ways, because that first episode showed some promise, and I thought that we might be in for something of a hidden gem with Death to the Daleks. I think I’m reduced to simply being glad that it’s only a four-part story, as opposed to six episodes long - I’ve little doubt that Terry could have stretched out the city’s many puzzles for another 23 minutes!

At this year's Toy Fair, Titans Vinyl Figures have unveiled the figures for their upcoming Doctor Who Gallifrey and Geronimo collections.

From the Geronimo Collection we have the new look Cyberman and the Wooden Cyberman as seen in the 2013 Christmas special The Time Of The Doctor, Clara in her ‘Souffle Girl’ outfit, Rory the Last Centurion, a terrifying Whisper Man, The ‘Monster’ Doctor from The Crimson Horror, John Hurt’s War Doctor, Amy Pond, a shape shifting Zygon, an Ice Warrior, and everyone’s favourite Sontaran butler Strax!

And from the Gallifrey Collection we have The Tenth Doctor in his Sanctuary Base 6 spacesuit and his TARDIS, which someone has graffiti’d with the words ‘Bad Wolf" - with more to be announced!

View a gallery of the upcoming figures, below: 

[Source: Titans Vinyl]

News is coming in thick and fast to DWO HQ from the 2014 Toy Fair in London, this week, and one of the nuggets we're hearing is that there will be another subtle revision to the Doctor Who logo.

If the design we have seen is finalised, there will be a change to the 'H' as well as the removal of the nibs from the D, R, W & H letters.

We have put together a mock-up of the revised logo, which you can view in the right-hand column.

More news as we get it...

[Source: Doctor Who Online]

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

Day 387: Death to the Daleks, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I realised today that, despite not knowing much about this story, there was something else I was aware of from it – Belal. The design of this particular Exxilon (and his friend, I guess) has always struck me as a little bit rubbish, and when he first emerges after the cliffhanger resolution, I was a bit downhearted by it. I mean, of course I didn’t like it. The whole thing is an ill-fitting rubber suit, with an obvious join at the neck (a similar problem that beset the original Silurians). I’d always vaguely known of this costume – probably via a clip in something else – and I’d always thought it was rubbish, but when I was less than impressed by the alien creatures from Colony in Space, I assumed that I’d just mis-remembered one of those creatures as featuring in a later story.

I made a note about how rubbish the costume was, and continued to think it through the rest of the episode… until I started to quite like it. Yes, it is ill-fitting. Yes, it is ridiculously rubbery. Yes, the neck join is painfully obvious (and actually, that’s still the thing that niggles the most). And yet despite it all, it’s hard not to row fond of the creatures. I think it’s the huge eyes that do it, which would make sense if they mostly confine themselves to these caves (and in Episode One we’re told that the creatures only usually show up at night), and they’re quite cute in a way. The cloaks worn by the majority of them hide some of the costumes’ other flaws, but I can’t help but think that they just don’t look like a Doctor Who alien.

And actually, I like the idea that these people used to be highly advanced, space travellers. It’s even stated that they must have visited Earth and taught some of our own ancient civilisations how to construct huge structures in the style of their own city. It makes a nice change from the usual races where they’ve yet to develop any kind of technology of their own, and I love the idea that they became victims of their own success, creating an intelligent city so powerful that it takes over and becomes a kind of deity to the species.

In some ways, I even quite like the design of the city. The glowing wall decorations are very well realised (it’s using the same technique applied to the bow in Sliver Nemesis, I can recall that much from the documentary on the VHS for that story), and the whole tough-sensitive idea is very ahead of its time. It’s the kind of effect that you think they’d probably not do as well these days as they did back then – I get the feeling that if they were to design a futuristic, intelligent city now, it wouldn’t be quite as… streamlined… as this one.

I’m less keen on the city’s ‘roots’, though. I think I quite like the idea that it has these various tendrils that reach out and gather both knowledge and power (is that actually what they do? I may have just filled in that bit of detail in my own mind), but it seems strange that they turn up in the cave system and under some muddy water on the planet surface, acting more like animal life than technology. The various battles between the tendrils and the Daleks aren’t as exciting as I’d like them to be, but they do feel very much like something I can imagine the TV Comic stories doing – and I do love seeing a destroyed Dalek tumbling down into the water.

In all, the Daleks look better here. There’s a couple of shots towards the end of the episode, where they’re in a formation of three, shot from a slightly lower angle, and the sun appears to be setting somewhere in the distance. The combination of elements makes it quite a nice shot, and it’s surprising how much I like having the Daleks back in silver again – it makes them look so much better than the flat grey versions more familiar from other recent stories. The only real downside is having all the ‘bumps’ in black – they just look very dull, whereas the silver/blue versions used in the 1960s have always felt far more appealing to me!

BBC Worldwide and Titan Comics team up for all-new Doctor Who comic book adventures!

In the universe of Doctor Who, regenerations bring not only a new Doctor but often a fresh look and feel to the series, and BBC Worldwide is bringing that same approach to Doctor Who comics as it signs a new deal with Titan Comics.

The deal will open up the world of Doctor Who and provide fans with new stand alone adventures featuring the Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor and after the new series launch, the Twelfth Doctor. Creative and production teams will be announced in the coming weeks and the first comic books will be released in 2014.

The Doctor Who Christmas special, The Time of the Doctor, saw Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor regenerate into the Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi. The next season is now in production and will premiere in 2014. In 2013, Doctor Who set ratings and social media records for BBC America.

[Source: BBC Worldwide]

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

Day 386: Death to the Daleks, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I’ve been wondering today about Doctor Who and ‘Jumping the Shark’. I’d imagine that several of my readers will be aware of what this means, but for those of you who aren’t, allow me to quote from TV Tropes;

””The moment when an established TV show changes in a significant manner in an attempt to stay fresh. Ironically, that moment makes the viewers realise that the show's finally run out of ideas. It's reached its peak, it'll never be the same again, and from now on it's all downhill.

It’s something of a contentious issue among fans of any number of TV shows, and there’s only a handful of programmes where the majority of people can pinpoint - and agree on - a single moment when their show has made the jump. For example, I’ve seen a lot of talk in recent weeks that the third series of Sherlock may have ‘Jumped the Shark’, while I’ve also seen plenty of people confirm that it was their favourite series of the three. The longer that a programme runs, the higher the chance that it will actually end up going off the boil somewhere, which surely makes Doctor Who a prime candidate?

Now I know what many of you are thinking. There’s a loud group of fandom who think the programme ‘Jumped the Shark’ during the 1980s, and depending on your age, the exact point you think it all went wrong can vary from the casting of Davison/Baker/McCoy (delete as applicable), or the introduction of the question marks on the lapel/that coat/question marks on a jumper, or even when Tegan/Peri/Mel/Ace joins the TARDIS as a new companion. There are even some of us who don’t think there’s any thing wrong with most of the above options, and have no issue with any of them.

You see, I think because of Doctor Who’s unique nature, it’s either not possible for it to ‘Jump the Shark’, or it’s constantly jumping it… and then jumping back again. Doctor Who changes too often for it to run out of ideas - it can go anywhere, do anything, and just when you’re getting bored of the regular cast, they go and change them. Take the latter half of Season 21, for instance, where in the space of four episodes we lose two companions and a Doctor, and gain a new one of each.

All that being said, I think that certain elements within the programme can become stale and - yes - ‘Jump the Shark’, and today I think we’ve witnessed the Daleks doing so. You probably know the moment that I’m thinking of. The Daleks have come to Exxilon in search of a rare mineral. The mysterious power drain on the planet which has stranded both the TARDIS and our guest cast’s spaceship has also rendered the Daleks’ weapons useless. Not to worry, though, because they’ve got a back up, using more conventional guns in place of their usual attack. So, off the Daleks pop to their convenient shooting range, where they test these new weapons… by taking pot-shots at a model TARDIS.

I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be funny. As in, genuinely, I just can’t tell. I think that it might be, but I spent more time wondering if the Daleks had stopped off at Toys’R’Us on the way to Exxilon and picked up one of the Character Options toys! It’s a tiny little scene, and it shouldn’t bother me so much (well, I’d not say it bothers me, as such, rather it just took me completely out of the story), but I think it’s a very definite moment when the Daleks ‘Jump the Shark’. We’ve had the pepper pots back once a season for three years, now, so I think I’m just starting to tire of them again. Their constant reappearance in the 1960s saw me growing to love them, but the more they turn up in colour, the less bothered by them I’m finding myself. Thankfully, they’ve only one more story before taking another extended break, and it’s supposed to be the ‘best Dalek story ever’, so I live in hope for next season…

I wonder if I might also be a bit put off by the fact that this episode feels like a distinct step-down from yesterday. I mused that the ‘daylight’ scenes at the tail end of Episode One weren’t anywhere near as atmospheric or beautiful as the night time ones had been, and seeing today’s episode entirely in daylight seems to have confirmed that to me. The scenes out on location is a quarry are just that - scenes out in a quarry. There’s no attempt to hide it at all, and the more I look at it, the less I like it. There’s some lovely direction on display, still, as we look down at our heroes, and up at the Exxilons, but they’re not a million miles away from similar shots in the last Dalek tale, but re-enacted in a smaller quarry with less scope.

Even when the Exxilons attack, and there’s arrows and spears being thrown everywhere, there’s not real tension or pace to the proceedings. It all feels a bit flat, and when we go from there to scenes down in the Exxilon’s sacrificial chamber… frankly I was just left cold by things. No wonder the sight of a Dalek shooting a toy TARDIS has me wondering if the show’s gone ‘past it’!

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

Jerome was perhaps best known to Doctor Who fans for appearing in the Classic Series, 3rd Doctor adventure; The Green Death as Stevens.

Jerome's other career highlights include; Within These Walls, Wish Me Luck and Space Precinct.

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

[Source: Neil Marsh]

 Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Philip Martin

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: January 2014

Reviewed by: Matthew Davis for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 20th January 2014

Future Britain is bankrupt, its corporate owners facing financial ruin. Fortunately, the Universal Monetary Fund, and its slimy representative Sil, are willing to give its President a multi-billion credit bail-out... but terms and conditions apply, and Sil's proposed austerity measures go far beyond mere benefit cuts.

Responding to a distress call, the Doctor and his companion Flip land in a London whose pacified population has been driven largely underground. But the horrors down there in the dark are as nothing to the horrors that await them at ConCorp HQ, where a young biochemist in Sil's employ is working on a permanent solution to the nation's terminal unprofitability.

Because in the final account, Sil plans to make a killing...

* * *

Written as a direct sequel to Mindwarp, Antidote to Oblivion has a lot more in common with Philip Martin’s first entry for Doctor Who, Vengeance on Varos, and that is both its strongest and weakest point.

Like Varos, Antidote to Oblivion has a strong political message this time, focused rather bluntly on the economy and financial crisis. I say bluntly as the story is so obvious with what it is discussing you can almost see it being pointed out by red flashing headlights throughout. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it allows for a very enjoyable run of black humour even if the plans of the Government become somewhat ludicrously insane towards the end. I assume what Martin is getting at is that desperation can make even the most moral of people commit the most monstrous acts. 

Whatever issues I had with the story I cannot say entirely the same for the main cast.

Colin Baker plays the Doctor fantastically and his interaction with Sil really brings out the very best of the Sixth Doctor’s character.

As for Sil, played wonderfully once again by Nabil Shaban, he lifts the whole piece up. Shaban’s delightfully slimy and villainous performance is the real highlight of the whole story. 

Lisa Greenwood returns as Flip and despite a spirited performance she is let down somewhat by the material. At times she is reduced to generic companion dialogue throughout the script but Greenwood is so charming in the role that you can overlook it. Flip is certainly one of the best companions Big Finish have created and I want to see much more from her, especially as she was so good in her first run of stories in 2012.

Despite some great performances from the supporting cast, their material is not as interesting as when the action shifts back to the main characters. That isn’t to say the material they work with is bad, on the contrary it is interesting but because Sil’s presence is so huge in the story that whenever he isn’t around I found my interest waning.

Antidote to Oblivion is not a bad story, but it feels at times that Philip Martin is treading on much too familiar ground. If you like Martin’s previous Doctor Who stories then you will not be disappointed. I was just hoping for something more.

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

Day 385: Death to the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

Over the last few seasons, there’s been plenty of examples of what I call ‘black spots’ in my Doctor Who knowledge. These represent stories which I know next-to-nothing about. As far as the Pertwee era stands, this is the last of these such stories, and in many ways it’s the last overall. The only things that I can tell you about this story is that it’s got Daleks in (as ever, the clue is in the title), and one of the cliffhangers has something to do with a tiled floor. Supposedly, it’s a rubbish cliffhanger.

Indeed, I think it’s the knowledge of that cliffhanger which has tarred my opinion of this story before I’ve even had a chance to watch it. You see, I’ve been dreading Death to the Daleks, because I’ve spent a number of years believing that it’s probably rubbish. I’ve not ever played the DVD, not even to look at the special features, because of a sense of general apathy towards the story.

Which, it turns out, may have been a huge mistake! This opening episode is pretty fantastic on the whole, and I’ve found myself completely caught up in it. I love it when this happens, and it’s why I always enjoy getting to stories I know so little about - there’s always the possibility that it can surprise me.

Now, of course, it’s the return of Terry Nation, which means the return of some age-old Terry Nation tropes. We’re left solely in the company of the Doctor and Sarah for the most part (we glimpse a hand about six minutes in, and some cloaked creatures 90 seconds on from that, but it’s a full fifteen minutes before any other humanoid characters actually turn up - until then, the only dialogue in the tale has come from one of our two regulars), there’s a small group of desperate military personnel (and, as in Planet of the Daleks, it’s not the regular leader who’s in charge), and then the Daleks turn up in a surprising cliffhanger that absolutely no one saw coming when the title was shown at the start of the story.

And while it seems that I’m complaining again about the reoccurrence of all these things, they’re done very well once again. The Doctor and Sarah being left to their own devices for so long is great fun, and I’m glad to see them in the TARDIS. I was trying to work it out in my head the other day - I knew that we wouldn’t see Tom Baker in the TARDIS console room until Season 13, and wondered if it would take that long for Sarah’s first shots in there, too, so it’s good to see that it’s not the case. My only slight disappointment is that the set is looking a bit tattier than I’d like - it’s far from the gleaming white space of The Three Doctors - and the Doctor seems to be collecting various bits of old fashioned wooden furniture to stand around as storage. As much as I mocked the flat-pack cabinets last time we were in here, this just feels like overkill.

It’s out on the planet’s surface that things really appeal to me, though. I got my first inkling that the story may not be as bad as I’d assumed from the DVD menu, which plays the shot of the TARDIS materialising on a dark, barren, smokey planet. Yes, of course it’s another quarry, but the way it’s shot and designed makes that look very different to the other recent examples. Even the studio-bound sequences on the planet’s surface look really good, and it’s got an atmosphere that I simply wasn’t expecting.

I think that a lot of it comes down to the lighting. Describing the episode to someone earlier, I could only settle for calling it ‘atmospheric’. Right from the start, as power is drained from the TARDIS, through to the eerie green glow on the planet, and the fact that some scenes are shot in what looks like near-darkness, it adds a level of threat to the proceedings that I’m not used to seeing in this series. If anything, it’s certainly one of the better-designed planets the show has seen. In the ‘daylight’ towards the end of the episode, things aren’t quite as effective, but I’ll wait and see more before I make my mind up on it.

So, yes, a great start that I wasn’t expecting. I love that - even after so long - this programme can still throw up surprise gems for me to enjoy!

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

Day 384: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Episode Six

Dear diary,

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the film sequences in this episode look particularly impressive. It’s noticeable early on, when the Doctor watches two dinosaurs fighting in the street - there’s some great close-up shots of Pertwee’s face in more detail than I was expecting - and it’s repeated again later on, with some close ups of Nick Courtney. More and more it’s shots like this that make me impressed by Paddy Russell’s work on the programme, and for the first time I’m somewhat sad that we can’t actually watch The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve, as I imagine that her work in black and white would have been stunning.

Unfortunately, such beautiful shots of the regulars on film don’t help the models when we cut back to them. I think I’ve worked out what my biggest problem with them is, though: it’s not so much the dinosaurs themselves as the sets that they’re being filmed on. Everything around them is just so flat. There’s one particular shot about halfway through, where from the angle we’re looking, you can clearly see that the wall behind the creature - windows, doors, and all - is just printed onto a flat piece of card. These sets are then lit very blandly all over, which doesn’t really help the effect. Add in a couple of not-great dinosaur models and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

It’s telling that the best looking model shot today comes i the form of the triceratops in the tube station. Shot in near-darkness, both the set and the dinosaur look pretty convincing, and even the introduction of the brigadier being CSO’d into shot doesn’t ruin the effect too much. Again, though, I think that the story is let down more by the use of colour separation overlay than anything else, and it’s a real shame.

On the whole, I’ve rather enjoyed Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I couldn’t really remember all that much about it from my previous viewing a decade ago, but there;s an awful lot to like in here. The plot strand of people being held underground put me in mind of The Enemy of the World, though I think the similarities are only evident because I’ve so recently re-watched the former tale. I’m glad to see Sarah churning them up and leading the revolution against professor Whittaker, as it feels like her character gaining another piece of that puzzle which will make her a fully-fledged companion.

As if we needed that fact to be cemented for us, there’s that beautiful end scene, in which she tells the Doctor that it’ll be ‘a long time before [she] gets back in that TARDIS’. The whole scene is played as two good friends, and it’s clear from the way she says it that she does fully intend to take another trip with him. The Doctor’s response, to tempt her with the description of a beautiful world, is great fun, and put me in mind of the scene in The Eleventh Hour, where the Doctor becomes something of a schoolboy asking out Amy on their first date. It’s a beautiful way to end the episode.

It’s also a nice send off for Malcolm Hulke, who makes his final contribution to the series with this story. Although he co-wrote two stories for the Second Doctor, I always think of Hulke as being very much a Third Doctor-era writer, and he’s penned several stories that have shaped the last few years. The Silurians and The Sea Devils have contained ideas about preserving the Earth that crop up again in this story, and his futuristic tales in both Colony and Frontier in Space have been key to creating that shared vision of the future for this era which I’ve banged on about enough times since October. He’s always felt like just the right kind of writer for the Barry Letts period of the programme, so it’s perhaps fitting that we should see him bowing out just as the rest of this phase is changing, too.

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

Day 383: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Episode Five

Dear diary,

I’ve seen it said that the thing which lets Invasion of the Dinosaurs down - even more than the titular monsters - is the story involving the ‘spaceship’. The general consensus seems to be that this entire strand of the plot lets the story down somewhat. It’s perhaps true that it’s not where you’d expect this story to go having watched that brilliant first episode, but at the same time I’m not sure that I take any issues with it.

For a start, I really do like the design of the spaceship itself. It’s very 1970s in places (and Emma, sitting in on this episode with me, was quick to point out that being kidnapped was the last of Sarah Jane’s worries, and that she should be more bothered by the double denim outfit that they’ve clothed her in. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how much I actually liked the costume…), but it works. It’s a nice design, and it stands out well from the other sets in the story. They’ve very cleverly kept the colour pallets for the ship and the underground base at opposite ends of the spectrum - you really do feel as though you could be somewhere else.

And it’s a chance for Sarah Jane to put her reasoning to the test again. I loved her during The Time Warrior, as she tried to work out where she might really be, and it’s good to see her doing a similar thing here. It’s clever that the injury on her head leads to her realising so definitely that something is wrong here, and her daring to use the airlock to escape is rather fun, too. It’s not all good news for her, though, as she heads right back to UNIT’s temporary HQ and admits that she knows everything to General Finch, before confirming that she’s not spoken to anyone else. Oh, Sarah…

Though, in fairness to her, there’s really no one that you can trust in this story, is there? Finch… is working with the bad guys. Sir Charles Grover… is working with the bad guys. heck, even dear old Mike Yates (who Sarah’s only known about as long as she’s know the other two men, but we’ve known for a few years by this point)… is working with the bad guys! It’s not often that the Doctor and his companions find themselves in such a tight situation, but it’s great fun to watch.

It also means that we get to watch as the Doctor’s friends are turned against him. We’ve known for several episodes now that Yates is working for the other side, but seeing the revelation from the rest of our regular cast is wonderful. The Brigadier is helpless to act (cleverly, we’ve been reminded in every episode that Finch is in charge and can over-rule any of the Brig’s decisions), and watching Yates be so stern with the Doctor is somewhat heartbreaking. Thankfully, it’s offset by a lovely scene in which Benton allows the Doctor to overpower him and escape (and that scene sets up a fantastic line when the Brigadier has been ordered to arrest his Seargent: ‘Well, Benton. Go and put yourself under arrest!’).

The fact that so long is given over to - essentially - a prolonged chase sequence should irritate me. Nothing’s really happening, it’s just filling time, but it feels somehow so right. Chases down country lanes, a helicopter… I know they’ll be doing something similar by the time we reach Planet of the Spiders in a couple of weeks, so it may not fare so well with me that time around, but it’s great for now. It also gives us some beautiful shots of the Third Doctor hiding in the woodlands. Though I’ve seen the story, I’d completely forgotten these images, but they’re stunning. Some great direction here.

And now… well… I can’t remember where we’re going, either. I can’t recall what actually happens at the end of this story. Do they blow up the base? Arrest everyone? I really can’t remember, and I can’t wait to find out…

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

Day 382: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Back during The Ambassadors of Death, I vaguely mused on part of that most contentious of all Doctor Who issues, the UNIT Dating Problem. I decided that – broadly speaking – the stories were set pretty much when they were broadcast in the early 1970s. Since then, there’s been a whole raft of additional information, and while this era of the programme is disassembled around me, I thought the time was right to have another think about it and see if I’m still of the same mind-set, almost one hundred episodes on.

To tell the truth, this train of thought was kicked off by Sir Charles’ comments in yesterday’s episode, about the hidden underground base being built ’20 years ago’ when the Cold War tension started to build up, and commenting that plans for other, similar, locations were shelved when the Cold War cooled down and came to a close. In the real world, the Cold War period stretched on throughout the rest of the 1970s and only really died off towards the latter part of the 80’s and the early 90’s. To me, these couple of lines seem to imply a mid-1980’s setting, by which time, presumably, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks assumed we might be in the clear.

You also have to wonder about the technology on show here. Sarah has been taken aboard a ‘spaceship’, but she doesn’t seem all that surprised that such a ship exists, and the other residents we see fully accept the idea, too. This is a universe in which Britain had sent several manned Mars missions by the early 1970s, so I suppose it’s just about feasible that such technology as this could be on show by now, too. To be honest, I still think we’re sat broadly at the time of broadcast - making Invasion of the Dinosaurs mid-70s. The About Time books suggest a date of late 1974 for both this story and The Time Warrior, with Jo’s departure from UNIT coming a few months earlier.

About once a week, I get a message asking me if I’ll be tackling the UNIT Dating Problem fully in The 50 Year Diary, but for now I think this is as far as I can go with it. I’m choosing to entirely ignore Sarah’s ‘I’m from 1980’ comment (though, I’m sure, there’ll be some discussion of it when I reach Pyramids of Mars), but the real issue doesn’t really come into effect until Mawdryn Undead, and I’ll not be hitting that story for a good long while yet. For now, I’m simply going to reaffirm my belief that the UNIT stories of the Third Doctor’s era all take place - roughly - at the same time they were first broadcast, and I’ll be ignoring anything that messes up that train of thought.

Besides, there’s something else that I want to talk about today - we’ve got our first appearance of the Doctor’s new wheels in the form of the Whomobile. I’m not sure what the general consensus among fans is about this particular vehicle (although my friend Nick summed it up quite well when I’ve just posed the thought to him: ‘It’s ****’), but I have to say that I’m not the biggest fan of it. I’ve never really been all that bothered by Bessie as the Doctor’s car, but it’s always felt far more fitting than this one does.

The Whomobile strikes me as a cheap gimmick (in some ways, it is. Jon Pertwee commissioned the vehicle himself in part to capitalise on the fact that he was playing TV’s most famous alien), and it’s always felt a bit… silly. There’s an interview somewhere where Pertwee talks of K9 as being such a stupid idea that he would have simply refused to have anything to do with - but I’d rather see the Doctor with K9 than with this particular car. It just takes me right out of the story seeing him drive it around London - suddenly I’m not watching a good drama, I’m watching ‘Doctor Who’. I’m sure there’s a bit in the next episode where the Doctor is driving one of the UNIT jeeps around, and that seems far more fitting to this incarnation than the Whomobile does - though at least here it’s confined to travelling on the ground…

Our friends at TV Store Online have another special Doctor Who giveaway. TVStoreOnline.com is offering one of  their fun Doctor Who TARDIS, Navy Blue Bath Towel's to DWO readers. This Tardis towel is made from 100% cotton and measures in inches at 30"x60". Of course, as with all TV Store Online Doctor Who items, DWO readers will only get officially licensed items for their collections. We all knew that the TARDIS could take you anywhere in time that you wanted to go, but who knew it could dry you off as well after a shower?

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Keep calm and check out TVStoreOnline.com for their massive selection of Doctor Who t-shirts for men and women as well as other hot Doctor Who clothing items like bath towels, costumes, bathrobes, boxer shorts, baby clothes, dresses, hoodies and even Doctor Who ugly Christmas sweaters as well! TVStoreOnline.com has all of your Doctor Who merchandise needs covered.

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[Sources: TV Store Online]

In 2013, Doctor Who celebrated an impressive 50 years as one of the BBC’s most famous, well-loved and iconic TV shows. To have been scaring and enthralling children for so long is no mean feat. While current episodes are freely available on BBC iPlayer, older episodes can be located at LOVEFiLM. 

The Doctor

The Doctor is a time-traveller from the planet Gallifrey and looks human, but has two beating hearts. He and his fellow Gallifreyans are generally known as Time Lords, of whom the Doctor is the only one still alive. 

The Doctor has been played, since 1963, by 12 different actors, from the original Doctor, William Hartnell, to the incumbent incarnation in the form of Matt Smith, who looks much younger than Hartnell’s Doctor, despite being hundreds of years older. The reason the Doctor has taken so many forms, is that he can regenerate. 

The Doctor’s time machine/home is the TARDIS, which takes the form of an old-fashioned police box and has been ever-present since the show’s inception. 

The Time Lords

The Time Lords - of whom the Doctor is a member – are an ancient civilisation of beings that closely resemble humans. Time Lords receive their name, not only because of their ability to travel rapidly through time and space, but because of the way in which they perceive time in a completely non-linear fashion, which in turn allows them to see ‘everything that was, is and could be’ simultaneously.  

Villains in Doctor Who

The most well-known enemies of the Doctor are undoubtedly the Daleks - cyborgs created by a mad scientist called Davros, who genetically-modified a race of extra-terrestrial beings called Kaleds to be complete devoid of compassion or empathy. While the only emotion they feel is hate, their most well-known catchphrase is ‘Exterminate! Exterminate!’ In these ways, the Daleks are seen as polar-opposites of the Doctor. 

Other persistent enemies of the Doctor are the Cybermen, who descend from organic species of humainoids from the planet Mondas. They first appeared in 1966 and continue to make appearances today. The Cybermen began to implant more and more artificial parts to their bodies in order to survive the worsening climate on their planet, but this led to an unfortunate side-effect of becoming cold and machine-like in their bid for self-preservation.

A Cultural Phenomenon

Doctor Who has a huge global fanbase, and has become ingrained in British culture and indeed the outside perception of the British nation, spawning not only TV episodes, but radio programmes and novelizations. Doctor Who is regularly the subject of fan conventions, at which the actors who have played different characters, as well as different incarnations of the legendary protagonist, are often the guests of honour.  

[Source: Discovery Media]