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

Day 516: The Androids of Tara, Episode Four

Dear diary,

During the first episode of this story, before I simply found myself enjoying it, I made a note that all the segments of the Key were hidden in fairly similar locales, and that we really needed to have a bit more variety. This thought stemmed from the fact that we’s just had two stories in a row that involved the Doctor and Romana standing around in green fields, and The Ribos Operation had also sported a castle setting. The more that I’ve watched through this story, the more I realise that I was just moaning about nothing in particular, because this story has enough of it’s own visual identity to set it apart from the others. It’s another one of those lush historical dramas, and I almost wonder if I’d prefer this story to have been a more straight-up historical drama, without all the nonsense with androids and the like.

This final episode is the closest that we come to that kind of story, with our three androids (the Prince/King, Strella, and Romana) all out of action, and the woman who builds androids for the Count dead. It reverts to a more traditional story of trying to seize power to the throne, with planned marriages, and assassination plots, and… well, admittedly, an exact double of the princess who just happens to be an alien time traveller. It feels like absolutely ages since we had a proper historical story, and this came close enough to whet my appetite for one. Thinking of the stories to come, it’s going to be a while again before we’re given something quite in the historical vein, androids or not!

It did, however, get me wondering if there could be a version of this story with the androids removed. It’s not the kind of thing that you’d be able to edit from existing footage, but I think a few brief alterations at the scripting stage could have made it a pure historical story somewhere along the line. The Count would have to kidnap the prince after the coronation, and they’d not be able to lure the Doctor with an android duplicate of Romana, but otherwise, the story is fairly sound.

Or, at least, as sound as it can be. Today’s episode provides us with another twist to the tale of ‘ways the Count can become king’. I said the other day that I simply couldn’t get my head around Taran politics, and I still can’t. Now it transpires that the Count will only be the true king if he’s married Strella, after she has come queen. What happened to the whole ‘having to choose another nobleman to be king, ‘cos the bloke who should be here is held up in traffic’? It really is the most bizarre system.

And it’s all presided over by Cyril Shaps, in his final performance for the programme. Shaps appeared in The Tomb of the Cybermen, which makes him an automatic winner for me, and then went on to be a part of The Ambassadors of Death and Planet of the Spiders before returning for this final swan song. He’s been one of those actors I’m always glad to see pop up in a story, so it’s a shame we won’t be seeing any more of him as this marathon progresses.

On the whole, I’ve rather liked The Androids of Tara. It’s just edged out The Ribos Operation for the position of my favourite Key to Time story (pushing the previous champion The Stones of Blood even further down the pecking order), and I’ve simply enjoyed watching it. I’m sorry to say then that things do go a little to pot in this final episode direction-wise. It’s the first story to be helmed by Michael Hayes, and has been rather good on the whole. Lots of nice shots that feel perfectly suited to what is in some ways a diary story, and lots of lovely shots used in sequences like the Doctor and K9 heading across the moat to break in to the castle.

But then you’ve got today’s big, climactic sword fight. It’s very much a key part of the episode, because it takes up a sizeable chunk of it. I enjoy seeing the Fourth Doctor being a little unsure of the way to hold a fight like this (he clearly forgot such things during his regeneration), and then growing more and more confident with it, forcing the Count around the room. It could be quite a nice sequence if it weren’t for the chronic lack of music over the first half of the fight! It simply leaves everything feeling incredibly stagey, and listening to the sound of the actor’s feet shuffling around the floor doesn’t quite inspire the effect I think Hayes wanted. Things pick up a lot when the sparring partners move outside, though, and I with the whole thing could have been done like that! 

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

Day 515: The Androids of Tara, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Sometimes, often during ‘Episode Three’, Doctor Who stories have to resort to padding things out a little bit, just to stretch the story over to the next week. I think today must feature one of the most blatant examples of this that I can remember in the series for a very long time. Romana has come back in to contact with the Key segment again, and soon manages to escape the castle on horseback. She meets up with the Doctor, and they flee together… only for her to be recaptured and returned to the castle mere minutes later. This is the one thing which took me out of the story a little bit here, because Romana’s escape seems to have only been useful for the sake of giving us a cliffhanger into the next episode!

Still, that’s a relatively minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, and I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed today’s episode again. Despite The Pirate Planet being the story of this season written by the ‘comedy’ writer, I’m finding the humour in David Fisher’s two scripts much more in my own taste than anything that Adams gave us. I commented on it to some extent during The Stones of Blood, but I’m really noticing it in this story - and especially in today’s episode. It’s filled with amusing mounts, chief among them possibly the Doctor emerging into an ambush for the second time simply to call the Count a liar for promising not to attack! There’s also the Doctor’s comments on the way they always want you to go alone when you’re walking into a trap, and his musing that it would have been ‘fun’ to hear whatever reason Lamia may have cooked up to explain her arriving so early for their planned meeting: I’m enjoying lots of the little lines like these.

It’s also having an unexpected side effect in that I’m really enjoying Tom Baker in this story. I’ve complained a few times over the last season-and-a-half or so that Baker is getting somewhat too big for his boots in the role, not taking things as seriously as he perhaps should, and sending other things up way beyond what’s probably acceptable. Here, though, he seems to be pitching his performance just right, and it’s the most I’ve enjoyed watching him since around Season Thirteen, I think. Even when he’s going for the comedic moments (like the aforementioned ‘liar’ incident), I’m simply laughing along with the story - it’s all really working for me. Maybe it’s simply the tone of the script, which makes it feel as though Baker’s antics fit in easier?

Then we’ve got a few moments of him attempting a more serious stance, too. It was during Planet of Evil that Baker really sold himself to me as a dramatic actor, and I think there’s small shades of that performance here. I don’t think we’ve ever had him quite as powerful and imposing as he was there, but a few of his comments towards the count at the start of today’s episode seem to be brimming under with the kind of rage I’d expect to see from David Tennant’s performances in the same role. I love that I’m finding things to enjoy in his performance again, because it feels as though I’ve been giving him a lot of criticism of late.

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

Day 514: The Androids of Tara, Episode Two

Dear diary,

Of all the companions so far - including Sarah Jane - I think that Romana must have the most… elaborate wardrobe. She’s had cause to change her outfit, or at leafs accessorise it, during most of the stories so far, and they’re always quite striking styles. I think that The Androids of Tara may be the most striking of them all! Mary Tamm gets to start the story off in that very flattering white dress from The Ribos Operation. I’m not much of a follower of fashion, but even I’ll concede that it’s a gorgeous outfit, and Tamm looks beautiful in it. She then gets to change into her purple… thing, and retain that for much of the last two episodes. People joke about Sarah’s ‘Andy Pandy’ look, but really, this must be the worst costume a companion ever gets forced into?

Even more than usual, this story allows Tamm to try out a few different styles, by virtue of her playing several different parts. I was oddly struck by how much of an impact was made, during the introduction of Strella, simply by giving Tamm different hairstyles for each character. It really does make a difference, and when she arrives in the throne room at the end of the story, here hair looks especially nice. As someone who was - I believe - very interested in style (I think I’m right in saying that Tamm herself had input to some of Romana’s costumes, certainly more than the actress would usually get), I’d imagine that Mary Tamm must have very much enjoyed working on this story in particular.

The thing I’ve been spending much of today trying to get my head around is the way that coronations operate on Tara. It already seems a little harsh that should the next-in-line to the throne be so much as a minute late for the coronation then they forfeit their right to the titles, but then the Powers That Be simply get to choose who will take their place on the throne? No wonder there’s some corruption going on, with a system like that! I then found myself getting gradually more and more confused by the way all of this works. I’m sure that, at some stage, Strella is described as second-in-line to the throne. So… if Prince Reynart doesn’t show up, why does the throne not pass to her?

I then considered that everyone may think she was missing, which could account for them worrying about needing to find a new monarch so quickly (lest the throne be empty for too long. Is Tara the planet, or simply this region? It could be that a lack of monarch makes the castle, and the area, look weaker to opposing forces who may be watching), but no one seems surprised when she seemingly arrived during the coronation to pledge her allegiance to the new king. On top of all this… I thought that Count Grendel planned to marry Strella simply to get himself onto the list of people who could get near the throne, but then he’s able to become king simply by being one of the nobles, anyway! It’s all a very confusing system, and I’m spending more time thinking about it than I really should! 

British singer-songwriter Foxes will perform a track and appear in the new series of Doctor Who, which lands this August on BBC One.

Foxes, speaking about her casting said:

"I can't believe I'm actually going to be in an episode of Doctor Who! Especially as it all came about from a chance meeting. I was playing a gig and got chatting to the show's production team who'd been watching my performance. I was telling them how much I loved Doctor Who and next thing they invited me to be on it. I couldn't think of a better place to make my acting debut than on one of the UK's most iconic shows!"

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, said:

"We are completely thrilled that the amazingly talented Foxes is joining us on board ... well, you'll see. Let's just say, The Doctor is finally catching up on his phone calls."

Grammy award-winning Foxes has recently been on tour in the UK, supporting her album Glorious, which recently debuted top 5 in the official album chart. This follows on from her three hit singles - Youth, Let Go For Tonight and Holding Onto Heaven.

Guest stars confirmed to join Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in the new series, which will air on BBC One this August, include Frank Skinner, Ben Miller, Tom Riley, Keeley Hawes and Hermione Norris.

+  Series 8 of Doctor Who will air in August 2014.

[Source: BBC Media Centre]

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

Day 513: The Androids of Tara, Episode One

Dear diary,

When I first started out on The 50 Year Diary (what seems like a lifetime ago!), people were very keen to give me tips and advice about how to do a marathon. Some people were very helpful, and spoke from experience in doing their own watches through the history of Doctor Who. Others were simply chiming in with the way ‘they’ would do it, and point out why my way was wrong. The thing that cropped up the most during that first season was the suggestion that I should really be working in ‘half marks’. I think it stemmed from a single entry early on in which I commented on how I’d spent a while deliberating over the score to give an episode. I couldn’t decide between a six or a seven, and it took most of the day to make up my mind. People kept on suggesting that I really should have just given a ‘6.5’, and be done with it.

Personally, I’m against that. I think that once you start adding half marks, the rating system goes out the window a little bit! I’m rating the stories out of ten… giving myself double the options for scores within that seems like a bit of a cheat! The thing is, I’ve never once regretted that decision. Oh, there’s been one or two stories where I’ve struggled with the score, but on the whole it’s become second nature. Like a gut instinct, I get to the end of typing up my entry and simply type the score - sometimes without thinking. Occasionally, I’m even surprised by the score I’m giving, but if I think about it, I can pinpoint exactly why awarded the score I have.

Today’s episode has been one of those ones which has left me a little bit stumped as to how I’m supposed to rate it. As the closing credit rolled, I found myself declaring to the empty room that I’d really enjoyed this episode, and that it was probably my favourite episode from the entire Key to Time season so far. To be perfectly honest, I was surprised by that fact, but simply because I can remember so little about this story from my previous viewing. I then told myself that it was very definitely a ‘7/10’, and that’s when my troubles started. I thought about the other episodes this season. Both The Ribos Operation and The Stones of Blood had received the same score for an episode apiece, but I’d enjoyed this one more than either of those. Ok, then, this must be an ‘8/10’. Except… it isn’t an ‘8/10’. I can’t describe it - I just know the rating in my mind. I’ve spent a couple of hours deliberating about it and I’ve decided that, no, this is a ‘7/10’ episode, but a very high ‘7/10’!

So, with that said, it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve rather enjoyed this one. It already has a different feel to it compared to the first three tales this season, and I really love the way that Romana sets out, declaring that she’ll have found this week’s segment in under an hour. What I liked so much about it was the fact that I actually scoffed out loud at the suggestion. The three segments they’ve retried so far have all come at the end of an adventure lasting the equivalent of four episodes, so there’s no way she’d be able to find it so quickly. But then, almost before I’d finished that train of thought, she’s located the segment, and turned it back into the actual piece of key. Oh. That was easy. Easy… and surprising! Of course it gets taken away almost immediately, but it still came as a rather nice way of shaking up the format.

No discussion of this episode would be complete without mentioning that fan favourite monster: the Taran Wood Beast. The creature is something of a joke within fandom, and perhaps for good reason. Even I have to concede that it’s not the programme’s finest hour as a poor artiste jumps around the woods in an ill-fitting gorilla costume. That said, some of the shots leading up to the reveal of the creature are nicely done, and actually build up some degree of tension! If only I didn’t know what was coming afterwards! Still, the beast only appears for a couple of minutes and then he’s gone, so at least we can be thankful for small mercies!

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

Day 512: The Stones of Blood, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Nope. I’m still not really any wiser about some of the things which left me confused during yesterday’s episode. Mostly, I think that my confusion stems from the fact that I’m not entirely sure about the sequence of events which took place prior to this story, and led to the Hyperspace ship hunting Cessair of Diplos… but I know enough for the story to hang together for me. Alongside all of that, I’ve enjoyed Tom Baker being given the opportunity to showboat for a while during the ‘trial’ sequences, so I’m willing to overlook a few of the flaws.

What’s struck me the most about The Stones of Blood this time around is how much the story really does seem to change style right down the middle. From the first half of the story, you’d expect to be in for something right out of the Hinchcliffe years, with a remote location, a horror vibe, some ancient evil reawakening… it seems to be a style of Doctor Who which is less present in recent seasons. Then, we shift up to the spaceship, and we’re in an entirely different kin of story. As if to underline this point, they even take one of the cast and paint her silver as if to say ‘we’re in space now!’

I can’t recall noticing such an abrupt shift in style the last time I watched this story, and it certainly didn’t ham my thoughts about the tale. This time around, I’m not sure that I’ve enjoyed it as much as I remembered doing so before (Indeed, while I’ve always cited The Stones of Blood as being my favourite story from the Key to Time season, it’s been pipped to the post this time by The Ribos Operation, which achieved an overall score of 6.5/10, compared to this story’s 6.25/10), but I think I may still be suffering a little from the fatigue which so plagued The Pirate Planet.

Perhaps more importantly, though, this is the 100th Doctor Who story! As ever, my figures are a little out because I did Farewell, Great Macedon way back between Seasons One and Two, and I revisited The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear when they were returned late last year. That said, the number ‘100’ seems at once too many and too few stories. It seems like an age since An Unearthly Child (the programme celebrated its 15th anniversary between this episode and tomorrow’s), and the show has changed an awful lot in that time. Perhaps it’s inevitable that I’d start to be feeling a little bit of fatigue by this time?

It’s also worth noting that we’re almost at the stage where Tom Baker will take over the crown of being the ‘longest serving’ Doctor. It’s true that I’ve felt a little weary about all of the Doctors at some stage (most notably during Seasons Two, Six, and Nine), and so perhaps it was inevitable that I’d start to struggle a bit this far into the Baker era? In the same way that the thought of Season Eleven and breath of fresh air was a real ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ during some of the Pertwee years, I think I’m starting to long for Season Eighteen to arrive.

That said, we’re entering slightly more uncharted territory with the second half of this season. While I’ve seen all of the Key to Time stories before, I can remember next-to-nothing about the three after this one. I’m looking forward to seeing if any of them can shake up my opinions at all. Certainly, with The Ribos Operation already taking the top spot after seven years since my first viewing, anything could happen!

Doctor Who show runner Steven Moffat has revealed that the BBC considered axing the show after David Tennant left the role.

Moffat, who was taking part in a Q&A at the recent Hay Festival in Herefordshire, said:

"David owned that role in a spectacular way, gave it an all-new cheeky sexy performance and became a national treasure. And he didn't do it instantly, he did it over time. So the idea that Doctor Who could go on at all in the absence of David was a huge question, I didn't realise how many people thought it wouldn't succeed at all. That was quite terrifying when I found out about it later.

I think there were plans maybe to consider ending it. It was Russell saying, you are not allowed to end it."

[Source: David-Tennant.com]

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

Day 511: The Stones of Blood, Episode Three

Dear diary,

It could simply be that I’m having another Pirate Planet incident, where I’m simply not paying enough attention to follow the plot, but I’m not entirely sure what’s happening now. As I say, I don’t know if that’s my fault, or an intention of the script that I should be left slightly in the dark at this point. I understand that the ship is based in Hyperspace, which is in a different dimension to our own. I get that Vivian has been around on Earth for some 4000 years, and thus she’s worshipped by these local people as some kind of goddess. What I don’t yet understand is how these things are related. The Doctor speculates that the Hyperspace ship is a prison ship… I’m assuming Vivian was a prisoner? How did she escape? Did the Ogri come with her from the ship, or were they already in place? Do you see? I’m lost! So many questions!

And yet, I have to admit that I’m still rather enjoying this one. Is it the best that Doctor Who has ever offered us? No, not by a long shot. Is it a decent 25 minutes of the programme? Yes, I’d say it is. In many ways, it feels like an odd sort of hybrid between the type of story that the series used to do - you know, back when the Doctor travelled the universe with Sarah Jane - and the kind of thing it likes to play with these days. It’s such an odd hybrid of the horror elements (and more on those in just a moment), and the kinds of outer space tomfoolery that feels like it’s on the increase. I wonder if that’s where some of my confusion is coming from: the story’s not following my expectations of either style.

If any one side of the story is winning out over the other, I’d have to say that it’s the horror elements. We’ve a sequence in today’s episode where some seemingly post-coital campers encounter the titular ’Stones of Blood’ and are reduced to skeletons, while the screen fades to a deep red. It’s straight out of a Hammer Horror film, and it feels like a while since that was true of Doctor Who. I have to admit, I was starting to wonder if I’d imagined this scene, because I’ve long remembered it as being the very first moments of the story. Of course, it works much better coming over halfway though, once we’re already used to the moving stones as a threat. Suddenly, they’re not only capable of crushing people and damaging K9, but they can harvest the blood they need in a horrible way.

On the other side of the Hyperspace divide, aboard the ship, I’m not enjoying it as much as I expected to. I remembered the Doctor opening the door to find a Wirrn in a much more exciting fashion (actually, thinking about it, I remembered him opening the door and then my mind cuts to the first cliffhanger from The Ark in Space, in which the dead creature falls out and startles everyone), and I have to admit that I’m actually a bit bored by all these sequences. That said, there’s some lovely model work, and we’ve got the return of the ‘live action shot inserted into the model work’ that I’ve been longing for more of since The Robots of Death. It just helps to make it feel as though the Doctor really could be aboard that ship.

I think the biggest success of all, though, is that the Doctor spends so much time paired off with Amelia Rumford. Beatrix Lehmann is one of those actors for whom Tom Baker really ups his game, and it’s great to watch the pair of them spark off each other. There’s a longstanding anecdote that during the production of this story - and because of the fun he was having with Lehmann on board - Tom suggested that the next companion should be a lady of a similar age. Frankly, I’d love to see more of this pair together, and I’m hoping that they get the chance to share a bit more screen time in tomorrow’s episode, too. I’m not all that familiar with Lehmann’s work outside of Doctor Who, but I do know that this was her final acting role, and that she died less than a year later. It’s nice to think that she seems to have had such fun with her final character! 

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

Day 510: The Stones of Blood, Episode Two

Dear diary,

It’s been a while since I’ve trotted out my regular complaint that I’d love Doctor Who to all be made on film rather than video tape. The Stones of Blood is just one of those stories which really does make me long for film, though. It doesn’t help that it’s a story with lots of exteriors and location work that’s all been confined to videotape, too, and I think I’m right in saying that this is the first time we’ve seen a night shoot for the programme which hasn’t been shot on film.

There’s some beautiful lighting in the location work - especially during the scenes of the Doctor and Amelia Rumford in the stone circle - but it just feels a bit flat by being shot on videotape. It don’t have any of the depth that film would give it, and it’s a real shame. I’m also thrown by the wildly different lighting in several sequential shots throughout the night - it seems to shift from midnight to late evening from shot-to-shot, which I’d guess was a casualty of the filming schedule. It shouldn’t irritate me as much as it does, but I just found it very distracting!

Not quite as distracting, though, as the fact that they’ve changed the cliffhanger between episodes! As scripted, Episode One ends with Romana seeing the figure of the Doctor at the cliff’s edge before he pushes her over to her doom. I believe that Tom Baker refused to film this sequence because he didn’t feel it was right for the Doctor, so instead we have Romana following the Doctor’s voice, and then simply losing her footing and falling over the edge. This episode, though, continually refers to Romana seeing the Doctor push her over the cliff (she’s even horrified when the real Doctor appears to save her), and they quickly speculate that someone has discovered a way of using they Key to transform their appearance. It all just feels at odds with what we saw yesterday, and that left me a little confused!

All I’ve done so far today is complain about things, but that’s not to say that I’ve not enjoyed the episode. Those few small niggles left me a little disheartened, but there’s plenty of other things in the story that I am enjoying. Curiously, coming after a story from Douglas Adams which is supposed to be funny, there’s a number of lines in today’s episode which left me laughing - particularly the Doctor’s insistence that K9 had always wanted to be a bloodhound! The you’ve got pretty much anything that’s said by Vivien Fey or Amelia Rumford. Thelatter in particular is amusing me because she seems to be playing the part as Patrick Troughton playing the Second Dr Who! There’s numerous little mannerisms in her performance that can’t fail to put me in mind of some of his stories - especially those early Season Four ones, when he was especially giddy!

It’s not all light-hearted, though. You’ve got the Doctor being offered up as a sacrifice, the death of a so far fairly important figure, and the set of the Big House gets completely trashed. Perhaps most effective is that they pretty soundly destroy K9. Coming only a few episodes after he duked it out with the Polyphase Avatron, I really believe that the Ogri have great strength to be able to sound the Doctor’s best friend in such a way! Then there’s the reveal that Vivien Fey has been around for a long, long, time. I knew it was coming, but it still really works for me, and it’s nice to see little hints being dropped along the way, such as Romana noticing the line of women who’ve owned the land, and the missing paintings. I’d forgotten that this revelation came so early in the story, but I guess it signals that we’re going to be off in a different direction soon enough… 

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

Day 509: The Stones of Blood, Episode One

Dear diary,

Until I moved out of home at seventeen, I used to live in a small village about 20 miles from Norwich. When I talk in the Diary about visiting the farm or seeing my family, it’s still the place I’m returning to. All that time I spent living there, and some of it as a Doctor Who fan, and I never realised that only about a fifteen minute walk away lived a man who - whisper it - had actually written adventures for Doctor Who. In fact, I didn’t actually discover this fact until some years after I’d moved out (and even crossed the country to live in Cardiff), and I was sent a clipping from the local newspaper about a ‘local man’ who was writing a Doctor Who ‘radio play’.

Of course, that ‘local man’ was David Fisher, and the ‘radio play’ was the audiobook of The Stones of Blood. While Terrance Dicks had been responsible for the original Target book in 1980, Fisher wrote a new version of the tale to be read for the CD. Suffice to say, I couldn’t believe that an actual Doctor Who writer - and a man responsible for what I’ve long considered to be my favourite segment of the Key to Time season - had been living almost on my doorstep! David Fisher will be responsible for several stories over the next few seasons, and he’s one of that small group of writers who get to contribute two consecutive stories on their first outing.

I can’t really tell you why I’ve thought of The Stones of Blood as my favourite Season Sixteen story for so long, I simply recall it being the one which grabbed my attention the most when I first watched them all. Truth be told, I can’t even recall a great deal about the story - I know it involves stones which kill, and about halfway through we’ll relocate from the rural setting to some kind of advanced space ship… but that’s all I can tell you! Oh, and a character dresses up in that bird costume at some point, but I remember that more from photographs of the outfit than from my first viewing of the story itself!

Certainly, we’re off to a decent start in this episode. The opening recap of the whole arc is perhaps a little too much of an info dump (although I rather enjoy Romana nodding along and pointing out that she knows much of the information), but I’m mostly glad that we get to see them piecing together the segments of the Key. Things were left a bit up in the air during the last story, so it’s nice to see that they did actually manage to retrieve the segment. I’d always assumed that the actual retrieval of the Key would be a key scene in each of these stories… but perhaps not! Curiously, I could remember what the segment was for The Pirate Planet, but I can’t recall what it’s disguised as in this story, or the next one. I think I rather like that - because it adds a bit of excitement to them!

We’re also back to the BBC trying to do the kinds of sets it does best. The main hall at ‘the Big House’ is just lovely, and the use of the stairs here really allows a few interesting camera angles, too. There was a moment - only a moment, mind - when I even wondered if it had been shot on location. The sets in the last story didn’t really do it for me, so I’m glad to be back on more familiar ground with these ones. I’m also really interested to see how they compare to the spaceship sets coming up letter on, and see if those are kicked up a gear by work on settings such as this one.

I’m also loving the continuation of a running theme across this series so far: Romana being the one in charge. It starts as far back as The Ribos Operation Episode One, with her giving the Doctor instructions on using the Tracer, and being responsible for creating the hole in the TARDIS. It’s continued into The Pirate Planet with her piloting of the ship, and being the one that the locals are willing to speak to when they first touch down on a new world, and here she’s the one who can both fit the segments of the key together, and suggests that they get on with looking for the next segment. The Doctor’s reaction to this last incident is particularly amusing!

It’s a good thing that we’re getting moments like these, because for the rest of the episode, she’s reduced to what I’d call your typical ‘companion’ role. She’s left to complain about things, wear inappropriate shoes, ask questions, and even gets left behind when the Doctor goes off to explore. The fact that she’s the one lured into peril during the cliffhanger should come as no surprise! I’m hoping that she gets to continue taking the upper hand before long, though, because Romana really doesn’t shot the typical ‘Doctor Who girl’ role… 

The BBC have confirmed that Series 8 of Doctor Who will launch in August 2014.

To whet fans appetites until then, a short 15-second teaser trailer was launched today which features the Doctor Who logo followed by flashes of Peter Capaldi's Doctor inside the TARDIS.

Watch the trailer in the player, below:
[youtube:QYN6ruU672Y] 
Get in touch:
What do you think of the teaser trailer? Discuss via the Forum link or in the Comments box below!  

[Source: BBC]

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

Day 508: The Pirate Planet, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Well… I’m tempted to say that everything fell into place and started to make sense in this final episode, but actually all I mean is that the bits I phased out for yesterday suddenly make sense to me. The old woman they found in the bowels of the bridge was the evil queen who ruled the planet, and all that stuff about a black hole was the Captain’s cunning plan to dispose of the woman. Right, fine, I’ve got that now, thanks. Where I’m left confused is when this episode starts to descend into the Doctor and Romana spouting various kinds of technobabble at each other, and planning to go pick up the bit of Key later on (after the episode has ended, it seems!)

I also found myself completely lost by the reveal that the real power behind the throne is the nurse! Because - aha! - she’s not a nurse, but the reincarnation of the evil queen, who might be a hologram (but she isn’t really. At least, not any more), and is actually using the Captain as some kind of front. Looking back, there are hints peppered across the tale, and Rosalind Lloyd even points them out during the special features on the DVD, but I can’t say that I really picked up on them as I’ve been watching. I think the fact that I’ve failed to bet interested by The Pirate Planet has led to me missing all the clues that might have made it more interesting!

It’s nice to see the Captain being revealed as more than simply a blustering villain, though. It’s a fairly arch performance throughout, but I think it’s worked for me better than a lot of the story has. The design of the character is interesting, too, and it’s quite fun to watch him doing battle with Tom Baker. There’s little wonder that the Captain is one of the more fondly recalled villains from Doctor Who’s long history.

On the whole, I’m sorry to say that The Pirate Planet has really disappointed me. I don’t know what I was expecting from the tale, but I’ve found myself being mostly bored throughout all four episodes. This tends to happen from time-to-time, and I wonder if it might be that old foe of mine - burnout. Watching Doctor Who at the pace of an episode per day is usually quite a nice way to experience the series, and I’ve found that it’s immeasurably helped a number of stories improve in my estimation. Now and then, though, you just find yourself seeing more and more of the same, and start to tire of it!

I think perhaps the best bit of the episode is the explosion at the end. It feels like quite a long time since we had a really decent exploding model shot to round off a story, and it’s good to see that the effects team haven’t lost their touch in the interim. It’s not all a loss, either - although I’ve not cared all that much for the last few day’s episodes, we’re onto The Stones of Blood next, and I’ve always thought of that one as being my favourite segment from the Key to Time…

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

Day 507: The Pirate Planet, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I’m like a yo-yo with this one. Episode One really didn’t do it for me. Episode Two put things back on track somewhat. Today’s episode has just left me… cold. I’m not sure what it is, really, because there’s a lot in the episode that I really should be enjoying. The dialogue continues to be quite witty (indeed, I think it’s here that the story is really working), there’s some nice design work on display, and today we even get to watch K9 have a fight with a metal parrot! All that, but I’m still finding my attention wandering. There were a few moments during today’s episode where I actually zoned out, leaving me somewhat confused as to what’s actually happening (The Captain is sucking the life force out of these planets, yes? The result of this is that a black hole will be formed, maybe? That’s where I’d started to let my attention lapse a bit, so I’m not completely sure…

To that end… I don’t really have all that much to say on the subject of today’s instalment. All my notes are centred around the dialogue, taking down exchanges that at least raise a smile, if not produce a genuine laugh. I think the highlight has to be “You don’t want to take over the universe, do you? No, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. Beyond shout at it…” There’s plenty of other lines I could happily quote for you here, but I think I’ll leave it at that. It’s tricky not to mention Tom Baker’s cry of “THEN WHAT’S IT FOR?!?!?”, though…

There came a point during today’s episode where I wondered if I just didn’t ‘get’ Douglas Adams’ sense of humour, and if that might be what was stopping me from enjoying the story as much as I’d like to. A quick call round to a friend later and I found myself listening to the first episode of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series. Hitchhiker’s is obviously Adams’ most famous work, and it’s particularly pertinent to this story, because he was writing the first series interchangeably with the script to The Pirate Planet - both commissions having arrived at once. Due to the different lead times in production, the radio series made it to air a little bit quicker than this story did, and the first episode was broadcast between Parts Five and Six of The Invasion of Time.

I’m pleased to report that I really enjoyed the episode, and soon found myself letting the CD run on to the next episode, too. And then the one after that. I’ve heard the first three now, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’d imagine that I’ll take the opportunity to have a listen to the rest of this first series at least, and then I might even venture as far as hearing some of the later ones, too. It’s easy to see the links between his radio work and this story (Indeed, there’s a few lines which I’m sure crop up in both!), so it’s just a shame that his first foray into Doctor Who is leaving me so cold… 

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

Day 506: The Pirate Planet, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I was cautious going into today’s episode. Having not enjoyed the first instalment of The Pirate Planet, I spoke to a couple of friends to gauge their reaction to the story. One confirmed that they were ‘bored stiff’ throughout, while the other told me that the direction did a dull story no favours. It worries me when things like hat happen, because I fear that I’m heading for another one of those stories which I just can’t get into - the Dominators and Cure of Peladon type tales, which are destined to languish somewhere towards the bottom of my ratings no matter what.

Thankfully, though, I’ve actually liked this episode a lot more than yesterday’s one! One of the things that I’m quite enjoying (sorry, Nick!) is the direction of things! I don’t know if that’s because my mind is trying to consciously enjoy it more knowing that I’m not supposed to, but little moments - like the way the Captain wanders down a line of his workers and then leans around them - really appeal to me. I’m even quite impressed with the effects work on display, too! The first time we see the Polyphase Avatron rise from his owner’s shoulder and fly off to attack someone is well realised, but it then left me with another worry…

I suddenly remembered being less than impressed with the flying car sequences in the story. Sure enough, it’s only a few minutes before Romana is led to a flying car by a set of guards. But you know what? I thought those scenes came off rather well, too! Perhaps more noticeable during the later sequence of the Doctor in one of the vehicles, it’s things like the wind blowing through the character’s hair which really sells the effect to me, and there’s a lot less fringing on them than in stories such as Horror of Fang Rock. Is it just that I’m tired today, and therefore not noticing the bad bits, or am I completely wrong and it’s not even CSO? Either way, I’m impressed.

I’m even somewhat amazed at how well things are being dropped in to help you piece things together. I did know that this planet materialised around others and robbed them of minerals, but I love the way it’s threaded through the tale. Romana gives a basic description of how the TARDIS works (dematerialising in one location, travelling through the vortex, and dematerialising in a new location - the Ninth Doctor manages to give an even more succinct version of that in a later story), and that same description, or a variation if it, comes back into play later when discussing the planet. Then you’ve got Romana realising what the broken component of the machine is, and the discovery that it’s similar to a bit of TARDIS tech.

And yet, there’s still things that don’t quite work for me. I can’t make myself like the power plant section of the high-tech base - it just doesn’t feel in-keeping with the rest of the design in the story. There’s also the mine workings, which look just too much like 19th - 20th century Earth mines. Oh, sure, they add in a few lines about the fact that it used to be done like that and no one in living memory has used the equipment, but then it still feels out of place.

There’s everything to play for with The Pirate Planet, I fear. I doubt it’s ever going to come out with a stellar score, but it could either claw its way up to ‘average’, or sink right down to the bottom. I genuinely have no idea which way it’s going to go…

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

Day 505: The Pirate Planet, Episode One

Dear diary,

I really need to start today’s entry with something of a confession. As much as I’m bound to be scoffed at for this: I’ve never actually experienced The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. What I mean by that is that I’ve never read any of the books, or heard the radio play, or seen the TV series. I have seen the movie that they did a few years ago, but I can remember so little of it that I genuinely can’t remember a thing - I may as well not have seen it. To this end, I don’t really know of Douglas Adams outside of the fact that he worked on Doctor Who in the 1970s. I’ve seen City of Death, his other (finished) contribution to the programme, and I know that he was Script Editor for a time, but aside from that, I’ve got nothing. Sorry.

It’s perhaps because of that fact that The Pirate Planet has entirely failed to grab me with this opening episode. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect from it. This is a story which I know the basic premise of, I know who a few of the characters are, I know what the segment of the Key to Time is disguised as… but they’ve always been simply facts, stored away in the back of my head somewhere. I must have seen the story before, on that watch through when the series first came out on DVD, but six years on, those memories are about as useless as the ones for the Hitchhiker’s film.

Now, I can’t really claim that it didn’t grab me at all. There were a few lines which managed to raise a laugh from me (K9’s suggestion that Romana has better luck with the locals because she’s more attractive than the Doctor, for example, really got a hoot - I’m glad that in his new ‘incarnation’, the tin dog has lost none of his sarcastic edge). Then there’s the Doctor’s question ‘excuse me, are you sure that this planet is supposed to be here?’, and everything about Romana trying to learn about piloting the TARDIS properly (complete with the Doctor ripping pages from the manual). There’s lots of little bits which did work for me, but they were sadly few and far between.

I think I was turned off almost from the start. There’s some model shots which are far from being the programme’s best, and much of the episode is filled with the kind of bland sci-fi nonsense that I just don’t care about. Coming from The Ribos Operation, in which we were presented with a world full of history, and culture, with a religion and a social hierarchy that I could really believe in, this feels like something of a slap in the face. People talk of the good times coming back, there’s strange mystical nonsense going on, and the costumes are leaving little to be desired.

And then, seemingly from nowhere, we cut to a group of the characters walking across a field! I have absolutely no context for the field. We’ve seen parts of the city. There’s a large square (which, if a little bare, is actually an impressive set due to the sheer size of it), and some spacious living accommodation. There’s the high-tech lair of the half-robot Captain and his metal parrot… and then there’s suddenly a field from absolutely nowhere. It feels out of place, and having spent so long praising the world of Ribos, I’m really struggling to get behind this one. Still, it’s early days yet, and I’m hoping things will pick up once our heroes are really caught up in the story.

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

Day 504: The Ribos Operation, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Looking back over the last couple of days, I think I’ve been a bit too harsh on Tom Baker. I’ve complained a lot recently about him not really taking the programme seriously, and I think that I’ve broadly come to equate any scene where he smiles too broadly with that sense of not doing his job. But, actually, it’s all a part of this Doctor’s character at this point. He can sit, and smile, and laugh with Garron when they’re imprisoned, safe in the knowledge that K9 is on the way to rescue them. It feels somehow right that he can fit in with this kind of person, in much the same way that the Third Doctor doesn’t feel out of place when interacting with high-ranking members of society.

I guess what I’m really waiting for is the Doctor to take a fall. It’s that same thing that I discussed under The Invasion of Time - when he starts getting too sure of himself (and I’m sure that the Fourth Doctor has), then it’s time for him to go. I’m wondering if that means Season Eighteen will come as a real breath of fresh air in a couple of months time? I’m hoping so, because as much as I can enjoy this version of the Doctor, I fear that it’s starting to grate a little.

Still, this story does boast quite an impressive guest cast - and they’re really giving their all to the roles. It’s going to sound like I’m beating the same old drum over and over again, but they really help to imbue Ribos with a sense of being something more than just This Week’s Planet. I think chief among the guest cast has to be Timothy Bateson as Binro. He only joined the cast halfway through the story, and has what is really a minor role in the story, but I genuinely care for the character when he dies. It’s not often that you find that with the guest characters, so I think it points to being something truly special with this one. It’s fair to say that the part is somewhat hammy and over-played at times… but I think that’s all a big part of the charm, and it actually works.

Someone else that I need to draw attention to today is George Spenton-Foster on directing duties. This is his second and final Doctor Who story, and I’ve had relatively little to say about his work on this occasion, in stark contrast to Image of the Fendahl, in which his role in the story was all I could talk about! The direction of this story has felt far more run-of-the-mill than it did during the last one, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In Fendahl, I thought the direction actually distracted me from the story, whereas here it’s just helping to tell the tale. He’s really managed to marshall the troops to make the best out of this one, too, and while I’m sure being the first story into production for the year must have helped (I dread to think what the budget will be like by the end of the season), he’s certainly done a fantastic job.

I think I was most impressed right at the end of the story, as the Doctor and Romana turn the lump of Jethrik back into a segment from the Key to Time. It sits on the table in front of them, as the camera pulls in to remove it from the shot. I assumed that when we pulled back out, a stage-hand would have swapped the prop with one of the crystal segments, but that’s not the case - we actually get to see the transformation a few minutes later. Is it the best effect the programme has ever achieved? Well, no. Is it a passable one? It is. As the Doctor says - that’s one down, and five to go. We’re off to a good start for this long story… 

Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor, the 50th anniversary special of the BBC sci-fi show, has been crowned the Radio Times Audience Award winner at the 2014 Arqiva British Academy Television Awards. 

The only award at the TV Baftas decided by the public, the Audience Award was voted for by tens of thousands of people on RadioTimes.com during April and early May.  

In a keenly fought race, the Doctor Who special, written by showrunner Steven Moffat, saw off stiff competition for the prize in the shape of Broadchurch, Breaking Bad, Gogglebox, Educating Yorkshire and The Great British Bake Off.  

The Day Of The Doctor aired on 23rd November 2013, exactly 50 years after the first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child starring William Hartnell, was screened and introduced the Time Lord and TARDIS to the world for the very first time.   

Broadcast simultaneously to 94 countries across the globe in both 2D and 3D, the 75-minute episode was the television event of 2013.  Starring Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, the episode saw the return of former TARDIS incumbents David Tennant and Billie Piper, as well as a featuring role for legendary veteran British actor John Hurt as the War Doctor.  With a cameo from incoming incarnation of the Time Lord Peter Capaldi and a glimpse of former TARDIS favourite Tom Baker, the episode was without doubt one of the most spectacular chapters in the show's long and illustrious history.  

Described as "a love letter to fans", the episode attracted 12.8 million viewers on British television, with a further 2.4 million watching the US simulcast on BBC America - breaking the channel's all-time record.  The show also took the record for the most requested programme on the BBC's iPlayer, enjoying almost 3 million streams before the end of 2013.  

There were big numbers for the anniversary special in the cinema too, with cinema takings of over £1.7 million in the UK pushing Doctor Who to number three in the UK cinema box office in the week of airing, and the show pulling in more than $10 million across the world in movie theatres.  

Doctor Who: The Day Of The Doctor is the second Radio Times Audience Award winner.  The 2013 award was won by HBO fantasy drama Game Of Thrones, shown in the UK on Sky Atlantic.  

[Source: Radio Times]

Doctor Who is arguably one of the finest British sci-fi productions ever. In fact, this highly acclaimed TV series featuring The Doctor (a Time Lord) - just yesterday won the 2014 British Academy Television Award for ‘The Day Of The Doctor’, as-voted by Radio Times readers for their ‘Audience Award'

In 2011 a BAFTA television award for best actor was presented to Matt Smith – the first time in the history of the show that such an accolade was awarded. More significantly, Doctor Who holds the record for the longest running sci-fi series on TV in the Guinness Book of Records. The show first aired in 1963 to 1989, for 26 seasons. It was picked up again in 2005 and is already in its 7th season.

The premise of the show for those who have not had the pleasure of seeing it is about an alien time traveller known as the The Doctor who explores the universe in his TARDIS. Of course there are many enemy combatants along the way, but The Doctor is tasked with saving civilization and helping ordinary people at every juncture.

It has become a popular cult favourite in the UK and indeed across the United States of America. Television producers certainly hit jackpot pay dirt when they decided to reintroduce Doctor Who back in 2005. There's certainly no gamble when it comes to this show’s popularity. The Time Traveller seems to have it all figured out – much like a skilled card player employs blackjack strategy while sussing out opponents at the table!

Long may the show continue to wow audiences, far into the future!

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

Day 503: The Ribos Operation, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Because The Ribos Operation is a Robert Holmes script, I’m supposed to be telling you how ‘wonderful’ the double act of Garron and Unstoffe is, but that’s not really grabbing me all that much. For a start, I think that Jago and Litefoot may have managed to steal all the thunder on that front! No, I’m still more interested in the planet of Ribos itself, and everything that comes as a part of that.

I mused yesterday that because it’s styled as being a historical adventure that just happens to take place in the history of a planet other than Earth, it feels far more realistic than something in sterile white corridors and with bizarre ‘space’ make up would give us. The connection to Russian style of centuries past simply helps to reinforce the fact that this is real, identifiable history. But then today’s story really takes the fact that this is an alien world and runs with it. Put simply, this is the most rounded alien planet that Doctor Who has ever given us - certainly up to this point in the series, and I’d make the case for it being the most rounded location ever.

It’s mainly helped by the introduction of Binro the Heretic in today’s episode. There’s something wonderful about the idea that every world needs to go through that ‘Galileo moment’, and that certainly helps to add to the idea that we’re looking at a civilisation with a rigid set of beliefs. Simply from the guard’s recognition of the man, and Binro’s later description of the events taking place some time ago, you get a real sense that events were happening on Ribos long before the TARDIS touched down here. I really feels as though he has a history in this world, and his later descriptions of the way the people of this world believe in the various gods and the way that their religion works really do help to create a world that’s different to the norm.

This has quickly become my favourite aspect of the story, and I think it’s the finest writing that Holmes has ever crafted for the series. While he’s never been short of good concepts, unique characters, or sparkling dialogue, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so adept at creating a very real world, populated by very real people. Even when we make it down into the catacombs and are given legends that they were built so long ago that no one really knows how far they stretch it all feels very true to me, and I can’t really convey what an effect that’s having on me.

It’s a shame, then, that I’m not all that struck by the story that’s populating this rich and vibrant world. The Doctor has slipped back into being a bit of a smug know-it-all again (and it certainly feels like Tom Baker going overboard again, All that restraint he was showing so well when faced with the Guardian the other day seems to have been completely swept out of the window), but I’m loving the fact that his relationship with Romana has already started to thaw out. There’s some beautiful shots in this episode when the pair put their heads together for private conversations, and it feels both friendly, and completely different to the kind of thing I’d expect from Leela, or even Sarah Jane. It’s lovely to watch this relationship forming, and I hope it continues to grow over the coming stories in the season.

We’ve also got the first instance I’ve found of K9 being a bit of a cop out. The Doctor and his companion are locked up! There’s a massacre about to occur! There’s little chance of making any kind of escape…! But it’s ok, because the Doctor has got a new dog whistle, and K9 is able to come to the rescue, immobilising the guard for them and then becoming their bodyguard as they move into the catacombs. While there’s a part of me which looks forward to the idea that we might get to see him fight with a shrivenzale in the next episode, I can see how this kind of get out could start to become very wearisome…

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

Day 502: The Ribos Operation, Episode Two

Dear diary,

During The Sun Makers, I pointed out that - with very few modifications - it could almost be a historical story, set at any time in Earth’s past. The Ribos Operation is, if anything, even more like a story from history. Obviously, the setting takes cues from Russian design, particularly in the costumes, and the entire serial can only really be described as ‘lavish’. Looking back, only Peladon has really had the same ‘historic’ vibe in a ‘space’ story, and even that is somewhat stepped on by the presence of the Federation and all their various aliens. This is the first time that we’ve ever really been given a world that’s set out among the stars, a setting that would usually be all shiny and high-tech, or at least futuristic, and presented it to us as going through its own middle ages period of history. It’s really quite fun to watch.

I love a good castle set, and the BBC always do them so well. Here, we’re being treated to a miriad of different rooms that all really do feel like they’re part of the same architectural style. It’s always easier, I find, to connect with the Doctor’s adventures when they’re set in a location thats identifiably ‘real’, and this is one of them. For all the talk of ‘Jethrik’, and cosmic alliances, this is a story set on a developing world, into which these space-age characters have simply been dropped.

I think ‘dropped’ is certainly the right word to use describing the Doctor and Romana’s presence in this story. They’ve not really found an awful lot to do yet - struggling to get their hands on the segment they need by conventional means, and planning to swipe it from someone they think might well be their rival in proceedings. Indeed, I think it’s almost a shame that we know the Doctor is wrong about that - because it might actually add some much-needed tension to the story. So far, even during the cliffhanger to the first episode, in which Dr Who’s assistant is menaced by the traditional green monster, it doesn’t feel like there’s any real threat.

It feels as though things might be starting to gain traction from here, though. I know there’s several characters in the story who have yet to put in an appearance, so I’m guessing that the tale will be veering off in a slightly different direction from tomorrow. Actually, and for the first time in ages, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Doctor gets out of the current cliffhanger. He looks genuinely surprised to see that they’ve been captured (even more surprised than when the Sontarans part-way through the last story), and I’m actually excited to see where we go next. Perhaps more importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing how they finally get their hands on the segment of the Key that they need before leaving Ribos. At this point, I’m staking my bet that they simply end up swiping it during a struggle in the final episode and leg it to the TARDIS, but I’m hoping there’s something a bit more cunning involved than that! 

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

Day 501: The Ribos Operation, Episode One

Dear diary,

The Doctor might describe some days as being ‘Temporal Tipping Points’ - special days which are so full of important (in some sense of the word) events. For me, there’s always 24th September 2007. Not only was it my very first day of University, but it was also the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures Series One (following the pilot episode some nine months earlier). As if all of that wasn’t exciting enough, it was also the release date for not one, or two, or even three new Doctor Who DVDs… but for six of them! 24th September 2007 was the release date for the set of Key to Time stories, Doctor Who’s entire Sixteenth Season. But there was a problem.

The fact that the set contained six brand new releases was special enough (and more than had been collected together at any other point in the range), but it was also a limited edition, in a nice box designed to look like the Key to Time itself. Ah, but the internet was awash with rumours. No-one was quite sure exactly how many sets there were going to be, and people who worked in various entertainment stores confirmed that they’d only be getting one or two copies in, and that they’d been unable to order any more, because the suppliers had run out already. There was no way I was going to miss it, which meant that I’d have to hurry up to Woolworths before heading off to University first thing. The only problem was… Woolworths didn’t actually open until the exact minute that my very first day of Higher Education was supposed to begin, and there was no way I could possibly be late for my very first day!

Well, we can all guess what happened. Nine o’clock came, and I was waiting outside Woolworths. Degree be damned. To be fair, all these years on, I can’t even remember what grade I achieved at University. I passed, that’s good enough for me. I sat through the day as they explained the way the course would work for the first year, then hurried him in time to catch Miss Smith battling the Slitheen. And then I settled in to start watching Season Sixteen. I decided to ration myself - a few episodes a night. Yes, this was the most ‘new’ classic Doctor Who I’d ever bought in a single hit before, but there was no point in rushing through it all too quickly!

I can’t recall mush of the season, looking back. I know that The Stones of Blood was my favourite of the bunch, and I’m sorry to say that I know I was thoroughly bored by pretty much everything else. Ever since then, I’ve consciously skipped over these six stories if choosing a Doctor Who DVD to while away a Sunday afternoon. General reception seems to be pretty mixed, all told. Some people swear by the season (indeed, some claim that it’s the programme’s final hurrah before getting steadily worse from here on out), while others think that it’s tedious, and dull, and everything I seemed to think that it was back in the day.

And yet… I think I’ve rather liked today’s episode. I’ll warn you now that I’m not really going to be discussing the story or anything too much like that in this entry - there’s another three days in which we can get around to all that! - I’ll be focussing today, really, on the first ten minutes or so of the episode. It’s something of a brave voice to introduce the entire arc of the season in what is effectively a massive info-dump right at the top of the first episode (hey, kids! Doctor Who is back on TV, and he’s chatting to an elderly man in a chair!), but there’s a lot to enjoy about it. That shot of the TARDIS being plunged into total darkness before the roundels become backlit and a blinding glow floods through the doors is beautiful, and it’s always been my favourite image of the ‘classic’ style console room. Back when I used to make up Doctor Who stories and take photos of the action figures acting them out, I always found excuses for the TARDIS to look like it does here.

And then I even quite enjoy the exchange between the Doctor and the Guardian. As I’ve said, it really boils down to a massive explanation of what this season is going to be about, but there’s some nice little moments in there. I love the threat that if the Doctor doesn’t co-operate then nothing will happen to him (…ever), and there’s something quite surreal, and perfectly Doctor Who about the most powerful being in the universe sipping his drink in a wicker chair while he explains the stakes to our hero. Most of all, though, I love that the Doctor is brought down to size, almost. Right the way through his conversation with the Guardian, the Doctor is trying to keep his flippant arrogance in check (not very well, it has to be said), while remembering that he’s addressing, basically, God. I’ve mused before about the fact that the Doctor is getting s bit big for his boots, and Tom Baker is starting to think of himself as being irreplaceable, so it’s nice to have a moment like this which cuts him down a little.

Then there’s Romana! Mary Tamm has massive shoes to fill following on from Louise Jameson (though the pair were contemporaries at drama school, so I have high hopes!), and I’m not sure she’s made the best first impression. Romana is tricky to judge so far, because she’s supposed to be slightly unlikable and superior, and that’s exactly how she’s coming across. I’m going to enjoy watching her own character arc unfold across the season (and beyond, once she’s regenerated), and see how much I like her by the end…

Room 101 host Frank Skinner is the latest name confirmed to guest star in an episode of the new series of Doctor Who this Autumn.

Fran Skinner said:

"I love this show. I subscribe to Dr Who magazine, I've got a Tardis ringtone, a five-foot cardboard Dalek in my bedroom and when I got the call saying they wanted me to read for the part, I was in the back of my tour bus watching episode three of The Sensorites. I am beyond excited."

He is currently touring the UK with his stand-up show Frank Skinner: Man In A Suit, alongside presenting the Saturday Morning Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio. Skinner previously appeared in the one-off Doctor Who 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.

Steven Moffat, lead writer and executive producer, says:

“It's no secret that Frank's been pitching vigorously to get into Doctor Who for a while. He's been volunteering to be 'third monster on the left' as long as I've been in this job. But now, in Jamie Mathieson's sparkling script, we finally have a part that can showcase all of Frank's famous wit and charm. Hopefully he'll get out of my garden now.”

The episode is written by Jamie Mathieson (Being Human, Dirk Gently), directed by Paul Wilmshurst (Strike Back, Combat Kids), and also stars David Bamber, Daisy Beaumont, Janet Henfrey and Christopher Villiers.

Other guest stars confirmed to join Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman in the new series, which will air on BBC One this Autumn, include Ben Miller, Tom Riley, Keeley Hawes and Hermione Norris.

+  Series 8 of Doctor Who will air in Late August 2014.

[Source: BBC Media Centre]

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

Day 500: The Invasion of Time, Episode Six

Dear diary,

At the press launch for Doctor Who Series Seven last year, Steven Moffat said of this episode:

”I thought that day, ‘Some day! Somehow, I will do what I can to get into television and do that properly!’”

It’s not hard to see where he’s coming from, really. One of the things most people know about The Invasion of Time is that it features a sequence of Sontarans chasing the Doctor and his friends deep into the corridors of the TARDIS. Sadly, industrial action meant that it needed to be filmed out on location and… well… it doesn’t really work, does it? I think we’re back to that same argument I made about Gallifrey during 8The Deadly Assassin* - I want to see something grand! To some extent, I think I could forgive this sequence if it were filmed in a castle, or some swanky modern art gallery, but having it filmed in an abandoned hospital just robs it of… hm.

I think Emma summed it up nicely when she asked if this was supposed to be the inside of the TARDIS or if they’d landed somewhere and she’d missed it. Pressed for comment on the design, she was reluctant to give one. In theory, I love the idea of the TARDIS having a number of rooms which all look the same, and it’s quite a fun gag (the first time), but I just feel let down by the whole thing. We used to get brief glimpses into the rest of the Doctor’s ship right back in the early days - visions of strange uncomfortable beds and food machines - but this is the first time we’ve ever been this far beyond that regular console room, and it’s just an abandoned building! And not even a particularly interesting one!

The fact that so much of this episode is reduced to the chase (and I use even that term loosely - it’s more of a pacy stroll) simply leaves me uninterested by much of the proceedings. Things slightly liven up when one of the Doctor pursuers is trapped by a man-size plant… but then he’s released from the threat a few minutes later seemingly without any harm. It never feels like there’s all that much of a threat to either the Doctor or the Sontarans, and the weapon which saves the day - the De-Mat gun - is build mostly-off screen, and then rendered useless after a shot has been fired.

But, oh, let’s be honest, it’s not really the Sontranas or the TARDIS or the Great key that I’m supposed to focus on today, it’s the departure of my favourite Savage. I’ve really loved having Leela - and Louise Jameson - in the series over the last few stories, and I’m genuinely going to miss her. She’s been note-perfect since the moment she arrived in the story, right up to this final goodbye with her friend. Emma claims to have seen it coming a mile off - picking up on the subtext between the pair - which is more than I can claim to have done. Certainly, both Lousie and Christopher Tranchell (as Andred) have been slipping in little moments between the characters, but Em has been more adept at spotting them than I have.

It’s going to be a shame to carry on now, without Leela aboard the TARDIS, but it’s Doctor Who shifting into a new form once again, and there’s very few things as exciting as that…

And while I’m here… I try to avoid getting too sentimental or nostalgic in The 50 Year Diary, but… well… it’s Day 500! Five-Hundred! Five-zero-zero! I’m genuinely, completely, flabbergasted that I’ve made it this far. I’ve said it before, but I genuinely did think that I’d have grown bored of the whole experiment - be it the pace, or the stories, or… well… anything, really, by about the time The Sensorites came along. And now here we are! Almost eighteen months on from the start, and an episode of Doctor Who every day richer. How brilliant.

I’m closer to the end than I am to the start, now, but I’m still really loving it all. Doctor Who really is the most wonderful, barmy, bizarre programme in the world, and I’ve loved watching it evolve and change as I’ve made my way through. And here we are, about to embark on a whole new adventure again, with a new companion, and a new quest as Doctor Who enters its first ever conscious season-spanning arc. Frankly, I can’t wait to see what the next few hundred days hold in store for me!

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

Day 499: The Invasion of Time, Episode Five

Dear diary,

Something strange happened during today’s episode. About halfway through, I turned to Emma and said aloud ‘I’d forgotten how much I really love the Sontarans’. It’s only strange because, looking back at what I’ve said on their previous two appearances in the programme, I’m not sure that’s actually all that true. I was full of praise for Kevin Lindsay’s Lynx during Episode One of The Time Warrior, but after that I was far more preoccupied with enjoying the lovely setting, meeting Sarah Jane, and realising that Jon Pertwee wasn’t all that bad. By the time The Sontaran Experiment rolled around, I barely mentioned the titular creature at all! I think what I really meant, in realising how much I loved the Sontarans, is realising how much I love a good comedy Sontaran.

I see a lot of complaints around the internet (and a lot of love, too, it has to be said) for the character of Strax - the Sontaran-turned-nurse-turned-butler who crops up in several of the Eleventh Doctor’s adventures. People seem to think that having a funny Sontaran character around really ruins the effect of the creatures as a whole (it doesn’t - if played right then it can serve to make a very nice contrast when some more vicious, cold-heated clones arrive to do battle. Oh, what I’d give to see a Sontaran story set in Victorian London, with Strax sneaking among the other Sontarans to sabotage their plan - they’d never notice: they all look the same!), but I think that ‘comedy’ in the Sontrans has always been a part of it.

That’s never more true than here in The Invasion of Time, though I suspect that they’re not really supposed to be funny here. There’s just something about the way that they move through the corridors of the Citadel that really makes me smile (and, of course, we get to see more of their graceful movement tomorrow, when one tries to jump over a sun lounger), and the - let’s be honest - ridiculous attempt at doing the voice just helps to add to the humour. But it’s not all unintentional. We’re told that these Sontarans are a part of the ‘Sontraran Special Space Service’ (in my head, it’s the Seventh Section of said service), and the Doctor comments that it’s a bit of a mouthful. Even the way that the cowing Castellan Kelner acts around his latest set of masters is inherently amusing.

Yet none of this takes away from their impact, really, because you can’t underestimate the effect of having four Sontarans on screen at the same time. It seems strange to think of it now, but this is the first time we’ve had more than one on screen (yes, yes, I know that technically there were two in The Sontaran Experiment, but since one was on a screen and there was only one of the present…), and it’s the most that we’ll see in one place for the entirety of the ‘classic’ era. Even though the helmets don’t look quite as good as they did the last time we saw them, there;s no denying that it does look rather imposing to have so many of them around. And then we get to watch one of them smash up the controls of Gallifrey’s defences on location! This is the kind of thing that I was longing for during The Sun Makers - it’s a very real looking set of equipment, so it looks all the more effective when we see someone attack them!

A few years ago, I was responsible for writing segments of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Role Playing Game. One of my jobs was to write background text for various aliens and creatures, to help add some colour to the various statistics needed to play the game. I was assigned various monsters - the Sontarans among them. We had to stick fairly closely to the televised material when creating our write ups, but we were allowed to embellish and add little things as we went along, subject to approval from those in charge! My comment about the ‘Great Sontaran Art’ renaissance was removed, but I did get to explain away the very tall Sontarans from The Two Doctors by claiming that all members of the Scientific core were unusually tall, and I got to retroactively make The Invasion of Time into a part of the Time War:

”The Sontaran War Council was furious at being denied entry to the Time War, which had started between the Time Lords and the Daleks. Locked out of the war, it became invisible to the Sontaran Race, who were considered no more than brutes. The War Council set about devising their own plan: if they could not join the already waging Time War, then they would start one of their own…”

I used the opportunity to make the whole Kartz-Reimer plot of The Two Doctors a precursor to this story, and went on to say that following their defeat at the hands of two incarnations of the Doctor, they decided to try something particularly daring, and invade Gallifrey…

”Using a ‘lesser’ race, and the Doctor himself, they forced their way onto Gallifrey, planning to steal the secrets of the Eye of Harmony – the heart of the Time Lord civilisation and the core of their power. The Sontarans planned to destroy the Eye and bring chaos to the Universe by unleashing the raw power of the Vortex upon it. The Doctor ultimately defeated them with the use of a de-mat gun, which wiped the Sontarans on Gallifrey out of time itself.

The Time Lords closely monitored any time travel technology that did make it into the war with the Rutans, and events were locked as they happened, to prevent the Sontaran race from altering history and causing havoc with the Universe.”

Now, clearly, the Sontrans in this story make no mention of the Eye of Harmony, but hey, who can blame me for wanting to devise a Sontaran battle strategy! It’s telling, also, that they come to Gallifrey looking for the Doctor. They’re not like Cybermen or Daleks, pretending to be emotionless killing machines. They’re the kind of creatures who would want to find the man responsible for their previous defeat, and make him pay for it! It’s making little connections between stories like this that I really enjoy about the universe of Doctor Who, and it means that I’m enjoying the events of this episode on a slightly different level to some of the others… 

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

Day 498: The Invasion of Time, Episode Four

Dear diary,

I’ve been so looking forward to this one. Oh, I can’t begin to tell you. I’ve been excited - partly - for Emma’s reaction to the Sontarans turning up in the closing moments, and also for The Doctor’s reaction to their arrival. Heck, if I’m honest, I’ve just been excited by the prospect of them arriving on the scene. If there’s one thing that people know about The Invasion of Time, it’s that the story takes a sudden twist in the closing moments of Episode Four, as Sontarans invade Gallifrey! Now, I knew the shot of them on the stairs, overlooking the great hall, I knew there was the moment of the leader raising his… stick, I guess? I knew that it was the first time you see more than one solitary potato making up the invasion force…

But I didn’t know they were revealed in a shot of the Doctor… looking to his left. How rubbish is that? In my head, there was much frivolity over the defeat of the Vardans, the Doctor and Leela ready to depart in the TARDIS as is usual for the end of a story, before BANG! An entire wall is blown apart and four Sontaran troopers come marching out of the smoke, standing proud atop the steps, as they declare Gallifrey to be under their control. In fact, in my head, that’s still how they invade. So there.

When the moment came, I turned to Emma’s reaction. ‘Where did they come from?’ she mused, but there wasn’t a huge glimmer of interest in there. I think she’d been somewhat let down by the story when the shimmering Vardans suddenly reveal themselves to be… some rather bland humanoids in dull uniforms. After that, her attention had certainly started to wane. I think when our favourite potato heads turned up, it simply felt like the reveal we should have had fifteen minutes earlier. Here’s hoping that the warrior race are used well in the next couple of episodes to make up for it.

One of the nice things about being back at ‘home’ while watching this story is that my **Doctor Who Magazine* collection is all to hand. Issue 290 is a ‘Fourth Doctor Special’, in which a number of key Doctor Who writers (including Lance Parkin, Alan Barnes, and Steven Moffat) give their own analysis of various Tom Baker seasons. Reading through them in the last few days has been really interesting (though I’m saving the entries on Seasons Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen until I reach them myself), and I’m especially struck by the article on Season Fifteen, written by Gareth Roberts.

He describes The Invasion of Time as “probably the best story of the season”, and goes on to make some rather nice points about the story, which I hadn’t really considered before:

” [*The Invasion of Time *is] the only story I can think of where the Doctor is motivated, alongside his altruism, by a deep-seated personal desire - not to take a holiday on the peaceful planet Whatnot, but to get revenge. To engineer the biggest schadenfreude he ever could get. To go back to school more or less, pretend to sell out to the Vardans, and then save all his peers and his elders and say; “clever old me planned it all along…” The appearance of the Sontarans at the end of Part Four is not only shocking and thrilling, it’s also a restatement of the series’ most basic theme - people who plan ahead (your Daleks, your Master) always come unstuck.”

It’s in reading this description that I realised - this would be a really nice regeneration story. I’ve always been a fan of the idea that when the Doctor goes too far, that’s when the time is right for him to be reborn as a new man. It’s a theme played with during the Tenth Doctor’s demise, and would work rather well here, too. The Doctor has been very clever in this story. He’s stage-managed the whole thing up to this point, and then, suddenly, he’s taken by surprise. He’s not got every last detail planned out to a tee. He’s not considered that opening a hole in Gallifrey’s defences would allow someone to come through and invade. It’s that kind of instance which then marks the right time for him to go.

Here, at the end of Baker’s fourth season, I’m still really enjoying him in the role. Right now, it still feels like a reasonable amount of time for him to stay in the role. I don’t know how I’m going to be feeling in another three seasons time, but it has to be said - this could have been a great way for him to go.

Roberts also goes on to discuss the idea that this story serves to examine the Doctor’s relationships with his current companions, especially highlighting the idea that Leela is the only one who believes in the Doctor’s ‘essential goodness’, even after the Doctor has been so brutal to her, cast her into the wilds outside the Citadel, and apparently gone over to the wrong side. It’s this which succeeds more than anything else in the story for me - I love the way that Leela refuses to give up on her friend, and it makes for some of the most powerful drama on display. Once again, and fittingly for her last story, it’s Louise Jameson who really sells this to me, and it’s another one of those instances where I tell you just how good her performances in this programme have been. The closer we get to the end of her time, the more saddened I am to be losing such a true talent from the series. 

In this week’s Radio Times, on sale Today (for listings 17th-23rd May 2014) Steven Moffat recalls writing The Day Of The Doctor, revealing it was the most “difficult” and “terrifying” thing he has ever written and reveals why he chose Peter Capaldi to be the new Doctor.

Steven Moffat writes:

“When you choose a Doctor, you want somebody who is utterly compelling, attractive in a very odd way. None of the Doctors are conventionally attractive, but they’re all arresting. Handsome men don’t quite suit. Matt Smith’s a young, good-looking bloke from one angle but is actually the strangest looking man from another. You need that oddity; you need somebody who is carved out of solid star, really. Doctor Who is a whopping great star vehicle, despite the fact it changes star every so often.” 

The Day Of The Doctor is one of the nominees for this year’s Radio Times Audience Award at the British Academy Television Awards 2014 – the only BAFTA award open to public vote. Voting is open until 12pm Thursday 15th May, the winner will be announced on Sunday 18th May.

The new issue of Radio Times also includes 16-page guide to the Bafta TV Awards 2014 featuring David Attenborough, Dominic West, Rory Kinnear, Helen George, Laura Carmichael, Natalie Dormer and much, MUCH more...

+  Radio Times is out Today, priced £1.80.

+  Buy this issue of Radio Times as well as past issues from CompareTheDalek.com!

[Source: Radio Times]

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

Day 497: The Invasion of Time, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Now, this is more like it! Everything is starting to lock into place, now, and the Doctor’s actions - and motives - are becoming clearer. As I’ve said before, it was likely that the alien invaders were inside the Doctor’s mind, and it turns out that they were simply reading his thoughts rather than actively controlling his actions. Still, it does explain why he was so out of character for those first couple of episodes, because a single stray thought would have led him to danger. How very like the Doctor to just go along with things, safe in the knowledge that he’d be able to sort it all out in the end.

Even Emma has been enjoying things more today than at any prior point in the story. She’s resorted to giggling every time K9 turns up on the screen (oh, who am I kidding? I’m doing exactly the same thing. Now that he’s such a part of the team, I can’t help but love the TARDIS pet - even if he is still noisy!), and she’s enjoying the fact that the monsters are so obviously made out of tin foil. The one thing that’s still really niggling her is the fact that Gallifrey seems to have bought in a bulk lot of this ‘tacky plastic rubbish’ an resorted to decorating the Citadel with it. Today, we follow characters down a corridor which has sets of green chairs placed at regular intervals, which makes it look somewhat like a waiting room at the Dentist.

My issue with Gallifrey is the leaves on the trees - they’re not silver at all, as Susan promised way back during her description of the planet in The Sensorites. That said, I like to imagine that there are artificial trees inside the Citadel which do relate to her colour scheme: Rodan clearly knows little about the world outside the glass dome, and I like to imagine that Susan was much the same, before she fled the planet with her grandfather in a rackety old TARDIS. I can’t help but love the vivid orange hue to all these outdoor scenes, though, and it contrasts very nicely with the greys and greens of the interiors. It really helps to make the outside look dangerous and alien - I’m enjoying the switching back and forth.

It has the added bonus of returning Leela to her roots, too. She’s never really grown out of her ‘savage’ persona, and that’s a good thing - she feels much more developed than perhaps any other companion up to this point. Whereas many start off with a distinct character ‘thing’ which then gets lost slowly as the stories go by (Susan is alien and weird! Sarah Jane is a journalist!), Leela has always felt like the same character throughout. That’s not to say that she hasn’t seen any development - I’ve really enjoyed watching her interactions with the Doctor, and the way their relationship has moved. It’s always been very much the role of teacher and student (I think the Doctor simply likes having someone he can show off to), but Leela feels as though she’s genuinely learning something from her time in the TARDIS.

I know that she’s off in a couple of episodes time, to stay behind on Gallifrey, and I’m really rather hoping that she gets to spend some time out here in the wilds of the planet. Although she’ll hook up with Andred (and later, in the audios, effectively become Romana’s bodyguard), it would be a crying shame to see her stuck in a life of luxury (read that as ‘boredom’) inside the Citadel. Im genuinely quite sad to know she’s off - though I’m glad she’s leaving on a high - because I’ve really grown to love Leela over her time in the programme. Even Emma concedes that she ‘kicks ass’… 

Doctor Who Executive Producer and Head Writer, Steven Moffat has teased that The 12th Doctor may be headed back to a planet he visited in the 5th Doctor adventure, Planet Of Fire.

Speaking in a press release issued today, which also confirms the casting of Hermione Norris in Series 8, Moffat said:

“For the first time since 1984, the Doctor Who production team is heading to Lanzarote. The Doctor is returning to the scene of an old adventure - but there have been sinister changes since his last visit." 

On Norris' casting Moffat added:

“It's a testament to the quality of Peter Harness's intense and emotional script, that we've been able to attract an actress of the brilliance of Hermione Norris."

Speaking about her casting, Hermione Norris said:

"It's exciting to be part of such an iconic show, and one that my kids can watch!!!"

Norris has recently been starring in The Crimson Field on BBC One, and is no stranger to solving mysteries having played Ros Myers in the BAFTA award-winning drama Spooks. Prior to that she starred in comedy-drama Cold Feet.

The episode is written by Peter Harness (Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell, Wallander), produced by Peter Bennett and directed by Paul Wilmshurst (Strike Back, Combat Kids). The episode also stars Ellis George, Tony Osoba and Phil Nice.

+  Series 8 will air in Late August / Early September 2014.

Get in touch:
Do you think The 12th Doctor will be going back to Sarn? Discuss via the Forum link or in the Comments box below!  

[Source: BBC Press Office]

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

Day 496: The Invasion of Time, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I’ve been musing again today about the style of Gallifrey. When we last visited the planet, in The Deadly Assassin, I went on at some length about the way that I personally imagined the planet to look, before concluding that while I liked the design we get on screen, it really was just any old planet, as opposed to being the majestic home world of the Time Lords. Today, I put the question to Emma - what did she make of the fabled Shining World of the Seven Systems?

I think her opinion could be neatly divined from her description of it looking like a child’s bedroom. There’s lots of bright colours about on Gallifrey this time which weren’t there during the presidential assassination. They’ve added plastic chairs in various colours, and they carry their ancient relics around atop inflatable plastic cushions in a bright red hue. Emma seemed to feel the same way that I had - it just wasn’t what she’d expected to see from Gallifrey. Personally, I don’t think I’m all that fond of these new additions to the Citadel, either. They’ve gone for ‘futuristic’ designs in the furniture, but that just means that it’s dated all the more. I won’t say that it makes it look incredibly 1970s (indeed, I’d say in places it looks to be more 1990s than anything), but it certainly doesn’t leave you with the impression that I think they were aiming for!

It’s all the colours which caused me a problem with this story… during The Name of the Doctor. There’s a sequence from this episode (the Doctor walking down a corridor) which was used to represent the Great Intelligence, and later Clara, making their way through the Doctor’s time stream. Because of the big, green, wall in the background, I always think it looks like they’ve forgotten to green-screen the background in behind our digitally-added characters! It’s something that I simply cannot un-see now, and it does somewhat turn my opinion even more against the design!

Elsewhere, the Doctor is still acting incredibly out of character - ordering the removal of Leela from the Citadel, to be thrown out into the wilds. I’m guessing that it’s to protect her from the invasion he’s allowed to happen, but I’m not entirely sure yet. Part of the beauty here is that I can’t tell if the Doctor is faking all of this for some greater reason, or if he’s genuinely been possessed by something. He’s been taken over so often in the last couple of years, that I wouldn’t rule it out entirely. That haunting cliffhanger, where he laughs in that way only Tom Baker can, only adds to my suspicions that he’s perhaps not entirely himself at the moment.

It’s also helped by the fact that it has gone on for so long now. Usually, the Doctor might be out of character for a little bit of an episode, and even then if he’s faking it, there’s usually a wink or a nod to his companion (and the audience). Here’s he’s kept up the charade for a third of the story, and that’s making me very unsettled. There’s a number of little hints and tips towards Borusa that seem to imply that he’s waiting for the room to be properly sealed off before he can talk openly, and that makes me think even more that our mysterious alien invaders might be inside his mind, controlling some of his actions. 

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

Day 495: The Invasion of Time, Episode One

Dear diary,

Ah, The Invasion of Time. It’s another one of those stories which isn’t very well liked, and its faults are all too known in fandom, even before you sit down to watch it. I’ve never seen this one, but I know the basic plot, I know the twist at the end of part four, and I know how it ends. I think that’s going to mean that I’m a bit non-plussed by the story, and that I’m just going to be going through the motions. What I really need is to be able to watch it without any of that prior knowledge about the quality or the plot. It needs to be seen through the eyes of someone completely in the dark to actually stand a chance of it being received well.

Thankfully, I’m on holiday with Emma this week. Not a massive holiday anywhere sunny or hot (mores the pity), just a simple trip back home to look after the animals while the family is away (they’ve gone somewhere hot. Boo). Six nights away, six episode of Gallifrey-based Doctor Who to watch, and one partner who doesn’t have a clue what’s to come. Surely that’s the perfect test for The Invasion of Time?

Emma was fairly silent throughout the episode itself. She usually has a fair bit to comment on (often it’s how much she’s enjoying - or not - the dress sense of the companion), but today didn’t really prompt much of that from her. Instead, she waited until the closing credits were rolling before admitting that she was simply confused by this one. To be fair, she’s not the only one. I knew that the story involved the Doctor returning to Gallifrey to assume presidency of the Time Lords, and yet the episode moves at such a pace, and sees him (seemingly) acting so out of character that you’re really not sure what to think.

That’s not to say that I’ve not enjoyed it, though. As ever, there’s some sparkling dialogue between the regulars, and for the first time it really feels like K9 is a part of the team. We’ve had scenes of him playing chess with the Doctor before now, but it now feels… I don’t know. Different somehow, but in a good way. I laughed heartily at K9 telling Leela to shut up (‘engage silent mode, mistress!’), and also his description of swimming as ‘being fully submerged in H2O.’

I think for now that it’s just got an awful lot to set up very quickly. I’m hoping that now we’re in this position, with the Doctor given all the things he needs to rule Gallifrey, we can settle down a bit and get more in to the story. Although I know the basic outline of the story, I’m not really sure what fills up these first four episodes.