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

Day 301: Colony in Space, Episode Two

Dear diary,

Styles always cycle back around again. During my last year at university, the look I'd been spotting for three years suddenly found itself thrust in the spotlight as being 'on trend'. Right the way through the summer of 2010, I was suddenly very cool, because I was wearing all the right things. Of course, these were the same 'right things' which - 12 months earlier - other people wouldn't have been caught dead wearing. After a while I decided to have a bit of fun with it, and I'd turn up to lectures in increasingly bizarre combinations, to see how far I could push the envelope. Surprisingly far, as it transpired. And then, as ever, the styles move on and something else becomes cool again. I've still got all those once trendy clothes (I call them 'idiot hipster', now) because at some point, they'll be fashionable again, and I will be cool.

It's the way they things have always gone. The 1980s seem to have been 'making a comeback' for several years now, with styles, music, and movies from that decade being given a reappraisal and brought back into being cool. Even Sylvester McCoy's Doctor has seen a huge upswing in popularity in the time since I started wanting into fandom, and it's nice to see him being given the attention he deserves.

In the year 2472, it would seem that the 1970s are making a come back into fashion, because everyone seems to be embracing the hairstyles - and the facial hair - of the period. I mean really, if you were to show this episode to someone and ask them to guess when it was made, I think it's fair to say they'd be aiming their guess around the 1970s. At one point, there's even a joke about 'Jim'll Fix It' - which makes Jo laugh! Perhaps oddly, Colony in Space was made a few years before Jim'll Fix It first his screens, but in hindsight it seems as though the production team is making a knowing nod to the programme.

All of this is only highlighted by the fact that they've all got fairly typical 'futuristic' costumes on. It's been so long since I saw anything other than 'contemporary' clothes, but it seems bizarre that this story - the one not set in (or around) the 70s is the one that looks most like them! I don't know if it's simply because we're in colour now, but this story has the look that I tend to think of for Doctor Who in this period. The style of the sets and the costumes feels very much in keeping with hazy memories of a few Tom Baker stories, and it's nice to see the programme moving into this style. We've got another alien planet quarry, but I think it works quite well - it's not become a joke just yet.

I'm most impressed by the design of the Interplanetary Mining Corporation's ship, though. It's a bit odd in places, and some of the colours are a little bold, but it looks good. The contrast between this and the colony really does hit you, and I think that makes it work all the better. I'm hoping we'll get a chance for the Doctor to explore it a bit more later in the story, as it would be a shame to loose such an interesting design so quickly.

I've realised today that there's another thing I knew about this story, without even knowing it. There's an image of the Doctor being menaced by the claws of the robot here, which I've seen plenty of times before. The image clearly shows the animal-like claws and the metal poles as the arms, but you can't see the body of the 'creature'. I'd always assumed that you never saw the metal poles on screen and it was just an unfortunate choice of framing the image, so imagine my surprise at discovering that it's meant to look like that!

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

Day 300: Colony in Space, Episode One

Dear diary,

It feels strange to be writing this one, because I’ve not actually watchedtoday’s episode yet. I wanted to capture this feeling, though, becauseColony in Space is one of those stories about which I know pretty muchnothing. I wanted to make a list of the things that I think I know about it, and see how close to the mark I get (or look like a complete idiot a few says from now if I turn out to be wrong on all counts…).

There’s only a few of these stories left in the marathon for me, because once we start hitting the late 1970s (and especially the 1980s and beyond), I know plenty about ever story, even if I’ve never seen them myself. I think that this and The Mutants represent the last two ‘black holes’ in my Doctor Who knowledge.

So, what do I think I know about this story? Well, I ‘know’ it’s the first time that this incarnation of the Doctor makes it to a planet other than Earth, and of course the Master is there (of course he is, that’s the only thing that I’m completely sure about). I think that it’s the first story of the 1970s to not feature Nicholas Courtney, and I *think*UNIT is absent, too. There’s a little voice somewhere in the back of my head that says this is the first time we actively see the Doctor sent on a mission by the Time Lords, but I don’t know how accurate that might be.

And that’s it! The sum total of my (potential) knowledge on Colony in Space. I could be entirely on the money, or I could be way off. That’s all part of the fun though – usually when I reach a story I know little-to-nothing about, I go though this ritual in my head where I almost test myself to see how close I can get, and I thought it might be fun to do this one in public so that you can all revere me. Or laugh at me. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, the DVD is loaded into the drive, my notepad is at the ready, and here we go…

Well… I was a bit right. Also a bit wrong. As things go, that’s not too bad. This is the Third Doctor’s first trip to a planet besides Earth, and the Time Lords have sent him (he doesn’t know that for certain yet, but he suspects it). I was expecting more of a meeting between the Doctor and his people, akin to the bowler-hatted messenger in Terror of the Autons, or the opening to Genesis of the Daleks, but this works. The opening scene here - where the Time Lords stand around in a dark room and discuss the using the Doctor to do their dirty work – feels like a great season opener, in which they recap the basic terms of the Doctor’s exile.

I was surprised to have the Brig turning up, but it makes perfect sense that he does. I thought the story simply opened with the TARDIS arriving on some alien world (or being taken there by the Time Lords), but having now actually seen it properly, of course you need the Brigadier to show his face. Way back during The Daleks’ Master Plan, I described my criteria for determining a companion to be that you’d have to explain their absence from a story. While I’d argue that the Brigadier isn’t a companion (as the Pertwee era goes on, there’s less of a need to explain the absence away), at this point in the narrative, wedo need to see him left behind.

It feels like this is the Third Doctor’s subtle arc – tinkering away with the TARDIS. We’ve seen him move from failed escape attempts inSpearhead From Space through to completing a new circuit and leaving the Earth behind today (with a bit of a hand from the Time Lords), and we need to see him making the departure for there to be any impact. I’m assuming now that we might get the Brig showing up again at the end of Episode Six, just to serve as a means of integrating the Doctor back into the ‘regular’ set up.

Opening on Earth means that we get to see Jo’s first reaction to the TARDIS, too. I’d sort of assumed that she already knew about it all (having decided that she’s been the Doctor’s assistant for something like a year now), and since the climax to the previous story hinges largely on the idea that the Doctor has used his Time Machine to save the day, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to her that everything he’s said is true.

But then, Jo was left completely perplexed by the Doctor’s explanation of a time loop yesterday (she wasn’t alone – the whole room was baffled!), and I wonder if he’s juts been loathe to let anyone else into the ship while he’s working on it? It’s a great scene, and we get the first ‘it’s bigger on the inside’ reaction that we’ve seen in some time. I love that she’s not jumping into it with both feet, but is more timid. Jo ended up rather thrust into the Doctor’s world when she joined UNIT, and now she’s even further out of her depth.

What was odd is that they seem to have forgotten how to do the TARDIS take off. Both when it departs from UNIT and when it arrives on Uxarieus, it simply cuts out of (or in to) shot. I’d say that it’s a case of them simply forgetting how it used to be (they’ve not had cause for a TARDIS take off in two years), but they got it right in the last story! It just looks a bit odd, which is a shame. I’m pleased to see the return of the view outside the TARDIS doors, though, with the planet right on their doorstep. The blow-up photo wall has been moved from the ‘lobby’ to the back of the console room to make its final appearance in the programme, having been around since the very first episode.

 Day 274: The Ambassadors of Death, Episode Three

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

Day 274: The Ambassadors of Death, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I'm beginning to get a sinking feeling that The Ambassadors of Death will be this Season's slightly duff story for me. It's a shame, really, because there's a lot in here that I think I should be really lapping up, but it's all just falling a bit flat. It doesn't help that the quality of the picture is one of the worst that we've seen from the series - even the film sequences are murky and don't give the best of impressions. There are a few shots during the end-of-episode chase that could almost make my eyes hurt!

And yet, they really are going with it on the action sequences for this story, aren't they? We had the big warehouse shootout in Episode One, the stealing of the recovery capsule in Episode Two, and today we get Liz in a chase, first in Bessie and then by foot. The cynic in me wants to say that it's a good way of them padding out the running time of the story to help fill out the full seven episodes, but maybe they just wanted to go for lots of these big locations scenes? Again, I'm brought back to a bit of a disappointment with the quality of the picture. Were I able to enjoy these scenes in the kind of crystal-clear quality offered in Spearhead From Space, I might be enjoying the tale more. As it is, I'm left feeling as though they're just sort of there. I'm told that the DVD release is a marked improvement on the picture used for the VHS release of the story, too, so perhaps it's a good thing I never bothered to watch that particular tape!

Behind the scenes, The Ambassadors of Death had something of a troubled journey to the screen. I won't go into all the details of the many script revisions, but the overall outcome is that David Whitaker ended up being paid for the first three episodes, and then then rest of the story was tidies up by a mixture of Malcolm Hulke, Terrance Dicks, and Trevor Ray. This means that although Whitaker will receive a credit for another four episodes, this is his last major contribution to televised Doctor Who.

It's quite a momentous occasion - the man has been a part of the series since pretty much day one, script editing the first year-and-a-bit of the programme, and going on to write several key episodes after that. Let's not forget - Whitaker is the man responsible for The Power of the Daleks, and helping to ease in the new Doctor for the first time.

Fitting, therefore, that this story should contain what can nobly be called 'dubious science'. And that's putting it mildly. It's always been quite fun to watch Whitaker's conception of science though out his time with the show, but here it's even commented on by the characters in the story. 'What you're saying is contrary to everything that is understood about radiation' we're told early on, as the 'truth' about the astronauts is revealed. As the episode progresses, Liz and the Doctor both join in when pointing out the slight absurdity of what's going on. As I say, it's very suitable that Whitaker should depart from the series with such questionable stuff going on - I wouldn't have it any other way!

 a

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

Day 273, The Ambassadors of Death, Episode Two

Dear diary,

“The Ambassadors of Death, a thriller for television in seven parts by David Whitaker (sort of)”

Right the way through today's episode, I had a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that I'd seen it before. I couldn't figure out for the life of me where, or how, and I'd definitely not seen Episode One, or any of the ones that followed this. Then it struck me - this is the first episode of The Quatermass Experiment!

Space shuttle goes up, contact is lost, the shuttle crashes back down (here it's in the middle of a remote location which might as well be the same one from the previous story, in Quatermass it demolishes a house in London), and it turns out that some of the crew are missing. In fairness, we don't yet know that our crew aren't in this shuttle, but they've not been getting any response from inside, and when they do finally manage to make contact, it's just the same message being repeated over and over again. Still, Doctor Who hasn't ever been afraid to 'borrow' ideas from other well-regarded places, and Quatermass is a pretty good template to have in mind when you consider the Seventh Season. I'd be willing to bet money that the production team had this in mind when planning this story.

I'm not really sure what to make of this one so far. Yesterday left me thinking that we were in for another serious drama with elements of comedy injected in all the right places. People insist on calling the stories of Season Seven 'gritty', and it's hard not to simply use that term. Today, the tone has been a bit all over the place. Early on, the Doctor pulls a conjuring trick to hide the recording, and simply pops it back into existence when the time is right. He describes it to Liz as being simple 'transmigration of an object', but the whole thing threw me completely. It was comical, but it just felt very out of place.

We then settled back down for some more (sigh) 'gritty' action, in which the Doctor tricks their prisoner into revealing that he's a member of the military (and it's very well done. It's similar in style to the way that Troughton forced his way into the prison during The War Games, and yet it feels perhaps even more authoritarian when it comes from Pertwee), and then we're treated to a long dialogue-free sequence in which UNIT get the recently returned capsule onto a convoy, before getting ambushed and loosing the thing.

What follows is an odd sequence in which Pertwee puts on a funny voice (it's what he was best known for at the time he started playing the Doctor, so it was bound to come up sooner or later. It does have to be said that he really was the master of voices), and tricks two men into being stuck to his car. It feels a bit slapstick again when they can't remove their hands (as does the button to activate this strange mechanism), and it jolted me right back out of the action again. Before you know it, we're back at the base and given an eerie cliffhanger in which they've finally made contact with the people they hope to be inside the capsule, and are treated to the same message playing on repeat.

I just don't know what to do with any of this. Doctor Who is usually very good at blending comedy with drama (Troughton was a dab hand at doing it - scripted or not!), but here it seems that we can have either one or the other. I'm hoping that it's simply a bit of a blip and the story can settle down and pick which way it wants to lean from now on, so I can try to get my head around it!

The one bit of comedy that I did really enjoy today is the emergence of a running joke about Bessie. The Doctor was patching her up at the start of the last story, and she'd broken down by the time that tale was over. Today, it seems to be in another questionable condition and even the Brigadier makes a joke about it ('I'll see you at the Space Centre. If you can make it'). I quite like the idea that even though the Doctor's gotten hold of his dream car now, it's just not reliable enough to keep him going. But it can stick people to the bodywork .Yep.

 a

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

Day 273, The Ambassadors of Death, Episode Two

Dear diary,

“The Ambassadors of Death, a thriller for television in seven parts by David Whitaker (sort of)”

Right the way through today's episode, I had a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that I'd seen it before. I couldn't figure out for the life of me where, or how, and I'd definitely not seen Episode One, or any of the ones that followed this. Then it struck me - this is the first episode of The Quatermass Experiment!

Space shuttle goes up, contact is lost, the shuttle crashes back down (here it's in the middle of a remote location which might as well be the same one from the previous story, in Quatermass it demolishes a house in London), and it turns out that some of the crew are missing. In fairness, we don't yet know that our crew aren't in this shuttle, but they've not been getting any response from inside, and when they do finally manage to make contact, it's just the same message being repeated over and over again. Still, Doctor Who hasn't ever been afraid to 'borrow' ideas from other well-regarded places, and Quatermass is a pretty good template to have in mind when you consider the Seventh Season. I'd be willing to bet money that the production team had this in mind when planning this story.

I'm not really sure what to make of this one so far. Yesterday left me thinking that we were in for another serious drama with elements of comedy injected in all the right places. People insist on calling the stories of Season Seven 'gritty', and it's hard not to simply use that term. Today, the tone has been a bit all over the place. Early on, the Doctor pulls a conjuring trick to hide the recording, and simply pops it back into existence when the time is right. He describes it to Liz as being simple 'transmigration of an object', but the whole thing threw me completely. It was comical, but it just felt very out of place.

We then settled back down for some more (sigh) 'gritty' action, in which the Doctor tricks their prisoner into revealing that he's a member of the military (and it's very well done. It's similar in style to the way that Troughton forced his way into the prison during The War Games, and yet it feels perhaps even more authoritarian when it comes from Pertwee), and then we're treated to a long dialogue-free sequence in which UNIT get the recently returned capsule onto a convoy, before getting ambushed and loosing the thing.

What follows is an odd sequence in which Pertwee puts on a funny voice (it's what he was best known for at the time he started playing the Doctor, so it was bound to come up sooner or later. It does have to be said that he really was the master of voices), and tricks two men into being stuck to his car. It feels a bit slapstick again when they can't remove their hands (as does the button to activate this strange mechanism), and it jolted me right back out of the action again. Before you know it, we're back at the base and given an eerie cliffhanger in which they've finally made contact with the people they hope to be inside the capsule, and are treated to the same message playing on repeat.

I just don't know what to do with any of this. Doctor Who is usually very good at blending comedy with drama (Troughton was a dab hand at doing it - scripted or not!), but here it seems that we can have either one or the other. I'm hoping that it's simply a bit of a blip and the story can settle down and pick which way it wants to lean from now on, so I can try to get my head around it!

The one bit of comedy that I did really enjoy today is the emergence of a running joke about Bessie. The Doctor was patching her up at the start of the last story, and she'd broken down by the time that tale was over. Today, it seems to be in another questionable condition and even the Brigadier makes a joke about it ('I'll see you at the Space Centre. If you can make it'). I quite like the idea that even though the Doctor's gotten hold of his dream car now, it's just not reliable enough to keep him going. But it can stick people to the bodywork .Yep.

 a

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

Day 272: The Ambassadors of Death, Episode One

Dear diary,

It's often said that Doctor Who is quite unlike anything else on TV. It does things differently, and in whichever way it wants to do them. It seems perfectly fitting, then, that the 'cliffhanger sting' an element of the show that's become synonymous with the end of an episode over the last forty years should only make it's first appearance halfway through Season Seven.

In the opening titles.

Actually, it's not even in the opening titles, because for this one story only, they're experimenting with the titles finishing, cutting away to a bit of the story, and then going back into the titles to give us all the episode numbers and writers credits etc! When Doctor Who decides to do something its own way, it really goes for it!

I'm surprised that the 'sting' didn't make more of an impact on me. I'm so used to hearing it crash in over those final seconds of a cliffhanger that it simply feels natural to me that it happens here. It doesn't matter that I've just done two-hundred-and-something other episode without it, because it just sounds right! Truth be told, I had to double check with the end of yesterday's episode to make sure that we hadn't already been hearing it for a while. As time goes by, it'll become one of those things that's so intrinsically linked with Doctor Who, like the police box, or the Daleks.

The Ambassadors of Death is another one of those stories that I simply know nothing about. In this case, I know even less than I did about Doctor Who and the Silurians. I've had the video tape for ages but simply never got around to watching it, and by the time the DVD was released I was already vaguely thinking about doing a marathon, so it went unwatched onto the shelf in anticipation. Aside from the images of the space-suited figures on the cover (who I'm assuming are the bad guys for this story, and thus hidden away inside that other spaceship), I know absolutely nothing about the story.

It's exciting, because it means I'm going into this one completely cold. In some ways, it feels a bit like UNIT-by-numbers based on what we've seen in the series before. You've got a high tech base using technology that's a little in advance of the viewer's own time (Doctor Who and the Silurians), a reporter on site to cover the events for the masses (The Web of Fear - not technically a UNIT story, but close enough), a gritty industrial location (The Invasion, Spearhead From Space), and a chance for UNIT to engage in a big battle (all of the above, really). While it could give this story the same issues that something like Fury From the Deep had - feeling as though it's just going over old ground - all these elements are presented in an interesting enough way to keep me interested, and it's borrowing elements from stories over the last few years, as opposed to simply the ones around it.

The big fight sequence, which takes up a large chunk of today's episode, is my chance to say 'I wish I could see this in high definition' and get that out of the way early. As ever, the location is a really interesting one, and there's some shots that I'd love to see in the highest possible quality. There's one particular shot of the Brigadier, as he comes to a stop and fires his gun in several different directions as the battle rages on around him, which looks great. The rest of UNIT, though… They're really rubbish, aren't they? Half the battle seems to be the soldiers getting shot down, while the other side only sustains one or two injuries. I'm hoping they'll get a chance to redeem themselves before the story is out, or the government will be cutting the Brigadier's funding!

The Doctor is continuing to grow on me, much to my surprise. The rather arrogant air surrounding the Third Doctor is one of the things that I've always hated about the character, but I'm finding myself really enjoying it now. I wonder if it's simply because it's in contrast to the Second Doctor's persona, and I'm enjoying the different approach? A personal favourite from today's episode has to be the way he walks into space command, calling down the lift shaft that he simply 'doesn't have' a pass, before striding across the room and asking the most senior-looking person questions.

We also get to see him working on the TARDIS console in this episode, marking the first time that we've seen it in colour. I've always thought it a bit odd that they kept it green even after the shift (it was green for the black and white episodes, because it showed up better that way in monochrome), but it actually looks quite good! There's a bit of messing around with sending Liz a few seconds into the future - something I'm sure they repeat with Jo Grant at some point - and it's quite nice to see the Doctor back (almost) in his natural habitat.

You have to wonder if the reason the Third Doctor is so interested in working on machinery is so that he can tinker with the TARDIS console. Either there's a little voice in his head mid-regeneration that decides it'll be a handy trait to have, or the Time Lords have simply given him that interest to keep him occupied during his exile, safe in the knowledge that he'll never be able to get the ship working again. I'm wondering, though… how did he get the console out from the ship? It's still stuck in the shape of a police box, and those doors aren't very wide…

 a

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

Day 271: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Seven

Dear diary,

While I didn't really know all that much about Doctor Who and the Silurians, the one thing that I was aware of is the ending. I knew that it finished up with the Brigadier blowing up the remaining creatures in the caves. For some reason, in my mind, it came in the form of an airstrike, with bombs being dropped across the moor (perhaps not on Who's budget, though!), but it's the one thing that I did know was coming.

And then, I went and forgot it! As the Silurians start to put themselves back into hibernation about three quarters of the way through today's episode, I started to think that it was a bit of an anti-climax to the story. It was only when the Brigadier started to act a bit shifty towards his scientific team that I suddenly remembered what was going to happen - and then it's bye bye SIlurians.

I hadn't anticipated just how much this is a story all about science verses the military, though. It's present right the way through from the Doctor telling Liz that he doesn't attend anywhere on command, via his squabbles with the Brigadier as the story has progressed and into these final moments. The same story is even playing out deep down in the caves, among the Silurian creatures, as the leader listens and agrees to learn from the humans, while his more war-like friends plot to wipe us from the surface of the planet.

The thing that really sells me on the ending is Jon Pertwee. Didn't expect I'd ever be saying that, considering my dislike for his incarnation over the years, but he really is brilliant here, isn't he. You can really feel the sadness when he talks about all the scientific knowledge that the Silurians held being wasted by this action - and then he describes it as simply being murder. It's an unusual ending to the story, but it really works. I also love the way that Liz tries to justify it by suggesting that the Brigadier must have had orders from above, even though we know that's not the truth.

It's an unusual move in some ways, because it doesn't leave you exactly enamoured with the Brigadier. It's the same kind of decision that cost Harriet Jones her place in Downing Street during The Christmas Invasion, and it's done for similar reasons. I'm kind of glad that they're not afraid to show things like this - there's no reason that all of the Doctor's associates should be whiter-than-white, and if you're going to give one of them a morally-ambiguous action to take, you might as well go large-scale and wipe out an entire species! I hope that they don't just forget about this as we move forward. An event like this needs to make an impact on the characters, and if I thought the Brigadier's relationship with the Doctor was frosty at the start of this story, I think it might pale in comparison to what we might see tomorrow!

I'm sorry to say it, but the thing that has let this story down for me is the Silurians themselves. I've praised the overall design already, and I still think it works, but they just look a bit rubbish in practice. Today we get to see lots of examples of them wobbling their heads around to make their telepathic powers work, and it just looks silly. Everything else about their city is so well designed, that it's a shame to see them coming across so poorly. I think - on balance - I might prefer the new series design.

As for the story itself, I'm really pleasantly surprised. I was so dreading these seven-part stories, but this one has set us off on a great start. THe story has changed direction so many times over the last week that I've had plenty to keep me interested all along. I'm just hopeful that the rest of Season Seven can hold my interest like this…

 a

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

Day 270: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Six

Dear diary,

There was a point when watching Spearhead From Space where I nearly described it as looking like a 1970s Doctor Who move. It was simply down to the fact that it was all shot on film instead of videotape, which gave it just the right texture to give that effect. Actually, though, I think Doctor Who and the Silurians is playing out almost like a feature film itself!

I really think that you could take this script, with minimal trims here and there (to bring it down from a total running time of almost three hours), and put it on the big screen as a Doctor Who movie. It's sort of got everything you want. You've got the Doctor doing all his clever science stuff, assisted by Liz (here she's mostly reduced to running around collecting things for the Doctor or giving out the antibiotics, but it's her suggestion that leads towards a cure), while the Brigadier mans operations and prepares for a battle as lizard men rise from beneath the Earth. The introduction of the virus has given this story a real shot in the arm (I know. I'm sorry. Please excuse that pun…), and has changed the playing field from being the single moor to the entire world. Before today's episode is out, we've seen pockets of London infected, and there's the first international death in Paris, too.

People (myself included, it has to be said) often think of large-scale invasions in Doctor Who being a hallmark of the more recent series, but here we are in 1970 with some fab location filming at Marylebone station which really gives this story some size. During The Invasion, one of my biggest complaints was that while the whole city - heck, the whole world - was under threat from the Cyberman invasion, everywhere felt really empty. Most of the action takes place in the IE property, so we don't see a great many people being drawn into the story.

Here, we've got the complete opposite. Marylebone station is absolutely packed with people (of course it is! It always is!), and while your gaze is usually focussed on Masters as he alights from the train and woozily makes his way towards a taxi, the hustle and bustle in the background can't help but to make things seem more real. Perhaps the crowning moment is a high shot a little later, in which people are dropping like flies in the station, and the action seems to carry on for ages. Right into the background people are being affected, but we get to see it right in the centre of the screen in a place as busy and as important as this.

(Oddly enough, I've been on trains today that passed me through busy London rail stations, and I did worry that I might be struck down by this Silurian virus. I got even more suspicious when I ran into Steven Moffat boarding the same train this afternoon. Thankfully, it's now 9pm, and I'm feeling fine...)

Like several things in this story, I never knew any of this was here. I couldn't have told you that the Silurians planned to wipe out humanity with a virus, and I couldn't have told you that any of this story took place in London, aside from that opening scene of the Doctor working on Bessie. UNIT really does feel vital to the safety of the city, and all of this is really impressing me. The only thing is… I'm desperate to see all the station sequences cleaned up in HD! How stunning would they look!?!

Yesterday, I briefly praised the performance of several members of the guest cast in this story, and today we've managed to lose another two of them. I can't let them go without mentioning Peter Miles' rather fantastic final scene. He rants and raves at the Brigadier, even going so far as to jump on the table and strangle the man at one point. It's ridiculous. It's over the top. It's overacting of the highest level.

And it's brilliant! I was completely captivated, and despite the fact that it's one of the largest performances we've seen in the entire series, it's completely right for the moment. Dr Lawrence has been building up to this moment ever since the first episode, and it's great to see him going out so boldly now. It gives us a great chance to take a real look at the make-up for the virus, too, which is looking really quite effective.

 Day 269: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Five

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

Day 269: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Five

Dear diary,

In 2010, when the Silurians made their return to Doctor Who, several parts of fandom were up in arms about the pretty radical redesign. It has to be said, I've never minded the look of the new Silurians. I love the face masks worn by the soldiers (even if they are a way of keeping the costs down), and can you imagine Jenny falling for Madame Vastra if she'd looked like one of the Wenley Moor lot?

Still, I've never appreciated before just what a great design this one is. Looking at a proposed design for The Hungry Earth, which is far more in keeping with this original version, does make me a little sorry not to have kept with it. Certainly, the redesign of the Silurians is the most drastic one we've had since the series returned - many of the other revived creators have stayed much closer to the things we'd seen before. The costumes for the creatures here aren't the best, I'll admit - the very obvious join between the head piece and the rest of the body is a real let down, and it's a shame it's so visible - but the actually look of the creatures is a great one. Where everything completely falls apart for me is when they actually start to speak.

Because I've never seen Doctor Who and the Silurians before, and because it's been so long since I last watched Warriors of the Deep, I'm not sure I could remember if the classic Silurians even could speak. That seems a bit silly in retrospect, 'cos they're quite chatty little lizards, but having spent the first three episodes watching just snippets of the creatures moving around in the corner of the screen, they'd built up a bit of a mystery. Even though I knew what was coming, I was still drawn in my it.

The voices are terrible, though. They come across, simply, as 'actor in a rubber monster suit'. Yeah, yeah, I know that's exactly what they are, but it just seems painfully obvious to me. I hate to admit it, but these voices really are bringing down my enjoyment of the story a little. We get a discussion today of the reasons the Silurians have taken to hibernation, and why they're only starting to wake up now. They all seem to make perfect sense to me, and Malcolm Hulke has clearly given it some thought. The entire description, though, left me cold, because I was listening to it through that ridiculous voice.

I don't know how I'd imagined they might talk. Maybe a bit like an Ice Warrior perhaps? They're both lizard-esque, after all. I almost want to hear them talking in a proper, RP accent, simply so I can enjoy the drama on display without this bringing things down. Ah well, I suppose you can't have it all!

And I can't really complain, because elsewhere, this story is boasting one hell of a guest cast! Until his death just a few episodes ago, we had Fulton Mackay, making his only appearance in Doctor Who. We've also got Geoffrey Palmer who's been in pretty much everything over the years, and will be making a couple of returns to the programme over the rest of this marathon. He's turning in an especially nice performance. It helps that when he first appeared, I got to play that favourite game, in which you point at the character every time he's on screen and say aloud 'Oh, it's him! What-his-name. Thingy. What's he been in?' unit lI suddenly realised who it was and felt a little bit silly.

Also making the first of a few appearances in the programme is Paul Darrow, who's taking things very seriously without Colin Baker to act up against. I'm rather liking his performance, too. And then there's Peter Miles, who gets an awful lot of praise for his performance in Genesis of the Daleks from a few years after this, but he's a great character here, too. With all of these fine actors turning up, I've not got any right to complain about a few silly Silurian voices really, have I?

(They are bloody stupid voices, though…)

 a

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

Day 268: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Four

Dear diary,

As this episode began, and we got to watch back yesterday's cliffhanger, in which the Silurian advances on the Doctor, and Pertwee attempts to stretch his eyes wider and wider, I wondered if I should make a note about the way he reacts to seeing the alien for the first time. After all, he didn't really get a chance to react to the Nestene before it started to strangle him, so this could be his moment for encountering a new alien menace for the very first time…

And then the most brilliant thing happened. The Doctor held out his hand to shake adding, 'hello! Are you a Silurian?'

I actively had to pause the DVD, because I was too busy hooting with laughter. How utterly brilliant! I mentioned yesterday that I'd managed to avoid knowing all that much about this story, but how has that moment passed me by for all these years? It's a great way to come out from the cliffhanger, and a great way to set up this Doctor and his way of dealing with other creatures.

I'm so very glad to see that the ongoing tension between the Brigadier and the Doctor is all turning out to be part of the major plot in this story. It's not simply that the pair don't see eye-to-eye, but rather that they're very different men. The Brigadier is all about simply moving into the caves to flush out the problem, whereas the Doctor knows that there's something more of interest to do. The theme of this entire tale can best be summed up by Miss Dawson: 'we must destroy them before they destroy us!'

It struck me today that perhaps the reason the Doctor isn't too keen on his former friend at the moment is because he's effectively serving as his jailer. It's the Time Lords who have sentenced the Doctor to life stuck on Earth at this time, but the Brigadier calling him in for missions simply reminds him of that fact. Every time he's called in it just hammers home the point that he has to get involved - because he's not going anywhere!

He loves Human Beings, but I can see why they might not be his favourite species at just this moment. I always associate the Tenth Doctor as being the most anti military incarnation, but the Third Doctor here is just as clear about his dislike for the ways of mankind. He's furious at the thought that there's a whole new race to study and they're already preparing to head down there and wipe it out. No wonder that he's interested in listening to the Silurian's side of the story and trying to branch out - he'd probably rather share his exile on Earth with them!

There came a point in today's episode where Dr. Lawrence and the Permanent Under-Secretary discussed the pressure of running such an expensive operation as this facility, and spoke of how the power failures were a potential risk to Lawrence's career, and how much money had been poured into the project, that I suddenly realised something. I was watching a proper drama. Forget all the lizard people and their pet dinosaur in the caves, this was a real, proper, drama.

And I loved it! We're halfway into a seven-part story and watching several minutes of government workers discuss the practicalities of running a power plant. It should be rubbish! I should be sitting here, telling you how boring it is, and how much I wish they'd just get on with it, and how if they cut things like this out, the whole story could be much shorter and much better… but I don't need to. Because it's all vital. The entire programme feels as though it's growing up, and as much as I loved all the rushing about and comical stuff n the Troughton era, this feels like the perfect reaction to it all. The programme is taking itself seriously, without going over the top, and it really works…

 a

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

Day 268: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Four

Dear diary,

As this episode began, and we got to watch back yesterday's cliffhanger, in which the Silurian advances on the Doctor, and Pertwee attempts to stretch his eyes wider and wider, I wondered if I should make a note about the way he reacts to seeing the alien for the first time. After all, he didn't really get a chance to react to the Nestene before it started to strangle him, so this could be his moment for encountering a new alien menace for the very first time…

And then the most brilliant thing happened. The Doctor held out his hand to shake adding, 'hello! Are you a Silurian?'

I actively had to pause the DVD, because I was too busy hooting with laughter. How utterly brilliant! I mentioned yesterday that I'd managed to avoid knowing all that much about this story, but how has that moment passed me by for all these years? It's a great way to come out from the cliffhanger, and a great way to set up this Doctor and his way of dealing with other creatures.

I'm so very glad to see that the ongoing tension between the Brigadier and the Doctor is all turning out to be part of the major plot in this story. It's not simply that the pair don't see eye-to-eye, but rather that they're very different men. The Brigadier is all about simply moving into the caves to flush out the problem, whereas the Doctor knows that there's something more of interest to do. The theme of this entire tale can best be summed up by Miss Dawson: 'we must destroy them before they destroy us!'

It struck me today that perhaps the reason the Doctor isn't too keen on his former friend at the moment is because he's effectively serving as his jailer. It's the Time Lords who have sentenced the Doctor to life stuck on Earth at this time, but the Brigadier calling him in for missions simply reminds him of that fact. Every time he's called in it just hammers home the point that he has to get involved - because he's not going anywhere!

He loves Human Beings, but I can see why they might not be his favourite species at just this moment. I always associate the Tenth Doctor as being the most anti military incarnation, but the Third Doctor here is just as clear about his dislike for the ways of mankind. He's furious at the thought that there's a whole new race to study and they're already preparing to head down there and wipe it out. No wonder that he's interested in listening to the Silurian's side of the story and trying to branch out - he'd probably rather share his exile on Earth with them!

There came a point in today's episode where Dr. Lawrence and the Permanent Under-Secretary discussed the pressure of running such an expensive operation as this facility, and spoke of how the power failures were a potential risk to Lawrence's career, and how much money had been poured into the project, that I suddenly realised something. I was watching a proper drama. Forget all the lizard people and their pet dinosaur in the caves, this was a real, proper, drama.

And I loved it! We're halfway into a seven-part story and watching several minutes of government workers discuss the practicalities of running a power plant. It should be rubbish! I should be sitting here, telling you how boring it is, and how much I wish they'd just get on with it, and how if they cut things like this out, the whole story could be much shorter and much better… but I don't need to. Because it's all vital. The entire programme feels as though it's growing up, and as much as I loved all the rushing about and comical stuff n the Troughton era, this feels like the perfect reaction to it all. The programme is taking itself seriously, without going over the top, and it really works…

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

Day 267: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Three

Dear diary,

There's something about the Silurian's rather unique point-of-view shots that really works for me, and the dash of red to represent the creature's third eye is a great example of the programme taking advantage of the fact that it's not being made in colour. And yet… it's not the most practical of sights, is it? The Silurians have a whole eye extra to the number that we humans sport, and yet their vision seems to be massively impaired when we see from their point of view.

Still, the reveal of the creature in full at the end of this episode is very well done, and I think I'm going to have to rate it as being one of the best that I've seen since starting this marathon. Throughout today's 25 minutes, I've been swinging back and forth in my feelings towards it, so I'm glad things have come out on top. My worry - essentially - was that we'd just have the creature suddenly… sprung on us. For all my praise the other day about how good the Auton looked when we just cut to it in the forest, I didn't want my first shot of the Silurian to be done in quite the same way.

On the other hand, as the episode went on and we were given more and more glimpses of scaled hand, or a hint of claw, or indistinguishable shapes behind the foliage out on the moor… I worried that we'd perhaps not get to see one of the creatures until the next episode. I needn't have worried, though, because of course the story has pulled it off quite well. It's strange in a way because the cliffhanger effectively hinges on the creature simply strolling into the sitting room of a cottage - but it works!

I'm also pleased today to see that Bessie is actually being put to some use. In my mind, the car is just there as a part of the Third Doctor's era, but I'm glad that it's actually useful as opposed to just being a gimmick. Obviously, if the Doctor didn't own a car then they'd have surely patrolled the moor in a generic UNIT jeep, but there's something quite nice about seeing the little yellow roadster bounding down the old dirt tracks!

I'm also pleased to see the way that both the Doctor and the Brigadier react to finally making it inside the locked barn. Our favourite Man From UNIT stands in the doorway, scanning the room for the potential threat, while the Doctor brushes right past him and immediately to check on Liz. They each have a very distinct function within this set up, and it's nice to see them being so clearly drawn. Of course the Brigadier comes to check on Liz a few moments later, but his first priority is to stop the creature escaping - and quite right, too.

I'm finding myself entirely surprised by Doctor Who and the Silurians. It's another one of those stories that everyone tells you is important, and is brilliant, and has to be seen, but I've always somewhat shunned it. When the Beneath the Surface DVD box set came out a few years ago (containing this story, The Sea Devils, and Warriors from the Deep), I actively decided that I didn't want to pick it up right away. It was two Third Doctor stories after all! In the event, I did actually purchase it on day of release - but only because the TV studio I was doing my degree in at the time was at the end of a street brimming with second-hand DVD shops. At one point, there were seven of them between my flat and the studio reception, and I used to pop into them all over the week.

One of my favourites had the Beneath the Surface DVDs in the window on the day of release, each marked up separately, at a rather nice £4 each. It doesn't seem all that impressive when you can pick the set up for little more than a tenner online nowadays, but at the time it was just what I needed to kick me into buying a copy of this story.

And yet… I've still never watched it. I've not watched The Sea Devils, either. I picked all three up that day because I knew I'd not want to double up later on, but the two Pertwee stories simply went on the shelf. I'm quite glad about that, though. It means that I'm coming to this story completely cold, and it's probably benefitting from it. Apart from the fact that there's Silurians in it, I don't think there's a great deal more I could tell you about the story, and that's rare for Doctor Who. It's taken a while to get here, but it's turning out to be worth the wait!

 a

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

Day 266: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode Two

Dear diary,

I’m a bit surprised how much Liz is left to just get on with things by herself. In the last story, she doesn’t even properly meet the Doctor until the latter half of Episode Two, and in this one the Doctor seems to simply be leaving her behind a lot. ‘No, no, Liz, you go and take a look through the personnel files, while we take a look at the big scientific stuff,’ or ‘the men will go and take a look down the caves… why don’t you wait here?’ We even get it with Liz being left behind to examine the barn forensically, while the Doctor and the Brigadier head off to question the farmer’s wife.

In some ways, I feel as though this fact should bother me. In the back of my mind, there's a little voice that says 'the Brigadier is acting like more of a companion, and he doesn't even really get on with the Doctor!', but the rest of my mind is simply drowning it out. Liz feels like a far more mature character than I'm used to. Jamie, Zoe, Victoria, Ben and Polly… many of our companions over the last few years have been little more than children - it was really Steven that last filled the 'grown up' role in the Doctor's team.

With Liz, we've got a companion who's quite capable of being left behind by herself to simply get on with whatever task news doing. Zoe was fiercely intelligent, but she lacked the skills to interact with a world that was more than stings of data. Liz is a character who has the knowledge (I'd like to have seen them ask Jamie to stay behind and perform forensic tests!) suited to this role, and is also enough of a grown up to not need the Doctor by her side. It's a very different dynamic, and I really quite like it.

I've already mentioned the Brigadier not especially getting on with the Doctor, and I discussed it at some length yesterday, but it really is fascinating to me. I'm so used to this pair being such friends that it almost feels out of place that they shouldn't be seeing eye-to-eye all that much here. When the Brig finds out that his scientific advisor has gone off down the caves all by himself, he states that the Doctor 'deserves all he gets' as a result of his actions, and he doesn't seem all that relieved when the man turns up safe and sound. I know that things will thaw between them as the stories go by, but it's really an interesting way of playing the two characters, and I've never know that it was here. It almost adds another layer to their friendship, knowing that they've had to overcome the struggles with this incarnation.

The thing that really appeals to me about this story, over a quarter of the way in, is that we haven't actually seen a Silurian yet. Oh, it feels like we have, but it's all been glimpses of their hands, or shots of them from a distance, where they're shrouded in darkness, or lit from behind by the sun. The closest that we've actually come to seeing one of the creatures in full is through the drawings on the wall in Episode One. Because I know what a Silurian looks like, I'm quite impressed by the artwork (if anything, I'm a bit surprised the line drawings haven't turned up on one of those retro Doctor Who notebooks or something…), but I'm really liking that we still don't really know what the menace is.

I've spent so long worrying about this string of seven-part stories that I really thought the timings would be all over the place, but Doctor Who and the Silurians is keeping me hooked pretty well…

Don't forget that you can 'like' the 50 Year Diary's Facebook Page, where I tend to witter on about things, mostly. Occasionally, I even post a photo of something!

 a

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

Day 265: Doctor Who and the Silurians, Episode One

Dear diary,

I can't tell you how much I love the fact that the Doctor and the Brigadier aren't the best of friends. They get off to a bit of a ropey start right back in The Web of Fear, where we're actually led to suspect that Lethbridge-Stewart might be under the controlled of the Great Intelligence, but by the time he shows up again for The Invasion, the Doctor greets him as an old friend, and he's pleased to see him. Even during one of his few lucid moments in the hospital during the last story, he seems quite pleased to set eyes on the man again.

Of course, before Spearhead From Space is out, the Doctor has tried to flee from the planet leaving the Brigadier in a bit of a mess with a mystery continuing to build. By the end of the story, they seem to be on pretty good terms, but here it's back to not seeing eye-to-eye. It all starts right at the beginning of the episode, with the Doctor seeming to resent being summoned off to a meeting when he's in the middle of patching up his new wheels. Eventually, it's manifested in an argument between the pair over the dismissal of the Doctor's evidence, and it all makes for quite good drama.

I've always thought of the Doctor and the Brigadier as being great friends - mostly because that's how they react to each other during the 1980s, and it's a period of the programme I'm much more familiar with. It's great to see them butting heads here, and it feels quite daring. I'm not entirely sure whose side I'm on, since I've seen the Doctor's evidence, so I'm willing to believe him, but I can see the Brigadier's stance!

The Doctor only seems to enjoy UNIT when it suits him. As I've said, he hates the idea of being pulled away from a last afternoon doing up the car, and when Dr Meredith asks if he's with the organisation, the Doctor answers 'yes, depressing, isn't it?' Conversely, when he's refused access to a patient he wants to study, he's quite happy to wave his credentials around, claiming that being a member of UNIT gives him the authority to do exactly as he wants.

It's only five episode in, but already it's a very different portrayal of the Doctor to the one I've grown used to with Troughton. Whereas he'd charm his way into places or simply sneak in when everyone was looking the other way, it's much more this Doctor's style to make demands and simply do whatever the hell he wants to. I think it's this personality that's often rubbed me up the wrong way in the past, but it's working quite well here, and it's all adding to this sense of tension he feels at slotting into this new role.

The big disappointment about today's episode has to be the fact that we're back to studio videotape. Having really enjoyed the experience of an all-film and location story in Spearhead From Space, opening here in some studio-based caves was just crushing. It was probably less of an issue following this journey from the Spearhead DVD release; though it would have still looked markedly different, it would likely have been less of a shift.

As it is, I'm left with the look I most commonly associate with the Pertwee era. Despite the stunning work of the Restoration Team over the years, some of these episodes aren't the best quality sources to work from. There's a specific look to the stories of the early 1970s, and this one captures it perfectly.

Still, I can't complain too much, because things are whizzing along at a great pace. One of the things that's always put me off Season Seven (and the reason that Spearhead is the only story from this year that I've tried to experience before) is the fact that it's mostly made up of seven-part stories. I've said on many occasions before that I think three episodes is about perfect most of the time, so the thought of three consecutive seven-parters has always seemed more than a little daunting.

But here, its as though they don't have enough time to get in everything they want. There's several places where we cut hurriedly from one scene to another, allowing for a fair chunk of time to pass in between. It's most noticeable at the cliffhanger, when the Doctor moves very suddenly from considering the unusual description of claw marks in the coroner's report on a dead worker to being halfway down a ladder into the cave. If the story can hold a pace like this throughout the next six episodes, it'll keep me very happy indeed!