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

Day 311: The Day of the Daleks, Episode One

Dear diary,

One of the things that I keep banging on about in relation to this marathon is the idea that it makes me experience Doctor Who in a set order. When I look at the DVDs on my shelf, I can see that there's Dalek stories pretty regularly for the first four years, then a gap followed by another four years of solid Dalek tales, and then they come intermittently for the rest of the 20th century series. They're all just 'facts'. Watching everything in order from the start means that I get to really experience those gaps… and that makes them seem all the more bizarre.

The gap between The Evil of the Daleks and this story is around four and a half years. That's just about equal to the distance between the first broadcast of Planet of the Dead and the publication of today's entry. That feels like a huge amount of time! From my point of view in the marathon, I last saw a full Dalek story in late June, and so much has happened since then.

I think I've always just found it strange that after so long away from the series, the Daleks suddenly come trundling back in once again, and finally establish themselves as a key part of the Doctor Who formula. Over the last four seasons, they've proven that the Daleks aren't entirely necessary for Doctor Who to survive any more, but now that they've turned up once again they're forever ingrained as a key factor. Maybe the same would happen if they'd brought back the Voord in the early 1970s? Maybe not.

Over the course of the 1960s stories, I found myself falling for the Daleks. I'd never really been a fan before, but suddenly I could completely understand their appeal. Making their return here and now sadly reminds me why I was never fond of them in the first place - the Daleks in the colour stories always tend to look a bit tatty. In some ways, I shouldn't be all that surprised. Parts of the Dalek props used here have been turning up ever since the first Dalek story in 1963, so they've been through a lot since then, but all the same it's a bit of a let down. Such a song and dance was made about their return to the series that I'd rather hoped they would look fantastic, at least in their first colour appearance.

Still, it's probably not fair for me to really judge them yet. In traditional Dalek style, they don't properly arrive until the cliffhanger for Episode One (though we do get a brief glimpse of the gold version about half-way through the episode). Everything else on display, I'm rather enjoying. The Doctor still comes across as a bit pompous (the cheese scene is often cited as an example of this characteristic), but he's back to being somewhat nicer to Jo. She gets to have some fun scenes with Benton and Yates, and Nick Courtney has plenty of chances to do his 'exasperated' acting.

In some ways, it feels like we're back to the kind of story that I enjoyed so much in Season Seven. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but it probably doesn't hurt that the Doctor's got the console out of the TARDIS again and there's a scene of time displacement not all that dissimilar to the one from the opening episode of The Ambassadors of Death. It does lead me to wonder, though… When do UNIT settle down into a HQ?

I've always thought of UNIT as having their HQ in an old country house. It's where they're based in The Three Doctors, for example, and the same lab set turns up in Planet of the Spiders and Robot. I'm sure I've read somewhere that the house in Pyramids of Mars is the same one (or becomes the foundations to the UNIT version at least). When they appear under St Pancras for Spearhead, I assumed that it was because they were still new and waiting for a permanent location. The rest of that season sees the Doctor setting up shop on a temporary basis wherever they happened to be that week. Season Eight then gives us several very different looking settings for them to work from. And now today we seem to be set inside a castle of some sort, judging from the architecture! It looks quite nice and all (though the Doctor's still painting his doors with that horrible green paint), but it just seems odd.

I'm glad to have the pepper pots back, no matter how beaten up they might seem. I'm hoping that the next few episodes will help me rekindle my love for them - and for the series as a whole…

a

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

Day 310: The Dæmons, Episode Five

Dear diary,

I think that my dislike of The Dæmons is possibly more the fault of Season Eight than simply this story. It's the same problem that Fury From the Deep had coming towards the end of Season Five - I've simply had enough. Barry Letts has commented over the years (indeed, he does so on the DVD for this story) that having the master show up in every single story simply didn't work, and I think that's where my issue lies - I'm bored of the Master, so I'm spending a chunk of this story counting down to his eventual capture.

It's not helped by the fact that - on the whole - Season Eight has been a real let down. I spent so long heading towards the Pertwee era and simply dreading it, but then the stories from Spearhead through Inferno really gave me hope. Well, with the possible exception of Ambassadors. Since then, though, I seem to be giving out a lot more middle-of-the-road scores, and I'm just not enjoying the series in the way I'd become accustomed to.

As I say, it's not really the fault of The Dæmons. I'm sure that the story is actually quite good. It's got a reputation as being the Pertwee story, so it must be doing something right. Indeed, today has got several great special effects going for it. The shots of Azal growing to full size look brilliant (one shot in particular, of his head against the cavern ceiling is probably the best use of CSO we've ever had), and I'm even rather fond of the heat barrier being opened up. It's not the greatest effect in the world, but it's exactly what I was expecting, and they pull it off well.

The crowing moment has to be the church blowing up, though. Supposedly, there were complaints at the time when people thought the BBC had blown up a real church just to provide the conclusion to a Doctor Who story. I've always thought that the idea was ridiculous, but looking at it here, I can see why some people might have believed it! The effect is brilliant, and the explosion couldn't be better (truth be told, this production team are very good at explosions. They're almost always gorgeous!)

It's very nice to see the season ending on our regulars having fun, too. I loved the ending of Inferno leaving the Doctor and the Brigadier on slightly awkward terms, but it's good to see that changing a little more as time goes by. It's a lovely note to end on, and the final shot of the camera pulling back out to show the village as a whole is beautiful.

And yet… it still hasn't struck a chord with me. There came a time about half-way through today's episode where I suddenly realised that I didn't really have the first clue what was going on. I was watching it, and I was paying attention, but it was going in one ear and out the other as the images flashed about a bit on the screen. Throw in a conclusion where this all-powerful creature is destroyed by Jo taking a step to the left and I was completely out of the loop.

I think - as with Fury From the Deep - this is one of those stories that I'll need to watch again, once I've finished the marathon. Watched away from all these other Third Doctor stories, and with (hopefully) fond memories of this team, I may find a lot more to like in here.

There's no stopping, though, and tomorrow I set out onto Season Nine! It's the first story in a while to not feature the Master turning up (hooray! I've grown to like the man, but I need a break!), and it's the first time I've had a Dalek story since June, which feels like ages ago. Here's hoping that it can get me back on track again, and that the ninth season can help move the Pertwee years back up in my estimations again…

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

Day 309: The Dæmons, Episode Four

While I'm sorry to say that I'm still not really bothered at all by The Dæmons, I am pleased to report that today is by far my favourite episode of the serial. There's just so many moments in here that have really appealed to me, and most of all, it's raised a few laughs, too.

This is the point where I start to become a yo-yo, and I tell you that despite my dislike for the way the Doctor was behaving in yesterday's episode, I've really enjoyed him today! I knew that things were on the up when the Brigadier asked the Doctor if he was positive that he knew what he was doing, and he replies 'my dear fellow, I can't wait to find out!' The whole exchange reminded me of a similar one between the Second Doctor and Jamie (in which the Highlander asks the Doctor if he knows what he's doing and the response comes as 'oh what a question! Of course I don't!')

From there, we get another action sequence as the Doctor hurries back to the village on a motorbike and finds himself shot at (still nothing all that special in the direction, sadly), and then the best scene that we've had in the entire story, as the Doctor finds himself trapped by a troupe of sinister Morris Dancers. The whole scene of entrapment is great to start with, as it moves from playful fun to something genuinely scary, but I think it's the following scene in which the Doctor is revealed to be a 'wizard' which really works for me.

I'm pleased to see that Bessie's remote control feature is being used for an actual plot reason - it seems just that bit too convenient at the start of the story when he used it to trick Jo, having installed it at just the right time - and it's a brilliant sequence from start to finish. When the Third Doctor is having fun, I think I can enjoy him a whole lot more, and this scene is the perfect example of that.

Perhaps the thing that's striking me the most about this story is the sets. I don't often draw attention to them, because they don't always stand out in every single story, but the ones we've got here are pretty special. I think it's a testament to the work that's been put in that I spent several minutes today trying to figure out if Jo's room at the pub was a set or filmed on location with everything else (I think I'm right in saying that The Dæmons has one of the highest film-to-video ratios of the era, so it's not too unbelievable). It's the little set of steps down to the door that does it - you don't normally get that kind of attention to detail.

The set of the cavern is pretty good too, and again there's a set of steps to help give the space a slightly different feel. The lighting used here is pretty good, too, which always helps. I can't help but wonder how Azal fits, though. We're constantly told how tall he can grow, and it would somewhat undermine the cliffhanger if he has to start crouching down under a low ceiling after a while…

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

Day 308: The Dæmons, Episode Three

Dear diary,

When I wrote yesterday about this story reminding me of Quatermass and the Pit, I feared that it might be flippant of me. I was basing the link simply on the scene of the Doctor and Jo exploring the hidden spaceship and the fact that it had recently been discovered unexpectedly during a dig. Actually, though, this is very much like that third Quatermass serial, innit?

The mysterious spaceship turns out to be the craft of a species who periodically visits Earth and who have inspired our mythology - particularly when it comes to horned creatures being the devil. I have to say that this similarity isn't really heeling The Dæmons win me over any more, because suddenly I'm just too busy trying to spot other connections.

Earlier today, I was tying to explain the issues of 'popular' stories to my other half. I mused that The Dæmons probably isn't any better or worse than Colony in Space, but because I'm coming into the story expecting something from years of reputation, everything's just a bit of a let down. I'm automatically marking this story down a few points because it's just not as good as I'd expected it to be, and I think it's the same issue that's plagued stories from Evil of the Daleks to Fury From the Deep.

The thing is, there's still a lot to like here! It's the perfect example of the Pertwee years as being action packed, in a scene that sees a helicopter chase end with a big explosion! The Doctor takes off on a motorbike! Jo gets thrown (gently) from Bessie! I'm just not bothered by any of it. The direction isn't bad, but it's just very workaday. I was excited to see the return of Christopher Barry because the last two stories he directed fared pretty well with me… but then I remembered that neither existed in the archives, so what I'd enjoyed were the telesnaps! Going back to Barry's last surviving story - The Romans - I seem to recall it was nothing special there, either.

The Master is very good in this one, and it's nice to see him getting the chance to really use his powers of persuasion. He's somewhat hampered by calling in the gargoyle when things get out of hand, though. The design is nice enough, but when it's prancing around on the screen it just looks a bit naff - nowhere near as scary as I'd always assumed it to be. The effects when it disposes of someone are quite good, but it's still just a bit of a let down for me. At least Roger Delgado really suits those glasses.

To some extent, I'd been enjoying the relationship between the Doctor and Jo, and it had been helping me along a bit, but today he's just downright dismissive of her in places. It's the kind of character that I remember the Third Doctor as being, and I think it's the one I always associate with a dislike of the era. In yesterday's episode when he asks Jo if she failed latin as well as science, it comes across as a bit of a joke: just some banter between good friends. Today, he comes across as simply being a bit of an arse, and it's not really helping me to enjoy the story…

Once UNIT are properly in the village and we can get a big, end-of-season battle, I think I may start to get more involved, but it's looking increasingly like The Dæmons may end up on the pile of 'classics' that just don't appeal to me…

 a

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

Day 307: The Dæmons, Episode Two

Dear diary,

This is very suited to being the last story of the season, because it feels like the final day of school for the year where, instead of boring old lessons, the teachers stick on a film (When I left school, Pirates of the Caribbean had just been released on DVD and video, so it was always the film we saw. Problem was that each lesson was only an hour long, so I’ve seen the first half of that film more times that I care to count), and you get to spend the day out of uniform.

The Doctor and Jo have gone off on their own mission (as with the opening to The Mind of Evil, it’s lovely to see them pairing off without UNIT in tow to begin with, as it really helps their friendship seem more genuine than Jo simply being assigned to pass the Doctor test tubes), Benton and Yates have gone for a ride in the Brigadier’s helicopter and they’re both out of uniform, and the Brig himself has taken the night off and spent part of today’s episode tucked up in bed.

I think this is the kind of ‘UNIT era’ that I’ve always had in mind when picturing ‘the Pertwee Years’. Way back under The Invasion, when I complained that the UNIT of the 1970s was never as vast or well funded as it had been when fighting the Cybermen, this is what I was thinking of. Season Seven surprised me, but now we're firmly into the era of the 'cosy' UNIT, where a select few members of staff become our reliable buddies. I shouldn't really complain, because I do like Benton, Yates et al, but it just feels a bit more 'safe' than I'd like.

We're not all that far removed from Season Seven in some ways, though, because we seem to be in for a remake of Quatermass again (this time it's more Quatermass and the Pit that I'm thinking of). The final scenes in the mound where the Doctor and Jo discover a space ship buried where no one expects it started setting alarm bells off in my head, but I don't think that's a bad thing. For a start, I rather like Quatermass and the Pit (which is more than I can say for this story…)

Oh, no, that's not really fair. The Dæmons is just another one of those stories where there's nothing wrong with it, but I can't seem to understand why it's got such a massive reputation to it. There’s plenty of threat going on, with giant footprints stretching out across the landscape (and they look brilliant when viewed from the air!), vans (and sticks) bursting into flame as they try to approach the village, and the Doctor being out cold (ho ho!) for much of the episode, but it's just kind of happening. I'm not excited by any of it.

Still, it's early days, and perhaps watching a very autumnal episode with the sun blazing through the window from an unseasonably nice day isn't the best setting for the story. Perhaps tomorrow I'll wait until dark before tuning in…

 a

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

Day 306: The Dæmons, Episode One

Dear diary,

If Colony in Space was interesting to me (well, to start with, anyway) because I knew next to nothing about it, then The Dæmons is interesting for almost the exact opposite reason. I've never seen this story, but I know it takes place in a small village, features the Master summoning up something akin to the devil, has a troublesome gargoyle on hand to keep UNIT busy, and ends with the church blowing up. I also know that it's considered to be one of Doctor Who's proper 'classics'.

That last fact worries me a little bit. Stone cold classics haven't always fared well with me during this marathon - The Evil of the Daleks and Fury From the Deep stand testament to that - and I'm also taking into account Nick Mellish's words on the subject, in which he described The Dæmons as 'the most over-rated Doctor Who story ever.' Sorry, Nick. There'll be a lynch mob at your door by morning. I'm quite glad to have these opposing viewpoints, because it means that I'm not going in completely wide-eyed and expecting things to be brilliant… which is a good job, really.

Now, don't get me wrong, this was a perfectly good episode, and there's a lot of rather nice little moments that I'll come to in a minute, but it wasn't a particularly Fantastic episode. Sometimes I find myself sitting forward on the sofa really gripped by that day's instalment, whereas today was more of a 'sitting back and watching' experience. That's not through lack of trying on the story's part, mind. The atmosphere is successfully built up throughout the 25 minutes, and it's genuinely quite tense by the time that the cliffhanger arrives. The fact that it features so much night-time location work simply adds to the atmosphere - it's still rare to see in Doctor Who of this age.

And what a pace it's moving at! I assumed somewhere around the middle of the episode that opening the Devil's Mound would be the cliffhanger to Episode Three, or possibly even Episode Four, but they've already gone and done it! They're racing ahead. Even the Master, who was fashionably late to the last story has gotten an awful lot done. His appearance here is handled much better than it was in Colony in Space, too, giving us a great reveal of him as the Reverend Magister. I'm going to assume - based on past form - that he plans to use Azal to destroy the world so that he can then rule over it. Or something.

The story isn't shy of being about 'the supernatural and all that magic stuff', as Jo puts it. In the opening moments, during establishing shots of the village being battered by a thunderstorm, we're given images of a frog, a cat, and an owl (also a dog, but that's less of a magical creature, traditionally…). Miss Hawthorne is shown calming the winds, and even Bessie is seen to move 'magically' around outside the Doctor's workshop (though this is later revealed to be the Doctor with a remote control). I'm not entirely sure how they're going to account for it all, since the series has always taken the stance that all 'magic' has a scientific explanation (indeed, that's what the Doctor says here, and I think this might be the first time that it's mentioned).

I'm going to assume that the most striking bit of 'magic' we see - the wind compelling a local policeman to attempt murder with the aid of a hefty rock - is somehow caused by the Master's hypnotism being somehow 'transmitted', but I'm looking forward to finding out. I bet the Doctor Who production team weren't popular this season, though. There were lots of complaints during Terror of the Autons about the policeman ripping his face off to reveal it was a monster, but I think this policeman gets the scarier job: it's a genuinely chilling moment to watch him robotically pick up the rock and lift it towards the back of Miss Hawthorne's head…

 a

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

Day 305: Colony in Space, Episode Six

Dear diary,

Will Brooks and the Doctor Who Marathon.

Will Brooks sat his freshly-poured glass of Pepsi (other colas are available) down on the table, and settled on to his battered red sofa. Striking the space bar of the Mac, that day's episode started to play. As the titles played out, Will scribbled a note onto his sheet of blue note paper: 'Colony 6'.

Dutifully, Will had gone through a similar routine to this on many of the previous 304 days that year, working his way through the entire back catalogue of Doctor Who one episode a day. That journey had brought him to here, an episode in which not a great deal captures his imagination, and he's left with very little to write about for you fine people to read.

…I'm half tempted to add in a line about my 'pleasant, open face', but I've not shaved for a few days so it's not that pleasant. At the start of this story, I told you that I only knew a few things about it. Well, sort of knew a few things about it. Having now watched all six episodes, I've come out with a mixture of things I got right and things I got wrong. Good enough.

Thing is, several of the Pertwee stories represent the 'black holes' in my Doctor Who knowledge - Colony in Space just happens to be one of the more proficient gaps. This was perfectly proved about half way through today's episode, when the Master finally tells the Doctor why he's on this planet - because he wants to steal a 'doomsday weapon'. At this point I suddenly realised something - the Target novel Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon is a novelisation of this story.

Yeah, yeah, you all knew that. I get it. But I didn't! I thought that was a novelisation of The Mind of Evil, simply because the Doctor is trying to get his hands on… well… a doomsday device that will end the world! It's an easy mistake to make, I'm sure you'll agree. But then I started thinking about how odd it was to give the book that title.

Several of the early Targets use different names to the broadcast stories, but they normally go for some kind of key selling point, or something that neatly sums up the plot. Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters is a fairly spot on - if basic - way of describing Doctor Who and the Silurians. Doctor Who and the Daleks is a fab title for (you've guessed it) The Daleks. And who could fail to fall in love with Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster?

But the eponymous Doomsday Weapon doesn't turn up until the last episode of a six-part story! If you'd asked me to guess where this was going even as late as yesterday, I'm not sure I'd have predicted that they'd have a weapon capable of wiping out the Sun. It's a great idea and all, and the fact that it can put me in mind of an earlier plan by the Master means that he's at least being consistent in his ideas, even if he's doing it on a different scale now, but it does just sort of crop up. And then, just as quickly, it's gone. The Doctor is asked to destroy the device by pulling that really handy lever sticking out the top of the main control panel. Better hope no one ever pulls that by accident - bit of a design fault.

Oh, I think I'm just bitter. Colony in Space started off so well, and I was really enjoying it to begin with but by the time we'd reached the end here, I was just bored. The one moment that did make me sit up and take note was the Colonist's spaceship blowing up as they tried to take off (my notes on that moment are unpublishable on a family website), because I was shocked they'd had the sheer nerve to go through with it, but then it turns out they're all fine and well. Even the noble sacrifice Ashe made didn't reverse my slight disappointment that they'd mostly survived. Is that bad of me?

I think what surprised me the most was my reaction to Nick Courtney turning up again in the closing minutes. There's a danger of taking him for granted when he's simply there in every story, but seeing him arrive to welcome the Doctor back (well, sort of) raised a smile. I'm glad that we'll be seeing more of him in the next story…

Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions

Written By: Jonathan Morris

RRP: £14.99 (CD) / £12.99 (Download)

Release Date: October 2013

Reviewed by: Nick Mellish for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 31st October 2013

“November 1963, and the Soviet space programme reigns supreme. Having sent the first animals, then the first men beyond Earth's atmosphere, now they're sending a manned capsule into orbit around the Moon.

Just as Vostok Seven passes over into the dark side, however, its life support system fails. Only the intervention of the Sixth Doctor and Peri, adopting the identities of scientists from Moscow University, means that contact with the capsule is regained.

But something has happened to the cosmonaut on board. She appears to have lost her memory, and developed extreme claustrophobia. Maybe she’s not quite as human as she used to be…”

* * *

The year is 2013 here at the time of writing this, but it stubbornly remains 1963 in the land of Big Finish now, with this, the second of their 1963 Main Range trilogy, taking us to Russia, Earth and far beyond…

     Whereas Fanfare from the Common Men was nostalgic for the birth of The Beatles and the explosion of the huge cultural shift they were at the epicentre of, The Space Race is focussed instead on... well, on the space race.  Ahem.  It takes us far away from the cosy nostalgia of England, screaming fans and musical genius to Kazakhstan, espionage and scientific genius.  It all feels a bit more serious, a bit less cosy, a lot more dangerous, cloaking a landscape in which women and men aspire towards being the first to visit the Moon and beyond, to stake their claim upon the wider universe... if they can stop betraying and killing one another first.  At the heart of this tale of great aspiration is the petty mechanics of politics, and humanity’s shamefully cruel streak.  It makes a nice contrast and reminds you of both the best and worst that mankind has to offer simultaneously.

   It also manages to take a potentially really, really silly plot device, and make it both sad and terrifying, which is exactly what Doctor Who is so very good at.  It comes as no surprise to me that Jonathan Morris pulls it off so well here whilst writing an article in the 50th Anniversary celebratory edition of Doctor Who Magazine about the show’s quirks and central facets.  He knows his subject back to front, and plays it out somewhat beautifully.

     His script is well supported, too, by a great cast.  It almost goes without saying that Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker are both brilliant (but I’m going to say it here anyway, and hope it doesn’t come across as too sycophantic), but I was most impressed by Samantha Béart, who is so key to the story and walks the lines in just the right way.  That said, I loved her as Random in the final radio series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and, more recently before financial woes led to it being cancelled, the stage show of that same series, so it’s not such a surprise that she impressed me here, too.  It would be great to hear more of her in the future, so touch wood.

     It didn’t all work for me, I’ll be honest.  There’s a potential love interest for Peri, which is wrapped up rather clumsily, or rather not really at all: it just sort of stops without any consequence, which was a pity.  That said, it’d be hard to deal with that strand without annoying the continuity purists, so perhaps Morris was wise.  I know that there are still people out there, baying for poor Nev Fountain’s blood after writing the frankly marvellous The Kingmaker, which just goes to show that some people are wrong.

     What 1963: The Space Race really shows though is that Big Finish have chosen a good theme to work with, one with lots of potential and drama.  1963 was an important year for the world, not just for Who fans, and I’m intrigued to see how Big Finish wrap things up next month.

 a

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

Day 304: Colony in Space, Episode Five

Dear diary,

I've wait it before, but one of the things I'm really enjoying about the Third Doctor's era is the sense of continuity. More now than perhaps any time since Season One, it feels like we're watching an unfolding tale, as things come back into play from recent episodes. We've already seen it on a couple of occasions this season, when the Doctor steals the dematerialisation circuit from the Master's TARDIS, and it's used as a bargaining tool (briefly) in the following story. Today, we get reminded that the Doctor still has a key to that TARDIS, and when he tells Jo that's where they're heading, she comments that she's not seen 'the Master's horse box' around here anywhere, acting as a nice callback to Terror of the Autons, which was quite a while ago when this was originally broadcast - we're almost right the way through the season from that one!

It serves as a nice chance to top up Jo's knowledge of life in the TARDIS as it was for companions before the Third Doctor. It makes sense for her to assume that it always looks like a police box, because the Doctor's TARDIS did when they arrived on this planet. Still, it's good to see them drawing attention to it all the same. It's a level of detail that I'd never realised existed in these stories before now, and which only really becomes obvious when doing a marathon.

And what a TARDIS they've found themselves in! The simple action of moving the doors to a position other than left of the screen has been a way to indicate that we're in a TARDIS belonging to another person since the very first time we saw another TARDIS (right back in The Time Meddler), but it really does work. On top of that, we see the outside of the doors while we're inside the console room. At first, I wondered if we were seeing something we shouldn't, but no! It's actually been planned! Of course, it only works because the Master has disguised his machine as a much larger space ship, but it's still a bizarre thing to see - and it really sells the idea to me of this being a more advanced model!

Further in to the console room and it's all gone a bit wrong. I complained yesterday that the Master pretending he was an adjudicator made him look like some kind of middle-management figure, and a row of filing cabinets in the main room of his ship - filled with information about mining, no less! - doesn't really help to make him seem cool again. There's more hints of the obnoxiously 1970s design creeping into the set here, too. On the other hand, we get to see the printed roundel wall forming a major part of the Master's control room, so at least they're getting their money's worth from it before the retirement!

More importantly, though, it's the return of the Sonic Screwdriver! Hooray! After its brief appearance as a 'door handle' in Inferno, the device has been strangely absent from the Doctor's bag of tricks, so it's nice to have it back again. And this is the closest to the tool we all think of as being the Sonic than we've ever seen. Here, the Doctor uses it to study the alarm in the Master's TARDIS, and deduce that there's a convenient gap at the bottom for them to crawl under (he then proceeds to snap at Jo to keep 'flat to the floor' while he sort of shuffles though at whatever height he fancies).

You'll have no doubt have noticed that I'm focussing all my attentions today on a single scene from the episode, and not a lot else, and that's simply because I don't really have a lot else. The Doctor complained in the last story that he's some sort of yo-yo, and the same isn't far wrong for this story - the IMC ship is forced to leave the planet. They stay. A struggle ensues and they decide to leave. Following a scene out in space (with, it has to be said, a great planet model and some of the better CSO this story has to offer), they decide to head back down to the planet again.

Even the Doctor is at it, heading back and forth from the Master's TARDIS to the colony and the City - the whole story could do with a bit of a trim. I was hoping that the Master turning up might be enough to keep from boredom setting in, but sadly, it doesn't seem to be doing the trick…

 a

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

Day 304: Colony in Space, Episode Five

Dear diary,

I've wait it before, but one of the things I'm really enjoying about the Third Doctor's era is the sense of continuity. More now than perhaps any time since Season One, it feels like we're watching an unfolding tale, as things come back into play from recent episodes. We've already seen it on a couple of occasions this season, when the Doctor steals the dematerialisation circuit from the Master's TARDIS, and it's used as a bargaining tool (briefly) in the following story. Today, we get reminded that the Doctor still has a key to that TARDIS, and when he tells Jo that's where they're heading, she comments that she's not seen 'the Master's horse box' around here anywhere, acting as a nice callback to Terror of the Autons, which was quite a while ago when this was originally broadcast - we're almost right the way through the season from that one!

It serves as a nice chance to top up Jo's knowledge of life in the TARDIS as it was for companions before the Third Doctor. It makes sense for her to assume that it always looks like a police box, because the Doctor's TARDIS did when they arrived on this planet. Still, it's good to see them drawing attention to it all the same. It's a level of detail that I'd never realised existed in these stories before now, and which only really becomes obvious when doing a marathon.

And what a TARDIS they've found themselves in! The simple action of moving the doors to a position other than left of the screen has been a way to indicate that we're in a TARDIS belonging to another person since the very first time we saw another TARDIS (right back in The Time Meddler), but it really does work. On top of that, we see the outside of the doors while we're inside the console room. At first, I wondered if we were seeing something we shouldn't, but no! It's actually been planned! Of course, it only works because the Master has disguised his machine as a much larger space ship, but it's still a bizarre thing to see - and it really sells the idea to me of this being a more advanced model!

Further in to the console room and it's all gone a bit wrong. I complained yesterday that the Master pretending he was an adjudicator made him look like some kind of middle-management figure, and a row of filing cabinets in the main room of his ship - filled with information about mining, no less! - doesn't really help to make him seem cool again. There's more hints of the obnoxiously 1970s design creeping into the set here, too. On the other hand, we get to see the printed roundel wall forming a major part of the Master's control room, so at least they're getting their money's worth from it before the retirement!

More importantly, though, it's the return of the Sonic Screwdriver! Hooray! After its brief appearance as a 'door handle' in Inferno, the device has been strangely absent from the Doctor's bag of tricks, so it's nice to have it back again. And this is the closest to the tool we all think of as being the Sonic than we've ever seen. Here, the Doctor uses it to study the alarm in the Master's TARDIS, and deduce that there's a convenient gap at the bottom for them to crawl under (he then proceeds to snap at Jo to keep 'flat to the floor' while he sort of shuffles though at whatever height he fancies).

You'll have no doubt have noticed that I'm focussing all my attentions today on a single scene from the episode, and not a lot else, and that's simply because I don't really have a lot else. The Doctor complained in the last story that he's some sort of yo-yo, and the same isn't far wrong for this story - the IMC ship is forced to leave the planet. They stay. A struggle ensues and they decide to leave. Following a scene out in space (with, it has to be said, a great planet model and some of the better CSO this story has to offer), they decide to head back down to the planet again.

Even the Doctor is at it, heading back and forth from the Master's TARDIS to the colony and the City - the whole story could do with a bit of a trim. I was hoping that the Master turning up might be enough to keep from boredom setting in, but sadly, it doesn't seem to be doing the trick…

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

Day 303: Colony in Space, Episode Four

Dear diary,

You know how sometimes you meet someone and they’re just cool. Effortlessly calm, and collected, and fun, and just… cool. Usually when you meet someone like this you’re either jealous of them or you simply hate them. They always have the right line to say at just the right moment. The person you fancy would much rather be with them. They’ve literally rolled out of bed and left the house that morning, but they look fantastic without even trying. That was The Master when he first appeared in Terror of the Autons.

While the Doctor was blowing up the TARDIS again at a garishly decorated UNIT HQ (that awful green door made a comeback at the start of this story – please tell me that this is the last time we’ll see it?), being hassled by the Brigadier, and getting his experiments ruined by Jo, the Master has just swanned onto Earth in a fully-functional TARDIS, and hypnotised the first person he meets into doing his bidding. He even gets that first line spot on – ‘I am usually referred to as the Master’.

The thing with those naturally ‘cool’ people is that at some point it all falls apart. There comes a time when you realise that – actually – they’re just like you. They haven’t just rolled out of bed, but spent two hours getting the right look. They don’t know the right thing to say all the time, they just happened to be on form that day. Eventually, you have ‘the moment’ where you see through the cool exterior and see the real person.

It feels a bit like that’s happened today with the Master. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing him in the back of luxury cars lighting up a cigar and using other people to do his dirty work because he’s got such a strong power of persuasion. But then today we see him at what appears to simply be his job. He confirms to the Doctor that he’s not really the adjudicator (of course), but we get several scenes of him just getting on with the job of impersonation and he comes across as some sort of boring middle-management type.

Even the direction has stopped trying to make him look cool. His arrival is briefly treated as a secret, being shot from behind as he enters the colony, and with an extra large collar so that we don’t accidentally spot the back of his head (although the second he arrived on the scene I’d figured out it must be him – we were running out of time for him to turn up!), I thought we were in for a great reveal where the Doctor walks in, the adjudicator turns around and… dun dun dunnnn!

But no. Having built up the suspense a little during his approach to the building and his first meeting with Ashe, we then simply cut to a shot of him inside. There’s not even a ‘turning around’ shot: he’s already done it! It’s a pity, because this feels like the point that the master officially stops being cool. He was already in danger of losing some mojo when every story boiled down asking the Doctor for help because he’d overlooked an element of the plan, but this just finalises it.

Things might start to pick up once the story gets back underway. Much of today’s episode seems to boil down to the Doctor and Jo being captured and escaping, and then once they’re done with that, we go for a debate between the scientists and IMC, before ending with a battle, because it just wouldn’t be a Pertwee episode without some kind of action sequence. Now that all the elements have been introduced, things might start looking up again…

5/10 

 a

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

Day 302: Colony in Space, Episode Three

Dear diary,

The one thing that I was entirely certain of about this story has yet to occur – I’m still waiting for the Master to turn up. It’s a shame that I know he’s in every one of the Season Eight stories, because it means I’ve been watching these last few days just waiting for one of the characters to rip off their face, revealing it as a clever disguise for the Doctor’s new arch enemy. At first I thought it might be the colony’s leader (he has a beard!). Then I assumed it might be Norton, especially when he turned out to be working for IMC. Or perhaps he’s the captain of the ship, and he’s being so ruthless because he needs something from this mining mission? At one point today, when one of the ‘natives’ looked particularly like a man in a costume, I thought he might whip off the mask and greet Jo. I’ve now decided that he’s either a) playing the part of the adjudicator, and is on his way to the planet, or b) hanging out in the natives’ hidden city. Knowing him, he’s probably their king by now.

While it means that I’m spending a few of the quieter sections of the story wondering when he’s going to be turning up, I think the story is going to need the Master before too long. If this were a four-parter, we’d be at the point of going out quite well. Episode One introduced us to the colonists. Episode Two brought in IMC. Episode Three has seen the colonists rising up against IMC. It wouldn’t surprise me if Episode Four saw the Doctor brokering an alliance between the colonists and the natives, and IMC being booted off the planet. I could go along with that. It wouldn’t leave the story as any kind of ‘classic’, but it would be a slightly above average example of Doctor Who.

Knowing that there’s still another three episodes to go makes it all seem like far more of a slog. I don’t know if there’s enough story left to fill out 75 more minutes, but having the Master turn up to complicate matters may help to hide that fact somewhat. I’m glad that we’ve been able to have a good few episodes without him, though, as it really does feel like a well-needed breather from his dodgy schemes.

I’m still slightly surprised how much this feels like a ‘first story’ for Jo, despite the fact that she’s been a part of the programme for a while now. Seeing her first trip out to an alien world gives us a new angle for looking at the character, and her reaction to the TARDIS going missing is brilliant. The Doctor’s fairly laid back about it, but then he’s used to losing the ship. Heck, in Season One, most stories featured him getting separated from the TARDIS within the first five minutes, by a tomb door, or a forcefield, or someone stealing the lock. If anything, he is slightly more worried by it here than we usually see (or, at least, he bangs on about it a lot more), but maybe that’s because the Time Lords brought him here? He’s not used to being this out of control of the situation, and he’s probably worried that they’ll strand him there.

For Jo, the TARDIS has always simply been an old police box (she even admits in the first episode of this story that she didn’t really believe that the Doctor could use it to traverse time and space), but now she’s suddenly found that it’s her only link back to Earth, and their only way of escaping the planet. It’s nice to see that she doesn’t simply accept it because she’s been a companion for a while – it makes her seem all the more real. I’d imagine that she just gets used to the idea of travelling to other worlds after this, so it’s good to see them starting of by being a bit different.

But she just happens to have taken a course in escapology once which helps her escape the handcuffs? really? Did she take it at the same school she failed her science qualification?

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.

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

Day 299: The Claws of Axos, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Those of you who have been following The 50 Year Diary for a while now will no doubt have noticed how often I state my surprise at actually liking the Third Doctor. I've made no secret in the past of the fact that he's always been my least favourite incarnation, and I think it's fair to say that these five seasons were the point of the marathon that I was seriously worried about.

And yet, I'm repeatedly given cause to really like this incarnation! All the things I've thought of as bad traits are still there (I don't know if he's more dismissive to Jo than the previous Doctors were to their companions, or it's just the way that Pertwee does it, but he does seem to like sidelining other people), but there's so many layers to the character that I'm finding myself drawn to.

In today's episode, when he suddenly appears to turn rogue and form an alliance with the Master, there was a moment that I really believed it. He's tried to take off in the middle of an adventure before, leaving UNIT in the lurch, so when he suggests to the Master than he's rather leave Earth to its fate and get off the planet with him, I was genuinely interested in seeing this side of the character come back. He goes on to a lovely speech about not wishing to spent the rest of his life 'as a heap of dust on a second rate planet to a third rate star,' and it really does feel like he'd take off in a heartbeat.

It didn't take long for me to twig that he was really just using the Master, and it's simply because he's started to turn the Master's own arguments against him. 'We're both Time Lords,' he reminds him - the exact same plea that the Master used in The Mind of Evil when he needed help. If this were the modern series, with a show runner's guiding hand steering events, you could almost believe that this was seeded in, but I think it's more just luck than anything. It's the perfect example of the marathon working its magic again, because this moment carries so much more weight having seen everything from the start of the Doctor's exile to here.

When he's actually making his goodbyes and heading into the TARDIS - really playing up the moment to convince the Master that he's being quite serious - it's Pertwee at his finest. For an actor so famed at the time for his comedic roles, he really does excel when given scenes of anger or contempt. I especially love the way that he ends by saying goodbye to Jo, adding 'I shall miss you!'

It's good to finally see this version of the Doctor inside the TARDIS, here, although it has the unfortunate effect of making the already cramped set look even smaller when there's two people in there! Oddly, beyond the interior doors is the printed roundel backdrop that had become so familiar throughout the 1960s, giving the odd effect that the Doctor has added a hallway (it's especially jarring when the Master enters the police box and immediately arrives through these doors - it would look seamless if they'd had a shot of the power complex beyond the doors. With all the CSO work being slipped into the series these days, I'm surprised they didn't use it here!)

As the first story of the 1970s to really feature the TARDIS, it's fitting that it plays such a vital role in the resolution of the tale. I vaguely knew that Axos ended up trapped in a time loop, so it was fun watching the plan come together, and seeing the Doctor slowly manipulate people - the Master, mainly - into position for the plan to work. Axos has escaped the time loop a few times in alternate media, though the only one I've experienced was the DWM comic strip from a few years ago, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy. It's certainly one of my favourite strips from recent years.

It's telling that the strip didn't feel the need to radically redesign the Axons, either. They use the near-infinite budget of the medium to make the creature more impressive (at one point, a large Japanese skyscraper becomes a giant axon), but it's still very much the same design. There are moments of today's episode where they really do look fantastic - usually when being shot in close up attacking the UNIT jeep. Unfortunately, when we cut to a wider shot they don't look quite as menacing. At one point, one of them has mounted the bonnet, and his legs wave up and down as the car drives on. Not their finest moment…

On the whole, I've been really impressed by The Claws of Axos. Having only ever had it on as background noise in the past, I'd assumed that there wasn't enough here to keep me interested, but I've been pleasantly surprised, and it's given me the boost of enthusiasm that I needed to pick up the middle of the season…

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

Day 298: The Claws of Axos, Episode Three

Dear diary,

It feels like the reappearance of the TARDIS console room should be a bigger deal than it is. We’ve not seen it since the end of The War Games, which was well over a month ago for me, and on original broadcast it would have been mere weeks away from two whole years. When it turns up again, it should make a massive impact, a feeling of homecoming. As it is, I’m left just sort of thinking ‘oh. There’s the TARDIS…’

It’s a hangover from being so familiar with the programme as a whole. I’m so used to seeing different versions of this same console room throughout the original twenty-six years that it doesn’t feel odd to be back here again. We’ve got a new TARDIS console on show, too, which makes the decision to keep it in a shade of pale green even more baffling. I can understand them not painting the prop for its few appearances in Season Seven (why bother? It’s a needless expense), but when you’re building one from scratch…

I’m pleased to see that they’ve dressed it up a bit to suggest that the Doctor really is working in there – it would have looked terribly off if it were simply the same as we’d always seen it. The one downside is just how cramped it all looks. When we got the first view inside the ship in An Unearthly Child, the sheer size of it really worked in its favour. It felt impressive to see this huge futuristic space tucked inside this battered old police box. Here, we've got the doors, a single wall (boasting an unusual CSO scanner screen in one of the roundels), and the console.

I also have to wonder… how would this have felt on first transmission? As I've said, the audience won't have seen inside the TARDIS for two years by this point, and yet it's simply treated as being 'matter of fact' that this is what's inside the ship, as if we're supposed to know it. There would have been children watching The Claws of Axos who couldn't remember back as far as the funny little Second Doctor, so this must have been a bit of an anti-climax.

For all I've grumbled over the last few days about having the Master turning up so frequently this year (there's only been a single episode in which he doesn't make an appearance), I'm really enjoying him today. With the Doctor trapped aboard Axos, the Master is filling his role admirably, and it helps to further highlight all the similarities between the two characters.

I don't think that much of his dialogue while helping UNIT would be out of place coming from the mouth of the Third Doctor (indeed, while I knew of the line 'You could take the usual precautions…sticky tape on the windows, that sort of thing', I'd always thought it was a line spoken by the Doctor), and his entire attitude towards events isn't all that far removed from our hero, either. The way he ponders over the TARDIS console working out if he can get it going again isn't a million miles away from what the Doctor was doing back in Doctor Who and the Silurians, or Inferno.

That's not to say that the Doctor doesn't get to shine a bit today. I'm really enjoying all the effects that we're being given in the Axos ship - although I've got a sneaking suspicion that I shouldn't like them. It still feels a bit like Michael Ferguson is melting a box of crayons over the camera lens, but it really works. Most impressive is the way that the Doctor and Jo communicate with one of the golden Axons - and the shot alters slightly on the screen as the head spins from side to side. I believe the effect was a achieved by fading between a few different shots of Bernard Holley* as the Axon, and it's an interesting new take on 'video conferencing', which has become a bit commonplace in the series (even Chinn is at it today…)

The spaghetti Axons get a chance to stand out a bit, too. Seeing the creature roam around the power complex is perhaps the first time since Spearhead From Space that I've really understood Jon Pertwee's oft-repeated comments about 'Yeti on the loo', but it looks so brilliant to see this odd creature against such an industrial backdrop. It's helped by the way it attacks (tendrils shooting out and blowing up their prey), and even though I can see exactly how they've achieved the effect, my mind sort of overlooks it and makes it work just right. An eight year old would love that moment. Heck, somewhere in my mind, eight year old me is loving it!

*Another name to add to my 'The cast from The Tomb of the Cybermen turning up in the Pertwee era' list. If we don't get one in Season Nine it won't matter too much - Season Eight has been a buy-one-get-one-free…

 a

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

Day 297: The Claws of Axos, Episode Two

Dear diary,

We're very much in a period of change for Doctor Who in the last season of the 1960s, and the first few of the 1970s. We've seen departures from several key production personnel from the programme - David Whitaker made his last contribution with Season Seven, while Timothy Coombe bowed out under the last story - and watched the arrival of several other key movers and shakers to the programme's history - Barry Lett's joined with The Enemy of the World, while both Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes made their debuts with Season Six.

The Claws of Axos is a story that acts as a change in both directions. We get the first story to be written by 'The Bristol Boys', Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who'll be turning up a few times throughout this decade, and provide some pretty important stories to the show. At the same time, this tale is the last to be directed by Michael Ferguson, who'd been with us as a director on several occasions over the last few years.

It's lovely, watching through the series in order, how much you notice each individual styles. You can tell when they've got Camfield in the director's chair because everything is so well polished and done. David Maloney has a trademark style, too, that works very well with whimsical shots. Ferguson has several of his own little signatures, and several of them turn up in these episodes.

You've got the shot of a high-tech institution made to look huge with clever use of CSO (he did the same in The Ambassadors of Death), The return of the foam machine (the last time it makes an appearance in the programme, I believe), and even the return of some ma-hoo-sive sideburns on Bill Filer (both those last two, or three if you're giving that facial hair room to breathe, were in The Seeds of Death).

Something we do get today would perhaps be more at home coming from David Maloney, though. The shots of Bill Filer being replicated by Axos are some of the most bizarre, triply things that we've seen in Doctor Who. They're certainly reminiscent of the Kroton's ship, but whereas that occasion seemed to make the most of the monochrome look by giving us brightly-lit characters against a dark background, this scene positively delights in using every colour on the spectrum. I'd argue that this one scene justified the higher cost of a colour TV licence for the whole year.

Elsewhere, I'm still enjoying the story. It's nice to see the Doctor so suspicious of the Axons (or, I suppose, just 'Axos', now), and it's a good follow-on from Doctor Who and the Silurians. Here, he's berated Chinn and the Brigadier for being so ready to destroy the ship and the creatures, but he doesn't trust them. He even pretends to be on their side just to keep them sweet, while later confirming to Jo that he knows they're lying. I've never really payed all that much attention to the design of the golden Axons, but it actually looks pretty good. We get another 'face melting' shot today in the form of one of these creatures being absorbed back into the ship, and it really does work well.

When the first images were released of the Heavenly Host from Voyage of the Damned, Doctor Who fandom had pretty much made up their mind that it would see the return of Axos - how could it not? That design clearly takes some inspiration from here. I'm also quite fond of the 'spaghetti Axons' (as I insist on calling them in my notes). Today, I've dug out the Axon figure from the cupboard to sit by the computer with the Master (he's been hanging around the keyboard since I started this season), but having actually started watching the story properly now, I'm a bit disappointed that it's not the same design as these spaghetti monsters. I assume that they toy version of the creature is what Professor Winser is now turning into, but I think I'd rather the version covered in tentacles…

 a

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

Day 296: The Claws of Axos, Episode One

Dear diary,

Back in the days before I had a formal structure to my Doctor Who viewing, I used to quite often use the DVDs as ‘background noise’. I’d be pottering around the flat, with the story simply playing out in the corner somewhere. Not paying attention to it, but knowing it was there all the same. I can’t tell you many of the stories I’ve ‘watched’ in this way, but I know that The Claws of Axos was one of them. As with many of the Pertwee DVDs, I’d had it sat on the shelf for a while, and never watched it. One afternoon, I decided that enough was enough, and it was time to actually make an effort with the Third Doctor.

Of course, it simply became more of the ‘background noise’, and I don’t think anything highlights this fact more than the way it ended. By the time the story finished, I was in the bath. My flat at the time had a bathroom just off the living room, so I was able to keep half an eye on the telly while I was in the bath (though I was probably reading a book, meaning that I wasn’t paying any notice to the Doctor and Jo running around on the screen). After a while, I became aware that the story was looping. It’d gone back to the menu screen, and I couldn’t figure it out – I’d always assumed that The Claws of Axos was a six-parter for some reason. Suddenly discovering that it was much shorter seemed to make it more bearable, so I resolved to sit down and watch it properly.

Here we are, three years or so on, and I’m finally doing that. It can’t have been that much of an epiphany, because I’ve never bothered to make the time for it before. It means that this is the second of the Pertwee-era special edition DVDs that I’m watching having never really seen it before (though it’s not quite as bad as with Inferno, where I don’t think I’d ever watched a second of the disk): I’m basically their ideal audience – buy twice, watch once!

Know what, though? This episode was great! Right from the off, I found myself making an enormous amount of notes – things that I wanted to bring up here. Key among them comes right at the start – the Brigadier covering for the Doctor’s lack of records. I spoke a lot yesterday about the way that the pair don’t love each other, but have a kind of mutual respect, and this scene perfectly sums it up. The Brigadier confirms that the Doctor is his responsibility, and it’s a lovely moment.

In fact, all of those early scenes with UNIT at their HQ are fab – we get to see the Third Doctor’s rage again, which showed itself so well during Season Seven. There’s even a tiresome government official standing in his way – It’s almost like we’re watching a Season Seven story. With that comes a familiar feeling – that wishing that we could see this story spruced up for a HD release. I know it couldn’t happen (even if the film sequences could be rescanned for Blu ray, I’d imagine the fact it’s needed a special edition means that there’s some issues with the quality), but I’d love to see the UNIT convoy converging on the Axon ship in better quality.

This is the first time that I’ve really noticed it, but UNIT is actually quite well manned. Back during The Invasion, I made a comment that the series didn’t always have UNIT as such a large organisation, but actually there’s a fair few of them! I wonder if I was thinking more specifically of the ‘inner circle’ of UNIT, made up of the Brig, Benton, and Mike (with Corporal Bell thrown in for good measure, since this is her second story in a row)? Either way, it look quite impressive when the military units approach the ship, and I’m glad that I’d been misremembering the size of the Taskforce.

Mind you, anything rolling up to the location would look better than our chap on a bike. ‘Pigbin Josh’ has become something of a joke within fandom, an a term applied to several characters who crop up in this era, from Spearhead in Space to The Three Doctors and beyond. I’ve always known the joke of the character, but never realised just how close to the truth it was! We effectively follow his journey through the first half of the episode, as he occasionally mumbles in a thick accent. I’m not sure exactly what he’s saying, but it sounds an awful lot like ‘ooh arr’. The discovery of his body is strangely affecting, though and accompanied by a fantastic shot as his head ‘caves in’ on itself. The fade to white and cut away to Mike seems to imply that the rest of the image is too horrific to watch. Very well handled indeed.

Not quite such a good effect is the enlargement (and subsequent shrinking) of the frog. There’s lots of examples of CSO cropping up in these 25 minutes, and some is handled better than others – the shots inside the Axon ship are pretty well handled on the whole, even if they do occasionally leave some fringing around the edges. When it comes to the frog, though, it would appear that a side effect of using Axonite to grow your crops is that large chunks of the target simply vanish altogether!

I think the only thing that was a real disappointment today was the arrival of the Master. I said yesterday that I was looking forward to his return, but I thought they might give us a week off. The Mind of Evil doesn’t introduce him into the events until the second episode, and I thought the same might have been true of this story. It feels like after the very obvious goodbye scene for the character in the last episode, suddenly having him pop up again here is a bit naff. At least we find him in a position of weakness, captured in the Axon ship, which gives us a slightly different dynamic on the character. For all his ‘clever’ plots and schemes, mind, he does often find himself in need of the Doctor’s assistance…

 a

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

Day 295: The Mind of Evil, Episode Six

Dear diary,

If there’s one thing that Don Houghton is great at, it’s pitching the relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier at just the right level. There’s no doubt that this is the same man who wrote those closing moments of Inferno, in which the Doctor decided he’s had enough and makes to leave for good – the antagonism between the pair is at its very best in these scripts.

Still, it’s nice to see that things have at least softened a little between the pair. There’s less outright dislike here, and more a sense of gentle teasing. The Brigadier arrives in the prison and shoots the enemy just in time to spare his Scientific Advisor’s life, and the Doctor asks if – just for once – the man could arrive before the nick of time. Later on he jokes that aside from losing both the missile and the Master, the Brig is doing very well in his job. It’s far friendlier than we’ve seen between them for some time, but it’s great to still see them playing off each other.

It’s a shame that I’ve still not really enjoyed this story. When today’s episode started, I thought it was strange that they’d gone back far enough to show a reprise of UNIT storming the prison – it felt like ages ago. It’s another one of those situations where I simply couldn’t remember what had happened in the cliffhanger, despite only seeing it 24 hours before. The Mind of Evil hasn’t boasted the best cliffhangers that we’ve ever had on the show. Several of them are essentially the same thing (the Keller Machine attacking someone. Usually the Doctor.), and the others just haven’t lodged in my memory. The positive is that we get to see a few shots of the Doctor’s old enemies (Cybermen, and Daleks, and Ice Warriors, oh my!), but there’s some odd choices in there. A Zarbi is bizarre enough, but Koquillion? Really? He’s one of the Doctor’s greatest fears?

What struck me the most about today’s episode is how much it feels like a nice ending to the appearance of the Master in the series. The dematerialisation circuit that the Doctor stole in Terror of the Autons makes a reappearance in the denouement, and the master takes it back, before heading off to the stars. During their final phone conversation (this pair spend a lot of time on the phone, don’t they?), the Doctor muses that they won’t be seeing the Master for a while, and he agrees, adding ‘By the way, Doctor, enjoy your exile!’ For all intents and purposes, it feels like we’re saying goodbye to the character after ten episodes and that we’re ready to move on to something different. Were the Master to suddenly turn up at the end of the season as a surprise, I think it would work brilliantly.

Sadly, I know that’s not the case. He’ll be back again in the very next story. So much for not seeing the Doctor again for ‘quite some time’! And yet… I’m specifically looking forward to it. The idea of this character turning up so frequently this season was one of the things not really exciting me about this run of stories, but I’ve been so won over by the man that I can’t help but anticipate their next battle.

Mind you, his plan is a bit rubbish again this week, innit? He’ll use the missile to spark off a war, destroying the Earth… and then take over of ruler to the now-dead planet. Not sure he’s really thought that through…

 a

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

Day 294: The Mind of Evil, Episode Five

Dear diary,

For the first couple of episodes in this story, it seemed like everything was going well. My interest had been raised back up after the season opener, we were seeing a better relationship between the Doctor and his companion, the setting was one that I liked, and everything seemed to be moving in the right general direction. Over the last couple of days, though, I've started to find my attention wandering.

I think there's a couple of reasons for it, but I'm not sure which is having the bigger effect. For starters, we've now pretty much entirely moved away from the contemporary London setting that I was so loving to begin with. As nice as the prison looks, it just doesn't have the same feel that all that location shooting in ordinary streets did. Secondly… the more I think about it, the more the plot just doesn't hold together. UNIT are supposed to be providing security to a major world peace conference, but by the time of today's episode, half the force has been attacked by the prisoners, another half is storming the prison itself, and the three top men (I know that - strictly speaking - Yates and Benton aren't really the 'top men' of UNIT, but they are in the eyes of anyone watching the Pertwee years!) are all away from the main conference, too.

Who's looking after things in London? I know they've removed the Master's influence on Captain Chin Lee, but at a conference where several delegates have been murdered and important documents have gone 'missing', you think they'd need to have someone keeping an eye on things!

And then you've got poor Jo - she's not been outside the prison walls since Episode One, and most of the time she's spent locked away in that cell. All of this means that I'm noticing far more the different variations on the old 'capture-and-escape' routine that usually pads out a third episode.

It's not all bad. Today we get a fantastic sequence in which UNIT storm the prison, and it's possibly the most useful we've ever seen them. It comes on the heels of a scene in which the Brigadier pretends to be delivering provisions (and the whole story is justified simply by hearing Nick Courtney - in as 'man-in-the-street' voice possible - use the word 'nosh'), and then it's all brilliant from there on out. The soldiers sneaking from the back of the van ready to attack is great, and the storming of the castle (complete with men climbing the walls!) is one of the best directed sequences we've had in a while. Director Timothy Combe has been with us in one form or another since as far back as The Keys of Marinus, so it's a shame to see him making his departure from the programme in this serial.

The attack on the prison does have to go down as another one of those things that just doesn't quite make sense, mind. The Brigadier is presented with a map and a suggestion is made that there could be a secret way in - it is an old castle after all. Luckily enough, there is! That's convenient. The Brigadier even knows the way. Also convenient. Above and beyond that - and despite the place now being home to hardened criminals - the secret passageway has never been blocked off. That's really convenient.

And also a little bit stupid.

But then they don't seem to use the secret entrance! They simply drive up to the gate with a big old van of nosh! There was one moment when a group of UNIT soldiers ascended some steps which seemed to be coming from a tunnel, and I assumed that it must be the secret way in, but it can't be because it's too bloody obvious! The prisoner's would be in and out as they please. It's never a good sign when I start to worry more about things not adding up than simply enjoying the story, so I'm hoping that things turn around for me in the final instalment. This story also marks the final contribution of Don Houghton to the series, and he did so impress me with Inferno a few weeks ago, I'd love to see him leave on a high…

 a

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

Day 293: The Mind of Evil, Episode Four

Dear diary,

I think the thing I'm enjoying the most about The Mind of Evil is how well it showcases the Doctor and the Master as enjoying their little squabble. When John Simm took over the role in 2007, much was made about the fact that he was a Master to play specifically against David Tennant's incarnation of the Doctor. He was young, and energetic. He would talk at a million miles per hour and pull faces in just the same way. It was an incarnation of the character designed to work against the Tenth Doctor, and I'm not sure how well he would fit in playing opposite any of the others.

Having never really watched this incarnation of the Master before, my main exposure to the character has been in the form of the Ainley version - who played against four incarnations from Tom Baker to Sylvester McCoy. Sure, he's got lots of characteristics that I instantly equate with being quintessentially 'Master-ish', but he isn't tailored to each individual version of his nemesis. I think he works fairly well against them all to some extent, but you can tell he's not custom-created.

The only other point of reference that I've really got comes in the form of the Master's precursor - for want of a better word - the Meddling Monk. Peter Butterworth was a great foil for William Hartnell, and came at a time when the character had softened somewhat. It meant that his little giggles and smiles fitted perfectly with the Doctor we'd been getting used to throughout the second season, but he was able to bring out the fire at the heart of that incarnation.

Moreso than the Monk, though, I'm finding that the Delgado Master is very much designed to be a part of the Third Doctor's life, and this episode highlights that perfectly. At various stages, they each call Jo 'my dear', and if the point had been lost on us, they abandon all subtlety and go for a full-on crossfade between the characters at one point, which has the odd effect of looking a bit like a dodgy regeneration. It's a joy to watch the pair of them on the screen together, though, and the moment that the Master frees his foe from the attack of the Keller Machine is wonderful.

'We're both Time Lords,' he pleads, and it gives us a dynamic that we've never been able to see in the series before. There's shades of the same argument used in The War Games, when the War Chief tries to make the Doctor help him, but it's great to see that angle being played out with a long-running character (or, at least, a character who will become long-running).

Yesterday's episode gave us perhaps the best examples of the Doctor and the Master playing a game with each other - the Doctor strolls into the Governer's office to find his nemesis sitting behind the desk, and simply says 'Yes… I thought as much…' while he takes his seat. A few scenes later, having made his escape, the Doctor barricades himself in with the machine, only to find the Master waiting casually for him behind the door. We've just watched the Doctor make his way across the prison in a proper action sequence, but the Master greets him by saying 'I thought you'd make for here…', before setting up the cliffhanger.

The pair are simply playing a game with each other, and it's a great counterpoint to all the high-stakes playing out elsewhere in the story. Today sees the missile being taken out of UNIT's hands (Again, you have to wonder why this lot have been entrusted with such high-stake jobs - I know it's the Master pulling strings in the right places, but surely there must have been a real wall of objection?!), and a wholesale slaughter of their soldiers - but it still feels as though the Doctor and the Master are playing cowboys and indians for fun. It's brilliant - and I'm really glad to see why people are always banging on about Delgado being THE Master.

 a

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

Day 292: The Mind of Evil, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Terror of the Autons feels like an absolute age back – everything here feels much more to my liking. I think it’s Jo who highlights this best. We’re a far cry from the character who’d managed to ruin the Doctor’s experiment and get hypnotised by the Master all on her first day at UNIT. The Jo in this story is far more confident and resourceful, seizing her opportunity to end the prison riot and trying to make the most of the situation. It’s odd to say it, but I think Jo here feels more like the kind of Doctor Who companion that I’ve gotten used to in this marathon – they’re not always the sharpest tools in the box, but they often highlight why they’re such a boon to the Doctor’s life.

It’s also lovely to see how much her relationship with the Doctor has evolved since the last story. It was evident right from the start, in the way the pair first drove up to the prison. They’re comfortable with each other, and more than that, they’re happy with each other. What’s great in today’s episode is the moment the Doctor learns about the riot in the prison, and his first reaction is to jump up and ask after Jo’s safety.

All of this does make me wonder, though… just how much time has passed since the events of the second Nestene invasion attempt? It feels like the Doctor and Jo have spent quite some time together, getting used to each other. It could just be that after the events of Terror of the Autons, all their barriers were down and they were able to simply become good friends - but if feels like they've been together for a fair old while by this point.

Equally, today sees the revelation that Professor Keller - inventor of the machine causing all this trouble - is actually the Master. A few episodes ago we're told that the machine was installed at Strangmoor prison almost a year ago. Does this mean that the Nestene attack was even further back than that? I think the Doctor's tinkering with the Master's TARDIS simply prevented him from leaving Earth, as opposed to playing with time, so he could have nipped back twelve months or so to begin his work?

I'm still avoiding any real discussion of a UNIT timeline at this stage (I've still not seen enough to make any definitive statements on the subject), though the third volume of the About Time books suggests a placement of October 1971 for Terror of the Autons and somewhere in mid-to-late 1972 for this story (and the next few, too). For now I guess I'm happy to go along with that. Throughout Season Seven, it was implied that large stretches of time happened here and there, in which Liz simply assisted the Doctor with making repairs to the TARDIS, so I suppose the same could have been happening here.

'm also wondering if that's why UNIT have been given a task as comparatively mundane as looking after security at a peace conference (compared to fighting off aliens, anyway)? There's been little alien activity on the planet since the Master fled the radio telescope, so they're being reassigned to other tasks to justify their existence? I will be trying to piece together my own timeline later on in this era, but for now I'll keep monitoring events…

 a

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

Day 291: The Mind of Evil, Episode Two

Dear diary,

One of the things I've found most rewarding about doing The 50 Year Diary is finding that Doctor Who is far richer than I'd ever realised. There's always little coincidences that crop up, which makes experiencing it all in sequence all the more rewarding. It's things like Nicholas Courtney helping the First Doctor to fight the Daleks, before returning to the Time Lord's life in a different role, or seeing the evolution of Doctors and companions over the years.

Today it's all about those few places in time and space which just attract aliens. I had a wonderful feeling when watching bits of today's episode that I'd been here before. It was when the road sign for 'Cromwell Gardens' appeared that I thought 'ah! The First Doctor fought the War Machines around there!' before suddenly realising that - actually - he'd trapped a War Machine in that very spot! Because I've never seen The Mind of Evil before, I didn't know that the series had ever returned to this location, but suddenly noticing it gives me such a great feeling - it's a whole extra layer to what I'm watching, and gives me a slightly odd nostalgic pang for William Hartnell!

It has to be said that this same scene is a wonderful example of why CSO isn't always the answer. When Captain Chin Lee makes her phone call, it looks so much better than a similar scene in the previous story, in which the background had been added via Colour Separation. It just feels more natural. Actually, all the location work in this story is lovely, and it feels like the right kind of setting for me. Central London is a location that I praised in The War Machines (fittingly, it seems!), The Invasion, and Doctor Who and the Silurians, and it's great to see so much time being spent here. I wonder if this might be another problem I had with the last story - the setting of a circus was just too 'out there' for what appeals to me?

Watching Benton (badly) try to keep tabs on a suspect, or seeing the Master stroll across a park just feels much more real to me, and I think that all helps. The shot that appealed to me most is only a few seconds long - the Doctor and the Brigadier exit the house and walk along the road. It's simple. It's short. It's real. It looks so good to see the Doctor out and about in his fancy dress (and it's become even more fancy dress now, with the addition of the red jacket) amongst real people going about their lives. It really helps to focus the series as being set in then contemporary Britain.

In some ways, I should be disappointed to see the Master turning up again today (I knew he was in the story - indeed, it's the only thing that I do know about this one!), but I was actually quite pleased to see him. It helps that he arrives on the scene utilising a disguise very well once again, and that once he has shown his face, he's back to being very suave. It's another chance to draw a comparison with The War Machines - there, I said that the Doctor looked out of place sat in the back of a car, as I was so used to seeing him out and about on Mechanus, or back in time during the Crusades. Here, the Master just looks right dressed smartly and smoking a cigar as he sits in the back of a car to hold a 'meeting'.

The way he hypnotises Chin Lee paints him as being very in control of the situation, and he feels like a genuine threat. While UNIT are busy running around, out of their depth, he knows exactly what he's doing, and he seems to be rather enjoying himself…

 a

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

Day 290: The Mind of Evil, Episode One

Dear diary,

It’s funny how simply being onto a new story has instantly turned around my mood – I’ve enjoyed today’s episode a lot more than I did anything from Terror of the Autons. I think it helps that everyone seems to be far more settled into their roles now, too. The Doctor and Jo laugh and joke as they approach Dracula’s castle – sorry, the prison – and his messing about into the security camera is brilliant - very Doctor, and I don’t think it would look out of place if Troughton or Tom Baker were doing it.

Once we’re inside, the Doctor is back to his usual pompous self… but I quite like that! He undercuts the demonstration of the Keller Machine at every turn by chipping in his own commentary on the situation. Rude and arrogant, yes, but it’s very in keeping with this incarnation, and I’m finding myself quite liking it. Professor Kettering's reactions to the constant interruptions are great fun, too.

As for the machine itself… well that’s nonsense. At one point, then Doctor asks what happens to all the negative energies once they’ve been extracted is that they’re simply stored in there – but not to worry because it’s only 65% full. Surely they’ve not thought this through, though? What happens in a few more experiments time, when it’s teetering on the 100% full mark? Do they construct another machine and bury this one as though it were nuclear waste? I’m surprised (although pleased) that the Master hasn’t turned up today, but I’m guessing he’s probably on his way to steal the machine, or he’s the one behind the invention in the first place.

It’s really good to see the Doctor and UNIT working on different missions. They can’t be foiling an alien invasion every day of the week, so it’s good to see them being given something more ordinary to do in managing the security for a peace conference. I’ve seen their performance before now, mind, so I’m not sure that I’d trust them with such an important job… I think what pleases me is that I’m just as interested by their story as I am the one that the Doctor is following up.

We get a good opportunity to see the Brigadier out on his own, away from the Doctor, too. I’ve said it a few times over the last few months, but we really are lucky to have an actor like Nicholas Courtney be so vitally involved with the programme. He does a great stock in ‘apathetic’ and 'exasperated' acting, and his reactions to Captain Chin Lee today aren’t a million miles away from the way he finds himself feeling in the Doctor’s company.

I think what’s impressed me the most about today’s episode is the colour of it. Until very recently, this tale only existed as a black and white copy, but restoration for the DVD has seen the entire serial returned to full colour for the first time since the 1970s. It's been brought back to life by hand-colouring several key frames, and then using a number of techniques to make this work for the full story.

It’s the work of the very talented Stuart Humphryes and Peter Crocker. Now, I knew they’d colourised this story. When it was announced, everyone was so excited about it. It’s telling that I only remembered the fact after I’d started writing this entry – the work is fantastic. I can’t begin to imagine the amount of patience needed to complete a project like this, but it’s well worth it because it looks gorgeous.

It does make me wonder, though, about a specific scene of the episode. During the demonstration of the Keller machine – while I’d forgotten about the recolourisation of the episode – I made a note about how good it looked once the lights were dimmed and the room was bathed in a pale blue light. Far more effective than the regular lighting on the set, and I was all ready to declare it as being better than a lot of the lighting we get in the programme. I’m wondering now if it would have looked as good as that originally, or if some of it is down to to the skill in the colouring? Either way, it looked stunning, and brought me completely on board with the story. We’re off to a good start…

 a

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

Day 289: Terror of the Autons, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Just what is the Master's plan in this story? The Master seems pretty chuffed with himself today when he declares that because he's helped the Nestenes invade, they won't kill him… but he's only on this planet to help them invade. If he wasn't trying to help them, there wouldn't be any risk of them killing him anyway! The only thing that I can think of is that they've (somehow) got him under the thumb, and are forcing him to come to Earth and help with their invasion plans. Haven't a clue how they might manage that, but it makes more sense than him helping them out simply for the hell of it.

It's not the greatest of starts for the character, really, but I suppose it is the perfect example of starting as you mean to go on. While I've not been all that impressed with his plan, the Master has been a fun villain to watch, and I'm glad we're finally at the point where he starts cropping up. It's nice that the Doctor has someone to battle against as a new arch enemy - and his reaction at the end of this story would seem to suggest that he agrees. My only problem with it is that I know the Master will be back in the very next story. Wouldn't it be more effective if he didn't show up again until the end of the season?

Still, I'm very impressed by the master's escape attempt. In the 1980s (the period of the Master that I'm most familiar with), he dresses up in elaborate disguises simply because… well… it means that they can reveal him as the surprise villain for a cliffhanger. In The Mark of the Rani, he seems to dress as a scarecrow simply because he gets a kick out of it. Here, though, it's being used really well, actively disposing of a puppet he no longer needs by dressing him up and sending him out for UNIT to shoot. Mike doesn't waste any time, though, does he? The second he gets a chance… bang!

As if you couldn't tell, I'm still not all that impressed by Terror of the Autons. It feels like it's actively trying to be a stumbling block for me, as though it's a punishment for enjoying Season Seven as much as I did. There's bits of today's story which makes UNIT look like Dad's Army, but even they couldn't help to get me interested. As I've said before, I think it's the effect of having loved Spearhead From Space so much, that this just doesn't seem to hold up to it.

I'm hoping that the next story will be able to knock me out of this funk and get me back to enjoying the series again. Terror of the Autons has reminded me much more of the Third Doctor's era I have in my head - one that I don't much care for. The Mind of Evil is a return for Don Houghton (writer of Inferno, which rated very well with me), so I'm crossing lots of fingers that he'll be able to get things back on track…

 a

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

Day 288: Terror of the Autons, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I think Terror of the Autons is stuck in one of those awkward situations where it doesn't matter what it does - I'm just not going to like it. I commented a few days ago that I was being put off by the bright colours and the way that I worried the series would dumb down by replacing Liz with Jo, and it feels like I'm constantly waiting to be proven right. I think that I need to have one really brilliant story to knock me back on track, but this just isn't it.

I was trying to explain the problem to Ellie earlier (I don't think she really cares, but she listens, and that's the next best thing), and I said part of the problem is that I'm three quarters of the way through the story and nothing has happened yet. Well that's clearly not true - the Master has arrived on Earth, he's taken control of a plastics factory by hypnotising the right people, and killing anyone else, the Autons are on the move, the Doctor's dodging attempts on his life… there's loads going on, I just feel a bit detached from it.

While I still don't think the Autons here look quite as good as they did during Spearhead From Space, today's episode has at least given me two chances to really enjoy them. The first - of course - has to be the way the Doctor opens a safe to find one waiting inside, gun at the ready. It seemed so obvious after the fact, but I didn't see it coming, which made it a nice surprise. The other occasion is the 'daffodil men', for want of a better word.

I've always had a real issue with these costumes. For years, I've assumed that they're fully plastic, and just what the Autons looked like in this story. It bothered me because they looked like such obvious costumes! A few weeks ago, while I was finishing up on the Troughton era, one of the original masks from these costumes surfaced on eBay. I was really put off by how noticeable the eyeholes were on it - not a good design at all. Except… they're supposed to be costumes! I'd never realised before! There's one particular shot of an Auton lowering the mask over its own blank face, and it's the first time that this version has really made an impact on me. Still not as good as the previous design (I think it's telling that they sell action figures of the Autons from Spearhead, Rose, and The Pandorica Opens, but not this story…), but I'm warming to it!

Of course, the real stand out for today's episode has to be 'first contact' between the Doctor and the Master. I love that it occurs on a telephone, as this is how they first meet in the 21st century version of the programme, too, and suddenly that scene has a whole new layer to it that I've never know about before. It's all so well played between the two men, and I can't wait for the pair to meet in person - I'm assuming it's going to come in the next episode, so I'm crossing my fingers that it could be the saving grace for this story - I feel like I really should like it, but there's just something holding me back…

 a

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

Day 287: Terror of the Autons, Episode Two

Dear diary,

With Toberman to guard the Doctor, there's nothing to fear! I rather like the idea that a cast member from The Tomb of the Cybermen might turn up in every one of Petwee's seasons - we had Cyril Shaps in for The Ambassadors of Death, and today we've got Roy Stewart making the second of his two appearances in the programme, playing the strong silent type once again!

I spent a bit of time yesterday complaining that Jo Grant hand't really gotten off to the best start at UNIT. Thankfully, she's won me over completely today. Things started to turn around when even she started to point out how rubbish she'd been ('I find the man that everyone's looking for, forget where he is, and finish up by trying to blow you all sky-high!'), and you can't help but feel a bit sorry for her. She's got that same quality that made Jamie such a good companion, in that she's terribly loyal, and is desperate to do the best she can. It doesn't show the Doctor in the best of lights, though, when she saves him from imprisonment, and he immediately snaps at her for being there in the first place. I wasn't expecting an instant overnight change to a softer character between seasons, but he's just downright rude now!

I'm also finding myself drawn to the Master. He really is very sinister, isn't he? It's another one of those times where I'm surprised that they've taken this long to introduce a character like this (a Moriarty to the Doctor's Holmes, as Barry Letts' puts it several times in the special features on this DVD), although I suppose they did try a similar trick before in the form of the Meddling Monk. The Master is already outstripping the Monk in my estimations, though, and he's making a real impact after only two episodes. I'm loving all the little traps he keeps setting for the Doctor (although the man is keen on trying to blow his fellow Time Lord up, isn't he? That's three bombs in the first 50 minutes!), and the description of this being 'the eve of war' for the pair.

His introduction - and the knowledge that he'll be turning up in every single one of the stories this season - is all helping to make this feel like much more of an ensemble cast. The Doctor and Jo may be the Doctor and his companion, but you've also got the Brigadier, Benton, Mike, and the Master on hand to share some of the action. I think I quite like having so many of them around - it gives us a chance to see Jo being comforted by someone other than the Doctor, and it makes UNIT feel larger than it might otherwise.

Despite all these little things that I'm enjoying, I can't say I'm all that taken with Terror of the Autons. It just doesn't feel like a patch on their first story, and I think the look of the titular creatures isn't doing them any favours. It's a great cliffhanger when the Doctor pulls away the policeman's face to reveal the auto head underneath, but it just doesn't look as scary or effective as they did in Spearhead. I'm also not sure how I feel about the use of other plastics to inject some threat. On the one hand, the idea that the Nestenes can take control of any plastic item is a great one, and very in keeping with what we've seen established, but the scene with the chair just didn't do it for me (there's too much obvious 'grabbing' of the prop) and the troll doll just isn't as effective as I'd like (the design is hideous, although hI suppose that's the point).

If I'm lucky, the last half of the tale will pick things up for me, but if not then at least it's serving as a good introduction for our new regulars…

 a

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

Day 286: Terror of the Autons, Episode One

Dear diary,

It almost feels like the first day back at school, this one. There's the Doctor, up to his usual tricks, the Brigadier is getting in the way, and Benton is pottering about in the background. We've got a few new kids in class this year, too, in the form of Jo Grant and Mike Yates, along with the new school bully - the Master.

It's confession time. I've never actually watched a full story featuring Rodger Delgardo's incarnation of the Master. I know, ok? I know. Everyone bangs on about how he's the best version of the character, and how he's so menacing and suave and wonderful, but for me he's simply in the wrong era. I've always been so dead-set against this period of the programme that I've never had any interest in checking it out. As if to make matters worse, I've seen every story to feature the Ainley incarnation at least twice!

I'm surprised to see him turning up so early into the story. His TARDIS - in the form of a horse box - materialises just over a minute in, and he's hopping out mere seconds later. He then doesn't waste any time setting himself up as this week's resident bad guy, hypnotising the circus owner, and setting off to steal a Nestene control device. As the story progresses, he shrinks at least one person (I'm assuming that they're dead after being shrunk?), takes control of a plastics factory, and revives some of the Auton bodies. It's a good start to the character, and I can see why people are so fond of him, but I'll reserve my judgement for now, and see what I make as the season goes on - there'll be plenty of chances to see him!

Making less of a great first impression on me is Jo, I'm sorry to say. I've found that it's an odd process working my way through this marathon - I move back and forth between dreading the thought of a certain story and being really excited for it. As I approached the Troughton era, I was dreading it. I'd become to close to Hartnell. Then, of course, it turned out to be simply fantastic. Fast forward a few months and I was dreading reaching Pertwee. And then I wasn't because I'd enjoyed The Invasion. And then I was again, 'cos I'd never been a fan. As Season Seven played out, though, I found myself really loving the style the series had taken on. All that left me with a bit of a problem…

I was loving the show being a bit serious, and having some pretty dark sequences (the more I think about it, the more the spread of the virus in Doctor Who and the Silurians is such a harsh image). I found that the Doctor and Liz worked well together, and everything just clicked for me. Suddenly, I was dreading Season Eight, and the introduction of a companion who - as the Brigadier puts it in this episode - is simply there to pass the Doctor test tubes and tell him how wonderful he is.

I've seen Jo's introduction before ('I'm your new assistant!' / 'Oh no…'), but it really feels like a let down after the introduction of Liz in Spearhead. There, we're being presented with a companion who doesn't especially want to be there, and could possibly be off doing something better. Here, Jo messes up the Doctor's experiment, and by the end of her first episode she's been captured by the enemy and brainwashed into wanting to kill the Doctor! Not off to the best start at the new job, is she? Thankfully, they have got the casting right - Katy Manning is simply fantastic right from the word 'go', and I think I can see myself being won over by her performance, if nothing else.

I'm also a bit dismayed at the look of this episode. As I say, the style of Season Seven ended up really drawing me in, and that stretched to the very real look of all the locations. The Doctor hard a different lab in each story - but they always felt like real places. The one he's based in today looks ridiculous! If anything, it all looks a bit too cartoon for me - and the bright colours of the set (that green door!) don't help… I know it's not around for long, so hopefully things will grow on me as time goes by. Pertwee's first 25 episodes did a lot to raise this era in my estimations, and I'd hate to see it all being for nothing…

Throughout Season Seven, I found myself making a note that simply said 'CSO' alongside many of the episodes. Colour Separation Overlay - or 'green screen' as we'd call it now - made its first appearance in Doctor Who and the Silurians, being used to give the shots of the dinosaur guard dog in the background mainly. I meant to bring it up there, but then I was swept along with the virus and the falling out between the Doctor and the Brig… It turns up pretty heavily in The Ambassadors of Death, too, when the Doctor is taken aboard that giant clam-like spaceship. Even Inferno uses it to provide the scene outside the Doctor's make-shift lab.

So, I told myself, having failed to mention it at all last season, I was to mention it at the absolute earliest opportunity this time around. Thankfully, today's episode gives me plenty of chances to bring it up! CSO provides the view from windows, the background to the museum, the effect of the Time Lord appearing in mid-air, the shrunken scientist in the lunchbox, and the room in which the Master is reviving his new Auton army. Some of the effects work a bit better than others, but that last one, with the Master, really put me off - the perspective of the background is all wrong! That, coupled with the oddly shiny Autons, knocked me right out of the story, and left me staring blankly at the screen.

This story is directed by Barry Letts, who was something of a pioneer when it came to the CSO process. He could see the benefit that the technology would have to making film and television, and will really push it to the limits during his time in the producer's chair. I'll be keeping an eye on how much more it crops up in this story, and seeing if anything can come across worse than that background…

 a

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

Day 285: Inferno, Episode Seven

Dear diary,

Is it just me, or is the Doctor’s return to his regular universe all a bit… sudden? I said yesterday that I was surprised he didn’t leave them behind during the cliffhanger, but today…! We get the reprise, the Doctor shouts that he can’t try to get the console working because there isn’t enough power yet. Petra screams out for Greg as they all turn and watch the lava flow towards the open door…

And then the Doctor wakes up. Back in his regular universe. There’s none of the odd sparkly effect to indicate that he’s moving between dimensions, no shot of him fading away complete with car and console. It’s a bit jarring, and I’m not sure if it leaves me feeling like I’ve been wrenched out of the parallel universe in a good way that makes it seem as though it’s suddenly ‘ended’ or if it’s just left me feeling a bit out of place. I would have at least expected the screen to white out…

Still, the story doesn’t give you enough time to really focus on it, and there’s a lot packed into these final 25 minutes. It helps to really keep the pace up, and rounds out the tale nicely. I was really worried that when the Doctor returned, we’d be stuck with a ‘cuddly’ Brigadier to highlight the differences between him and the Brigade Leader, but he’s as much of an obstacle to the Doctor as anyone in the other world. Having watched time run out for the planet once in this story, it feels almost inconceivable that no one is really listening to the Doctor’s warnings, but you can see why everyone thinks he’s simply unwell – the Doctor comes across as a complete lunatic here. When he bursts into the control room of the drilling project and starts to smash up the equipment, you can almost agree with the Brigadier when the order is given to take the Time Lord away.

It feels like a theme that’s been running through this entire season – the Doctor and the Brigadier locking horns. The final scene, in which the Doctor announces that he’s had enough of the man before attempting to take off with the TARDIS console (again!) could well serve as a good coda to this era – I’m guessing that we’ll start to see a real change in their approaches with each other from now on.

That scene also makes for a fairly good farewell to Liz Shaw. It’s never really bothered me before that she simply disappears between Seasons Seven and Eight, but having spent a month in her company, I’ve been completely won over. It was suggested to me before I started on this season that I should swap the running order of The Ambassadors of Death and this story, as it made her departure more natural. I can’t say I can see how that would have been the case, and the fact that some of the Doctor’s final words to her today are ‘Goodbye, Liz. I shall miss you’ makes this feel like just the right way to watch the stories. I’m also pleased that we get such a lovely shot of the pair hugging once the drill has been stopped, and the Earth has been saved. The final image of the story – and the season – is one of Liz laughing, which seems entirely appropriate.

I’m pleased to report that – as you’ll no doubt have noticed over the last few weeks – I’ve been completely surprised by the start of the Pertwee era. I’ve spent such a long time not looking forward to this part of the marathon, but it’s really good! I’m past the three-seven-part-stories-in-a-row phase that seemed like such a stumbling block before (and, indeed, that’s the end of seven-part stories completely! A form for the programme since the second story, it’s all six-parters and less from here on out, with the exception of Trial of a Time Lord, depending how you look at it), and now that I’m sold on Jon Pertwee’s performance in a way I never have been I think I’m really excited for the next phase of the programme. Here’s hoping it’s as good as this season has generally been…

 a

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

Day 284: Inferno, Episode Six

Dear diary,

I'm really pleased to see that aside from this story, Don Houghton also wrote The Mind of Evil for Season Eight. As I've noted, I'm less familiar with this period of Doctor Who history than I was with the 1960s, so as we start saying goodbye to writers like David Whitaker, it's nice to know that there's new people like Houghton and Robert Holmes stepping in, ready to take up the reigns.

Today's episode, much like the rest of the story, is absolutely filled with brilliant dialogue. Once again, my notes seem to comprise every third line from the script, and I've had to carefully pick and choose which ones are worth my attention when I come to write this entry up. I think it's fair to say that there is a standout winner from today, and it's the Doctor' comment upon seeing Sutton's reaction to the TARDIS console - 'What did you expect? Some kind of space rocket with Batman at the controls?' I hope they have Batman in the parallel universe.

It's fitting that we should get to see so much of the console in this story, especially towards the end of today's episode. Inferno marks the last appearance of the console built way back in 1963 for An Unearthly Child. I've never really tracked the evolution of the machine as I've gone along, but looking at it in some of the shots today, you can clearly see that it's full of bits and pieces I've seen before. Even if I've not been making a point of picking up on it, there's been a kind of subconscious thread linking these first three Doctors together in the form of this console.

I'm sure I commented on it right at the start of Season One, but that original design for the TARDIS real did hit the ground running. I know that Doctor Who never had the budget to constantly update and renew the design (though I think it gets a few makeovers before Pertwee hands in the keys to the police box), but there's a reason they stuck to this basic template for the entire classic run. As much as I love the current console room, I really do like this one. I must make a point of visiting the Doctor Who Experience again to see the replica of this console - they added it only a few days after my last visit!

I'm really pleased that I've enjoyed today's episode as much as this. Having really loved the addition of the parallel world a few days ago when it first turned up, the last few instalments haven't quite gripped me in the same way. Now that we're ready to transfer back to Earth A, I'm finding myself reluctant to say goodbye to this reality! It's been another great example of the Doctor changing people just by being in their presence, and it's nice that he was there in their final moments. I was expecting the episode to conclude with the Doctor vanishing again, so I'm hoping these few characters don't get let down by having to stick around for a few minutes at the start of the next episode.

By the same token, I'm really glad that the Doctor's only headed 'home' for the last 25 minutes of the story. I worried that we'd have to spend a few episodes watching him try to convince Stahlman that they needed to stop the drilling, and that we'd simply end up with a rehash of the last few days. With such a tight timeframe to finish up in, I'm hopeful that the tension will really carry through for the last little push.

Just briefly - it's a return to my monitoring of the Sonic Screwdriver. It turned up earlier in the story being used as a door handle to the Doctor's temporary lab, and now we see that Liz has her own (technically, she was seen using one the other day, but I wasn't sure if it might have been the same device. Now I know he's got one in the parallel world, the one in her bag must be a copy for Liz!) It's still not referred to as being a Sonic Screwdriver, though we get confirmation that the Doctor invented it - a rose by any other name? I'm wondering if Liz might be helping the Doctor to refine the design of it. She is a scientist, after all, and he's been tinkering with it for two whole seasons, now. We're drawing closer and closer to the point where it will become the all-purpose tool we know it as today, so I'm loving the idea that it might have taken a companion's touch to get it to the final stage!