I was more than a bit disappointed by the first part of the finale of David Tenants reign. It seemed very disjointed and hard for people who do not know Who, to follow. In fact as we all sat around watching it on Christmas Day I felt a bit embarrassed at making my Mother (not a Who fan) watch all this stuff. I am pretty sure that most of went straight past her, although she is a very polite person and did not complain.
It was nice to see Wilf back of course, and I liked the cafe scene. However who were this Naismith couple? We had no explanation of why they were millionaires, how they knew of the immortality gate, and where the daughter got the idea from that she could become immortal. It all added to the confusion.
In fact I rather felt as if Russell, the writer, knowing that this was the end of his Dr Who writing, had cast aside all restraint and piled in everything pel mel, with no particular order or cohesion between the various parts. Sorry Russell, but that is what it felt like watching it for the first time.
Although it was exciting to see the Time Lords at the end. I was not expecting that. It was a good moment. I have watched the episode since of course and it does improve on a second viewing. I understand it a bit better. I think it will take a few more viewings though before I get it all, plus I expect parts of it will only be clear once we have seen the final part. Due in a few days.
I am looking forward to Part 2, but my enthusiasm has been dented a bit by the deficiencies of Part 1. Although I should make it clear that I thought all the *actors* was great, and I have no complaints at all about the quality of the acting. It was, as always, superb.
I bought myself the box set of the Doctor Who - The Key to Time recently as an extra Christmas present for myself. It is one of my favourite Doctor series.
So far I have just re-watched the first two. The Ribos Operation is, for me, made by the wonderful performance of Ian Cuthbertson as Garron. He is just perfect as the confidence trickster who loves his work.
Then the Pirate Planet is such a wonderful explosion of inventiveness from Douglas Adams, so clever the subtle way he introduces the nurse and the whole idea of planets mining planets.
To come, the excitements of earth and the Kaliad, the Androids of Tara and the rest. People are often a bit disparaging about the power or Kroll and the Armagedden Factor, but I have always enjoyed them. The whole series is great, with the wonderful Tom Baker, the marvellous Mary Tamm (the perfect ice queen) and the brilliant K9.
Excuse me, I must go now. I have a series to watch.
So. I've seen the Waters of Mars twice and have had a bit of time to ponder on it. What do I think?
Well its good. Of course its good, they all are. And Lindsey Duncan is of course wonderful as Adelaide Brook, the commander. The make up is amazing, and the effects brilliant. But.
I didn't really like the Doctor going off the rails at the end. I really didn't like that. I quite understand that its great for David to act, and as always he did a fabulous job. But the Doctor doesn't do that. Or shouldn't. I don't want him to go mental and upset time. I prefer him as he was.
Call me old fashioned but I prefer the Doctor to be right, the one who sorts things out, the one thing that is dependable I don't want him going off the rails.
We will have to see what will happen over Christmas and the New Year. It looks pretty amazing so I am really looking forward to it.
Lets hope the Doctor has got over his delusions by then.
Prior to watching Delta and the Bannerman I had not really understood why some Who fans were so negative about Sylvester McCoy, or indeed why Dr Who the program was held is such disdain at the end of the classic period. Then I watched Delta and the Bannerman.
I suppose it is not the worst thing I have ever seen, but there is no getting away from it It is dire.
Sylvester McCoy himself is more or less all right. I like Sylvester McCoy. But:
Mel is truly awful (although she is quite good at screaming)
The actress playing Delta is incredibly wooden
Billy is pretty dire too
For example, I find it impossible to believe that he could accept a green baby coming out of an egg and growing up within 24 hours without a blink, even if he had fallen desperately in love with Delta. And whats all this about him changing his species just by sucking on a tube?
I think that the fault probably lies mainly with the dreadful script. However the whole thing is completely unbelievable, and the only way you can make sense of it is to treat it as nonsense, and just enjoy it as that. It is not completely unenjoyable, but it is not good Who.
Although, strange to say, Ken Dodd, compared to the rest of it, is really not that bad. At least he gets killed off early on. Would that the same fate could have befallen Mel.
If you feel like a good book for Halloween, you could do a lot worse than read the 10th Doctor and Martha book, Forever Autumn by Mark Morris. Set in the "sleepy New England town of Blackwood Falls" (to quote the blurb on Amazon) it is rather a fun little book, featuring tall lanky stick like monsters who can possess people and whose space ship is buried beneath the town. Needless to say they must be prevented from using it, as its lift off would kill most of the towns inhabitants.
The Hervoken have some similarities to the Carrionites (seen on screen in the Shakespeare Code), although the Hervoken do not take human form (other than by possession). Apparently they are the Carrionites were enemies until 'the Eternals' took steps against them both. I'd like to know more about the Eternals - Mr Moffatt??
The author cleverly brings the Doctor and Martha to life, very much as they are in the television series, all the catch phrases along with at lot of witty 10th Doctor banter. The other characters are quite pleasant too, the three boys, Etta Helligan, and poor old Doctor Clayton. The Hervoken however are not, with their long stick like bodies, high pitched giggly voices, and long vine like tentacles stretching beneath the town (slightly reminiscent of the citidel's roots from Death to the Daleks). And they enjoy crunching up Mr Everson. Not nice.
The climax is even worse, but I won't tell you as it will spoil the surprise for you. But the Doctor manages it in the end as he always does, and then wants to slope off without saying goodbye. I can't help wondering if the Moffatt/Smith doctor will be quite so adverse to proper endings, hopefully not.
We have a new logo for the Doctor. The new administration are obviously keen to sweep very new, as it is quite different from the Russell era one. Its blue for a start. Its very clever with its 3D tardis but I have to say that I will rather miss the orange one. It was nice and warm whereas the new one is a bit cold and midnightish. For the new, new, new Doctor.
Still no doubt I will get used to it in time.
The BBC Doctor Who site also has a video showing all the past logos, together with a slide show also showing all the old logos, and a video about the design of the 2005 logo.
I think I like the 2005 one best, mainly because I like the warmer colours. Which one do you like best?
The BBC has kindly allowed us all to embed a short video showing the new tardis/logo landing, so who am I to refuse an invitation like that? And the new logo is growing on me already ...
It was interesting to read (a while back now) that Richard Curtis has been commissioned to write (or rather has already written) an episode for the new Who from Moffatt/Smith. He is a great writer, and it will be interesting to see what he comes up with.
I think it unlikely (as some have speculated) that Blackadder will feature. Blackadder is a powerful personality, who I do not think would fit well in the Doctors world. Anyway he has already done time travel.
There are also rumours that the old Stephen Fry episode, which was supposed to be part of the (if I remember right) second series, but which got put aside, might be revived.
The writers are important as they create the mood and think up the storyline, (although in the past apparently often heavily edited by Russsell - it will be interesting to hear how heavy handed Moffatt is with the red pen).
Mind you, I would like to see a few more by past Doctor Who authors. Mat Jones for example, who wrote the wonderful Impossible Planet/Satan Pit duo. Toby Whithouse who wrote the fantastic School Reunion, which brought back everyone's favourite 'classic' companion, Sarah Jane Smith (plus K9). And of course the brilliant James Moran, who wrote the Fires of Pompeii, not to mention Sleeper for Torchwood, as well as being joint writer of the extraordinarily powerful week long Children of Earth episodes (his being episode 3).
Is there anyone I don't want back? Well I have to say that I am not hugely keen on Chris Chibnall's writing. 42 is perhaps my least favourite of all New Who, and I was not terribly keen on a lot of his Torchwood writing either (although some were good). The series one finale he did was abysmal.
What new writers would I like to see? Well I would really like to see what sort of episode Noel Clarke would do. I liked the episode he did for Torchwood, and I am sure he would do something interesting with the Doctor. After all he did win a BAFTA. It would be nice to see Mickey back in the program too.
As I have disk two of Doctor Who series 1 in my machine (after doing my review of Dalek), I have just been watching Aliens of London. You know its really very good.
I know that people are a bit negative about AOL, and I suppose it is not in the same class as Dalek, but it is very entertaining none the less, even the farts are bearable. And the acting is great. I love David Verray and Rupert Vansittart as the sligheen brothers, not to mention the fabulous Annette Badland as Margaret Slitheen. And the possibly even more fabulous Penelope WIlton, as Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North.
Plus it has Andrew Marr, who had one of my all time favourite lines (which he delivers brilliantly) "Oh thats Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale, he's chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionary..." How does Russell think of them?
I accept the point about the super speedo CGI slitheen perhaps being a bit silly, but on the whole it is a very enjoyable episode. In fact, if you will excuse me, I think I will now watch World War Thee.
Mind you, they don't seem to have invited Keith Boak back to direct again.
Do you remember when we all watched that first series of New Who back in 2005, there was a moment when we all realised that this was not just going to be good, it was BRILLIANT! That moment was when we watched Dalek. Somehow Dalek took the show to new heights. It re-introduced us all to the Daleks, told us a bit more about the ‘last great time war’ and the Doctors part in it. And it was great drama.
The story starts when the Tardis arrives in a strange ‘great big alien museum’ in Utah, USA, 2012. Exhibits include a stuffed slitheen claw, the mileometer from the Roswell spaceship, and a cyberman head. But thats not what called them there. That was something else, reaching out, calling for help ... The Doctor touches the Cyberman case, and suddenly they are surrounded, and Rose points out that if its aliens the museum owners are after, he will be exhibit A.
After the credits we meet Henry Van Statten. He appears to be the owner of the compex, is obviously wealthy and powerful, and has a strong interest in the extra terrestrial. He has agents buy alien artifacts at auction for him, but has just has just the one living specimen. He named it ‘the metraltron’, although he would prefer to find out its real name. He invites the Doctor down to see it.
Van Stratten is obviously a nasty piece of work. People who do not agree with him have their memories removed and are slung out on the street, He shows no respect for an alien musical instrument, bought by his employee Adam at auction for $800,000, throwing it aside once he has worked out what it is, and he tells his staff that the Doctor is not to be let out of the ‘cage’ until he has a ‘result’.
The next few minutes are some of the most powerful in the series. The Doctor, coming face to face with a representative of the race that destroyed his, goes mad and tries to kill it. Christopher Eccleston’s acting is truly superb here, you feel his pain, and know just the moment when he decided to kill...
But Van Statten is not going to lose his living specimen so easily. ‘Get him out’ he orders, and hurries in to the cage. ‘And now I know your name’ he says gleefully, “Dalek’. However Van Statten may own the internet, but the Dalek refuses to speak. “My name is Henry Van Statten, now recognise me” he cries in frustration, but the blue eye just stares at him. ‘Make it talk’ he orders the torturer, Simmons, ‘Whatever it takes”.
Meanwhile, Rose is chatting to Adam, upstairs. This is a lovely scene beautifully played by both actors, and beautifully and artistically shot. Rose is obviously taken with Adam, even though he nearly started world war three, which she clearly does not think is funny. However he reminds her of the Doctor when he says “Fantastic”.
Adam confesses to being a genius who believes that the world is just teeming with life, but Rose is unimpressed. “What and you just sit here and catalogue it?” How can be be content to do this when Van Statten has a living creature downstairs? However when Adam patches them into the comms system to take a look at it, what they see is the creature being tortured. Rose demands to be taken down there, and so starts the whole tragic course of events.
In the meantime, with the Doctor and Van Statten we are learning a bit more about Daleks in general (genetically engineered to remove every emotion except hate) and this Dalek in particular. According to Diana Goddard it has been on earth for over 50 years, moving from one collection to another, having fallen to earth on the Ascension Islands like a meteorite, burning in its cradle for three days before anyone could get near it. Of course one thing that no-one ever mentions is what it ate and drank during all this time - Daleks being organic, presumably they need to consume something to keep them alive, But perhaps food is manufactured for them by their casing, from the air.
As predicted by Rose, once Van Statten realises that the Doctor too is an alien, he seeks information, and is not too choosy with his methods of obtaining it. Only the crisis started by Rose forces him to keep the Doctor free. For Rose, seduced by Nick Briggs dulcet tones, has touched the Dalek, allowing it to regenerate itself using her DNA, and free itself from its cage. Although the Dalek’s ‘suckering to death’ of Simmons is no great loss to the world, the fate of the rest of the base personnel is more worrying.
In view of what happened later, it is a pity that Rose and Adam did not make a bolt for it there and then. It is only when the Doctor shouts at her to get out and Di Maggio is given the job of getting them to safety that they leave. Meanwhile the Dalek is repairing itself by draining the power supply of western United States and absorbing the internet. Not that it does it much good. However it enjoys itself having an orgy of killing, while Van Statten orders his men not to put a scratch on its bodywork, until he realises that he is speaking to dead men.
One of the writer, Robert Shearman’s briefs for this story, was to deal once and for all with age old jokes about the Daleks, This scene makes it quite clear that Daleks are superb fighting machines. The next makes it equally clear that they can now climb stairs (and playgrounds the following day echoed to “Elevate!” the length and breadth of the country).
One question which I have not heard raised is the Doctors responsibility for the deaths of the men in the weapons testing area - the main battle ground of the program. It was he who suggested all personnel (including the technicians, the lawyers, everyone) be given guns to fight, as an alternative to sealing off the area and therefore trapping the Dalek with Rose. Was he also morally responsible for their deaths?
He was certainly given a good view of it all as the Dalek kindly put the power back on so he can view it all via video link. After watching so many being killed it is perhaps understandable that the Doctor would lose his cool and tell the Dalek to kill itself. Leading to the unanwearable “You would make a good Dalek” before it cut out the power and makes its way up the stairs. And then the Doctor tells them to seal the vault.
It is obvious watching Adam and Rose run upstairs and along the last corridor, that Rose is not going to make it. Adam manages to slide under the door at the last moment but Rose is left to face the Dalek alone.
But the Dalek has troubles of its own. Why has it not killed Rose? Why is she still alive? He can feel her fear, but Daleks do not fear, must not fear. She gave him life, but what else did she give him? He is contaminated. He opens communications with a delighted Doctor and orders him to open the bulkheads. For ‘what use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” The Doctor opens the bulkheads.
So. The Dalek is moving steadily up the stairs with Rose. Van Statten is panicking in his office. While Adams takes the Doctor to his room (now lit quite differently) to find some weaponry which will work against the Dalek. After rummaging through broken guns and hair dryers, a big gun is found, while Rose accompanies the Dalek, still questioning itself, up in the lift.
And at last, on arrival in his office, the Dalek finally acknowledges Van Statten and speaks to him, However as the word used is ‘Exterminate’ he is less than happy about it. Only the intervention of Rose saves him. ‘You don’t have to do this any more, there must be something else, not just killing, what else do you want?” she asks him desperately, and the Dalek answers, probably to its own surprise ‘Freedom”,
So to the last scene with the Dalek, when the Doctor confronts it with the gun, Rose won’t let him kill it, and we see the Dalek revealed in all its slimy horror. The Dalek is changing, mutating into something new. But for a Dalek that is bad, so it orders Rose to order it to self destruct. Which reluctantly she does. Leading to some nice CGI effects as the Dalek blows itself up.
Right through the story, Diana Goddard has been there, respectful to Van Statten but obviously sympathetic to the Doctor. At the end however she takes over, how or why we are not told. Still “200 personnel dead and all because of you, sir”, is not a bad reason, for taking a man away, wiping his memory and leaving him by the road someplace, in San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, or someplace beginning with S”.
So all that is left is for Goddard to order the base be closed down and filled with cement, while Rose and the Doctor leave in their small blue box with a rather puzzled Adam, for us to meet again next week on on satellite 5.
As well as being a fantastic story and drama, this episode is also an artistic triumph. I particularly admire the lighting (from director of photography Ernie Vincze, who writes movingly about light in the 2nd series confidential here) which unerringly picks out Rose’s hair and creates beauty out of a rather utilitarian set. The music is also superb, and chilling in the way it creates a mood of menace, as the Dalek alternately plots and despairs - the last Dalek (for this episode anyway).
However it all stems from the superb script from writer Robert Shearman. We could do with some more from him. Mr Moffatt?
Well I have read the survey results in DWM and I'm not happy with it. I don't think the Caves of Androzani is the best Dr Who of all time. Its just the favourite of the sort of blokes (and its bound to be blokes) who read DWM.
Mind you, I should speak really, we did mean to send in our lists but never managed to finish ticking all the boxes. But there you are - this list is made up of the likes and dislikes of the people who did manage to finish it. Says it all really.
Looking at the list in a bit more detail, there are a lot of inconsistencies. Numbers 200 - 101 (described disparagingly in DWM as 'clunkers') had the Doctors-Daughter-in-a-tight-green-top at number 140! What happened there? And Fear Her, a reasonable episode although admittedly not my favourite, was number 192. How can this be considered worse than the Macra (137), now only visible as a selection of photos connected by narrative on the BBC web-site?
The trouble also about lists like this is that it seems to indicate that those at the bottom of the list are bad. Or 'clunkers', to quote DWM. But I really like loads of the 'clunkers' at the bottom. Even Time Flight (196), which everyone is rude about, last time I watched it I really enjoyed it. Is that not the test of a good program? Even if it does have rubbish props and effects. And I have always been rather fond of the Krotons too (166).
Jumping ahead, what about the top 10?
10. Bad Woolf - yes OK; 9. Robots of Death- hmm, not as good as others, e.g. The Fires of Pompeii (56) IMHO; 8. City of Death - yes definitely one of the best; 7. Pyramids of Mars - mmmyes all right; 6. Human Nature/Family of Blood - great episode; 5. Empty Child/Doctor Dances - of course, brilliant; 4.Talons - yes, yes, all right; 3. Genesis of the Daleks - no, sorry that has never rung my bell, too gloomy; 2. Blink - great of course but not actually my favourite Moffat; 1. Caves - no, not my favourite.
So what is my all time fave? I suppose, thinking it over, it is the Library (24). Which is probably why I felt I wanted it for my first review.
If you don't agree with me though feel free to comment.
We are all companions of the Doctor, invisible phantoms following as he travels through time and space, looking over his shoulder and into his eyes ...
The BBC Dr Who Site The front page of the main Dr Who site at the BBC, with current news and recent programs
BBC - series 1, 2 and 3 The archive on the BBC Dr Who site which covers series 1, 2 and 3 of the new series, plus confidential
BBC - the Classic Series A detailed record of Dr Who on the telly up to Survival in 1989. Has all sorts of goodies, including a web-casts of Shada and the Human Nature novel.
Other Doctor Who sites
The Doctor Who Site News, links, and merchandise for Dr Who and associated programs
recently as an extra Christmas present for myself. It is one of my favourite Doctor series.
can be bought online from Amazon.
can be bought from Amazon as a paperback, either on its own, or more economically as part of a boxed Martha and the 10th Doctor set: 
.
in my machine (after doing my review of Dalek), I have just been watching Aliens of London. You know its really very good.
.
