Tin Dog Podcast

- Description:
- tin-dog@hotmail.co.uk The Tin Dog welcomes you to sit back and listen to his rants and ramblings about all that is best in modern SF and Television. Via the gift of the new fangled Podcast over the tinterweb. As you can probably guess Tin Dog mostly talks about Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Smith but that wont stop him talking about any other subject you suggest. Hailing from a non specific part of the northeast of England, Tin Dog is male and in his mid 30s. A life long fan of almost all TV SF. His semi-autistic tendencies combined with his total lack of social skills have helped him find a place in the heart of British SF Fandom. Even as a child the Tin Dogs mother told him that she can trace his love of SF TV back to his rhythmic kicking, while still in the womb, along to the beat of the Avengers theme music. From Gabriel Chase to Totters Lane, from the Bad Wolf Satellite to the back streets of the Cardiff, Tin Dog will give you his thoughts on the wonderful Whoniverse. Daleks and Cybermen and TARDIS ES Oh My If you enjoy these Tin Dog Podcasts please remember to tell your friends and leave an email tin-dog@hotmail.co.uk
Homepage: http://tin-dog.co.uk
RSS Feed: http://www.tin-dog.co.uk/rss
- Episodes:
- 2905
- Average Episode Duration:
- 0:0:10:09
- Longest Episode Duration:
- 0:2:09:15
- Total Duration of all Episodes:
- 20 days, 11 hours, 17 minutes and 36 seconds
- Earliest Episode:
- 1 May 2007 (6:54pm GMT)
- Latest Episode:
- 20 June 2025 (5:54am GMT)
- Average Time Between Episodes:
- 2 days, 6 hours, 43 minutes and 43 seconds
Tin Dog Podcast Episodes
-
TDP 190: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 1 - The New World
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 52 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIAA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The New World" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 8 July 2011 and in Canada on Space on 9 July 2011. It will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 14 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Reception and Broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis In Kentucky, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is due to be executed by a lethal concoction of drugs. However, the execution fails. At the start of "Miracle Day", a mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the usual security protocols and containing only the word "Torchwood". CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is fatally injured in a car crash whilst receiving information on Torchwood from Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and is taken to a Washington DC hospital. There he is treated by surgeon Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur), who informs Esther that Rex has survived, and also that no-one has died in the past 24 hours at any US hospital. This information leads to the discussion of the "miracle" on International news and social networking sites. It is revealed that individuals can still become sick and injured, but continue to live regardless. As Esther investigates the remaining files on Torchwood in the CIA archives, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US to deal with Esther, after erasing all online mentions of Torchwood. After saving her from an assassin who later blows up the CIA archives, Jack gives Esther an amnesia pill, and she subsequently forgets about her encounter with Jack, though her memories of Torchwood itself are triggered by a file brought to her by CIA agent Noah Vickers. Oswald meets a representative of the Governor of Kentucky who has come to apologize for any pain Oswald suffered during his failed execution. But Oswald demands that he should be released since he technically already served his sentence or else he will sue the State for breaching his Eighth and Fifth Amendments rights for unlawful imprisonment and unnecessary pain. Realizing the lawsuit would cost millions for the State, the Governor reluctantly release Oswald due to Force majeure much to public anger. In Wales former Torchwood operative and young mother Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is called out of exile by her old collegaue Andy Davidson (Tom Price), who informs her that her father Geraint (William Thomas) has had two heart attacks, but not died. Gwen is persuaded not to investigate the strange events any further by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen). However, CIA agent Rex Matheson links Torchwood with the worldwide miracle and with Esther's help tracks Gwen down using the phonecall data from Davidson's phone. Upon arriving at Gwen's seaside house, a helicopter arrives with the intention of killing Gwen. Gwen fights off the helicopter, and escapes with the help of Jack who has arrived to watch out for her. The remaining members of Torchwood escape to Roald Dahl Plass, the site of the original Torchwood Institute, where Jack reveals that he hasn't healed from an injury sustained at the CIA archives, and therefore is assumed to be mortal, just as the entire populace is now Immortal. Gwen discusses what actions they should take, but is interrupted by the arrival of the South Wales Police force and Rex's announcement that he is renditioning Torchwood to the United states. [edit] Continuity Jack flashes counterfeit credentials to gain access to the bomber's autopsy. He claims to be an FBI agent named Owen Harper, a reference to his late Torchwood colleague whose own extensive collection of false identity cards was shown in "Ghost Machine". The temporal setting of "Everything Changes" and "Day One" is established when Esther reads that Gwen Cooper joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006. The CIA officers make several mentions of 456 level security, a reference to the aliens (the 456) that are encountered in Torchwood: Children of Earth. As the team sit in Roald Dahl Plass, they note that it and the Water Tower have been rebuilt since the demolition in Torchwood: Children of Earth. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes [edit] Reception and Broadcast The episode recieved positive reviews. Crave Online said it's good to see John Barrowman easily step back into his iconic character,they gave the episode 8 out of 10.[1] When premiered on SPACE in Canada, the episode drew in nearly a million viewers with an average of 432,000, the highest the channel has ever had for a show.[2] Overall, the first episode of "Miracle Day" was entertaining and intriguing enough to justify Torchwood's new lease on life. [edit] References ^ http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/170849-torchwood-miracle-day-101-the-new-world ^ "The New World: Canadian Ratings". Doctor Who News Page. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2011-07-13. [edit] External links The New World on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
-
TDP 190: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 1 - The New World
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 52 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIAA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The New World" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 8 July 2011 and in Canada on Space on 9 July 2011. It will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 14 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Reception and Broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis In Kentucky, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is due to be executed by a lethal concoction of drugs. However, the execution fails. At the start of "Miracle Day", a mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the usual security protocols and containing only the word "Torchwood". CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is fatally injured in a car crash whilst receiving information on Torchwood from Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and is taken to a Washington DC hospital. There he is treated by surgeon Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur), who informs Esther that Rex has survived, and also that no-one has died in the past 24 hours at any US hospital. This information leads to the discussion of the "miracle" on International news and social networking sites. It is revealed that individuals can still become sick and injured, but continue to live regardless. As Esther investigates the remaining files on Torchwood in the CIA archives, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US to deal with Esther, after erasing all online mentions of Torchwood. After saving her from an assassin who later blows up the CIA archives, Jack gives Esther an amnesia pill, and she subsequently forgets about her encounter with Jack, though her memories of Torchwood itself are triggered by a file brought to her by CIA agent Noah Vickers. Oswald meets a representative of the Governor of Kentucky who has come to apologize for any pain Oswald suffered during his failed execution. But Oswald demands that he should be released since he technically already served his sentence or else he will sue the State for breaching his Eighth and Fifth Amendments rights for unlawful imprisonment and unnecessary pain. Realizing the lawsuit would cost millions for the State, the Governor reluctantly release Oswald due to Force majeure much to public anger. In Wales former Torchwood operative and young mother Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is called out of exile by her old collegaue Andy Davidson (Tom Price), who informs her that her father Geraint (William Thomas) has had two heart attacks, but not died. Gwen is persuaded not to investigate the strange events any further by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen). However, CIA agent Rex Matheson links Torchwood with the worldwide miracle and with Esther's help tracks Gwen down using the phonecall data from Davidson's phone. Upon arriving at Gwen's seaside house, a helicopter arrives with the intention of killing Gwen. Gwen fights off the helicopter, and escapes with the help of Jack who has arrived to watch out for her. The remaining members of Torchwood escape to Roald Dahl Plass, the site of the original Torchwood Institute, where Jack reveals that he hasn't healed from an injury sustained at the CIA archives, and therefore is assumed to be mortal, just as the entire populace is now Immortal. Gwen discusses what actions they should take, but is interrupted by the arrival of the South Wales Police force and Rex's announcement that he is renditioning Torchwood to the United states. [edit] Continuity Jack flashes counterfeit credentials to gain access to the bomber's autopsy. He claims to be an FBI agent named Owen Harper, a reference to his late Torchwood colleague whose own extensive collection of false identity cards was shown in "Ghost Machine". The temporal setting of "Everything Changes" and "Day One" is established when Esther reads that Gwen Cooper joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006. The CIA officers make several mentions of 456 level security, a reference to the aliens (the 456) that are encountered in Torchwood: Children of Earth. As the team sit in Roald Dahl Plass, they note that it and the Water Tower have been rebuilt since the demolition in Torchwood: Children of Earth. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes [edit] Reception and Broadcast The episode recieved positive reviews. Crave Online said it's good to see John Barrowman easily step back into his iconic character,they gave the episode 8 out of 10.[1] When premiered on SPACE in Canada, the episode drew in nearly a million viewers with an average of 432,000, the highest the channel has ever had for a show.[2] Overall, the first episode of "Miracle Day" was entertaining and intriguing enough to justify Torchwood's new lease on life. [edit] References ^ http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/170849-torchwood-miracle-day-101-the-new-world ^ "The New World: Canadian Ratings". Doctor Who News Page. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2011-07-13. [edit] External links The New World on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
-
TDP 190: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 1 - The New World
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 52 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIAA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The New World" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 8 July 2011 and in Canada on Space on 9 July 2011. It will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 14 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Reception and Broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis In Kentucky, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is due to be executed by a lethal concoction of drugs. However, the execution fails. At the start of "Miracle Day", a mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the usual security protocols and containing only the word "Torchwood". CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is fatally injured in a car crash whilst receiving information on Torchwood from Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and is taken to a Washington DC hospital. There he is treated by surgeon Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur), who informs Esther that Rex has survived, and also that no-one has died in the past 24 hours at any US hospital. This information leads to the discussion of the "miracle" on International news and social networking sites. It is revealed that individuals can still become sick and injured, but continue to live regardless. As Esther investigates the remaining files on Torchwood in the CIA archives, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US to deal with Esther, after erasing all online mentions of Torchwood. After saving her from an assassin who later blows up the CIA archives, Jack gives Esther an amnesia pill, and she subsequently forgets about her encounter with Jack, though her memories of Torchwood itself are triggered by a file brought to her by CIA agent Noah Vickers. Oswald meets a representative of the Governor of Kentucky who has come to apologize for any pain Oswald suffered during his failed execution. But Oswald demands that he should be released since he technically already served his sentence or else he will sue the State for breaching his Eighth and Fifth Amendments rights for unlawful imprisonment and unnecessary pain. Realizing the lawsuit would cost millions for the State, the Governor reluctantly release Oswald due to Force majeure much to public anger. In Wales former Torchwood operative and young mother Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is called out of exile by her old collegaue Andy Davidson (Tom Price), who informs her that her father Geraint (William Thomas) has had two heart attacks, but not died. Gwen is persuaded not to investigate the strange events any further by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen). However, CIA agent Rex Matheson links Torchwood with the worldwide miracle and with Esther's help tracks Gwen down using the phonecall data from Davidson's phone. Upon arriving at Gwen's seaside house, a helicopter arrives with the intention of killing Gwen. Gwen fights off the helicopter, and escapes with the help of Jack who has arrived to watch out for her. The remaining members of Torchwood escape to Roald Dahl Plass, the site of the original Torchwood Institute, where Jack reveals that he hasn't healed from an injury sustained at the CIA archives, and therefore is assumed to be mortal, just as the entire populace is now Immortal. Gwen discusses what actions they should take, but is interrupted by the arrival of the South Wales Police force and Rex's announcement that he is renditioning Torchwood to the United states. [edit] Continuity Jack flashes counterfeit credentials to gain access to the bomber's autopsy. He claims to be an FBI agent named Owen Harper, a reference to his late Torchwood colleague whose own extensive collection of false identity cards was shown in "Ghost Machine". The temporal setting of "Everything Changes" and "Day One" is established when Esther reads that Gwen Cooper joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006. The CIA officers make several mentions of 456 level security, a reference to the aliens (the 456) that are encountered in Torchwood: Children of Earth. As the team sit in Roald Dahl Plass, they note that it and the Water Tower have been rebuilt since the demolition in Torchwood: Children of Earth. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes [edit] Reception and Broadcast The episode recieved positive reviews. Crave Online said it's good to see John Barrowman easily step back into his iconic character,they gave the episode 8 out of 10.[1] When premiered on SPACE in Canada, the episode drew in nearly a million viewers with an average of 432,000, the highest the channel has ever had for a show.[2] Overall, the first episode of "Miracle Day" was entertaining and intriguing enough to justify Torchwood's new lease on life. [edit] References ^ http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/170849-torchwood-miracle-day-101-the-new-world ^ "The New World: Canadian Ratings". Doctor Who News Page. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2011-07-13. [edit] External links The New World on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
-
TDP 189: Torchwood - House of the Dead - Lost Tales 3
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 8 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose. By James Goss. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Mrs Wintergreen ... Rosalind Ayres Barry ... Bradley Freegard Mr Jones/Tony ... John Francis Harries Helen ... Lucy Davis Ness ... Moira Quirk Late Arrival ... Shelley Rees Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
-
TDP 190: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 1 - The New World
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 52 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIAA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The New World" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 8 July 2011 and in Canada on Space on 9 July 2011. It will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 14 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Reception and Broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis In Kentucky, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is due to be executed by a lethal concoction of drugs. However, the execution fails. At the start of "Miracle Day", a mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the usual security protocols and containing only the word "Torchwood". CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is fatally injured in a car crash whilst receiving information on Torchwood from Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and is taken to a Washington DC hospital. There he is treated by surgeon Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur), who informs Esther that Rex has survived, and also that no-one has died in the past 24 hours at any US hospital. This information leads to the discussion of the "miracle" on International news and social networking sites. It is revealed that individuals can still become sick and injured, but continue to live regardless. As Esther investigates the remaining files on Torchwood in the CIA archives, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US to deal with Esther, after erasing all online mentions of Torchwood. After saving her from an assassin who later blows up the CIA archives, Jack gives Esther an amnesia pill, and she subsequently forgets about her encounter with Jack, though her memories of Torchwood itself are triggered by a file brought to her by CIA agent Noah Vickers. Oswald meets a representative of the Governor of Kentucky who has come to apologize for any pain Oswald suffered during his failed execution. But Oswald demands that he should be released since he technically already served his sentence or else he will sue the State for breaching his Eighth and Fifth Amendments rights for unlawful imprisonment and unnecessary pain. Realizing the lawsuit would cost millions for the State, the Governor reluctantly release Oswald due to Force majeure much to public anger. In Wales former Torchwood operative and young mother Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is called out of exile by her old collegaue Andy Davidson (Tom Price), who informs her that her father Geraint (William Thomas) has had two heart attacks, but not died. Gwen is persuaded not to investigate the strange events any further by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen). However, CIA agent Rex Matheson links Torchwood with the worldwide miracle and with Esther's help tracks Gwen down using the phonecall data from Davidson's phone. Upon arriving at Gwen's seaside house, a helicopter arrives with the intention of killing Gwen. Gwen fights off the helicopter, and escapes with the help of Jack who has arrived to watch out for her. The remaining members of Torchwood escape to Roald Dahl Plass, the site of the original Torchwood Institute, where Jack reveals that he hasn't healed from an injury sustained at the CIA archives, and therefore is assumed to be mortal, just as the entire populace is now Immortal. Gwen discusses what actions they should take, but is interrupted by the arrival of the South Wales Police force and Rex's announcement that he is renditioning Torchwood to the United states. [edit] Continuity Jack flashes counterfeit credentials to gain access to the bomber's autopsy. He claims to be an FBI agent named Owen Harper, a reference to his late Torchwood colleague whose own extensive collection of false identity cards was shown in "Ghost Machine". The temporal setting of "Everything Changes" and "Day One" is established when Esther reads that Gwen Cooper joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006. The CIA officers make several mentions of 456 level security, a reference to the aliens (the 456) that are encountered in Torchwood: Children of Earth. As the team sit in Roald Dahl Plass, they note that it and the Water Tower have been rebuilt since the demolition in Torchwood: Children of Earth. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes [edit] Reception and Broadcast The episode recieved positive reviews. Crave Online said it's good to see John Barrowman easily step back into his iconic character,they gave the episode 8 out of 10.[1] When premiered on SPACE in Canada, the episode drew in nearly a million viewers with an average of 432,000, the highest the channel has ever had for a show.[2] Overall, the first episode of "Miracle Day" was entertaining and intriguing enough to justify Torchwood's new lease on life. [edit] References ^ http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/170849-torchwood-miracle-day-101-the-new-world ^ "The New World: Canadian Ratings". Doctor Who News Page. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2011-07-13. [edit] External links The New World on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
-
TDP 189: Torchwood - House of the Dead - Lost Tales 3
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 8 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose. By James Goss. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Mrs Wintergreen ... Rosalind Ayres Barry ... Bradley Freegard Mr Jones/Tony ... John Francis Harries Helen ... Lucy Davis Ness ... Moira Quirk Late Arrival ... Shelley Rees Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
-
TDP 189: Torchwood - House of the Dead - Lost Tales 3
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 8 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose. By James Goss. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Mrs Wintergreen ... Rosalind Ayres Barry ... Bradley Freegard Mr Jones/Tony ... John Francis Harries Helen ... Lucy Davis Ness ... Moira Quirk Late Arrival ... Shelley Rees Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
-
TDP 189: Torchwood - House of the Dead - Lost Tales 3
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 8 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose. By James Goss. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Mrs Wintergreen ... Rosalind Ayres Barry ... Bradley Freegard Mr Jones/Tony ... John Francis Harries Helen ... Lucy Davis Ness ... Moira Quirk Late Arrival ... Shelley Rees Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.
-
TDP 188: Torchwood - Submission - Lost tales 2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 19 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT In Ryan Scott's episode, Torchwood are chasing aliens down the M4, when Jack accidentally blows a hole in the Severn Bridge, and the SUV hits the water. Whilst submerged John, Gwen and Ianto hear a strange noise, which, back at the Hub they realise is a cry for help. They track the cry to its source which turns out to be the deepest part of the Ocean - the Mariana Trench. Ianto rings old Torchwood flame, Carlie Roberts, who's an expert in marine geology, and Jack pulls strings with the US government to get them all on board the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which is heading for the Trench. From there they board the Octopus Rock, the only submarine built to withstand the pressure at that depth, and follow the signal. But when the Submarine crashes, the team are left at the mercy of a hungry alien. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Carlie Roberts ... Erin Bennett Sam Doyle ... Angelo Tiffe Captain Cudlow ... John Francis Harries Henry Goddard ... John Lee Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Tue 12 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4ss
-
TDP 188: Torchwood - Submission - Lost tales 2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 19 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT In Ryan Scott's episode, Torchwood are chasing aliens down the M4, when Jack accidentally blows a hole in the Severn Bridge, and the SUV hits the water. Whilst submerged John, Gwen and Ianto hear a strange noise, which, back at the Hub they realise is a cry for help. They track the cry to its source which turns out to be the deepest part of the Ocean - the Mariana Trench. Ianto rings old Torchwood flame, Carlie Roberts, who's an expert in marine geology, and Jack pulls strings with the US government to get them all on board the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which is heading for the Trench. From there they board the Octopus Rock, the only submarine built to withstand the pressure at that depth, and follow the signal. But when the Submarine crashes, the team are left at the mercy of a hungry alien. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Carlie Roberts ... Erin Bennett Sam Doyle ... Angelo Tiffe Captain Cudlow ... John Francis Harries Henry Goddard ... John Lee Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Tue 12 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4ss
-
TDP 188: Torchwood - Submission - Lost tales 2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 19 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT In Ryan Scott's episode, Torchwood are chasing aliens down the M4, when Jack accidentally blows a hole in the Severn Bridge, and the SUV hits the water. Whilst submerged John, Gwen and Ianto hear a strange noise, which, back at the Hub they realise is a cry for help. They track the cry to its source which turns out to be the deepest part of the Ocean - the Mariana Trench. Ianto rings old Torchwood flame, Carlie Roberts, who's an expert in marine geology, and Jack pulls strings with the US government to get them all on board the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which is heading for the Trench. From there they board the Octopus Rock, the only submarine built to withstand the pressure at that depth, and follow the signal. But when the Submarine crashes, the team are left at the mercy of a hungry alien. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Carlie Roberts ... Erin Bennett Sam Doyle ... Angelo Tiffe Captain Cudlow ... John Francis Harries Henry Goddard ... John Lee Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Tue 12 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4ss
-
TDP 188: Torchwood - Submission - Lost tales 2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 19 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT In Ryan Scott's episode, Torchwood are chasing aliens down the M4, when Jack accidentally blows a hole in the Severn Bridge, and the SUV hits the water. Whilst submerged John, Gwen and Ianto hear a strange noise, which, back at the Hub they realise is a cry for help. They track the cry to its source which turns out to be the deepest part of the Ocean - the Mariana Trench. Ianto rings old Torchwood flame, Carlie Roberts, who's an expert in marine geology, and Jack pulls strings with the US government to get them all on board the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which is heading for the Trench. From there they board the Octopus Rock, the only submarine built to withstand the pressure at that depth, and follow the signal. But when the Submarine crashes, the team are left at the mercy of a hungry alien. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Carlie Roberts ... Erin Bennett Sam Doyle ... Angelo Tiffe Captain Cudlow ... John Francis Harries Henry Goddard ... John Lee Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Tue 12 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4ss
-
TDP 187: Torchwood - The Devil and Miss Carew - Lost tales 1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 36 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The Devil and Miss Carew Listen: Next on: Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight. When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Rhys Williams ... Kai Owen Fitzroy ... Martin Jarvis Miss Carew ... Juliet Mills Sian ... Hayley J Williams Uncle Bryn ... James Walsh Old Lady ... Shelley Rees Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Mon 11 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4
-
TDP 187: Torchwood - The Devil and Miss Carew - Lost tales 1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 36 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The Devil and Miss Carew Listen: Next on: Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight. When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Rhys Williams ... Kai Owen Fitzroy ... Martin Jarvis Miss Carew ... Juliet Mills Sian ... Hayley J Williams Uncle Bryn ... James Walsh Old Lady ... Shelley Rees Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Mon 11 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4
-
TDP 187: Torchwood - The Devil and Miss Carew - Lost tales 1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 36 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The Devil and Miss Carew Listen: Next on: Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight. When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Rhys Williams ... Kai Owen Fitzroy ... Martin Jarvis Miss Carew ... Juliet Mills Sian ... Hayley J Williams Uncle Bryn ... James Walsh Old Lady ... Shelley Rees Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Mon 11 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4
-
TDP 187: Torchwood - The Devil and Miss Carew - Lost tales 1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 36 secondsREPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The Devil and Miss Carew Listen: Next on: Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight. When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Rhys Williams ... Kai Owen Fitzroy ... Martin Jarvis Miss Carew ... Juliet Mills Sian ... Hayley J Williams Uncle Bryn ... James Walsh Old Lady ... Shelley Rees Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Mon 11 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4
-
The Tin Dog Drinking Game by Victor S
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsagain the link is here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/tindog-podcast-drinking-game.html The Tin Dog Podcast Drinking Game v 1.3Requirements: Episode(s) of Tin-Dog Podcast This list People (the more the merrier) Beverages of your choiceInstructions: Simple. Listen the show, and whenever a condition is met, take the appropriate number of drinks. The definition of "drink" should be decided before game play starts. Usually, a good mouthful will suffice.Compiler's Note: I would advise taking some time before game play starts to decide which conditions to use and which to ignore.Remember that this list is canonical, so you probably will _not_ want to use them all (especially with a new podcast, Since you'll spend all your time reading the list, rather than listening).Please send any corrections, suggestions, Requests, submissions, flames, etc. to the address listed below.Thanks Michael for the Tin Dog Podcast: Compiled by victoswindell@hotmail.com (send me your input/changes)Podcast Event - Number of DrinksHost voice not OK - 1Host is recording outside of studio/home - 1Host starts to ramble off topic - 1Host says "let it go" - 1Host says "There Again - 1Host says "Out of its Time" - 1Host says "Better than I remember" - 1Host asks for funds/selling something - 2Host uploads wrong podcast - 2Host changes Theme music - 2Host podcast is not what he said it was going to be - 1Host not reviewing Doctor Who - 2Someone has donated funds for podcast -1Host mentions iTunes - 1REVIEW COMMENTSHost mentions 'steam-punk' -2Host mentions another Dr Who podcast - 1Host plays clip from another podcast -1Host plays audio clip from DW - 1Host play recording of DW Actor advertising the Tin-Dog Pod cast -1Host reads one of his stories -2WHOSTROLOGY is the same as your birthday - 2It's your WHOSTROLOG - 1Host mentions the first or ninth Doctor - 1Host mentions the second or tenth Doctor - 2Host mentions the third or eleventh Doctor -3Host mentions the fourth Doctor - 4Host mentions the fifth Doctor - 5Host mentions the sixth Doctor - 6Host mentions the seventh Doctor - 7Host mentions the eighth Doctor -8Host references/compares another Doctor Episode -1PODCAST REVIEWS EVENTSHost references Non DW SciFi series (Star Trek, X-Files, The Tomorrow People-etc) - 1Host references another DW media (Book Episode, etc) - 1Host really likes episode -2Host likes episode - 1Host sort likes episode -1Host hates episode - 2Host says "LI-N-DA" or mentions 'Love and Monsters' -3Host references actor other work - 2Host mentions "K-9" -2Host mentions "BBC" -3Host gives list of possibilities - 1Host gives a theory - 2Host gives a bit of Who Trivia - 1Host says "TARDIS" - 1Host mentions your favorite Doctor -1Host gives episode 9 or 10 -4Host gives episode 6, 7 or 8 -3Host give episode 5 or below -2Host references NON-SciFi series -2Host mentions a clue for future episode. -1Host says 'Candy Man' -1Host is reviewing a Big Finish Audio -2Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, All right Reserved. We forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera... "Fax mentis, incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum! - *By Victor Swindell, owner of PepperEyes.com, a division of Swindell Enterprises. PepperEyes.com is dedicated to assist those people who are unwilling to b...
-
The Tin Dog Drinking Game by Victor S
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsagain the link is here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/tindog-podcast-drinking-game.html The Tin Dog Podcast Drinking Game v 1.3Requirements: Episode(s) of Tin-Dog Podcast This list People (the more the merrier) Beverages of your choiceInstructions: Simple. Listen the show, and whenever a condition is met, take the appropriate number of drinks. The definition of "drink" should be decided before game play starts. Usually, a good mouthful will suffice.Compiler's Note: I would advise taking some time before game play starts to decide which conditions to use and which to ignore.Remember that this list is canonical, so you probably will _not_ want to use them all (especially with a new podcast, Since you'll spend all your time reading the list, rather than listening).Please send any corrections, suggestions, Requests, submissions, flames, etc. to the address listed below.Thanks Michael for the Tin Dog Podcast: Compiled by victoswindell@hotmail.com (send me your input/changes)Podcast Event - Number of DrinksHost voice not OK - 1Host is recording outside of studio/home - 1Host starts to ramble off topic - 1Host says "let it go" - 1Host says "There Again - 1Host says "Out of its Time" - 1Host says "Better than I remember" - 1Host asks for funds/selling something - 2Host uploads wrong podcast - 2Host changes Theme music - 2Host podcast is not what he said it was going to be - 1Host not reviewing Doctor Who - 2Someone has donated funds for podcast -1Host mentions iTunes - 1REVIEW COMMENTSHost mentions 'steam-punk' -2Host mentions another Dr Who podcast - 1Host plays clip from another podcast -1Host plays audio clip from DW - 1Host play recording of DW Actor advertising the Tin-Dog Pod cast -1Host reads one of his stories -2WHOSTROLOGY is the same as your birthday - 2It's your WHOSTROLOG - 1Host mentions the first or ninth Doctor - 1Host mentions the second or tenth Doctor - 2Host mentions the third or eleventh Doctor -3Host mentions the fourth Doctor - 4Host mentions the fifth Doctor - 5Host mentions the sixth Doctor - 6Host mentions the seventh Doctor - 7Host mentions the eighth Doctor -8Host references/compares another Doctor Episode -1PODCAST REVIEWS EVENTSHost references Non DW SciFi series (Star Trek, X-Files, The Tomorrow People-etc) - 1Host references another DW media (Book Episode, etc) - 1Host really likes episode -2Host likes episode - 1Host sort likes episode -1Host hates episode - 2Host says "LI-N-DA" or mentions 'Love and Monsters' -3Host references actor other work - 2Host mentions "K-9" -2Host mentions "BBC" -3Host gives list of possibilities - 1Host gives a theory - 2Host gives a bit of Who Trivia - 1Host says "TARDIS" - 1Host mentions your favorite Doctor -1Host gives episode 9 or 10 -4Host gives episode 6, 7 or 8 -3Host give episode 5 or below -2Host references NON-SciFi series -2Host mentions a clue for future episode. -1Host says 'Candy Man' -1Host is reviewing a Big Finish Audio -2Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, All right Reserved. We forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera... "Fax mentis, incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum! - *By Victor Swindell, owner of PepperEyes.com, a division of Swindell Enterprises. PepperEyes.com is dedicated to assist those people who are unwilling to b...
-
The Tin Dog Drinking Game by Victor S
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsagain the link is here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/tindog-podcast-drinking-game.html The Tin Dog Podcast Drinking Game v 1.3Requirements: Episode(s) of Tin-Dog Podcast This list People (the more the merrier) Beverages of your choiceInstructions: Simple. Listen the show, and whenever a condition is met, take the appropriate number of drinks. The definition of "drink" should be decided before game play starts. Usually, a good mouthful will suffice.Compiler's Note: I would advise taking some time before game play starts to decide which conditions to use and which to ignore.Remember that this list is canonical, so you probably will _not_ want to use them all (especially with a new podcast, Since you'll spend all your time reading the list, rather than listening).Please send any corrections, suggestions, Requests, submissions, flames, etc. to the address listed below.Thanks Michael for the Tin Dog Podcast: Compiled by victoswindell@hotmail.com (send me your input/changes)Podcast Event - Number of DrinksHost voice not OK - 1Host is recording outside of studio/home - 1Host starts to ramble off topic - 1Host says "let it go" - 1Host says "There Again - 1Host says "Out of its Time" - 1Host says "Better than I remember" - 1Host asks for funds/selling something - 2Host uploads wrong podcast - 2Host changes Theme music - 2Host podcast is not what he said it was going to be - 1Host not reviewing Doctor Who - 2Someone has donated funds for podcast -1Host mentions iTunes - 1REVIEW COMMENTSHost mentions 'steam-punk' -2Host mentions another Dr Who podcast - 1Host plays clip from another podcast -1Host plays audio clip from DW - 1Host play recording of DW Actor advertising the Tin-Dog Pod cast -1Host reads one of his stories -2WHOSTROLOGY is the same as your birthday - 2It's your WHOSTROLOG - 1Host mentions the first or ninth Doctor - 1Host mentions the second or tenth Doctor - 2Host mentions the third or eleventh Doctor -3Host mentions the fourth Doctor - 4Host mentions the fifth Doctor - 5Host mentions the sixth Doctor - 6Host mentions the seventh Doctor - 7Host mentions the eighth Doctor -8Host references/compares another Doctor Episode -1PODCAST REVIEWS EVENTSHost references Non DW SciFi series (Star Trek, X-Files, The Tomorrow People-etc) - 1Host references another DW media (Book Episode, etc) - 1Host really likes episode -2Host likes episode - 1Host sort likes episode -1Host hates episode - 2Host says "LI-N-DA" or mentions 'Love and Monsters' -3Host references actor other work - 2Host mentions "K-9" -2Host mentions "BBC" -3Host gives list of possibilities - 1Host gives a theory - 2Host gives a bit of Who Trivia - 1Host says "TARDIS" - 1Host mentions your favorite Doctor -1Host gives episode 9 or 10 -4Host gives episode 6, 7 or 8 -3Host give episode 5 or below -2Host references NON-SciFi series -2Host mentions a clue for future episode. -1Host says 'Candy Man' -1Host is reviewing a Big Finish Audio -2Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, All right Reserved. We forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera... "Fax mentis, incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum! - *By Victor Swindell, owner of PepperEyes.com, a division of Swindell Enterprises. PepperEyes.com is dedicated to assist those people who are unwilling to b...
-
Solo Con Revisited
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWith thanks to Victor page can be found here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-have-scifi-convewntionby.html How to have a SciFi Convention...by yourself v1.3This blog was wholly inspired by the Tin-Dog Podcast ‘How to have your own Doctor Who Con’. We just decided to write it all down for ya, and expand it a bit, and run with it. I'm sure you can add to it a bit as well. If you have any suggestions..leave them in the comments..and I'll add them in later. This posting is subject to updating.Anyways, do you miss the old days of going to Science Fiction conventions? Is there a big convention going on in another part of the country that you would like to go to, but can’t afford? Never fear, now you can enjoy the convention experience in your residence, and save a ton of cash. Here are the steps.The PreparationLike anything else prepartation is the key, the more work you put off up front, the better off your con will run. If something isn't right you can just blame the organizers later. Anyway this is all up to you. You have to so all the setting up, buying the stuff for the bar..blah blah blah1. Give your Con a name. Good names can be like of the following (just make sure there isn’t a con with that name): SoloCon SingularityCon It’s All about Me Con NotaCon UnoCon AloneCon ImaginaryCon SoleCon BinaryCon** The next time you host the event, you can just stick a Roman numeral after the name.2. Two days before the con tell your Social media friends you plan on attending the con, and hope to see some of them there. Don’t reply when they ask for information about the con. This way you can complain when you don’t see any of them at the con. More on this later. It would be interesting to know how may internet searches will be done looking for information on the con.3. Make a list of the stars you want to attend your convention (living or dead). This is your convention you can do what you want. You can even include the guest of the con you can't make it to. Three days before con, send an E-MAIL to their fan clubs telling them how you’re a great fan of the actor, and how you look forward to seeing them t ( name of your Con). This is your kind-a-sort-a invitation. You really don't have to send the e-mail, but if you want to cause even more chaos, give it a go.4. Stock the Bar – after all lot of before, during and after con activity is spent in the bar. You may as well get stock up on the things you know you like, and a few you don’t, or never tried. Just for the effect. If someone happens to drop by during your con, you can serve them the ones you don’t like. (Somebody has to drink them anyway) Don't forget the peanuts, this is very important...just in case a Vogon Constructor Fleet comes by to do some demolition. the neat thing abou this, is that the drinks at your con will be much cheaper at the con, you didn't attend, and you'll actually have stuff you like.5. The Screening Room – One of the rooms in your house has to be the screening room. Pick a random DVD or whatever media you have or just leave the TV on the SCI-FI Channel if if you have it. If you have a recording with a Commentary track, turn this on, to mimic the comments that fans make during the movies anyway. For a more realistic effect pick an episode you don’t like and let that play...all weekend.6. Doing the Schedule – The heart of any convention is the schedule of events. You need to take time to plan your convention schedule and well as plan the logistics and utilization of the space in your residence for the various parts of the convention.o Make of list of weird Panel topics- where would a good Con be without them.§ Topics that you would never attend§ Topics that you would attend· Place these at the same timeo List a Panel where you are the guest speaker based on your expertise§ Make a list of Fandom type questions to ask the expert – A mix of the very intelligent and very dumb.§ You can even play various podcast or recording of interviews.o Plan other fan events.Get some recordings of interviews for one or three of the celebritieis that you've invited. You can can probably locate a podcast or find a few YouTube clips.o Have a Charity of Auction§ List something on E-Bay that you have and donate the proceeds to Charity ;E-bay gives you the option of donating up to 100% of the proceeds to a charity.· It could be a dust ball that you think looks like William Shatner's Trek Hair.· It could be the last Cheerios in your box· It could an un-matched sock from your laundry· If you are cleaning out your closet..sell that stuffo You have to have a Dealers Room§ Put some of your collections in a in a room or on a table.. to be the dealers room§ Make a list of the things you want to have and want to buy (you will need this later)§ You can also have a computer set to e-bay to allow you to shop of items, if you actually want to buy something during the con.o Print up the schedule and hi-lite the things you would like to do using different color, then take the schedule to your favorite sci-fi hang out, bookstore or library, and accidentally loose it there.7. Set up a registration Desk…if you likeo Make a few name tags and VIP Tags for your invited guest, but do not make one for yourself. This will become important later.8. Set up a time for your costume contest. (more on this later)9. You can put up signs for events, and cross off panels that are canceled due to guest not showing, if you wish.Attending the ConIt’s time to go have the convention experience, and let your friends know all about it. If you have a mobile phone with twitter, or a lap top, you are good to go. Send random tweets about what your doing, or not doing.1. Go get in your car. Imagine the long drive to your con, tweet about not having FTL Drive or transporters, and the traffic standing still.2. Get out of your car, and tweet that you have arrived. Tweet that the place looks ..inexpensive3. Go to the registration deck and check in. Complain because they seem to have lost your registration, and you have a handwritten badge, and some free peanuts. Comment how none of the guest have arrived yet.4. Check into your room, tweet how nice and homey the room is. You can even say how weird it is that it reminds you of home. Check out what is on TV, remake about the lack of good channels.5. Complain that you lost your schedule, and they don’t seem to have anymore.6. Complain about the poor poor organization and lack of convention staff. You can't find anyone who can answer your questions.7. Every hour or so hang out in the hallway for 5 minutes with the hopes of catching one of the stars for a picture, or inverview or trying to catch any of your friends who may have attended from the E-Space, the Continuum, or has the confused with Milliways. Complain that most of your friends went to the other con, or isn’t there. Complain that the stars may have taken another route just to avoid you. Look in the mirror and comment someone is wearing your costume..but that you look more authentic. Read a message on your phone.8. Head to the Bar (Frig) and let your imagination go wild. Chat it up with Sue Richards, and tweet how she completely ignored you.9. Go Check out the dealer room. Complain that they don’t seem to have the things you were looking for (on your list) or how you already have most of this stuff. You can check on E-Bay to see if they have it.a. If you’ve taken out one prize possession to display – pick it up and hold it. You can even tweet about it.10. Go hang in the hallway, and complain about one of the guest not showing up. You will repeat this all during the convention weekend.11. Complain about the poor organization tweet “Couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery”12. Head to the Bar again. then back to the corridor to see if you can catch up with anyone you know.13. Drop by the Screening room, tweet how they selected the worst episode ever. Say you can find a staff member to see what else is showing. Several hours later you can complain that the same episode seems to be playing.14. Go hang in the hall way, read something, looking for the next star. Stare at something, check the contents of your bag. Tweet some more. Say how you think you may have seen someone you may know out of the corner of your, but how they just seem to have just vanished in the dealer's room.15. Head to the panel room or Interview room, and listen to a the podcast interview of one of the stars you've invited. Keep putting up your and to ask a question. Tweet how they would not recognize you. The next Panel session is the one where you are the speaker. Read your questions and think of smart ass answers. Tweet about the lack of intelligence in modern fandom.16. Getting the Autograph.a. You can shop on E-bay for the ones you wantb. Complain on twitter that you missed the autograph queue because it was schedule for the same time as your panel. Then complain about whom ever did the schedule17. More Bar Time, put some peanuts in your pocket...just in case.18. Wait for the Costume contest, you can go get some dinner or something. Leave your name tag on.19. Attend the Costume contest (you are the judge..you can also be a contestant)a. Dress as your favorite earth character, nothing fancy or exoticb. Go sit on the porch and judge the people going by for their costume.c. Pick the cutest kid that went by, if there is a small child in the house, they win.d. If you don’t see anyone, you win.20. Call it a day, comeback tomorrow –mix it up a bit21. Complain you missed the closing ceremony because you were checking out.22. Tell your friends you had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year.
-
The Tin Dog Drinking Game by Victor S
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsagain the link is here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/tindog-podcast-drinking-game.html The Tin Dog Podcast Drinking Game v 1.3Requirements: Episode(s) of Tin-Dog Podcast This list People (the more the merrier) Beverages of your choiceInstructions: Simple. Listen the show, and whenever a condition is met, take the appropriate number of drinks. The definition of "drink" should be decided before game play starts. Usually, a good mouthful will suffice.Compiler's Note: I would advise taking some time before game play starts to decide which conditions to use and which to ignore.Remember that this list is canonical, so you probably will _not_ want to use them all (especially with a new podcast, Since you'll spend all your time reading the list, rather than listening).Please send any corrections, suggestions, Requests, submissions, flames, etc. to the address listed below.Thanks Michael for the Tin Dog Podcast: Compiled by victoswindell@hotmail.com (send me your input/changes)Podcast Event - Number of DrinksHost voice not OK - 1Host is recording outside of studio/home - 1Host starts to ramble off topic - 1Host says "let it go" - 1Host says "There Again - 1Host says "Out of its Time" - 1Host says "Better than I remember" - 1Host asks for funds/selling something - 2Host uploads wrong podcast - 2Host changes Theme music - 2Host podcast is not what he said it was going to be - 1Host not reviewing Doctor Who - 2Someone has donated funds for podcast -1Host mentions iTunes - 1REVIEW COMMENTSHost mentions 'steam-punk' -2Host mentions another Dr Who podcast - 1Host plays clip from another podcast -1Host plays audio clip from DW - 1Host play recording of DW Actor advertising the Tin-Dog Pod cast -1Host reads one of his stories -2WHOSTROLOGY is the same as your birthday - 2It's your WHOSTROLOG - 1Host mentions the first or ninth Doctor - 1Host mentions the second or tenth Doctor - 2Host mentions the third or eleventh Doctor -3Host mentions the fourth Doctor - 4Host mentions the fifth Doctor - 5Host mentions the sixth Doctor - 6Host mentions the seventh Doctor - 7Host mentions the eighth Doctor -8Host references/compares another Doctor Episode -1PODCAST REVIEWS EVENTSHost references Non DW SciFi series (Star Trek, X-Files, The Tomorrow People-etc) - 1Host references another DW media (Book Episode, etc) - 1Host really likes episode -2Host likes episode - 1Host sort likes episode -1Host hates episode - 2Host says "LI-N-DA" or mentions 'Love and Monsters' -3Host references actor other work - 2Host mentions "K-9" -2Host mentions "BBC" -3Host gives list of possibilities - 1Host gives a theory - 2Host gives a bit of Who Trivia - 1Host says "TARDIS" - 1Host mentions your favorite Doctor -1Host gives episode 9 or 10 -4Host gives episode 6, 7 or 8 -3Host give episode 5 or below -2Host references NON-SciFi series -2Host mentions a clue for future episode. -1Host says 'Candy Man' -1Host is reviewing a Big Finish Audio -2Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, All right Reserved. We forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera... "Fax mentis, incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum! - *By Victor Swindell, owner of PepperEyes.com, a division of Swindell Enterprises. PepperEyes.com is dedicated to assist those people who are unwilling to b...
-
Solo Con Revisited
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWith thanks to Victor page can be found here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-have-scifi-convewntionby.html How to have a SciFi Convention...by yourself v1.3This blog was wholly inspired by the Tin-Dog Podcast ‘How to have your own Doctor Who Con’. We just decided to write it all down for ya, and expand it a bit, and run with it. I'm sure you can add to it a bit as well. If you have any suggestions..leave them in the comments..and I'll add them in later. This posting is subject to updating.Anyways, do you miss the old days of going to Science Fiction conventions? Is there a big convention going on in another part of the country that you would like to go to, but can’t afford? Never fear, now you can enjoy the convention experience in your residence, and save a ton of cash. Here are the steps.The PreparationLike anything else prepartation is the key, the more work you put off up front, the better off your con will run. If something isn't right you can just blame the organizers later. Anyway this is all up to you. You have to so all the setting up, buying the stuff for the bar..blah blah blah1. Give your Con a name. Good names can be like of the following (just make sure there isn’t a con with that name): SoloCon SingularityCon It’s All about Me Con NotaCon UnoCon AloneCon ImaginaryCon SoleCon BinaryCon** The next time you host the event, you can just stick a Roman numeral after the name.2. Two days before the con tell your Social media friends you plan on attending the con, and hope to see some of them there. Don’t reply when they ask for information about the con. This way you can complain when you don’t see any of them at the con. More on this later. It would be interesting to know how may internet searches will be done looking for information on the con.3. Make a list of the stars you want to attend your convention (living or dead). This is your convention you can do what you want. You can even include the guest of the con you can't make it to. Three days before con, send an E-MAIL to their fan clubs telling them how you’re a great fan of the actor, and how you look forward to seeing them t ( name of your Con). This is your kind-a-sort-a invitation. You really don't have to send the e-mail, but if you want to cause even more chaos, give it a go.4. Stock the Bar – after all lot of before, during and after con activity is spent in the bar. You may as well get stock up on the things you know you like, and a few you don’t, or never tried. Just for the effect. If someone happens to drop by during your con, you can serve them the ones you don’t like. (Somebody has to drink them anyway) Don't forget the peanuts, this is very important...just in case a Vogon Constructor Fleet comes by to do some demolition. the neat thing abou this, is that the drinks at your con will be much cheaper at the con, you didn't attend, and you'll actually have stuff you like.5. The Screening Room – One of the rooms in your house has to be the screening room. Pick a random DVD or whatever media you have or just leave the TV on the SCI-FI Channel if if you have it. If you have a recording with a Commentary track, turn this on, to mimic the comments that fans make during the movies anyway. For a more realistic effect pick an episode you don’t like and let that play...all weekend.6. Doing the Schedule – The heart of any convention is the schedule of events. You need to take time to plan your convention schedule and well as plan the logistics and utilization of the space in your residence for the various parts of the convention.o Make of list of weird Panel topics- where would a good Con be without them.§ Topics that you would never attend§ Topics that you would attend· Place these at the same timeo List a Panel where you are the guest speaker based on your expertise§ Make a list of Fandom type questions to ask the expert – A mix of the very intelligent and very dumb.§ You can even play various podcast or recording of interviews.o Plan other fan events.Get some recordings of interviews for one or three of the celebritieis that you've invited. You can can probably locate a podcast or find a few YouTube clips.o Have a Charity of Auction§ List something on E-Bay that you have and donate the proceeds to Charity ;E-bay gives you the option of donating up to 100% of the proceeds to a charity.· It could be a dust ball that you think looks like William Shatner's Trek Hair.· It could be the last Cheerios in your box· It could an un-matched sock from your laundry· If you are cleaning out your closet..sell that stuffo You have to have a Dealers Room§ Put some of your collections in a in a room or on a table.. to be the dealers room§ Make a list of the things you want to have and want to buy (you will need this later)§ You can also have a computer set to e-bay to allow you to shop of items, if you actually want to buy something during the con.o Print up the schedule and hi-lite the things you would like to do using different color, then take the schedule to your favorite sci-fi hang out, bookstore or library, and accidentally loose it there.7. Set up a registration Desk…if you likeo Make a few name tags and VIP Tags for your invited guest, but do not make one for yourself. This will become important later.8. Set up a time for your costume contest. (more on this later)9. You can put up signs for events, and cross off panels that are canceled due to guest not showing, if you wish.Attending the ConIt’s time to go have the convention experience, and let your friends know all about it. If you have a mobile phone with twitter, or a lap top, you are good to go. Send random tweets about what your doing, or not doing.1. Go get in your car. Imagine the long drive to your con, tweet about not having FTL Drive or transporters, and the traffic standing still.2. Get out of your car, and tweet that you have arrived. Tweet that the place looks ..inexpensive3. Go to the registration deck and check in. Complain because they seem to have lost your registration, and you have a handwritten badge, and some free peanuts. Comment how none of the guest have arrived yet.4. Check into your room, tweet how nice and homey the room is. You can even say how weird it is that it reminds you of home. Check out what is on TV, remake about the lack of good channels.5. Complain that you lost your schedule, and they don’t seem to have anymore.6. Complain about the poor poor organization and lack of convention staff. You can't find anyone who can answer your questions.7. Every hour or so hang out in the hallway for 5 minutes with the hopes of catching one of the stars for a picture, or inverview or trying to catch any of your friends who may have attended from the E-Space, the Continuum, or has the confused with Milliways. Complain that most of your friends went to the other con, or isn’t there. Complain that the stars may have taken another route just to avoid you. Look in the mirror and comment someone is wearing your costume..but that you look more authentic. Read a message on your phone.8. Head to the Bar (Frig) and let your imagination go wild. Chat it up with Sue Richards, and tweet how she completely ignored you.9. Go Check out the dealer room. Complain that they don’t seem to have the things you were looking for (on your list) or how you already have most of this stuff. You can check on E-Bay to see if they have it.a. If you’ve taken out one prize possession to display – pick it up and hold it. You can even tweet about it.10. Go hang in the hallway, and complain about one of the guest not showing up. You will repeat this all during the convention weekend.11. Complain about the poor organization tweet “Couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery”12. Head to the Bar again. then back to the corridor to see if you can catch up with anyone you know.13. Drop by the Screening room, tweet how they selected the worst episode ever. Say you can find a staff member to see what else is showing. Several hours later you can complain that the same episode seems to be playing.14. Go hang in the hall way, read something, looking for the next star. Stare at something, check the contents of your bag. Tweet some more. Say how you think you may have seen someone you may know out of the corner of your, but how they just seem to have just vanished in the dealer's room.15. Head to the panel room or Interview room, and listen to a the podcast interview of one of the stars you've invited. Keep putting up your and to ask a question. Tweet how they would not recognize you. The next Panel session is the one where you are the speaker. Read your questions and think of smart ass answers. Tweet about the lack of intelligence in modern fandom.16. Getting the Autograph.a. You can shop on E-bay for the ones you wantb. Complain on twitter that you missed the autograph queue because it was schedule for the same time as your panel. Then complain about whom ever did the schedule17. More Bar Time, put some peanuts in your pocket...just in case.18. Wait for the Costume contest, you can go get some dinner or something. Leave your name tag on.19. Attend the Costume contest (you are the judge..you can also be a contestant)a. Dress as your favorite earth character, nothing fancy or exoticb. Go sit on the porch and judge the people going by for their costume.c. Pick the cutest kid that went by, if there is a small child in the house, they win.d. If you don’t see anyone, you win.20. Call it a day, comeback tomorrow –mix it up a bit21. Complain you missed the closing ceremony because you were checking out.22. Tell your friends you had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year.
-
Solo Con Revisited
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWith thanks to Victor page can be found here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-have-scifi-convewntionby.html How to have a SciFi Convention...by yourself v1.3This blog was wholly inspired by the Tin-Dog Podcast ‘How to have your own Doctor Who Con’. We just decided to write it all down for ya, and expand it a bit, and run with it. I'm sure you can add to it a bit as well. If you have any suggestions..leave them in the comments..and I'll add them in later. This posting is subject to updating.Anyways, do you miss the old days of going to Science Fiction conventions? Is there a big convention going on in another part of the country that you would like to go to, but can’t afford? Never fear, now you can enjoy the convention experience in your residence, and save a ton of cash. Here are the steps.The PreparationLike anything else prepartation is the key, the more work you put off up front, the better off your con will run. If something isn't right you can just blame the organizers later. Anyway this is all up to you. You have to so all the setting up, buying the stuff for the bar..blah blah blah1. Give your Con a name. Good names can be like of the following (just make sure there isn’t a con with that name): SoloCon SingularityCon It’s All about Me Con NotaCon UnoCon AloneCon ImaginaryCon SoleCon BinaryCon** The next time you host the event, you can just stick a Roman numeral after the name.2. Two days before the con tell your Social media friends you plan on attending the con, and hope to see some of them there. Don’t reply when they ask for information about the con. This way you can complain when you don’t see any of them at the con. More on this later. It would be interesting to know how may internet searches will be done looking for information on the con.3. Make a list of the stars you want to attend your convention (living or dead). This is your convention you can do what you want. You can even include the guest of the con you can't make it to. Three days before con, send an E-MAIL to their fan clubs telling them how you’re a great fan of the actor, and how you look forward to seeing them t ( name of your Con). This is your kind-a-sort-a invitation. You really don't have to send the e-mail, but if you want to cause even more chaos, give it a go.4. Stock the Bar – after all lot of before, during and after con activity is spent in the bar. You may as well get stock up on the things you know you like, and a few you don’t, or never tried. Just for the effect. If someone happens to drop by during your con, you can serve them the ones you don’t like. (Somebody has to drink them anyway) Don't forget the peanuts, this is very important...just in case a Vogon Constructor Fleet comes by to do some demolition. the neat thing abou this, is that the drinks at your con will be much cheaper at the con, you didn't attend, and you'll actually have stuff you like.5. The Screening Room – One of the rooms in your house has to be the screening room. Pick a random DVD or whatever media you have or just leave the TV on the SCI-FI Channel if if you have it. If you have a recording with a Commentary track, turn this on, to mimic the comments that fans make during the movies anyway. For a more realistic effect pick an episode you don’t like and let that play...all weekend.6. Doing the Schedule – The heart of any convention is the schedule of events. You need to take time to plan your convention schedule and well as plan the logistics and utilization of the space in your residence for the various parts of the convention.o Make of list of weird Panel topics- where would a good Con be without them.§ Topics that you would never attend§ Topics that you would attend· Place these at the same timeo List a Panel where you are the guest speaker based on your expertise§ Make a list of Fandom type questions to ask the expert – A mix of the very intelligent and very dumb.§ You can even play various podcast or recording of interviews.o Plan other fan events.Get some recordings of interviews for one or three of the celebritieis that you've invited. You can can probably locate a podcast or find a few YouTube clips.o Have a Charity of Auction§ List something on E-Bay that you have and donate the proceeds to Charity ;E-bay gives you the option of donating up to 100% of the proceeds to a charity.· It could be a dust ball that you think looks like William Shatner's Trek Hair.· It could be the last Cheerios in your box· It could an un-matched sock from your laundry· If you are cleaning out your closet..sell that stuffo You have to have a Dealers Room§ Put some of your collections in a in a room or on a table.. to be the dealers room§ Make a list of the things you want to have and want to buy (you will need this later)§ You can also have a computer set to e-bay to allow you to shop of items, if you actually want to buy something during the con.o Print up the schedule and hi-lite the things you would like to do using different color, then take the schedule to your favorite sci-fi hang out, bookstore or library, and accidentally loose it there.7. Set up a registration Desk…if you likeo Make a few name tags and VIP Tags for your invited guest, but do not make one for yourself. This will become important later.8. Set up a time for your costume contest. (more on this later)9. You can put up signs for events, and cross off panels that are canceled due to guest not showing, if you wish.Attending the ConIt’s time to go have the convention experience, and let your friends know all about it. If you have a mobile phone with twitter, or a lap top, you are good to go. Send random tweets about what your doing, or not doing.1. Go get in your car. Imagine the long drive to your con, tweet about not having FTL Drive or transporters, and the traffic standing still.2. Get out of your car, and tweet that you have arrived. Tweet that the place looks ..inexpensive3. Go to the registration deck and check in. Complain because they seem to have lost your registration, and you have a handwritten badge, and some free peanuts. Comment how none of the guest have arrived yet.4. Check into your room, tweet how nice and homey the room is. You can even say how weird it is that it reminds you of home. Check out what is on TV, remake about the lack of good channels.5. Complain that you lost your schedule, and they don’t seem to have anymore.6. Complain about the poor poor organization and lack of convention staff. You can't find anyone who can answer your questions.7. Every hour or so hang out in the hallway for 5 minutes with the hopes of catching one of the stars for a picture, or inverview or trying to catch any of your friends who may have attended from the E-Space, the Continuum, or has the confused with Milliways. Complain that most of your friends went to the other con, or isn’t there. Complain that the stars may have taken another route just to avoid you. Look in the mirror and comment someone is wearing your costume..but that you look more authentic. Read a message on your phone.8. Head to the Bar (Frig) and let your imagination go wild. Chat it up with Sue Richards, and tweet how she completely ignored you.9. Go Check out the dealer room. Complain that they don’t seem to have the things you were looking for (on your list) or how you already have most of this stuff. You can check on E-Bay to see if they have it.a. If you’ve taken out one prize possession to display – pick it up and hold it. You can even tweet about it.10. Go hang in the hallway, and complain about one of the guest not showing up. You will repeat this all during the convention weekend.11. Complain about the poor organization tweet “Couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery”12. Head to the Bar again. then back to the corridor to see if you can catch up with anyone you know.13. Drop by the Screening room, tweet how they selected the worst episode ever. Say you can find a staff member to see what else is showing. Several hours later you can complain that the same episode seems to be playing.14. Go hang in the hall way, read something, looking for the next star. Stare at something, check the contents of your bag. Tweet some more. Say how you think you may have seen someone you may know out of the corner of your, but how they just seem to have just vanished in the dealer's room.15. Head to the panel room or Interview room, and listen to a the podcast interview of one of the stars you've invited. Keep putting up your and to ask a question. Tweet how they would not recognize you. The next Panel session is the one where you are the speaker. Read your questions and think of smart ass answers. Tweet about the lack of intelligence in modern fandom.16. Getting the Autograph.a. You can shop on E-bay for the ones you wantb. Complain on twitter that you missed the autograph queue because it was schedule for the same time as your panel. Then complain about whom ever did the schedule17. More Bar Time, put some peanuts in your pocket...just in case.18. Wait for the Costume contest, you can go get some dinner or something. Leave your name tag on.19. Attend the Costume contest (you are the judge..you can also be a contestant)a. Dress as your favorite earth character, nothing fancy or exoticb. Go sit on the porch and judge the people going by for their costume.c. Pick the cutest kid that went by, if there is a small child in the house, they win.d. If you don’t see anyone, you win.20. Call it a day, comeback tomorrow –mix it up a bit21. Complain you missed the closing ceremony because you were checking out.22. Tell your friends you had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year.
-
Solo Con Revisited
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWith thanks to Victor page can be found here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-have-scifi-convewntionby.html How to have a SciFi Convention...by yourself v1.3This blog was wholly inspired by the Tin-Dog Podcast ‘How to have your own Doctor Who Con’. We just decided to write it all down for ya, and expand it a bit, and run with it. I'm sure you can add to it a bit as well. If you have any suggestions..leave them in the comments..and I'll add them in later. This posting is subject to updating.Anyways, do you miss the old days of going to Science Fiction conventions? Is there a big convention going on in another part of the country that you would like to go to, but can’t afford? Never fear, now you can enjoy the convention experience in your residence, and save a ton of cash. Here are the steps.The PreparationLike anything else prepartation is the key, the more work you put off up front, the better off your con will run. If something isn't right you can just blame the organizers later. Anyway this is all up to you. You have to so all the setting up, buying the stuff for the bar..blah blah blah1. Give your Con a name. Good names can be like of the following (just make sure there isn’t a con with that name): SoloCon SingularityCon It’s All about Me Con NotaCon UnoCon AloneCon ImaginaryCon SoleCon BinaryCon** The next time you host the event, you can just stick a Roman numeral after the name.2. Two days before the con tell your Social media friends you plan on attending the con, and hope to see some of them there. Don’t reply when they ask for information about the con. This way you can complain when you don’t see any of them at the con. More on this later. It would be interesting to know how may internet searches will be done looking for information on the con.3. Make a list of the stars you want to attend your convention (living or dead). This is your convention you can do what you want. You can even include the guest of the con you can't make it to. Three days before con, send an E-MAIL to their fan clubs telling them how you’re a great fan of the actor, and how you look forward to seeing them t ( name of your Con). This is your kind-a-sort-a invitation. You really don't have to send the e-mail, but if you want to cause even more chaos, give it a go.4. Stock the Bar – after all lot of before, during and after con activity is spent in the bar. You may as well get stock up on the things you know you like, and a few you don’t, or never tried. Just for the effect. If someone happens to drop by during your con, you can serve them the ones you don’t like. (Somebody has to drink them anyway) Don't forget the peanuts, this is very important...just in case a Vogon Constructor Fleet comes by to do some demolition. the neat thing abou this, is that the drinks at your con will be much cheaper at the con, you didn't attend, and you'll actually have stuff you like.5. The Screening Room – One of the rooms in your house has to be the screening room. Pick a random DVD or whatever media you have or just leave the TV on the SCI-FI Channel if if you have it. If you have a recording with a Commentary track, turn this on, to mimic the comments that fans make during the movies anyway. For a more realistic effect pick an episode you don’t like and let that play...all weekend.6. Doing the Schedule – The heart of any convention is the schedule of events. You need to take time to plan your convention schedule and well as plan the logistics and utilization of the space in your residence for the various parts of the convention.o Make of list of weird Panel topics- where would a good Con be without them.§ Topics that you would never attend§ Topics that you would attend· Place these at the same timeo List a Panel where you are the guest speaker based on your expertise§ Make a list of Fandom type questions to ask the expert – A mix of the very intelligent and very dumb.§ You can even play various podcast or recording of interviews.o Plan other fan events.Get some recordings of interviews for one or three of the celebritieis that you've invited. You can can probably locate a podcast or find a few YouTube clips.o Have a Charity of Auction§ List something on E-Bay that you have and donate the proceeds to Charity ;E-bay gives you the option of donating up to 100% of the proceeds to a charity.· It could be a dust ball that you think looks like William Shatner's Trek Hair.· It could be the last Cheerios in your box· It could an un-matched sock from your laundry· If you are cleaning out your closet..sell that stuffo You have to have a Dealers Room§ Put some of your collections in a in a room or on a table.. to be the dealers room§ Make a list of the things you want to have and want to buy (you will need this later)§ You can also have a computer set to e-bay to allow you to shop of items, if you actually want to buy something during the con.o Print up the schedule and hi-lite the things you would like to do using different color, then take the schedule to your favorite sci-fi hang out, bookstore or library, and accidentally loose it there.7. Set up a registration Desk…if you likeo Make a few name tags and VIP Tags for your invited guest, but do not make one for yourself. This will become important later.8. Set up a time for your costume contest. (more on this later)9. You can put up signs for events, and cross off panels that are canceled due to guest not showing, if you wish.Attending the ConIt’s time to go have the convention experience, and let your friends know all about it. If you have a mobile phone with twitter, or a lap top, you are good to go. Send random tweets about what your doing, or not doing.1. Go get in your car. Imagine the long drive to your con, tweet about not having FTL Drive or transporters, and the traffic standing still.2. Get out of your car, and tweet that you have arrived. Tweet that the place looks ..inexpensive3. Go to the registration deck and check in. Complain because they seem to have lost your registration, and you have a handwritten badge, and some free peanuts. Comment how none of the guest have arrived yet.4. Check into your room, tweet how nice and homey the room is. You can even say how weird it is that it reminds you of home. Check out what is on TV, remake about the lack of good channels.5. Complain that you lost your schedule, and they don’t seem to have anymore.6. Complain about the poor poor organization and lack of convention staff. You can't find anyone who can answer your questions.7. Every hour or so hang out in the hallway for 5 minutes with the hopes of catching one of the stars for a picture, or inverview or trying to catch any of your friends who may have attended from the E-Space, the Continuum, or has the confused with Milliways. Complain that most of your friends went to the other con, or isn’t there. Complain that the stars may have taken another route just to avoid you. Look in the mirror and comment someone is wearing your costume..but that you look more authentic. Read a message on your phone.8. Head to the Bar (Frig) and let your imagination go wild. Chat it up with Sue Richards, and tweet how she completely ignored you.9. Go Check out the dealer room. Complain that they don’t seem to have the things you were looking for (on your list) or how you already have most of this stuff. You can check on E-Bay to see if they have it.a. If you’ve taken out one prize possession to display – pick it up and hold it. You can even tweet about it.10. Go hang in the hallway, and complain about one of the guest not showing up. You will repeat this all during the convention weekend.11. Complain about the poor organization tweet “Couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery”12. Head to the Bar again. then back to the corridor to see if you can catch up with anyone you know.13. Drop by the Screening room, tweet how they selected the worst episode ever. Say you can find a staff member to see what else is showing. Several hours later you can complain that the same episode seems to be playing.14. Go hang in the hall way, read something, looking for the next star. Stare at something, check the contents of your bag. Tweet some more. Say how you think you may have seen someone you may know out of the corner of your, but how they just seem to have just vanished in the dealer's room.15. Head to the panel room or Interview room, and listen to a the podcast interview of one of the stars you've invited. Keep putting up your and to ask a question. Tweet how they would not recognize you. The next Panel session is the one where you are the speaker. Read your questions and think of smart ass answers. Tweet about the lack of intelligence in modern fandom.16. Getting the Autograph.a. You can shop on E-bay for the ones you wantb. Complain on twitter that you missed the autograph queue because it was schedule for the same time as your panel. Then complain about whom ever did the schedule17. More Bar Time, put some peanuts in your pocket...just in case.18. Wait for the Costume contest, you can go get some dinner or something. Leave your name tag on.19. Attend the Costume contest (you are the judge..you can also be a contestant)a. Dress as your favorite earth character, nothing fancy or exoticb. Go sit on the porch and judge the people going by for their costume.c. Pick the cutest kid that went by, if there is a small child in the house, they win.d. If you don’t see anyone, you win.20. Call it a day, comeback tomorrow –mix it up a bit21. Complain you missed the closing ceremony because you were checking out.22. Tell your friends you had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year.
-
TDP 186: The Why Aye Player
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 49 secondsNew fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter
-
TDP 186: The Why Aye Player
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 49 secondsNew fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter
-
TDP 186: The Why Aye Player
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 49 secondsNew fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter
-
TDP 185: Paradise Towers
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 1 secondREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 5 to October 26, 1987. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 In print 4 VHS and DVD releases 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews 6.2 Target novelisation [edit] Plot The Doctor and Melanie, looking for a swimming pool, land in Paradise Towers, a luxurious 22nd century high rise apartment building now fallen into disrepair and chaos. The building is divided between roaming gangs of young girls called Kangs, grouped in colour theme, and the Doctor and Mel encounter the Red Kangs. They have just discovered the death of the last Yellow Kang and are plotting how to attack the Blue Kangs. Elsewhere in the Towers, one of the Caretakers - who act as 'Judge Dredd' style policemen – is hunted down and killed by a robotic cleaner, which appeals to the sadistic Chief Caretaker when he overhears the death. The Chief sends a squad of Caretakers to arrest the Red Kangs and in the ensuing confusion the Doctor is split from Mel and captured by the Caretakers. Mel meanwhile heads off to one of the still occupied apartments in which two elderly ladies ('rezzies') live. Tilda and Tabby explain that all the able bodied men left the Towers to fight a war, leaving behind only the children and the elderly. The only other man still loose in the Towers is Pex, a would-be hero, who appoints himself Mel's guardian. At the Caretaker control centre, the Doctor meets the Chief Caretaker, who greets him as the Great Architect, designer of Paradise Towers, and then promptly calls for him to be killed. The Doctor cites an imaginary rule from the Caretakers manual, confusing them enough to make his escape. Mel and Pex meanwhile have headed to the top of the building, and are captured by a party of Blue Kangs. Before the pair are freed the Kangs reveal to Mel that Pex survived by fleeing from the war. The Doctor finds the Great Architect is named Kroagnon, and is reunited with the Red Kangs. They explain that Kangs and Caretakers have been disappearing in ever greater numbers. While the Doctor is being interrogated, the Caretakers track him down to the Red Kang headquarters and attempt to break down the door to their headquarters. Elsewhere Mel has visited Tilda and Tabby again and soon finds herself under threat when it emerges they are cannibals and plan to eat her. The Doctor succeeds in holding off the Caretakers long enough for the Kangs to flee. Meanwhile Tabby and Tilda are delayed in their eating of Mel when they are disturbed by a noise in the waste disposal. It turns out to be a metal claw, which first drags Tabby to her death in the disposal system, and then Tilda. Pex arrives and somehow succeeds in saving Mel. Mel and Pex find a map of the Towers and decide to venture to the roof, where the luxury swimming pool is located. The Doctor is taken to the Caretakers HQ again, where he realises that the Chief Caretaker has been allowing the Cleaners to kill people in the Towers, but that the killing has now got out of hand and the Chief Caretaker is no longer in control. The creature the Chief keeps in the basement is demanding more sustenance and making its own hunting arrangements. When the Chief heads off to investigate the deaths of Tabby and Tilda, the Red Kangs attack the HQ and rescue the Doctor. He returns with them to their base, taking with him the Illustrated Prospectus for the Tower, which they all watch. It reminds the Doctor that Kroagnon, the Great Architect of Paradise Towers, also designed Miracle City, a cutting edge development which killed its occupants. It seems Kroagnon had an aversion to people actually populating his buildings. The Blue Kangs arrive suddenly, overpowering the Red ones, but it soon becomes clear their game is over and they must now work together. Mel and Pex finally find the swimming pool. When Mel takes a dip in the pool, she is attacked by a robotic killer crab. The Red Kangs know of the monstrosity in the basement, and guess it must be linked to the terror in the Towers. The Doctor heads off to investigate and finds the Chief has been herded by the Cleaners toward the mysterious intelligence, which turns out to be Kroagnon himself. The Doctor is soon spotted by the Cleaners too, and the robots start to attack. The Kangs rescue the Doctor in the nick of time while on the roof Pex fails to rescue Mel, who has to destroy the crab herself. When the Doctor and the Kangs arrive, the latter taunt Pex for his cowardice. The Doctor explains that Kroagnon felt human beings would ruin his creation and so placed multiple deathtraps throughout the Towers before he was killed and trapped in the machine in the basement. The remaining rezzies, led by a woman named Maddy, join them all at the swimming pool and pledge to work together with the Kangs to defeat the menace in the building. Pex pledges to help too. The Deputy Chief Caretaker and the surviving Caretakers, who have become convinced of the peril in the basement, soon join them. The Chief Caretaker has now been killed and his corpse animated by the artificial intelligence of Kroagnon. He now intends to use the Cleaners to kill everyone in the Towers and repair the damage the “filthy human parasites” have caused. However, the combined human forces are now fighting back against the machines. The Doctor and Pex devise a ruse to lure the Chief into a booby trapped room and thereby destroy Kroagnon, but when the plan goes wrong Pex sacrifices himself to drag the Chief into the trap. They are both killed, but the terror is over. After a period of reflection and Pex’s funeral, the Doctor and Mel leave Paradise Towers, trusting the remaining Kangs, Rezzies, and Caretakers to build a better society. As the TARDIS dematerialises, a new piece of Kang graffiti is revealed - "Pex Lives". [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 5 October 1987 24:33 4.5 "Part Two" 12 October 1987 24:39 5.2 "Part Three" 19 October 1987 24:30 5.0 "Part Four" 26 October 1987 24:21 5.0 [2][3][4] Working titles for this story included The Paradise Tower.[5] Author Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel High Rise, which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.[5] The music track was originally meant to be provided by a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but producer John Nathan-Turner had decided that the incidental music no longer needed to be produced in-house. Instead, freelance composer David Snell was hired to provide the score, but Nathan-Turner terminated the commission late in production as he was unsatisfied with the way the score was turning out. Keff McCulloch provided the final score at short notice.[5] [edit] Cast notes Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who. Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married at the time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough. Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. It reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain. Doctor Who book Paradise Towers Series Target novelisations Release number 134 Writer Stephen Wyatt Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20330-5 Release date 1 December 1988 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in October 1995. A DVD release of Paradise Towers is due in 2011[6] [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 149. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Paradise Towers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Paradise Towers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Paradise Towers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ a b c Paradise Towers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) ^ http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/11/101110013312-dvd-paradise-towers-doctor.html [edit] External links Paradise Towers at BBC Online Paradise Towers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Paradise Towers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Paradise Towers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Paradise Towers
-
TDP 186: The Why Aye Player
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 49 secondsNew fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter
-
TDP 185: Paradise Towers
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 1 secondREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 5 to October 26, 1987. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 In print 4 VHS and DVD releases 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews 6.2 Target novelisation [edit] Plot The Doctor and Melanie, looking for a swimming pool, land in Paradise Towers, a luxurious 22nd century high rise apartment building now fallen into disrepair and chaos. The building is divided between roaming gangs of young girls called Kangs, grouped in colour theme, and the Doctor and Mel encounter the Red Kangs. They have just discovered the death of the last Yellow Kang and are plotting how to attack the Blue Kangs. Elsewhere in the Towers, one of the Caretakers - who act as 'Judge Dredd' style policemen – is hunted down and killed by a robotic cleaner, which appeals to the sadistic Chief Caretaker when he overhears the death. The Chief sends a squad of Caretakers to arrest the Red Kangs and in the ensuing confusion the Doctor is split from Mel and captured by the Caretakers. Mel meanwhile heads off to one of the still occupied apartments in which two elderly ladies ('rezzies') live. Tilda and Tabby explain that all the able bodied men left the Towers to fight a war, leaving behind only the children and the elderly. The only other man still loose in the Towers is Pex, a would-be hero, who appoints himself Mel's guardian. At the Caretaker control centre, the Doctor meets the Chief Caretaker, who greets him as the Great Architect, designer of Paradise Towers, and then promptly calls for him to be killed. The Doctor cites an imaginary rule from the Caretakers manual, confusing them enough to make his escape. Mel and Pex meanwhile have headed to the top of the building, and are captured by a party of Blue Kangs. Before the pair are freed the Kangs reveal to Mel that Pex survived by fleeing from the war. The Doctor finds the Great Architect is named Kroagnon, and is reunited with the Red Kangs. They explain that Kangs and Caretakers have been disappearing in ever greater numbers. While the Doctor is being interrogated, the Caretakers track him down to the Red Kang headquarters and attempt to break down the door to their headquarters. Elsewhere Mel has visited Tilda and Tabby again and soon finds herself under threat when it emerges they are cannibals and plan to eat her. The Doctor succeeds in holding off the Caretakers long enough for the Kangs to flee. Meanwhile Tabby and Tilda are delayed in their eating of Mel when they are disturbed by a noise in the waste disposal. It turns out to be a metal claw, which first drags Tabby to her death in the disposal system, and then Tilda. Pex arrives and somehow succeeds in saving Mel. Mel and Pex find a map of the Towers and decide to venture to the roof, where the luxury swimming pool is located. The Doctor is taken to the Caretakers HQ again, where he realises that the Chief Caretaker has been allowing the Cleaners to kill people in the Towers, but that the killing has now got out of hand and the Chief Caretaker is no longer in control. The creature the Chief keeps in the basement is demanding more sustenance and making its own hunting arrangements. When the Chief heads off to investigate the deaths of Tabby and Tilda, the Red Kangs attack the HQ and rescue the Doctor. He returns with them to their base, taking with him the Illustrated Prospectus for the Tower, which they all watch. It reminds the Doctor that Kroagnon, the Great Architect of Paradise Towers, also designed Miracle City, a cutting edge development which killed its occupants. It seems Kroagnon had an aversion to people actually populating his buildings. The Blue Kangs arrive suddenly, overpowering the Red ones, but it soon becomes clear their game is over and they must now work together. Mel and Pex finally find the swimming pool. When Mel takes a dip in the pool, she is attacked by a robotic killer crab. The Red Kangs know of the monstrosity in the basement, and guess it must be linked to the terror in the Towers. The Doctor heads off to investigate and finds the Chief has been herded by the Cleaners toward the mysterious intelligence, which turns out to be Kroagnon himself. The Doctor is soon spotted by the Cleaners too, and the robots start to attack. The Kangs rescue the Doctor in the nick of time while on the roof Pex fails to rescue Mel, who has to destroy the crab herself. When the Doctor and the Kangs arrive, the latter taunt Pex for his cowardice. The Doctor explains that Kroagnon felt human beings would ruin his creation and so placed multiple deathtraps throughout the Towers before he was killed and trapped in the machine in the basement. The remaining rezzies, led by a woman named Maddy, join them all at the swimming pool and pledge to work together with the Kangs to defeat the menace in the building. Pex pledges to help too. The Deputy Chief Caretaker and the surviving Caretakers, who have become convinced of the peril in the basement, soon join them. The Chief Caretaker has now been killed and his corpse animated by the artificial intelligence of Kroagnon. He now intends to use the Cleaners to kill everyone in the Towers and repair the damage the “filthy human parasites” have caused. However, the combined human forces are now fighting back against the machines. The Doctor and Pex devise a ruse to lure the Chief into a booby trapped room and thereby destroy Kroagnon, but when the plan goes wrong Pex sacrifices himself to drag the Chief into the trap. They are both killed, but the terror is over. After a period of reflection and Pex’s funeral, the Doctor and Mel leave Paradise Towers, trusting the remaining Kangs, Rezzies, and Caretakers to build a better society. As the TARDIS dematerialises, a new piece of Kang graffiti is revealed - "Pex Lives". [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 5 October 1987 24:33 4.5 "Part Two" 12 October 1987 24:39 5.2 "Part Three" 19 October 1987 24:30 5.0 "Part Four" 26 October 1987 24:21 5.0 [2][3][4] Working titles for this story included The Paradise Tower.[5] Author Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel High Rise, which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.[5] The music track was originally meant to be provided by a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but producer John Nathan-Turner had decided that the incidental music no longer needed to be produced in-house. Instead, freelance composer David Snell was hired to provide the score, but Nathan-Turner terminated the commission late in production as he was unsatisfied with the way the score was turning out. Keff McCulloch provided the final score at short notice.[5] [edit] Cast notes Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who. Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married at the time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough. Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. It reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain. Doctor Who book Paradise Towers Series Target novelisations Release number 134 Writer Stephen Wyatt Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20330-5 Release date 1 December 1988 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in October 1995. A DVD release of Paradise Towers is due in 2011[6] [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 149. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Paradise Towers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Paradise Towers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Paradise Towers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ a b c Paradise Towers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) ^ http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/11/101110013312-dvd-paradise-towers-doctor.html [edit] External links Paradise Towers at BBC Online Paradise Towers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Paradise Towers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Paradise Towers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Paradise Towers
-
TDP 185: Paradise Towers
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 1 secondREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 5 to October 26, 1987. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 In print 4 VHS and DVD releases 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews 6.2 Target novelisation [edit] Plot The Doctor and Melanie, looking for a swimming pool, land in Paradise Towers, a luxurious 22nd century high rise apartment building now fallen into disrepair and chaos. The building is divided between roaming gangs of young girls called Kangs, grouped in colour theme, and the Doctor and Mel encounter the Red Kangs. They have just discovered the death of the last Yellow Kang and are plotting how to attack the Blue Kangs. Elsewhere in the Towers, one of the Caretakers - who act as 'Judge Dredd' style policemen – is hunted down and killed by a robotic cleaner, which appeals to the sadistic Chief Caretaker when he overhears the death. The Chief sends a squad of Caretakers to arrest the Red Kangs and in the ensuing confusion the Doctor is split from Mel and captured by the Caretakers. Mel meanwhile heads off to one of the still occupied apartments in which two elderly ladies ('rezzies') live. Tilda and Tabby explain that all the able bodied men left the Towers to fight a war, leaving behind only the children and the elderly. The only other man still loose in the Towers is Pex, a would-be hero, who appoints himself Mel's guardian. At the Caretaker control centre, the Doctor meets the Chief Caretaker, who greets him as the Great Architect, designer of Paradise Towers, and then promptly calls for him to be killed. The Doctor cites an imaginary rule from the Caretakers manual, confusing them enough to make his escape. Mel and Pex meanwhile have headed to the top of the building, and are captured by a party of Blue Kangs. Before the pair are freed the Kangs reveal to Mel that Pex survived by fleeing from the war. The Doctor finds the Great Architect is named Kroagnon, and is reunited with the Red Kangs. They explain that Kangs and Caretakers have been disappearing in ever greater numbers. While the Doctor is being interrogated, the Caretakers track him down to the Red Kang headquarters and attempt to break down the door to their headquarters. Elsewhere Mel has visited Tilda and Tabby again and soon finds herself under threat when it emerges they are cannibals and plan to eat her. The Doctor succeeds in holding off the Caretakers long enough for the Kangs to flee. Meanwhile Tabby and Tilda are delayed in their eating of Mel when they are disturbed by a noise in the waste disposal. It turns out to be a metal claw, which first drags Tabby to her death in the disposal system, and then Tilda. Pex arrives and somehow succeeds in saving Mel. Mel and Pex find a map of the Towers and decide to venture to the roof, where the luxury swimming pool is located. The Doctor is taken to the Caretakers HQ again, where he realises that the Chief Caretaker has been allowing the Cleaners to kill people in the Towers, but that the killing has now got out of hand and the Chief Caretaker is no longer in control. The creature the Chief keeps in the basement is demanding more sustenance and making its own hunting arrangements. When the Chief heads off to investigate the deaths of Tabby and Tilda, the Red Kangs attack the HQ and rescue the Doctor. He returns with them to their base, taking with him the Illustrated Prospectus for the Tower, which they all watch. It reminds the Doctor that Kroagnon, the Great Architect of Paradise Towers, also designed Miracle City, a cutting edge development which killed its occupants. It seems Kroagnon had an aversion to people actually populating his buildings. The Blue Kangs arrive suddenly, overpowering the Red ones, but it soon becomes clear their game is over and they must now work together. Mel and Pex finally find the swimming pool. When Mel takes a dip in the pool, she is attacked by a robotic killer crab. The Red Kangs know of the monstrosity in the basement, and guess it must be linked to the terror in the Towers. The Doctor heads off to investigate and finds the Chief has been herded by the Cleaners toward the mysterious intelligence, which turns out to be Kroagnon himself. The Doctor is soon spotted by the Cleaners too, and the robots start to attack. The Kangs rescue the Doctor in the nick of time while on the roof Pex fails to rescue Mel, who has to destroy the crab herself. When the Doctor and the Kangs arrive, the latter taunt Pex for his cowardice. The Doctor explains that Kroagnon felt human beings would ruin his creation and so placed multiple deathtraps throughout the Towers before he was killed and trapped in the machine in the basement. The remaining rezzies, led by a woman named Maddy, join them all at the swimming pool and pledge to work together with the Kangs to defeat the menace in the building. Pex pledges to help too. The Deputy Chief Caretaker and the surviving Caretakers, who have become convinced of the peril in the basement, soon join them. The Chief Caretaker has now been killed and his corpse animated by the artificial intelligence of Kroagnon. He now intends to use the Cleaners to kill everyone in the Towers and repair the damage the “filthy human parasites” have caused. However, the combined human forces are now fighting back against the machines. The Doctor and Pex devise a ruse to lure the Chief into a booby trapped room and thereby destroy Kroagnon, but when the plan goes wrong Pex sacrifices himself to drag the Chief into the trap. They are both killed, but the terror is over. After a period of reflection and Pex’s funeral, the Doctor and Mel leave Paradise Towers, trusting the remaining Kangs, Rezzies, and Caretakers to build a better society. As the TARDIS dematerialises, a new piece of Kang graffiti is revealed - "Pex Lives". [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 5 October 1987 24:33 4.5 "Part Two" 12 October 1987 24:39 5.2 "Part Three" 19 October 1987 24:30 5.0 "Part Four" 26 October 1987 24:21 5.0 [2][3][4] Working titles for this story included The Paradise Tower.[5] Author Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel High Rise, which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.[5] The music track was originally meant to be provided by a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but producer John Nathan-Turner had decided that the incidental music no longer needed to be produced in-house. Instead, freelance composer David Snell was hired to provide the score, but Nathan-Turner terminated the commission late in production as he was unsatisfied with the way the score was turning out. Keff McCulloch provided the final score at short notice.[5] [edit] Cast notes Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who. Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married at the time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough. Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. It reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain. Doctor Who book Paradise Towers Series Target novelisations Release number 134 Writer Stephen Wyatt Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20330-5 Release date 1 December 1988 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in October 1995. A DVD release of Paradise Towers is due in 2011[6] [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 149. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Paradise Towers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Paradise Towers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Paradise Towers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ a b c Paradise Towers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) ^ http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/11/101110013312-dvd-paradise-towers-doctor.html [edit] External links Paradise Towers at BBC Online Paradise Towers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Paradise Towers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Paradise Towers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Paradise Towers
-
TDP 185: Paradise Towers
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 1 secondREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 5 to October 26, 1987. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 In print 4 VHS and DVD releases 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews 6.2 Target novelisation [edit] Plot The Doctor and Melanie, looking for a swimming pool, land in Paradise Towers, a luxurious 22nd century high rise apartment building now fallen into disrepair and chaos. The building is divided between roaming gangs of young girls called Kangs, grouped in colour theme, and the Doctor and Mel encounter the Red Kangs. They have just discovered the death of the last Yellow Kang and are plotting how to attack the Blue Kangs. Elsewhere in the Towers, one of the Caretakers - who act as 'Judge Dredd' style policemen – is hunted down and killed by a robotic cleaner, which appeals to the sadistic Chief Caretaker when he overhears the death. The Chief sends a squad of Caretakers to arrest the Red Kangs and in the ensuing confusion the Doctor is split from Mel and captured by the Caretakers. Mel meanwhile heads off to one of the still occupied apartments in which two elderly ladies ('rezzies') live. Tilda and Tabby explain that all the able bodied men left the Towers to fight a war, leaving behind only the children and the elderly. The only other man still loose in the Towers is Pex, a would-be hero, who appoints himself Mel's guardian. At the Caretaker control centre, the Doctor meets the Chief Caretaker, who greets him as the Great Architect, designer of Paradise Towers, and then promptly calls for him to be killed. The Doctor cites an imaginary rule from the Caretakers manual, confusing them enough to make his escape. Mel and Pex meanwhile have headed to the top of the building, and are captured by a party of Blue Kangs. Before the pair are freed the Kangs reveal to Mel that Pex survived by fleeing from the war. The Doctor finds the Great Architect is named Kroagnon, and is reunited with the Red Kangs. They explain that Kangs and Caretakers have been disappearing in ever greater numbers. While the Doctor is being interrogated, the Caretakers track him down to the Red Kang headquarters and attempt to break down the door to their headquarters. Elsewhere Mel has visited Tilda and Tabby again and soon finds herself under threat when it emerges they are cannibals and plan to eat her. The Doctor succeeds in holding off the Caretakers long enough for the Kangs to flee. Meanwhile Tabby and Tilda are delayed in their eating of Mel when they are disturbed by a noise in the waste disposal. It turns out to be a metal claw, which first drags Tabby to her death in the disposal system, and then Tilda. Pex arrives and somehow succeeds in saving Mel. Mel and Pex find a map of the Towers and decide to venture to the roof, where the luxury swimming pool is located. The Doctor is taken to the Caretakers HQ again, where he realises that the Chief Caretaker has been allowing the Cleaners to kill people in the Towers, but that the killing has now got out of hand and the Chief Caretaker is no longer in control. The creature the Chief keeps in the basement is demanding more sustenance and making its own hunting arrangements. When the Chief heads off to investigate the deaths of Tabby and Tilda, the Red Kangs attack the HQ and rescue the Doctor. He returns with them to their base, taking with him the Illustrated Prospectus for the Tower, which they all watch. It reminds the Doctor that Kroagnon, the Great Architect of Paradise Towers, also designed Miracle City, a cutting edge development which killed its occupants. It seems Kroagnon had an aversion to people actually populating his buildings. The Blue Kangs arrive suddenly, overpowering the Red ones, but it soon becomes clear their game is over and they must now work together. Mel and Pex finally find the swimming pool. When Mel takes a dip in the pool, she is attacked by a robotic killer crab. The Red Kangs know of the monstrosity in the basement, and guess it must be linked to the terror in the Towers. The Doctor heads off to investigate and finds the Chief has been herded by the Cleaners toward the mysterious intelligence, which turns out to be Kroagnon himself. The Doctor is soon spotted by the Cleaners too, and the robots start to attack. The Kangs rescue the Doctor in the nick of time while on the roof Pex fails to rescue Mel, who has to destroy the crab herself. When the Doctor and the Kangs arrive, the latter taunt Pex for his cowardice. The Doctor explains that Kroagnon felt human beings would ruin his creation and so placed multiple deathtraps throughout the Towers before he was killed and trapped in the machine in the basement. The remaining rezzies, led by a woman named Maddy, join them all at the swimming pool and pledge to work together with the Kangs to defeat the menace in the building. Pex pledges to help too. The Deputy Chief Caretaker and the surviving Caretakers, who have become convinced of the peril in the basement, soon join them. The Chief Caretaker has now been killed and his corpse animated by the artificial intelligence of Kroagnon. He now intends to use the Cleaners to kill everyone in the Towers and repair the damage the “filthy human parasites” have caused. However, the combined human forces are now fighting back against the machines. The Doctor and Pex devise a ruse to lure the Chief into a booby trapped room and thereby destroy Kroagnon, but when the plan goes wrong Pex sacrifices himself to drag the Chief into the trap. They are both killed, but the terror is over. After a period of reflection and Pex’s funeral, the Doctor and Mel leave Paradise Towers, trusting the remaining Kangs, Rezzies, and Caretakers to build a better society. As the TARDIS dematerialises, a new piece of Kang graffiti is revealed - "Pex Lives". [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 5 October 1987 24:33 4.5 "Part Two" 12 October 1987 24:39 5.2 "Part Three" 19 October 1987 24:30 5.0 "Part Four" 26 October 1987 24:21 5.0 [2][3][4] Working titles for this story included The Paradise Tower.[5] Author Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel High Rise, which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.[5] The music track was originally meant to be provided by a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but producer John Nathan-Turner had decided that the incidental music no longer needed to be produced in-house. Instead, freelance composer David Snell was hired to provide the score, but Nathan-Turner terminated the commission late in production as he was unsatisfied with the way the score was turning out. Keff McCulloch provided the final score at short notice.[5] [edit] Cast notes Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who. Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married at the time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough. Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. It reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain. Doctor Who book Paradise Towers Series Target novelisations Release number 134 Writer Stephen Wyatt Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20330-5 Release date 1 December 1988 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in October 1995. A DVD release of Paradise Towers is due in 2011[6] [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 149. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Paradise Towers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Paradise Towers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Paradise Towers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ a b c Paradise Towers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) ^ http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/11/101110013312-dvd-paradise-towers-doctor.html [edit] External links Paradise Towers at BBC Online Paradise Towers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Paradise Towers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Paradise Towers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Paradise Towers
-
TDP 184: Special Neil and Sue on Radio Tees
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 43 secondsexapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil. AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it. With the Wife The Underwater Menace The Highlanders The Power of the Daleks The Hartnell Years The Tenth Planet The Smugglers Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD The War Machines The Savages The Gunfighters The Celestial Toymaker The Ark The Massacre The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12 The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10 The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4 The Myth Makers Mission to the Unknown Galaxy 4 Dr. Who and the Daleks The Time Meddler The Chase The Space Museum The Crusade The Web Planet The Romans The Rescue The Dalek Invasion of Earth Planet of Giants The Reign of Terror The Sensorites The Aztecs The Keys of Marinus Marco Polo The Edge of Destruction The Daleks An Unearthly Child with the Wife in Space Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously... A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!): Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play Episode One Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat. We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love"). Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time? Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry. The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony: Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall! It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends. Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless. When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed: Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony? Their high priest even sports a fish on his head: Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that. Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks. Sue: Is this a Bond movie now? Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times. Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all? When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate: Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love. Me: Unless his real name begins with a W - Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time - Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies. When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch: Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha. Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish. Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her. Episode Two Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown - Sue: Trust you to notice that, love. The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else? Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 - Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain. Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor - Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all. Me: He's insane. Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far. When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch. Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license - Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less. Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it? Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson - Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish. Episode Three Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3. Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible - The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber: Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace. Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours. Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven. As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo. Sue: I'll say no more. Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite. Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People. Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine. A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies: Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel? Me: No, it's a Fish Person. Sue: They're having a laugh. And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch. Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop. Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet? Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed. Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this. Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon. Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately: Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all. Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet? Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more. And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific! But it's completely eclipsed by what follows: Sue: Wow. It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again. Sue: He's having a whale of a time. Me: I'm glad someone is. Episode Four Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!". Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out. Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit. Me: What? Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either - Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered! Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis: Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now. Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right. Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head? Me: I don't even know what that means. Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown... Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide? The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it. Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it. The Final Score Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit. 2/10 Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him. Me: What, all of them? The experiment continues. Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton Click to share this
-
TDP 184: Special Neil and Sue on Radio Tees
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 43 secondsexapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil. AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it. With the Wife The Underwater Menace The Highlanders The Power of the Daleks The Hartnell Years The Tenth Planet The Smugglers Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD The War Machines The Savages The Gunfighters The Celestial Toymaker The Ark The Massacre The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12 The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10 The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4 The Myth Makers Mission to the Unknown Galaxy 4 Dr. Who and the Daleks The Time Meddler The Chase The Space Museum The Crusade The Web Planet The Romans The Rescue The Dalek Invasion of Earth Planet of Giants The Reign of Terror The Sensorites The Aztecs The Keys of Marinus Marco Polo The Edge of Destruction The Daleks An Unearthly Child with the Wife in Space Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously... A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!): Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play Episode One Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat. We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love"). Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time? Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry. The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony: Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall! It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends. Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless. When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed: Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony? Their high priest even sports a fish on his head: Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that. Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks. Sue: Is this a Bond movie now? Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times. Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all? When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate: Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love. Me: Unless his real name begins with a W - Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time - Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies. When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch: Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha. Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish. Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her. Episode Two Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown - Sue: Trust you to notice that, love. The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else? Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 - Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain. Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor - Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all. Me: He's insane. Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far. When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch. Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license - Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less. Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it? Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson - Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish. Episode Three Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3. Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible - The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber: Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace. Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours. Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven. As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo. Sue: I'll say no more. Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite. Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People. Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine. A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies: Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel? Me: No, it's a Fish Person. Sue: They're having a laugh. And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch. Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop. Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet? Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed. Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this. Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon. Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately: Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all. Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet? Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more. And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific! But it's completely eclipsed by what follows: Sue: Wow. It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again. Sue: He's having a whale of a time. Me: I'm glad someone is. Episode Four Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!". Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out. Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit. Me: What? Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either - Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered! Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis: Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now. Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right. Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head? Me: I don't even know what that means. Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown... Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide? The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it. Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it. The Final Score Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit. 2/10 Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him. Me: What, all of them? The experiment continues. Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton Click to share this
-
TDP 184: Special Neil and Sue on Radio Tees
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 43 secondsexapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil. AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it. With the Wife The Underwater Menace The Highlanders The Power of the Daleks The Hartnell Years The Tenth Planet The Smugglers Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD The War Machines The Savages The Gunfighters The Celestial Toymaker The Ark The Massacre The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12 The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10 The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4 The Myth Makers Mission to the Unknown Galaxy 4 Dr. Who and the Daleks The Time Meddler The Chase The Space Museum The Crusade The Web Planet The Romans The Rescue The Dalek Invasion of Earth Planet of Giants The Reign of Terror The Sensorites The Aztecs The Keys of Marinus Marco Polo The Edge of Destruction The Daleks An Unearthly Child with the Wife in Space Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously... A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!): Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play Episode One Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat. We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love"). Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time? Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry. The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony: Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall! It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends. Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless. When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed: Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony? Their high priest even sports a fish on his head: Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that. Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks. Sue: Is this a Bond movie now? Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times. Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all? When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate: Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love. Me: Unless his real name begins with a W - Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time - Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies. When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch: Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha. Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish. Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her. Episode Two Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown - Sue: Trust you to notice that, love. The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else? Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 - Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain. Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor - Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all. Me: He's insane. Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far. When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch. Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license - Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less. Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it? Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson - Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish. Episode Three Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3. Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible - The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber: Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace. Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours. Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven. As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo. Sue: I'll say no more. Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite. Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People. Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine. A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies: Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel? Me: No, it's a Fish Person. Sue: They're having a laugh. And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch. Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop. Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet? Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed. Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this. Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon. Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately: Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all. Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet? Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more. And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific! But it's completely eclipsed by what follows: Sue: Wow. It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again. Sue: He's having a whale of a time. Me: I'm glad someone is. Episode Four Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!". Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out. Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit. Me: What? Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either - Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered! Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis: Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now. Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right. Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head? Me: I don't even know what that means. Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown... Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide? The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it. Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it. The Final Score Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit. 2/10 Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him. Me: What, all of them? The experiment continues. Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton Click to share this
-
TDP 184: Special Neil and Sue on Radio Tees
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 43 secondsexapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil. AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it. With the Wife The Underwater Menace The Highlanders The Power of the Daleks The Hartnell Years The Tenth Planet The Smugglers Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD The War Machines The Savages The Gunfighters The Celestial Toymaker The Ark The Massacre The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12 The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10 The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4 The Myth Makers Mission to the Unknown Galaxy 4 Dr. Who and the Daleks The Time Meddler The Chase The Space Museum The Crusade The Web Planet The Romans The Rescue The Dalek Invasion of Earth Planet of Giants The Reign of Terror The Sensorites The Aztecs The Keys of Marinus Marco Polo The Edge of Destruction The Daleks An Unearthly Child with the Wife in Space Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously... A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!): Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play Episode One Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat. We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love"). Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time? Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry. The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony: Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall! It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends. Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless. When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed: Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony? Their high priest even sports a fish on his head: Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that. Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks. Sue: Is this a Bond movie now? Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times. Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all? When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate: Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love. Me: Unless his real name begins with a W - Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time - Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies. When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch: Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha. Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish. Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her. Episode Two Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown - Sue: Trust you to notice that, love. The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else? Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 - Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain. Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor - Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all. Me: He's insane. Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far. When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch. Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license - Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less. Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it? Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson - Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish. Episode Three Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3. Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible - The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber: Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace. Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours. Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven. As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo. Sue: I'll say no more. Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite. Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People. Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine. A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies: Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel? Me: No, it's a Fish Person. Sue: They're having a laugh. And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch. Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop. Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet? Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed. Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this. Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon. Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately: Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all. Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet? Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more. And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific! But it's completely eclipsed by what follows: Sue: Wow. It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again. Sue: He's having a whale of a time. Me: I'm glad someone is. Episode Four Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!". Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out. Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit. Me: What? Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either - Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered! Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis: Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now. Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right. Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head? Me: I don't even know what that means. Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown... Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide? The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it. Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it. The Final Score Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit. 2/10 Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him. Me: What, all of them? The experiment continues. Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton Click to share this
-
TDP 183: The Awakening
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT This story features a creature known as the Malus, who is responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War. The Doctor must also face the villagers of Little Hodcombe, who have been influenced by the Malus, and save Tegan before she is burned as the ill-fated Queen of the May. [edit] Plot On 13 July 1643, two forces came to the village of Little Hodcombe during the English Civil War and destroyed each other. As the story begins, a group of Roundheads are riding horses in the village of Little Hodcombe, with little regard to the villagers around them. Only it is not 1643, it is 1984. A schoolteacher, Jane Hampden, is convinced that her fellow villagers, led by the town’s leader, Sir George Hutchinson, have taken their re-enactment of a series of war games too far. Hutchinson attempts to assure her that the games are a harmless event, which are merely to celebrate the English Civil War. When Hampden asks him to stop the games, Hutchinson ignores her. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to take his companion, Tegan, to 1984 so she could spend some time with her grandfather, Andrew Verney. The Doctor sets the coordinates to Little Hodcombe, where Verney resides. However, the TARDIS experiences some turbulence and arrives in what appears to be a structurally unstable church. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, while watching on the scanner, see a man in 17th Century clothing, fleeing from the church and the Doctor dashes out to help him. However, the man has now vanished. Tegan is convinced that they have landed in the wrong time zone. However, Turlough tells her that he had checked the TARDIS coordinates and they were in 1984. As the Time Lord and his companions continue pursue the man, smoke starts to billow from a crack in the wall. Eventually, the three travellers are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. The Doctor and his companions are first brought before Hampden and Colonel Ben Woolsey, who apologizes for the poor treatment that they received. Hutchinson arrives and explains to the Doctor that the town is celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and then he urges him to join the celebration. Tegan then explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. She is informed that her grandfather is missing, and runs outside the room, upset. The Doctor follows but loses her. Tegan, still upset, is crying when someone steals her purse. She tries to get it back and she runs into a barn where she finds the ghost of an old man. The Doctor returns to the church and meets a 17th Century peasant, Will Chandler, who emerges from a wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. Turlough eventually rescues Tegan from the barn and they return to the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Will investigate the church. Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS and they are re-captured. Turlough is locked in a building with Verney. Willow forces Tegan to change into a 17th century costume. He informs her that she is to become the Queen of the May. The Doctor and Will continue to investigate. Eventually they find a secret passage back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will identifies as the Malus. Coming the other way through the passage, the Doctor and Will meet up with Hampden, who found the passage’s other end by accident after being locked in Colonel Wolsey's office. They avoid Hutchinson, who has followed Jane down the passage, and the Doctor finds a small ball of metal. The Doctor identifies the metal as “tinclavic,” a metal “mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol,” a planet in the “star system Rifta,” where “psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.” Returning to the church, the Doctor and Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was discovered by Verney and Hutchinson. The latter tried to exploit the creature, but instead, the creature began to use him by organizing the war games. He deduces that the psychic energy released by the war games has fed the Malus. The Doctor and Jane again try to persuade Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. He refuses and orders Woolsey to kill the Doctor. However, once Hutchinson leaves, Woolsey joins forces with the Doctor. The Queen of the May is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, Hutchinson suddenly noticed that the Queen is not Tegan, but a straw dummy that has been put in her place by Woolsey. Hutchinson becomes angry and he orders his men to kill Woolsey and the others. Will appears in the nick of time and uses a flame torch to cause a distraction, which allows the Doctor, Hampden, Woolsey and Tegan to escape and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies. The real Malus, in an act of desperation, attempts to drain as much psychic energy from the villagers as possible. He creates a corporeal projection of three roundheads who try to kill the Doctor, Woolsey, Tegan, Turlough, Hampden, Verney and Will. However, the dazed and confused trooper stumbles from the TARDIS and into the main church area, becomes surrounded by the roundheads, and they decapitate him then vanish. Hutchinson arrives and holds them all at gunpoint. When the Doctor tries to talk Hutchinson out of the thrall of the Malus, Willow attacks the group. In the scuffle, Will pushes Hutchinson into the mouth of the Malus, destroying the Malus's medium. Realizing it has failed, the Malus prepares to destroy itself and everything around it. Subsequently the church begins to collapse and the Doctor leads the others, including Willow, into the safety of the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions are surprised to see Will still among them. The Doctor explains that he must have been wrong in his assumption that Will was a psychic projection. He then says that the Malus must have created a temporal rift, which allowed Will to slip into the future. The Time Lord then says that he will take Will back to 1643. Tegan objects and ask the Doctor to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay in Little Hodcombe for a while for a rest. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. The Doctor mentions the Terileptils mining tinclavic on the planet Raaga. Script editor Eric Saward added this in the script to create a reference to his own story The Visitation (1982). He had planned to write another story featuring the Terileptils, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Saward never wrote their planned return. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor's costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white "v-neck" cricketer's sweater with thick red and black piping around the "v" and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the "v-neck" piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in episode 2 of the previous story, Warriors of the Deep, in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard; it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left. The Fifth Doctor would wear the secondary version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of Planet of Fire (1984). The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story, The Twin Dilemma (1984). The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Hollow Men. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 19 January 1984 25:18 7.9 "Part Two" 20 January 1984 24:47 6.6 [2][3][4] The working titles of this story were War Game and Poltergeist. Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled War Game. In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, The Darkness, possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed Poltergeist and then finally The Awakening. The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial. A small part of the scene has appeared in the documentary Kamelion: Metal Man which featured on the DVD release of The King's Demons[5]. The master tape for Part One was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 90's and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 84, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from part 2, in 1997 the Doctor Who Restoration Team were able to make a repaired master copy. This was used for the VHS release. The episode will probably have to be restored from scratch when, at some point, it is mastered for DVD. This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. The Ultimate Foe, the concluding segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, Terror of the Vervoids, even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation. The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort. John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea. [edit] In print Doctor Who book The Awakening Series Target novelisations Release number 95 Writer Eric Pringle Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20158-2 Release date 13 June 1985 A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release The story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46min compilation (20/07/84) at 6.50pm. This story was released on a double VHS set with Frontios in March 1997. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Gunfighters on 20th June 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 132. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Awakening". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Awakening". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Awakening". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/527149/doctor_who_kamelion_tales_collection_dvd_review.html [edit] External links The Awakening at BBC Online The Awakening at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Awakening at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Awakening on BBCWorldwideTV Youtube channel [edit] Reviews The Awakening reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Awakening reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — The Awakening
-
TDP 183: The Awakening
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT This story features a creature known as the Malus, who is responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War. The Doctor must also face the villagers of Little Hodcombe, who have been influenced by the Malus, and save Tegan before she is burned as the ill-fated Queen of the May. [edit] Plot On 13 July 1643, two forces came to the village of Little Hodcombe during the English Civil War and destroyed each other. As the story begins, a group of Roundheads are riding horses in the village of Little Hodcombe, with little regard to the villagers around them. Only it is not 1643, it is 1984. A schoolteacher, Jane Hampden, is convinced that her fellow villagers, led by the town’s leader, Sir George Hutchinson, have taken their re-enactment of a series of war games too far. Hutchinson attempts to assure her that the games are a harmless event, which are merely to celebrate the English Civil War. When Hampden asks him to stop the games, Hutchinson ignores her. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to take his companion, Tegan, to 1984 so she could spend some time with her grandfather, Andrew Verney. The Doctor sets the coordinates to Little Hodcombe, where Verney resides. However, the TARDIS experiences some turbulence and arrives in what appears to be a structurally unstable church. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, while watching on the scanner, see a man in 17th Century clothing, fleeing from the church and the Doctor dashes out to help him. However, the man has now vanished. Tegan is convinced that they have landed in the wrong time zone. However, Turlough tells her that he had checked the TARDIS coordinates and they were in 1984. As the Time Lord and his companions continue pursue the man, smoke starts to billow from a crack in the wall. Eventually, the three travellers are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. The Doctor and his companions are first brought before Hampden and Colonel Ben Woolsey, who apologizes for the poor treatment that they received. Hutchinson arrives and explains to the Doctor that the town is celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and then he urges him to join the celebration. Tegan then explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. She is informed that her grandfather is missing, and runs outside the room, upset. The Doctor follows but loses her. Tegan, still upset, is crying when someone steals her purse. She tries to get it back and she runs into a barn where she finds the ghost of an old man. The Doctor returns to the church and meets a 17th Century peasant, Will Chandler, who emerges from a wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. Turlough eventually rescues Tegan from the barn and they return to the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Will investigate the church. Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS and they are re-captured. Turlough is locked in a building with Verney. Willow forces Tegan to change into a 17th century costume. He informs her that she is to become the Queen of the May. The Doctor and Will continue to investigate. Eventually they find a secret passage back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will identifies as the Malus. Coming the other way through the passage, the Doctor and Will meet up with Hampden, who found the passage’s other end by accident after being locked in Colonel Wolsey's office. They avoid Hutchinson, who has followed Jane down the passage, and the Doctor finds a small ball of metal. The Doctor identifies the metal as “tinclavic,” a metal “mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol,” a planet in the “star system Rifta,” where “psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.” Returning to the church, the Doctor and Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was discovered by Verney and Hutchinson. The latter tried to exploit the creature, but instead, the creature began to use him by organizing the war games. He deduces that the psychic energy released by the war games has fed the Malus. The Doctor and Jane again try to persuade Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. He refuses and orders Woolsey to kill the Doctor. However, once Hutchinson leaves, Woolsey joins forces with the Doctor. The Queen of the May is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, Hutchinson suddenly noticed that the Queen is not Tegan, but a straw dummy that has been put in her place by Woolsey. Hutchinson becomes angry and he orders his men to kill Woolsey and the others. Will appears in the nick of time and uses a flame torch to cause a distraction, which allows the Doctor, Hampden, Woolsey and Tegan to escape and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies. The real Malus, in an act of desperation, attempts to drain as much psychic energy from the villagers as possible. He creates a corporeal projection of three roundheads who try to kill the Doctor, Woolsey, Tegan, Turlough, Hampden, Verney and Will. However, the dazed and confused trooper stumbles from the TARDIS and into the main church area, becomes surrounded by the roundheads, and they decapitate him then vanish. Hutchinson arrives and holds them all at gunpoint. When the Doctor tries to talk Hutchinson out of the thrall of the Malus, Willow attacks the group. In the scuffle, Will pushes Hutchinson into the mouth of the Malus, destroying the Malus's medium. Realizing it has failed, the Malus prepares to destroy itself and everything around it. Subsequently the church begins to collapse and the Doctor leads the others, including Willow, into the safety of the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions are surprised to see Will still among them. The Doctor explains that he must have been wrong in his assumption that Will was a psychic projection. He then says that the Malus must have created a temporal rift, which allowed Will to slip into the future. The Time Lord then says that he will take Will back to 1643. Tegan objects and ask the Doctor to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay in Little Hodcombe for a while for a rest. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. The Doctor mentions the Terileptils mining tinclavic on the planet Raaga. Script editor Eric Saward added this in the script to create a reference to his own story The Visitation (1982). He had planned to write another story featuring the Terileptils, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Saward never wrote their planned return. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor's costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white "v-neck" cricketer's sweater with thick red and black piping around the "v" and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the "v-neck" piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in episode 2 of the previous story, Warriors of the Deep, in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard; it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left. The Fifth Doctor would wear the secondary version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of Planet of Fire (1984). The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story, The Twin Dilemma (1984). The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Hollow Men. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 19 January 1984 25:18 7.9 "Part Two" 20 January 1984 24:47 6.6 [2][3][4] The working titles of this story were War Game and Poltergeist. Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled War Game. In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, The Darkness, possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed Poltergeist and then finally The Awakening. The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial. A small part of the scene has appeared in the documentary Kamelion: Metal Man which featured on the DVD release of The King's Demons[5]. The master tape for Part One was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 90's and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 84, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from part 2, in 1997 the Doctor Who Restoration Team were able to make a repaired master copy. This was used for the VHS release. The episode will probably have to be restored from scratch when, at some point, it is mastered for DVD. This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. The Ultimate Foe, the concluding segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, Terror of the Vervoids, even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation. The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort. John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea. [edit] In print Doctor Who book The Awakening Series Target novelisations Release number 95 Writer Eric Pringle Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20158-2 Release date 13 June 1985 A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release The story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46min compilation (20/07/84) at 6.50pm. This story was released on a double VHS set with Frontios in March 1997. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Gunfighters on 20th June 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 132. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Awakening". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Awakening". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Awakening". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/527149/doctor_who_kamelion_tales_collection_dvd_review.html [edit] External links The Awakening at BBC Online The Awakening at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Awakening at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Awakening on BBCWorldwideTV Youtube channel [edit] Reviews The Awakening reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Awakening reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — The Awakening
-
TDP 183: The Awakening
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT This story features a creature known as the Malus, who is responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War. The Doctor must also face the villagers of Little Hodcombe, who have been influenced by the Malus, and save Tegan before she is burned as the ill-fated Queen of the May. [edit] Plot On 13 July 1643, two forces came to the village of Little Hodcombe during the English Civil War and destroyed each other. As the story begins, a group of Roundheads are riding horses in the village of Little Hodcombe, with little regard to the villagers around them. Only it is not 1643, it is 1984. A schoolteacher, Jane Hampden, is convinced that her fellow villagers, led by the town’s leader, Sir George Hutchinson, have taken their re-enactment of a series of war games too far. Hutchinson attempts to assure her that the games are a harmless event, which are merely to celebrate the English Civil War. When Hampden asks him to stop the games, Hutchinson ignores her. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to take his companion, Tegan, to 1984 so she could spend some time with her grandfather, Andrew Verney. The Doctor sets the coordinates to Little Hodcombe, where Verney resides. However, the TARDIS experiences some turbulence and arrives in what appears to be a structurally unstable church. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, while watching on the scanner, see a man in 17th Century clothing, fleeing from the church and the Doctor dashes out to help him. However, the man has now vanished. Tegan is convinced that they have landed in the wrong time zone. However, Turlough tells her that he had checked the TARDIS coordinates and they were in 1984. As the Time Lord and his companions continue pursue the man, smoke starts to billow from a crack in the wall. Eventually, the three travellers are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. The Doctor and his companions are first brought before Hampden and Colonel Ben Woolsey, who apologizes for the poor treatment that they received. Hutchinson arrives and explains to the Doctor that the town is celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and then he urges him to join the celebration. Tegan then explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. She is informed that her grandfather is missing, and runs outside the room, upset. The Doctor follows but loses her. Tegan, still upset, is crying when someone steals her purse. She tries to get it back and she runs into a barn where she finds the ghost of an old man. The Doctor returns to the church and meets a 17th Century peasant, Will Chandler, who emerges from a wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. Turlough eventually rescues Tegan from the barn and they return to the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Will investigate the church. Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS and they are re-captured. Turlough is locked in a building with Verney. Willow forces Tegan to change into a 17th century costume. He informs her that she is to become the Queen of the May. The Doctor and Will continue to investigate. Eventually they find a secret passage back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will identifies as the Malus. Coming the other way through the passage, the Doctor and Will meet up with Hampden, who found the passage’s other end by accident after being locked in Colonel Wolsey's office. They avoid Hutchinson, who has followed Jane down the passage, and the Doctor finds a small ball of metal. The Doctor identifies the metal as “tinclavic,” a metal “mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol,” a planet in the “star system Rifta,” where “psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.” Returning to the church, the Doctor and Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was discovered by Verney and Hutchinson. The latter tried to exploit the creature, but instead, the creature began to use him by organizing the war games. He deduces that the psychic energy released by the war games has fed the Malus. The Doctor and Jane again try to persuade Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. He refuses and orders Woolsey to kill the Doctor. However, once Hutchinson leaves, Woolsey joins forces with the Doctor. The Queen of the May is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, Hutchinson suddenly noticed that the Queen is not Tegan, but a straw dummy that has been put in her place by Woolsey. Hutchinson becomes angry and he orders his men to kill Woolsey and the others. Will appears in the nick of time and uses a flame torch to cause a distraction, which allows the Doctor, Hampden, Woolsey and Tegan to escape and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies. The real Malus, in an act of desperation, attempts to drain as much psychic energy from the villagers as possible. He creates a corporeal projection of three roundheads who try to kill the Doctor, Woolsey, Tegan, Turlough, Hampden, Verney and Will. However, the dazed and confused trooper stumbles from the TARDIS and into the main church area, becomes surrounded by the roundheads, and they decapitate him then vanish. Hutchinson arrives and holds them all at gunpoint. When the Doctor tries to talk Hutchinson out of the thrall of the Malus, Willow attacks the group. In the scuffle, Will pushes Hutchinson into the mouth of the Malus, destroying the Malus's medium. Realizing it has failed, the Malus prepares to destroy itself and everything around it. Subsequently the church begins to collapse and the Doctor leads the others, including Willow, into the safety of the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions are surprised to see Will still among them. The Doctor explains that he must have been wrong in his assumption that Will was a psychic projection. He then says that the Malus must have created a temporal rift, which allowed Will to slip into the future. The Time Lord then says that he will take Will back to 1643. Tegan objects and ask the Doctor to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay in Little Hodcombe for a while for a rest. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. The Doctor mentions the Terileptils mining tinclavic on the planet Raaga. Script editor Eric Saward added this in the script to create a reference to his own story The Visitation (1982). He had planned to write another story featuring the Terileptils, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Saward never wrote their planned return. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor's costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white "v-neck" cricketer's sweater with thick red and black piping around the "v" and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the "v-neck" piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in episode 2 of the previous story, Warriors of the Deep, in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard; it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left. The Fifth Doctor would wear the secondary version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of Planet of Fire (1984). The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story, The Twin Dilemma (1984). The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Hollow Men. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 19 January 1984 25:18 7.9 "Part Two" 20 January 1984 24:47 6.6 [2][3][4] The working titles of this story were War Game and Poltergeist. Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled War Game. In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, The Darkness, possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed Poltergeist and then finally The Awakening. The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial. A small part of the scene has appeared in the documentary Kamelion: Metal Man which featured on the DVD release of The King's Demons[5]. The master tape for Part One was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 90's and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 84, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from part 2, in 1997 the Doctor Who Restoration Team were able to make a repaired master copy. This was used for the VHS release. The episode will probably have to be restored from scratch when, at some point, it is mastered for DVD. This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. The Ultimate Foe, the concluding segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, Terror of the Vervoids, even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation. The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort. John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea. [edit] In print Doctor Who book The Awakening Series Target novelisations Release number 95 Writer Eric Pringle Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20158-2 Release date 13 June 1985 A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release The story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46min compilation (20/07/84) at 6.50pm. This story was released on a double VHS set with Frontios in March 1997. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Gunfighters on 20th June 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 132. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Awakening". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Awakening". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Awakening". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/527149/doctor_who_kamelion_tales_collection_dvd_review.html [edit] External links The Awakening at BBC Online The Awakening at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Awakening at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Awakening on BBCWorldwideTV Youtube channel [edit] Reviews The Awakening reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Awakening reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — The Awakening
-
TDP 183: The Awakening
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT This story features a creature known as the Malus, who is responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War. The Doctor must also face the villagers of Little Hodcombe, who have been influenced by the Malus, and save Tegan before she is burned as the ill-fated Queen of the May. [edit] Plot On 13 July 1643, two forces came to the village of Little Hodcombe during the English Civil War and destroyed each other. As the story begins, a group of Roundheads are riding horses in the village of Little Hodcombe, with little regard to the villagers around them. Only it is not 1643, it is 1984. A schoolteacher, Jane Hampden, is convinced that her fellow villagers, led by the town’s leader, Sir George Hutchinson, have taken their re-enactment of a series of war games too far. Hutchinson attempts to assure her that the games are a harmless event, which are merely to celebrate the English Civil War. When Hampden asks him to stop the games, Hutchinson ignores her. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to take his companion, Tegan, to 1984 so she could spend some time with her grandfather, Andrew Verney. The Doctor sets the coordinates to Little Hodcombe, where Verney resides. However, the TARDIS experiences some turbulence and arrives in what appears to be a structurally unstable church. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, while watching on the scanner, see a man in 17th Century clothing, fleeing from the church and the Doctor dashes out to help him. However, the man has now vanished. Tegan is convinced that they have landed in the wrong time zone. However, Turlough tells her that he had checked the TARDIS coordinates and they were in 1984. As the Time Lord and his companions continue pursue the man, smoke starts to billow from a crack in the wall. Eventually, the three travellers are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. The Doctor and his companions are first brought before Hampden and Colonel Ben Woolsey, who apologizes for the poor treatment that they received. Hutchinson arrives and explains to the Doctor that the town is celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and then he urges him to join the celebration. Tegan then explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. She is informed that her grandfather is missing, and runs outside the room, upset. The Doctor follows but loses her. Tegan, still upset, is crying when someone steals her purse. She tries to get it back and she runs into a barn where she finds the ghost of an old man. The Doctor returns to the church and meets a 17th Century peasant, Will Chandler, who emerges from a wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. Turlough eventually rescues Tegan from the barn and they return to the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Will investigate the church. Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS and they are re-captured. Turlough is locked in a building with Verney. Willow forces Tegan to change into a 17th century costume. He informs her that she is to become the Queen of the May. The Doctor and Will continue to investigate. Eventually they find a secret passage back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will identifies as the Malus. Coming the other way through the passage, the Doctor and Will meet up with Hampden, who found the passage’s other end by accident after being locked in Colonel Wolsey's office. They avoid Hutchinson, who has followed Jane down the passage, and the Doctor finds a small ball of metal. The Doctor identifies the metal as “tinclavic,” a metal “mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol,” a planet in the “star system Rifta,” where “psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.” Returning to the church, the Doctor and Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was discovered by Verney and Hutchinson. The latter tried to exploit the creature, but instead, the creature began to use him by organizing the war games. He deduces that the psychic energy released by the war games has fed the Malus. The Doctor and Jane again try to persuade Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. He refuses and orders Woolsey to kill the Doctor. However, once Hutchinson leaves, Woolsey joins forces with the Doctor. The Queen of the May is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, Hutchinson suddenly noticed that the Queen is not Tegan, but a straw dummy that has been put in her place by Woolsey. Hutchinson becomes angry and he orders his men to kill Woolsey and the others. Will appears in the nick of time and uses a flame torch to cause a distraction, which allows the Doctor, Hampden, Woolsey and Tegan to escape and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies. The real Malus, in an act of desperation, attempts to drain as much psychic energy from the villagers as possible. He creates a corporeal projection of three roundheads who try to kill the Doctor, Woolsey, Tegan, Turlough, Hampden, Verney and Will. However, the dazed and confused trooper stumbles from the TARDIS and into the main church area, becomes surrounded by the roundheads, and they decapitate him then vanish. Hutchinson arrives and holds them all at gunpoint. When the Doctor tries to talk Hutchinson out of the thrall of the Malus, Willow attacks the group. In the scuffle, Will pushes Hutchinson into the mouth of the Malus, destroying the Malus's medium. Realizing it has failed, the Malus prepares to destroy itself and everything around it. Subsequently the church begins to collapse and the Doctor leads the others, including Willow, into the safety of the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions are surprised to see Will still among them. The Doctor explains that he must have been wrong in his assumption that Will was a psychic projection. He then says that the Malus must have created a temporal rift, which allowed Will to slip into the future. The Time Lord then says that he will take Will back to 1643. Tegan objects and ask the Doctor to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay in Little Hodcombe for a while for a rest. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. The Doctor mentions the Terileptils mining tinclavic on the planet Raaga. Script editor Eric Saward added this in the script to create a reference to his own story The Visitation (1982). He had planned to write another story featuring the Terileptils, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Saward never wrote their planned return. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor's costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white "v-neck" cricketer's sweater with thick red and black piping around the "v" and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the "v-neck" piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in episode 2 of the previous story, Warriors of the Deep, in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard; it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left. The Fifth Doctor would wear the secondary version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of Planet of Fire (1984). The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story, The Twin Dilemma (1984). The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Hollow Men. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 19 January 1984 25:18 7.9 "Part Two" 20 January 1984 24:47 6.6 [2][3][4] The working titles of this story were War Game and Poltergeist. Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled War Game. In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, The Darkness, possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed Poltergeist and then finally The Awakening. The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial. A small part of the scene has appeared in the documentary Kamelion: Metal Man which featured on the DVD release of The King's Demons[5]. The master tape for Part One was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 90's and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 84, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from part 2, in 1997 the Doctor Who Restoration Team were able to make a repaired master copy. This was used for the VHS release. The episode will probably have to be restored from scratch when, at some point, it is mastered for DVD. This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. The Ultimate Foe, the concluding segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, Terror of the Vervoids, even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation. The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort. John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea. [edit] In print Doctor Who book The Awakening Series Target novelisations Release number 95 Writer Eric Pringle Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20158-2 Release date 13 June 1985 A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release The story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46min compilation (20/07/84) at 6.50pm. This story was released on a double VHS set with Frontios in March 1997. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Gunfighters on 20th June 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 132. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Awakening". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Awakening". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Awakening". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/527149/doctor_who_kamelion_tales_collection_dvd_review.html [edit] External links The Awakening at BBC Online The Awakening at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Awakening at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Awakening on BBCWorldwideTV Youtube channel [edit] Reviews The Awakening reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Awakening reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — The Awakening
-
TDP 182:The Gunfighters
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 14 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Synopsis In 19th Century America in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, the troublesome Clanton brothers, Ike, Phineas and Billy, are in town in search of Doc Holliday to settle an old score over the death of another brother called Reuben. They meet up with their hired hand Seth Harper at the Last Chance Saloon. He knows what Holliday looks like and describes his coat and demeanour. This is overheard by bar singer Kate, who lets her paramour Holliday know he is in danger. The TARDIS has arrived in a nearby stable, with the Doctor in agony from toothache. He and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, dressed as cowboys, soon encounter local marshal Wyatt Earp, who offers them his protection and warns them to keep their counsel. The Doctor finds the dentist – Holliday himself - while Dodo and Steven book rooms at the local hotel. There they are mocked by the Clantons, who suspect the Doctor they refer to is Holliday himself. Seth Harper is sent to the dentist’s surgery and invites the Doctor, tooth removed, to the hotel in five minutes to meet his friends. Holliday is initially happy to let him be shot in his place, allowing the real Doc to disappear, but Kate intervenes to ensure the Doctor survives. This buys some time until Holliday relents and hides in an upstairs chamber of the hotel, firing his gun at appropriate moments to con the Clantons into thinking the Doctor is indeed Holliday the sharpshooter. Soon afterward Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Bat Masterson arrive and break up the fracas, taking the Doctor into custody for his own protection. Steven now becomes embroiled in a plot to smuggle the Doctor a gun to help free him from the jailhouse, but the Doctor refuses to be armed. Steven is shortly afterward confronted by a rabble wound up by the Clantons, who are intent on lynching him as an associate of the disreputable Holliday. Once more it is Earp and Masterson who defuse the situation, and also take Phin Clanton into custody to ensure the co-operation of his brothers. The Doctor and Steven are freed and told to leave town as soon as possible. Dodo has meanwhile fallen in with Kate and Doc, who both plan to leave town and take her with them. When Seth Harper stumbles across their escape plans, Holliday kills him, and the trio then depart. Harper's role as aide to the Clantons is soon replaced by a new arrival, Johnny Ringo, who shoots local barman Charlie by way of an introduction to the town of Tombstone. The Doctor and Steven return to the Last Chance Saloon in search of Dodo and encounter the dangerous Ringo. Wyatt Earp’s brothers Warren and Virgil have meanwhile arrived at Tombstone to help him enforce the law. The Doctor soon tells them that Ringo is in town. Events take a harsh turn when the other Clanton brothers visit the jail to free Phin, killing Warren Earp in the process. Meanwhile Steven heads out of town to look for Dodo with Ringo in tow in search of Holliday. Steven and Kate end up being taken by Ringo to the Clanton ranch where the Clantons recamp and tell their father, Pa Clanton, that they have killed an Earp. Wyatt Earp swears vengeance and starts to build a posse of lawmen to deal with the Clantons once and for all. Doc Holliday returns to Tombstone with Dodo, and offers his services to his old friend Earp too. Attempts by the Doctor to defuse the situation amount to little: there will be a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. On the one side are the three Clanton brothers and Johnny Ringo; on the other, the two Earps and Doc Holliday. At the end of the gunfight Ringo and the three Clantons are shot dead. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo slip away in the TARDIS. They arrive on a strange planet, and decide to go out and have a look. As they leave, a strange man is seen approaching the TARDIS on the scanner. [edit] Continuity For dating of this episode, see the Chronology. Apart from the time travellers, this serial intentionally takes dramatic liberties with historical events and many inaccuracies are present. For example, the participants in the gunfight are nearly entirely wrong; in the fight, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday faced down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton died. Although Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were initially present at the scene of the gunfight, both ran from the fight and were unharmed. The Clantons' father had been killed by Mexican Rurales in an ambush in August 1881, in retribution for the killing of Mexicans at the Skeleton Canyon Massacre (and most likely did not wear a bowler hat). There was no one by the name of Reuben Clanton, and neither Johnny Ringo nor Phineas Clanton were in town at the time. Warren Earp lived in Tombstone with his brothers, but he was not a marshal. James ran a saloon. Warren was shot and killed in a bar fight almost twenty years after the Tombstone events. Likewise there is no basis in fact for anything about the depiction of the Last Chance Saloon. Neither its name, its offered entertainment, its set decoration, nor its apparent volume of business are appropriate to Tombstone saloons in 1881.[1] [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "A Holiday for the Doctor" 30 April 1966 23:48 6.5 16mm t/r "Don't Shoot the Pianist" 7 May 1966 23:47 6.6 16mm t/r "Johnny Ringo" 14 May 1966 23:52 6.2 16mm t/r "The OK Corral" 21 May 1966 23:53 5.7 16mm t/r [2][3][4] The working title for this story was The Gunslingers.[5] This was the last serial of the series to have individual episode titles (until the 2005 revival). From The Savages on, each serial had an overall title divided into numbered parts or episodes. Despite this, a caption at the end of The OK Corral read "Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages".[6] According to About Time by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, this was the first Western made for British television. [edit] Cast notes Dalek voice actor David Graham played Charlie the barman. He later played Kerensky in City of Death. Doc Holliday was played by Anthony Jacobs, whose son Matthew visited the set during production of the serial. Thirty years later, Matthew Jacobs wrote the script for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Laurence Payne later played Morix in The Leisure Hive and Dastari in The Two Doctors. [edit] Music The Gunfighters is notable for being the first Doctor Who episodes to contain musical narration, in the form of the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". It was sung by Lynda Baron, who does not appear onscreen (although Dodo appears to hear the ballad at the end of the serial). Baron would later appear, however, in the Fifth Doctor serial Enlightenment, in the role of Captain Wrack. (See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.) The ballad itself is included as an extra on the CD soundtrack release. The notion of commissioning original songs for Doctor Who would resume when the series was revived in 2005, beginning with "Song for Ten" in The Christmas Invasion. [edit] Broadcast and reception A common myth is that this story has the lowest ratings of any Doctor Who story. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between audience share and Audience Appreciation scores. The former indicates the size of the viewing audience and the latter is based on a survey gauging the viewers' opinions of the programme. In fact, the audience size for the serial ranged from 6.5 million viewers for the first episode to 5.7 million for the last. However, the Audience Appreciation scores for the last three episodes equalled or went below the lowest scores for Doctor Who, with the very last episode, "The O.K. Corral", having a score of 30%, the lowest ever to date. That said, the story did post ratings that were disappointing by a number of different measures. The Gunfighters represented a significant decrease over the previous serial, The Celestial Toymaker, which had ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 million viewers. Each episode of The Gunfighters was also significantly lower than for the first 18 weeks of Series 3, wherein the lowest-rated week—at 7.9 million viewers—belonged to the episode "The Feast of Steven" from The Daleks' Master Plan. Each episode of the serial was also beaten by the serials, which were respectively broadcast in similar April–May slots in 1965 (The Space Museum) and in 1964 (The Keys of Marinus). While not the lowest-rated Doctor Who story of all time, or even the lowest-rated Hartnell story, The Gunfighters did open a sustained period of significantly lower ratings for the program that would last almost the entirety of the remainder of the First Doctor's era. Beginning with "The O.K. Corral" — the very same episode that received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode — no Hartnell episode would top 6 million viewers until Episode 2 of his final story, The Tenth Planet. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Donald Cotton, was published by Target Books in July 1985. It is narrated in first person by Doc Holliday (a framing scene introduces him on his deathbed) and makes a major change in the character of Johnny Ringo by depicting him as a student of the classics. Doctor Who book The Gunfighters Series Target novelisations Release number 101 Writer Donald Cotton Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20195-7 Release date 9 January 1986 [edit] VHS, CD and DVD releases This serial was released on VHS in November 2002. Later, in 2007, it was released on CD, with linking narration, the entire "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", and a bonus interview from Peter Purves. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Awakening on 20 June 2011. [edit] References ^ http://www.wildwestinfo.com/index1_files/page0003.htm[dead link] Monahan, Sherry. Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Saloons. University of New Mexico Press. 2007. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Gunfighters". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Gunfighters". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Gunfighters". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 126. ISBN 0 426 20430 1. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Gunfighters: Things to watch out for...". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 89. ISBN 0 563 40588 0. Retrieved 7 March 2011. [edit] External links The Gunfighters at BBC Online The Gunfighters at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Gunfighters at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Whoniverse's review on The Gunfighters [edit] Reviews The Gunfighters reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters reviews at Outpost Gallifrey [edit] Target novelisation The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target — The Gunfighters
-
TDP 182:The Gunfighters
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 14 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Synopsis In 19th Century America in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, the troublesome Clanton brothers, Ike, Phineas and Billy, are in town in search of Doc Holliday to settle an old score over the death of another brother called Reuben. They meet up with their hired hand Seth Harper at the Last Chance Saloon. He knows what Holliday looks like and describes his coat and demeanour. This is overheard by bar singer Kate, who lets her paramour Holliday know he is in danger. The TARDIS has arrived in a nearby stable, with the Doctor in agony from toothache. He and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, dressed as cowboys, soon encounter local marshal Wyatt Earp, who offers them his protection and warns them to keep their counsel. The Doctor finds the dentist – Holliday himself - while Dodo and Steven book rooms at the local hotel. There they are mocked by the Clantons, who suspect the Doctor they refer to is Holliday himself. Seth Harper is sent to the dentist’s surgery and invites the Doctor, tooth removed, to the hotel in five minutes to meet his friends. Holliday is initially happy to let him be shot in his place, allowing the real Doc to disappear, but Kate intervenes to ensure the Doctor survives. This buys some time until Holliday relents and hides in an upstairs chamber of the hotel, firing his gun at appropriate moments to con the Clantons into thinking the Doctor is indeed Holliday the sharpshooter. Soon afterward Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Bat Masterson arrive and break up the fracas, taking the Doctor into custody for his own protection. Steven now becomes embroiled in a plot to smuggle the Doctor a gun to help free him from the jailhouse, but the Doctor refuses to be armed. Steven is shortly afterward confronted by a rabble wound up by the Clantons, who are intent on lynching him as an associate of the disreputable Holliday. Once more it is Earp and Masterson who defuse the situation, and also take Phin Clanton into custody to ensure the co-operation of his brothers. The Doctor and Steven are freed and told to leave town as soon as possible. Dodo has meanwhile fallen in with Kate and Doc, who both plan to leave town and take her with them. When Seth Harper stumbles across their escape plans, Holliday kills him, and the trio then depart. Harper's role as aide to the Clantons is soon replaced by a new arrival, Johnny Ringo, who shoots local barman Charlie by way of an introduction to the town of Tombstone. The Doctor and Steven return to the Last Chance Saloon in search of Dodo and encounter the dangerous Ringo. Wyatt Earp’s brothers Warren and Virgil have meanwhile arrived at Tombstone to help him enforce the law. The Doctor soon tells them that Ringo is in town. Events take a harsh turn when the other Clanton brothers visit the jail to free Phin, killing Warren Earp in the process. Meanwhile Steven heads out of town to look for Dodo with Ringo in tow in search of Holliday. Steven and Kate end up being taken by Ringo to the Clanton ranch where the Clantons recamp and tell their father, Pa Clanton, that they have killed an Earp. Wyatt Earp swears vengeance and starts to build a posse of lawmen to deal with the Clantons once and for all. Doc Holliday returns to Tombstone with Dodo, and offers his services to his old friend Earp too. Attempts by the Doctor to defuse the situation amount to little: there will be a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. On the one side are the three Clanton brothers and Johnny Ringo; on the other, the two Earps and Doc Holliday. At the end of the gunfight Ringo and the three Clantons are shot dead. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo slip away in the TARDIS. They arrive on a strange planet, and decide to go out and have a look. As they leave, a strange man is seen approaching the TARDIS on the scanner. [edit] Continuity For dating of this episode, see the Chronology. Apart from the time travellers, this serial intentionally takes dramatic liberties with historical events and many inaccuracies are present. For example, the participants in the gunfight are nearly entirely wrong; in the fight, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday faced down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton died. Although Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were initially present at the scene of the gunfight, both ran from the fight and were unharmed. The Clantons' father had been killed by Mexican Rurales in an ambush in August 1881, in retribution for the killing of Mexicans at the Skeleton Canyon Massacre (and most likely did not wear a bowler hat). There was no one by the name of Reuben Clanton, and neither Johnny Ringo nor Phineas Clanton were in town at the time. Warren Earp lived in Tombstone with his brothers, but he was not a marshal. James ran a saloon. Warren was shot and killed in a bar fight almost twenty years after the Tombstone events. Likewise there is no basis in fact for anything about the depiction of the Last Chance Saloon. Neither its name, its offered entertainment, its set decoration, nor its apparent volume of business are appropriate to Tombstone saloons in 1881.[1] [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "A Holiday for the Doctor" 30 April 1966 23:48 6.5 16mm t/r "Don't Shoot the Pianist" 7 May 1966 23:47 6.6 16mm t/r "Johnny Ringo" 14 May 1966 23:52 6.2 16mm t/r "The OK Corral" 21 May 1966 23:53 5.7 16mm t/r [2][3][4] The working title for this story was The Gunslingers.[5] This was the last serial of the series to have individual episode titles (until the 2005 revival). From The Savages on, each serial had an overall title divided into numbered parts or episodes. Despite this, a caption at the end of The OK Corral read "Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages".[6] According to About Time by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, this was the first Western made for British television. [edit] Cast notes Dalek voice actor David Graham played Charlie the barman. He later played Kerensky in City of Death. Doc Holliday was played by Anthony Jacobs, whose son Matthew visited the set during production of the serial. Thirty years later, Matthew Jacobs wrote the script for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Laurence Payne later played Morix in The Leisure Hive and Dastari in The Two Doctors. [edit] Music The Gunfighters is notable for being the first Doctor Who episodes to contain musical narration, in the form of the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". It was sung by Lynda Baron, who does not appear onscreen (although Dodo appears to hear the ballad at the end of the serial). Baron would later appear, however, in the Fifth Doctor serial Enlightenment, in the role of Captain Wrack. (See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.) The ballad itself is included as an extra on the CD soundtrack release. The notion of commissioning original songs for Doctor Who would resume when the series was revived in 2005, beginning with "Song for Ten" in The Christmas Invasion. [edit] Broadcast and reception A common myth is that this story has the lowest ratings of any Doctor Who story. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between audience share and Audience Appreciation scores. The former indicates the size of the viewing audience and the latter is based on a survey gauging the viewers' opinions of the programme. In fact, the audience size for the serial ranged from 6.5 million viewers for the first episode to 5.7 million for the last. However, the Audience Appreciation scores for the last three episodes equalled or went below the lowest scores for Doctor Who, with the very last episode, "The O.K. Corral", having a score of 30%, the lowest ever to date. That said, the story did post ratings that were disappointing by a number of different measures. The Gunfighters represented a significant decrease over the previous serial, The Celestial Toymaker, which had ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 million viewers. Each episode of The Gunfighters was also significantly lower than for the first 18 weeks of Series 3, wherein the lowest-rated week—at 7.9 million viewers—belonged to the episode "The Feast of Steven" from The Daleks' Master Plan. Each episode of the serial was also beaten by the serials, which were respectively broadcast in similar April–May slots in 1965 (The Space Museum) and in 1964 (The Keys of Marinus). While not the lowest-rated Doctor Who story of all time, or even the lowest-rated Hartnell story, The Gunfighters did open a sustained period of significantly lower ratings for the program that would last almost the entirety of the remainder of the First Doctor's era. Beginning with "The O.K. Corral" — the very same episode that received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode — no Hartnell episode would top 6 million viewers until Episode 2 of his final story, The Tenth Planet. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Donald Cotton, was published by Target Books in July 1985. It is narrated in first person by Doc Holliday (a framing scene introduces him on his deathbed) and makes a major change in the character of Johnny Ringo by depicting him as a student of the classics. Doctor Who book The Gunfighters Series Target novelisations Release number 101 Writer Donald Cotton Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20195-7 Release date 9 January 1986 [edit] VHS, CD and DVD releases This serial was released on VHS in November 2002. Later, in 2007, it was released on CD, with linking narration, the entire "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", and a bonus interview from Peter Purves. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Awakening on 20 June 2011. [edit] References ^ http://www.wildwestinfo.com/index1_files/page0003.htm[dead link] Monahan, Sherry. Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Saloons. University of New Mexico Press. 2007. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Gunfighters". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Gunfighters". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Gunfighters". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 126. ISBN 0 426 20430 1. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Gunfighters: Things to watch out for...". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 89. ISBN 0 563 40588 0. Retrieved 7 March 2011. [edit] External links The Gunfighters at BBC Online The Gunfighters at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Gunfighters at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Whoniverse's review on The Gunfighters [edit] Reviews The Gunfighters reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters reviews at Outpost Gallifrey [edit] Target novelisation The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target — The Gunfighters
-
TDP 182:The Gunfighters
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 14 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Synopsis In 19th Century America in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, the troublesome Clanton brothers, Ike, Phineas and Billy, are in town in search of Doc Holliday to settle an old score over the death of another brother called Reuben. They meet up with their hired hand Seth Harper at the Last Chance Saloon. He knows what Holliday looks like and describes his coat and demeanour. This is overheard by bar singer Kate, who lets her paramour Holliday know he is in danger. The TARDIS has arrived in a nearby stable, with the Doctor in agony from toothache. He and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, dressed as cowboys, soon encounter local marshal Wyatt Earp, who offers them his protection and warns them to keep their counsel. The Doctor finds the dentist – Holliday himself - while Dodo and Steven book rooms at the local hotel. There they are mocked by the Clantons, who suspect the Doctor they refer to is Holliday himself. Seth Harper is sent to the dentist’s surgery and invites the Doctor, tooth removed, to the hotel in five minutes to meet his friends. Holliday is initially happy to let him be shot in his place, allowing the real Doc to disappear, but Kate intervenes to ensure the Doctor survives. This buys some time until Holliday relents and hides in an upstairs chamber of the hotel, firing his gun at appropriate moments to con the Clantons into thinking the Doctor is indeed Holliday the sharpshooter. Soon afterward Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Bat Masterson arrive and break up the fracas, taking the Doctor into custody for his own protection. Steven now becomes embroiled in a plot to smuggle the Doctor a gun to help free him from the jailhouse, but the Doctor refuses to be armed. Steven is shortly afterward confronted by a rabble wound up by the Clantons, who are intent on lynching him as an associate of the disreputable Holliday. Once more it is Earp and Masterson who defuse the situation, and also take Phin Clanton into custody to ensure the co-operation of his brothers. The Doctor and Steven are freed and told to leave town as soon as possible. Dodo has meanwhile fallen in with Kate and Doc, who both plan to leave town and take her with them. When Seth Harper stumbles across their escape plans, Holliday kills him, and the trio then depart. Harper's role as aide to the Clantons is soon replaced by a new arrival, Johnny Ringo, who shoots local barman Charlie by way of an introduction to the town of Tombstone. The Doctor and Steven return to the Last Chance Saloon in search of Dodo and encounter the dangerous Ringo. Wyatt Earp’s brothers Warren and Virgil have meanwhile arrived at Tombstone to help him enforce the law. The Doctor soon tells them that Ringo is in town. Events take a harsh turn when the other Clanton brothers visit the jail to free Phin, killing Warren Earp in the process. Meanwhile Steven heads out of town to look for Dodo with Ringo in tow in search of Holliday. Steven and Kate end up being taken by Ringo to the Clanton ranch where the Clantons recamp and tell their father, Pa Clanton, that they have killed an Earp. Wyatt Earp swears vengeance and starts to build a posse of lawmen to deal with the Clantons once and for all. Doc Holliday returns to Tombstone with Dodo, and offers his services to his old friend Earp too. Attempts by the Doctor to defuse the situation amount to little: there will be a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. On the one side are the three Clanton brothers and Johnny Ringo; on the other, the two Earps and Doc Holliday. At the end of the gunfight Ringo and the three Clantons are shot dead. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo slip away in the TARDIS. They arrive on a strange planet, and decide to go out and have a look. As they leave, a strange man is seen approaching the TARDIS on the scanner. [edit] Continuity For dating of this episode, see the Chronology. Apart from the time travellers, this serial intentionally takes dramatic liberties with historical events and many inaccuracies are present. For example, the participants in the gunfight are nearly entirely wrong; in the fight, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday faced down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton died. Although Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were initially present at the scene of the gunfight, both ran from the fight and were unharmed. The Clantons' father had been killed by Mexican Rurales in an ambush in August 1881, in retribution for the killing of Mexicans at the Skeleton Canyon Massacre (and most likely did not wear a bowler hat). There was no one by the name of Reuben Clanton, and neither Johnny Ringo nor Phineas Clanton were in town at the time. Warren Earp lived in Tombstone with his brothers, but he was not a marshal. James ran a saloon. Warren was shot and killed in a bar fight almost twenty years after the Tombstone events. Likewise there is no basis in fact for anything about the depiction of the Last Chance Saloon. Neither its name, its offered entertainment, its set decoration, nor its apparent volume of business are appropriate to Tombstone saloons in 1881.[1] [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "A Holiday for the Doctor" 30 April 1966 23:48 6.5 16mm t/r "Don't Shoot the Pianist" 7 May 1966 23:47 6.6 16mm t/r "Johnny Ringo" 14 May 1966 23:52 6.2 16mm t/r "The OK Corral" 21 May 1966 23:53 5.7 16mm t/r [2][3][4] The working title for this story was The Gunslingers.[5] This was the last serial of the series to have individual episode titles (until the 2005 revival). From The Savages on, each serial had an overall title divided into numbered parts or episodes. Despite this, a caption at the end of The OK Corral read "Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages".[6] According to About Time by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, this was the first Western made for British television. [edit] Cast notes Dalek voice actor David Graham played Charlie the barman. He later played Kerensky in City of Death. Doc Holliday was played by Anthony Jacobs, whose son Matthew visited the set during production of the serial. Thirty years later, Matthew Jacobs wrote the script for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Laurence Payne later played Morix in The Leisure Hive and Dastari in The Two Doctors. [edit] Music The Gunfighters is notable for being the first Doctor Who episodes to contain musical narration, in the form of the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". It was sung by Lynda Baron, who does not appear onscreen (although Dodo appears to hear the ballad at the end of the serial). Baron would later appear, however, in the Fifth Doctor serial Enlightenment, in the role of Captain Wrack. (See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.) The ballad itself is included as an extra on the CD soundtrack release. The notion of commissioning original songs for Doctor Who would resume when the series was revived in 2005, beginning with "Song for Ten" in The Christmas Invasion. [edit] Broadcast and reception A common myth is that this story has the lowest ratings of any Doctor Who story. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between audience share and Audience Appreciation scores. The former indicates the size of the viewing audience and the latter is based on a survey gauging the viewers' opinions of the programme. In fact, the audience size for the serial ranged from 6.5 million viewers for the first episode to 5.7 million for the last. However, the Audience Appreciation scores for the last three episodes equalled or went below the lowest scores for Doctor Who, with the very last episode, "The O.K. Corral", having a score of 30%, the lowest ever to date. That said, the story did post ratings that were disappointing by a number of different measures. The Gunfighters represented a significant decrease over the previous serial, The Celestial Toymaker, which had ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 million viewers. Each episode of The Gunfighters was also significantly lower than for the first 18 weeks of Series 3, wherein the lowest-rated week—at 7.9 million viewers—belonged to the episode "The Feast of Steven" from The Daleks' Master Plan. Each episode of the serial was also beaten by the serials, which were respectively broadcast in similar April–May slots in 1965 (The Space Museum) and in 1964 (The Keys of Marinus). While not the lowest-rated Doctor Who story of all time, or even the lowest-rated Hartnell story, The Gunfighters did open a sustained period of significantly lower ratings for the program that would last almost the entirety of the remainder of the First Doctor's era. Beginning with "The O.K. Corral" — the very same episode that received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode — no Hartnell episode would top 6 million viewers until Episode 2 of his final story, The Tenth Planet. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Donald Cotton, was published by Target Books in July 1985. It is narrated in first person by Doc Holliday (a framing scene introduces him on his deathbed) and makes a major change in the character of Johnny Ringo by depicting him as a student of the classics. Doctor Who book The Gunfighters Series Target novelisations Release number 101 Writer Donald Cotton Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20195-7 Release date 9 January 1986 [edit] VHS, CD and DVD releases This serial was released on VHS in November 2002. Later, in 2007, it was released on CD, with linking narration, the entire "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", and a bonus interview from Peter Purves. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Awakening on 20 June 2011. [edit] References ^ http://www.wildwestinfo.com/index1_files/page0003.htm[dead link] Monahan, Sherry. Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Saloons. University of New Mexico Press. 2007. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Gunfighters". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Gunfighters". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Gunfighters". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 126. ISBN 0 426 20430 1. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Gunfighters: Things to watch out for...". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 89. ISBN 0 563 40588 0. Retrieved 7 March 2011. [edit] External links The Gunfighters at BBC Online The Gunfighters at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Gunfighters at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Whoniverse's review on The Gunfighters [edit] Reviews The Gunfighters reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters reviews at Outpost Gallifrey [edit] Target novelisation The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target — The Gunfighters
-
TDP 181: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 30 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Plot [edit] Synopsis The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) have discovered that Amy (Karen Gillan), Rory's wife and the Doctor's companion, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies from across time and space, including Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker), to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to recruit River Song (Alex Kingston) from her Stormcage prison cell, but she refuses, saying she cannot be with the Doctor at this time as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber), who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run; the monks are literally headless and incapable of being influenced by emotions. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy and gives her a cloth good luck token with Melody's name on it in her language. Amy warns Bucket of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him. Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost “ ” River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base Assisted by additional Silurian and Judoon forces, the Doctor and his allies launch a surprise attack and secure the base. The Doctor and Rory free Amy and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and has found that the child has both human and Time Lord DNA. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's wedding night aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he has fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] once was a joy, twice in the same way is a privilege." The Doctor races to the hangar to warn his friends. Meanwhile, Bucket has arrived and warns the group of Kovarian's trap, but they are too late as the TARDIS is blocked by a force field and they are attacked by the Headless Monks. Dorium is killed immediately, while Strax and Bucket are fatally wounded in the battle. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid, leaving Amy distraught. The Doctor arrives too late to help his wounded allies, and helps Rory to console Amy. River appears, and the Doctor berates her for not helping. She tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were partially his fault, having been brought about by those that feared his reputation. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, and The Doctor recognises River's identity. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy demands that River explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols engraved on it, but they cannot be read by humans even with the aid of the TARDIS translation systems. Instead, River shows them Bucket's cloth charm with Melody's name, still in the cot. The Gamma forest people only know of one source of water ("The only water in the forest is the river" quotes Dr. Song) and have no word for "melody", Bucket used the closest approximations: "song" and "river". River Song re-introduces herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. [edit] Continuity Dorium previously appeared in the opening to "The Pandorica Opens", selling River Song a vortex manipulator. Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship. The space-worthy Spitfires modified by the Doctor and piloted by "Danny Boy" as shown in "Victory of the Daleks" are shown to disable the base's communication array. Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour". The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.[2] Bucket refers to her unit as "the Clerics" - this unit was introduced in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone". "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was first said to Rory by Idris in "The Doctor's Wife". Rory wears the armour of a Roman centurion, as in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and "A Christmas Carol". Amy also tells Melody of Rory's nickname of "the Last Centurion", derived from his two thousand-year vigil over the Pandorica in "The Big Bang". In describing Rory's time in and out of the TARDIS, the Doctor refers to "sexy fish vampires" ("The Vampires of Venice"), Rory's death and erasure from time ("Cold Blood") and his time as an Auton before the universe was restored ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"). [edit] Prequel On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has Dorium talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"[3] [edit] Production The seventh episode of series six was the 777th episode of Doctor Who, but there are no seven puns as the production team did not realise this until after shooting.[4] [edit] Cast notes Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" (2008) and Commander Jask in The End of Time (2010). Neve McIntosh played the Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010). [edit] Broadcast and reception Matt Risley of IGN rated the episode a 9.0/10, stating that the episode was an "epic" one that "opened with a grandstanding, wonderfully OTT pre-credits tease and didn't really let up from there."[5] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph said that the episode was good but lacked significant background motivation into the villains. Fuller also notes that the revelation of River Song being Amy's grown up child "is perhaps a narrative strand that would sit uncomfortably with a series where loss has often been brushed off as soon as the next couple of episodes". However, he did have praise for the performance of Matt Smith, commenting that "the last few weeks have seen Matt Smith’s Doctor in a welcome generally more serious vein, which he kept up here, with leavening at the right moments where his alien lack of comfort with human emotions, although used to comic effect, rang very true, as did his awkwardness when discovering the truth about River".[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian was less favourable, stating that that the producers "promised us a cliffhanger, and now we're left the whole summer long to contemplate whether our favourite show can really have just dropped the ball. Oh there was plenty to love about this mid-season finale, and even more to pick over. But as an hour of drama it was all over the place". Because the episode was so fast-paced with little being explained, he did not feel any emotional connection to the Anglican marines or Lorna Bucket. Unlike Fuller, Martin was not favorable to Matt Smith's Doctor, stating that "the non-event of the battle means that the Doctor never really gets to show this dark side we've been hearing so much about" and that Smith's predecessor, David Tennant, "got angrier most weeks". Martin did have praise for the final reveal of the episode, stating that although it had been "hidden in plain view from the very beginning as soon as its revealed Amy has called the baby Melody", he was unable to make the connection and was suitably surprised.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith's Series Two: Latest News". Doctor Who Magazine (432): 9. 6 April 2011 (cover date). ^ "The Born Identity". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 04 June 2011. No. 7, series 6. ^ "A Good Man Goes to War Prequel". BBC. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011rf7y ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/117/1172497p1.html ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8552099/Doctor-Who-episode-7-A-Good-Man-Goes-to-War-review.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/04/doctor-who-a-good-man-goes-to-war [edit] External links "A Good Man Goes to War" at the Internet Movie Database A Good Man Goes to War on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage "A Good Man Goes to War" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
-
TDP 182:The Gunfighters
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 14 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Synopsis In 19th Century America in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, the troublesome Clanton brothers, Ike, Phineas and Billy, are in town in search of Doc Holliday to settle an old score over the death of another brother called Reuben. They meet up with their hired hand Seth Harper at the Last Chance Saloon. He knows what Holliday looks like and describes his coat and demeanour. This is overheard by bar singer Kate, who lets her paramour Holliday know he is in danger. The TARDIS has arrived in a nearby stable, with the Doctor in agony from toothache. He and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, dressed as cowboys, soon encounter local marshal Wyatt Earp, who offers them his protection and warns them to keep their counsel. The Doctor finds the dentist – Holliday himself - while Dodo and Steven book rooms at the local hotel. There they are mocked by the Clantons, who suspect the Doctor they refer to is Holliday himself. Seth Harper is sent to the dentist’s surgery and invites the Doctor, tooth removed, to the hotel in five minutes to meet his friends. Holliday is initially happy to let him be shot in his place, allowing the real Doc to disappear, but Kate intervenes to ensure the Doctor survives. This buys some time until Holliday relents and hides in an upstairs chamber of the hotel, firing his gun at appropriate moments to con the Clantons into thinking the Doctor is indeed Holliday the sharpshooter. Soon afterward Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Bat Masterson arrive and break up the fracas, taking the Doctor into custody for his own protection. Steven now becomes embroiled in a plot to smuggle the Doctor a gun to help free him from the jailhouse, but the Doctor refuses to be armed. Steven is shortly afterward confronted by a rabble wound up by the Clantons, who are intent on lynching him as an associate of the disreputable Holliday. Once more it is Earp and Masterson who defuse the situation, and also take Phin Clanton into custody to ensure the co-operation of his brothers. The Doctor and Steven are freed and told to leave town as soon as possible. Dodo has meanwhile fallen in with Kate and Doc, who both plan to leave town and take her with them. When Seth Harper stumbles across their escape plans, Holliday kills him, and the trio then depart. Harper's role as aide to the Clantons is soon replaced by a new arrival, Johnny Ringo, who shoots local barman Charlie by way of an introduction to the town of Tombstone. The Doctor and Steven return to the Last Chance Saloon in search of Dodo and encounter the dangerous Ringo. Wyatt Earp’s brothers Warren and Virgil have meanwhile arrived at Tombstone to help him enforce the law. The Doctor soon tells them that Ringo is in town. Events take a harsh turn when the other Clanton brothers visit the jail to free Phin, killing Warren Earp in the process. Meanwhile Steven heads out of town to look for Dodo with Ringo in tow in search of Holliday. Steven and Kate end up being taken by Ringo to the Clanton ranch where the Clantons recamp and tell their father, Pa Clanton, that they have killed an Earp. Wyatt Earp swears vengeance and starts to build a posse of lawmen to deal with the Clantons once and for all. Doc Holliday returns to Tombstone with Dodo, and offers his services to his old friend Earp too. Attempts by the Doctor to defuse the situation amount to little: there will be a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. On the one side are the three Clanton brothers and Johnny Ringo; on the other, the two Earps and Doc Holliday. At the end of the gunfight Ringo and the three Clantons are shot dead. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo slip away in the TARDIS. They arrive on a strange planet, and decide to go out and have a look. As they leave, a strange man is seen approaching the TARDIS on the scanner. [edit] Continuity For dating of this episode, see the Chronology. Apart from the time travellers, this serial intentionally takes dramatic liberties with historical events and many inaccuracies are present. For example, the participants in the gunfight are nearly entirely wrong; in the fight, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday faced down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton died. Although Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were initially present at the scene of the gunfight, both ran from the fight and were unharmed. The Clantons' father had been killed by Mexican Rurales in an ambush in August 1881, in retribution for the killing of Mexicans at the Skeleton Canyon Massacre (and most likely did not wear a bowler hat). There was no one by the name of Reuben Clanton, and neither Johnny Ringo nor Phineas Clanton were in town at the time. Warren Earp lived in Tombstone with his brothers, but he was not a marshal. James ran a saloon. Warren was shot and killed in a bar fight almost twenty years after the Tombstone events. Likewise there is no basis in fact for anything about the depiction of the Last Chance Saloon. Neither its name, its offered entertainment, its set decoration, nor its apparent volume of business are appropriate to Tombstone saloons in 1881.[1] [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "A Holiday for the Doctor" 30 April 1966 23:48 6.5 16mm t/r "Don't Shoot the Pianist" 7 May 1966 23:47 6.6 16mm t/r "Johnny Ringo" 14 May 1966 23:52 6.2 16mm t/r "The OK Corral" 21 May 1966 23:53 5.7 16mm t/r [2][3][4] The working title for this story was The Gunslingers.[5] This was the last serial of the series to have individual episode titles (until the 2005 revival). From The Savages on, each serial had an overall title divided into numbered parts or episodes. Despite this, a caption at the end of The OK Corral read "Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages".[6] According to About Time by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, this was the first Western made for British television. [edit] Cast notes Dalek voice actor David Graham played Charlie the barman. He later played Kerensky in City of Death. Doc Holliday was played by Anthony Jacobs, whose son Matthew visited the set during production of the serial. Thirty years later, Matthew Jacobs wrote the script for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Laurence Payne later played Morix in The Leisure Hive and Dastari in The Two Doctors. [edit] Music The Gunfighters is notable for being the first Doctor Who episodes to contain musical narration, in the form of the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". It was sung by Lynda Baron, who does not appear onscreen (although Dodo appears to hear the ballad at the end of the serial). Baron would later appear, however, in the Fifth Doctor serial Enlightenment, in the role of Captain Wrack. (See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.) The ballad itself is included as an extra on the CD soundtrack release. The notion of commissioning original songs for Doctor Who would resume when the series was revived in 2005, beginning with "Song for Ten" in The Christmas Invasion. [edit] Broadcast and reception A common myth is that this story has the lowest ratings of any Doctor Who story. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between audience share and Audience Appreciation scores. The former indicates the size of the viewing audience and the latter is based on a survey gauging the viewers' opinions of the programme. In fact, the audience size for the serial ranged from 6.5 million viewers for the first episode to 5.7 million for the last. However, the Audience Appreciation scores for the last three episodes equalled or went below the lowest scores for Doctor Who, with the very last episode, "The O.K. Corral", having a score of 30%, the lowest ever to date. That said, the story did post ratings that were disappointing by a number of different measures. The Gunfighters represented a significant decrease over the previous serial, The Celestial Toymaker, which had ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 million viewers. Each episode of The Gunfighters was also significantly lower than for the first 18 weeks of Series 3, wherein the lowest-rated week—at 7.9 million viewers—belonged to the episode "The Feast of Steven" from The Daleks' Master Plan. Each episode of the serial was also beaten by the serials, which were respectively broadcast in similar April–May slots in 1965 (The Space Museum) and in 1964 (The Keys of Marinus). While not the lowest-rated Doctor Who story of all time, or even the lowest-rated Hartnell story, The Gunfighters did open a sustained period of significantly lower ratings for the program that would last almost the entirety of the remainder of the First Doctor's era. Beginning with "The O.K. Corral" — the very same episode that received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode — no Hartnell episode would top 6 million viewers until Episode 2 of his final story, The Tenth Planet. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Donald Cotton, was published by Target Books in July 1985. It is narrated in first person by Doc Holliday (a framing scene introduces him on his deathbed) and makes a major change in the character of Johnny Ringo by depicting him as a student of the classics. Doctor Who book The Gunfighters Series Target novelisations Release number 101 Writer Donald Cotton Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20195-7 Release date 9 January 1986 [edit] VHS, CD and DVD releases This serial was released on VHS in November 2002. Later, in 2007, it was released on CD, with linking narration, the entire "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", and a bonus interview from Peter Purves. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Awakening on 20 June 2011. [edit] References ^ http://www.wildwestinfo.com/index1_files/page0003.htm[dead link] Monahan, Sherry. Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Saloons. University of New Mexico Press. 2007. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Gunfighters". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Gunfighters". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Gunfighters". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 126. ISBN 0 426 20430 1. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Gunfighters: Things to watch out for...". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 89. ISBN 0 563 40588 0. Retrieved 7 March 2011. [edit] External links The Gunfighters at BBC Online The Gunfighters at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Gunfighters at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Whoniverse's review on The Gunfighters [edit] Reviews The Gunfighters reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters reviews at Outpost Gallifrey [edit] Target novelisation The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target — The Gunfighters
-
TDP 181: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 30 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Plot [edit] Synopsis The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) have discovered that Amy (Karen Gillan), Rory's wife and the Doctor's companion, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies from across time and space, including Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker), to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to recruit River Song (Alex Kingston) from her Stormcage prison cell, but she refuses, saying she cannot be with the Doctor at this time as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber), who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run; the monks are literally headless and incapable of being influenced by emotions. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy and gives her a cloth good luck token with Melody's name on it in her language. Amy warns Bucket of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him. Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost “ ” River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base Assisted by additional Silurian and Judoon forces, the Doctor and his allies launch a surprise attack and secure the base. The Doctor and Rory free Amy and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and has found that the child has both human and Time Lord DNA. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's wedding night aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he has fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] once was a joy, twice in the same way is a privilege." The Doctor races to the hangar to warn his friends. Meanwhile, Bucket has arrived and warns the group of Kovarian's trap, but they are too late as the TARDIS is blocked by a force field and they are attacked by the Headless Monks. Dorium is killed immediately, while Strax and Bucket are fatally wounded in the battle. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid, leaving Amy distraught. The Doctor arrives too late to help his wounded allies, and helps Rory to console Amy. River appears, and the Doctor berates her for not helping. She tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were partially his fault, having been brought about by those that feared his reputation. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, and The Doctor recognises River's identity. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy demands that River explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols engraved on it, but they cannot be read by humans even with the aid of the TARDIS translation systems. Instead, River shows them Bucket's cloth charm with Melody's name, still in the cot. The Gamma forest people only know of one source of water ("The only water in the forest is the river" quotes Dr. Song) and have no word for "melody", Bucket used the closest approximations: "song" and "river". River Song re-introduces herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. [edit] Continuity Dorium previously appeared in the opening to "The Pandorica Opens", selling River Song a vortex manipulator. Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship. The space-worthy Spitfires modified by the Doctor and piloted by "Danny Boy" as shown in "Victory of the Daleks" are shown to disable the base's communication array. Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour". The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.[2] Bucket refers to her unit as "the Clerics" - this unit was introduced in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone". "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was first said to Rory by Idris in "The Doctor's Wife". Rory wears the armour of a Roman centurion, as in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and "A Christmas Carol". Amy also tells Melody of Rory's nickname of "the Last Centurion", derived from his two thousand-year vigil over the Pandorica in "The Big Bang". In describing Rory's time in and out of the TARDIS, the Doctor refers to "sexy fish vampires" ("The Vampires of Venice"), Rory's death and erasure from time ("Cold Blood") and his time as an Auton before the universe was restored ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"). [edit] Prequel On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has Dorium talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"[3] [edit] Production The seventh episode of series six was the 777th episode of Doctor Who, but there are no seven puns as the production team did not realise this until after shooting.[4] [edit] Cast notes Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" (2008) and Commander Jask in The End of Time (2010). Neve McIntosh played the Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010). [edit] Broadcast and reception Matt Risley of IGN rated the episode a 9.0/10, stating that the episode was an "epic" one that "opened with a grandstanding, wonderfully OTT pre-credits tease and didn't really let up from there."[5] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph said that the episode was good but lacked significant background motivation into the villains. Fuller also notes that the revelation of River Song being Amy's grown up child "is perhaps a narrative strand that would sit uncomfortably with a series where loss has often been brushed off as soon as the next couple of episodes". However, he did have praise for the performance of Matt Smith, commenting that "the last few weeks have seen Matt Smith’s Doctor in a welcome generally more serious vein, which he kept up here, with leavening at the right moments where his alien lack of comfort with human emotions, although used to comic effect, rang very true, as did his awkwardness when discovering the truth about River".[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian was less favourable, stating that that the producers "promised us a cliffhanger, and now we're left the whole summer long to contemplate whether our favourite show can really have just dropped the ball. Oh there was plenty to love about this mid-season finale, and even more to pick over. But as an hour of drama it was all over the place". Because the episode was so fast-paced with little being explained, he did not feel any emotional connection to the Anglican marines or Lorna Bucket. Unlike Fuller, Martin was not favorable to Matt Smith's Doctor, stating that "the non-event of the battle means that the Doctor never really gets to show this dark side we've been hearing so much about" and that Smith's predecessor, David Tennant, "got angrier most weeks". Martin did have praise for the final reveal of the episode, stating that although it had been "hidden in plain view from the very beginning as soon as its revealed Amy has called the baby Melody", he was unable to make the connection and was suitably surprised.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith's Series Two: Latest News". Doctor Who Magazine (432): 9. 6 April 2011 (cover date). ^ "The Born Identity". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 04 June 2011. No. 7, series 6. ^ "A Good Man Goes to War Prequel". BBC. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011rf7y ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/117/1172497p1.html ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8552099/Doctor-Who-episode-7-A-Good-Man-Goes-to-War-review.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/04/doctor-who-a-good-man-goes-to-war [edit] External links "A Good Man Goes to War" at the Internet Movie Database A Good Man Goes to War on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage "A Good Man Goes to War" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
-
TDP 181: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 30 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Plot [edit] Synopsis The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) have discovered that Amy (Karen Gillan), Rory's wife and the Doctor's companion, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies from across time and space, including Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker), to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to recruit River Song (Alex Kingston) from her Stormcage prison cell, but she refuses, saying she cannot be with the Doctor at this time as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber), who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run; the monks are literally headless and incapable of being influenced by emotions. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy and gives her a cloth good luck token with Melody's name on it in her language. Amy warns Bucket of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him. Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost “ ” River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base Assisted by additional Silurian and Judoon forces, the Doctor and his allies launch a surprise attack and secure the base. The Doctor and Rory free Amy and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and has found that the child has both human and Time Lord DNA. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's wedding night aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he has fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] once was a joy, twice in the same way is a privilege." The Doctor races to the hangar to warn his friends. Meanwhile, Bucket has arrived and warns the group of Kovarian's trap, but they are too late as the TARDIS is blocked by a force field and they are attacked by the Headless Monks. Dorium is killed immediately, while Strax and Bucket are fatally wounded in the battle. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid, leaving Amy distraught. The Doctor arrives too late to help his wounded allies, and helps Rory to console Amy. River appears, and the Doctor berates her for not helping. She tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were partially his fault, having been brought about by those that feared his reputation. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, and The Doctor recognises River's identity. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy demands that River explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols engraved on it, but they cannot be read by humans even with the aid of the TARDIS translation systems. Instead, River shows them Bucket's cloth charm with Melody's name, still in the cot. The Gamma forest people only know of one source of water ("The only water in the forest is the river" quotes Dr. Song) and have no word for "melody", Bucket used the closest approximations: "song" and "river". River Song re-introduces herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. [edit] Continuity Dorium previously appeared in the opening to "The Pandorica Opens", selling River Song a vortex manipulator. Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship. The space-worthy Spitfires modified by the Doctor and piloted by "Danny Boy" as shown in "Victory of the Daleks" are shown to disable the base's communication array. Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour". The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.[2] Bucket refers to her unit as "the Clerics" - this unit was introduced in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone". "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was first said to Rory by Idris in "The Doctor's Wife". Rory wears the armour of a Roman centurion, as in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and "A Christmas Carol". Amy also tells Melody of Rory's nickname of "the Last Centurion", derived from his two thousand-year vigil over the Pandorica in "The Big Bang". In describing Rory's time in and out of the TARDIS, the Doctor refers to "sexy fish vampires" ("The Vampires of Venice"), Rory's death and erasure from time ("Cold Blood") and his time as an Auton before the universe was restored ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"). [edit] Prequel On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has Dorium talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"[3] [edit] Production The seventh episode of series six was the 777th episode of Doctor Who, but there are no seven puns as the production team did not realise this until after shooting.[4] [edit] Cast notes Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" (2008) and Commander Jask in The End of Time (2010). Neve McIntosh played the Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010). [edit] Broadcast and reception Matt Risley of IGN rated the episode a 9.0/10, stating that the episode was an "epic" one that "opened with a grandstanding, wonderfully OTT pre-credits tease and didn't really let up from there."[5] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph said that the episode was good but lacked significant background motivation into the villains. Fuller also notes that the revelation of River Song being Amy's grown up child "is perhaps a narrative strand that would sit uncomfortably with a series where loss has often been brushed off as soon as the next couple of episodes". However, he did have praise for the performance of Matt Smith, commenting that "the last few weeks have seen Matt Smith’s Doctor in a welcome generally more serious vein, which he kept up here, with leavening at the right moments where his alien lack of comfort with human emotions, although used to comic effect, rang very true, as did his awkwardness when discovering the truth about River".[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian was less favourable, stating that that the producers "promised us a cliffhanger, and now we're left the whole summer long to contemplate whether our favourite show can really have just dropped the ball. Oh there was plenty to love about this mid-season finale, and even more to pick over. But as an hour of drama it was all over the place". Because the episode was so fast-paced with little being explained, he did not feel any emotional connection to the Anglican marines or Lorna Bucket. Unlike Fuller, Martin was not favorable to Matt Smith's Doctor, stating that "the non-event of the battle means that the Doctor never really gets to show this dark side we've been hearing so much about" and that Smith's predecessor, David Tennant, "got angrier most weeks". Martin did have praise for the final reveal of the episode, stating that although it had been "hidden in plain view from the very beginning as soon as its revealed Amy has called the baby Melody", he was unable to make the connection and was suitably surprised.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith's Series Two: Latest News". Doctor Who Magazine (432): 9. 6 April 2011 (cover date). ^ "The Born Identity". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 04 June 2011. No. 7, series 6. ^ "A Good Man Goes to War Prequel". BBC. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011rf7y ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/117/1172497p1.html ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8552099/Doctor-Who-episode-7-A-Good-Man-Goes-to-War-review.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/04/doctor-who-a-good-man-goes-to-war [edit] External links "A Good Man Goes to War" at the Internet Movie Database A Good Man Goes to War on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage "A Good Man Goes to War" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
-
TDP 181: A Good Man Goes To War
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 30 secondsREPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Plot [edit] Synopsis The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) have discovered that Amy (Karen Gillan), Rory's wife and the Doctor's companion, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies from across time and space, including Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker), to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to recruit River Song (Alex Kingston) from her Stormcage prison cell, but she refuses, saying she cannot be with the Doctor at this time as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber), who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run; the monks are literally headless and incapable of being influenced by emotions. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy and gives her a cloth good luck token with Melody's name on it in her language. Amy warns Bucket of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him. Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost “ ” River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base Assisted by additional Silurian and Judoon forces, the Doctor and his allies launch a surprise attack and secure the base. The Doctor and Rory free Amy and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and has found that the child has both human and Time Lord DNA. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's wedding night aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he has fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] once was a joy, twice in the same way is a privilege." The Doctor races to the hangar to warn his friends. Meanwhile, Bucket has arrived and warns the group of Kovarian's trap, but they are too late as the TARDIS is blocked by a force field and they are attacked by the Headless Monks. Dorium is killed immediately, while Strax and Bucket are fatally wounded in the battle. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid, leaving Amy distraught. The Doctor arrives too late to help his wounded allies, and helps Rory to console Amy. River appears, and the Doctor berates her for not helping. She tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were partially his fault, having been brought about by those that feared his reputation. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, and The Doctor recognises River's identity. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy demands that River explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols engraved on it, but they cannot be read by humans even with the aid of the TARDIS translation systems. Instead, River shows them Bucket's cloth charm with Melody's name, still in the cot. The Gamma forest people only know of one source of water ("The only water in the forest is the river" quotes Dr. Song) and have no word for "melody", Bucket used the closest approximations: "song" and "river". River Song re-introduces herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. [edit] Continuity Dorium previously appeared in the opening to "The Pandorica Opens", selling River Song a vortex manipulator. Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship. The space-worthy Spitfires modified by the Doctor and piloted by "Danny Boy" as shown in "Victory of the Daleks" are shown to disable the base's communication array. Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour". The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.[2] Bucket refers to her unit as "the Clerics" - this unit was introduced in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone". "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was first said to Rory by Idris in "The Doctor's Wife". Rory wears the armour of a Roman centurion, as in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and "A Christmas Carol". Amy also tells Melody of Rory's nickname of "the Last Centurion", derived from his two thousand-year vigil over the Pandorica in "The Big Bang". In describing Rory's time in and out of the TARDIS, the Doctor refers to "sexy fish vampires" ("The Vampires of Venice"), Rory's death and erasure from time ("Cold Blood") and his time as an Auton before the universe was restored ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"). [edit] Prequel On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has Dorium talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"[3] [edit] Production The seventh episode of series six was the 777th episode of Doctor Who, but there are no seven puns as the production team did not realise this until after shooting.[4] [edit] Cast notes Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" (2008) and Commander Jask in The End of Time (2010). Neve McIntosh played the Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010). [edit] Broadcast and reception Matt Risley of IGN rated the episode a 9.0/10, stating that the episode was an "epic" one that "opened with a grandstanding, wonderfully OTT pre-credits tease and didn't really let up from there."[5] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph said that the episode was good but lacked significant background motivation into the villains. Fuller also notes that the revelation of River Song being Amy's grown up child "is perhaps a narrative strand that would sit uncomfortably with a series where loss has often been brushed off as soon as the next couple of episodes". However, he did have praise for the performance of Matt Smith, commenting that "the last few weeks have seen Matt Smith’s Doctor in a welcome generally more serious vein, which he kept up here, with leavening at the right moments where his alien lack of comfort with human emotions, although used to comic effect, rang very true, as did his awkwardness when discovering the truth about River".[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian was less favourable, stating that that the producers "promised us a cliffhanger, and now we're left the whole summer long to contemplate whether our favourite show can really have just dropped the ball. Oh there was plenty to love about this mid-season finale, and even more to pick over. But as an hour of drama it was all over the place". Because the episode was so fast-paced with little being explained, he did not feel any emotional connection to the Anglican marines or Lorna Bucket. Unlike Fuller, Martin was not favorable to Matt Smith's Doctor, stating that "the non-event of the battle means that the Doctor never really gets to show this dark side we've been hearing so much about" and that Smith's predecessor, David Tennant, "got angrier most weeks". Martin did have praise for the final reveal of the episode, stating that although it had been "hidden in plain view from the very beginning as soon as its revealed Amy has called the baby Melody", he was unable to make the connection and was suitably surprised.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith's Series Two: Latest News". Doctor Who Magazine (432): 9. 6 April 2011 (cover date). ^ "The Born Identity". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 04 June 2011. No. 7, series 6. ^ "A Good Man Goes to War Prequel". BBC. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011rf7y ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/117/1172497p1.html ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8552099/Doctor-Who-episode-7-A-Good-Man-Goes-to-War-review.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/04/doctor-who-a-good-man-goes-to-war [edit] External links "A Good Man Goes to War" at the Internet Movie Database A Good Man Goes to War on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage "A Good Man Goes to War" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
-
TDP 180: The Almost People Smith 2.06
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 14 minutes and 9 seconds"The Almost People" is the sixth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 May 2011. It is the second episode of a two-part story which began with "The Rebel Flesh". Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Broadcast and reception 3.1 International broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis The ganger of the Doctor struggles to reconcile his old regenerations, quoting from them, before he stabilises. Both Doctors look the same but can be told apart by their different shoes. The two Doctors determine that they need to restore power to the factory in order to send a distress call to the mainland. Amy becomes distrustful of the ganger Doctor and asks him not to call her "Pond", his sobriquet for her. While the group escapes from the chapel, the Jennifer ganger explains that every time a ganger dies, the last question in their eyes is "Why?". She convinces the other gangers to rise up against humanity. Rory, still looking for Jennifer, eventually finds two Jennifers, each insisting they are the 'real' Jennifer. They fight each other; one finally pushes the other into an acid pool, where she melts and is revealed to be a ganger. The humans and the Doctors arrive at the power control room. Sensing the Flesh in his head, the ganger Doctor runs outside, and Amy runs after him. She confronts him about the death she witnessed, but the ganger Doctor does not respond. He echoes the Jennifer ganger's question: "'Why?' It's all the eyes say. 'Why?'" He pushes Amy up against the wall, and she runs back into the control room, scared. Cleaves separates the Doctors, saying they cannot trust the ganger. The Doctor sends his ganger and Buzzer off to find Rory and Jennifer, explaining that the sonic screwdriver can distinguish between humans and the Flesh. Jennifer leads Rory to a room and asks him to initiate a power system, but this instead turns off the factory's cooling system and the acid begins to boil. The Doctor and the humans are forced to flee the communications room as acid pipes start to explode. Jennifer and Rory come across a pile of discarded gangers, left to rot but fully aware. Rory says they have to show the world what they have found: to this end, Jennifer tricks Rory into locking the humans and the Doctor into the crypt, and Jennifer reveals herself to be in fact another Jennifer ganger. This episode features the 'Eye Patch Lady'. Meanwhile, Jennifer has killed Buzzer and the Doctor ganger is recruited by the other gangers. With the help of a holographic phone call to Jimmy's son, the Doctor ganger convinces them that they share the same compassion as the humans. Ganger Cleaves orders the humans released. This enrages Jennifer, who transforms into a monster intent on killing them all. The group runs through the factory and find the TARDIS, which falls through the ceiling. The Cleaves ganger and the Doctor say they will remain to hold back the Jennifer ganger. Amy tries to get the Doctor into the TARDIS, but he reveals that they switched boots; the ganger Doctor and the original have been pretending to be each other all along. Amy apologises for mistrusting them, and the ganger Doctor tells Amy, "Push - but only when she tells you to." The Doctor and Cleaves gangers stay behind as the others leave, sacrificing themselves to destroy Jennifer. The Doctor drops Cleaves and the Jimmy ganger off at their company headquarters. Amy suddenly begins to feel pain in her abdomen, and The Doctor tells her she is having contractions. In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy she is a ganger, and has not actually been with them for a long time. He explains they visited the factory so he could scan the Flesh in its early stages. He promises to find the real Amy, and blocks her connection to the ganger. The ganger disintegrates. Amy wakes up in a white room. The Eye Patch Lady slides back a window and looks down on her, telling her to push. Amy looks down to see that she is pregnant, and screams as she goes into labour. [edit] Continuity While struggling with his past regenerations, the Doctor's ganger alludes to several previous Doctors' words. He misquotes the First Doctor's line "one day we shall get back... yes, one day" from An Unearthly Child as "one day we will get back", speaks the Third Doctor's famous line "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", and speaks with the voices of the Fourth and Tenth Doctors (Tom Baker and David Tennant respectively), the former expressing that Doctor's fondness for jelly babies.[1] The Eye Patch Lady previously made brief appearances in "Day of the Moon", "The Curse of the Black Spot" and "The Rebel Flesh". According to Executive Producer Beth Willis, the Amy Pond ganger has been acting in place of the original Amy Pond since the beginning of series 6.[1] The original Amy is shown to be in labour; the Doctor has performed several inconclusive pregnancy tests on Amy since "Day of the Moon". Believing she is talking to the Doctor's ganger, Amy informs the original Doctor of his future self's death as seen in "The Impossible Astronaut". [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes Raquel Cassidy previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio drama The Judgement of Isskar where she played Mesca.[2] Cassidy also previously starred in the BBC TV series Party Animals alongside Matt Smith. Marshall Lancaster, who played Buzzer, has also starred Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, which were written by Matthew Graham, who wrote this episode and also "The Rebel Flesh". [edit] Broadcast and reception Dan Martin of The Guardian said of the episode, "The Almost People feels a bit uneven, though it's worth saying that it's one of those where everything makes more sense on second viewing",[3] but went on to describe the gangers as "an exercise in moral dilemmas", and "memorable Almost Villains".[3] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph described it as a "taut, claustrophobic, sci-fi thriller", and as an "impressive episode with its neatly realised psychological and body horror"[4]. A largely positive review also came from Neela Debnath of The Independent, who states that Matt Smith "excels in his acting, managing to be reassuring and threatening, hilarious and sinister all within the same few scenes".[5]. Both Martin and Fuller were less generous of Jennifer's monster transformation. Martin commented "this dark, thoughtful story is restored to camp running-for-your-life-around-some-corridors"[3], and Fuller called it "something of a pity".[4] [edit] International broadcast BBC America plans to show this episode on 4 June, one week later than it is aired in the UK, due to expected low numbers of TV viewers during the Memorial Day weekend.[6]
-
TDP 180: The Almost People Smith 2.06
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 14 minutes and 9 seconds"The Almost People" is the sixth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 May 2011. It is the second episode of a two-part story which began with "The Rebel Flesh". Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Broadcast and reception 3.1 International broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis The ganger of the Doctor struggles to reconcile his old regenerations, quoting from them, before he stabilises. Both Doctors look the same but can be told apart by their different shoes. The two Doctors determine that they need to restore power to the factory in order to send a distress call to the mainland. Amy becomes distrustful of the ganger Doctor and asks him not to call her "Pond", his sobriquet for her. While the group escapes from the chapel, the Jennifer ganger explains that every time a ganger dies, the last question in their eyes is "Why?". She convinces the other gangers to rise up against humanity. Rory, still looking for Jennifer, eventually finds two Jennifers, each insisting they are the 'real' Jennifer. They fight each other; one finally pushes the other into an acid pool, where she melts and is revealed to be a ganger. The humans and the Doctors arrive at the power control room. Sensing the Flesh in his head, the ganger Doctor runs outside, and Amy runs after him. She confronts him about the death she witnessed, but the ganger Doctor does not respond. He echoes the Jennifer ganger's question: "'Why?' It's all the eyes say. 'Why?'" He pushes Amy up against the wall, and she runs back into the control room, scared. Cleaves separates the Doctors, saying they cannot trust the ganger. The Doctor sends his ganger and Buzzer off to find Rory and Jennifer, explaining that the sonic screwdriver can distinguish between humans and the Flesh. Jennifer leads Rory to a room and asks him to initiate a power system, but this instead turns off the factory's cooling system and the acid begins to boil. The Doctor and the humans are forced to flee the communications room as acid pipes start to explode. Jennifer and Rory come across a pile of discarded gangers, left to rot but fully aware. Rory says they have to show the world what they have found: to this end, Jennifer tricks Rory into locking the humans and the Doctor into the crypt, and Jennifer reveals herself to be in fact another Jennifer ganger. This episode features the 'Eye Patch Lady'. Meanwhile, Jennifer has killed Buzzer and the Doctor ganger is recruited by the other gangers. With the help of a holographic phone call to Jimmy's son, the Doctor ganger convinces them that they share the same compassion as the humans. Ganger Cleaves orders the humans released. This enrages Jennifer, who transforms into a monster intent on killing them all. The group runs through the factory and find the TARDIS, which falls through the ceiling. The Cleaves ganger and the Doctor say they will remain to hold back the Jennifer ganger. Amy tries to get the Doctor into the TARDIS, but he reveals that they switched boots; the ganger Doctor and the original have been pretending to be each other all along. Amy apologises for mistrusting them, and the ganger Doctor tells Amy, "Push - but only when she tells you to." The Doctor and Cleaves gangers stay behind as the others leave, sacrificing themselves to destroy Jennifer. The Doctor drops Cleaves and the Jimmy ganger off at their company headquarters. Amy suddenly begins to feel pain in her abdomen, and The Doctor tells her she is having contractions. In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy she is a ganger, and has not actually been with them for a long time. He explains they visited the factory so he could scan the Flesh in its early stages. He promises to find the real Amy, and blocks her connection to the ganger. The ganger disintegrates. Amy wakes up in a white room. The Eye Patch Lady slides back a window and looks down on her, telling her to push. Amy looks down to see that she is pregnant, and screams as she goes into labour. [edit] Continuity While struggling with his past regenerations, the Doctor's ganger alludes to several previous Doctors' words. He misquotes the First Doctor's line "one day we shall get back... yes, one day" from An Unearthly Child as "one day we will get back", speaks the Third Doctor's famous line "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", and speaks with the voices of the Fourth and Tenth Doctors (Tom Baker and David Tennant respectively), the former expressing that Doctor's fondness for jelly babies.[1] The Eye Patch Lady previously made brief appearances in "Day of the Moon", "The Curse of the Black Spot" and "The Rebel Flesh". According to Executive Producer Beth Willis, the Amy Pond ganger has been acting in place of the original Amy Pond since the beginning of series 6.[1] The original Amy is shown to be in labour; the Doctor has performed several inconclusive pregnancy tests on Amy since "Day of the Moon". Believing she is talking to the Doctor's ganger, Amy informs the original Doctor of his future self's death as seen in "The Impossible Astronaut". [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes Raquel Cassidy previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio drama The Judgement of Isskar where she played Mesca.[2] Cassidy also previously starred in the BBC TV series Party Animals alongside Matt Smith. Marshall Lancaster, who played Buzzer, has also starred Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, which were written by Matthew Graham, who wrote this episode and also "The Rebel Flesh". [edit] Broadcast and reception Dan Martin of The Guardian said of the episode, "The Almost People feels a bit uneven, though it's worth saying that it's one of those where everything makes more sense on second viewing",[3] but went on to describe the gangers as "an exercise in moral dilemmas", and "memorable Almost Villains".[3] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph described it as a "taut, claustrophobic, sci-fi thriller", and as an "impressive episode with its neatly realised psychological and body horror"[4]. A largely positive review also came from Neela Debnath of The Independent, who states that Matt Smith "excels in his acting, managing to be reassuring and threatening, hilarious and sinister all within the same few scenes".[5]. Both Martin and Fuller were less generous of Jennifer's monster transformation. Martin commented "this dark, thoughtful story is restored to camp running-for-your-life-around-some-corridors"[3], and Fuller called it "something of a pity".[4] [edit] International broadcast BBC America plans to show this episode on 4 June, one week later than it is aired in the UK, due to expected low numbers of TV viewers during the Memorial Day weekend.[6]