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
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TDP 39: Sleeper Torchwood 2.2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes and 7 secondsPlot Two burglars break into a flat owned by a woman called Beth and her boyfriend. There's a struggle, a flash of light and soon Torchwood are on the scene investigating the grisly fate suffered by the burglars. Beth cannot remember events and is taken into custody by Torchwood, who suspect she is not of this earth. When they take her to a cell, she passes a Weevil and it cowers in her presence. Captain Jack, after flirting with Ianto, decides to take drastic measures and subject Beth to a mind probe. Despite no initial reaction, the probe eventually uncovers alien technology buried under the skin of her right forearm. It emerges that she is an alien 'sleeper agent', yet to be activated and oblivious to its real identity having been given memory implants. Around Cardiff, other sleeper agents are suddenly activated, with their right arms transforming into bayonet-like weapons. They carry out a series of suicide bombings at key locations, paving the way for their leader - a former doting husband - to head for a base containing nuclear warheads. Beth manages to escape and is found with her ailing husband in hospital. She is struggling to keep her human identity and instinctively stabs him in his bed. Captain Jack manages to track down the leading sleeper agent to the base moments before he can detonate the nuclear weapons. Jack is stabbed in the process and the agent warns him that there are others of his kind. Back at Torchwood, Beth turns the gun on Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. Gwen believes that Beth knew this would be the case and wanted to be killed. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydJanet the Weevil -- Paul KaseyBeth Halloran[2] -- Nikki Amuka-BirdMike Halloran -- Dyfed Potter Cast notes Although credited, Kai Owen does not appear as Gwen's fiance Rhys Williams. Outside references Owen calls Gwen "Jessica Fletcher", the lead character from television series Murder, She Wrote.
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TDP 39: Sleeper Torchwood 2.2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes and 7 secondsPlot Two burglars break into a flat owned by a woman called Beth and her boyfriend. There's a struggle, a flash of light and soon Torchwood are on the scene investigating the grisly fate suffered by the burglars. Beth cannot remember events and is taken into custody by Torchwood, who suspect she is not of this earth. When they take her to a cell, she passes a Weevil and it cowers in her presence. Captain Jack, after flirting with Ianto, decides to take drastic measures and subject Beth to a mind probe. Despite no initial reaction, the probe eventually uncovers alien technology buried under the skin of her right forearm. It emerges that she is an alien 'sleeper agent', yet to be activated and oblivious to its real identity having been given memory implants. Around Cardiff, other sleeper agents are suddenly activated, with their right arms transforming into bayonet-like weapons. They carry out a series of suicide bombings at key locations, paving the way for their leader - a former doting husband - to head for a base containing nuclear warheads. Beth manages to escape and is found with her ailing husband in hospital. She is struggling to keep her human identity and instinctively stabs him in his bed. Captain Jack manages to track down the leading sleeper agent to the base moments before he can detonate the nuclear weapons. Jack is stabbed in the process and the agent warns him that there are others of his kind. Back at Torchwood, Beth turns the gun on Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. Gwen believes that Beth knew this would be the case and wanted to be killed. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydJanet the Weevil -- Paul KaseyBeth Halloran[2] -- Nikki Amuka-BirdMike Halloran -- Dyfed Potter Cast notes Although credited, Kai Owen does not appear as Gwen's fiance Rhys Williams. Outside references Owen calls Gwen "Jessica Fletcher", the lead character from television series Murder, She Wrote.
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TDP 40: The Time Meddler
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 11 secondsSpecial Features Commentary Verity Lambert Obituary Photo Gallery Subtitle Production Notes Subtitles pdf files of Radio Times billings "The Lost Twelve Seconds" - 12 lost seconds recreated using off-air audio recording and the script Stripped for action - a look at the first Doctor's comic strip adventures Restoration featurette The TARDIS arrives on an English coastline in the year 1066. Exploring, the Doctor discovers that one of his own people, the Monk, is conspiring to wipe out the Viking fleet and thus allow King Harold to face the forces of William of Normandy with a fresh army at the Battle of Hastings. The Doctor succeeds in thwarting the Monk's plans and leaves him trapped in England. Synopsis The Doctor, Vicki, and new companion Steven Taylor arrive in Saxon Northumbria on the eve of the Viking and Norman invasions. It is 1066, a pivotal moment in British history, and the hand of a mysterious Monk is at work in the nearby monastery. The Monk is actually a time/space traveller from the same planet as the Doctor, and is attempting historical alterations. The Doctor prevents this and traps the Monk in 1066 by removing a critical component of his TARDIS. Plot The First Doctor and Vicki are surprised to find Steven Taylor aboard the TARDIS. In a disorientated state on Mechanus, he stumbled aboard the ship and has stowed away. They are grateful he survived the collapse of the Mechanoid city and help nurse him back to health, but when the TARDIS lands on a rocky beach and they all step outside Steven takes some convincing that the TARDIS has really been able to travel in space and time. They have in fact arrived in 1066 on the coast of Northumbria, and their arrival has been witnessed by a Monk who does not seem fazed by the materialisation. The TARDIS is soon after spotted by a Saxon villager called Eldred who runs to tell the headman of his village, Wulnoth, about it. The Doctor establishes the century from a discarded Viking helmet and heads off to the village while Steven and Vicki explore the cliffs above. The Doctor encounters Edith, Wulnoth's wife, and convinces her he is a harmless traveller while probing her for more information. He soon finds out it is 1066, since Harold Godwinson is on the throne and has not yet faced Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge let alone William the Conqueror in the Battle of Hastings. He then turns his attention to the nearby monastery, at which monks are chanting despite only one of them ever being seen, especially after the chanting seems to slow down as if played back from a recording at the wrong speed. He determines to visit the building. When he gets there the Monk lets him in without revealing himself and then allows the Doctor to prowl around. He finds a gramophone playing the monastic chanting, and the Monk also has modern conveniences such as a toaster and a manufactured teapot. The Monk soon has the upper hand and manages to trap the Doctor in a makeshift cell. Steven and Vicki have meanwhile encountered Eldred and noticed his possession of a wristwatch that the Monk dropped earlier. They spend the night in a clearing and the next morning head off back to the TARDIS, little realising Wulnoth has overheard them. Within minutes they are ambushed by the Saxons and taken to the village council. After a heated discussion they convince Wulnoth they are but travellers and are given some provisions to travel on, though Vicki is equally heartened to hear from Edith that the Doctor passed by her hut on his way to the monastery. Steven and Vicki decide to visit the monastery next to try and find their missing friend. The Monk tries to dissuade them from entering but gives himself away deliberately by describing the Doctor too accurately, and so Steven and Vicki decide he must be a prisoner inside the monastery. They decide to break in after dark, which delights the Monk as he prepares the same trap for them that caught the Doctor. The Monk has meanwhile been surveying the seas with binoculars and is pleased to finally sight a Viking ship on the horizon. Soon the Vikings land and two small groups are sent to search the area, with one group of three heading toward the Saxon village. One of the Vikings finds and attacks Edith, leaving her traumatised, and in response some of the Saxons go hunting for the invaders. The three Vikings are drunk when they are found and the giant that attacked Edith is cut down, though his companions Sven and Ulf manage to flee. Eldred too has been badly wounded and Wulnoth takes him to the monastery for help. At the Monk's lair Steven and Vicki have stolen in under cover of darkness. They too find the gramophone and are stunned. The Monk has his trap prepared but cannot spring it due to the arrival at the door of Wulnoth and the injured Eldred, whom Wulnoth insists be taken into the Monk's care. Steven and Vicki have meanwhile found the cell empty bar the Doctor's cloak and they then manage to leave the monastery via a secret passage. The Doctor has actually taken the same passage himself and returns to Edith in the Saxon village. He soon hears of the Viking invasion scouting party and, upon leaving Edith's house, decides to head back to the monastery to track down Steven and Vicki, having learned they have gone there. Steven and Vicki have meanwhile found to their dismay that the TARDIS has been submerged beneath the incoming tide. Afraid that the Doctor may have had to leave in it, they resolve to check for him at the monastery anyway, especially after they discover an atomic bazooka trained out to sea from the clifftop near where the TARDIS was. The Monk is intent on using the Vikings for his own ends and, once Wulnoth has departed his monastery, produces an elaborate checklist that builds to a meeting with King Harold himself. There is another knock at the monastery door and this time it is the Doctor who has the upper hand when the door is answered. Fooled into thinking he is being held at gunpoint, the Monk is marched back inside and is about to answer a few questions when there is yet another knock at the door. When the Doctor and Monk answer, they are overpowered by the two Vikings, Sven and Ulf. In the ensuing confrontation the Monk is able to slip away, leaving the Doctor as the Viking prisoner. It is a state of play that does not last long. The Doctor knocks out Sven and elsewhere the Monk does the same to Ulf and securely ties him up. The Monk uses his freedom to persuade the villagers to light beacon fires on the cliff tops, lying that he is expecting materials by sea to enhance the monastery, when in fact he wishes to lure the Viking fleet to land nearby. Wulnoth says he will light the fires, but does not do so as he realises the danger. Steven and Vicki return to the monastery via the secret passage and investigate the crypt, where a heavy power cable emanates from a sarcophagus. When they look inside, they discover that it is a TARDIS of the Monk's very own - he must come from the same place as the Doctor (though the term Time Lord is not used). The Monk has meanwhile returned to the monastery and is once more under the Doctor's control. He reveals his plan is not to help the Vikings but to lure them to the coast where he hoped to destroy the invasion fleet with atomic bazookas. This would prevent the Viking invasion and thereby shore up King Harold to such an extent he would not then lose the Battle of Hastings. In short, the Monk is a Time Meddler who left his and the Doctor's own planet some fifty years after the Doctor himself. Steven and Vicki have found further evidence of his meddling in his TARDIS: a journal recording his meeting with Leonardo da Vinci to discuss powered flight, providing anti-gravitational discs to help the ancient Celts build Stonehenge, and using time travel to collect a fortune in compound interest from a bank. The Doctor denounces the Monk for seeking to alter history and forces him to reveal his TARDIS, where they find Steven and Vicki. Together the time travellers piece together the Monk's immoral plot, which the Monk insists is intended to stabilise England and benefit Western civilisation. The Vikings have meanwhile freed themselves from their bonds and decide to avenge themselves on the monks who have imprisoned them. Eldred spots them and, despite his injuries, flees to the village where he raises Wulnoth and a squad of Saxons to deal with the marauders. At the monastery the tables have turned. Ulf and Sven have formed a contrived alliance with the Monk and have tied up the Doctor's party while the three of them take the bazooka shells down to the cannon on the beach. The scheme is foiled however when the Saxons arrive and engage the fleeing Vikings in a nearby clearing, presumably killing Sven and Ulf in battle. The Monk hides while this fighting rages, little knowing that the Doctor and his friends have been freed and are tampering with his TARDIS. With his scheme in ruins, the Monk decides to leave and returns his TARDIS, though the Doctor has gone and left a note assuring the Monk his meddling days are ended. When the Monk looks inside his TARDIS he realises the Doctor has taken the dimensional control and the interior of his ship has shrunk beyond use, leaving him stranded in 1066 with an angry band of Saxons nearby. The tide having gone out, the Doctor and his friends are free to leave this primitive time in their TARDIS, and journey onward to the stars. Cast Dr. Who -- William HartnellVicki -- Maureen O'BrienSteven -- Peter PurvesMonk -- Peter ButterworthEdith -- Alethea CharltonEldred -- Peter RussellWulnoth -- Michael MillerSaxon Hunter -- Michael GuestViking Leader -- Geoffrey CheshireUlf -- Norman HartleySven -- David AndersonGunnar the Giant -- Ronald Rich Cast notes Features a guest appearance by Peter Butterworth - see also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.William Hartnell does not appear in episode 2 as he was on holiday. A pre-taped recording of his voice is played when the Doctor is locked in a cell. Continuity Vicki and the Doctor discuss Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright's departure as seen in The Chase and the Doctor refers to Susan's departure as seen in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor later misses Barbara's knowledge of history.Vicki reveals she would like to return to New York after seeing it briefly from the Empire State Building during the events of The Chase. The Doctor, and the Daleks, would return to New York and the Empire State Building onscreen, but without Vicki in the two-part story "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks".The Time Meddler is the first example of what is known in Doctor Who as the 'pseudo-historical' story, which is one that uses the past as a setting for a science fiction story, as opposed to the pure historical stories, which are set in the past but have no science-fictional elements attached to them besides the presence of the regular characters.This is also the first time we meet another member of the Doctor's race (although they are not yet identified as Time Lords), from a time 50 years after the Doctor left his homeworld (which is not named in this story). The spin-off novels, which are of debatable canonicity, establish that the Monk and the Doctor attended the Academy as schoolmates.As the Monk has his own craft much like the Doctor's, and it is referred to by the same name, this story appears to contradict Susan's original claim to have invented the name 'TARDIS' from the craft's initials (in An Unearthly Child episode one). All future references likewise seem to belie Susan's claim.For that matter, this is the first story in which the acronym TARDIS is said to stand for "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space", rather than the singular 'Dimension' as had been used in An Unearthly Child. This was an error made by Maureen O'Brien during recording, but was retained throughout much of the series' history, with occasional exceptions. The original 'Dimension' was firmly re-established in the first episode of the revived 2005 series, "Rose" and so far maintained thereafter.The Monk's name, as given in later novels - Mortimus - is not revealed in this story. He is simply The Monk, The Meddling Monk or the titular Time Meddler. The canonicity of non-broadcast stories is unclear. The character would make one return appearance on televsion, however, in the epic The Daleks' Master Plan. Production The working title for this story was The Monk.The four episodes of the serial had individual titles. They were, respectively, "The Watcher", "The Meddling Monk", "A Battle of Wits", and "Checkmate".During production of this story, new producer John Wiles began taking over production duties.William Hartnell, displeased at the number of changes undergoing the production, play-acted throwing a temper tantrum during the rehearsal of this story.Episodes one, three, and four were reported missing from the BBC Film and Videotape Library following an audit in 1978 (see Doctor Who missing episodes). Edited telerecordings of all four episodes were returned to the BBC from Nigeria in 1985, and complete copies of episodes one and three were returned in 1992. A short sequence from episode four remains missing from the otherwise complete print of all four episodes; the announced 2008 Region 2 DVD release is scheduled to include a recreation of this missing sequence, which was removed by censors and runs 12 seconds in duration, depicting an act of violence.[1] In print Doctor Who book The Time Meddler Series Target novelisations Release number 126 Writer Nigel Robinson Publisher Target Books Cover artist Jeff Cummins ISBN 0 491 03337 0 Release date 15th October 1987 (Hardback) March 1988 (Paperback) Preceded by Terror of the Vervoids Followed by The Mysterious Planet A novelisation of this serial, written by Nigel Robinson, was published by Target Books in October 1987. Broadcast,VHS and DVD releases This story was repeated on BBC2 in 1992.It was released on VHS in November 2002.It will be released on Region 2 DVD in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2008.
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TDP 39: Sleeper Torchwood 2.2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes and 7 secondsPlot Two burglars break into a flat owned by a woman called Beth and her boyfriend. There's a struggle, a flash of light and soon Torchwood are on the scene investigating the grisly fate suffered by the burglars. Beth cannot remember events and is taken into custody by Torchwood, who suspect she is not of this earth. When they take her to a cell, she passes a Weevil and it cowers in her presence. Captain Jack, after flirting with Ianto, decides to take drastic measures and subject Beth to a mind probe. Despite no initial reaction, the probe eventually uncovers alien technology buried under the skin of her right forearm. It emerges that she is an alien 'sleeper agent', yet to be activated and oblivious to its real identity having been given memory implants. Around Cardiff, other sleeper agents are suddenly activated, with their right arms transforming into bayonet-like weapons. They carry out a series of suicide bombings at key locations, paving the way for their leader - a former doting husband - to head for a base containing nuclear warheads. Beth manages to escape and is found with her ailing husband in hospital. She is struggling to keep her human identity and instinctively stabs him in his bed. Captain Jack manages to track down the leading sleeper agent to the base moments before he can detonate the nuclear weapons. Jack is stabbed in the process and the agent warns him that there are others of his kind. Back at Torchwood, Beth turns the gun on Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. Gwen believes that Beth knew this would be the case and wanted to be killed. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydJanet the Weevil -- Paul KaseyBeth Halloran[2] -- Nikki Amuka-BirdMike Halloran -- Dyfed Potter Cast notes Although credited, Kai Owen does not appear as Gwen's fiance Rhys Williams. Outside references Owen calls Gwen "Jessica Fletcher", the lead character from television series Murder, She Wrote.
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TDP 39: Sleeper Torchwood 2.2
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes and 7 secondsPlot Two burglars break into a flat owned by a woman called Beth and her boyfriend. There's a struggle, a flash of light and soon Torchwood are on the scene investigating the grisly fate suffered by the burglars. Beth cannot remember events and is taken into custody by Torchwood, who suspect she is not of this earth. When they take her to a cell, she passes a Weevil and it cowers in her presence. Captain Jack, after flirting with Ianto, decides to take drastic measures and subject Beth to a mind probe. Despite no initial reaction, the probe eventually uncovers alien technology buried under the skin of her right forearm. It emerges that she is an alien 'sleeper agent', yet to be activated and oblivious to its real identity having been given memory implants. Around Cardiff, other sleeper agents are suddenly activated, with their right arms transforming into bayonet-like weapons. They carry out a series of suicide bombings at key locations, paving the way for their leader - a former doting husband - to head for a base containing nuclear warheads. Beth manages to escape and is found with her ailing husband in hospital. She is struggling to keep her human identity and instinctively stabs him in his bed. Captain Jack manages to track down the leading sleeper agent to the base moments before he can detonate the nuclear weapons. Jack is stabbed in the process and the agent warns him that there are others of his kind. Back at Torchwood, Beth turns the gun on Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. Gwen believes that Beth knew this would be the case and wanted to be killed. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydJanet the Weevil -- Paul KaseyBeth Halloran[2] -- Nikki Amuka-BirdMike Halloran -- Dyfed Potter Cast notes Although credited, Kai Owen does not appear as Gwen's fiance Rhys Williams. Outside references Owen calls Gwen "Jessica Fletcher", the lead character from television series Murder, She Wrote.
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TDP 38: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Torchwood 2.1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 2 secondsSynopsis Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart, Captain Jack's old partner in more ways than one, is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on? [2] [edit] Plot At night, a red sports car races through Cardiff, driven by an alien Blowfish. At a crossing, he stops to let an old lady cross the street. The Torchwood van stops and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish. She points them in the right direction. The team catch up with the blowfish and shoot the tyres, forcing him to leave the car. He flees into a home where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint and the Blowfish dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, who fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Did you miss me?" When they return to Torchwood, the team want to know where Jack has gone, but he once again keeps them in the dark. He only tells them that he has seen the right doctor. When asked by Ianto why he returned he says he "came back for you (Ianto)", but then widens this statement to include the whole team. He takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He then shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her", but he covers this up by saying they should go "back to work". Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Meanwhile, a man, Captain John Hart, walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car park. He notices a man is held at knife-point, and intervenes by grabbing the mugger's throat and holding him over the edge. The man pleads with Hart to stop, but he says "no" and drops him to his death. Hart then turns to the victim and tells him that he was never here, and to go. Hart then goes to a nightclub and tells everyone to leave by pulling out two side-arms in front of a bouncer, causing everyone to panic and ran out. Torchwood Three sees the body of the dead mugger on the street and Tosh notices traces of Rift energy from his neck. Jack then gets a message on his wrist device, where a hologram appears of Hart telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the rest of his team follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and Hart approach each other and kiss, but then proceed to fight. They then stop for a drink. Hart tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and that he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. Hart sees the others and realises that Jack has a new team now, called Torchwood. Jack explains that Hart was his partner. Hart also tells the rest of the team more about Jack than Jack himself said. He then asks the question "What are you doing here?" He then says that it was about time he would ask the question. They enter Torchwood Three station and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols, detected by Gwen. Hart says that there are several deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered all over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. Tosh finds the locations of three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in teams of two; Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and Hart. Jack has problems with this and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains that she could get to know Hart better and to learn what he is really up to. Jack agrees and gives Gwen three rules on how to handle Hart: she should keep him in front of her at all times, she should never trust him and she should not let him kiss her. The teams splits up and Gwen and Hart are in the container docks. After some flirting from Hart, they find a cluster bomb in a container. However, once Gwen has it, Hart kisses her. Gwen realises that he has paralysed her with the kiss. Hart throws away her phone and tells Gwen she has two hours before her organs shut down and she dies. He then runs away. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but Hart arrives, knocks out Tosh and shoots Owen in the leg. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb, where Jack asks Ianto out on a date. He explains that John Hart is someone reminding him of his past and wants to be done with him. Ianto accepts. They then split up, while Jack goes to the roof. Ianto hears a noise and then realises it is Hart, holding him at gunpoint. Hart tells Ianto that Owen and Gwen are in trouble and he gets him to run to rescue them. Jack finds the last cluster bomb and is confronted by Hart again. Hart wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. Hart wants Jack to join him running the Galaxy. Jack admits he isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. Hart then pushes Jack off the roof to another of his "deaths". Hart gets the remaining bomb and tells the "dead" Jack that rehab never worked. He then goes back to Torchwood Three. Ianto goes to Owen and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks and eventually find Gwen just in time and inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, Hart goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid shaped object. He is then suprised to see the rest of the team, holding him at gunpoint, and realises that Jack is immortal. Hart then tells the truth; there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for a diamond that belonged to a lover of his once, but he killed her. The "bombs" are actually a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, the woman's hologram says there is no diamond. A device shoots into Hart's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her and it can't be removed. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but Hart cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that could kill her. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from Hart's arrival. Gwen takes Hart there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject Hart with the DNA of all Torchwood members, which will temporarily confuse the bomb. The bomb releases itself and they throw it through the Rift. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the same moment Hart arrived. Hart, impressed, agrees to let Gwen go and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, he says, "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He just says that it's nothing. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydCaptain John Hart -- James MarstersRhys Williams -- Kai OwenPC Andy Davidson -- Tom Price (uncredited)Elspeth Morgan[3] -- Menna TrusslerBlowfish -- Paul KaseyMugger -- Crispin LayfieldVictim -- Nathan RyanHologram Woman -- Inika Leigh WrightMiss Styles[4] -- Sarah Whyte [edit] Continuity This episode features the first Time Agent to be seen since Jack's introduction in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Time Agents were first mentioned in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Time Agency is revealed no longer to exist by Captain John, who invites Jack to join him "back in the old routine" as they would "be Emperors".Captain John's "lover," who appears in the puzzle-box hologram, is said by John to have owned an Arcadian diamond. The planet Arcadia was last mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", and first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit.A "Missing" poster[5] on the Torchwood website suggests that Jack went missing in February, indicating Jack has been missing for some time before his return.When John handcuffs himself to Gwen, he refers to the cuffs being "deadlock sealed", a term used in Doctor Who to mean something cannot be unlocked by sonic screwdriver. (Torchwood Three possess a lockpick with a similar functionality to the screwdriver.) Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
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TDP 38: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Torchwood 2.1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 2 secondsSynopsis Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart, Captain Jack's old partner in more ways than one, is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on? [2] [edit] Plot At night, a red sports car races through Cardiff, driven by an alien Blowfish. At a crossing, he stops to let an old lady cross the street. The Torchwood van stops and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish. She points them in the right direction. The team catch up with the blowfish and shoot the tyres, forcing him to leave the car. He flees into a home where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint and the Blowfish dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, who fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Did you miss me?" When they return to Torchwood, the team want to know where Jack has gone, but he once again keeps them in the dark. He only tells them that he has seen the right doctor. When asked by Ianto why he returned he says he "came back for you (Ianto)", but then widens this statement to include the whole team. He takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He then shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her", but he covers this up by saying they should go "back to work". Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Meanwhile, a man, Captain John Hart, walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car park. He notices a man is held at knife-point, and intervenes by grabbing the mugger's throat and holding him over the edge. The man pleads with Hart to stop, but he says "no" and drops him to his death. Hart then turns to the victim and tells him that he was never here, and to go. Hart then goes to a nightclub and tells everyone to leave by pulling out two side-arms in front of a bouncer, causing everyone to panic and ran out. Torchwood Three sees the body of the dead mugger on the street and Tosh notices traces of Rift energy from his neck. Jack then gets a message on his wrist device, where a hologram appears of Hart telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the rest of his team follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and Hart approach each other and kiss, but then proceed to fight. They then stop for a drink. Hart tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and that he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. Hart sees the others and realises that Jack has a new team now, called Torchwood. Jack explains that Hart was his partner. Hart also tells the rest of the team more about Jack than Jack himself said. He then asks the question "What are you doing here?" He then says that it was about time he would ask the question. They enter Torchwood Three station and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols, detected by Gwen. Hart says that there are several deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered all over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. Tosh finds the locations of three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in teams of two; Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and Hart. Jack has problems with this and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains that she could get to know Hart better and to learn what he is really up to. Jack agrees and gives Gwen three rules on how to handle Hart: she should keep him in front of her at all times, she should never trust him and she should not let him kiss her. The teams splits up and Gwen and Hart are in the container docks. After some flirting from Hart, they find a cluster bomb in a container. However, once Gwen has it, Hart kisses her. Gwen realises that he has paralysed her with the kiss. Hart throws away her phone and tells Gwen she has two hours before her organs shut down and she dies. He then runs away. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but Hart arrives, knocks out Tosh and shoots Owen in the leg. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb, where Jack asks Ianto out on a date. He explains that John Hart is someone reminding him of his past and wants to be done with him. Ianto accepts. They then split up, while Jack goes to the roof. Ianto hears a noise and then realises it is Hart, holding him at gunpoint. Hart tells Ianto that Owen and Gwen are in trouble and he gets him to run to rescue them. Jack finds the last cluster bomb and is confronted by Hart again. Hart wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. Hart wants Jack to join him running the Galaxy. Jack admits he isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. Hart then pushes Jack off the roof to another of his "deaths". Hart gets the remaining bomb and tells the "dead" Jack that rehab never worked. He then goes back to Torchwood Three. Ianto goes to Owen and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks and eventually find Gwen just in time and inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, Hart goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid shaped object. He is then suprised to see the rest of the team, holding him at gunpoint, and realises that Jack is immortal. Hart then tells the truth; there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for a diamond that belonged to a lover of his once, but he killed her. The "bombs" are actually a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, the woman's hologram says there is no diamond. A device shoots into Hart's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her and it can't be removed. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but Hart cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that could kill her. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from Hart's arrival. Gwen takes Hart there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject Hart with the DNA of all Torchwood members, which will temporarily confuse the bomb. The bomb releases itself and they throw it through the Rift. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the same moment Hart arrived. Hart, impressed, agrees to let Gwen go and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, he says, "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He just says that it's nothing. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydCaptain John Hart -- James MarstersRhys Williams -- Kai OwenPC Andy Davidson -- Tom Price (uncredited)Elspeth Morgan[3] -- Menna TrusslerBlowfish -- Paul KaseyMugger -- Crispin LayfieldVictim -- Nathan RyanHologram Woman -- Inika Leigh WrightMiss Styles[4] -- Sarah Whyte [edit] Continuity This episode features the first Time Agent to be seen since Jack's introduction in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Time Agents were first mentioned in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Time Agency is revealed no longer to exist by Captain John, who invites Jack to join him "back in the old routine" as they would "be Emperors".Captain John's "lover," who appears in the puzzle-box hologram, is said by John to have owned an Arcadian diamond. The planet Arcadia was last mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", and first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit.A "Missing" poster[5] on the Torchwood website suggests that Jack went missing in February, indicating Jack has been missing for some time before his return.When John handcuffs himself to Gwen, he refers to the cuffs being "deadlock sealed", a term used in Doctor Who to mean something cannot be unlocked by sonic screwdriver. (Torchwood Three possess a lockpick with a similar functionality to the screwdriver.) Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
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TDP 38: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Torchwood 2.1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 2 secondsSynopsis Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart, Captain Jack's old partner in more ways than one, is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on? [2] [edit] Plot At night, a red sports car races through Cardiff, driven by an alien Blowfish. At a crossing, he stops to let an old lady cross the street. The Torchwood van stops and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish. She points them in the right direction. The team catch up with the blowfish and shoot the tyres, forcing him to leave the car. He flees into a home where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint and the Blowfish dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, who fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Did you miss me?" When they return to Torchwood, the team want to know where Jack has gone, but he once again keeps them in the dark. He only tells them that he has seen the right doctor. When asked by Ianto why he returned he says he "came back for you (Ianto)", but then widens this statement to include the whole team. He takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He then shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her", but he covers this up by saying they should go "back to work". Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Meanwhile, a man, Captain John Hart, walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car park. He notices a man is held at knife-point, and intervenes by grabbing the mugger's throat and holding him over the edge. The man pleads with Hart to stop, but he says "no" and drops him to his death. Hart then turns to the victim and tells him that he was never here, and to go. Hart then goes to a nightclub and tells everyone to leave by pulling out two side-arms in front of a bouncer, causing everyone to panic and ran out. Torchwood Three sees the body of the dead mugger on the street and Tosh notices traces of Rift energy from his neck. Jack then gets a message on his wrist device, where a hologram appears of Hart telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the rest of his team follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and Hart approach each other and kiss, but then proceed to fight. They then stop for a drink. Hart tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and that he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. Hart sees the others and realises that Jack has a new team now, called Torchwood. Jack explains that Hart was his partner. Hart also tells the rest of the team more about Jack than Jack himself said. He then asks the question "What are you doing here?" He then says that it was about time he would ask the question. They enter Torchwood Three station and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols, detected by Gwen. Hart says that there are several deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered all over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. Tosh finds the locations of three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in teams of two; Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and Hart. Jack has problems with this and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains that she could get to know Hart better and to learn what he is really up to. Jack agrees and gives Gwen three rules on how to handle Hart: she should keep him in front of her at all times, she should never trust him and she should not let him kiss her. The teams splits up and Gwen and Hart are in the container docks. After some flirting from Hart, they find a cluster bomb in a container. However, once Gwen has it, Hart kisses her. Gwen realises that he has paralysed her with the kiss. Hart throws away her phone and tells Gwen she has two hours before her organs shut down and she dies. He then runs away. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but Hart arrives, knocks out Tosh and shoots Owen in the leg. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb, where Jack asks Ianto out on a date. He explains that John Hart is someone reminding him of his past and wants to be done with him. Ianto accepts. They then split up, while Jack goes to the roof. Ianto hears a noise and then realises it is Hart, holding him at gunpoint. Hart tells Ianto that Owen and Gwen are in trouble and he gets him to run to rescue them. Jack finds the last cluster bomb and is confronted by Hart again. Hart wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. Hart wants Jack to join him running the Galaxy. Jack admits he isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. Hart then pushes Jack off the roof to another of his "deaths". Hart gets the remaining bomb and tells the "dead" Jack that rehab never worked. He then goes back to Torchwood Three. Ianto goes to Owen and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks and eventually find Gwen just in time and inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, Hart goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid shaped object. He is then suprised to see the rest of the team, holding him at gunpoint, and realises that Jack is immortal. Hart then tells the truth; there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for a diamond that belonged to a lover of his once, but he killed her. The "bombs" are actually a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, the woman's hologram says there is no diamond. A device shoots into Hart's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her and it can't be removed. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but Hart cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that could kill her. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from Hart's arrival. Gwen takes Hart there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject Hart with the DNA of all Torchwood members, which will temporarily confuse the bomb. The bomb releases itself and they throw it through the Rift. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the same moment Hart arrived. Hart, impressed, agrees to let Gwen go and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, he says, "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He just says that it's nothing. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydCaptain John Hart -- James MarstersRhys Williams -- Kai OwenPC Andy Davidson -- Tom Price (uncredited)Elspeth Morgan[3] -- Menna TrusslerBlowfish -- Paul KaseyMugger -- Crispin LayfieldVictim -- Nathan RyanHologram Woman -- Inika Leigh WrightMiss Styles[4] -- Sarah Whyte [edit] Continuity This episode features the first Time Agent to be seen since Jack's introduction in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Time Agents were first mentioned in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Time Agency is revealed no longer to exist by Captain John, who invites Jack to join him "back in the old routine" as they would "be Emperors".Captain John's "lover," who appears in the puzzle-box hologram, is said by John to have owned an Arcadian diamond. The planet Arcadia was last mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", and first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit.A "Missing" poster[5] on the Torchwood website suggests that Jack went missing in February, indicating Jack has been missing for some time before his return.When John handcuffs himself to Gwen, he refers to the cuffs being "deadlock sealed", a term used in Doctor Who to mean something cannot be unlocked by sonic screwdriver. (Torchwood Three possess a lockpick with a similar functionality to the screwdriver.) Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
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TDP 38: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Torchwood 2.1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 2 secondsSynopsis Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart, Captain Jack's old partner in more ways than one, is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on? [2] [edit] Plot At night, a red sports car races through Cardiff, driven by an alien Blowfish. At a crossing, he stops to let an old lady cross the street. The Torchwood van stops and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish. She points them in the right direction. The team catch up with the blowfish and shoot the tyres, forcing him to leave the car. He flees into a home where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint and the Blowfish dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, who fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Did you miss me?" When they return to Torchwood, the team want to know where Jack has gone, but he once again keeps them in the dark. He only tells them that he has seen the right doctor. When asked by Ianto why he returned he says he "came back for you (Ianto)", but then widens this statement to include the whole team. He takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He then shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her", but he covers this up by saying they should go "back to work". Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Meanwhile, a man, Captain John Hart, walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car park. He notices a man is held at knife-point, and intervenes by grabbing the mugger's throat and holding him over the edge. The man pleads with Hart to stop, but he says "no" and drops him to his death. Hart then turns to the victim and tells him that he was never here, and to go. Hart then goes to a nightclub and tells everyone to leave by pulling out two side-arms in front of a bouncer, causing everyone to panic and ran out. Torchwood Three sees the body of the dead mugger on the street and Tosh notices traces of Rift energy from his neck. Jack then gets a message on his wrist device, where a hologram appears of Hart telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the rest of his team follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and Hart approach each other and kiss, but then proceed to fight. They then stop for a drink. Hart tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and that he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. Hart sees the others and realises that Jack has a new team now, called Torchwood. Jack explains that Hart was his partner. Hart also tells the rest of the team more about Jack than Jack himself said. He then asks the question "What are you doing here?" He then says that it was about time he would ask the question. They enter Torchwood Three station and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols, detected by Gwen. Hart says that there are several deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered all over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. Tosh finds the locations of three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in teams of two; Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and Hart. Jack has problems with this and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains that she could get to know Hart better and to learn what he is really up to. Jack agrees and gives Gwen three rules on how to handle Hart: she should keep him in front of her at all times, she should never trust him and she should not let him kiss her. The teams splits up and Gwen and Hart are in the container docks. After some flirting from Hart, they find a cluster bomb in a container. However, once Gwen has it, Hart kisses her. Gwen realises that he has paralysed her with the kiss. Hart throws away her phone and tells Gwen she has two hours before her organs shut down and she dies. He then runs away. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but Hart arrives, knocks out Tosh and shoots Owen in the leg. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb, where Jack asks Ianto out on a date. He explains that John Hart is someone reminding him of his past and wants to be done with him. Ianto accepts. They then split up, while Jack goes to the roof. Ianto hears a noise and then realises it is Hart, holding him at gunpoint. Hart tells Ianto that Owen and Gwen are in trouble and he gets him to run to rescue them. Jack finds the last cluster bomb and is confronted by Hart again. Hart wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. Hart wants Jack to join him running the Galaxy. Jack admits he isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. Hart then pushes Jack off the roof to another of his "deaths". Hart gets the remaining bomb and tells the "dead" Jack that rehab never worked. He then goes back to Torchwood Three. Ianto goes to Owen and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks and eventually find Gwen just in time and inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, Hart goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid shaped object. He is then suprised to see the rest of the team, holding him at gunpoint, and realises that Jack is immortal. Hart then tells the truth; there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for a diamond that belonged to a lover of his once, but he killed her. The "bombs" are actually a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, the woman's hologram says there is no diamond. A device shoots into Hart's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her and it can't be removed. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but Hart cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that could kill her. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from Hart's arrival. Gwen takes Hart there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject Hart with the DNA of all Torchwood members, which will temporarily confuse the bomb. The bomb releases itself and they throw it through the Rift. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the same moment Hart arrived. Hart, impressed, agrees to let Gwen go and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, he says, "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He just says that it's nothing. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydCaptain John Hart -- James MarstersRhys Williams -- Kai OwenPC Andy Davidson -- Tom Price (uncredited)Elspeth Morgan[3] -- Menna TrusslerBlowfish -- Paul KaseyMugger -- Crispin LayfieldVictim -- Nathan RyanHologram Woman -- Inika Leigh WrightMiss Styles[4] -- Sarah Whyte [edit] Continuity This episode features the first Time Agent to be seen since Jack's introduction in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Time Agents were first mentioned in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Time Agency is revealed no longer to exist by Captain John, who invites Jack to join him "back in the old routine" as they would "be Emperors".Captain John's "lover," who appears in the puzzle-box hologram, is said by John to have owned an Arcadian diamond. The planet Arcadia was last mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", and first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit.A "Missing" poster[5] on the Torchwood website suggests that Jack went missing in February, indicating Jack has been missing for some time before his return.When John handcuffs himself to Gwen, he refers to the cuffs being "deadlock sealed", a term used in Doctor Who to mean something cannot be unlocked by sonic screwdriver. (Torchwood Three possess a lockpick with a similar functionality to the screwdriver.) Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
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TDP 37 Seadevils, silurians and Mat. Oh my!
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 24 minutes and 36 secondsDoctor Who And The Silurians: Summoned by the Brigadier to an underground research centre at Wenley Moor, the Doctor and Liz Shaw learn from its director, Dr Lawrence, that work on a new type of nuclear reactor is being hampered by inexplicable power losses and by an unusually high incidence of stress-related illness amongst staff. Investigating a nearby cave system, the Doctor discovers it is the base of a group of intelligent reptiles, termed Silurians, who went into hibernation millions of years ago but have now been revived by power from the research centre. The Doctor strives for peace between reptiles and humans and manages to gain the trust of the old Silurian leader, but then a rebellious young Silurian seizes power and releases a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out humanity. The Doctor finds an antidote, but the Silurians retaliate by taking over the research centre and preparing to destroy the Van Allen Belt, a natural barrier shielding the Earth from solar radiation harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles...The Sea Devils: The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea. Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation. The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace...Warriors Of The Deep: The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive at an underwater Sea Base on Earth, where a scientific and military team led by Commander Vorshak are monitoring a rival power bloc. The team undergo regular missile launch test sequences to ensure that they are ready at all times to combat an attack. Three Silurians led by Icthar - the surviving member of a Silurian triad - revive a colony of Sea Devil Warriors in order to invade the base and use its weapons to attack the opposing power bloc, thus provoking a global war that will allow the reptiles to conquer the Earth...
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TDP 38: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Torchwood 2.1
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 2 secondsSynopsis Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart, Captain Jack's old partner in more ways than one, is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on? [2] [edit] Plot At night, a red sports car races through Cardiff, driven by an alien Blowfish. At a crossing, he stops to let an old lady cross the street. The Torchwood van stops and asks the lady if she saw the Blowfish. She points them in the right direction. The team catch up with the blowfish and shoot the tyres, forcing him to leave the car. He flees into a home where he shoots a resident and holds another hostage. The team hold him at gunpoint and the Blowfish dares Ianto to shoot him, but Ianto hesitates. A shot is heard, killing the Blowfish. When Ianto turns around, he sees Jack, who fired the shot. He greets the team with the words, "Did you miss me?" When they return to Torchwood, the team want to know where Jack has gone, but he once again keeps them in the dark. He only tells them that he has seen the right doctor. When asked by Ianto why he returned he says he "came back for you (Ianto)", but then widens this statement to include the whole team. He takes Gwen to the side to tell her he has seen the end of the world. He then shows signs of having fallen for Gwen, and jealousy when he realises Gwen is going to marry Rhys because "nobody else would have her", but he covers this up by saying they should go "back to work". Tosh notices that there has been Rift activity. Meanwhile, a man, Captain John Hart, walks through the Rift at the top floor of a multi-storey car park. He notices a man is held at knife-point, and intervenes by grabbing the mugger's throat and holding him over the edge. The man pleads with Hart to stop, but he says "no" and drops him to his death. Hart then turns to the victim and tells him that he was never here, and to go. Hart then goes to a nightclub and tells everyone to leave by pulling out two side-arms in front of a bouncer, causing everyone to panic and ran out. Torchwood Three sees the body of the dead mugger on the street and Tosh notices traces of Rift energy from his neck. Jack then gets a message on his wrist device, where a hologram appears of Hart telling him to come to the nightclub, alone. He does, but the rest of his team follow him in a taxi. When Jack arrives in the club, he and Hart approach each other and kiss, but then proceed to fight. They then stop for a drink. Hart tells him that the Time Agency is gone, and that he has been to several rehabs for drink, drugs, sex and murder. Hart sees the others and realises that Jack has a new team now, called Torchwood. Jack explains that Hart was his partner. Hart also tells the rest of the team more about Jack than Jack himself said. He then asks the question "What are you doing here?" He then says that it was about time he would ask the question. They enter Torchwood Three station and John is checked for weapons. He has many, including several concealed knives and pistols, detected by Gwen. Hart says that there are several deadly radiation cluster bombs scattered all over Cardiff that could endanger everyone on Earth. Tosh finds the locations of three bombs all over the city. Gwen organises the team to go searching for the bombs in teams of two; Jack and Ianto, Owen and Tosh, and Gwen and Hart. Jack has problems with this and talks to Gwen alone. Gwen explains that she could get to know Hart better and to learn what he is really up to. Jack agrees and gives Gwen three rules on how to handle Hart: she should keep him in front of her at all times, she should never trust him and she should not let him kiss her. The teams splits up and Gwen and Hart are in the container docks. After some flirting from Hart, they find a cluster bomb in a container. However, once Gwen has it, Hart kisses her. Gwen realises that he has paralysed her with the kiss. Hart throws away her phone and tells Gwen she has two hours before her organs shut down and she dies. He then runs away. Meanwhile, Owen and Tosh are in an abandoned building and find the bomb, but Hart arrives, knocks out Tosh and shoots Owen in the leg. Jack and Ianto are in an office building searching for the other bomb, where Jack asks Ianto out on a date. He explains that John Hart is someone reminding him of his past and wants to be done with him. Ianto accepts. They then split up, while Jack goes to the roof. Ianto hears a noise and then realises it is Hart, holding him at gunpoint. Hart tells Ianto that Owen and Gwen are in trouble and he gets him to run to rescue them. Jack finds the last cluster bomb and is confronted by Hart again. Hart wants the cluster bomb, but Jack refuses. Hart wants Jack to join him running the Galaxy. Jack admits he isn't tempted, and throws the bomb over the edge. Hart then pushes Jack off the roof to another of his "deaths". Hart gets the remaining bomb and tells the "dead" Jack that rehab never worked. He then goes back to Torchwood Three. Ianto goes to Owen and helps Tosh dress his wound. They then go to the docks and eventually find Gwen just in time and inject her with an anti-toxin. At dawn, Hart goes to the corpse of the Blowfish, who worked for him, and takes out a small pyramid shaped object. He is then suprised to see the rest of the team, holding him at gunpoint, and realises that Jack is immortal. Hart then tells the truth; there are no cluster bombs. He was looking for a diamond that belonged to a lover of his once, but he killed her. The "bombs" are actually a device that would lead him to the location of the diamond. However, the woman's hologram says there is no diamond. A device shoots into Hart's chest, and the hologram explains that the device is a bomb that locks into the DNA of whoever killed her and it can't be removed. There are ten minutes until the bomb goes off, but Hart cuffs himself to Gwen. She has a plan that could kill her. Tosh says that the Rift is still open from Hart's arrival. Gwen takes Hart there, but Jack and Owen stay behind and quickly work on a solution. They arrive at the car park, quickly followed by Jack and Owen, who inject Hart with the DNA of all Torchwood members, which will temporarily confuse the bomb. The bomb releases itself and they throw it through the Rift. Just as it explodes, they are shifted back in time to the same moment Hart arrived. Hart, impressed, agrees to let Gwen go and reluctantly agrees to go back home. Before he disappears, he says, "By the way, I found Gray". Jack, shocked, is asked who or what "Gray" is. He just says that it's nothing. [edit] Cast Captain Jack Harkness -- John BarrowmanGwen Cooper -- Eve MylesOwen Harper -- Burn GormanToshiko Sato -- Naoko MoriIanto Jones -- Gareth David-LloydCaptain John Hart -- James MarstersRhys Williams -- Kai OwenPC Andy Davidson -- Tom Price (uncredited)Elspeth Morgan[3] -- Menna TrusslerBlowfish -- Paul KaseyMugger -- Crispin LayfieldVictim -- Nathan RyanHologram Woman -- Inika Leigh WrightMiss Styles[4] -- Sarah Whyte [edit] Continuity This episode features the first Time Agent to be seen since Jack's introduction in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". Time Agents were first mentioned in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The Time Agency is revealed no longer to exist by Captain John, who invites Jack to join him "back in the old routine" as they would "be Emperors".Captain John's "lover," who appears in the puzzle-box hologram, is said by John to have owned an Arcadian diamond. The planet Arcadia was last mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", and first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures novel Deceit.A "Missing" poster[5] on the Torchwood website suggests that Jack went missing in February, indicating Jack has been missing for some time before his return.When John handcuffs himself to Gwen, he refers to the cuffs being "deadlock sealed", a term used in Doctor Who to mean something cannot be unlocked by sonic screwdriver. (Torchwood Three possess a lockpick with a similar functionality to the screwdriver.) Captain Jack returns, as the Torchwood team reunite to fight a rogue Time Agent. The mysterious Captain John Hart is determined to wreak havoc, and needs to find something hidden on Earth. But with Gwen's life in danger, and cluster bombs scattered across the city, whose side is Jack on?
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TDP 37 Seadevils, silurians and Mat. Oh my!
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 24 minutes and 36 secondsDoctor Who And The Silurians: Summoned by the Brigadier to an underground research centre at Wenley Moor, the Doctor and Liz Shaw learn from its director, Dr Lawrence, that work on a new type of nuclear reactor is being hampered by inexplicable power losses and by an unusually high incidence of stress-related illness amongst staff. Investigating a nearby cave system, the Doctor discovers it is the base of a group of intelligent reptiles, termed Silurians, who went into hibernation millions of years ago but have now been revived by power from the research centre. The Doctor strives for peace between reptiles and humans and manages to gain the trust of the old Silurian leader, but then a rebellious young Silurian seizes power and releases a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out humanity. The Doctor finds an antidote, but the Silurians retaliate by taking over the research centre and preparing to destroy the Van Allen Belt, a natural barrier shielding the Earth from solar radiation harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles...The Sea Devils: The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea. Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation. The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace...Warriors Of The Deep: The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive at an underwater Sea Base on Earth, where a scientific and military team led by Commander Vorshak are monitoring a rival power bloc. The team undergo regular missile launch test sequences to ensure that they are ready at all times to combat an attack. Three Silurians led by Icthar - the surviving member of a Silurian triad - revive a colony of Sea Devil Warriors in order to invade the base and use its weapons to attack the opposing power bloc, thus provoking a global war that will allow the reptiles to conquer the Earth...
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TDP 37 Seadevils, silurians and Mat. Oh my!
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 24 minutes and 36 secondsDoctor Who And The Silurians: Summoned by the Brigadier to an underground research centre at Wenley Moor, the Doctor and Liz Shaw learn from its director, Dr Lawrence, that work on a new type of nuclear reactor is being hampered by inexplicable power losses and by an unusually high incidence of stress-related illness amongst staff. Investigating a nearby cave system, the Doctor discovers it is the base of a group of intelligent reptiles, termed Silurians, who went into hibernation millions of years ago but have now been revived by power from the research centre. The Doctor strives for peace between reptiles and humans and manages to gain the trust of the old Silurian leader, but then a rebellious young Silurian seizes power and releases a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out humanity. The Doctor finds an antidote, but the Silurians retaliate by taking over the research centre and preparing to destroy the Van Allen Belt, a natural barrier shielding the Earth from solar radiation harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles...The Sea Devils: The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea. Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation. The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace...Warriors Of The Deep: The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive at an underwater Sea Base on Earth, where a scientific and military team led by Commander Vorshak are monitoring a rival power bloc. The team undergo regular missile launch test sequences to ensure that they are ready at all times to combat an attack. Three Silurians led by Icthar - the surviving member of a Silurian triad - revive a colony of Sea Devil Warriors in order to invade the base and use its weapons to attack the opposing power bloc, thus provoking a global war that will allow the reptiles to conquer the Earth...
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William Hartnell - One Hundred Years
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWilliam Hartnell - One Hundred YearsSpecial EventsJanuary 8, 2008 * Posted By Shaun LyonWilliam Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor. Emerging from a difficult family background about which he was later evasive, Hartnell held down a succession of short-term odd jobs before turning to acting in the 1920s. He enjoyed success as a touring repertory actor, and in the 1930s began appearing in films, particularly the "quota quickies" companies were obliged to release to fulfil their obligations to promote British film. Here Hartnell developed his talents as a light comedy actor, but it was not until the Second World War that his reputation began to flourish. After being invalided out of the army, he appeared as the sergeant in the well-received propaganda piece The Way Ahead, and this helped him to develop a reputation for such tough-guy roles that won him many major supporting parts. Of all the actors to have played the Doctor he had the most successful film career, with major roles in landmark films such as Brighton Rock, as the eponymous sergeant in Carry On Sergeant and, cast against type in a sensitive character part, in the film version of This Sporting Life. It was this role that led producer Verity Lambert to offer him the part of the Doctor. Although Hartnell was initially uncertain about it, Lambert and director Waris Hussein persuaded him to accept the part, and it became the role for which he is best remembered, making him a household name in 1960s Britain. Hartnell became incredibly attached to the role and particularly enjoyed the attention and affection it brought him from children, groups of whom would follow him around his local village. He would often happily open fetes and other functions in costume and character as the Doctor. Although ill health forced him to reluctantly relinquish the part in 1966, he remained fond of the series and in 1972, with his health rapidly deteriorating even further, battled his failing memory to film one final performance as the character in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, which aired between December 30, 1972 and January 20, 1973. It was his final professional performance; he died on April 23, 1975, aged 67. In celebration of his centenary, the Plymouth Who fan group are holding an event to mark his life and work this coming Sunday, January 13 at The Astor Hotel in Plymouth. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm and features a screening of one of the most popular stories of Hartnell's era, The War Machines, which introduced Anneke Wills in the role of companion Polly. Wills will be a special guest at the event and will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans. There will also be Hartnell-themed quizzes as part of the day's festivities. For more information about the event, please see the Plymouth Who website. With thanks to Paul Hayes for the tribute.
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William Hartnell - One Hundred Years
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWilliam Hartnell - One Hundred YearsSpecial EventsJanuary 8, 2008 * Posted By Shaun LyonWilliam Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor. Emerging from a difficult family background about which he was later evasive, Hartnell held down a succession of short-term odd jobs before turning to acting in the 1920s. He enjoyed success as a touring repertory actor, and in the 1930s began appearing in films, particularly the "quota quickies" companies were obliged to release to fulfil their obligations to promote British film. Here Hartnell developed his talents as a light comedy actor, but it was not until the Second World War that his reputation began to flourish. After being invalided out of the army, he appeared as the sergeant in the well-received propaganda piece The Way Ahead, and this helped him to develop a reputation for such tough-guy roles that won him many major supporting parts. Of all the actors to have played the Doctor he had the most successful film career, with major roles in landmark films such as Brighton Rock, as the eponymous sergeant in Carry On Sergeant and, cast against type in a sensitive character part, in the film version of This Sporting Life. It was this role that led producer Verity Lambert to offer him the part of the Doctor. Although Hartnell was initially uncertain about it, Lambert and director Waris Hussein persuaded him to accept the part, and it became the role for which he is best remembered, making him a household name in 1960s Britain. Hartnell became incredibly attached to the role and particularly enjoyed the attention and affection it brought him from children, groups of whom would follow him around his local village. He would often happily open fetes and other functions in costume and character as the Doctor. Although ill health forced him to reluctantly relinquish the part in 1966, he remained fond of the series and in 1972, with his health rapidly deteriorating even further, battled his failing memory to film one final performance as the character in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, which aired between December 30, 1972 and January 20, 1973. It was his final professional performance; he died on April 23, 1975, aged 67. In celebration of his centenary, the Plymouth Who fan group are holding an event to mark his life and work this coming Sunday, January 13 at The Astor Hotel in Plymouth. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm and features a screening of one of the most popular stories of Hartnell's era, The War Machines, which introduced Anneke Wills in the role of companion Polly. Wills will be a special guest at the event and will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans. There will also be Hartnell-themed quizzes as part of the day's festivities. For more information about the event, please see the Plymouth Who website. With thanks to Paul Hayes for the tribute.
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TDP 37 Seadevils, silurians and Mat. Oh my!
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 24 minutes and 36 secondsDoctor Who And The Silurians: Summoned by the Brigadier to an underground research centre at Wenley Moor, the Doctor and Liz Shaw learn from its director, Dr Lawrence, that work on a new type of nuclear reactor is being hampered by inexplicable power losses and by an unusually high incidence of stress-related illness amongst staff. Investigating a nearby cave system, the Doctor discovers it is the base of a group of intelligent reptiles, termed Silurians, who went into hibernation millions of years ago but have now been revived by power from the research centre. The Doctor strives for peace between reptiles and humans and manages to gain the trust of the old Silurian leader, but then a rebellious young Silurian seizes power and releases a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out humanity. The Doctor finds an antidote, but the Silurians retaliate by taking over the research centre and preparing to destroy the Van Allen Belt, a natural barrier shielding the Earth from solar radiation harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles...The Sea Devils: The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea. Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation. The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace...Warriors Of The Deep: The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive at an underwater Sea Base on Earth, where a scientific and military team led by Commander Vorshak are monitoring a rival power bloc. The team undergo regular missile launch test sequences to ensure that they are ready at all times to combat an attack. Three Silurians led by Icthar - the surviving member of a Silurian triad - revive a colony of Sea Devil Warriors in order to invade the base and use its weapons to attack the opposing power bloc, thus provoking a global war that will allow the reptiles to conquer the Earth...
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William Hartnell - One Hundred Years
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWilliam Hartnell - One Hundred YearsSpecial EventsJanuary 8, 2008 * Posted By Shaun LyonWilliam Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor. Emerging from a difficult family background about which he was later evasive, Hartnell held down a succession of short-term odd jobs before turning to acting in the 1920s. He enjoyed success as a touring repertory actor, and in the 1930s began appearing in films, particularly the "quota quickies" companies were obliged to release to fulfil their obligations to promote British film. Here Hartnell developed his talents as a light comedy actor, but it was not until the Second World War that his reputation began to flourish. After being invalided out of the army, he appeared as the sergeant in the well-received propaganda piece The Way Ahead, and this helped him to develop a reputation for such tough-guy roles that won him many major supporting parts. Of all the actors to have played the Doctor he had the most successful film career, with major roles in landmark films such as Brighton Rock, as the eponymous sergeant in Carry On Sergeant and, cast against type in a sensitive character part, in the film version of This Sporting Life. It was this role that led producer Verity Lambert to offer him the part of the Doctor. Although Hartnell was initially uncertain about it, Lambert and director Waris Hussein persuaded him to accept the part, and it became the role for which he is best remembered, making him a household name in 1960s Britain. Hartnell became incredibly attached to the role and particularly enjoyed the attention and affection it brought him from children, groups of whom would follow him around his local village. He would often happily open fetes and other functions in costume and character as the Doctor. Although ill health forced him to reluctantly relinquish the part in 1966, he remained fond of the series and in 1972, with his health rapidly deteriorating even further, battled his failing memory to film one final performance as the character in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, which aired between December 30, 1972 and January 20, 1973. It was his final professional performance; he died on April 23, 1975, aged 67. In celebration of his centenary, the Plymouth Who fan group are holding an event to mark his life and work this coming Sunday, January 13 at The Astor Hotel in Plymouth. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm and features a screening of one of the most popular stories of Hartnell's era, The War Machines, which introduced Anneke Wills in the role of companion Polly. Wills will be a special guest at the event and will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans. There will also be Hartnell-themed quizzes as part of the day's festivities. For more information about the event, please see the Plymouth Who website. With thanks to Paul Hayes for the tribute.
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TDP 37 Seadevils, silurians and Mat. Oh my!
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 24 minutes and 36 secondsDoctor Who And The Silurians: Summoned by the Brigadier to an underground research centre at Wenley Moor, the Doctor and Liz Shaw learn from its director, Dr Lawrence, that work on a new type of nuclear reactor is being hampered by inexplicable power losses and by an unusually high incidence of stress-related illness amongst staff. Investigating a nearby cave system, the Doctor discovers it is the base of a group of intelligent reptiles, termed Silurians, who went into hibernation millions of years ago but have now been revived by power from the research centre. The Doctor strives for peace between reptiles and humans and manages to gain the trust of the old Silurian leader, but then a rebellious young Silurian seizes power and releases a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out humanity. The Doctor finds an antidote, but the Silurians retaliate by taking over the research centre and preparing to destroy the Van Allen Belt, a natural barrier shielding the Earth from solar radiation harmful to humans but beneficial to reptiles...The Sea Devils: The Doctor and Jo visit the Master in his high-security prison on an island off the south coast of England and hear from the governor, Colonel Trenchard, that ships have been mysteriously disappearing at sea. Investigating, the Doctor learns from Captain Hart, commander of a nearby Naval base, that the sinkings have centred around an abandoned sea fort. He and Jo then visit the fort and are attacked by what one of the men there terms a Sea Devil - an amphibious breed of the prehistoric creatures encountered by the Doctor shortly after his exile to Earth.The Master, aided by a misguided Trenchard, is stealing equipment from the Naval base in order to build a machine to revive the Sea Devils from hibernation. The Doctor takes a diving bell down to the Sea Devils' underwater base to try to encourage peace...Warriors Of The Deep: The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough arrive at an underwater Sea Base on Earth, where a scientific and military team led by Commander Vorshak are monitoring a rival power bloc. The team undergo regular missile launch test sequences to ensure that they are ready at all times to combat an attack. Three Silurians led by Icthar - the surviving member of a Silurian triad - revive a colony of Sea Devil Warriors in order to invade the base and use its weapons to attack the opposing power bloc, thus provoking a global war that will allow the reptiles to conquer the Earth...
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William Hartnell - One Hundred Years
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWilliam Hartnell - One Hundred YearsSpecial EventsJanuary 8, 2008 * Posted By Shaun LyonWilliam Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor. Emerging from a difficult family background about which he was later evasive, Hartnell held down a succession of short-term odd jobs before turning to acting in the 1920s. He enjoyed success as a touring repertory actor, and in the 1930s began appearing in films, particularly the "quota quickies" companies were obliged to release to fulfil their obligations to promote British film. Here Hartnell developed his talents as a light comedy actor, but it was not until the Second World War that his reputation began to flourish. After being invalided out of the army, he appeared as the sergeant in the well-received propaganda piece The Way Ahead, and this helped him to develop a reputation for such tough-guy roles that won him many major supporting parts. Of all the actors to have played the Doctor he had the most successful film career, with major roles in landmark films such as Brighton Rock, as the eponymous sergeant in Carry On Sergeant and, cast against type in a sensitive character part, in the film version of This Sporting Life. It was this role that led producer Verity Lambert to offer him the part of the Doctor. Although Hartnell was initially uncertain about it, Lambert and director Waris Hussein persuaded him to accept the part, and it became the role for which he is best remembered, making him a household name in 1960s Britain. Hartnell became incredibly attached to the role and particularly enjoyed the attention and affection it brought him from children, groups of whom would follow him around his local village. He would often happily open fetes and other functions in costume and character as the Doctor. Although ill health forced him to reluctantly relinquish the part in 1966, he remained fond of the series and in 1972, with his health rapidly deteriorating even further, battled his failing memory to film one final performance as the character in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, which aired between December 30, 1972 and January 20, 1973. It was his final professional performance; he died on April 23, 1975, aged 67. In celebration of his centenary, the Plymouth Who fan group are holding an event to mark his life and work this coming Sunday, January 13 at The Astor Hotel in Plymouth. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm and features a screening of one of the most popular stories of Hartnell's era, The War Machines, which introduced Anneke Wills in the role of companion Polly. Wills will be a special guest at the event and will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans. There will also be Hartnell-themed quizzes as part of the day's festivities. For more information about the event, please see the Plymouth Who website. With thanks to Paul Hayes for the tribute.
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William Hartnell - One Hundred Years
Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 secondsWilliam Hartnell - One Hundred YearsSpecial EventsJanuary 8, 2008 * Posted By Shaun LyonWilliam Hartnell, the actor who originated the role of the Doctor in the 1960s, playing the first incarnation of the character for BBC Television from 1963 to 1966, was born exactly 100 years ago today. For many of the original Doctor Who fans who were children in the 1960s, he remains the definitive Doctor. Emerging from a difficult family background about which he was later evasive, Hartnell held down a succession of short-term odd jobs before turning to acting in the 1920s. He enjoyed success as a touring repertory actor, and in the 1930s began appearing in films, particularly the "quota quickies" companies were obliged to release to fulfil their obligations to promote British film. Here Hartnell developed his talents as a light comedy actor, but it was not until the Second World War that his reputation began to flourish. After being invalided out of the army, he appeared as the sergeant in the well-received propaganda piece The Way Ahead, and this helped him to develop a reputation for such tough-guy roles that won him many major supporting parts. Of all the actors to have played the Doctor he had the most successful film career, with major roles in landmark films such as Brighton Rock, as the eponymous sergeant in Carry On Sergeant and, cast against type in a sensitive character part, in the film version of This Sporting Life. It was this role that led producer Verity Lambert to offer him the part of the Doctor. Although Hartnell was initially uncertain about it, Lambert and director Waris Hussein persuaded him to accept the part, and it became the role for which he is best remembered, making him a household name in 1960s Britain. Hartnell became incredibly attached to the role and particularly enjoyed the attention and affection it brought him from children, groups of whom would follow him around his local village. He would often happily open fetes and other functions in costume and character as the Doctor. Although ill health forced him to reluctantly relinquish the part in 1966, he remained fond of the series and in 1972, with his health rapidly deteriorating even further, battled his failing memory to film one final performance as the character in the tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors, which aired between December 30, 1972 and January 20, 1973. It was his final professional performance; he died on April 23, 1975, aged 67. In celebration of his centenary, the Plymouth Who fan group are holding an event to mark his life and work this coming Sunday, January 13 at The Astor Hotel in Plymouth. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm and features a screening of one of the most popular stories of Hartnell's era, The War Machines, which introduced Anneke Wills in the role of companion Polly. Wills will be a special guest at the event and will take part in a question-and-answer session with fans. There will also be Hartnell-themed quizzes as part of the day's festivities. For more information about the event, please see the Plymouth Who website. With thanks to Paul Hayes for the tribute.
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TDP 36: Voyage of the Damned
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death. Contents 1 Synopsis2 Plot3 Cast 3.1 Cast notes 4 Continuity5 Outside references6 Pre-broadcast publicity7 Reception8 References9 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Synopsis This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host. Plot As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars. Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge. The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him. Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship. Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space. With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever. The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains PS1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone. [edit] Cast The Doctor -- David TennantAstrid Peth -- Kylie MinogueMax Capricorn -- George CostiganMr Copper -- Clive SwiftRickston Slade -- Gray O'BrienMidshipman Alonzo Frame -- Russell ToveyFoon Van Hoff -- Debbie ChazenMorvin Van Hoff -- Clive RoweBannakaffalatta -- Jimmy VeeCaptain Hardaker -- Geoffrey PalmerWilfred Mott -- Bernard CribbinsChief Steward -- Andrew HavillEngineer -- Bruce LawrenceNicholas Witchell -- HimselfThe Host -- Paul KaseyKitchen Hand -- Stefan DavisNewsreader -- Jason MohammadAlien Voices -- Colin McFarlane, Ewan BaileyVoice of the Queen -- Jessica Martin [edit] Cast notes Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.[4]Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern". [edit] Continuity Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.[4]London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS. Outside references Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic. Pre-broadcast publicity Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th. Reception A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice. Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike). Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".
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TDP 36: Voyage of the Damned
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death. Contents 1 Synopsis2 Plot3 Cast 3.1 Cast notes 4 Continuity5 Outside references6 Pre-broadcast publicity7 Reception8 References9 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Synopsis This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host. Plot As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars. Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge. The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him. Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship. Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space. With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever. The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains PS1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone. [edit] Cast The Doctor -- David TennantAstrid Peth -- Kylie MinogueMax Capricorn -- George CostiganMr Copper -- Clive SwiftRickston Slade -- Gray O'BrienMidshipman Alonzo Frame -- Russell ToveyFoon Van Hoff -- Debbie ChazenMorvin Van Hoff -- Clive RoweBannakaffalatta -- Jimmy VeeCaptain Hardaker -- Geoffrey PalmerWilfred Mott -- Bernard CribbinsChief Steward -- Andrew HavillEngineer -- Bruce LawrenceNicholas Witchell -- HimselfThe Host -- Paul KaseyKitchen Hand -- Stefan DavisNewsreader -- Jason MohammadAlien Voices -- Colin McFarlane, Ewan BaileyVoice of the Queen -- Jessica Martin [edit] Cast notes Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.[4]Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern". [edit] Continuity Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.[4]London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS. Outside references Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic. Pre-broadcast publicity Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th. Reception A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice. Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike). Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".
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TDP 36: Voyage of the Damned
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death. Contents 1 Synopsis2 Plot3 Cast 3.1 Cast notes 4 Continuity5 Outside references6 Pre-broadcast publicity7 Reception8 References9 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Synopsis This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host. Plot As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars. Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge. The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him. Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship. Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space. With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever. The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains PS1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone. [edit] Cast The Doctor -- David TennantAstrid Peth -- Kylie MinogueMax Capricorn -- George CostiganMr Copper -- Clive SwiftRickston Slade -- Gray O'BrienMidshipman Alonzo Frame -- Russell ToveyFoon Van Hoff -- Debbie ChazenMorvin Van Hoff -- Clive RoweBannakaffalatta -- Jimmy VeeCaptain Hardaker -- Geoffrey PalmerWilfred Mott -- Bernard CribbinsChief Steward -- Andrew HavillEngineer -- Bruce LawrenceNicholas Witchell -- HimselfThe Host -- Paul KaseyKitchen Hand -- Stefan DavisNewsreader -- Jason MohammadAlien Voices -- Colin McFarlane, Ewan BaileyVoice of the Queen -- Jessica Martin [edit] Cast notes Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.[4]Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern". [edit] Continuity Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.[4]London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS. Outside references Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic. Pre-broadcast publicity Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th. Reception A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice. Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike). Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".
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TDP 36: Voyage of the Damned
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death. Contents 1 Synopsis2 Plot3 Cast 3.1 Cast notes 4 Continuity5 Outside references6 Pre-broadcast publicity7 Reception8 References9 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Synopsis This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host. Plot As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars. Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge. The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him. Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship. Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space. With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever. The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains PS1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone. [edit] Cast The Doctor -- David TennantAstrid Peth -- Kylie MinogueMax Capricorn -- George CostiganMr Copper -- Clive SwiftRickston Slade -- Gray O'BrienMidshipman Alonzo Frame -- Russell ToveyFoon Van Hoff -- Debbie ChazenMorvin Van Hoff -- Clive RoweBannakaffalatta -- Jimmy VeeCaptain Hardaker -- Geoffrey PalmerWilfred Mott -- Bernard CribbinsChief Steward -- Andrew HavillEngineer -- Bruce LawrenceNicholas Witchell -- HimselfThe Host -- Paul KaseyKitchen Hand -- Stefan DavisNewsreader -- Jason MohammadAlien Voices -- Colin McFarlane, Ewan BaileyVoice of the Queen -- Jessica Martin [edit] Cast notes Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.[4]Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern". [edit] Continuity Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.[4]London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS. Outside references Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic. Pre-broadcast publicity Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th. Reception A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice. Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike). Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".
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TDP 36: Voyage of the Damned
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 2 seconds"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is 71 minutes long and was broadcast on BBC One at 6:50pm on 25 December 2007. It is the third Christmas special of the revived Doctor Who series by Russell T. Davies, and the first episode to be made available for free on the internet by the BBC iPlayer service immediately after its first showing (the internet version is available in the UK only). The episode introduces a new variation on the opening and closing Doctor Who theme tune and companion Astrid Peth and is dedicated to the memory of the founding producer of Doctor Who, Verity Lambert. On its original airdate, 25 December 2007, "Voyage of the Damned" attracted 13.8 million viewers at its peak, with an overnight rating of 12.2 million viewers earning the episode 50% of the total television audience. It was the second most-watched program of the day, being beaten by the 8 p.m. episode of EastEnders. These were the highest viewing figures for Doctor Who since 1979's City of Death. Contents 1 Synopsis2 Plot3 Cast 3.1 Cast notes 4 Continuity5 Outside references6 Pre-broadcast publicity7 Reception8 References9 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> Synopsis This story continues from the final scene of "Last of the Time Lords" and "Time Crash", in which a luxury space cruiser called the Titanic breaches the walls of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor teams up with Titanic waitress Astrid Peth in order to fend off a new enemy called the Host. Plot As the Doctor leaves Earth, the bow of the Titanic crashes through the TARDIS' wall. Though momentarily stunned, he quickly pushes some buttons to repair the TARDIS walls and push the ship out. The TARDIS then materialises aboard the ship. The Doctor soon learns the Titanic is a large luxury spaceship from the planet Sto, orbiting present-day Earth. He decides to stow away to enjoy the party, only confessing his unauthorized status to lively waitress Astrid Peth, who reveals her own desire to travel the stars. Astrid has found her new job disappointing, as she is not allowed off the ship to visit destination planets. The Doctor cheers her up by sneaking her onto an excursion to London via teleport, along with couple Morvin and Foon Van Hoff, and a small alien with a red head, called Bannakaffalatta. This is not a problem since London is all but deserted, an atmosphere of fear having been cultivated from the alien attacks on the previous two Christmases. Queen Elizabeth, Nicholas Witchell, and newspaper seller Wilfred Mott are among the few that remain. Ship's historian and guide Mr Copper gives the excursion party a bizarrely inaccurate explanation of human society, especially Christmas, despite the fact that he claims to be an expert on the planet. Meanwhile, on the Titanic's bridge, Captain Hardaker dismisses all the officers so they can take a break. Only one, Midshipman Frame, refuses to go, citing the rule that at least two officers must be present on the bridge. The party returns to the ship just as Hardaker reveals his true motives and commits an act of sabotage, causing meteors to collide with the ship. Midshipman Frame is shot and wounded when he attempts to prevent the disaster. Hardaker is killed in the resulting collision, as are the bulk of the crew and passengers. The meteors cause three major hull breaches, one of which sucks the TARDIS into space. The Doctor notes that it will just land on Earth automatically. With the teleport system offline and the engines losing power, the Titanic is heading for an extinction-level collision with the Earth. The Doctor makes contact with the injured Midshipman Frame, and leads a small group of survivors in a climb through the shattered vessel to reach him. Complicating matters are the Host, information androids resembling angels that have been reprogrammed to kill everyone onboard. The Doctor's party is harassed by Host all the way, and the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves to be useless against them. Bannakaffalatta reveals to Astrid that he is actually a cyborg, something considered shameful in the society on Sto. Bravely, he saves the party from a Host attack by transmitting an electromagnetic pulse from his cybernetic implants, killing himself in the process. The Van Hoffs also die: Morvin falls from the ledge into the nuclear engines, and Foon subsequently commits suicide while pulling a surviving Host down with her. The Doctor makes a grim promise that "no more" will die. The survivors take Bannakaffalatta's EMP unit with them as their only effective weapon against the Host. The Doctor sends the remaining survivors on ahead with the EMP unit and the sonic screwdriver, while he attempts to reach the place from which the Host are controlled. Using a security protocol, he convinces the Host to take them to their leader. This turns out to be the cruise line's owner, Max Capricorn, who is hiding in an indestructible impact chamber on Deck 31. Capricorn is also revealed to be a cyborg, a human head set in a small wheeled vehicle. Having been forced out by the company's board of directors, he is seeking revenge. The collision of the Titanic into a heavily-populated world will not only break the company, but see the board charged with murder. Outnumbered by Host and faced with death, the Doctor is saved by Astrid, who has made a short-range teleport to his position. She rams Capricorn with a fork-lift truck until both are forced off a precipice and fall into the fiery engine of the ship. Assuming control of the Host upon Capricorn's death, the Doctor grimly makes his way to the bridge just as the ship plunges into Earth's atmosphere. Working with Frame, he uses the heat from the re-entry to try to re-start the ship's engines, but discovers that they are headed straight for one of the few places in London currently inhabited: Buckingham Palace. Calling through with a security code, he manages to get the Queen out of the building, which the Titanic narrowly misses as the ship pulls up, now back under control. The Queen, in her dressing gown, is heard thanking the Doctor as he pilots the ship back into space. With the danger over, the Doctor suddenly realises that there might be hope for Astrid after all. A safety feature of the ship's teleport system is that in case of accident, it automatically holds in stasis the molecules of the affected passenger. As she was wearing a teleport bracelet at the time of her death, her pattern might still be stored in its buffers. However, despite desperate efforts, only a shadow of Astrid can be generated due to extensive damage to the teleport system. The Doctor watches her dissipate into motes of light that float free into space. This way, she can at least fulfill her dream of exploring the universe, forever. The Doctor teleports back to earth with Mr Copper, who is no expert on Earth, but a former salesman who lied his way onto the ship to explore the stars. The Doctor leaves him on the planet to build a new life, funded by the ship's expenses card, which contains PS1,000,000. The Doctor then heads off in the TARDIS, alone. [edit] Cast The Doctor -- David TennantAstrid Peth -- Kylie MinogueMax Capricorn -- George CostiganMr Copper -- Clive SwiftRickston Slade -- Gray O'BrienMidshipman Alonzo Frame -- Russell ToveyFoon Van Hoff -- Debbie ChazenMorvin Van Hoff -- Clive RoweBannakaffalatta -- Jimmy VeeCaptain Hardaker -- Geoffrey PalmerWilfred Mott -- Bernard CribbinsChief Steward -- Andrew HavillEngineer -- Bruce LawrenceNicholas Witchell -- HimselfThe Host -- Paul KaseyKitchen Hand -- Stefan DavisNewsreader -- Jason MohammadAlien Voices -- Colin McFarlane, Ewan BaileyVoice of the Queen -- Jessica Martin [edit] Cast notes Clive Swift previously appeared as Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks.Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Mutants. His son, Charles Palmer, directed four episodes of Series 3.Bernard Cribbins previously appeared in the 1966 film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the 6-part TV story The Dalek Invasion of Earth shown 2 years previously. He also appeared in the Big Finish Productions story Horror of Glam Rock.Jimmy Vee previously appeared as the Moxx of Balhoon in "The End of the World", the Space Pig in "Aliens of London" and the Graske in the interactive special "Attack of the Graske". In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he appeared as the Child Slitheen in Revenge of the Slitheen and The Lost Boy, and reappeared as the Graske in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?.Jessica Martin played Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.Yamit Mamo performed the songs "My Angel Put the Devil in me" and "The Stowaway" on the Series 3 soundtrack, the latter being specially composed for this episode.Kylie Minogue has previously been referenced as a real person in the Doctor Who universe, in "The Idiot's Lantern" (2006) - with the Doctor exclaiming that '"It's never too late, as a wise person once said... Kylie, I think!"', in reference to her 1989 hit single "Never Too Late".Composer Murray Gold makes a cameo appearance in this episode[3] along with arranger Ben Foster and singer Yamit Mamo.[4]Queen Elizabeth II was previously played by uncredited extra Mary Reynolds in Silver Nemesis and appears in person (in archive footage) in "The Idiot's Lantern". [edit] Continuity Although the special takes place aboard an otherworldly namesake of the famed ocean liner, the RMS Titanic and its sinking was mentioned previously within the series in Robot (1974), The Robots of Death (1977), The Invasion of Time (1978), "Rose" (2005) and "The End of the World" (2005). The Titanic also appeared in the Virgin New Adventures book The Left-Handed Hummingbird, written by Kate Orman, and the 1989 Doctor Who Magazine comic strip Follow That TARDIS!.This episode introduces a new variation of the Doctor Who theme tune arranged by Murray Gold. It features a musical nod to Peter Howell's 1980s version.[4]London has been evacuated due to alien attacks the previous two Christmases - referring to "The Christmas Invasion" and "The Runaway Bride". Clips from each of these episodes appear as part of news footage.The BBC broadcast near the end makes matter-of-fact statements about alien invasions and the London public (due to the evacuation and the dialogue from the street vendor), a difference to previous episodes where the public is either in denial or it's covered up; most recently in "The Sound of Drums", where the Master stated the government "told you nothing".Earth was previously referred to by its Gallifreyan name "Sol 3" in The Deadly Assassin and Last of the Time Lords. Earth was also previously refered to as a "Level 5" civilization in City of Death. This episode also marks the first time in the revived series of Doctor Who that the Doctor has referred to Gallifrey as being in the constellation of Kasterborous.Excluding Jack Harkness's repeated deaths, Astrid is the first companion to die in the revived series (and the first since Kamelion in 1984's Planet of Fire), although she is partially resurrected. She is also the first alien companion since Kamelion, and the first in the revived series to never set foot in the TARDIS.The Doctor previously had a close encounter with Queen Elizabeth II in the Seventh Doctor story Silver Nemesis.Once again, the Doctor uses the phrase "allons-y" ("let's go" in French). He previously said it in "Army of Ghosts", "Evolution of the Daleks" and "42". He was surprised when told by Midshipman Frame that Frame's first name is Alonzo, and was quoted saying "You're kidding me!?". He indicated that there is "something else I've always wanted to say", and as he starts to steer the ship, he yells "Allons-y Alonzo". In "Army of Ghosts", when he thought of using "allons-y", he thought the name Alonzo would go nicely with it, and later asked Yvonne Hartman whether Torchwood has anyone named Alonzo.The Doctor notes that "this suit is bad luck", he previously wore it in "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel" and "The Lazarus Experiment". Both times he had been attending a seemingly normal party which goes wrong.Just like in the 2005 & 2006 Christmas specials, it is revealed at the end that the 'snow' falling is actually something else (debris from the Titanic). The Doctor wonders if it will ever snow for real. In "The Christmas Invasion", the 'snow' was ash from the Sycorax spaceship, and in "The Runaway Bride", the Doctor uses 'basic atmospheric excitation' supplied by the TARDIS to make it snow.The Doctor refers to himself as being 903 years old, contradicting the serial Time and the Rani where he states his age as 953.The waitress Astrid's name is an anagram of TARDIS. This caused wild speculation among fans, with some believing that Astrid herself would be revealed as the TARDIS. Outside references Cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" are heard aboard the Titanic, and the Captain refers to "Silent Night". The incidental music in the pre-title sequence features the tune of "Jingle Bells".One scene is set in the fictitious Donovan Street, named after Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue's former Neighbours co-star and collaborator on 1988 Number One hit duet "Especially For You".The Host stuttering over the name "Max" is a reference to 1980s virtual presenter Max Headroom.Russell T. Davies included a line from The Lion King in the script for this episode. He previously referenced The Lion King in "The Christmas Invasion".This episode is dedicated to the memory of Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who, who died on 22nd November 2007 - a day before Doctor Who's 44th anniversary.The Doctor states he was present "at the very start" of Christmas, and that he "got the last room" - this refers to the Gospel story of Jesus's birth, in which there was "no room at the inn" at Bethlehem for Mary and Jospeh on the night of his birth. (Luke 2:7).The Doctor mentions protocol 42, a number meant to be the answer to everything from the book Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Incidentally, the Special is the 42nd episode of the new series). He then tries protocol 1, which turns out to be the correct one. This is also the confidential password for the restricted site for the game Starship Titanic. Pre-broadcast publicity Kylie Minogue was initially reported by tabloid newspapers to be appearing in this episode.Russell T Davies dismissed this story, but a statement by Minogue indicated that she would be in the episode. The BBC officially confirmed her role in early July.On 19 July 2007, The Sun published a photograph of an actor on set in Wales, in make-up, supposedly playing a red, spiky creature called "Porg".On 20 July 2007, the Paisley Daily Express reported that David Tennant's mother, Helen McDonald, had died from cancer,and SyFy Portal noted that filming had been delayed by one week so Tennant could attend his mother's funeral.The Series 3 Doctor Who soundtrack includes a track named "The Stowaway", which Amazon.co.uk have confirmed is a song appearing in this episode, in the same vein as "Song for Ten" and "Love Don't Roam" in previous Christmas specials (both of which were on the original soundtrack).The full song was released online at SilvaScreen Records' MySpace page.On the 4 December 2007, Radio Times mentioned that the gold creatures are new monsters and are referred as 'the Hosts'On December 8, the BBC released a series of three short clips, showing the Doctor, Astrid and the Titanic floating in space, above the Earth. This was accompanied by a 90-second long trailer for the episode in British cinemas, which was released on the BBC website on December 14th. Reception A scene where the Doctor is lifted through the ship by the angelic Host caused offence to the group Christian Voice. Before its broadcast, the episode drew criticism from Millvina Dean, the last living survivor of the 1912 Titanic sinking, who stated that it was "disrespectful to make entertainment of such a tragedy".[16] The organisation Christian Voice expressed offence at the religious imagery of a scene in which the Doctor is lifted through the ship by robot angels. The episode's Christmas Day UK broadcast received 13.8 million viewers, an audience narrowly exceeded by the 13.9 million who watched the BBC soap EastEnders.[18] The average across all 70 minutes was 12.2 million viewers. This was the highest total of viewers for the new series, exceeding the previous record set by "Rose", and the highest for Doctor Who overall since 1979 (specifically, the final episode of "City of Death" which aired while rival network ITV suffered programming disruptions due to a strike). Gareth McLean, reviewing a preview screening for The Guardian's TV and radio weblog, appreciated the episode's use of "the disaster movie template" and came to a favourable overall conclusion: "For the most part, The Voyage of the Damned is absolutely smashing." Its main flaw, in his view, was the "blank and insipid" acting of Kylie Minogue.[20] James Walton of The Daily Telegraph called the episode "a winning mixture of wild imagination and careful writerly calculation".
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TDP 35: Pre Christmas Show Tribute to Verity Lambert
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 10 secondsVerity Ann Lambert, OBE (27 November 1935 - 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.[1] Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[2] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media"[3]. News of her death came on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who. Contents [hide] 1 Early career in independent television2 BBC career3 Thames Television and Euston Films4 Cinema Verity5 References6 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> [edit] Early career in independent television Lambert was born in London, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School.[4] She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months.[5] She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher.[6] Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France and could speak French.[5] In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.[5] ABC Television's studios at Didsbury in Manchester, where Lambert worked in the late 1950s. Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand typist at ABC Television.[5] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[5] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman. On 28 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, actor Gareth Jones died off-screen just prior to a scene in which he was to appear during a live television broadcast of the hour-long play "Underground". Lambert had to take control of directing the cameras from the studio gallery as director William Kotcheff hastily worked with the actors during a commercial break to accommodate the loss.[7] In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[5] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.[5] [edit] BBC career In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[8] Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series -- Don Taylor[9] and Shaun Sutton[10] had both declined the position -- the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[9] When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[11] Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[12] In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert.[13] She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera, The Newcomers, to produce.[14] Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was obscurely referenced in Monty Python's 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.[15] In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century. [edit] Thames Television and Euston Films Teddington Studios in London, where several Thames Television dramas overseen by Lambert, such as Rock Follies, were produced in the 1970s. Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV network, including The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Rock Follies (1976-77), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass (1979), Minder (1979-94) and Widows (1983). At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a prize at the Prix Italia;[16] Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award,[17] while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million -- unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run.[7] Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.[18] Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[7] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[19] Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until November of the following year, to take up her first post in the film industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise. Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of -- Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, and Clockwise with John Cleese -- it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."[5] [edit] Cinema Verity In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema Verity. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark, starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep and based on the "dingo baby" case in Australia. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me, which ran from 1992 to 1994. Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4 in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards.[20] Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however -- the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[21] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[21] A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate community in Spain. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company.[22] Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored."[2] Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A PS10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[23] In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek, by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987.[24][4][25] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies -- no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[3] In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.[26] In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production,[27] and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.[28] She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
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TDP 35: Pre Christmas Show Tribute to Verity Lambert
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 10 secondsVerity Ann Lambert, OBE (27 November 1935 - 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.[1] Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[2] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media"[3]. News of her death came on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who. Contents [hide] 1 Early career in independent television2 BBC career3 Thames Television and Euston Films4 Cinema Verity5 References6 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> [edit] Early career in independent television Lambert was born in London, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School.[4] She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months.[5] She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher.[6] Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France and could speak French.[5] In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.[5] ABC Television's studios at Didsbury in Manchester, where Lambert worked in the late 1950s. Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand typist at ABC Television.[5] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[5] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman. On 28 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, actor Gareth Jones died off-screen just prior to a scene in which he was to appear during a live television broadcast of the hour-long play "Underground". Lambert had to take control of directing the cameras from the studio gallery as director William Kotcheff hastily worked with the actors during a commercial break to accommodate the loss.[7] In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[5] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.[5] [edit] BBC career In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[8] Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series -- Don Taylor[9] and Shaun Sutton[10] had both declined the position -- the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[9] When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[11] Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[12] In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert.[13] She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera, The Newcomers, to produce.[14] Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was obscurely referenced in Monty Python's 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.[15] In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century. [edit] Thames Television and Euston Films Teddington Studios in London, where several Thames Television dramas overseen by Lambert, such as Rock Follies, were produced in the 1970s. Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV network, including The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Rock Follies (1976-77), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass (1979), Minder (1979-94) and Widows (1983). At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a prize at the Prix Italia;[16] Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award,[17] while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million -- unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run.[7] Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.[18] Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[7] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[19] Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until November of the following year, to take up her first post in the film industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise. Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of -- Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, and Clockwise with John Cleese -- it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."[5] [edit] Cinema Verity In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema Verity. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark, starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep and based on the "dingo baby" case in Australia. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me, which ran from 1992 to 1994. Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4 in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards.[20] Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however -- the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[21] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[21] A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate community in Spain. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company.[22] Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored."[2] Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A PS10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[23] In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek, by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987.[24][4][25] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies -- no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[3] In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.[26] In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production,[27] and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.[28] She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
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TDP 35: Pre Christmas Show Tribute to Verity Lambert
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 10 secondsVerity Ann Lambert, OBE (27 November 1935 - 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.[1] Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[2] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media"[3]. News of her death came on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who. Contents [hide] 1 Early career in independent television2 BBC career3 Thames Television and Euston Films4 Cinema Verity5 References6 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> [edit] Early career in independent television Lambert was born in London, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School.[4] She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months.[5] She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher.[6] Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France and could speak French.[5] In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.[5] ABC Television's studios at Didsbury in Manchester, where Lambert worked in the late 1950s. Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand typist at ABC Television.[5] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[5] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman. On 28 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, actor Gareth Jones died off-screen just prior to a scene in which he was to appear during a live television broadcast of the hour-long play "Underground". Lambert had to take control of directing the cameras from the studio gallery as director William Kotcheff hastily worked with the actors during a commercial break to accommodate the loss.[7] In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[5] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.[5] [edit] BBC career In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[8] Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series -- Don Taylor[9] and Shaun Sutton[10] had both declined the position -- the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[9] When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[11] Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[12] In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert.[13] She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera, The Newcomers, to produce.[14] Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was obscurely referenced in Monty Python's 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.[15] In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century. [edit] Thames Television and Euston Films Teddington Studios in London, where several Thames Television dramas overseen by Lambert, such as Rock Follies, were produced in the 1970s. Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV network, including The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Rock Follies (1976-77), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass (1979), Minder (1979-94) and Widows (1983). At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a prize at the Prix Italia;[16] Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award,[17] while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million -- unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run.[7] Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.[18] Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[7] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[19] Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until November of the following year, to take up her first post in the film industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise. Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of -- Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, and Clockwise with John Cleese -- it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."[5] [edit] Cinema Verity In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema Verity. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark, starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep and based on the "dingo baby" case in Australia. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me, which ran from 1992 to 1994. Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4 in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards.[20] Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however -- the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[21] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[21] A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate community in Spain. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company.[22] Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored."[2] Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A PS10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[23] In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek, by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987.[24][4][25] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies -- no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[3] In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.[26] In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production,[27] and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.[28] She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
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TDP 35: Pre Christmas Show Tribute to Verity Lambert
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 10 secondsVerity Ann Lambert, OBE (27 November 1935 - 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.[1] Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[2] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media"[3]. News of her death came on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who. Contents [hide] 1 Early career in independent television2 BBC career3 Thames Television and Euston Films4 Cinema Verity5 References6 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> [edit] Early career in independent television Lambert was born in London, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School.[4] She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months.[5] She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher.[6] Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France and could speak French.[5] In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.[5] ABC Television's studios at Didsbury in Manchester, where Lambert worked in the late 1950s. Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand typist at ABC Television.[5] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[5] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman. On 28 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, actor Gareth Jones died off-screen just prior to a scene in which he was to appear during a live television broadcast of the hour-long play "Underground". Lambert had to take control of directing the cameras from the studio gallery as director William Kotcheff hastily worked with the actors during a commercial break to accommodate the loss.[7] In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[5] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.[5] [edit] BBC career In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[8] Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series -- Don Taylor[9] and Shaun Sutton[10] had both declined the position -- the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[9] When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[11] Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[12] In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert.[13] She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera, The Newcomers, to produce.[14] Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was obscurely referenced in Monty Python's 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.[15] In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century. [edit] Thames Television and Euston Films Teddington Studios in London, where several Thames Television dramas overseen by Lambert, such as Rock Follies, were produced in the 1970s. Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV network, including The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Rock Follies (1976-77), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass (1979), Minder (1979-94) and Widows (1983). At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a prize at the Prix Italia;[16] Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award,[17] while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million -- unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run.[7] Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.[18] Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[7] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[19] Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until November of the following year, to take up her first post in the film industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise. Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of -- Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, and Clockwise with John Cleese -- it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."[5] [edit] Cinema Verity In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema Verity. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark, starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep and based on the "dingo baby" case in Australia. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me, which ran from 1992 to 1994. Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4 in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards.[20] Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however -- the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[21] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[21] A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate community in Spain. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company.[22] Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored."[2] Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A PS10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[23] In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek, by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987.[24][4][25] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies -- no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[3] In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.[26] In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production,[27] and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.[28] She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
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TDP 34: The Unquiet Dead
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 56 secondsSynopsis The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 and discover that something is making the dead come back to life. The time travellers team up with a world-weary Charles Dickens to investigate Gabriel Sneed, the local undertaker and his servant girl Gwyneth -- and come face to face with the ghostly Gelth. Plot In a funeral parlour during the Victorian era, a young man named Redpath grieves over the open casket containing his dead grandmother. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. The old woman's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, killing him. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor before getting up and wandering out onto the street, wailing. Sneed regains consciousness and calls for his servant girl, Gwyneth. This is not the first corpse in the funeral home to come alive, and Gwyneth tells Sneed that they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault, and they have to get the dead woman back. Riding in the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek the dead woman out, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels that he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns more suitably dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown, and the Doctor compliments her, saying she is beautiful... for a human. They step out into the snow-covered streets of history, the Doctor realising when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off -- it is Christmas Eve, 1869, and they are in Cardiff, not Naples. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol, but stops short as the dead woman in the audience starts to glow blue. The vapour pours out of her mouth, an ethereal gas with a vaguely human shape that sweeps around the hall and sends the audience running in a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion, as the vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body to be sucked into a gas lamp, and the body collapses. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach, but the great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his literary genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakens in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, not seeing another gaseous entity take over young Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Redpath and his grandmother come to life again, approaching Rose menacingly. The gas lamps in the house flicker, and the Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are, and the corpses cry that they are dying because the Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. Then the blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse once more. Sneed explains that the house has had a reputation for being haunted, which is why he managed to buy it so cheaply. The Doctor explains that the house is built on the rift the aliens were referring to -- a break in spacetime that is growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is still sceptical, refusing to believe that there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor tells him that as dead bodies release gas when they decompose, they are ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Rose, in the meantime, talks to Gwyneth, finding out that she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve, after her parents died. Although they initially get along well, Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor, mentioning the big bad wolf. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying that her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening, and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the rift, and she is the key. He suggests they hold a seance. Gwyneth manages to summon the aliens, who speak through her. They are the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed by the Time War and left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists that they have to help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest: she knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux, and the future can be rewritten; nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth that this is only a temporary solution--once they possess the bodies, he will transport them to another place where they can build permanent ones. However, when Gwyneth stands at the rift, and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are much more than they originally implied. The Gelth show their true colours -- they do not just want bodies that are already dead, they are willing to kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the rift as the Gelth continue to stream in. Sneed has his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and is taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, runs in fear as the Doctor and Rose are backed up into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she tells him that she wanted to come. The Doctor holds her hand as they prepare to go out fighting together, and he tells Rose he is glad he met her. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street, and has a brainstorm. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes down into the morgue, doing the same, telling the Doctor what he is doing. The Doctor realises that by filling the house with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the dead bodies like poison from a wound. This is exactly what happens, the Gelth pouring out of the collapsing corpses and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here, and takes out a box of matches from her apron. The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out of there before the two succumb to the gas fumes, and tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth of the matter, and reluctantly leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in fire. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised that she was dead. He thinks Gwyneth died the moment she stood in the rift. Rose does not understand -- Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act 1, scene V). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home--a servant girl saved the world, and nobody will ever know. Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope that there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental. He asks the Doctor if his books will last, and the Doctor assures a smiling Dickens that his work will last forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story, as he dies the following year. Right now, however, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud, and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and declaring, "God bless us, everyone!" Cast Doctor Who -- Christopher EcclestonRose Tyler -- Billie PiperGabriel Sneed -- Alan DavidRedpath -- Huw RhysMrs Peace -- Jennifer HillGwyneth -- Eve MylesCharles Dickens -- Simon CallowStage Manager -- Wayne CaterDriver -- Meic PoveyThe Gelth -- Zoe Thorne Cast notes Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television as well as in a one-man show. See celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth, subsequently stars in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood as Gwen Cooper. There is supposedly no connection between the two characters other than both characters living in Cardiff.[1].
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TDP 35: Pre Christmas Show Tribute to Verity Lambert
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 10 secondsVerity Ann Lambert, OBE (27 November 1935 - 22 November 2007) was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture. Lambert was a pioneer woman in British television; when she was appointed to Doctor Who in 1963 she was the youngest producer, and only female drama producer, working at the BBC.[1] Lambert began working in television in the 1950s, and continued to work as a producer up until the year she died. After leaving the BBC in 1969, she worked for other television companies, notably Thames Television and Euston Films in the 1970s and 80s. She also worked in the film industry, for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, and from 1985 ran her own production company, Cinema Verity. In addition to Doctor Who, she produced Adam Adamant Lives!, The Naked Civil Servant, Rock Follies, Minder, Widows, G.B.H., Jonathan Creek and Love Soup. The British Film Institute's Screenonline website describes Lambert as "one of those producers who can often create a fascinating small screen universe from a slim script and half-a-dozen congenial players."[2] The website of the Museum of Broadcast Communications hails her as "not only one of Britain's leading businesswomen, but possibly the most powerful member of the nation's entertainment industry ... Lambert has served as a symbol of the advances won by women in the media"[3]. News of her death came on the 44th anniversary of the first showing of Doctor Who. Contents [hide] 1 Early career in independent television2 BBC career3 Thames Television and Euston Films4 Cinema Verity5 References6 External links //<![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]> [edit] Early career in independent television Lambert was born in London, the daughter of a Jewish accountant, and educated at Roedean School.[4] She left Roedean at sixteen and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for a year, and at a secretarial college in London for eighteen months.[5] She later credited her interest in the structural and characterisational aspects of scriptwriting to an inspirational English teacher.[6] Lambert's first job was typing menus at the Kensington De Vere Hotel, which employed her because she had been to France and could speak French.[5] In 1956, she entered the television industry as a secretary at Granada Television's press office. She was sacked from this job after six months.[5] ABC Television's studios at Didsbury in Manchester, where Lambert worked in the late 1950s. Following her dismissal from Granada, Lambert took a job as a shorthand typist at ABC Television.[5] She soon became the secretary to the company's Head of Drama, and then a production secretary working on a programme called State Your Case.[5] She then moved from administration to production, working on drama programming on ABC's popular anthology series Armchair Theatre. Armchair Theatre was overseen at the time by the company's new Head of Drama, Canadian producer Sydney Newman. On 28 November 1958, while Lambert was working as a production assistant on Armchair Theatre, actor Gareth Jones died off-screen just prior to a scene in which he was to appear during a live television broadcast of the hour-long play "Underground". Lambert had to take control of directing the cameras from the studio gallery as director William Kotcheff hastily worked with the actors during a commercial break to accommodate the loss.[7] In 1961 Lambert left ABC, spending a year working as the personal assistant to American television producer David Susskind at the independent production company Talent Associates in New York.[5] Returning to England, she rejoined ABC with an ambition to direct, but got stuck as a production assistant, and decided that if she could not find advancement within a year she would abandon television as a career.[5] [edit] BBC career In December 1962 Sydney Newman left ABC to take up the position of Head of Drama at BBC Television, and the following year Lambert joined him at the Corporation. Newman had recruited her to produce Doctor Who, a programme he had personally initiated. Conceived by Newman as an educational science-fiction series for children, the programme concerned the adventures of a crotchety old man travelling through space and time with his sometimes unwilling companions in a machine larger on the inside than the out. The show was a risk, and in some quarters not expected to last longer than thirteen weeks.[8] Although Lambert was not Newman's first choice to produce the series -- Don Taylor[9] and Shaun Sutton[10] had both declined the position -- the Canadian was very keen to ensure that Lambert took the job after his experience of working with her at ABC. "I think the best thing I ever did on that was to find Verity Lambert," he told Doctor Who Magazine in 1993. "I remembered Verity as being bright and, to use the phrase, full of piss and vinegar! She was gutsy and she used to fight and argue with me, even though she was not at a very high level as a production assistant."[9] When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. Doctor Who debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of Doctor Who and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the Daily Mail published a feature on the series focusing on the perceived attractiveness of its young producer: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over Dr. Who."[11] Lambert oversaw the first two seasons of the programme, eventually leaving in 1965. "There comes a time when a series need new input," she told Doctor Who Magazine thirty years later. "It's not that I wasn't fond of Doctor Who, I simply felt that the time had come. It had been eighteen very concentrated months, something like seventy shows. I know people do soaps forever now, but I felt Doctor Who needed someone to come in with a different view."[12] In the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Human Nature", the Doctor (as John Smith) refers to his parents as Sydney and Verity, a tribute to both Newman and Lambert.[13] She moved on to produce another BBC show created by Newman, the swashbuckling action-adventure series Adam Adamant Lives! (1966-67). The long development period of Adam Adamant delayed its production, and during this delay Newman gave her the initial episodes of a new soap opera, The Newcomers, to produce.[14] Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective (1968-69) and a twenty-six-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham (1969). During this period, Lambert was obscurely referenced in Monty Python's 1969 sketch "Buying a Bed," which featured two shop assistants called Mr. Verity and Mr. Lambert, named after her.[15] In 1969 she left the staff of the BBC to join London Weekend Television, where she produced Budgie (1970-72) and Between the Wars (1973). In 1974, she returned to the BBC on a freelance basis to produce Shoulder to Shoulder, a series of six 75-minute plays about the suffragette movement of the early 20th century. [edit] Thames Television and Euston Films Teddington Studios in London, where several Thames Television dramas overseen by Lambert, such as Rock Follies, were produced in the 1970s. Later in 1974 Lambert became Head of Drama at Thames Television, a successor company of her former employers ABC. During her time in this position she oversaw several high-profile and successful contributions to the ITV network, including The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Rock Follies (1976-77), Rumpole of the Bailey (1978-92) and Edward and Mrs Simpson (1978). In 1976 she was also made responsible for overseeing the work of Euston Films, Thames' subsidiary film production company, at the time best known as the producers of The Sweeney. In 1979 she transferred to Euston full-time as the company's Chief Executive, overseeing productions such as Quatermass (1979), Minder (1979-94) and Widows (1983). At Thames and Euston, Lambert enjoyed the most sustained period of critical and popular success of her career. The Naked Civil Servant won a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for its star John Hurt as well as a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and a prize at the Prix Italia;[16] Rock Follies won a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society Award,[17] while Widows also gained BAFTA nominations and ratings of over 12 million -- unusually for a drama serial, it picked up viewers over the course of its six-week run.[7] Minder went on to become the longest-running series produced by Euston Films, surviving for over a decade following Lambert's departure from the company.[18] Television historian Lez Cooke described Lambert's time in control of the drama department at Thames as "an adventurous period for the company, demonstrating that it was not only the BBC that was capable of producing progressive television drama during the 1970s. Lambert wanted Thames to produce drama series 'which were attempting in one way or another to tackle modern problems and life,' an ambition which echoed the philosophy of her mentor Sydney Newman."[7] Howard Schuman, the writer of Rock Follies, also later praised the bravery of Lambert's commissioning. "Verity Lambert had just arrived as head of drama at Thames TV and she went for broke," he told The Observer newspaper in 2002. "She commissioned a serial, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, for safety, but also Bill Brand, one of the edgiest political dramas ever, and us... Before we had even finished making the first series, Verity commissioned the second."[19] Lambert's association with Thames and Euston Films continued into the 1980s. In 1982, she rejoined the staff of parent company Thames Television as Director of Drama, and was given a seat on the company's board. In November 1982 she left Thames, but remained as Chief Executive at Euston until November of the following year, to take up her first post in the film industry, as Director of Production for Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. Her job here was somewhat frustrating as the British film industry was in one of its periodic states of flux, but she did manage to produce some noteworthy features, including the 1986 John Cleese film Clockwise. Lambert later expressed some regret on her time in the film industry in a feature for The Independent newspaper. "Unfortunately, the person who hired me left, and the person who came in didn't want to produce films and didn't want me. While I managed to make some films I was proud of -- Dennis Potter's Dreamchild, and Clockwise with John Cleese -- it was terribly tough and not a very happy experience."[5] [edit] Cinema Verity In late 1985 Lambert left Thorn EMI, frustrated at the lack of success and at restructuring measures being undertaken by the company. She established her own independent production company, Cinema Verity. The company's first production was the 1988 feature film A Cry in the Dark, starring Sam Neill and Meryl Streep and based on the "dingo baby" case in Australia. Cinema Verity's first television series, the BBC1 sitcom May to December, debuted in 1989 and ran until 1994. The company also produced another successful BBC1 sitcom, So Haunt Me, which ran from 1992 to 1994. Lambert executive produced Alan Bleasdale's hard-hitting drama serial G.B.H. for Channel 4 in 1991, winning critical acclaim and several awards.[20] Lambert's relationship with Bleasdale was not entirely smooth, however -- the writer has admitted in subsequent interviews that he "wanted to kill Verity Lambert"[21] after she insisted on the cutting of large portions of his first draft script before production began. However, Bleasdale subsequently admitted that she was right about the majority of the cut material, and when the production was finished he only missed one small scene from those she had demanded be excised.[21] A less successful Cinema Verity production, and the most noted mis-step of Lambert's career, was the soap opera Eldorado, a co-production with the BBC set in a British expatriate community in Spain. At the time it was the most expensive commission the BBC had given out to an independent production company.[22] Launched with a major publicity campaign and running in a high-profile slot three nights a week on BBC1, the series was critically mauled and lasted only a year, from 1992 to 1993. Lambert's biography at Screenonline suggests some reasons for this failure: "With on-location production facilities and an evident striving for a genuinely contemporary flavour, Lambert's costly Euro soap Eldorado suggested a degree of ambition ... which it seemed in the event ill-equipped to realise, and a potentially interesting subject tailed off into implausible melodrama. Eldorado's plotting ... was disappointingly ponderous. As a result, the expatriate community in southern Spain theme and milieu was exploited rather than explored."[2] Other reviewers, even the best part of a decade after the programme's cancellation, were much harsher, with Rupert Smith's comments in The Guardian in 2002 being a typical example. "A PS10 million farce that left the BBC with egg all over its entire body and put an awful lot Equity members back on the dole... it will always be remembered as the most expensive flop of all time."[23] In the early 1990s, Lambert attempted to win the rights to produce Doctor Who independently for the BBC; however, this effort was unsuccessful because the Corporation was already in negotiations with producer Philip Segal in the United States. Cinema Verity projects that did reach production included Sleepers (BBC1, 1991) and The Cazalets (BBC One, 2001), the latter co-produced by actress Joanna Lumley, whose idea it was to adapt the novels by Elizabeth Jane Howard. Lambert continued to work as a freelance producer outside of her own company. She produced the popular BBC One comedy-drama series Jonathan Creek, by writer David Renwick, ever since taking over the role for its second series in 1998. From then until 2004 she produced eighteen episodes of the programme across four short seasons, plus two Christmas Specials. She and Renwick also collaborated on another comedy-drama, Love Soup, starring Tamsin Greig and transmitted on BBC One in the autumn of 2005. In 1973, Lambert married television director Colin Bucksey (a man ten years her junior), but the marriage collapsed in 1984, and they divorced in 1987.[24][4][25] She had no children, once telling an interviewer, "I can't stand babies -- no, I love babies as long as their parents take them away."[3] In 2000 two of her productions, Doctor Who and The Naked Civil Servant, finished third and fourth respectively in a British Film Institute poll of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.[26] In the 2002 New Year's Honours list Lambert was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to film and television production,[27] and the same year she received BAFTA's Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.[28] She died of cancer five days before her 72nd birthday.[29] She was due to have been presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Women in Film and Television Awards the following month.[30]
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TDP 34: The Unquiet Dead
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 56 secondsSynopsis The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 and discover that something is making the dead come back to life. The time travellers team up with a world-weary Charles Dickens to investigate Gabriel Sneed, the local undertaker and his servant girl Gwyneth -- and come face to face with the ghostly Gelth. Plot In a funeral parlour during the Victorian era, a young man named Redpath grieves over the open casket containing his dead grandmother. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. The old woman's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, killing him. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor before getting up and wandering out onto the street, wailing. Sneed regains consciousness and calls for his servant girl, Gwyneth. This is not the first corpse in the funeral home to come alive, and Gwyneth tells Sneed that they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault, and they have to get the dead woman back. Riding in the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek the dead woman out, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels that he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns more suitably dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown, and the Doctor compliments her, saying she is beautiful... for a human. They step out into the snow-covered streets of history, the Doctor realising when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off -- it is Christmas Eve, 1869, and they are in Cardiff, not Naples. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol, but stops short as the dead woman in the audience starts to glow blue. The vapour pours out of her mouth, an ethereal gas with a vaguely human shape that sweeps around the hall and sends the audience running in a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion, as the vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body to be sucked into a gas lamp, and the body collapses. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach, but the great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his literary genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakens in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, not seeing another gaseous entity take over young Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Redpath and his grandmother come to life again, approaching Rose menacingly. The gas lamps in the house flicker, and the Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are, and the corpses cry that they are dying because the Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. Then the blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse once more. Sneed explains that the house has had a reputation for being haunted, which is why he managed to buy it so cheaply. The Doctor explains that the house is built on the rift the aliens were referring to -- a break in spacetime that is growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is still sceptical, refusing to believe that there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor tells him that as dead bodies release gas when they decompose, they are ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Rose, in the meantime, talks to Gwyneth, finding out that she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve, after her parents died. Although they initially get along well, Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor, mentioning the big bad wolf. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying that her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening, and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the rift, and she is the key. He suggests they hold a seance. Gwyneth manages to summon the aliens, who speak through her. They are the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed by the Time War and left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists that they have to help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest: she knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux, and the future can be rewritten; nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth that this is only a temporary solution--once they possess the bodies, he will transport them to another place where they can build permanent ones. However, when Gwyneth stands at the rift, and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are much more than they originally implied. The Gelth show their true colours -- they do not just want bodies that are already dead, they are willing to kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the rift as the Gelth continue to stream in. Sneed has his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and is taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, runs in fear as the Doctor and Rose are backed up into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she tells him that she wanted to come. The Doctor holds her hand as they prepare to go out fighting together, and he tells Rose he is glad he met her. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street, and has a brainstorm. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes down into the morgue, doing the same, telling the Doctor what he is doing. The Doctor realises that by filling the house with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the dead bodies like poison from a wound. This is exactly what happens, the Gelth pouring out of the collapsing corpses and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here, and takes out a box of matches from her apron. The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out of there before the two succumb to the gas fumes, and tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth of the matter, and reluctantly leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in fire. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised that she was dead. He thinks Gwyneth died the moment she stood in the rift. Rose does not understand -- Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act 1, scene V). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home--a servant girl saved the world, and nobody will ever know. Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope that there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental. He asks the Doctor if his books will last, and the Doctor assures a smiling Dickens that his work will last forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story, as he dies the following year. Right now, however, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud, and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and declaring, "God bless us, everyone!" Cast Doctor Who -- Christopher EcclestonRose Tyler -- Billie PiperGabriel Sneed -- Alan DavidRedpath -- Huw RhysMrs Peace -- Jennifer HillGwyneth -- Eve MylesCharles Dickens -- Simon CallowStage Manager -- Wayne CaterDriver -- Meic PoveyThe Gelth -- Zoe Thorne Cast notes Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television as well as in a one-man show. See celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth, subsequently stars in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood as Gwen Cooper. There is supposedly no connection between the two characters other than both characters living in Cardiff.[1].
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TDP 34: The Unquiet Dead
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 56 secondsSynopsis The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 and discover that something is making the dead come back to life. The time travellers team up with a world-weary Charles Dickens to investigate Gabriel Sneed, the local undertaker and his servant girl Gwyneth -- and come face to face with the ghostly Gelth. Plot In a funeral parlour during the Victorian era, a young man named Redpath grieves over the open casket containing his dead grandmother. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. The old woman's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, killing him. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor before getting up and wandering out onto the street, wailing. Sneed regains consciousness and calls for his servant girl, Gwyneth. This is not the first corpse in the funeral home to come alive, and Gwyneth tells Sneed that they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault, and they have to get the dead woman back. Riding in the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek the dead woman out, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels that he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns more suitably dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown, and the Doctor compliments her, saying she is beautiful... for a human. They step out into the snow-covered streets of history, the Doctor realising when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off -- it is Christmas Eve, 1869, and they are in Cardiff, not Naples. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol, but stops short as the dead woman in the audience starts to glow blue. The vapour pours out of her mouth, an ethereal gas with a vaguely human shape that sweeps around the hall and sends the audience running in a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion, as the vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body to be sucked into a gas lamp, and the body collapses. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach, but the great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his literary genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakens in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, not seeing another gaseous entity take over young Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Redpath and his grandmother come to life again, approaching Rose menacingly. The gas lamps in the house flicker, and the Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are, and the corpses cry that they are dying because the Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. Then the blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse once more. Sneed explains that the house has had a reputation for being haunted, which is why he managed to buy it so cheaply. The Doctor explains that the house is built on the rift the aliens were referring to -- a break in spacetime that is growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is still sceptical, refusing to believe that there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor tells him that as dead bodies release gas when they decompose, they are ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Rose, in the meantime, talks to Gwyneth, finding out that she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve, after her parents died. Although they initially get along well, Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor, mentioning the big bad wolf. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying that her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening, and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the rift, and she is the key. He suggests they hold a seance. Gwyneth manages to summon the aliens, who speak through her. They are the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed by the Time War and left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists that they have to help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest: she knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux, and the future can be rewritten; nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth that this is only a temporary solution--once they possess the bodies, he will transport them to another place where they can build permanent ones. However, when Gwyneth stands at the rift, and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are much more than they originally implied. The Gelth show their true colours -- they do not just want bodies that are already dead, they are willing to kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the rift as the Gelth continue to stream in. Sneed has his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and is taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, runs in fear as the Doctor and Rose are backed up into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she tells him that she wanted to come. The Doctor holds her hand as they prepare to go out fighting together, and he tells Rose he is glad he met her. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street, and has a brainstorm. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes down into the morgue, doing the same, telling the Doctor what he is doing. The Doctor realises that by filling the house with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the dead bodies like poison from a wound. This is exactly what happens, the Gelth pouring out of the collapsing corpses and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here, and takes out a box of matches from her apron. The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out of there before the two succumb to the gas fumes, and tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth of the matter, and reluctantly leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in fire. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised that she was dead. He thinks Gwyneth died the moment she stood in the rift. Rose does not understand -- Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act 1, scene V). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home--a servant girl saved the world, and nobody will ever know. Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope that there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental. He asks the Doctor if his books will last, and the Doctor assures a smiling Dickens that his work will last forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story, as he dies the following year. Right now, however, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud, and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and declaring, "God bless us, everyone!" Cast Doctor Who -- Christopher EcclestonRose Tyler -- Billie PiperGabriel Sneed -- Alan DavidRedpath -- Huw RhysMrs Peace -- Jennifer HillGwyneth -- Eve MylesCharles Dickens -- Simon CallowStage Manager -- Wayne CaterDriver -- Meic PoveyThe Gelth -- Zoe Thorne Cast notes Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television as well as in a one-man show. See celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth, subsequently stars in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood as Gwen Cooper. There is supposedly no connection between the two characters other than both characters living in Cardiff.[1].
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TDP: I have a cold
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 47 secondsSorry. no show this week. feeling a bit ill. I will try and get onto the Podshock live show on sunday night if my voice is upto it.heres hoping
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TDP 34: The Unquiet Dead
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 56 secondsSynopsis The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 and discover that something is making the dead come back to life. The time travellers team up with a world-weary Charles Dickens to investigate Gabriel Sneed, the local undertaker and his servant girl Gwyneth -- and come face to face with the ghostly Gelth. Plot In a funeral parlour during the Victorian era, a young man named Redpath grieves over the open casket containing his dead grandmother. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. The old woman's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, killing him. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor before getting up and wandering out onto the street, wailing. Sneed regains consciousness and calls for his servant girl, Gwyneth. This is not the first corpse in the funeral home to come alive, and Gwyneth tells Sneed that they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault, and they have to get the dead woman back. Riding in the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek the dead woman out, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels that he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns more suitably dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown, and the Doctor compliments her, saying she is beautiful... for a human. They step out into the snow-covered streets of history, the Doctor realising when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off -- it is Christmas Eve, 1869, and they are in Cardiff, not Naples. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol, but stops short as the dead woman in the audience starts to glow blue. The vapour pours out of her mouth, an ethereal gas with a vaguely human shape that sweeps around the hall and sends the audience running in a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion, as the vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body to be sucked into a gas lamp, and the body collapses. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach, but the great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his literary genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakens in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, not seeing another gaseous entity take over young Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Redpath and his grandmother come to life again, approaching Rose menacingly. The gas lamps in the house flicker, and the Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are, and the corpses cry that they are dying because the Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. Then the blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse once more. Sneed explains that the house has had a reputation for being haunted, which is why he managed to buy it so cheaply. The Doctor explains that the house is built on the rift the aliens were referring to -- a break in spacetime that is growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is still sceptical, refusing to believe that there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor tells him that as dead bodies release gas when they decompose, they are ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Rose, in the meantime, talks to Gwyneth, finding out that she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve, after her parents died. Although they initially get along well, Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor, mentioning the big bad wolf. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying that her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening, and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the rift, and she is the key. He suggests they hold a seance. Gwyneth manages to summon the aliens, who speak through her. They are the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed by the Time War and left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists that they have to help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest: she knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux, and the future can be rewritten; nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth that this is only a temporary solution--once they possess the bodies, he will transport them to another place where they can build permanent ones. However, when Gwyneth stands at the rift, and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are much more than they originally implied. The Gelth show their true colours -- they do not just want bodies that are already dead, they are willing to kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the rift as the Gelth continue to stream in. Sneed has his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and is taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, runs in fear as the Doctor and Rose are backed up into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she tells him that she wanted to come. The Doctor holds her hand as they prepare to go out fighting together, and he tells Rose he is glad he met her. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street, and has a brainstorm. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes down into the morgue, doing the same, telling the Doctor what he is doing. The Doctor realises that by filling the house with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the dead bodies like poison from a wound. This is exactly what happens, the Gelth pouring out of the collapsing corpses and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here, and takes out a box of matches from her apron. The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out of there before the two succumb to the gas fumes, and tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth of the matter, and reluctantly leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in fire. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised that she was dead. He thinks Gwyneth died the moment she stood in the rift. Rose does not understand -- Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act 1, scene V). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home--a servant girl saved the world, and nobody will ever know. Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope that there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental. He asks the Doctor if his books will last, and the Doctor assures a smiling Dickens that his work will last forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story, as he dies the following year. Right now, however, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud, and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and declaring, "God bless us, everyone!" Cast Doctor Who -- Christopher EcclestonRose Tyler -- Billie PiperGabriel Sneed -- Alan DavidRedpath -- Huw RhysMrs Peace -- Jennifer HillGwyneth -- Eve MylesCharles Dickens -- Simon CallowStage Manager -- Wayne CaterDriver -- Meic PoveyThe Gelth -- Zoe Thorne Cast notes Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television as well as in a one-man show. See celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth, subsequently stars in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood as Gwen Cooper. There is supposedly no connection between the two characters other than both characters living in Cardiff.[1].
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TDP: I have a cold
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 47 secondsSorry. no show this week. feeling a bit ill. I will try and get onto the Podshock live show on sunday night if my voice is upto it.heres hoping
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TDP 34: The Unquiet Dead
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 56 secondsSynopsis The Ninth Doctor and Rose arrive in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869 and discover that something is making the dead come back to life. The time travellers team up with a world-weary Charles Dickens to investigate Gabriel Sneed, the local undertaker and his servant girl Gwyneth -- and come face to face with the ghostly Gelth. Plot In a funeral parlour during the Victorian era, a young man named Redpath grieves over the open casket containing his dead grandmother. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. The old woman's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, killing him. Gabriel Sneed, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor before getting up and wandering out onto the street, wailing. Sneed regains consciousness and calls for his servant girl, Gwyneth. This is not the first corpse in the funeral home to come alive, and Gwyneth tells Sneed that they need to get help. Sneed protests that it is not his fault, and they have to get the dead woman back. Riding in the hearse, Sneed orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek the dead woman out, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels that he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, the Doctor and Rose are having a rough ride. As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, the Doctor aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1860. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when the Doctor tells her that she would start a riot in her 21st century clothing. Rose returns more suitably dressed in an off-the-shoulder gown, and the Doctor compliments her, saying she is beautiful... for a human. They step out into the snow-covered streets of history, the Doctor realising when he buys a newspaper that his aim was a bit off -- it is Christmas Eve, 1869, and they are in Cardiff, not Naples. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol, but stops short as the dead woman in the audience starts to glow blue. The vapour pours out of her mouth, an ethereal gas with a vaguely human shape that sweeps around the hall and sends the audience running in a panic. The screams attract Rose and the Doctor as well as Sneed and Gwyneth. Dickens accuses the Doctor of being responsible for the illusion, as the vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body to be sucked into a gas lamp, and the body collapses. Sneed and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneed chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. The Doctor commandeers Dickens's coach, but the great writer's protests vanish when the Doctor discovers who he is and gushes over his literary genius. When the Doctor tells him about Rose, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakens in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, not seeing another gaseous entity take over young Redpath's body. As the Doctor and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Redpath and his grandmother come to life again, approaching Rose menacingly. The gas lamps in the house flicker, and the Doctor realises there is something living in the pipes. He hears Rose's cries and breaks the door down, pulling her away from the corpses. He asks them who they are, and the corpses cry that they are dying because the Rift is failing and these forms cannot be sustained. Then the blue vapours stream out of the dead, and the bodies collapse once more. Sneed explains that the house has had a reputation for being haunted, which is why he managed to buy it so cheaply. The Doctor explains that the house is built on the rift the aliens were referring to -- a break in spacetime that is growing. These entities are from across the universe. Dickens is still sceptical, refusing to believe that there are ghosts in the gas pipes. The Doctor tells him that as dead bodies release gas when they decompose, they are ideal vehicles for these gaseous aliens. Dickens tells the Doctor, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Rose, in the meantime, talks to Gwyneth, finding out that she was taken in by Sneed when she was twelve, after her parents died. Although they initially get along well, Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with the Doctor, mentioning the big bad wolf. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying that her abilities have been growing stronger recently. The Doctor has been listening, and surmises that Gwyneth's abilities are due to her growing up in this house over the rift, and she is the key. He suggests they hold a seance. Gwyneth manages to summon the aliens, who speak through her. They are the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed by the Time War and left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through the rift and take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but the Doctor insists that they have to help. Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest: she knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but the Doctor tells her that time is constantly in flux, and the future can be rewritten; nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". The Doctor warns the Gelth that this is only a temporary solution--once they possess the bodies, he will transport them to another place where they can build permanent ones. However, when Gwyneth stands at the rift, and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are much more than they originally implied. The Gelth show their true colours -- they do not just want bodies that are already dead, they are willing to kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the rift as the Gelth continue to stream in. Sneed has his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and is taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, runs in fear as the Doctor and Rose are backed up into a corner. The Doctor apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she tells him that she wanted to come. The Doctor holds her hand as they prepare to go out fighting together, and he tells Rose he is glad he met her. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street, and has a brainstorm. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes down into the morgue, doing the same, telling the Doctor what he is doing. The Doctor realises that by filling the house with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the dead bodies like poison from a wound. This is exactly what happens, the Gelth pouring out of the collapsing corpses and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. The Doctor tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here, and takes out a box of matches from her apron. The Doctor tells Dickens to get Rose out of there before the two succumb to the gas fumes, and tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth of the matter, and reluctantly leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in fire. The Doctor tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised that she was dead. He thinks Gwyneth died the moment she stood in the rift. Rose does not understand -- Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare, that "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" (Hamlet: Act 1, scene V). Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home--a servant girl saved the world, and nobody will ever know. Dickens thanks the Doctor as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope that there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental. He asks the Doctor if his books will last, and the Doctor assures a smiling Dickens that his work will last forever. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. The Doctor tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story, as he dies the following year. Right now, however, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He laughs out loud, and walks through the streets of Cardiff, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and declaring, "God bless us, everyone!" Cast Doctor Who -- Christopher EcclestonRose Tyler -- Billie PiperGabriel Sneed -- Alan DavidRedpath -- Huw RhysMrs Peace -- Jennifer HillGwyneth -- Eve MylesCharles Dickens -- Simon CallowStage Manager -- Wayne CaterDriver -- Meic PoveyThe Gelth -- Zoe Thorne Cast notes Simon Callow, who plays Dickens, has also written extensively about the writer and is well known for playing Dickens on television as well as in a one-man show. See celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.Eve Myles, who plays Gwyneth, subsequently stars in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood as Gwen Cooper. There is supposedly no connection between the two characters other than both characters living in Cardiff.[1].
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TDP: I have a cold
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 47 secondsSorry. no show this week. feeling a bit ill. I will try and get onto the Podshock live show on sunday night if my voice is upto it.heres hoping
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TPD Promo
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 42 secondsNew Promo - The Tin Dog Podcast.Hope you all like it.Feel free to use it anywhere you like.
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TPD Promo
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 42 secondsNew Promo - The Tin Dog Podcast.Hope you all like it.Feel free to use it anywhere you like.
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TPD Promo
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 42 secondsNew Promo - The Tin Dog Podcast.Hope you all like it.Feel free to use it anywhere you like.
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TDP: I have a cold
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 47 secondsSorry. no show this week. feeling a bit ill. I will try and get onto the Podshock live show on sunday night if my voice is upto it.heres hoping
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TPD Promo
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 42 secondsNew Promo - The Tin Dog Podcast.Hope you all like it.Feel free to use it anywhere you like.
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TDP: I have a cold
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 47 secondsSorry. no show this week. feeling a bit ill. I will try and get onto the Podshock live show on sunday night if my voice is upto it.heres hoping
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TPD Promo
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 42 secondsNew Promo - The Tin Dog Podcast.Hope you all like it.Feel free to use it anywhere you like.
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TDP 33: Time Crash (Fixed)
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 33 secondshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn_NDKNlUa8cut and paste the above link into your browser to see Time Crash "Time Crash" Doctor Who charity special "What!?" The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor. Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Writer Steven Moffat Director Graeme Harper Producer Phil Collinson Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Length 8 Minutes Originally broadcast November 16, 2007 Chronology ? Preceded by Followed by - "Last of the Time Lords" "Voyage of the Damned" "Time Crash" is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One as part of the 2007 appeal for the children's charity Children in Need on 16 November. It was written by Steven Moffat and starred David Tennant and Peter Davison as the Doctor.[1] The episode depicts an encounter between the Doctor's fifth and tenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was a ratings success, with a viewership of 10.9 million and a 45% share of the total television audience that night, making it both the most watched portion of the 2007 Children in Need special and the most watched Doctor Who episode since the show's 2005 revival.[2] //&amp;amp;amp;lt;![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;show&amp;amp;amp;quot;; var tocHideText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;hide&amp;amp;amp;quot;; showTocToggle(); } //]]&amp;amp;amp;gt; Plot After saying farewell to Martha, the Doctor sets off on his travels when the TARDIS encounters a problem, the result of which involves the Fifth Doctor appearing in the console room. The Tenth Doctor is gleeful at the meeting, but the Fifth Doctor is initially baffled, assuming his future incarnation is a deranged fan, possibly from LINDA. The Tenth Doctor explains that he forgot to put up the shields after rebuilding the TARDIS and it collided with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS (its earlier self) in the timestream. This is generating a paradox at the heart of the ship powerful enough to rip a hole in the universe the (exact) size of Belgium. The Cloister Bell signals the impending end. However, without a thought, the Tenth Doctor manipulates the TARDIS controls to manipulate a supernova into exact counterbalance; it cancels out the black hole caused by the paradox, so that all matter remains constant. This amazes the Fifth Doctor, but he quickly realises that the Tenth Doctor 'came up with' the solution only because he remembered this encounter. The Fifth Doctor says his farewells, and the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth of the personality traits that he retained from his fifth self, also telling him he loved being him and that he was "his" Doctor. As he departs, the Fifth Doctor reminds the Tenth to raise his shields again, but too late; as he is doing so, the hull of the RMS Titanic crashes through one of the TARDIS walls, as originally seen at the end of the last series. Cast The Doctor -- David TennantThe Doctor -- Peter Davison Cast notes Freema Agyeman appears, uncredited, as Martha Jones in footage from "Last of the Time Lords" at the start of the episode, adding to the established events depicted then.At 56 on the date of filming, Davison -- still the current record holder for the youngest actor to play the Doctor -- was older than William Hartnell was when he began his run as the First Doctor - at 55 the oldest anyone has been when they first played the Doctor. From an in-character point of view, the aged appearance of the Fifth Doctor was explained away as an effect of the merge. Continuity Both the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor make references to each other's respective storylines throughout the episode. The Tenth Doctor mentions Nyssa and Tegan, the Mara, Time Lords wearing silly hats, as well as commenting at length on the Fifth Doctor's clothing. The Fifth Doctor asks the Tenth Doctor if he's connected with LINDA and uses the phrase "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" first heard in "Blink", also by Steven Moffat. Other elements from the series such as Zeiton crystals, the helmic regulator and the thermobuffer are also mentioned. Both Doctors refer to common elements throughout the series such as the Cybermen and the Master. The Fifth asks if the Master still has "that rubbish beard" (referencing the fact that actors Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley portrayed the character with a beard), and the Tenth replies "No, no beard this time... well, a wife" (referring to Lucy Saxon). The Fifth Doctor also notes that the TARDIS's "desktop theme" has been changed, accounting for its radically different appearances throughout the series. The Tenth Doctor offers to help the Fifth Doctor fix the problem caused by the TARDIS merge through his sonic screwdriver, which the Fifth Doctor declines. The latter's own sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the serial The Visitation, as then-producer John Nathan-Turner saw it as an "easy way out" for writers to resolve any difficult situation the Doctor faced. The sonic screwdriver would never appear in the show again until the TV movie in 1996. During the original run of Doctor Who, the Doctor met different incarnations of "himself" in three stories: The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993) also featured all the five surviving Doctors at the time, with specially made busts standing in for the remaining two. In the Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999), also written by Moffat, the Doctor regenerated four times, resulting in five different actors playing the role. Multi-Doctor stories have also appeared in Doctor Who spin-off media. There were also several instances of the incidental music changing to a style more heavily favoured during the time that Peter Davison's episodes were produced. This differed greatly from the orchestral style of music now favoured by the programme. Chronology It is never explicitly stated where the Fifth Doctor's segment fits into his own continuity. From the Tenth Doctor's perspective, the special takes place at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords", immediately prior to the RMS Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. Production The episode was directed by Graeme Harper on October 7, 2007, who twenty-three years previously had directed Peter Davison's last regular appearance in Doctor Who in the serial The Caves of Androzani.[3] It was officially announced by the BBC on October 21.[1] According to the Doctor Who Confidential episode featuring behind-the-scenes footage, the Fifth Doctor's coat and trousers are originals taken from the Blackpool Doctor Who exhibition. The trousers had been previously altered in order to fit Colin Baker for the regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani (and the opening of The Twin Dilemma). The jumper was knitted especially for this episode, and the hat was a new roll-up panama hat with an original band added on. David Tennant mentioned in an interview the morning after airing that the Tenth Doctor's speech complimenting the Fifth Doctor's sense of style and personality was written by himself, and that the Fifth was his favourite Doctor.[citation needed] Previous Doctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years include the aforementioned Dimensions in Time, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "Doctor Who: Children in Need". The first two are generally not regarded as canonical by Doctor Who fans, but the last one is, directly connecting "The Parting of the Ways" with "The Christmas Invasion". The anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premier broadcast.[4] Broadcast, reception and release The episode was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness; Barrowman had just performed the song "Your Song". Children in Need was the most-watched television programme of the night, with an overnight rating of 9.4 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 10.9 million viewers. The episode is therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Calls also peaked during the episode's airing.[5] When the episode was replayed later that night it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[6] Critical reaction was positive, with reviewers calling it the highlight of the Children in Need special.[7][8] Steven Moffat was praised for his writing of the episode, which was characterized as witty and clever.[7][9] The performances of both Peter Davison and David Tennant were also well-received.[10][8] See also Blinovitch Limitation Effect
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TDP 33: Time Crash (Fixed)
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 33 secondshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn_NDKNlUa8cut and paste the above link into your browser to see Time Crash "Time Crash" Doctor Who charity special "What!?" The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor. Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Writer Steven Moffat Director Graeme Harper Producer Phil Collinson Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Length 8 Minutes Originally broadcast November 16, 2007 Chronology ? Preceded by Followed by - "Last of the Time Lords" "Voyage of the Damned" "Time Crash" is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One as part of the 2007 appeal for the children's charity Children in Need on 16 November. It was written by Steven Moffat and starred David Tennant and Peter Davison as the Doctor.[1] The episode depicts an encounter between the Doctor's fifth and tenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was a ratings success, with a viewership of 10.9 million and a 45% share of the total television audience that night, making it both the most watched portion of the 2007 Children in Need special and the most watched Doctor Who episode since the show's 2005 revival.[2] //&amp;amp;amp;lt;![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;show&amp;amp;amp;quot;; var tocHideText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;hide&amp;amp;amp;quot;; showTocToggle(); } //]]&amp;amp;amp;gt; Plot After saying farewell to Martha, the Doctor sets off on his travels when the TARDIS encounters a problem, the result of which involves the Fifth Doctor appearing in the console room. The Tenth Doctor is gleeful at the meeting, but the Fifth Doctor is initially baffled, assuming his future incarnation is a deranged fan, possibly from LINDA. The Tenth Doctor explains that he forgot to put up the shields after rebuilding the TARDIS and it collided with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS (its earlier self) in the timestream. This is generating a paradox at the heart of the ship powerful enough to rip a hole in the universe the (exact) size of Belgium. The Cloister Bell signals the impending end. However, without a thought, the Tenth Doctor manipulates the TARDIS controls to manipulate a supernova into exact counterbalance; it cancels out the black hole caused by the paradox, so that all matter remains constant. This amazes the Fifth Doctor, but he quickly realises that the Tenth Doctor 'came up with' the solution only because he remembered this encounter. The Fifth Doctor says his farewells, and the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth of the personality traits that he retained from his fifth self, also telling him he loved being him and that he was "his" Doctor. As he departs, the Fifth Doctor reminds the Tenth to raise his shields again, but too late; as he is doing so, the hull of the RMS Titanic crashes through one of the TARDIS walls, as originally seen at the end of the last series. Cast The Doctor -- David TennantThe Doctor -- Peter Davison Cast notes Freema Agyeman appears, uncredited, as Martha Jones in footage from "Last of the Time Lords" at the start of the episode, adding to the established events depicted then.At 56 on the date of filming, Davison -- still the current record holder for the youngest actor to play the Doctor -- was older than William Hartnell was when he began his run as the First Doctor - at 55 the oldest anyone has been when they first played the Doctor. From an in-character point of view, the aged appearance of the Fifth Doctor was explained away as an effect of the merge. Continuity Both the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor make references to each other's respective storylines throughout the episode. The Tenth Doctor mentions Nyssa and Tegan, the Mara, Time Lords wearing silly hats, as well as commenting at length on the Fifth Doctor's clothing. The Fifth Doctor asks the Tenth Doctor if he's connected with LINDA and uses the phrase "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" first heard in "Blink", also by Steven Moffat. Other elements from the series such as Zeiton crystals, the helmic regulator and the thermobuffer are also mentioned. Both Doctors refer to common elements throughout the series such as the Cybermen and the Master. The Fifth asks if the Master still has "that rubbish beard" (referencing the fact that actors Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley portrayed the character with a beard), and the Tenth replies "No, no beard this time... well, a wife" (referring to Lucy Saxon). The Fifth Doctor also notes that the TARDIS's "desktop theme" has been changed, accounting for its radically different appearances throughout the series. The Tenth Doctor offers to help the Fifth Doctor fix the problem caused by the TARDIS merge through his sonic screwdriver, which the Fifth Doctor declines. The latter's own sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the serial The Visitation, as then-producer John Nathan-Turner saw it as an "easy way out" for writers to resolve any difficult situation the Doctor faced. The sonic screwdriver would never appear in the show again until the TV movie in 1996. During the original run of Doctor Who, the Doctor met different incarnations of "himself" in three stories: The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993) also featured all the five surviving Doctors at the time, with specially made busts standing in for the remaining two. In the Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999), also written by Moffat, the Doctor regenerated four times, resulting in five different actors playing the role. Multi-Doctor stories have also appeared in Doctor Who spin-off media. There were also several instances of the incidental music changing to a style more heavily favoured during the time that Peter Davison's episodes were produced. This differed greatly from the orchestral style of music now favoured by the programme. Chronology It is never explicitly stated where the Fifth Doctor's segment fits into his own continuity. From the Tenth Doctor's perspective, the special takes place at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords", immediately prior to the RMS Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. Production The episode was directed by Graeme Harper on October 7, 2007, who twenty-three years previously had directed Peter Davison's last regular appearance in Doctor Who in the serial The Caves of Androzani.[3] It was officially announced by the BBC on October 21.[1] According to the Doctor Who Confidential episode featuring behind-the-scenes footage, the Fifth Doctor's coat and trousers are originals taken from the Blackpool Doctor Who exhibition. The trousers had been previously altered in order to fit Colin Baker for the regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani (and the opening of The Twin Dilemma). The jumper was knitted especially for this episode, and the hat was a new roll-up panama hat with an original band added on. David Tennant mentioned in an interview the morning after airing that the Tenth Doctor's speech complimenting the Fifth Doctor's sense of style and personality was written by himself, and that the Fifth was his favourite Doctor.[citation needed] Previous Doctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years include the aforementioned Dimensions in Time, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "Doctor Who: Children in Need". The first two are generally not regarded as canonical by Doctor Who fans, but the last one is, directly connecting "The Parting of the Ways" with "The Christmas Invasion". The anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premier broadcast.[4] Broadcast, reception and release The episode was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness; Barrowman had just performed the song "Your Song". Children in Need was the most-watched television programme of the night, with an overnight rating of 9.4 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 10.9 million viewers. The episode is therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Calls also peaked during the episode's airing.[5] When the episode was replayed later that night it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[6] Critical reaction was positive, with reviewers calling it the highlight of the Children in Need special.[7][8] Steven Moffat was praised for his writing of the episode, which was characterized as witty and clever.[7][9] The performances of both Peter Davison and David Tennant were also well-received.[10][8] See also Blinovitch Limitation Effect
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TDP 33: Time Crash (Fixed)
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 33 secondshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn_NDKNlUa8cut and paste the above link into your browser to see Time Crash "Time Crash" Doctor Who charity special "What!?" The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor. Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Writer Steven Moffat Director Graeme Harper Producer Phil Collinson Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Length 8 Minutes Originally broadcast November 16, 2007 Chronology ? Preceded by Followed by - "Last of the Time Lords" "Voyage of the Damned" "Time Crash" is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One as part of the 2007 appeal for the children's charity Children in Need on 16 November. It was written by Steven Moffat and starred David Tennant and Peter Davison as the Doctor.[1] The episode depicts an encounter between the Doctor's fifth and tenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was a ratings success, with a viewership of 10.9 million and a 45% share of the total television audience that night, making it both the most watched portion of the 2007 Children in Need special and the most watched Doctor Who episode since the show's 2005 revival.[2] //&amp;amp;amp;lt;![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;show&amp;amp;amp;quot;; var tocHideText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;hide&amp;amp;amp;quot;; showTocToggle(); } //]]&amp;amp;amp;gt; Plot After saying farewell to Martha, the Doctor sets off on his travels when the TARDIS encounters a problem, the result of which involves the Fifth Doctor appearing in the console room. The Tenth Doctor is gleeful at the meeting, but the Fifth Doctor is initially baffled, assuming his future incarnation is a deranged fan, possibly from LINDA. The Tenth Doctor explains that he forgot to put up the shields after rebuilding the TARDIS and it collided with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS (its earlier self) in the timestream. This is generating a paradox at the heart of the ship powerful enough to rip a hole in the universe the (exact) size of Belgium. The Cloister Bell signals the impending end. However, without a thought, the Tenth Doctor manipulates the TARDIS controls to manipulate a supernova into exact counterbalance; it cancels out the black hole caused by the paradox, so that all matter remains constant. This amazes the Fifth Doctor, but he quickly realises that the Tenth Doctor 'came up with' the solution only because he remembered this encounter. The Fifth Doctor says his farewells, and the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth of the personality traits that he retained from his fifth self, also telling him he loved being him and that he was "his" Doctor. As he departs, the Fifth Doctor reminds the Tenth to raise his shields again, but too late; as he is doing so, the hull of the RMS Titanic crashes through one of the TARDIS walls, as originally seen at the end of the last series. Cast The Doctor -- David TennantThe Doctor -- Peter Davison Cast notes Freema Agyeman appears, uncredited, as Martha Jones in footage from "Last of the Time Lords" at the start of the episode, adding to the established events depicted then.At 56 on the date of filming, Davison -- still the current record holder for the youngest actor to play the Doctor -- was older than William Hartnell was when he began his run as the First Doctor - at 55 the oldest anyone has been when they first played the Doctor. From an in-character point of view, the aged appearance of the Fifth Doctor was explained away as an effect of the merge. Continuity Both the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor make references to each other's respective storylines throughout the episode. The Tenth Doctor mentions Nyssa and Tegan, the Mara, Time Lords wearing silly hats, as well as commenting at length on the Fifth Doctor's clothing. The Fifth Doctor asks the Tenth Doctor if he's connected with LINDA and uses the phrase "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" first heard in "Blink", also by Steven Moffat. Other elements from the series such as Zeiton crystals, the helmic regulator and the thermobuffer are also mentioned. Both Doctors refer to common elements throughout the series such as the Cybermen and the Master. The Fifth asks if the Master still has "that rubbish beard" (referencing the fact that actors Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley portrayed the character with a beard), and the Tenth replies "No, no beard this time... well, a wife" (referring to Lucy Saxon). The Fifth Doctor also notes that the TARDIS's "desktop theme" has been changed, accounting for its radically different appearances throughout the series. The Tenth Doctor offers to help the Fifth Doctor fix the problem caused by the TARDIS merge through his sonic screwdriver, which the Fifth Doctor declines. The latter's own sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the serial The Visitation, as then-producer John Nathan-Turner saw it as an "easy way out" for writers to resolve any difficult situation the Doctor faced. The sonic screwdriver would never appear in the show again until the TV movie in 1996. During the original run of Doctor Who, the Doctor met different incarnations of "himself" in three stories: The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993) also featured all the five surviving Doctors at the time, with specially made busts standing in for the remaining two. In the Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999), also written by Moffat, the Doctor regenerated four times, resulting in five different actors playing the role. Multi-Doctor stories have also appeared in Doctor Who spin-off media. There were also several instances of the incidental music changing to a style more heavily favoured during the time that Peter Davison's episodes were produced. This differed greatly from the orchestral style of music now favoured by the programme. Chronology It is never explicitly stated where the Fifth Doctor's segment fits into his own continuity. From the Tenth Doctor's perspective, the special takes place at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords", immediately prior to the RMS Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. Production The episode was directed by Graeme Harper on October 7, 2007, who twenty-three years previously had directed Peter Davison's last regular appearance in Doctor Who in the serial The Caves of Androzani.[3] It was officially announced by the BBC on October 21.[1] According to the Doctor Who Confidential episode featuring behind-the-scenes footage, the Fifth Doctor's coat and trousers are originals taken from the Blackpool Doctor Who exhibition. The trousers had been previously altered in order to fit Colin Baker for the regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani (and the opening of The Twin Dilemma). The jumper was knitted especially for this episode, and the hat was a new roll-up panama hat with an original band added on. David Tennant mentioned in an interview the morning after airing that the Tenth Doctor's speech complimenting the Fifth Doctor's sense of style and personality was written by himself, and that the Fifth was his favourite Doctor.[citation needed] Previous Doctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years include the aforementioned Dimensions in Time, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "Doctor Who: Children in Need". The first two are generally not regarded as canonical by Doctor Who fans, but the last one is, directly connecting "The Parting of the Ways" with "The Christmas Invasion". The anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premier broadcast.[4] Broadcast, reception and release The episode was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness; Barrowman had just performed the song "Your Song". Children in Need was the most-watched television programme of the night, with an overnight rating of 9.4 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 10.9 million viewers. The episode is therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Calls also peaked during the episode's airing.[5] When the episode was replayed later that night it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[6] Critical reaction was positive, with reviewers calling it the highlight of the Children in Need special.[7][8] Steven Moffat was praised for his writing of the episode, which was characterized as witty and clever.[7][9] The performances of both Peter Davison and David Tennant were also well-received.[10][8] See also Blinovitch Limitation Effect
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TDP 33: Time Crash (Fixed)
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 33 secondshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn_NDKNlUa8cut and paste the above link into your browser to see Time Crash "Time Crash" Doctor Who charity special "What!?" The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor. Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Writer Steven Moffat Director Graeme Harper Producer Phil Collinson Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Length 8 Minutes Originally broadcast November 16, 2007 Chronology ? Preceded by Followed by - "Last of the Time Lords" "Voyage of the Damned" "Time Crash" is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One as part of the 2007 appeal for the children's charity Children in Need on 16 November. It was written by Steven Moffat and starred David Tennant and Peter Davison as the Doctor.[1] The episode depicts an encounter between the Doctor's fifth and tenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was a ratings success, with a viewership of 10.9 million and a 45% share of the total television audience that night, making it both the most watched portion of the 2007 Children in Need special and the most watched Doctor Who episode since the show's 2005 revival.[2] //&amp;amp;amp;lt;![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;show&amp;amp;amp;quot;; var tocHideText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;hide&amp;amp;amp;quot;; showTocToggle(); } //]]&amp;amp;amp;gt; Plot After saying farewell to Martha, the Doctor sets off on his travels when the TARDIS encounters a problem, the result of which involves the Fifth Doctor appearing in the console room. The Tenth Doctor is gleeful at the meeting, but the Fifth Doctor is initially baffled, assuming his future incarnation is a deranged fan, possibly from LINDA. The Tenth Doctor explains that he forgot to put up the shields after rebuilding the TARDIS and it collided with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS (its earlier self) in the timestream. This is generating a paradox at the heart of the ship powerful enough to rip a hole in the universe the (exact) size of Belgium. The Cloister Bell signals the impending end. However, without a thought, the Tenth Doctor manipulates the TARDIS controls to manipulate a supernova into exact counterbalance; it cancels out the black hole caused by the paradox, so that all matter remains constant. This amazes the Fifth Doctor, but he quickly realises that the Tenth Doctor 'came up with' the solution only because he remembered this encounter. The Fifth Doctor says his farewells, and the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth of the personality traits that he retained from his fifth self, also telling him he loved being him and that he was "his" Doctor. As he departs, the Fifth Doctor reminds the Tenth to raise his shields again, but too late; as he is doing so, the hull of the RMS Titanic crashes through one of the TARDIS walls, as originally seen at the end of the last series. Cast The Doctor -- David TennantThe Doctor -- Peter Davison Cast notes Freema Agyeman appears, uncredited, as Martha Jones in footage from "Last of the Time Lords" at the start of the episode, adding to the established events depicted then.At 56 on the date of filming, Davison -- still the current record holder for the youngest actor to play the Doctor -- was older than William Hartnell was when he began his run as the First Doctor - at 55 the oldest anyone has been when they first played the Doctor. From an in-character point of view, the aged appearance of the Fifth Doctor was explained away as an effect of the merge. Continuity Both the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor make references to each other's respective storylines throughout the episode. The Tenth Doctor mentions Nyssa and Tegan, the Mara, Time Lords wearing silly hats, as well as commenting at length on the Fifth Doctor's clothing. The Fifth Doctor asks the Tenth Doctor if he's connected with LINDA and uses the phrase "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" first heard in "Blink", also by Steven Moffat. Other elements from the series such as Zeiton crystals, the helmic regulator and the thermobuffer are also mentioned. Both Doctors refer to common elements throughout the series such as the Cybermen and the Master. The Fifth asks if the Master still has "that rubbish beard" (referencing the fact that actors Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley portrayed the character with a beard), and the Tenth replies "No, no beard this time... well, a wife" (referring to Lucy Saxon). The Fifth Doctor also notes that the TARDIS's "desktop theme" has been changed, accounting for its radically different appearances throughout the series. The Tenth Doctor offers to help the Fifth Doctor fix the problem caused by the TARDIS merge through his sonic screwdriver, which the Fifth Doctor declines. The latter's own sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the serial The Visitation, as then-producer John Nathan-Turner saw it as an "easy way out" for writers to resolve any difficult situation the Doctor faced. The sonic screwdriver would never appear in the show again until the TV movie in 1996. During the original run of Doctor Who, the Doctor met different incarnations of "himself" in three stories: The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993) also featured all the five surviving Doctors at the time, with specially made busts standing in for the remaining two. In the Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999), also written by Moffat, the Doctor regenerated four times, resulting in five different actors playing the role. Multi-Doctor stories have also appeared in Doctor Who spin-off media. There were also several instances of the incidental music changing to a style more heavily favoured during the time that Peter Davison's episodes were produced. This differed greatly from the orchestral style of music now favoured by the programme. Chronology It is never explicitly stated where the Fifth Doctor's segment fits into his own continuity. From the Tenth Doctor's perspective, the special takes place at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords", immediately prior to the RMS Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. Production The episode was directed by Graeme Harper on October 7, 2007, who twenty-three years previously had directed Peter Davison's last regular appearance in Doctor Who in the serial The Caves of Androzani.[3] It was officially announced by the BBC on October 21.[1] According to the Doctor Who Confidential episode featuring behind-the-scenes footage, the Fifth Doctor's coat and trousers are originals taken from the Blackpool Doctor Who exhibition. The trousers had been previously altered in order to fit Colin Baker for the regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani (and the opening of The Twin Dilemma). The jumper was knitted especially for this episode, and the hat was a new roll-up panama hat with an original band added on. David Tennant mentioned in an interview the morning after airing that the Tenth Doctor's speech complimenting the Fifth Doctor's sense of style and personality was written by himself, and that the Fifth was his favourite Doctor.[citation needed] Previous Doctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years include the aforementioned Dimensions in Time, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "Doctor Who: Children in Need". The first two are generally not regarded as canonical by Doctor Who fans, but the last one is, directly connecting "The Parting of the Ways" with "The Christmas Invasion". The anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premier broadcast.[4] Broadcast, reception and release The episode was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness; Barrowman had just performed the song "Your Song". Children in Need was the most-watched television programme of the night, with an overnight rating of 9.4 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 10.9 million viewers. The episode is therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Calls also peaked during the episode's airing.[5] When the episode was replayed later that night it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[6] Critical reaction was positive, with reviewers calling it the highlight of the Children in Need special.[7][8] Steven Moffat was praised for his writing of the episode, which was characterized as witty and clever.[7][9] The performances of both Peter Davison and David Tennant were also well-received.[10][8] See also Blinovitch Limitation Effect
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TDP 33: Time Crash (Fixed)
Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 33 secondshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn_NDKNlUa8cut and paste the above link into your browser to see Time Crash "Time Crash" Doctor Who charity special "What!?" The Tenth Doctor meets the Fifth Doctor. Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Writer Steven Moffat Director Graeme Harper Producer Phil Collinson Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Length 8 Minutes Originally broadcast November 16, 2007 Chronology ? Preceded by Followed by - "Last of the Time Lords" "Voyage of the Damned" "Time Crash" is a "mini-episode" of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One as part of the 2007 appeal for the children's charity Children in Need on 16 November. It was written by Steven Moffat and starred David Tennant and Peter Davison as the Doctor.[1] The episode depicts an encounter between the Doctor's fifth and tenth incarnations, played by Davison and Tennant respectively. "Time Crash" was a ratings success, with a viewership of 10.9 million and a 45% share of the total television audience that night, making it both the most watched portion of the 2007 Children in Need special and the most watched Doctor Who episode since the show's 2005 revival.[2] //&amp;amp;amp;lt;![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;show&amp;amp;amp;quot;; var tocHideText = &amp;amp;amp;quot;hide&amp;amp;amp;quot;; showTocToggle(); } //]]&amp;amp;amp;gt; Plot After saying farewell to Martha, the Doctor sets off on his travels when the TARDIS encounters a problem, the result of which involves the Fifth Doctor appearing in the console room. The Tenth Doctor is gleeful at the meeting, but the Fifth Doctor is initially baffled, assuming his future incarnation is a deranged fan, possibly from LINDA. The Tenth Doctor explains that he forgot to put up the shields after rebuilding the TARDIS and it collided with the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS (its earlier self) in the timestream. This is generating a paradox at the heart of the ship powerful enough to rip a hole in the universe the (exact) size of Belgium. The Cloister Bell signals the impending end. However, without a thought, the Tenth Doctor manipulates the TARDIS controls to manipulate a supernova into exact counterbalance; it cancels out the black hole caused by the paradox, so that all matter remains constant. This amazes the Fifth Doctor, but he quickly realises that the Tenth Doctor 'came up with' the solution only because he remembered this encounter. The Fifth Doctor says his farewells, and the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth of the personality traits that he retained from his fifth self, also telling him he loved being him and that he was "his" Doctor. As he departs, the Fifth Doctor reminds the Tenth to raise his shields again, but too late; as he is doing so, the hull of the RMS Titanic crashes through one of the TARDIS walls, as originally seen at the end of the last series. Cast The Doctor -- David TennantThe Doctor -- Peter Davison Cast notes Freema Agyeman appears, uncredited, as Martha Jones in footage from "Last of the Time Lords" at the start of the episode, adding to the established events depicted then.At 56 on the date of filming, Davison -- still the current record holder for the youngest actor to play the Doctor -- was older than William Hartnell was when he began his run as the First Doctor - at 55 the oldest anyone has been when they first played the Doctor. From an in-character point of view, the aged appearance of the Fifth Doctor was explained away as an effect of the merge. Continuity Both the Fifth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor make references to each other's respective storylines throughout the episode. The Tenth Doctor mentions Nyssa and Tegan, the Mara, Time Lords wearing silly hats, as well as commenting at length on the Fifth Doctor's clothing. The Fifth Doctor asks the Tenth Doctor if he's connected with LINDA and uses the phrase "Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" first heard in "Blink", also by Steven Moffat. Other elements from the series such as Zeiton crystals, the helmic regulator and the thermobuffer are also mentioned. Both Doctors refer to common elements throughout the series such as the Cybermen and the Master. The Fifth asks if the Master still has "that rubbish beard" (referencing the fact that actors Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley portrayed the character with a beard), and the Tenth replies "No, no beard this time... well, a wife" (referring to Lucy Saxon). The Fifth Doctor also notes that the TARDIS's "desktop theme" has been changed, accounting for its radically different appearances throughout the series. The Tenth Doctor offers to help the Fifth Doctor fix the problem caused by the TARDIS merge through his sonic screwdriver, which the Fifth Doctor declines. The latter's own sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the serial The Visitation, as then-producer John Nathan-Turner saw it as an "easy way out" for writers to resolve any difficult situation the Doctor faced. The sonic screwdriver would never appear in the show again until the TV movie in 1996. During the original run of Doctor Who, the Doctor met different incarnations of "himself" in three stories: The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983) and The Two Doctors (1985). The Children in Need special Dimensions in Time (1993) also featured all the five surviving Doctors at the time, with specially made busts standing in for the remaining two. In the Comic Relief sketch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death (1999), also written by Moffat, the Doctor regenerated four times, resulting in five different actors playing the role. Multi-Doctor stories have also appeared in Doctor Who spin-off media. There were also several instances of the incidental music changing to a style more heavily favoured during the time that Peter Davison's episodes were produced. This differed greatly from the orchestral style of music now favoured by the programme. Chronology It is never explicitly stated where the Fifth Doctor's segment fits into his own continuity. From the Tenth Doctor's perspective, the special takes place at the very end of "Last of the Time Lords", immediately prior to the RMS Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. Production The episode was directed by Graeme Harper on October 7, 2007, who twenty-three years previously had directed Peter Davison's last regular appearance in Doctor Who in the serial The Caves of Androzani.[3] It was officially announced by the BBC on October 21.[1] According to the Doctor Who Confidential episode featuring behind-the-scenes footage, the Fifth Doctor's coat and trousers are originals taken from the Blackpool Doctor Who exhibition. The trousers had been previously altered in order to fit Colin Baker for the regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani (and the opening of The Twin Dilemma). The jumper was knitted especially for this episode, and the hat was a new roll-up panama hat with an original band added on. David Tennant mentioned in an interview the morning after airing that the Tenth Doctor's speech complimenting the Fifth Doctor's sense of style and personality was written by himself, and that the Fifth was his favourite Doctor.[citation needed] Previous Doctor Who charity specials transmitted over the years include the aforementioned Dimensions in Time, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death and "Doctor Who: Children in Need". The first two are generally not regarded as canonical by Doctor Who fans, but the last one is, directly connecting "The Parting of the Ways" with "The Christmas Invasion". The anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast on Children in Need night for its United Kingdom premier broadcast.[4] Broadcast, reception and release The episode was introduced by Terry Wogan and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness; Barrowman had just performed the song "Your Song". Children in Need was the most-watched television programme of the night, with an overnight rating of 9.4 million viewers, and figures peaked between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, when "Time Crash" was aired, with a total of 10.9 million viewers. The episode is therefore the most-viewed since the show's revival in 2005, surpassing the revival's premiere, "Rose", which achieved a rating of 10.8 million viewers.[2] Calls also peaked during the episode's airing.[5] When the episode was replayed later that night it garnered an audience of 2.5 million viewers.[6] Critical reaction was positive, with reviewers calling it the highlight of the Children in Need special.[7][8] Steven Moffat was praised for his writing of the episode, which was characterized as witty and clever.[7][9] The performances of both Peter Davison and David Tennant were also well-received.[10][8] See also Blinovitch Limitation Effect