Sound doesn't wobble ('Doctor Who' audio)

For our next journey into the expanded universe, we cover the many audio dramas produced for Doctor Who over the years. Radio plays are still popular in the UK; the BBC’s soap opera The Archers has been running on Radio 4 since 1950, when that station was called the Light Programme, and still gets about six million listeners[1]!

There have been a lot of sound-only tales, so I will be going by the ‘series’ we have had.

Please note that this list excludes single-person audiobooks – many are merely dramatic readings of print works. I may well have missed some of the works – please let me know if I have.

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We’ll start with the audios produced by the BBC and various independent companies; there are not as many of these.

Glorious Goodwood (1974)

A ten-minute, ultimately not broadcast, tale featuring the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane, apparently intended to be broadcast in conjunction with an appearance at Goodwood racecourse. It was released on CD in 2005.

Doctor Who and the Pescatons (1976)

The first licenced Doctor Who audio (produced by Argo for LP release), narrated by Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor and featuring Lis Sladen, along with Bill Mitchell, a well-known voiceover artist. My review is here. It was clearly not a great success as Argo did not do another one.

Exploration Earth (1976)

The first broadcast drama, aired as part of a BBC Schools Radio series of the same name; this also featured the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane.

Audio Visuals (1984-1991)

A series of 26 cassette-based stories with original Doctors, this one was definitely unlicensed[2] – if the BBC hadn’t chosen to turn a blind eye to it (it wasn’t that widely distributed), a copyright suit would have been a slam dunk for them. In fact, they didn’t just let it slide, they would later hire two of the key people involved for the revival; Nicholas Briggs to do monster voices and Gary Russell as a script editor.

While the originals are not available, Big Finish remade five of them for their own official range, such as Cuddlesome, which was released as a free CD with Doctor Who Magazine 393 and starred Peter Davison – and made a sequel to another.

Slipback (1985)

Aired during the 18-month gap between Seasons 22 and 23, this six part drama was aired on Pirate Radio Four, a Radio 4 children’s magazine show. Starring the Sixth Doctor and Peri, my review can be found here.

Paradise of Death (1993)

Another Radio 4 drama; this one with the Third Doctor, Sarah Jane, the Brigadier and original companion Jeremy Fitzoliver investigating a strange death at a theme park.

It is available on CD and iTunes; as well as that, it became the final Target Books novelisation.

The Ghosts of N-Space (1996)

The four characters mentioned above made a repeat appearance in what would be the final official appearance of Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, in a tale set in Italy; I review it here.

Audio Adventures in Time & Space (1998-2004)

As well as videos, BBV Productions also produced a number of audios; the first being “The Time Travellers”, which featured Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, initially playing characters that were the Seventh Doctor and Ace in all but name… to the point that between season 1 and 2, the BBC had a stern word with them. The characters were duly changed considerably.

Most of the works are excluded from coverage by the Tardis Data Core, such as Lawrence Miles’ Faction Paradox series, loosely based on a group in the Eighth Doctor novels, but with a lot of references altered to avoid infringement.

A number of classic monsters turned up, such as the Zygons and the Krynoids (“Seeds of Doom”) – K9 also turned up in two audio adventures, with Lalla Ward playing “The Mistress” as they could not get the rights to Romana, a BBC property. In general, there was a lot of careful manoeuvring to avoid getting sued.

BBV stopped making these in 2004 and these are increasingly only available second hand.

AudioGo Fourth Doctor stories (2009-2011)

After a long break from the role, Tom Baker finally reprised his role as the Fourth Doctor in three series of audio adventures from the audiobook company AudioGo – titled Hornet’s Nest, Demon Quest and Serpent Crest. These featured Mike Yates and new companion Fennella Wibbsey, the latter the Doctor’s housekeeper in his Sussex country home, played by very well-known actor Susan Jameson.

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Then we move onto Big Finish Productions, by far the largest producer of licenced Doctor Who audio[3] since 1999. Their recently extended licence covers only the first eight Doctors; they cannot cover the Time War or the new era (those rights belong to the BBC), but this has not stopped the occasional cheeky reference[4] – they also have to stay away from anything too close to planned episodes. More than one of their team has gone on to work for the show proper – and some of these audios have been broadcast on BBC7 (now BBC Radio 4 Extra).

Big Finish has featured nearly all the living classic regulars reprising their roles, with the exception of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric and Grace from the TV movie (the latter due to rights issues with FOX). In addition, they have created a number of new companions for their series, the most notable being:

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Evelyn Smythe, a retired professor

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Erimem, a princess  from ancient Egypt

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Lucie Miller, played by Sheridan Smith – now a well-known TV and stage actor in the UK[5].

BF has a general ‘no-recast’ policy when it comes to those characters whose actors have passed away, although they have made some exceptions.

This list covers most of them, but excludes subscriber-only releases and ones given away with Doctor Who Magazine. Some of these releases were box sets containing multiple releases or shorter bonus stories.

Main Range (1999-present, 180 released or announced to November 2013)

Featuring the 5^th to 8^th Doctors – indeed the first story featured three Doctors – this ‘main range’ is a series of full cast adventures, as most of these are, released one a month. A number of stories here have provided strong influence on later episodes of the TV series:

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Colditz (2001): Which featured David Tennant playing a Nazi. Tennant featured in a number of audios before becoming the Tenth Doctor.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>The One Doctor (2001): A comedy Christmas tale guest starring Christopher Biggins, this is the clear inspiration for “The Next Doctor”.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Spare Parts (2002): A Cyberman origin story, which clearly impacted on “Rise of the Cyberman/The  Age of Steel”.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Jubilee (2002): A Dalek story that is the strong basis for “Dalek” – boxes from ‘Jubilee Pizza’ feature there and in Torchwood.

Fourth Doctor Stories (2012-present, 22 CDs released or announced to August 2014)

Adventures featuring Tom Baker’s Doctor (natch) with Leela, although the second season featured Romana I – Mary Tamm recording seven plays before her death. There are none with Romana II – it is generally believed not to be a good idea to put Baker and Lalla Ward in the same room.

The New Eighth Doctor stories (33 releases, 2007-2012)

Featuring, for most them, Sheridan Smith’s Lucie Miller, these ones see a progressively darker Eighth Doctor, who notably changes his costume and hairstyle towards the end of the run. The first season of these was broadcast on BBC7.

Bernice Summerfield (71 stories released or announced to September 2013, 1998-present)

Lara Crofting before Tomb Raider, Bernice “Benny” Summerfield (voiced by Lisa Bowerman, who is also her ‘model’ for CD covers) made her debut in the Virgin New Adventures novel Love and War in 1992 (that novel has since got a BF adaptation)[6] and was so popular she got her own spinoff novel series after Virgin lost the rights to the main show. This was an audio spinoff of that – this was the first lot of audios that Big Finish did, before they got the IP proper.

The Companion Chronicles (2007-present, 85 released or announced to September 2014)

A series of two-hander audiobooks/mini-adventures, recounted by a companion with another actor playing a key role in the story, this series mainly covers the first four Doctors, all of whom were unavailable at the time of first commissioning (although others have featured), three by the good reason of death.

Counter-Measures (2012-present 8 stories in two box sets announced or released to July 2013)

A series focussing on a proto-UNIT, the Intrusion Countermeasures Group (ICMG) featured in “Remembrance of the Daleks”, as they investigate alien phenomena in 1964 Britain.

Cyberman (8 stories, 2005-9)

A two season set and the follow-up to the next entry, focussing on the Orion War in the 26^th century, implied to be part of the Cyber Wars.

Dalek Empire (18 stories, 2001-2008)

A spin-off from four stories in the main run, this focussed on the Dalek invasion and conquest of the Milky Way in the 42^nd century – along with another war 2,500 years later. This was BF’s first spinoff not focussing on a pre-existing character.

Doctor Who Unbound (8 stories, 2003-8)

A series of ‘what-if’ tales, looking at alternative universes and ‘unbound’ incarnations, such as the Doctor never leaving Gallifrey or a Doctor that believed the ends justified the means.

The Early Adventures (announced for 2014)

Featuring the early Doctors, few details are currently available.

Gallifrey  (2004-2013, 24 released or announced)

Set on the Time Lord home world, this series of political thrillers features Leela and the second Romana, the latter having become Lady President, as they deal with enemies alien and domestic.

Graceless (2010-present, 9 stories released or announced to June 2013)

A spinoff from the Key 2 Time arc in the main run (another hunt for the Key to Time), featuring two characters, Abby and Zara[7] from that.

Iris Wildthyme (2005-12, 10 audios)

Starring Katy Manning (who played Jo) as Iris Wildthyme, who claimed to be a Time Lady but was in fact something else – although she certainly liked the gin and tonic. First featuring in Paul Magrs’ non-Who novels, she made her way into the Whoniverse.

Jago and Litefoot (2010-present, 32 released or announced to December 2014)

Set in 1890s London, this spinoff featuring one of Robert Holmes’ most popular double acts (from “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”) is also one of BF’s most popular ranges, featuring the two characters solving mysteries.

The Lost Stories (2009-present, 23 released or announced to December 2013)

Stories intended for TV airing that were never made for various reasons i.e. other things were picked instead or external events intervened, such as the hiatus. This includes many of the planned tales for the original Season 23, but also other tales like “Farewell Great Macedon” (for the first Doctor) and the bizarre “Prison in Space”, intended for Season 6, that would have seen Jamie in drag and the Doctor have to smack Zoe’s bottom to deprogram her after brainwashing[8].

Sarah Jane Smith (2002-2006, 9 stories)

Featuring the companion in a modern day setting on Earth, after she left the Doctor in “The Hand of Fear”, this series was ended early when The Sarah Jane Adventures was announced and Lis Sladen became contracted for that. The final story, “Dreamland”, was ended on a cliffhanger (as a third season had been planned) and any plans to finish it off were permanently ended by Sladen’s death in 2011.

UNIT (2004-2005, 5 audios – UNIT: Dominion is not part of this range)

A modern day series featuring UNIT and with the Brig popping up – the last of these was David Tennant’s final audio role, released the same month he first appeared as the Doctor.

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It’s clear from this that there has been a great deal of EU media – in fact, it’s been claimed, with much justification, that more works of fiction have been published about the Doctor than any other fictional character.

In our next edition, we look at one of the oldest mediums of fiction of them all… the printed word.

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[1]The show is the longest-running soap opera still going since CBS’ Guiding Light was cancelled after 72 years in 2009. It was also the source of the BBC’s first shot in the ratings war with ITV – when Associated Rediffusion launched as the first franchise (for the London weekday slot) on 22 September 1955, The Archers killed off a character in a fire.

[2]This would make it fan fiction… but the significance of it is such as that it has to be included.

[3]They don’t just do Doctor Who. Their other ranges include Stargate SG-1, Blake’s 7, Highlander and 2000 AD… that’s just for starters. Original works include the Mervyn Stone mysteries, where a former sci-fi script editor loosely based on Terrance Dicks investigates sci-fi related murders. I’ve bought the first novel and review it here.

[4]BF are producing audios for Nine to Eleven this year, but details on these and who they will feature are unclear.

[5]One of Sheridan’s stage roles was in the West End production of Legally Blonde, where she got to slap and kiss Peter Davison.

[6]Paul Cornell’s best known novel. He’s written two TV stories, both Hugo-nominated (and both losing to Steven Moffat) – “Father’s Day” and “Human Nature”, the latter an adaptation of his own 1995 novel.

[7]Both human ‘Tracers’ (who could find segments of the Key… stop me if you’re not following this), Abby was called Amy initially, but her name was changed in the story, probably to avoid confusion with Amy Pond.

[8]The story was abandoned at a late stage; Robert Holmes had to write “The Space Pirates” as a replacement, while his other tale “The Krotons” was moved up the running order to take its slot.

Murder most geeky (Book Review: 'Geek Tragedy' by Nev Fountain, 2010)

My blogging seems to have slipped a fair bit recently – it’s no longer a certainty I will complete either the Bond or Doctor Who series by their deadlines as RL gets in the way. However, I’m still going and in the meantime, I’ve read a novel that I felt worth reviewing.

 

That novel is Nev Fountain’s Geek Tragedy, the first of three (so far) novels featuring amateur detective and TV science fiction writer Mervyn Stone.

 

Where we’re at

 

Mervyn Stone is an ageing former script editor on a (fictional) 1980s BBC science fiction soap opera called Vixens from the Void, a trashy affair with big shoulder pads and dodgy special effects. With little work since then, he finds himself unable to escape the show he worked on and does conventions for the money. Unfortunately for him, wherever he goes, murder follows.

 

The plot

 

Stone is attending ConVix 15, a convention being held in a tacky hotel near the M25 motorway, when one of the organisers apparently gases himself to death in one of the show’s original props, a ‘sentient’ car. Teaming up with a Special Constable, he investigates the murders (for there is more than one), while having to deal with crazy fans and crazier women, including Vanity Mycroft, one of the show’s former divas.

 

What works

·         While I’ve never been to a convention myself, the world of them seems convincingly portrayed; I suspect that Fountain has drawn on a good number of RL experiences, including those of Nicola Bryant (who he credits in the book).

·         The supporting characters are strongly done – especially some of Stone’s former colleagues.

·         There are a lot of great laughs in this book, especially at some of the awkward situations that our hero ends up in. There are also some little nuggets of humour that come out if you know your British works.

·         The mystery is genuinely well done and you don’t see the identity of the murderer coming – then again, I am generally rubbish at these things unless it’s an American show and one of the actors is particularly well known.

·         The book is aware of the conventions of the genre and plays with them well – the well done prologue (in the style of an episode guide) talking about a death in a fire makes it obvious something is up with that. It also just about gets away with a genre fundamentally hard to justify in a modern setting.

 

What doesn’t

·         This isn’t a book for kids – there are some very adult moments in this and on occasion, Fountain overdoes it.

·         The story takes a little while to get going.

 

Conclusion

 

An enjoyable, but not perfect novel; certainly worth looking at if you’re a Doctor Who or British sci-fi fan.

 

8/10

 

My name is... WHAT?! 'Doctor Who' 33.13, "The Name of the Doctor"

I’m not going to do a standard ten-point review for this; I can’t do ten points without being spoilery. So I’ll be brief.

 

This was a bit of a dragger of an episode; there were moments that could have done with being somewhat shorter. It is also clearer that the show is spending money on effects instead of a large cast; nearly everyone had prior form on the show. However, we had moments of great drama and a superb explanation for Clara.

 

The revelation of the ‘Name’ and that ending… that’s going to be speculated on for months and talked about for years.

 

Roll on 23 November.

 

7/10

Pentecost 2013

Today is Pentecost, the start of the Church year. On this day, we remember the arrival of the Holy Spirit in an upstairs room in Jerusalem, with the result that 3,000 people were saved after hearing the Good News in their own languages.

The Holy Spirit shows that God continues to work within us even after Jesus' (temporary) departure and that we are to evangelise to all people, no matter what their background.

Happy Birthday Christianity!

The Cyberman Gambit (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.12, "Nightmare in Silver")

The Doctor, Clara and her two charges travel to the biggest theme park in the cosmos, only to discover that it is not only closed, but contains Cybermen…

 

·         We jumped pretty much straight into this, although the reveal of the title sequence cliffhanger was more than a bit clichéd.

·         Matt Smith had a great time playing two roles – truly hamming it up as the Cyber Planner (not that he avoids the ham usually) in a turn that reminded me of performances of Jekyll and Hyde.

·         Clara didn’t do the best job this week – getting handed military command and reacting in that manner seemed a bit off.

·         Got to say that I liked the reveal of how the chess game was initially operated – look up the Mechanical Turk for the inspiration.

·         Warwick Davis did a great job as Porridge and I liked the reveal of his true identity; I’m sure many people in his position would have wanted to be ordinary just for once.

·         When is this set? I guess it’s one of the Great and Bountiful Human Empires.

·         Superb CGI work in this episode; you could never have had shots like this in the old days.

·         The military unit looked more than a bit unmilitary; while they may well have been a punishment platoon, no military would let the Captain have that fringe.

·         Really, really effective Cybermen – they came up with a counter strategy for nearly everything that the humans threw at them.

·         The final shot of the episode was again something that we’ve seen before many times before.

 

Conclusion

 

An enjoyable episode, but nothing stellar. Next week’s finale could be very interesting indeed.

 

7/10

:gulp: :burp: #bearchow - US Upfronts 2013

My thoughts on the renewals, cancellations and new pickups – I’ll do this by network.

 

ABC

·         Revenge got renewed, but that show is now starting to twist for the sake of twisting. The EP jumped ship earlier this season and I don’t see this going on for too much longer.

·         Body of Proof was a big surprise renewal last year and a hard call this time – but it was cancelled; the age of the forensic show appears to be ending.

·         Lucky 7 looks an awful lot like a US remake of the BBC series The Syndicate, but can that concept work for a 22-or-so episode run?

 

CBS

·         CSI: With an early renewal (and all its stars back), this show may be old, but I’ve enjoyed it for over a decade – frequently with my dinner. I can see why this is the most-watched show on Earth.

·         NCIS continues to be undemanding fun, but if any of the leads chose to leave the show, it’s going to have a hard time adjusting – they’ve been entrenched (mostly) for seven seasons now.

·         The Good Wife remains a critical darling, but at some point soon, CBS will decide to call this one a day – the ratings have never been brilliant.

·         Jerry Bruckheimer continues to be a big player in TV – he’s got another show of his picked up… which will replace the cancelled CSI:NY, a series that lost steam a while back.

 

The CW

·         Arrow’s early renewal was no surprise – it’s a good show with great stunt work; plus Barrowman needs the work.

·         The Tomorrow People is one of those shows that could work or fail.

 

FOX

 

·         I chose not to bother with the second season of Touch – nor did many people. Its cancellation was no surprise whatsoever.

·         US & Them: Why does the US insist on remaking perfectly good British shows when they could just show the originals for a fraction of the cost? I suspect, though, they’d subtitle some of the

Welsh.

·         Abrams gets another pie with Almost Human; that could be a hit or an early cancellation.

·         Enlisted is the first US military comedy I’ve heard of for a while; as the US moves out of over a decade of ground war, this might go down a bit better than a few years back.

·         Brooklyn Nine-Nine: What is it with the NYPD? They’re turning up everywhere these days.

 

NBC

 

·         Last Resort (cancelled earlier this year) was an interesting concept that was shoddily executed; I only stuck with it with difficulty. At least it got enough warning to put together a fairly good ending.

·         Parks & Recreation has started airing in the UK and is rather enjoyable in its own strange way – pleased it got its sixth run.

·         I see that we’ll be getting an Ironside remake – never seen the original, though. Before my time.

 

Other networks

 

·         As soon as I saw the opening ratings for Defiance, I knew it was going to get an early renewal.

·         Leverage has lost something in its fifth and final run – it mucked about with the formula too much.

·         Southland has been ended after five seasons too – this was an interesting, if somewhat depressing show, that reminded me somewhat of The Bill. Worth noting that it was picked up by TNT after NBC cancelled it.

·         Seven and done for Burn Notice – seven seasons seems to be a common length for a show, possibly due to contractual reasons. At least it will be able to get a proper end.

 

Thanks to TV By The Numbers (especially the Cancellation Bear) for focussing on what cannot lie.,. the ratings. I’ll be using them again next season.

James Bond: The Living Daylights

Timothy Dalton’s first outing as 007 was one of the first James Bond movies I saw, when I went through a total of four on a holiday to New York in December 1999, where I saw my first one in a cinema – The World Is Not Enough and three others during the course of a TBS series of re-runs.

It’s also one of my personal favourites – I’ve watched it at least four times counting this re-watch. As such, I can focus less on the magnificent story (it’s got one of the best plots of the series) and more on other details.

Dalton’s Bond is tough, but personable – it’s easy to see how he could be see such a charmer, even from my heterosexual male point of view. The action scenes, accompanied by John Barry’s masterwork of a score (his last one for the series in fact) are brilliantly staged. The set design is mostly superb (although with odd niggles like an Emergency Exit sign in English only on a Soviet plane) and there are great one-liners throughout. Even Joe Don Baker’s not bad.

Two people let the side down somewhat - Jeroen Krabbé and Maryam d’Abo. Krabbé is the worst thing in the movie; he can’t act and his scenes as Koskov are annoying. Maryam d’Abo is great to look at, does some great facial acting and handles one of the better written Bond Girl parts, but when she opens her mouth… her voice is irritating. Someone should have gotten a better vocal coach to soften her voice a bit.

Having learnt a bit about diplomatic bags via an episode of Castle, the bit about Koskov’s fate works even better.

Conclusion

This stays just as good on re-watch and its status as one of the best in the series remains. If you want to introduce someone to 007, warts and all.

9/10.

A Battenberg episode (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.11, "The Crimson Horror")

The Doctor, Clara and the Vastra gang try to stop an insane factory owner in 1893 Yorkshire.

 

This one was a fast-paced episode that rattled along with barely time to breathe:

 

·         Great pre-titles sequence; it had the air of a classic pastiche of Victorian times about it.

·         Dame Diana Rigg, bringing out a far more Yorkshire accent than most of her roles have had, did a great job throughout, although crediting her as ‘Dame Diana Rigg’ seemed a bit strange.

·         The ‘sat nav’ joke was excellent; although the name of the kid was obviously telegraphed.

·         Strax, Jenny and Vastra were wonderful, although I’m not sure what ‘limbo vapour’ is…

·         Starting a story in media res that way was a novelty for the show and worked well in this case, even it is seriously overused at other times.

·         There were some superb supporting characters, especially the pathologist.

·         The alien we saw was well realised – kudos to the creators for this.

·         Matt Smith had less to do than usual, but was still good; he can certainly rock a bowler.

·         Clara seemed a bit more subdued – she wasn’t in much of this and when she was on, her normal sass wasn’t fully present.

·         Bringing the two kids along for a ride next week could either be great or a recipe for disaster – the show does not take minors on the TARDIS and I suspect many would not like for the Doctor to have a kid companion.

 

Conclusion

 

Another treat from Mark Gatiss, but this is a Battenberg cake of an episode… enjoyable, but too many will make you sick.

 

8/10

UK local elections 2013

32 of 34 councils have declared in these elections and while Labour didn't do as well as it could have, we were the only party (apart from No Overall Control) to gain councils.

UKIP's record performance is worthy of note, but one should not draw too many conclusions from what is basically a vote of the Tory heartlands - the major cities were not up, including London (I didn't have a vote this time, but I will next year).

Well, it is huge, so it would be a long one... (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.10, "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS")

The Doctor and Clara run into a trio of salvage merchants, as the TARDIS comes close to destruction…

I didn’t come into this with any real expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised at the interesting things that went down this episode:

• Noises in space really irk me – I know it’s expected of the genre and a show not always known for scientific rigour, but it still irritated me.
• This has to be the first ever Doctor Who episode where the entire guest cast were from an ethnic minority – and it wasn’t even mentioned on screen. For one thing, it was completely irrelevant.
• We got to see some interesting TARDIS rooms, but there was still an awful lot of corridor action.
• The Doctor really doesn’t want people to know his real name, does he? 
• Clara (contains Lancashire and sass) was again superb. The revelation of her true identity is going to be a cracking one, that’s for sure. Mind you, if that dress was any shorter we could have ended up with a panty shot. 
• For the second time in two episodes, everyone did something that is usually associated with the tales of one Steven Moffat.  
• The back and forth between the leads is great; you see that Smith and Coleman have real chemistry. 
• The snippets of audio from past Doctors was a lovely touch, as was having the Seventh Doctor’s umbrella make a brief appearance. 
• The Van Baalens’ were OK, but not brilliant – I see there have been complaints about their acting on Gallifrey Base. 
• Next week looks like it could be rather fun – Diana Rigg in particular.

Conclusion

An enjoyable tale, but lagged a bit at times and pressing a literal reset button did seem more than a bit of a cop-out. I had enough of that with Merlin.

7/10

You'll be dying to read it (Review: 'Doctor Who: Festival of Death', 2000)

BBC Books cover (2000 edition)

The “Eleven Faces” series continues with my second Fourth Doctor work and this time, it’s about time… and zombies.

As part of the 50^th anniversary celebrations, the BBC has done new editions of some of their novels, one for each Doctor. For the Fourth Doctor, they picked Festival of Death from 2000 – and I can see why. It’s a classic tale that could easily fit into the modern show.

Where we’re at

This is a Fourth Doctor, Romana II and K9 novel, set during the Williams era of the show (i.e. Season 17) and emulating its style considerably.

The plot

The Doctor and Romana arrive on the G-Lock space station in 3012, a former liner that got stuck in the exit from hyperspace – its crew and passengers mysteriously vanishing. This is home to “The Beautiful Death”, where people can experience what it is like to be dead… but something has gone wrong and its participants got turned into zombies… The time travellers arrive after the disaster and its containing, where they are thanked for saving the station. Which they haven’t done yet… They also learn that the Doctor died in the process…

Thus begins a tale of mad scientists, dimensional interfaces and timey-wimeyness…

What works

The main villain is utterly vile, but has a strong tragic streak to him.

• The regulars are captured excellently; their voices are authentic and you never feel they’re saying things they wouldn’t say.
• There are some superb supporting characters, including a suicidal computer that would not be out of place in a Douglas Adams novel. In fact, this owes a good deal to Adams.
• The timey-wimey plot is done very well indeed – it was planned with the aid of a big diagram for one thing.
• There are a couple of lovely little references to other works – including a mention of Murgatroyd (a cat-like creature from Murray Leinster’s Med Ship series, which I’ve read) and a planet from the Elite computer game.

What doesn’t

• There are some slight pacing issues here and there.
• I found some of the plot a little hard to follow and didn’t get one factor of the zombies.

Conclusion

An excellent novel that has received high praise from fans – and will also get high praise from me.

9/10

Who you gonna call? (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.9, "Hide")

(I was supposed to have these go up 48 hours after UK airing – my apologies. This will hopefully not happen again)

 

This one was clearly meant to be a spookier tale and might have been better watched live or late at night; I watched it at 11am on a Sunday morning (day trip), so this might colour my judgement.

 

·         A lot of great dialogue in this between the Doctor and Clara; the “Ghostbusters” joke at the start was brilliant.

·         I can’t help but notice there were only five actors in this episode – one of which wore a monster suit.

·         Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor was on even better form than usual; he’s great when he’s speaking at a thousand miles a minute, going on tangents in a middle of a sentence.

·         Clara was also superb – it’s not escaped attention on Gallifrey Base that her weakest performance was in the episode penned by Steven Moffat, who should be the best at writing her – as he created her!

·         I liked the orange spacesuit (which has been worn by the Doctor before), but the Metebelis Three crystal seemed a bit tacked on. When did he get that one?

·         The ‘ghost’ had a science fiction explanation – this is common for the show and worked better than if it was an actual ghost.

·         The TARDIS Voice Visual Interface was fun for a one-off gag, but let’s not have it too often.

·         The Alec and Emma relationship is clearly meant to partner that of the Doctor and Clara – although the names are rather reminiscent of The Avengers or Sapphire and Steel.

·         The overall twist was good; but it’s the sort of thing this show has done a lot.

·         It’s been a while since we’ve had so much TARDIS travel in a single episode – we didn’t even get an interior scene in last week’s episode.

 

Conclusion

 

While there were a lot of enjoyable moments, this kind of lost something towards the end. Not the best ‘spooky’ story by a long chalk.

 

7/10

Small screens and small audiences ('Doctor Who': online and direct to video)

What might have been the future of the show…

 

Previously, we covered the better-known spinoffs from the BBC’s long running science-fiction series, Doctor Who. In this post, we cover some of the lesser-known ones; those that either appeared on that much-loved pornography delivery system or (mostly) on black cassettes…

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The BBC’s official Doctor Who website did a number of online “Flash”-style animations over the hiatus years – basically audio dramas with pictures. They can be found here. While other online productions have been made for the new run – such as the TARDISodes from Season 28; these are so linked with on air episodes that they will not be covered separately.

 

Canonicity from this point in for the EU is a matter for the individual fan.

 

Death Comes To Time (2001-2, 5 episodes, no longer accessible on BBC site, but able to buy)

 

Originally pitched for Radio 4 and rejected – this audio starring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and original companion Antimony was instead put online, where it gained over a million visits. The ending of this story renders it non-canon, although it did produce an online spin-off called The Minister of Chance.

 

Real Time (2002, 6 12-minute episodes)

 

Involving the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe[1] as they look for two missing survey teams and run into the Cybermen. Notable for debuting a blue version of the Sixth Doctor’s costume (for ease of animation) that got used in the Big Finish continuity as well – for one thing it looks better. An extended version was released on CD.

 

Shada (2003, 6 25-minute episodes)

 

A production of the unfinished Fourth Doctor story for the 40^th anniversary, changed to feature the Eighth Doctor and Romana II. It’s quite good in fact.

 

Scream of the Shalka (2003, 6 15-minute episodes)

 

Another 40^th anniversary production, this starred Richard E Grant and Sophie Okendo[2], the former as what was then pitched as the Ninth Doctor. However, the announcement of the revival two months before this started put its status into question – apart from an online short story and novelisation, no further works were made and the “Shalka Doctor” became non-canon.

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Next we go onto the direct-to-video releases that were produced by Reeltime Pictures between 1987 and 2004. The intellectual property of the Whoniverse is a complex affair, with various writers (or more often their estates) part-owning many of the classic monsters and characters of the classic-era show. Reeltime were able to licence various elements of these for original spin-off dramas, albeit with some difficulty. They also produced a series of non-fiction interviews, not covered here.

 

Many of these are only available on VHS in second-hand stores and I’ve never seen any of these. Runtimes are put when known

 

Wartime (1987)

 

The first video spinoff, this one featuring Sergeant Benton (it’s the first to actually give him the first name John). A revised version was released in 1997, adding among other things a voice cameo from the Brigadier.

 

Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans (1994, 55 minutes)

 

Set on a space yacht, this features Sophie Aldred and Carole Ann Ford, as well as two regulars from Blake’s 7, this features the Sontarans, albeit redesigned as the design belongs to the BBC (the creatures belong to the Robert Holmes estate).

 

Downtime (1995)

 

Featuring the Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Victoria and the Yeti in modern day England.

 

Mindgame (1998, 30 minutes)

 

A Draconian, a Sontaran and a human are put in a cell… The unnamed human is played by Sophie Aldred and implied heavily to be Ace.

 

The Mindgame Trilogy (1999, 80 minutes)

 

Three short tales featuring the characters of Mindgame after that story.

 

Dæmos Rising (2004)

 

The only one to get a DVD release, this tale has the Brigadier’s daughter Kate (later to appear, played by someone else, in “The Power of Three) and the Dæmons.

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Finally, we have some more video releases, these ones produced by BBV Productions between 1994 and 2008.

BBV produced a number of works featuring Doctor Who actors playing other roles, including with Colin Baker as “The Stranger”, but that character was later stated to be not the Doctor and TARDIS Data Core (the main Doctor Who wiki and a valuable source for this) excludes many of the dramas from eligibility for articles. Those excluded will not be covered here. In fact, they were never allowed to use the Doctor himself.

 

P.R.O.B.E. (1994-1998)

 

Liz Shaw and the Preternatural Research Bureau investigate various things in four films (all with 15 or 18 ratings), that feature a number of regulars from the show in different roles.

Auton trilogy (1997-9)

The Autons face off against UNIT, with all original characters for the latter – Nick Courtney’s health was not up to playing the Brigadier.

 

Do You Have A Licence to Save This Planet? (2001, 30 minutes)

 

A comedy spoof featuring Sylvester McCoy as “The Foot Doctor”, released to celebrate BBV’s 10^th anniversary.

 

Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough (2008, 60 minutes)

 

As the name implies, the Zygons are in this, but this isn’t the most notable thing about the film – it’s the 18 rating it received for nudity, gore and language.

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From screen, we now move onto the medium of sound, where the sets are built by your imagination and sound effects…

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[1]An elderly history professor, with extensive appearances in audio – this was her sole ‘live’ appearance.

[2]Both would later appear in the Matt Smith era in different parts. David Tennant also makes a cameo appearance.

A nice box of Snoop Tray (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.8, "Cold War")

This episode has three of my favourite things in it – the Doctor, Russians and submarines… but does the combo work?

 

I’m pleased to say that it does, so without further ado:

·         We get thrown into the plot of this episode rather clearly – there’s not even a TARDIS interior scene here, but in retrospect that works.

·         Speaking of the TARDIS, bringing back a system like that seemed a bit contrived to prevent the obvious escape method, but it did raise a laugh or two.

·         I thought that the Doctor and Clara would be mistaken for spies and they certainly were…

·         Clara was great in this episode, with some excellent lines and a number of great scenes. The Doctor was also on fine form. Let’s hope we have a long partnership between these two and neither move on too quickly.

·         We had a lot of funny one-liners in this episode like “Did Ultravox break up?” (they did, but have since reformed)

·         The Soviet characters were very well done – with only one ideologue among them, probably a realistic ratio for the USSR. Captain Zhukov in particular earns high praise as we get yet another connection between Doctor Who and Game of Thrones, with Liam Cunningham adding another command under his belt. Grishenko was also great.

·         The Ice Warrior design is excellent, although I wasn’t expecting us to get a partial glimpse of an Ice Warrior without his armour on.

·         We didn’t get to see some of the real horror for obvious reasons, but our imaginations were able to do the work by the acting.

·         I see that the submarine was done with model shots. I thought it was CGI, so well done to the Model Unit.

·         We have a deus ex machina resolution, but it works in the context here, unlike certain Russell T Davies’ stories – it’s not like the submarine was exactly repairable.

               

Conclusion

 

Funny and horrific in turns, this is a strong contender for best episode of Season 33. Well done Mr Gatiss.

 

8/10

Big screens and big audiences ('Doctor Who': Film and TV spinoffs)

Doctor Who has not just been one single television show since 1963 – not by any means. In this post, the first of mine covering the expanded universe, I will look at the other live-action appearances of our favourite Time Lord.

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Firstly, we’ll be going cinematic. While various main continuity Doctor Who movies have been proposed and gotten to various stages (such as the ‘Scratchman’ movie discussed in footnote 3 of this post), only two have actually been made, both starring Peter Cushing as a human inventor called Doctor Who and basically adapting the first two Dalek stories. These films, not considered canon at all, were both intended to cash in on the Dalekmania craze of the mid-1960s. They are aired on British TV from time to time.

 

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

 

Doctor Who, his two granddaughters Susan and Barbara, along with the latter’s boyfriend Ian, end up taking TARDIS to a devastated world that is home to the Daleks.

 

I’ve seen this movie… and I didn't like it. Opinion in fandom appears to be divided over this too.

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)

A policeman wanders into TARDIS and ends up going with its crew to 2150 and a Dalek-ruled Earth.

Not seen this one, but it contains a notable star – Bernard Cribbins, who over 40 years later would play Wilfred “Wilf” Mott in the regular TV series[1]. The reviews were not great and the box office wasn’t much better, so a third film was cancelled.

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There have been three ‘official’ fictional spin-offs from the show, a fourth not licenced by the BBC and also three non-fictional behind the scenes shows[3].

 

Torchwood (2006-?[4])

 

“Outside the government, beyond the police…”

 

A darker and more adult show (sometimes overdoing it, especially early on with the notorious “Day One”) involving a secret British government organisation that salvages alien technology for its own use, focussing on the team based in Cardiff, which just happens to be home to a dimensional rift. After two full seasons and a five-part miniseries (Children of Earth), the BBC teamed up with Starz to co-produce the fourth run called Torchwood: Miracle Day – this was reviewed here. While Russell T Davies produced the show, a good number of scripts for the first two seasons were written by Chris Chibnall, an award-winning writer whose Whoniverse work hasn’t always been up to scratch – he got a very bad rep in fandom as a result.

 

Evolving from an idea RTD had for an Earth-based sci-fi show, it acquired its name from the anagram of Doctor Who used to disguise tapes of the show. A full discussion of a rather complex show will is one for another time, but as we are here, we had best focus on the show’s lead character….

 

Box Office Star – Captain Jack Harkness

 

Introduced in “The Empty Child”, ‘Captain Jack Harkness’ not his real name, is a former con man and Time Agent who loves to see the universe, meet interesting beings and sleep with the good looking ones. After events in “The Parting of the Ways”, he is also immortal – you can kill him, but he keeps coming back to life.

 

Captain Jack is portrayed by John Barrowman (1967-). Born in Glasgow, Barrowman grew up in Illinois, where he acquired an American accent[5] and matinee idol good looks that have served him well on stage and screen; he started off in the CBBC Saturday morning show Live & Kicking but his television career on both sides of the Atlantic (he has dual nationality) is extensive. He appears to the point of ubiquity on British television (especially in light entertainment), although he has also appeared in Desperate Housewives and more recently the CW’s Arrow[6]. On stage, he frequently does musicals and pantomime – the fact he is openly gay is of course a mere coincidence. He and his sister have also written a number of novels, including Torchwood ones.

 

The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2011)

 

“13 Bannerman Road is where Sarah Jane Smith lives. And it's home to things way beyond your imagination”.

 

With Torchwood for adults, The Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA for short) was for children, but not in a pandering way[7]. Set after her appearance in “School Reunion”, this CBBC series focussed on Sarah Jane and a group of teenagers (including her adopted son) fighting threats to Earth from their home in West London. I’ve only seen a few episodes of this – namely the ones where the Doctor (in his tenth and eleventh forms) appeared, which I enjoyed – but the show overall was a ratings and critical success for the CBBC channel.

 

What ended the show was the death of Lis Sladen. She completed three of the planned six serials of the fifth season before her illness became too much and after her passing, no-one wished to continue. The three recorded stories were aired posthumously.

 

Sarah Jane's Alien Files (2009-2010)

 

A spin off of SJA, this was a clip show with extra narration by Alexander Armstrong as Sarah Jane’s computer Mr Smith – its first run was a series of 3-minute webisodes, then it became a half-hour TV series airing after the first part of that week’s story.

 

K9 (2009-?)

 

Featuring an updated version of K-9 Mark 2 (voiced by John Leeson as before) and set in near-future London, this Australian production is not licenced or produced by the BBC (who don’t own the character, but do own the design, forcing a major change in appearance[8]), instead airing on the Ten Network down under for its first run of 26 thirty-minute episodes. A second series is planned, but no date for it has been announced yet.

 

I’ve never seen an episode of it, so I can’t comment on quality.

 

Doctor Who Confidential (2005-2011)

 

A behind the scenes show that aired after each episode on digital network  BBC3, airing 45-minute looks at the particular episode and how it was made, along with interviews etc. Fifteen minute long cut down versions were released on the DVDs (along with extra editions) – for one thing, the full versions had extensive use of music that would have required rights clearances.

 

Rated in a poll as the best BBC3 show of all time (ahead of Torchwood and the original British version of Being Human), this popular and well-made show fell to budget cuts in 2011 amid considerable fan protest, although the official website for the show still airs mini behind the scenes videos for each episode.

 

Totally Doctor Who (2006-7)

 

In essence a junior version of Confidential, with added competitions and so on that ran on the CBBC channel with Seasons 28 and 29. It also played host to an animated serial in its second and final season, “The Infinite Quest”, which will be covered in Season 29’s article. It was canned in favour of The Sarah Jane Adventures as the CBBC budget did not cover both. I watched it and found it OK, but I don’t miss it.

 

Torchwood Declassified

 

A 10-minute behind the scenes show that aired after each episode of the first two runs of Torchwood – the first one on BBC3, the second on BBC2. A 30-minute version for “Children of Earth” was released with the DVD.

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These were not the only video appearances of the Whoniverse. In our next edition, we cover the lesser known spinoffs – those that appeared online or only on home video.

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[1]Originally a one-shot character for “Voyage of the Damned”, Wilf was elevated to the position of Donna Noble’s maternal grandfather after the death of Howard Attfield in 2007 – Attfield had played Donna’s father in “The Runaway Bride”, but died after filming several scenes for “Partners in Crime” – these were redone with Cribbins. As Wilf is the effective companion in David Tennant’s final story, Cribbins holds the clear record for oldest person to play a companion – although he is not the oldest living regular DW actor, a title currently held by William Russell (Ian Chesterton).

[2]Another spin-off for Rose Tyler, called Rose Tyler: Earth Defender, which would have covered Rose’s adventures on the parallel Earth she ended up in after “Doomsday” actually got to budgeting stage before Russell T Davies decided this was a spin-off too far and canned the project.

[3]I am not counting the pilot-only K-9 and Company, covered elsewhere.

[4]The show is in indefinite hiatus – Russell T Davies had to return to the UK for personal reasons and is currently only working on CBBC show Wizards vs. Aliens.

[5]Although he can switch to Scottish easily.

[6]Which has also featured Alex Kingston.

[7]You cannot really accuse the BBC’s prolific content for children of this – many of its shows have handled mature issues with aplomb and I personally will never forget the death of one particular Byker Grove character.

[8]It also did not air on the Beeb, instead making its first British appearance on Disney XD and then a terrestrial airing on Channel 5.

First among firsts? Margaret Thatcher 1925-2013

Whether you liked or loathed her, you cannot deny that Mrs Thatcher was the single most influential figure in post-war British politics - the United Kingdom transformed massively during her eleven years as Prime Minister and it was pretty much entirely due to her. Attlee was just PM of a government of many considerable talents, Churchill's domestic legacy is pretty limited and Wilson was as much reacting as driving.

You may mourn or cheer, but you will have been impacted by a colossus of world politics.

Let's Play Persian Incursion: Turn 10

 

The crude oil tanker Omala moored in Rotterdam (image: Danny Cornelissen)

Slowly, but surely… This is a fairly short one.

 

Day four in this war began with 37 more Iranian fighters becoming available for operations. With a total of 92 now able to take to the skies, Iran raised alerts across the board, conducting combat air patrol and placing forces on alert, especially around Isfahan.

 

No American airstrike was available this turn, but Israel completed its planning for a strike on the zirconium plant at Isfahan, ordering it for later that day with the F-15 and one F-16 unit tasked for the operations.

 

How big a strike is possible is down to the availability of tankers to get the planes over the distance.

 

Iran offered a reduction in oil prices to China and some neutral countries, slightly changing their viewpoints on the situation in the classic manner. However, Israeli evidence of covert Iranian activity and some staged anti-Israeli protests in New York failed to have any impact.

 

Iran was still behind and to cap it all, 62 of their jets broke down.

 

Bad roll on the breakdown table and a lot of units on alert status or patrol brought this about… what will it mean for the Israeli strike next turn?

A Lullaby of an episode (Review: 'Doctor Who' 33.7, "The Rings of Ahkaten")

This second episode sees Clara leave Earth and go to a festival on an alien world, where an old god is waking up…

 

This rather reminded me of “The Beast Below”, Amy’s second story, which took place in a similarish environment, although this one did not involve space whales. It was not as good either – so without further ado.

 

·         The introduction with the leaf and Clara’s parents was well done.

·         Matt Smith is good here as usual, but he’s not at his best and some of his Time Lord grandstanding seems a bit unconvincing.

·         Really liking Clara – she’s sweet, caring and intelligent, with a strong backstory.

·         They really threw the budget at all the aliens this week, many of whom were only seen in the background.

·         I’m assuming that moped had some form of force field to protect against hard vacuum.

·         Speaking of force fields, the sonic screwdriver should be limited in use and not serve as a get out for all situations – opening the door was enough for it this episode.

·         The main monsters were respectively CGI or spent most of an episode banging against something.

·         Was all of that singing really necessary?

·         Losing that object is going to do something interesting to the ring system – it’s got nothing to orbit.

·         I found this episode dragged considerably – some people might even have fallen asleep during it.

 

Conclusion

 

I didn’t expect much and I didn’t get much – this is a forgettable episode.

 

4/10