Days 492 to 495 - The Androids Of Tara

I'm a little bleary eyed right now after a couple of busy days at Nantwich's Jazz Festival but luckily I still found time to get the required episodes in and I'm determined to keep this damn blog up to date no matter how tired I am.

Incidentally before I start talking about this story, some recent developments should be noted. David Tennant and Billie Piper have been confirmed as returning for the 50th anniversary story! Very exciting. I really hope that there are some more casting announcements soon. To get some of the other Doctors back to would be a dream! I really had given up hope of a multi Doctor story but fingers crossed that that is what all this is building up to. Anyway, back to The Androids Of Tara

I'm loving season 16! The quest for the segments of The Key To Time is throwing up some really fantastic stories. Surprisingly the fourth segment of the key is found almost immediately by Romana. The Doctor has decided not to bother helping and is content to sit by the river bank doing a spot of fishing. It doesn't seem good for him when, left to her own devices, Romana is able to locate the key straight away when usually it takes the Doctor 4 episodes to do so!

Of course things don't go completely to plan as Romana is soon kidnapped by the villainous Count Grendel, who notices her uncanny resemblance of the Princess Strella and therefore assumes she is an android. Soon the Doctor is also roped into the plot of helping Prince Reynart be rightly fully crowned king of Tara instead of Grendel.

This is very much a story of duplicates. There is Prince Reynart and his android replica. Then there is also Romana, who looks exactly the same as Princess Strella and additionally an android that looks like both of them! It's all played out very well though and it's not nearly as confusing as it sounds.

The cliffhanger to episode 2 is a really shocking and disturbing one! Princess Strella, or possibly Romana (there both good guys, that's all that matters) is pledging her allegiance to the new king when the Doctor grabs the King's sceptre and bashes her skull in!! I was just left feeling "What the hell just happened there??" Of course it turns out to be an android that was programmed to kill the king so the Doctor's actions were justified thank goodness!

Of my favourite moments occurs in Episode 3. With the Doctor trapped in hut with only one exit, and surrounded by Grendel and his soldiers, the Count promises the Doctor that if he should come out and give himself up then he shall not be harmed. The Doctor steps out of the hut, only to be fired on by Grendel's men and so he dashes back in but then pokes his head out again just long enough to shout "LIAR!!" Ha ha! Hilarius!

And so the quest to locate all six segments of The Key To Time is two thirds complete!

Season 4 (Part 1 of 2) - Days 127 to 134

Broadcast Dates: 10th September 1966 - 29th October 1966

Relative Dates: 28th March 2012 - 4th April 2012

It was coming up to the time when the first Doctor bowed out of the show. But before he did he still had a couple of stories left to tell.

I'm splitting this entry into two segments. This is due to the fact that the first "renewal" of the Doctor occurs mid season so it makes sense to stop at that point to comment some more on the time of the first Doctor before the season continues with the adventures of the second Doctor.

The Smugglers

Ben and Polly's first trip in the TARDIS takes them to Cornwall in the 17th century...

Again this is going to be a short entry I'm afraid as I can remember very little from this story. It doesn't help of course that yet again this is a story that is completely missing from the BBC archives. Reconstructed stories are always harder to remember.

So there is some piracy going on that the Doctor gets involved in, and there a fair few fight sequences.

Something interesting to note is that when Doctor Who was sold abroad, certain countries such as Australia would cut certain scenes out of the programme that they considered to be inappropriate. As such certain death scenes were trimmed out of the programme. Strangely these trimmed sequences were kept by the Australian television companies so quite often they serve as the only surviving footage from some stories. The reason I mention this is that I particularly remember in this story how whenever someone is about to be stabbed, the pictures suddenly start moving again so we at least get to see the characters die! Very pleasant!

The Tenth Planet

An isolated base in the Arctic detects the presence of another planet approaching the Earth and draining the world of all it's power. The planet is Mondas and the it's people - The Cybermen!

To survive the people of Mondas have been forced to upgrade and replace their body parts with machines and a true Doctor Who monster is born. The Cybermen here are truly creepy. They look very different on their first appearance in the series than they ever would again. Strange cloth faces, strange "sing song" voices, huge helmets and rather disturbingly, human hands! It's a fantastic design!

This is a four part story and all but the last episode actually still exists so it was a treat to watch. William Hartnell goes missing halfway through the story due to the fact that he had fallen ill which is a real shame considering it is his last story.

These "base under siege" stories will soon become very familiar to me as they were often used during the Patrick Troughton era and for the most part they work quite well.

And so the story ends with the Cybermen defeated (but I'm sure we've not seen the last of them!) but the Doctor is adding very odd.

THE DOCTOR "This old body of mine is waring a bit thin" 

He stumbles into the TARDIS and collapses to the ground. We hear the wheezing and groaning sound of the TARDIS engines, and as Ben and Polly turn the Doctor over, we see his face change before our very eyes! The second Doctor had arrived...

Come back soon for my next entry which will be a short refelctive summary on the time of the first Doctor - William Hartnell.

Another appeal

So for anyone who has not seen it, here is the article (minus the embarrassing video!) about the challenge (I really should be calling this a "quest" rather than a "challenge" after the name of the blog and the just giving site but that just seems overly dramatic.) If you can donate then please do! It's for a great cause. Link is www.justgiving.com/james-nicholls2. Thanks!

Nantwich Dr Who fan takes on epic challenge of watching 900 episodes for cancer charity

By Hannah Hulme

SCI-FI fan James Nicholls is halfway through his epic challenge of watching 900 episodes of Doctor Who and its spin-off series for charity.

The 28-year-old 'Whovian' yesterday notched up his 490th episode of the BBC programme, The Stones of Blood Part Four.

 

James took up the challenge on November 23 2011 to raise as much cash as possible for Macmillan Cancer Support.

He plans to watch every episode ever made since the show first aired in 1963, right up to the present day including Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures – a total viewing time of around 420 hours.

He will watch one episode every day until he runs out – and so far he has never missed a day.

James, who works for Newcastle-based Barringtons Chartered Accountants, said: "My friends think I'm a bit crazy. It's harder than you might think to make sure I actually see an episode every single day.

"If I go away I have to make sure the episodes are downloaded to my iPhone, or I can get online. There was one time where I was caught in town in an evening and knew I wouldn't be able to make it home, so I had to find it on Youtube where I was.

"I've got to a point where I would be really gutted if I missed a day."

James, from Nantwich, first became interested in the Time Lord's intergalactic adventures when the BBC picked up the series again with the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston in 2005.

James, whose favourite Doctor is Patrick Troughton, said: "I decided one day that instead of watching random episodes out of order I should start from the beginning. But I thought if I'm going to do that, I should raise some cash for charity.

"There are some days when I wish I'd never started, but now I'm halfway through I'm not giving up."

In addition to raising cash for Macmillan Cancer Support through sponsponsorship, James is selling handmade Tom Baker-style scarves in aid of the Blurton-based Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

He added: "I took up knitting while I was revising for some exams years ago. So far I've made £50 from the scarves." James's challenge is expected to finish in spring 2014.

Beverly Smith, Staffordshire's fund-raising manager for Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "It's fantastic that James has taken on such a quirky way of raising money for us."

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/james-nicholls2.

Season 3 - Days 82 to 126

Broadcast Dates: 11th September 1965 - 16th July 1966

Relative Dates: 12th February 2012 - 27th March 2012

Galaxy Four

And so the reconstructed episodes begin! Galaxy Four had no surviving episodes at the time I was due to watch it. I'm thrilled beyond measure to say that between me watching this episode and today, Episode 3 has been found! Along with the discovery of Episode 2 of The Underwater Menace this brought the number of missing episodes of Doctor Who down to 106. Fingers crossed that some are still out there, waiting to be discovered!

Anyway, the basic premises of this story is that there are two groups of aliens on a planet that is about to explode. But which side can the Doctor trust? The beautiful Drahvins, or the terrifying looking Rills. Well, as this story demonstrates looks can be deceptive.

Also included in this story is possibly another contender for the "new Daleks". It's the Chumblies! Although that isn't their real name, this is just what Vicki calls them due to the way they "chumble along".

This story doesn't have a great reputation but I don't think it's all that bad. And it's just nice to see an episode returned no matter what episode it is.

Mission To The Unknown

 

 

A very unusual Doctor Who story for three main reasons.

First of all this serves as a preview to a later story, secondly it is only one episode long and thirdly none of the regular cast are in it at all!

I believe this was because Planet Of Giants, that was originally planned as 4 episodes had been abridged into 3 episodes meaning that the Doctor Who production team owed the BBC an additional episode but the cast had already filmed their allotted episodes so they could not be included.

As such we get this strange little story, with the Daleks calling a meeting of other alien delegates to organise a plan to take over the world. Meanwhile some special agents try to send a warning off to Earth.

Not really much else I can say about this, except it is unfortunately another story that no longer exists in the BBC archives. That's 5 reconstructed episodes in a row! Things are really getting bad...

The Myth Makers

 

And so the build up from the Dalek hatching their master plan continues with....oh...The Myth Makers? With the TARDIS landing in ancient Troy?

What a con this must have felt for the viewing public back when this was first broadcast! Children tuned in to see the Daleks and were greeted with sword fights on an open plain..

Aside from that this is still a fantastic story. The Doctor has always been unwilling to get involved with the events of historical stories such as these, believing that history cannot be rewritten. Which doesn't really make much sense when you think about it because surely if the Doctor interferes with events in the year 2050 then this is still history to people in the year 2100...or maybe I'm over thinking this.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make before my meandering rant was that this story actually shows the Doctor getting stuck into the history unfolding around him. He gives the Greeks the idea of building the wooden horse with which they can storm Troy.

Meanwhile there is a burgeoning romance brewing between Vicki and Troilus which can mean only one thing..yep, it's time for Vicki to leave the series. Which is a real shame as she was a great companion and an improvement on Susan who limited stories somewhat with the Doctor having to serve as her protective Grandfather.

This another 4 part story that no longer exists so that's 9 episodes in a row! I really am entering a barren stretch in the BBC archives!

Steven is injured in the battle of Troy and is nursed back to help by the Trojan hand maiden Katarina who ends up joining the Doctor and Steven as they escape Troy. I have high hopes for Katarina, I think she'll go on to be a great character in the series.....

The Daleks' Master Plan

Oh... Katarina is dead! She got sucked off *sniggers* through an airlock in one of the first few episodes of this 12 episode epic story.

To kill off a companion was a first for Doctor Who (but sadly it wouldn't be the last. I won't say anymore right now. Spoilers!) It became clear early on in this story that a companion from that far back in history was ill suited for travels through time and space as she would clearly spend most of her time asking dumb questions! It's not her fault that her mind is so primitive that she would probably be stumped by the operation of toaster!

So the Dalek's are back for a fourth time! (Or a fifth time if you count Mission To The Unknown as it's own story and not just a prelude to this one... you see how Doctor Who fans can argue over such matters?)

Teaming up with them is the dastardly Mavic Chen, played to perfection by Kevin Stoney. Honestly one of the greatest villainous actors ever! Why was he never a Bond villain??

A 12 part story that unfortunately I have only seen once and as such my memory of it now is pretty sparse. However I do remember that a very strange thing happened in episode 7. This episode was broadcast on Christmas Day in 1965. Now today Doctor Who would be considered event television and the Christmas episode would be the highlight of the year. However in 1965 it was very different. It was believed that hardly anyone would be watching television and therefore few people would see episode 7. Therefore this episode is just a bit of fluff. It's complete nonsense and does not move the story of the Dalek's plot along at all. You could literally skip from episode 6 to 8 and wouldn't notice a thing. However you would be missing one of the truly shocking moments in Doctor Who so far! At the end of episode 7, the Doctor turns to face the camera directly and says "And a merry Christmas to all of you at home!" The fourth wall isn't just broken! It's pulverised!!

This story also see the return of the meddling monk from The Time Meddler. It's great to see him but to be honest I forget what he adds to the story. It's still nice to see returning characters.

The other moment I remember from this story is the ending. The Doctor and his new companion Sara Kingdom are fighting their way back to the TARDIS. In order to defeat the Dalek's the Doctor has activated the Dalek's time destructor and everything around them is ageing to death. Before they can reach the safety of the TARDIS, the Doctor witnesses Sara age and die before his very eyes.

Very bleak stuff indeed. Need to re-watch this one. And with 3 out of the 12 episodes actually existing, this was a bit of a treat.

The Massacre

Back to a story that is lost in it's entirety from the BBC archives. I was watching this story for the first time and was excited to see it as I had heard many good things about it.

As historical stories go, this has got to be the darkest in the shows history. I mean the title sort of gives away what the unfortunate outcome of the story will be.

I'm struggling to remember  much about this story. I remember finding parts of it confusing because I was never sure whose side everyone was on. Also the Doctor disappears for a great deal of the story so the plot is very much being driven by Steven and his involvement with the locals. Meanwhile the character of the Abbot of Amboise is played by William Hartnell leading to Steven's confusion as he believes the Doctor is masquerading as the Abbot..until the Abbot is killed.

This leads me to the main theme of the story...death! A lot of death. In fact..it's a massacre! (see what I did there?) The Doctor arrives back into the story in time to force Steven to leave with him immediately in the TARDIS. The Doctor knows of the impending massacre and it seems that this is one of those moments where the events of history must run their course without the Doctor's interference. This leads to one of the greatest scenes in the first Doctor's era of the show as he and Steven have a huge argument in the TARDIS about the rights and wrongs of altering history, leading to Steven storming out. Steven is apparently leaving the Doctor, not because he has found something better like Susan and Vicki, but simply because travelling with Doctor has become so intolerable.

For the first time ever, we see the Doctor alone in the TARDIS with no companions as he begins to reflect to himself about his past...

THE DOCTOR "My dear Steven, history sometimes gives us a terrible shock, and that is because we don't quite fully understand. Why should we? After all, we're too small to realise its final pattern. Therefore don't try and judge it from where you stand. I was right to do as I did. Yes, that I firmly believe. [Steven leaves the TARDIS] Steven... Even after all this time, he cannot understand. I dare not change the course of history. Well, at least I taught him to take some precautions; he did remember to look at the scanner before he opened the doors. And now, they're all gone. All gone. None of them could understand. Not even my little Susan. Or Vicki. And as for Barbara and Chatterton — Chesterton — they were all too impatient to get back to their own time. And now, Steven. Perhaps I should go home. Back to my own planet. But I can't... I can't...

Absolutely fantastic!!

Steven does eventually change his mind and comes back. Along with another young girl called Dodo. Poor..poor Dodo..

The Ark

 

Yes that's an actual elephant in Doctor Who!

And more excitedly, a complete story! No missing episodes! The complete story of this season.

The TARDIS arrives in an ark in space (but not The Ark In Space - that's a whole other story). The human race is escaping the Earth before it's death. Serving the humans are the mute Monoids, one of the strangest races yet seen. One eyed and with a Beatles mop of hair.

Unfortunately things soon unravel (don't they always!) when the common cold, brought aboard by Dodo, starts killing off the crew of the ark. It seems the common cold was wiped out years ago and as such human beings no longer have the immune system to cope with it. It's a good idea for a story actually and it's not overly stretched out as it only runs for two episodes. Or so it seems...

With the emergency over, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo leave in the TARDIS only to arrive back on the ark but several hundred years in the future. They find the great statue that the humans were working on when the Doctor first met them. The statue that took generations to finish is now complete, but rather disturbingly the head of the statue is not that of a human...but a Monoid! Best cliffhanger so far!

So the two parter becomes a four parter, separated by several hundred years. The after affects of the common cold infection brought aboard by Dodo have had devastating consequences as the Monoids are now in charge, using humans as their slave labour.

The Celestial Toymaker

The series makes a turn in to the world of surrealism. The Doctor, Steven and Dodo meet the Toymaker who forces them to take part in games of life and death...

The Doctor is separated from his companions and forced to play the Tri-Logic game, involving moving wooden pieces between three points of a triangle. To punish the Doctor for trying to help Steven and Dodo the Toymaker makes the Doctor invisible apart from his hand which is of course needed to play the game. A further punishment leads to the Toymaker removing the Doctor's voice.

Now this effective removal of the Doctor from the story was necessary to allow William Hartnell a holiday from the show. However behind the scenes there was a far more under hand plot being developed. It was decided that it was time that William Hartnell departed the series due to the relationship between himself and some of the production team breaking down. Therefore it was nearly decided that in this story, when the Doctor finally got his body and voice back, that he would reappear as a completely different man allowing another actor to take on the role of the Doctor.

It's an interesting idea, and given the surreal nature of the story they could have gotten away with it. However the main problem of course would be, what the hell would they do NEXT time they needed to change the actor. Another trip to the Celestial Toymaker?? Of course this didn't happen in the end and William Hartnell was given a reprieve..

All the same, his time aboard the TARDIS was drawing to an end...

The Gunfighters

Another complete story! Oh what a treat!

Doctor Who meets The Wild West. I can't understand why Doctor Who has done so few westerns. In fact this and A Town Called Mercy with the eleventh Doctor are the only two westerns I believe.

Apparently this story was not greatly received when it was first broadcast which may explain why they didn't risk doing another western for a very long time. I'm not sure why is wasn't considered to be very good back in the 60s because I actually find it it quite an amusing romp. It's not to be taken seriously at all and William Hartnell has one of his last great stories as the Doctor, especially in the scenes he shares with Doc Holliday who is extracting the Doctor's tooth. I also love the Doctor's delight when he learns to do a trick with his gun, spinning it around his finger, and proudly shows it off to a rather bemused Wyatt Earp.

I think it may be a case that I am far more forgiving of this story's faults than the viewing public would have been when it was first broadcast. It's not hard to be forgiving when your just so grateful that the pictures are actually moving and you are not just watching a reconstruction of a missing story.

This story also includes a song, which is something new to Doctor Who..it does go on a bit sometime and slows the story down but you've got to admire them trying something new.

The Savages

Back to another completely missing story I'm afraid. I'm very aware that I'm banging on about which stories do and do not exist but it is a crying shame that some stories are lost (seemingly forever).

Also I'm taking about them here because I have no idea what went on in this story!

It's not that the story is hard to understand, it's just that I've only seen it once and it didn't really stick in my mind. But from what I can remember..

The Doctor arrives on a planet and is enthusiastically greeted by the inhabitants as someone they know of as they have been following his travels...I'm not sure how.

Anyway I think it turns out that they are performing experiments on the local savages and then Steven leaves...Man! I really am drawing a blank here. I believe Steven leaves the TARDIS so that he can stay behind and become the new leader as they need and independent leader from both the savages and the people in the village/spaceship/wherever the other group lives!

Good story, bloody awful write up! Sorry! Need a repeat watching of this I feel.

The War Machines

The final complete story for some considerable time!

The TARDIS lands in modern day England. Which is actually pretty unusual for this time in the shows history. And when I say "modern day" I do of course mean 1966. Upon stepping out of the TARDIS the Doctor tells Dodo that he has a very peculiar feeling, the same feeling he gets whenever the Daleks are near. Now, the Daleks aren't in this story but bare this comment in mind as it will pay off several posts down the line...I can almost sense your intrigue!

The villain of the story takes the form of a super computer. The computer impresses the Doctor by calculating a square route correctly. For God's sake don't show the Doctor a calculator, it will blow his mind! As smart as the computer is, it unfortunately makes one of the most grievous errors ever when it states "Doctor...Who...Is... Required"... No No No No!!!! Doctor Who is not the name of the character, that's the name of the show! This is repeated several times throughout the story as the writer was unfortunately not aware that  that was not the character's name.

The computer hypnotises people so that they can build the War Machines. These are huge machines and I'm not really sure what to make of them. Part of me feels pretty impressed but part of me just thinks it another vain attempt to replicate the success of the Daleks.

We meet Ben and Polly for the first time here also. The two new companions for the Doctor. Dodo has one of the worst leaving scenes in the shows history ever! In fact it's technically not correct to say she has the worst leaving scene and she actually has NO leaving scene AT ALL. What??? Ben and Polly turn up at the end of the story to tell the Doctor that Dodo has decided to stay on Earth. Very strange. Not to be cruel to Dodo but she wasn't exactly a great companion.

I wonder if Ben and Polly know what they've got themselves in for? Companions have come and gone a great deal over the last few years but Ben and Polly would be there to see the show through one of the biggest and riskiest changes the show had experienced...the change of the Doctor himself!

Another season was complete! Come back soon to hear my thoughts on Season 4

Days 488 to 491 - The Stones Of Blood

 

It's a funny time for my marathon. I'm desperately trying to keep up and catch up with this blog and at the same time I've had some success at gaining the notice of some local newspapers which will hopefully make people more aware of what I'm doing and (when they've stopped laughing) they may be willing to make a donation to help the charity and to spur me on! Also I have been campaigning on Twitter and got a kind retweet from Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon himself! Very exciting!)

Meanwhile the Doctor and Romana are still in search for the parts of the Key To Time. This time they are looking for the third segment which the Doctor (and presumably the guy in charge of the Doctor Who budget) is delighted to find that it is hiding on one of his favourite planets - Earth.

The story begins with the Doctor attempting to join the two parts of the Key To Time that they have already found. They are large glass blocks that fit together to form a cube. It makes me wonder why no one has thought of making one of these for merchandising purposes as they look pretty cool!

It doesn't take long for the Doctor to get into trouble of course. This time he is offered up for sacrifice by some demented druids. Tom Baker is great in these scenes, never looking too scared and delivering such great lines as "I hope that knife has been properly sterilised!"

Meanwhile the Stones Of Blood of the title make their appearance in the form of the Ogri. For what is essentially a large rock, these are actually pretty intimidating monsters. The way they glow and give on a spooky heartbeat creates a really creepy atmosphere. Their method of killing their prey is demonstrated in a scene where they come across a young couple on a camping holiday. Now, Ive been watching a lot of Friday The 13th movies recently so I'm pretty familiar with such scenes..except this time it's the guy that topless. No boob shots I'm afraid.

There's a worrying scene when it looks like K9 has gone to that great kennel in the sky but he is soon patched up and on the go again with his batteries running down left, right and centre at the most inconvenient of moments. No change there then!

The interesting thing I found about this story was that each episode seemed completely unlike the one that went before it. It starts with the mystery of the druids, moves on to the mystery of the stones, then on to the mystery of Vivien Faye (so many mysteries!) and then bizarrely ends with a court case on board a hyperspace ship..

Overall verdict: Pretty damn good! Although for some reason I would say I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I usually do.

Geronimo! I look a tit for charity!

So just a little update today..

The sponsorship is going well. Only two so far but they're sizable amounts so the total is rising nicely! Thanks to Lee and Daryl for their donations!

Meanwhile I had another interview with The Staffordshire Sentinel today which went well I think. A little embarrassing as I had to do a short video for their website involving me brandishing my sonic screwdriver and saying "I'm watching 900 episodes of Doctor Who for Dougie Mac! Geronimo!"

Hanging my head in shame.

Also there is going to be an article in the Nantwich Chronicle too. Hopefully all this will make more people aware and get the money rolling in for the Douglas Macmillian Hospice.

Just Giving page set up at last! - Please sponsor if you can

So I've finally got round to setting up a page for people to sponsor me on my stupid challenge.

It's over at http://www.justgiving.com/James-Nicholls2

Please sponsor me if you can spare a few quid.

Like I say on the Just Giving page, this may not be a great physical challenge (I mean, I'm not really designed for those sort of challenges) but I hope people can appreciate it for what it is. A two and half year challenge has got to be worth something!

Season 2 - Days 43 to 81

Broadcast Dates: 31st October 1964 - 24 July 1965

Relative Dates: 4th January 2012 -  11th February 2012

At this point I was still going strong but by no means did I think that I would actually be successful in this marathon watching of the show. Time to rack my brains and make some notes on the stories I watched over a year ago! Luckily these are stories I have seen quite often so as such should be quite familiar with them...that's the theory anyway. Here goes..

Planet Of Giants

Look at how amazing that sink looks!! I'm always stunned by that set. Sure, the chain on the plug looks a little dodgy but the plug hole itself looks fantastic.

Anyway as you may have guessed this story involves the Doctor and his companions being shrunk down to the height of a few inches. Which is a shame especially for Ian and Barbara as they have actually arrived back on Earth and in the right time period for them.

The explanation for why they have been shrunk is actually quite clever. The TARDIS doors opened mid flight which meant that the dimensional ... something something something. Argh Damn it! I thought I knew this! And I'm not going to look it up because that feels like cheating.

The main villain of the story is a ruthless business man who is wanting to get his powerful insecticide DN6 on the market. I only remember the name of the insecticide because the guy who comes to inspect it is one of those people who whistle every time they say a word with an "S" in it so its quite funny hearing him say "DN6".

Unfortunately the insecticide will kill all insect life and not just the pests, and Barbara foolishly gets some all over her. Normally for a human this wouldn't be a problem but now being only the size of an insect herself the insecticide has a powerful affect on her.

There is an interesting development in the characterisation of the Doctor that starts in this story. Most of season 1 seemed to be stories where the Doctor and his companions would be separated from the TARDIS and would be doing everything they could to get back to it. Here, however, they could easily get back to the ship but they decide to work together to defeat the businessman (whose name eludes me unfortunately)

Originally this was supposed to be a 4 part story but apparently it was felt that the action dragged a little and so it was whittled down to a 3 parter which I think was beneficial as I can imagine it would have been a bit dull as a 4 parter (not to mention the fact that my challenge would be one day longer!)

The Dalek Invasion Of Earth

The popularity of the Daleks in season 1 was so great that it was only a matter of time before the pepperpots from Skaro made their return to the series. This time they've invaded the Earth!! You would never have guessed that from the title would you.

The TARDIS lands in the London of the future to discover the Daleks are in control and mining the crap out of the Earth, for reasons I'll get to in a moment. The Doctor takes the proactive approach once again to pit his wits against the Daleks to defeat them. They join up with the human resistance group hiding in London.

The scenes of Daleks trundling through a deserted London are, of course, utterly brilliant. The way they hold their sucker arms in the air is a definite nod to the Nazi salute and the similarities are obvious. This must have been chilling but utterly thrilling television when it was first broadcast.

Susan has a nice little side plot going with her growing love interest with one of the rebels David (more on this later too!)

So it turns out the Daleks are mining the centre of the Earth so that they can fit a giant engine and pilot the Earth around the universe.. why? ...well why not?? Everyone has got to have a hobby I suppose.

By the end of the story David and Susan have well and truly fallen for each other and Susan has to make the heartbreaking decision of either leaving David or her Grandfather behind. Knowing that Susan will not leave the TARDIS willingly, the Doctor locks her out and then we have one of William Hartnell's greatest moments as he bids an emotional farewell to his Granddaughter.

The Doctor: "One day I shall come back..yes I shall come back. Until then there must be no tears, no regrets, no anxieties...Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine"

And with that, the TARDIS materialises and leaves Susan behind. Getting quite sad just thinking about it.. although Susan was a bit of a pain sometimes. Anyway, this was the first companion departure of the series and it was one of the best ones. Later companions would leave for love reasons but rarely have they been done as well as this.

The Rescue

Time to meet Susan's replacement. It's Vicki!

A nice little two part story to introduce the new companion. It's always good to have these short stories occasionally to break things up.

So what can I say about this? hmm...

Well, there's quite a funny moment near the start. The Doctor sleeps through the TARDIS materialisation and Ian and Barbara, realising the TARDIS has landed decide to wake him. As Barbara tells the Doctor "the trembling has stopped" meaning the ship, the Doctor grabs her and says "oh my dear, I'm so glad your feeling better!" It's always nice to see the Doctor getting on well with Ian and Barbara in direct contrast to how horrible he was to them in the first half of season 1. Ian and Barbara truly are two of my favourite companions of all time. Why don't they have an action figure yet??

Vicki is one of the sole survivors of a crashed ship and by the end of the story she IS the sole survivor of the crashed ship. Which is quite handy in a way as it means she is free to jump on board the TARDIS with no one wondering just where the hell she has gone to!

The Romans

What is it with people trying to rape Barbara?? This time Nero is at it!

Apart from that, this story is pretty much an out and out comedy. It's very much in the style of the "Carry On" movies. The TARDIS team have spent a month in Rome even before the story begins properly. Rather handily they have discovered a villa whose owner is away, so they are holed up there and having the time of their lives. It's nice to see them actually enjoying themselves for a change and not running away from some hideous threat.

The Doctor gets mistaken for a musician and assumes the identity of that musician...which considering people are trying to murder said musician then it's probably not the wisest decision he has made!! However it does lead to one of the funnier scenes in the story where the Doctor plays a tune that only people with the most delicate and refined of hearing will be able to appreciate. He is playing this tune for the emporer Nero and he then begins to pretend to pluck the strings to the adoration of the crowd. The similarities with the emperors new clothes is obvious.

Meanwhile Ian isn't having such a great time as he is sold as a slave, made to row on a ship which subsequently sinks and then ends up fighting his new nest friend in the Emperors court. Poor Ian. From science teacher to action hero!

The Web Planet

My challenge hit a major obstacle here. This story is pants! Utter pants! I mean it has some good points..but it's mainly pants!

The TARDIS is dragged down to the planet VORTIS by an unknown force. The same force has dragged several moons into orbit around the planet. Vortis is the web planet.

So far so good..

And the sets for Vortis are pretty good! An echo is put on the soundtrack to give the impression of a cold and desolate environment. Copious amounts of Vaseline (I knew I'd get that phrase in somewhere!) are smeared (again another great word - smeared) across the camera lens to create the strange atmosphere of the planet.

Down for the down side...

The Zarbi - giant ants which do nothing but make grating bleeping noises and knock into these, including the camera!

The Menoptra - butterfly creatures who talk in the most irritating way. Honestly I think I'd rather they just bleeped too.

This story would have been ok as a two parter but it's six bloody episodes long! Six episodes of tedium!

I'm sure Big Finish have done a Doctor Who audio adventure called Return To Vortis.. I mean, why?? Why would anyone ever go back??

The Crusade

Another story that was a little bit of a struggle to watch. This time for completely different reasons. The story itself is actually excellent. It was only let down by the fact that 2 out of the 4 episodes no longer exist and unfortunately my copy of the reconstructed episodes was not too good so sometimes it was a bit difficult to work out what was going on. Especially in episode 4.

Julian Glover makes his first appearance in the series, this time playing Richard the first. He's a fine actor and one of those people who you could listen to even if they were reading the telephone book. He also played the voice of Aragog in Harry Potter which I found out the other day! Who knew!

Apparently Julian Glover and Jean Marsh (who plays his sister in this story) wanted to try to suggest and incestuous relationship between the two. An interesting choice. Again this was supposed to be childrens television right?

The Space Museum

Doctor Who dips its toe in the repercussion of dabbling with time again. The TARDIS jumps a time track (you know, a time track?) and the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki arrive at the Space Museum BEFORE they have arrived.. I think..Anyway, the gist of episode 1 is that they stumble across a display of their own frozen bodies! Quite a neat idea.

The remaining 3 episodes are more like your standard Doctor Who but this time with the added threat that the team need to avoid their destiny as being a display in the museum! Unfortunately it's not as exciting as it seems. Also the aliens have funny double eyebrows...and that's all I have to say about that.

The Chase

The Daleks are back! And this time they have time machines of their own to "chase" the Doctor throughout time and space in order to exterminate him! Seems like a good idea. The Doctor has only defeated them twice before (relative time of course, it's completely possible that these Daleks are from the future in their time frame and have had many schemes thwarted by future incarnations of the Doctor. You see, you've got to think about these things) and already the Dalek's are pretty pissed off.

The mystery of the Mary Celeste is finally answered (yes they were all frightened of their ship by a horde of Daleks!) and the Daleks make an exact replica of the Doctor (which isn't all together convincing, particularly when it's required for another actor to stand in for William Hartnell when the Doctor and his replica are required to be in the same scene)

And finally the Daleks meet one of their biggest Nemesis's (what the hell is the plural for Nemesis? .. Nemesi??) The Mechanoids! During the first few seasons of Doctor Who, many attempts were made to replicate the success of the Daleks and the Mechanoids were certainly designed along those lines. They're not fantastic...but they do have flame throwers!

The real jewel of this story comes in the final episode. With the Daleks defeated, Barbara realises that Ian and herself could use the Dalek's time machine to finally get home to their own time. The Dalek's time machine can actually be steered to the right time and place which I guess makes it superior to the TARDIS..I don't feel comfortable thinking such thoughts.

Anyway, the final scenes are heart wrenching as Ian and Barbara beg the Doctor to help them work the Dalek's ship to take them home.

 IAN: "Yes, home! I want to sit in a pub and drink a pint of beer again. I want to walk in a park and watch a cricket match. Above all, I want to belong somewhere, do something, instead of this aimless drifting around in space."

The Doctor's reluctance to help them is justified by himself as being because using the Dalek ship will be incredibly risky and that it could result in the death of Ian and Barbara, but deep down I think it's because he simply does not want to say goodbye. Over the last couple of years its clear that they have become very good friends. Of course eventually, he relents and instructs them on how to pilot the ship home.

DOCTOR: "I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them"

So will I Doctor, so will I.

The Time Meddler

Another first for the series. We meet another member of the Doctor's own race in the form of "The Meddling Monk" He even has his own TARDIS disguised as an alter.

We also get the proper introduction of the new companion, Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves (yes, Blue Peter's Peter Purves!) His initial scepticism as to the time travelling capability of the TARDIS is played brilliant, especially when the Doctor presents him with a viking helmet to prove that they have travelling to the past. Steven looks at his sceptically until the Doctor exclaims "Well what do you think it is?? A space helmet for a cow!?" Haha! Brilliant

So the monk is ..well..meddling with time. He's not necessarily an evil character, more mischievous.

The Doctor's meeting with another member of his race is intriguing. We still don't know what his race is called or what the planet is called but we are being fed little tid bits every now and again to keep us guessing who the Doctor is.

Another disturbing scene occurs in this story when it is very heavily implied that one of the vikings has raped one of the villagers that the Doctor has just met. This is dark dark stuff! Which considering the rest of the story is quite amusing then it seems a little out of place. And what the hell is with rape in Doctor Who. Honestly, children's television was very different back then.

So that was another season of Doctor Who finished. Things were about to get a whole lot more difficult for me from here. The first two seasons of Doctor Who are fairly complete in the BBC archives. Season 3 through 5 are the worst hit with the wiped and deleted stories so it was going to be a lot of still pictures, audio and descriptive text from here. This was honestly one of the bigger challenges that I would face. My only hope was that the excitement of watching stories that were new to me would compensate for the lack of moving images!!

Days 484 to 487 - The Pirate Planet

 

 

So now I'm back to the present day! The second story of season 16 - The Pirate Planet!

This story was written by Douglas Adams, more famously known for creating The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, and it certainly shows as there are a great deal of humorous scenes and funny characters including the Captain as shown in the picture above.

The Doctor and Romana are on the hunt for the second segment of the Key to Time. They are drawn to the planet Zanak, the Pirate Planet of the story. They discover that the planet is in fact hollow and being transported around the galaxy and materialising around other planets to mine them of all their wealth. Of course it doesn't take long for the Captain's sites to be set on the Earth.

The Captain is a great character and every scene he shares with his subordinate, Mr Fibuli is a joy to watch.

The idea of the story is also fantastic with the revelation of the planet being hollow being a major and exciting twist in the plot. I'm sure there was a hollow planet in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy too...not sure which story came first but I'm thinking it may be this one.

I've never really been a big fan of K9 but he is pretty good here. The Captain had a robot parrot (of course!) and so the rivalry between the K9 and the parrot make for an interesting little side plot.

The Key To Time series is shaping up to be just the tonic I needed after some pretty mediocre stories. I'm looking at you Invasion Of Time!!

Season 1 - Days 1 to 42

Broadcast Dates: 23rd November 1963 - 12th September 1964

Relative Dates: 23rd November 2011 - 3rd January 2012

A Legend Begins...

On the 23rd November 1963, as the country still reeled from the shocking assassination of President Kennedy the previous day, a new television show was being broadcast.

The opening scene, with the now famous theme playing over the top, began as the camera panned through a deserted alley before entering the junkyard of I M Foreman before settling on an old and battered police box that emitted a gentle hum.

I can honestly say that the first episode of Doctor Who is brilliant! Two teachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton become suspicious of one of their students, Susan Foreman who seems to posses knowledge beyond her years and beyond her time. Following her home one night they see her entering the old junkyard and, after a brief discussion, decide to follow her in.

Barbara: "I feel scared. As though we are about to interfere with something that is best left alone"

Here they meet an old stranger known only as The Doctor. Worried that Susan is imprisoned inside the Police Box and when Susan opens the door to call out to her grandfather, Ian and Barbara force their way inside and from here on their life will never be the same again.

Susan begs with her grandfather to let the two teachers go, but the Doctor, terrified that their cover will be blown now that the teachers have seen the inside of the TARDIS decides instead to kidnap them and the TARDIS dematerialises.

It's interesting to note that at this time in the shows history, the Doctor was incapable of correctly steering the TARDIS and as such where they landed was completely up to chance. This of course meant that even if the Doctor decided to take Ian and Barbara home then there was no little chance that he would actually be able to do so.

Ian "Who is he Barbara? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name we might have a clue to all this"

Here follows a summary of the highlights of the first series:

An Unearthly Child

The Doctor "It's still a police box. Why hasn't it changed? Dear me, how very disturbing.."

The TARDIS has landed in stone age times where a leadership ship struggle in going on in a nearby tribe. The main deciding factor being which man can create fire. This is a reasonably good story but not one that I would watch again and again. The Doctor is very much an anti hero in the first season and the main characters could be considered to be Ian and Barbara who have been forced into this strange life. Indeed there seems to be a distinct separation of Ian and Barbara on one side and the Doctor and Susan on the other.

One of the most shocking moments occurs halfway through this story when the team have a chance to escape back to the TARDIS. On the way they come across an injured cave man whom Barbara insists they help. The Doctor is far from happy at being held up in their escape attempt. Whilst everyone is tending to the injured man, the Doctor picks up a sharp rock and heads towards him, only for Ian to stay his hand. Clearly the Doctor intended to bludgeon the caveman to death so that they can make their escape! Can't imagine David Tennant's Doctor doing something like that!!

The Daleks

Sidney Newman (the head honcho of the Doctor Who production) saw the show as an educational show for children and as such insisted that in should not contain any "bug eyed monsters". It's funny that this rule was broken as early as the second story and even though Newman was far from happy, this story essentially saved the whole series. The Daleks were super popular with children and Dalek-mania swept the country.

The cliffhanger for the first episode of this story is represented by the picture shown above. It's difficult to watch now without knowing what the sucker arm is attached to but it still gives me chills to see it. The rest of the Dalek is not seen, but Barbara's terrified reaction to what she is seeing sells the horror perfectly!

The Edge Of Destruction

This is a very strange story. I've watched it many times (it's only a 2 parter so doesn't take too long to watch) and to be honest I'm not too sure of what is going on..

The ship starts acting strangely and so do the people in it. There is a worrying moment were Susan goes crazy with a large pair of scissors (Children's television???) and then it all turns out there is a button stuck in depressed position on the TARDIS console because of a broken spring...yeah..not great.

However this story does help to examine the Doctor's relationship with Ian and Barbara. The relationship, usually cold anyway, now sinks to new lows as the Doctor becomes convinced that the two humans are responsible for what is going on and that they have somehow sabotaged the ship.

As the story is resolved the Doctor has a lovely heart to heart with Barbara and it's clear that they have found a new understanding with each other as they step out of the TARDIS hand in hand ready to start another adventure ...

Marco Polo

I absolutely adore this story! The time travellers come across another set of travellers, Marco Polo, on his way to Cathay. Believing the TARDIS to be a "flying caravan" Marco decides to take it to present is a give to the mighty Kublai Kahn in the hope that he might finally allow Marco to return home.

This kind of makes Marco sound like the villain of the piece but this couldn't be further from the truth. He has a friendly relationship with the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan and insists he will help them to get home by other means. He is of course unaware that this is quite impossible since Ian and Barbara are from the future.

This is a huge 8 part story which plays out over several months of Marco Polo's journey. One of my favourite moment is when Ian decides to lay all his cards on the table and tell Marco the truth about the TARDIS being a time machine in the hope that Marco will give them the key back. Marco unfortunately finds it all too hard to believe but before leaving the scene turns to Ian and says "If I believed you Ian, I'd give you the key". All parties are just doing their best to get home.

The only bad thing about this story... it doesn't bloody exist!!. I'm into my first reconstruction. The BBC unfortunately have lost several episodes of Doctor Who from the 60s era and as such these reconstructions are essential. The show was broadcast before the days of home video recorders but fans would record the audio on tapes so fortunately the audio for all these missing stories does exist. With the use of pictures from the episodes reconstructions have been put together and for the most part they are not all that bad.

Another magical moment occurs at the end when the team finally do escape in the TARDIS. Marco looks on as the ship materialises and ponders to himself "I wonder where they are now? In the past? Or the future?" He finally believes..and it's awesome. Love love love this story!!

The Keys Of Marinus

I won't lie, this one is not great.

Anyway the main theme is that the Doctor and his companions are forced to travel the world of Marinus to find components of some kind of machine that is the mind of Marinus.. I think. I'm a little vague on this one.

As such each episode is like a mini story in itself as the team attempt to locate each key. After some of the shocking scenes from earlier in the series it's even more shocking to note that this story contains an attempted rape of Barbara! Bloody hell! Children's TV was very different in the 60s it seems!

The Aztecs

The show returns to form with this brilliant 4 part story.

Barbara is mistaken for a resurrected God (like you do!) and decides to use her new influence to attempt to turn the Aztecs away from the barbaric way they sacrifice people to the rain gods..

For a show about time travel, this story addresses one of the key issues. Can time be rewritten?

The Doctor "You can't rewrite history!! Not one line!!!"

OK Doctor, calm down. His stance is pretty firm. Time can not be changed. This doesn't stop Barbara trying. As a history teacher she knows all about the Aztecs and that without some of their barbaric and superstitious ways that they could have gone on to be a great people.

Meanwhile the Doctor somehow manages to get himself engaged. Which is rather amusing and quite touching in places to, especially when the Doctor has to leave his "bride to be" behind so that he can continue his travels.

The Sensorites

Again, I'm drawing a bit of a blank here too I'm afraid...but I know I enjoyed this story.

There are some racist conotations when one person claims that all Sensorites look the same. Tut tut!

Susan starts to practise with some psychic abilities, Ian gets poisoned, the woman who plays Barabara went on holiday so she doesn't do very much... Honestly this story is much better than I'm making it out to be!

Theres some political intrigue as the Sensorites compete for leadership.

The Sensorites have round feet, like big plates...nope that's all I've got I'm afraid.

The Reign Of Terror

So the first season of Doctor Who finishes with this historical story set during the French Revolution. Unfortunately I know very little about the French Revolution (or any revolution for that matter!) so I struggled a bit with this one.

It's a 6 part story with episodes 4 and 5 missing so reconstructions were necessary. My main memory was the hilarious over use of the surviving footage of a door opening that was used every time (and I mean EVERY time) a character entered the scene. In fact I think they even played the footage backwards occasionally to show the door closing.

This story has just been released on DVD with episodes 4 and 5 now animated so it will definitely be work a revisit.

The series ends with the Doctor looking off into the sky..

The Doctor: "Our destiny is in the stars, so lets go and look for it"

The first 42 days of my challenge were complete. Come back soon for my summary of season 2 which took me from Day 43 to Day 81.

The Quest Is The Quest!

So this blog didn't go quite as planned but that changes today!

The quest to watch an episode of Doctor Who every day from the very beginning began on the 23rd November 2011 with very little hope that I would succeed, hence the reason I didn't really bother to keep up this blog. Well I'm pleased (and only a little embarrassed) to say that I'm now on Day 487, over half way through, and failure is no longer an option!

I've taken the decision to blog my final year of the challenge (actually just over a year to go) and to revisit the past year and half and summarise what has gone before. I mean in a show about time travel then surely it seems suitable that I jump from past and present in my blogs!

Also so that my challenge can stand for more than just my personal satisfaction I have decided to ask for sponsorship for the charity The Douglas Macmillan charity. Look out for a link to a Just Giving page that intend to set up.

So time to look back to the past....