Days 547 to 551 - Warriors' Gate

Well what a pile of crap! Just absolutely bloody awful!!

 

This is probably going to be one of the most negative reviews I’ve done. I hate this story. As with most Doctor Who there are some shining moments but these are very few and far between.

 

The TARDIS lands in the border between E-Space and our own universe, a white void with only three features, a stranded spacecraft, a mysterious gateway and the TARDIS itself. It just all looks so dull and literally featureless.

 

The stranded spacecraft is using an alien race called the Tharil to navigate their ship due to the Tharils having a time sensitive nature or some bollocks! The Tharils look like lions...really shit looking lions.

 

The main Tharil, Biroc, speaks to the Doctor and gives him a warning. This leads to quite a good line when Romana questions why they should believe Biroc to which the Doctor replies “Because he was running”. This line sounded quite familiar to me and I’m wondering whether it has been repeated in the new series. What writer in their right mind would make a call back to Warriors’ Gate!!

 

This story also marks the departure of Romana and K9 from the series. I was sad to see Romana go but K9 long outstayed his welcome! It’s a pretty poor departure for them too with Romana deciding out of the blue to stay in E-Space in order to help free the Tharils and the Doctor giving her K9. It seems to be a running theme that every companion who leaves the fourth Doctor gets their own K9. Leela got one, Romana got one. The only female companion who didn’t get her own K9 was Sarah Jane. But she soon would!

 

In about a week’s time I’ll be doing the unthinkable. There will be one day when I don’t watch an episode Doctor Who! It will be the first time in 560 days! However this does not spell failure for my quest...there’s a little teaser to all those people who aren’t reading this blog and therefore won’t give a toss either way!

 

This has been quite a negative blog entry I’m afraid. Maybe it’s because the time of the fourth Doctor is reaching its end...or maybe it’s because Warriors’ Gate is utter crap! I suspect it’s the latter.

On a more positive note, I've passed the 550 day mark! Yay me! Every 50 days feels like a pretty good achievement now. Tom Baker is a fantastic Doctor but it's getting increasingly tough to sit through some of his stories. The beauty of Doctor Who is the way it renews itself every so often, the main way it does this being the regeneration of the Doctor. As such I'm longing to see the appearance of the fifth Doctor now to freshen things up a little. Not long to go..

Days 544 to 547 - State Of Decay

This blog was possibly a mistake; I’m finding it harder to think of what to say. The original idea was to keep track of my progress by including details of where I watched the episodes and any notable events but I’m finding myself more and more just detailing what happened in the episodes. Hopefully, as with the quest itself, this is just a dark period for the blog and inspiration will soon strike as to what to do to make the blog more exciting.

Still trapped in E-Space, the Doctor, Romana and a stowed away Adric have an adventure with an ancient vampire. We don’t actually see the true vampire here, apart from his hand as he tries to break out from underground but the scenes in his lair where we hear his heart beat are really creepy, helped out with some lovely sombre music. Season 18 is feeling so much more like a different show than some of the other seasons have. I just wish that they’d get rid of those bloody question marks!

Adric demonstrates a trait that will pop up frequently, which is his seeming willingness to join the side of the bad guys. Adric seems a little naive and likes the fact that the “Three-Who-Rule” are offering him immortality. In this case he does seem to be just bluffing but I’m not to sure how much I would trust him.

One of the better aspects of this story was some of the history we learnt of the Time Lords. We hear all about an ancient battle between the Time Lords and the Vampires which ended when the final king vampire mysteriously disappeared (to E-Space apparently). The Time Lord versus Vampire war sounds epic and is a nice precursor to the events of the Time War that are still a long way away

It’s been a long time since I saw this one but obviously some of it has stuck with me as when the Doctor was stating that it was difficult for the TARDIS to make “short hops” I found myself thinking that surely given the smaller size of E-Space that the smaller hops would be more comparatively large and therefore easier. A few minutes later, K9 goes on to explain that exact point. Who needs a tin dog when you have me around!

A bit of a middle of the road story, not as good as Full Circle although sharing some of the same themes, i.e. a crashed ship that has been stranded for generations, twists regarding the origins of the main characters etc. Now I’ve just got Warriors Gate to look forward to as the final chapter of what is loosely known as the E-Space Trilogy. God help me! This next one is a tough one. I know I won’t enjoy it, I’ll just settle on understanding what the hell is happening!

Days 540 to 543 - Full Circle

A strange thing happened during the start of this story. I got a little emotional, for literally no reason at all! I think it was when I saw the "soon to be" companion Adric appear on screen. Adric is more associated with being a companion to the fifth Doctor and it made me realise how fast the departure of the fourth Doctor was approaching. It also feels like I am moving into a new era of the show and I feel a little sad leaving the old days behind..

The story itself starts with quite a touching scene when Romana admits to the Doctor that she does not want to return to Gallifrey now that she has a sense of the adventurous life in the TARDIS. Fortunately for her, the TARDIS hits a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) and is pulled through into another universe known as E-Space.

The TARDIS materialises on a planet where the crew of a crashed starliner are busily preparing for departure. They have been preparing for generations, repairing the ship and doing everything they can "towards the embarkation!!" The Starliner is run by the Three Deciders, with only the first Decider having full access to all informaton regarding the ship and how it came to crash on the planet. When the first Decider is killed by a Marshman and the second Decider takes his place we sense that something is very wrong after the new first Decider learns the truth from the archived files. His reactions tells us that things are not all as they seem.

Outside of the starliner we meet a group of younger people who prefer to live away from the starliner, living like rebels and stealing river fruit etc in order to survive. Their leader is Varsh and his younger brother is Adric.

Whilst we are on the subject of Adric we unfortunately should address the fact that Matthew Waterhouse isn't the greatest of actors and Adric can be a little annoying (boasting about his badge for Mathematical Excellence etc) but I actually really like him! He doesn't annoy me half as much as he does other people and I think he is one of the more interesting companions. He certainly has one of the best departures but I'm getting way ahead of myself here!

The Doctor soon realises that the work being done on the starliner is just procrastination and that the ship has been ready to fly for years. Confronting the first Decider with his findings we get a fantastic scene where the Decider proudly states how the archive files are so detailed that they could be used to break the ship down to it's smallest parts and be reconstructed again exactly. Unfortunately the one things the files don't instruct them how to do is to how to fly the ship! It's a brilliant twist!

Further twists arrive when the Doctor realises that the starliner has been on the planet for thousands of years longer than anyone realised and that the crew can never return to their home planet of Terrodonian simply because they have never been there! The crew of the starliner are actually evolved Marshmen and have replaced the original crew.

The campaign to remove K9 from each story continues here when a Marshman manges to remove the dogs head! Can't say I was that bothered!

The story ends with Adric smuggling himself into the TARDIS and the Doctor and Romana realising that they are still trapped in the bubble universe of E-Space and wondering if they will ever be able to escape to our own universe.

Best story of season 18 so far!

Days 536 to 539 - Meglos

This was only the second time I have seen this one and must say I enjoyed it more the second time around.

It takes the Doctor and Romana quite a while to get into the action after they are trapped in a chronic hysteresis in episode one, being forced to repeat the same actions over and over again which does get a little monotonous.

Meanwhile on the planet Tigella we have some interesting stuff going on at least. The Tigellan's city is being powered by a mythical Dodechedron that fell from the sky many years previously. The city is completely reliant on this structure but any attempts by the Tigellan scientists to further study the object are blocked by the religiously fantatic Deons who worship it. The leader of the city, Zastor, tries his best to keep the two groups happy and there are some interesting debates regarding the nature of science versus religion. When things start going wrong with the Dodechadron, the two groups are at each others throats so Zastor sends for the Doctor's help as he remembers him being a wise friend. This in istelf is very unusual as its not normally the case that the Doctor is sent for by an alien race, unless it's the Time Lords of course.

Unfortunaly the cactus-like creature, Meglos, traps the Doctor in an Hysteretic loop and steals his identity in order to access the city and steal the structure for himself.

I bet Tom Baker absolutely hated wearing the Meglos make-up. It was at this time that he was kicking off quite a bit so I bet there was a few choice words when he found out what he was required to put on!

Tom Baker can play evil characters really well. Sometimes even as the Doctor he can be quite scary! So as Meglos he can be quite sinister and scenes of Meglos and the Doctor talking are excellently played!

One of the Deons is played by Jacqueline Hill who played Barbara in the first couple of seasons of Doctor Who! It seems odd that they would bring her back to play a different character when she is so well known for playing Barbara. I suppose at the time the old stories weren't really freely available to watch so many people may not have been aware of her previous role in the show.

One other thing that struck me here, and I realised I had forgotten to mention previously is something about the Doctor's new costume that I absolutely hate. The question marks! He now has two question marks on his collar! I mean why??? I know the show is called Doctor Who but it still doesn't make any bloody sense! Unfortunately the question mark motif was another idea of the new producer, John Nathan Turner, and would last from now until season 26 so I've got quite a long time to get used to them!

Season 8 - Days 279 to 303

Broadcast Dates: 2nd January 1971 - 19th June 1971

Relative Dates: 27th August 2012 - 20th September 2012


It's bye bye to Liz, hello to Jo, and the debut of one of the Doctor's oldest and greatest enemies - The Master!

Terror Of The Autons

Poor Liz Shaw. She joins the small rank of companions who doesn't get a proper departure from the show. Instead we are told that she has left without us actually getting to see it in a similar manner to Dodo's departure at the end of season 3. The main difference is that I actually missed Liz and, not to be too blunt, I couldn't give a crap what happened to Dodo!

The reason for Liz being written out of the series was due to the production team feeling that as a scientist she was too brainy a companion for the Doctor to have. I'm not sure I quite agree with this and I think Liz was a great companion. So now, believing that the companion should serve the role of the audience and ask all the necessary questions to the Doctor, we get Jo Grant.

Whilst Jo Grant doesn't have the same intelligence as Liz she is still a fantastic companion who is incredibly loyal to the Doctor. Their relationship doesn't get off to the greatest of starts however as she ends up ruining one of the Doctor's experiments the very first time she meets him!

This story was also the debut of major character in the history of Doctor Who, The Master!
It's interesting to note that with a Doctor who was exiled to Earth, the series took on a sort of Sherlock Holmes feel to it. The Doctor was Sherlock, the Brigadier was Doctor Watson and all that was missing was Moriarty. The Doctor's Moriarty arrives at the start of season 8 in the form of the Master.

No one has quite cracked the character of the Master as superbly as Roger Delgado, the first Master. He's one of those villains that seems just so charming that you can't help but like him despite his evil schemes. He also has a face that fits a villain. What I always find so weird too is the fact that everyone who is ever asked about Delgado enthuse about what an absolutely lovely man he was! Now obviously I didn't expect him to be associating with Autons, Axons and Sea Devils in an attempt to take over the world but I always find it interesting that someone so nice can play such a bastard!

The Autons also return in this story. You would never have guessed that from the title would you? This time they are working with the Master and this time the Autons' plans are even more creepy. They are suffocating people in plastic chairs, setting toy dolls on people to strangle them (think they got complaints about this one!). Jo also comes off badly when she encounters one of the plastic daffodils that the Autons are distributing. In one of the more disturbing moments in the series we see Jo struggling as the daffodil fires a plastic film over her mouth and nose causing her to suffocate. Luckily the Doctor is on hand to save her.

The Mind Of Evil

This was the first time that I had ever seen this story as it was not officially out on DVD. The release of the story has been delayed due to the extensive work that has been needed on it. This was one of the stories that partly only exists in black and white so a team of experts have been working round the clock to re colourise the episodes. Now I bet that's a job that requires patience! I imagine after staring at this story for so long you'd never be able to enjoy watching it again as you'd be sick of the sight of it!

The Master is back and this time he is in the guise of Professor Keller and is using his Keller machine to remove all the negative impulses from a group of prisoners. Seems reasonable enough if a little against human rights. However strange things start happening around the machine when people start dying from fright whilst being presented with some of their worst fears being implanted in their minds by the machine. There is a nice call back to Inferno when the Doctor is presented with the image of flames and he tells Jo how he has recently seen a world destroyed in fire. Its unusual at this point in the series for events from previous stories to have an impact on later ones so its nice to see the Doctor still trying to come to terms with the horrific events at the end of Inferno.

Most of the action is centred around the prison, we get some great scenes of UNIT storming the prison in order to save the Doctor and Jo once the Master has taken over.

I must admit I can't remember all too much about this one as I've only seen it the once but I'm very much looking forward to the re colourised version coming out on DVD so I can watch it again.

The Claws Of Axos

The Master is back....again. Yes in case you hadn't worked it out yet the Master is the villain in every single story of season 8 which is...well...interesting I suppose. It's a bit of a strange choice. By the third story the anticipation of the Master's return becomes less and less.

However we also begin to realise the flaw in the Master plans. He always seems to ally himself with another alien race (here it's with the Axons) and they always end up screwing him over! You'd think he'd learn really.

The Axons spaceship is a fascinating place. A biological ship with a lot of freaky stuff going on inside and phallic looking protuberances waving around.

The Axons arrive on Earth claiming to be benevolent aliens but when you look below the surface they are actually a kind of vampire wanting to suck the Earth dry of all it's energy. This has some devastating effects on the people they touch and we get some really cool effects where we see people disintegrating before our very eyes including a poor homeless man, Pig Bin Josh. If ever there was a character crying out for his own action figure then it's Pig Bin Josh.

Speaking of characters requiring an action figure I simply couldn't not mention Bill Filer, an American intelligence agent sent to help UNIT in their search for the Master. After being kidnapped by the Axons, learning of all their plans and then escaping we get some hilarious scenes of Filer unconscious in a hospital bed whilst spouting exposition in a feverish state. "Must warn them...it's the Master....Axonite dangerous....must not distribute....must not distribute!!" Haha! Brilliant! He also has some of the best hair in the series...how can you not love this guy:

By the end of the story we are led to believe that the Doctor and the Master have allied themselves with each other in order to escape the Earth before the Axons take over. It very well played and as we still do not know the third Doctor all that well and we know of his desperation to get his TARDIS working again so that he can leave the Earth, it does seem believeable that he might just scarper! Of course he doesn't betray us all and he traps the Axons in a time loop but not before the Master escapes. I'm sure he'll be back...Probably in the very next story!

Colony In Space

This picture confuses me. Why is the Doctor about to whack a savage in the back of the head?? Seems a bit unsportly of him!

The Doctor finally gets to escape the Earth, albeit for a limited time and on a mission for the Time Lords. Jo gets her first look around the TARDIS just as the Time Lords take control and send the Doctor and Jo off to Uxarieus. The Time Lords believe that the Master has located a doomsday weapon there and therefore need the Doctor to stop him.

Soon we meet a group of Earth colonists who are struggling to survive, not aided by the fact that they are being terrorised by a giant monster. What I found quite exciting was that one of the colonists was played by a very young Helen Worth (Gail Platt from Corrie!). She's brilliant!

After investigating the monsters appeareances the Doctor soon realises that it is merely a tool being used by a mining company who wish to scare the colonists away in order to give them unlimited access to the planet.

The third party in all these affairs are the original inhabitants of the planet (the ones shown above that the Doctor is inexplicable karate chopping!). These are the guys who have created the Doomsday weapon capable of wiping out entire stars! Eat your heart out Death Star!

The stage is set for one of those stories I quite like where there are good guys and bad guys to be found on all sides and the poor Doctor is in the middle trying to broker a peace. This story is no where near as good as some of the other stories of this kind such as The Silurians but it's not bad.

Things get moving later on when, incapable of agreeing, the humans send for an ajudicator from Earth. Unfortunately when he arrives the Doctor recognises him as the Master! (again!!)

All in all a pretty good story but it's not one that I'd cry out to watch again in a hurry.

The Daemons

And so season 8 came to a close with a story I was really looking forward to watching as it had a great reputation and I had never seen it before. Luckily it was released on DVD just in time for me to watch it for my quest.

The Master is back (sigh) and this time he is masquerading as a vicar in the tiny village of Devil's End (nice name!)

There is an archilogical dig going on which the Doctor is watching on television back at UNIT HQ. Soon strange things start to happen so the Doctor dashes off to investigate.

One of the most striking images from this story was the arrival of Yates and Benton (two of the main UNIT officers that I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned yet!) via helicopter. Upon looking down at the fields they are flying over they see huge foot prints in the ground left by some mighty beast. It’s a pretty cool effect.

It’s nice to see Benton and Yates in civilian clothing and pottering around the picturesque village whilst investigating the strange goings on.

The Brigadier arrives late on the scene and is cut off from the village by a strange forcefield that surrounds the village. The scenes of objects interacting with the forcefield, such as the Brigadiers baton exploding are really well done and I remember being surprised at how effective the effects were.

To be honest I can’t remember a whole lot more about this story which is a shame, I remember being slightly disappointed which was probably due to the fact that it had been really hyped up for me as being one of the best. There are some good scenes such as Benton blowing up the church, which I believe actually led to complaints from viewers who thought the BBC had actually blown up a church when it was really just a model shot!

This needs a re-watch I think. The problem being that with watching one episode every day I never really get the chance to catch up with the older ones and by the time the quest is finished I may never want to watch another Doctor Who for the rest of my life!

 

Season 8 was over....

 

The timing between these blogs is getting longer and longer but I'm getting there. This is more painful than sitting through some of the episodes! Maybe I should write a blog about my challenge of writing a blog!

 

 

Days 532 to 535 - The Leisure Hive

Season 18 begins and we have a few fairly big changes going on. The show has a new producer, John Nathan Turner (who would produce the show from now until it's eventual axe after season 26) and with him we get a whole new look.

There's a new logo, a new version of the theme tune and new opening credits. The time tunnel effect is gone and instead we get a star field opening during the start of each episode, including a rather poor picture of Tom Baker. Fortunately Tom's picture won't be there for much longer as this was his final season in the show, the longest serving Doctor to date.

The Leisure Hive starts off with a tediously long tracking shot across a beach until we finally come to rest on a snoozing Doctor, complete with new costume and radically different scarf. You have to admire the nerve of them, messing with the Doctor's scarf.

Unfortunately the beach isn't the safest place for a tin dog and K9 has soon blown up having tried to chase a beach ball into the ocean. Not the cleverest thing to do! This was all part of John Nathan Turner's master plan to do away with the dog. As such K9 is not featured in the remainder of the story.

Deciding that Brighton beach isn't the nicest place to relax, the Doctor and Romana travel to the leisure hive of Argolis. The Argolian people were engaged in a terrible war that lasted all of 20 minutes but left their planet a devastated waste land and their people sterile. As such they intend to create the ultimate leisure hive as a gesture to the other people of the universe before they finally die out. I must say that wouldn't be one of my first priorities.

The Argolans are using a generator to project Tachyon images to...do something very complicated. I didn't get it. The series also had a new script editor, Christopher H Bidmead, who believed the show should use more real science and as such some of the fun has gone and I was just left scratching my head. This story would make a good drinking game though, take a shot every time the word "tachyon" is mentioned. You'll be pissed by the time you reach episode 2.

This story was pretty crap! But occasionally there were some pretty shocking twists that were played out pretty decently, my favourite one being the realisation that if the Argolans are truely sterile then how can the young character of Pengol exist. It's played out brilliantly because when the revolation comes you wonder how the hell you didn't spot it yourself!

Pengol is a "child of the generator" and intends to create an army of clones....and then it all gets boring again....

My verdict: Couple of good twists but pretty damn dull! It's a times like this that the quest can be a real struggle!

Days 526 to 531 - Shada

Since moving into my new house its not an exaggeration to say that my DVD collection has been a little disorganised. I have no shelving units of any kind in my room and as such the DVDs tend to be piled up around the wall. Its a general rule that no matter which DVD I decide to watch, it will be right at the back and at the bottom of a pile!

When it came to watching Shada, I knew it was a DVD that I had had out recently and to my horror I could not find it anywhere. This has happened a couple of times during the challenge and I can't begin to describe the blind panic that begins to set in when I can't find the story that I'm looking for! It can't be doing my sanity much good! The irony of nearly misplacing this story is that Shada has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the legendary lost stories of Doctor Who. Initially meant to be the final story of Season 17, it was scrapped halfway through production when strikes at the BBC made the completion of the story impossible.

It wasn't a complete loss though as large chunks of the story do exist and were released on VHS in the 90s with linking narration from Tom Baker for the missing sections. I'm a bit of a veteran when it comes to reconstructed stories by now having sat through all the ones for the missing 60s stories so this wasn't too bad. At first it can be quite misleading though as most of episodes 1 and 2 do exist so it leads you into a false hope that things are not as bad as they seem. However by episodes 5 and 6, most of the time is taken up by Tom Baker describing the action to us. It's very sad as having read the novelisation of this story it seems like it would have been brilliant!

We have some lovely scenes of the Doctor and Romana punting along the Cam. I really like seeing the Doctor and his companion(s) taking time out and enjoying themselves, whether this be the Doctor and Romana sightseeing around Paris or The Doctor and Barbara sunbathing in The Chase (one of the only good parts of The Chase!)

I usually watch my Doctor Who episodes in an afternoon (I'm not sure why but it just doesn't seem right watching them in the morning) but the last episode of Shada was watched fairly early in the day which was fortunate as I ended up spending a great deal of time in the pub. (Don't judge me for it! It's a bank holiday and they were having a Star Wars day!). We watched all 6 Star Wars movies back to back. Whilst I missed little bits here and there whilst I went to get food etc I did manage to sit through the majority of them. Clearly watching 531 consecutive episodes of Doctor Who over the last 531 days has had some impact on me. Some people just didn't have the staying power!

It was a great day but I must say the highlight of it was when a couple of girls and what could quite loosely be described as a "man" stormed past us shouting "What are you watching that shit for? You wankers!" I'm actually smiling now at the memory of it. Good grief! They think we are wankers for watching Star Wars?? If only they knew...if only they knew...

Days 522 to 525 - The Horns Of Nimon

"Weakling scum!!!!!"... Sorry I had to get that out of my system straight away. It's a phrase that is used quite a lot during the first couple of episodes of this story. It is said by the Skonnan co-pilot of the vessel being used to transport the kidnapped children from Aneth who are being offered as sacrifices to the Nimon. Sorry for the info dump there. The insult comes so out of the blue sometimes that I think the poor co-pilot may have an undiagnosed case of Tourettes.

And I say children, but most of them are young adults. Which is an important distinction that I must make straight away. The one I "liked" was 21 at the time of filming (yes I researched it!) so I'm not being a pervert!

The Nimon are an interesting looking creature who I believe are based on the Minotaurs of legend. They're pretty crappy looking but all the same I think they'd make a cool. action figure. I heard a rumour that they ares struggling to create action figures of the Nimon as the heads make them too top heavy to stand up properly.

For those of you who have only seen the new series, the Nimon are meant to be a relation to the creature seen in the eleventh Doctor story, The God Complex. You see, your missing out on all these little back references by not having an encyclopedic knowledge of 50 years of Doctor Who!

I ended up quite enjoying this story. It was fairly simple which I think came as something of a relief. Especially after some of the stories I've been watching recently.

The character of Soldeed is a little over the top but it didn't bother me too much. At least he made what could be a boring story into something quite enjoyable....as well as the rather lovely looking Anethian mentioned earlier.

This could be technically classified as the final story of season 17. The next story, Shada, was never completed due to strikes at the BBC. However it has now been released on DVD (at least the surviving footage has) with linking narration by Tom Baker for the missing parts so it deserves it's place in the quest! The legendary lost story...I'm very excited..