Days 496 to 499 - The Power Of Kroll

I've been off work this week on Easter break. Fortunately I haven't actually gone away so it was no hassle to get in the 4 episodes of The Power Of Kroll.

It seems that I have finally hit a low point in The Key To Time season here. Whilst it's not a bad story I think it's definitely the weakest one of the season so far.

I can't really pinpoint what it is about this story that makes it suffer for me. Watching one episode every day as I have been doing it is sometimes hard to work out whether I haven't enjoyed a story due to it being a poor story or due to my general mood at the time.

Anyway, to the story itself. The TARDIS materialises in a swamp which is actually really well realised in the location work done. The main thrust of the story is the animosity between two groups on the planet. The humans, who have set up a methane mining installation, and the Swampies who are the native people of the planet. It reminds me very much of Colony In Space.

Meanwhile to add further jeopardy the ancient creature Kroll has awoken and terrorises both groups. The leader of the Swampies, Ranquin, is an interesting character who believes that Kroll is their God and it's quite funny to watch how he keeps changing his God theories to fit in with the changing facts around him as Kroll turns on more and more people.

K9 is not in this story. (It was filled in a swamp so it probably wasn't very practical for him!) However John Leeson who voices the robot dog is not given the time off as he is actually used as one of the actors in the story, playing the human, Dugeen. It must have been nice for him to finally get his face seen in Doctor Who.

Some of the effects are a little ropey as evidenced in the picture above. However some effects are pulled of quite well including all the times when Kroll grabs hold of someone with his giant tentacles and pulls them down through the swamp.

The Doctor soon realises from reading an ancient book that Kroll is a regular giant squid that has grown to even greater size by eating the "symbol of power" which ends up being the fifth segment of The Key To Time.

When I find a Doctor Who story poor, it usually starts off well and goes downhill. Strangely I found the opposite here. I really didn't enjoy episode 1 but then things picked up. Thinking about it I was very hungry when watching episode 1 so may have just been hoping it would end soon so that I could get food. This is exactly what I meant when I said that my mood can affect how I feel about a story.

So the Doctor's quest to locate all six segments of The Key To Time is almost over. I can't believe how fast it's gone! Just one more segment is needed and then The Key will be complete!

Season 4 (Part 2 of 2) Days 135 to 169

Broadcast Dates: 5th November 1966 - 1st July 1967

Relative Dates: 5th April 2012 - 9th May 2012

Well I'm slowly catching up with this blog, time to talk about the days I spent watching the first stories of the second Doctor - Patrick Troughton.

The Power Of The Daleks

 

 

Of all the stories to be missing from the BBC archives I think this is the one that hurts the most. A six part story seemingly lost forever with just the audio and a few snapshots remaining. The reason why I say it's the one that hurts the most is that there is so much here that would be fantastic to see such as Ben and Polly's reactions to the "renewed" Doctor.

 

 

Speaking of the Doctor I think it's worth acknowledging here what a truly brave decision it was to replace the lead actor in such a way. I'm sure actors had been replaced in other programmes prior to this but here the change was actually acknowledged on screen. Also the obvious decision would have been to replace the actor with another William Hatnell-like actor to keep a firmer continuity in the character. Do they do that here? Nope! They completely change both the Doctor's look and personality. This must have been so freaky to watch when it was first broadcast!

 

BEN - "It's not only his face that has changed! He doesn't even act like him!"

 

Ben and Polly are instrumental in the changeover period. They question the Doctor's identity and basically act as the viewers as at least some reassurance as to what the hell is going on. At this stage the term "regeneration" is still not being used and the Doctor implies that his renewal, as he calls it, is actually part of the TARDIS functions. Additionally the Doctor's clothes somehow manage to change with him!

 

This is without a doubt one of the second Doctor's finest stories, despite the fact that Patrick Troughton has not yet quite developed the character that we would go on to love. In his first scenes he refers to himself in the third person

 

THE DOCTOR -  "The Doctor was a great collector wasn't he?"

 

 

The Doctor's new habit of playing the recorder whenever he is trying to think is in full force in this story. He plays it a lot! Maybe this is just more noticeable due to the lack of moving pictures and therefore the further reliance on the audio.

 

 

So to the actual story. The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan (but not that planet Vulcan..I'm not sure who had the name first actually, Star Trek or Doctor Who?) where they find a human settlement that have started the process of using Daleks as their willing servants. Of course the humans are not aware of the Dalek's true nature and some really great scenes come out of this where the Doctor is desperately trying to persuade the colonists that the Daleks cannot be trusted.

 

The Daleks are using the humans to receive the power supply and parts they need to create more Dalek travel machines and therefore reproduce.

 

 

Meanwhile there is another side plot going on where a rebel group of colonists who want to overthrow the current regime are planning on using the Dalek servants as weapons in their plans. The Daleks play off the two group of humans excellently for their own needs. Never before have the Daleks been so devious!

 

The Highlanders

 

Another 4 part (completely missing story!!) and to be honest I can remember very little about it! Sorry!

 

From what I remember I think Polly has quite a good story, getting quite involved in what's going on instead of just being relied upon to make coffee. Also the second Doctor continues to pine after the perfect hat which was a weired little habit that was introduced and soon forgetten about. I wonder of that is why the eleventh Doctor is so fond of his fez..

 

There are two important factors about this story that should be noted. Firstly this is the last of the purely historical stories. By "pure historical" I mean a story set in the past without any alien or sci fi related matters (apart from the Doctor himself of course). Up until now the series had tried to alternate between historical stories and straight out sci fi stories. In fact the first two companions, Ian and Barbara, clearly signposted this intention with one being a history teacher and one being a science teacher. It seems that at this point it was decided to drop the historical stories which is a shame because some of the early historical stories are very good.

 

Secondly this story introduces one of the longest running Doctor Who companions in the form of Jamie McCrimmon. In fact he may be the longest serving companion ever but I'm not sure. He's definitely a contendor! Jamie appears in every single second Doctor story, except Power Of The Daleks (and arguably The Three Doctors if you want to be nit picky!)  The relationship between Jamie and the Doctor would be one of the most successful and enduring but it seems odd here that he joins the TARDIS as he doesn't really seem to do much in this story.

 

The Underwater Menace

 

Until very recently this story had 3 out of the 4 episodes missing but back in 2011 another episode was found! I'm not sure how to describe to non Doctor Who fans just how exciting the discovery of a missing epiosde is as there is no comparison that I can draw. Unfortunately the discoveries are drying up now. I believe the last discovery prior to 2011 was in 2004 so as you can see they are few and far between! There probably always will be 106 missing Doctor Who stories (oh how I hope that I'm wrong!)

 

Anyway, the TARDIS lands on a beach and soon the Doctor and his companions find themselves travelling under the sea to the lost city of Atlantis. Not sounding great? That's because it's not great to be honest. Living with the Atlanteans is the crazy scientist Professor Zaroff who has promised the Atlanteans that he can raise the city from the sea again. In fact what he really intends to do is blow a hole in the planet so that the oceans drain into the core of the Earth and boil away until the planet explodes. Now you may be wondering why he would want to do this and this leads me to something that I actually quite like about this story. Zaroff doesn't want to take over the planet or hold the world to ransom, he simply wants to destroy it for the pure scientific achievement! The three words, Stark, Raving and Mad spring to mind.

 

Zaroff is such an over the top character that I can't help but enjoy watching him especially when he works himself up into such a frenzy that he screams the immortal line:

 

PROF. ZAROFF "Nothing in the world can stop me now!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

Brilliant

 

The Moonbase

 

The Cybermen are back! And this time they're on the moon!

 

The Cybermen have had a redesign and are now looking more like the Cybermen that we are used to. The Cybermen have got to be one of the Doctor Who monsters that changes the most during the course of the show. Everytime we see them they seem to look and sound slightly different. I guess they must be constanty upgrading themselves.

 

So I believe (again my memory is failing me, that's why I should have kept up with this blog at the time!) that they are trying to invade the moonbase (well done Sherlock!) so that they can use the Gravitron in the base that the humans use to control the weather on Earth. The Cybermen will then be able to use the Gravitron to destroy the Earth.. I guess.

 

I'm not sure if this story was written before they decided that Jamie would be coming on board the TARDIS as he seems to be pretty much written out of the story when he gets injured early on and conseuquently spends the rest of the story in the sick bay of the moonbase.

 

One of the greatest moments occurs when, knowing there is a Cyberman lurking around somewhere, a full search is put orchestrated using the sick bay as the HQ. No Cyberman is found and then the Doctor realises it's because the only room they have not checked...is the room they are currently standing in! We suddenly see a Cyberman whip back the cover from the bed he has been hiding in. So so spooky.

 

Patrick Troughton is finally devloping into the true Doctor that he would later become. Some of his clowning around is toned down and we get some superb dialogue from him including one of my favourite quotes of all time:

 

THE DOCTOR "There are some corners of the universe that have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything that we believe in. They must be fought!"

 

I remember a few years ago when I went to see Doctor Who Live. The story was basically about a guy who had captured loads of Doctor Who monsters that he then brought out for our entertainment. After a few less frightening aliens were paraded in front of us, he suddenly went deadly serious, turned to us and said "There are some corners of the Universe that have bred the most terrible things.." and I got goosebumps because I knew exactly which creatures were being brought out next!

 

 The Macra Terror

 

 A while back when Matt Smith appeared on Alan Carr's Chatty Man, Alan introduced him as "The only doctor who never has to deal with a bad case of crabs" or something along those lines anyway.

 

Now I like Alan Carr but this comment clearly shows what lack of research he must have put into that joke as in this story the Doctor has to cope with a serious case of crabs! Giant ones.

 

I'm really struggling to remember some of these Patrick Troughton stories! In my defense I've only watched most of them once and when I say "watched" I mean staring at still images whilst listening to the audio for the post part. Again this is a completely missing story.

 

The Macra look pretty terrible it's got to be said. In fact they look so bad that I'm convinced that if another missing epiosde does turn up then it'll be one from The Macra Terror just because fate can be a really bastard sometimes (sorry fate, love you really!)

 

The Macra are using and oppressing humanity and there is some good old fashioned mind control going on here when Ben is turned against his friends.

 

I hadn't seen this story before seeing the tenth Doctor story Gridlock in which the Macra make a surprise return. I'm not sure how I would have reacted. I think seeing the surprise return of any old adverosry would have elicited a feeling of thrilling excitement from me, but in this case I think I would have just been left bewildered "Really?... They brough the Macra back?....Why?"

 

Not recommending this one I'm afraid!

 

The Faceless Ones

 

The TARDIS lands at a London airport and the team get separated as they run away from an approaching aircraft. Soon the Doctor realises that something is seriously wrong with the sinister company, Chameleon Tours.

 

I really enjoyed this story despite the fact that only 2 out of the 6 episodes still exist. It's a crying shame because there are some really good ideas going on here, with aliens kidnapping young people by putting them on an aeroplane which is then flown straight upwards into space to dock with a spaceship. This part happens in one of the episodes that is now missing and it would be great if we could see how the model work was pulled off.

 

Ben and Polly go missing fairly early on in this story and it very quickly becomes the Doctor and Jamie's show. This is the Patrick Troughton era that I am most familiar with, the Doctor and Jamie.

 

Ben and Polly turn up at the end of the story to discover that the date that the TARDIS is landed in is in fact the exact same date that they started travelling with the Doctor way back in The War Machines. Discovering this, they decide to stay behind on Earth. I'm not really sure what I feel about Ben and Polly as most of their stories are missing but they were very important to the series as they helped to bridge the gap between the first and second Doctors.

 

Now then, do you remember way back when I spoke about The War Machines, I told you to bear in mind the Doctor's comments about feeling that the Daleks are near despite the fact they they don't appear in that story? I didn't think you would. But I did say that. Well the interesting thing is that the next story, The Evil Of The Daleks continues straight from The Faceless Ones in the same time and place. And since we know that the Faceless One is actually set at the same time as The War Machines then the First Doctor was correct when sensing that the Daleks were near because they were in fact setting a trap for his future incarnation! I think that's interesting anyway. To be honest I don't think it was planned. I think it was just a happy coincidence.

 

The Evil Of The Daleks

 

 And so season 4 comes to a close with this fantastic epic Dalek story!

 

The Dalek's kidnap the Doctor and Jamie and transport them back in time to the Victorian era and the home of Edward Waterfield who has been conducting experiments in time travel, which unfortunately allowed the Daleks through into our world. There are so so many great moments in this story. When the Doctor and Jamie first get transported back through time, they have no idea that the Daleks are behind it all and the first reveal of the Dalek to the Doctor as it bursts out of the time cabinet is beyond thrilling!

 

DALEK - "NOW  DO YOU UNDERSTAND DOCTOR?!"

 

The Daleks tell the Doctor that they realise they are missing something from their DNA meaning they are not quite ideal for surviving. They realise that humans are the great survivors and therefore are trying to develop "the human factor" so that it can be introduced into the Daleks themselves. To do this, they persaude the Doctor to secretly put Jamie through a series of tests. This shows some of the first signs of how the second Doctor can be quite manipulative and his treatment of his companion is a little shocking leading to a massive row between himself and Jamie which is played to perfection by Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines. Jamie takes the bait however and sets off to rescue Edward Watefield's daughter, Victoria. Meanwhile he is being monitored by the Doctor and the Daleks so that they can extract the human factor.

 

Another great moment comes when the Doctor finally injects some Daleks with the human factor and they being acting like little children. They start "playing trains" with the Doctor, pushing him round on a chair. Just like in The Power Of The Daleks, we are seeing a whole new side to the Daleks in this story.

 

Finally the story takes another leap as we are transported to the Daleks home world of Skaro where the Doctor finally comes face to face with the Emperor Dalek as shown in the picture above. The Emperor reveals the Daleks true plan. Instead of trying to work out the human factor, they are actually going to reverse the idea and use the findings of the Doctor to inject all humans with the Dalek factor making them Human-Dalek hybrids!

 

The Doctor creates his own army of Daleks to fight back by tricking them into being subjected to the human factor and a huge civil war kicks off on Skaro between the two factions! In the process Edward Waterfield is killed, which conveniently leaves Victoria Waterfield as yet another orphan that the Doctor can take with him on his travels.

 

This would be the last Dalek story for a long time and in fact the Doctor believes this to be "the final end" of them. In fact this was intended to be the final end of the Daleks and the Daleks creator, Terry Nation was attempting to mount his own Dalek television show in America meaning that they needed to be written out of Doctor Who. In fact, it would only be a matter of time before the evil pepper pots would make their return!

 

Well there we have it! It took me a couple of blog posts to get this one complete but that is Season Four complete. My next entry will most likely be on The Power Of Kroll which is the story I'm just about to finish watching and then I'll return to my look back at the prior seasons with my review of Season Five! I can almost sense your mounting anticipation!

 



 



The First Doctor

For those of you unfamiliar with the stories of the first Doctor then check out this YouTube tribute by the fantastic Babelcolour. It perfectly sums up the first Doctor era.

I thought I would make a few comments about the First Doctor and each of the companions who travelled with him. I will not be making any comments about Ben and Polly yet as they are still travelling with the second Doctor so they will be included in my summary of his time. So here goes:

The Doctor

Not always ranked very high on the list of favourite Doctors, William Hartnell should at least be given credit as the man who started it all. I happen to think that he made a bloody fantastic Doctor and one who had a real character development throughout his tenure.

From the first episode the Doctor wasn't necessarily a person you would like to meet. He effectively kidnaps Ian and Barbara, is prepared to kill a caveman who is slowing down their escape, will lie to his companions to force them to explore the Dalek city for his own curiosity. Then of course there's the story when his real paranoia about Ian and Barbara makes him completely lose it with them and he demands they leave the ship, no matter where the ship may land, effectively throwing them overboard!! From here, after he discovers the error of his ways, he softens down a great deal and although he is still prone to angry outbursts when he doesn't get his own way, he becomes a much gentler character and is actually actively seeking out ways to help the people he encounters rather than simply try to run back to the TARDIS as the first sign of trouble.

The Doctor would go on to form true bonds with the companions he travelled with along the way. The most significant of these for me always seems to be the story of Ian and Barbara. From being two interlopers that were thrust upon him, by the the time it comes for them to leave the Doctor is genuinely upset to see them go.

William Hartnell was a fine actor, he could do both the serious and the funny stuff excellently. He is also well known for his many famous slip ups with his lines, fondly nicknames "Billy-Fluffs". Back in the 60s television shows would tend to recorded as if they were going out live. Editing was a pretty expensive business back then so pretty much if you made a mistake with one of your lines then it would have to stay in. Therefore some absolute corkers go through! eg "anti radiation gloves....drugs!"..."floating around in Spain...space!" etc

By the end of his time on the show William Hartnell was suffering from ill health but it's rather sad the way he was treated for his last few stories as he was gradually phased out of the series.

Susan Foreman

The Doctor's granddaughter. There's still a great deal of mystery around Susan. It seems strange looking back on the series that one of the Doctor's first ever companions was actually a member of his own family. But what happened to her mum and dad? These are things that we still do not know 50 years down the line!

I've never been a great fan of Susan unfortunately. She always seems to be the one who goes hysterical or twists her ankle and at times this can cause the Doctor to be taken out of the story as he is having to constantly look out for his granddaughter.

There are some stories where she is allowed to shine, such as in The Sensorites when she develops psychic powers but these developments are few and far between. She also has some nice moments when she shares a story with someone around her (apparent) age, for example her relationship with Ping Cho in Marco Polo.

As much as I don't really like Susan as a companion I do have to admit that she has one of the finest leaving scenes in the shows history and William Hartnell's parting message to her would be one of the most well known moments of his tenure.

Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright

I wasn't sure whether to mention these two separately but decided to talk about them together as they really do form a team and if Sarah Jane's research is correct actually end up getting married upon their return to Earth!

Absolutely two of my all time favourite companions. Everything from the way they are forced into travelling in the TARDIS and going on these wild adventures, right up to their eventual leaving scene which surpasses even Susan's, it's all fantastic.

Barbara development from being a "a very unwilling adventurer" to being the woman who is trying to instigate a complete revolution to the Aztecs way of life, you can see how life in the TARDIS and all the possibilities that presents has rubbed of on her.

Meanwhile Ian is very much the action hero. With the Doctor being an old man it would be difficult to take part in some of the more action orientated scene such as jumping across chasms and getting into sword fights (although the Doctor does get into some of his own sword fights). Therefore Ian fills this role in the show.

Also during the earlier stages of the show it was very much Ian and Barbara who were considered the main characters. The Doctor started of as a bit of an anti hero and more of a device to move Ian and Barbara from A to B and cause conflict within the group. Therefore Ian and Barbara were two of the most important companions in the entire history of the show. Jacqueline Hill who played Barbara is sadly no longer with us but William Russel who played Ian is still alive and it would be awesome to see him make a reappearance in the 50th anniversary special. Not sure how they'd get around the fact that Ian and Barbara are not supposed to have aged since the 60s according to Sarah Jane's research. Maybe her research was flawed...

Vicki

Vicki was brought in to be the "Susan replacement" and she fills the role perfectly without any of the annoying aspects of Susan. For a start she is not the Doctor's granddaughter so he can be a little bit more independent of her as he does not have to be protective of her. That sounds awful, he is protective of her obviously but..well she's not family..so it's not quite the same..if you get what I saying.

Vicki is allowed to get up to her own adventures, away from the Doctor where as Susan would pretty much just tag along with her Grandfather. It's Vicki who persuades the Doctor to show Ian and Barbara how to pilot the Dalek time machine back to their own time and space. She's also there to help introduce Steven to life travelling in the TARDIS. She's not my favourite of companions but I do like Vicki.

Steven Taylor

It's quite difficult to judge Steven as a companion as he has the sad misfortune of having most of his stories missing. It seemed strange at first to see Peter Purves in an acting role as he more well known now as a presenter. The stories he shares with Vicki are all pretty good but he never really seems to gel with Dodo.

He also has quite a confrontational relationship with the Doctor, most famously evidenced at the end of The Massacre when he storms out of the TARDIS after the Doctor has left thousands of people to be slaughtered.

Katarina

One of the more ill conceived ideas for a companion. Katarina was a replacement for Vicki after Vicki left during the events of The Myth Makers. Unfortunately it was quickly realised that a companion from ancient history was never going to work as she would inevitably spend too long asking to many questions and be completely confused as to what was going on around her.

However her introduction to the series is not a complete loss as we get the first companion death in the shows history during the events of The Daleks' Master Plan. Poor Katarina. She was only in the show for a few episodes and she still gets a better exit than Dodo will!

Sara Kingdom

Is Sara Kingdom officially a companion? A bit of a grey area here. Companions usually tend to be those characters who travel from one story to the next and Sara Kingdom is actually only in the one story..and yet she does do a fair bit of travelling round in the TARDIS and as such some people consider her to be a companion...Honestly! Some Doctor Who fans have proper debates about such important matters!

Unfortunately having only seen The Daleks' Master Plan once I don't have a great memory of her character. I know she kills her own brother which is pretty shocking and then goes on to have one of the most horrific deaths at the end of the story as she ages to death on a dying planet! The Daleks' Master Plan really is a blood bath for companions!

Dodo Chaplet

Dodo arrives at the end of The Massacre, apparently as one of the ancestors of Anne Chaplet whom Steven had befriended and feared to be dead. When she first arrives she has quite a strong Mancunian accent which stood out at the time as being unusual in Doctor Who. Unfortunately by the next story it was deemed that her accent should change. No explanation was given of course. Maybe it was the TARDIS's telepathic circuits working on her speech so that more aliens would understand her. I'm grasping at straws here!

She also famous as having officially (there is no doubt about it) the worst leaving in Doctor Who. She just disappears with just a message left for the Doctor that she is staying on Earth. Utter crap!

So there we go. The first Doctor's era is complete. Coming soon are my thoughts on the second half of Season 4 as the tenure of the second Doctor begins!

 

 

 

 

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