Day 705 - The End Of The World

As first dates go, taking your girl to witness the death of her planet could be deemed to be a little insensitive but when Rose requests to see the future for her first journey in the TARDIS then the Doctor does his best to go along with that request.

Luckily the Earth has long since been abandoned and the Doctor and Rose find themselves on a space station positioned to watch the sun explode and destroy the planet. Lovely.

After a fairly timid first episode we are now in full Doctor Who mode with loads of techno babble and alien races galore! The "last human" Lady Cassandra shows what could happen to us if cosmetic surgery goes crazy when we see that she is literally just a piece of stretched skin with eyeballs and a mouth with her brain enclosed in a jar underneath her frame.

It soon becomes clear in this episode that the Doctor is hiding a great secret. This is made especially evident when one alien delegate (evolved from trees on planet Earth, a pretty imaginative creature if you ask me) identifies the Doctor as a Time Lord and during a fairly emotional and sensitive exchange she quietly admits:

Jabe:- "I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just want you to know...how sorry I am"

Of course it's not long before an unknown foe is attempting to sabotage the space station in order that all the wealthy delegates will be burnt up with the explosion of the sun. 

After surviving the events of the episodes Rose is upset that the Earth was destroyed and that everyone was too busy saving themselves that no one actually saw it die. That is quite sad actually. It's now that the Doctor admits to her that his planet has gone, along with all his people. Destroyed in a great war. 

So there we have it, a new series and already we have had the extermination (there's a clue for you!) of the Time Lords and the destruction of Gallifrey. Things are looking a little bleak.

Day 704 - Rose

Finally on to the new series. Well, it doesn't seem so new anymore as this is now 8 years old.

It seemed really weird to be watching the modern episodes now. I really can't believe I've made it this far!

Learning from the mistakes of the 1996 TV movie, the story is instead more focused on that of the companion, Rose Tyler, who stumbles upon the Doctor in the basement of the shop where she works as he attempts to destroy the control systems of the Auton invasion. Whereas the TV movie wanted very much to link itself to the old series by starting off with the seventh Doctor before regenerating into the eighth, here we are straight into the action with the ninth Doctor with no explanation as to what has happened to his previous form. It works really well because people can jump straight on board with the story without having to have prior knowledge of the history of the show. You could watch this without knowing a single thing about Doctor Who and still understand everything that is going on.

Rose is a much more grounded version of Ace and I like how in the new series they give her a family setting. The old series pretty much took companions away from Earth with little thought as to the repercussions of them leaving.

The first story brings the Autons back to the series. I remember being a little confused when watching this for the first time in 2005 as during a really tense scene near the start of the episode when Rose is being advanced on by a group of Autons, I suddenly heard Graham Norton's voice! This was nothing to do with the story but somehow an audio feed got mixed up from the rehearsals of Dance Fever and Norton's voice was audible during the scene! Bizarrely this is the first of two times that poor Graham would ruin a pivotal scene in Doctor Who, but more on that much later!

As well as meeting Rose, we also meet her mum Jackie and boyfriend Micky. I always think that Rose is a bit of a bitch at the end of this episode when she runs off from Micky to go travelling with the Doctor.

It's clear that they were a little nervous about the resurrection of the series which is why we get very few call backs to the past. Even the Doctor's costume is very un-Doctorish. After this first series was out of the way they would get much braver and the Doctor would be running round in ridiculously long coats and bow ties etc.

The new TARDIS is glorious. I don't think it is a stunning as the eighth Doctor's TARDIS but it's still pretty amazing.

This is what is great about watching Doctor Who for a marathon viewing. Just when you think you might be getting tired with it, everything changes! And you have a whole new show to watch and enjoy..

The Wilderness Years (1990 - 2004) - Part Four: Scream Of The Shalka

In 2003 the next attempt was made to revive the show, albeit in animated form with the online production, Scream Of The Shalka, starring Richard E Grant as the ninth Doctor.

At the time this was meant to be a genuine continuation of the series and future animations would have been likely to follow but shortly after the announcement was made that the BBC were bringing back real Doctor Who, with Christopher Eccleston appearing as the ninth Doctor and as such Richard E Grant's Doctor was removed from the true continuity of the show. However Scream Of The Shalka has just been released on DVD and I've never seen it before so I thought it was worth slotting in and I ended up watching this just before starting Christopher Eccleston's first episode.

Grant's Doctor is much darker than his eighth persona and its clear from the start that something has happened prior to this adventure to make him the way he is. There is a real sadness to him which in someway is similar to how the Doctor will develop having survived the Time War and the slaughter of his people.

The animation is pretty good but its not fantastic. I think it shows that it was made for an online release rather than a television showing.

One of my favourite performances would have to be Derek Jacobi as the Master (again foreshadowing his eventual appearance as the Master in the new series!). At first I wasn't sure what was going on as the Master spends the duration of the story inside the Doctor's TARDIS, unable to leave, but at the same time helping the Doctor. He even gets revealed to be an android of sorts part way through the story! It's revealed that at some point the Doctor has saved the Master and is now travelling with him so the Master is the Doctor's, not quite willing, companion which I think is a neat idea.

The Master also has a great scene with the Doctor's new companion, Alison, as he goes on to explain the Doctor's sadness and therefore his need for her. It's rather a touching scene really.

I'm running out if time to talk about the Shalka! They are a pretty impressive creation with their screams being able to strip away the Earth's atmosphere. The Doctor has had a fair few companions with some good screams but nothing that could beat the Shalka!

Day 703 - 1996 TV Movie

The Doctor:- "It was on the planet Skaro that my old enemy, the Master, was finally put on trial. They say he listened calmly as his list of evil crimes was read and sentence passed. And then he made his last, and I thought somewhat curious, request. He demanded that I, the Doctor, a rival Time Lord, should take his remains back to our home planet, Gallifrey. It was a request they should never have granted...." 

 

The first proper attempt to revive Doctor Who was in 1996 with this TV Movie which was intended to be a pilot to launch an American tv series.

 

Unlike the revival that was to come in 2005, this version was steeped in references to the past and therefore must have been a little confusing for most Americans who were watching the show for the very first time.

 

When the story starts we are still with the seventh Doctor as played by Sylvester McCoy who has been charged with the task of delivering the Masters dead remains back to Gallifrey after being killed off by the Daleks. We don't actually see the Daleks but we do hear them. They totally screw up the voices though and they sound more like Smurfs! Honestly it's bloody terrible.

 

The new opening titles and music are fantastic though and I'd have to say one of my favourite of all time.

 

The Master doesn't stay dead for long though as manages to break out of his box in the form of a snake (I don't know why either) and starts causing havoc with the TARDIS systems forcing it to make an emergency landing in San Francisco in the year 1999.

 

By now you would hope that the Doctor had learned to check his scanners before stepping out of his ship but unfortunately his failure to do so leads to him immediately being shot by a gang of thugs. This in itself would not be enough to kill him but due to his alien physiology the Doctor treating him (Grace Holloway) gets completely confused and ends up causing his death during the operation to save him.

 

The Doctor's ressurection in the hospital morgue is excellent and really atmospheric, intercut with one of the attendants watching a Frankenstein movie during the "it's alive!!" scene. Meanwhile the Master has slithered inside the mouth of the paramedic who drove the Doctor to the hospital and takes over his body.

 

The Doctor is suffering from serious amnesia but soon teams up with Grace and the stage is set for a showdown with the Master as the Doctor attempts to get the part he needs to repair the TARDIS before the Master can steal his body and destroy the Earth.

 

Paul McGann is brilliant as the Doctor and it's tragic that he only got the one television episode. He has starred in many audio adventures though so has at least had the chance to develop his Doctor further. His costume is very much in the style of the Edwardian era as warn by the first Doctors. Apparantly McGann wasn't a fan of this and especially not a fan of the wig he was forced to wear to cover up his short hair.

 

Eric Roberts as the Master is...interesting. His final meeting with the Doctor when he has dressed up in his Time Lord robes is so ridiculously camp that you can't help but love it. There are some moments when he goes a little over the top but for the most part I think he gives a good performance.

Grace is an excellent companion. She is clearly intelligent which I have always thought works better than when the Doctor is given a stupid companion who is clearly only there to ask the required questions. I also like the journey she goes on throughout the story and the fact that she is a very different person for meeting the Doctor by the end of the adventure. She's also the first companion that the Doctor full on snogs!!

The new TARDIS is just beautiful and it definitely seems to be the biggest interior they have done ever.

Now we come to my grumble....the Doctor claims to be half human. And the Master confirms this. No!!!!!!! I just felt a great disturbance in the force as millions of fans cried out in rage. This has become another one of those moments that you just have to stick your fingers in you ears and go "lalalalalalala" for. Apparently if this had gone to a full series then we would have found out that the Doctor'smother was a human and the Master was his brother. Thank God that never happened,

I really enjoyed watching this again. It had been a long time since I had seen it but I have fond memories of it as I watched this when it first came out in 96. I fell in love with the show then and it was just a shame that it took another 9 years for me to get my next fix!

 

 

The Wilderness Years (1990 - 2004) - Part Three: Downtime

It was only when looking for a way to watch this fan production, released on video in 1995, that I suddenly came to realise there are quite a few fan productions which could also have been included in this gap between the old and new series. However to include all of them would take forever so Downtime is here to represent them all.

I didn't really enjoy it I'm afraid. Obviously it's not as bad as Dimensions In Time but then what the hell could be?? Also it didn't help that the copy of it that I watched was of pretty poor quality. It seems to have been recorded over a football match and every now again the audio from the match was creeping into it which made things a little confusing at first when I wasn't aware that this was happening.

There are no Doctors in this story but we do get the return if three companions, Victoria Waterfield, Sarah Jane Smith and Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewert.

I was a little disappointed that Sarah Jane is vastly underused in this story and to be honest there is no real need for her to be in it as she does very little towards the plot. This was a shame but she will have her chance to shine later on in my quest.

Victoria is acting very odd throughout this story. The plot revolves around the idea that The Great Intelligence is back with his yeti and is trying to take over the world again. It seems that Victoria is working for the great intelligence but at the end when all hell breaks loose she says something along the lines of "it was the intelligence all this time" like she didn't know! That's pretty dim! That being said its cool to see her character again now living in modern day Earth when she was originally born in Victorian times.

The true star if this story though has to be the Brigadier. It's here that we meet his daughter Kate. Now I'm not sure if this is in the true continuity if the show but when we meet his daughter in a much later eleventh Doctor story then she is also called Kate so I guess you could argue that this story is canon.

Also (and I'm so sad for noticing this) the Brigadier uses a code to describe the yeti threat. That code being NNQQ now NN just happens to be the production code for the second Doctor story The Abominable Snowmen and QQ is the production code for The Web Of Fear, both stories containing the yeti! Now that's what you call a subtle inside joke!

I'm glad I watched this as I felt its a good indication of the lengths that fans went to keep the show alive in these wilderness years. That being said I can't imagine ever watching this again! 

The Wilderness Years (1990 - 2004) - Part Two: Dimensions In Time

I can't believe I actually watched this! It's absolutely bloody awful! A "televisual abortion" as someone recently described it.

It's 1993 and the 30th anniversary of Doctor Who. The show has been off the air for the last 4 years but to "celebrate" it is revived for a one off mini episode to be broadcast during "Children In Need".

I actually remember watching this when it was first broadcast. Which possibly makes this the first Doctor Who I ever saw! I always thought the TV movie was my first Doctor Who but this was broadcast 3 years before the movie. Oh God! Could this really have been my first episode?? No wonder it took me another 12 years to take the show to my heart!

Dimension In Time brought together all 5 of the surviving Doctor, the third Doctor through to the seventh. Tom Baker (Doctor no. 4) kept up the tradition of not wanting to appear in the show any more by simply having his scenes filmed at the start and really they only consist of him giving a warning to his other selves that the Rani is out to catch them. I do like how he refers to the other Doctors as "my dears" though. I thought that was quite funny.

I also like the revamped theme tune! It's a bit on the fast side but still pretty awesome...

And then it begins. I mean I would go into details of the plot but I really don't think there is one! All the Doctors and various companions are trapped in a 40 year time loop in Albert Square...yes they are trapped in Eastenders! Alternating between present day (1993), the past (1973) and the future (2013). It was a bit weird watching a show where the future was now the present day.

To be fair I did enjoy spotting all the different monsters and working out which stories they were from but apart from that it's just a disgraceful piece of television and a real embarrassment!

The story is introduced by the third Doctor and Noel Edmunds *sighs*. The third Doctor tells Noel that he has come from the year 2010 and that Edmunds is still on television. I suppose that much is true. It would have been cool if he'd mentioned Deal or No Deal.

Apart from the pure shittness of the plot it was great to all the Doctors again and the companions. Lets see if I can remember them all.

First Doctor era: Susan (rather confused that her grandfather now looks like the sixth Doctor
Second Doctor era: Victoria (more screechy than I remember her being)
Third Doctor: Liz Shaw and Mike Yates (driving the Doctor's car Bessie!)
Fourth Doctor: Sarah Jane, Leela and Romana
Fifth Doctor: Nyssa and Peri
Sixth Doctor: Mel
Seventh Doctor: Ace.

That's a pretty good haul of past stars of the show actually. Don't ask me to name the Eastenders characters who appeared as I have no idea about that show. Why couldn't the Rani have trapped the Doctors in Coronation Street! Now that would be much more interesting!

Days 700 to 702 - Survival

Well this is it. The end. Or at least one of the ends. The final story in the classic run of the series sees the Doctor in one final battle against The Master.

Taking Ace back home to meet up with her friends, the Doctor soon discovers that people in the small town have been going missing over the last few months and there are some suspicious looking pussies about..as in cats. The cats are actually the kittling of the Cheetah people from another planet who are transporting people across the cosmos in order to be the Cheetahs' prey.

I loved how the story started with the Doctor moping around the town, bored because nothing is going on. Also the returning of a companion home so that she can visit her friends etc is something that doesn't happen much in the classic series and it really feels like a bridge between the old and the new series with the tenth Doctor often taking Rose home to meet up with her mum.

As the Doctor goes off to buy cat food to tempt the pussy (sorry I literally can't stop myself!) we get a cameo from Hale and Pace as the owners of the shop. Fortunately they are only in episode one.

Soon the Doctor and Ace find themselves transported to the world of the Cheetah people and discover the Master has also been trapped on this planet which is on the verge of destruction. It turns out that the Cheetah people are linked to the planet and as they fight and destroy each other they are also destroying their world.

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view) Ace soon starts to turn into a Cheetah person herself and therefore develops the ability to tranpsort them all back home.

The final epsiode plays out on Earth again with the Master and the Doctor having one final face off.

This was the final story to feature Anthony Ainley as the Master and he gives one of his finest performances. Often his Master could be played a little over the top and become more of a pantomime villain. Here he is much more subdued and as such it feels all the more sinister.

As the story closes, the Doctor and Ace walk off, hand in hand, back to the TARDIS and more adventures. It was quite emotional to hear the Doctor's final speech as they walked off together.

The Dcotor:- "There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream. People made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace - we've got work to do!"

I won't lie, I felt quite emotional..

And that was that, 26 years of Doctor Who was over. Coming tomorrow I jump to the Doctor's next adventure broadcast in 1996 the TV Movie!

Rediscovering The Web Of Fear!

 

 

With the discovery of 5 out of the 6 episodes of this classic story I decided to travel back to the 60s once again (this is giving me a headache!) to relive days 192 to 197 of my challenge now that I can see the Yeti stalking people in the London underground in all their moving glory.

This story has always been one of the most sought after lost stories and so to have it back complete, except for episode 3 is a dream. When I heard that it was episode 3 that was still missing my heart sank a bit as it is near the middle of the story that the colonel (later to be the brigadier and one if the Doctor's longest running friends) and his soldiers engage in a massive battle with the yeti through the streets of London. Fortunately this is actually in episode 4 so I finally got to see it and it was bloody marvellous!

Over half of the Patrick Troughton stories were missing before the finding of these latest episodes and its great that the scales have now been tipped in the opposite direction. Troughton is so expressive that not being able to see him move means that you lose a good portion of the performance. For example when he says that the real villain could be closer than they think, he casts a glance towards the colonel who is written as a very suspicious character in attempt to make you believe that he is a secret traitor. Of course that doesn't quite work now as we know he goes on to become the brigadier but its still a nice part of the story.

The only other story to feature the yeti is also lost and therefore before this find I never really knew much about them. Seeing them actually move and fight they can be pretty frightening and just a little cuddly.

I'm so so happy that this story has been returned. Rumours abound that more missing stories may also soon be being returned to the archives. Whilst that would be absolutely fantastic, part of me hopes they are not returned until after this challenge is complete to avoid any more returns to the past for my blog entries. It can get very confusing!

Days 696 to 699 - The Curse Of Fenric

My first time viewing of this one and I was looking forward to it as it has a fantastic reputation as being one of the very best of the seventh Doctor era. Unfortunately this raised my hopes a little too high and as such the first episode was a bit of a disappointment.

The plot is quite a complex one, but unlike the plot of Ghost Light I think it's one that after another viewing II will at least be able to grasp! Set at a British Naval installation during world war 2 where coded messages from the Germans are being decoded. Unfortunately the commander and his scientist have taken it upon themselves to use the machine to crack the code of an ancient Viking inscription which has terrible repercussion when they resurrect Fenric from his bindings that the Doctor himself placed him in 17 centuries earlier.

What I liked most about this story is that there were plenty of exploration of the characters. For example Nicholas Parson plays a vicar who is going through a crisis of faith and tries desperately to regain it throughout the story. His eventual fate is pretty heartbreaking.

We also learn more about Ace's family, particularly her relationship to her mother when she discovers that the baby she has taken care of is actually her mother!

Sylvester McCoy shows himself to be a truly great Doctor when given the opportunity and he is given such opportunity here when he has to break Ace's faith in him in order to defeat the monster. It's absolutely superb! 

The DVD contains a movie version of this story with added footage and special effects and I definitely think I'll give this a try in a month or so.

Only one more adventure the seventh Doctor to go. That's kind of sad as I'm really starting to like him. But many changes are on the way!

  

The Wilderness Years (1990 - 2004) - Part One: An Introduction

I am now one day away from reaching a large milestone in this journey, the completion of the original 26 season run of the show. The axe was swung in 1989 and it would be another 15 years before it would properly return. During this period there were various attempts made by various people to get the show running again but as far as I'm concerned only one of these can be considered strictly canonical with the history of the show, that being the 1996 TV Movie. This showed the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy regenerating into the eight Doctor, Paul McGann.

I won't talk to much about the TV Movie now as I will be watching this as one of the days of my challenge but there are three other notable "episodes" that I do not consider to be in the true continuity of the show and therefore will not be taking up a day of the quest. These being Dimensions In Time, Downtime and Scream Of The Shalka. I intend to watch these at some point during the next few weeks and still intend to write a blog entry on each one in this four part review of "the wilderness years"

I won't go into too much detail about them now but I do just want to justify why they have been missed out of my 900 day quest.

Dimensions In Time: This was a Children In Need episode (about 12 minutes long) broadcast in 1993 and containing all surviving Doctors and a number of different companions. Whilst it was produced by the same producer of the original show, it also had Doctor Who crossing over with Eastenders and a plot that made such little sense that it really has no place in the shows continuity

Downtime: A fan produced project featuring the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith and Victoria Waterfield. Now I can't blame the lack of Doctor as a reason why I'm "skipping" this one as I do intend to cover the spin off shows of the Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. However the fact that this was a fan produced, direct to video, story means I do not think it has a true place in continuity

Scream Of The Shalka: Right before the series was brought back in 2005, this cartoon web series of Doctor Who was produced starring Richard E Grant as the ninth Doctor. This is not part of the canon of the show as this Doctor has been replaced by the television version of the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.

So there we have it. Three adventures which will not be taking up a "day" in my challenge but which I intend to try to watch anyway and blog about. So coming soon in Part 2 of "The Wilderness Years" will be the 1993 mini episode "Dimensions In Time"...God help me!

Days 693 to 695 - Ghost Light

"I try and try but I don't understand!" is an actual line delivered by one of the characters in Ghost Light and it pretty much sums up my feelings on this one. My feelings basically being "what the hell is going on???"

This story is so confusing that the first time I watched it I actually had to read up on the plot summary on Wikipedia in order to get any grasp on what I had witnessed! I don't think it helps that this story was abridged from four episodes into 3 during production and therefore everything is rushed which doesn't leave you much time to work out what is going on.

The Doctor, in yet another cruel action, takes Ace back in time to visit an old house that she once burnt down as a teenager. The seventh Doctor is proving to be quite nasty and manipulative. It's clear that he wants to help Ace fight her demons but he goes about it such and underhand way that it doesn't seem very nice of him. This does lead to one of my favourite quotes though as the Doctor reflects that everyone has things they fear that need to be faced.

The Doctor:- "I can't stand burnt toast. I loathe bus stations - terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls. And then there's unrequited love, and tyranny, and cruelty. We all have a world of our own terrors to face."

As if the story wasn't confusing enough, the music seems so loud that a lot of the dialogue is drowned out by it. It's a shame because I think the essence of the story is a pretty good one.

The "villain" known as Light, arrived on Earth millions of years ago and spent thousands of years cataloging all life. Having completed his work he was horrified to see that things were evolving and changing meaning his catalogue was no longer complete or accurate. Therefore he is trying to put a stop to evolution. I mean a lot of people don't like change but Light is taking it a bit far! 

There are a lot of interesting scenes revolving around the theory of evolution, an especially funny one being when the priest who is battling against Darwins theory is regressed into being an ape.

As if this wasn't enough there is another confusing plot twist near the end about an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria..not quite sure how this all fits in to be honest.

I don't think I'll ever understand Ghost Light I'm afraid, which is a shame. 

Only one more week of classic Doctor Who to go. I actually feel a little afraid now. God knows how I'll feel when the quest ends completely in May 2014. I can't remember what I was before all this!

Days 689 to 692 - Battlefield

The final season of the classic run of Doctor Who begins very well with this excellent four part story.

As well as being a Doctor Who fan I also quite like the another BBC series "Merlin" and therfore this story was right up my street as Arthurian legend crashes into the Doctor Who universe, albeit it with a science fiction twist. All you need to know is that it seems that the legends of King Arthur were born from another dimension where such people actually existed. It's in this story that they return to Earth for the final battle over Excalibur.

It's also quite fun when the people from this other dimension recognise the Doctor as Merlin. The Doctor is yet to have this adventure yet and its one of the rare cases in the classic series where we have these moments of the Doctor discovering something about his future self.

As if this wasn't enough, the Brigadier is back!! Called out of retirement to assist the Doctor. He even brings the Doctor's old car, Bessie, back for one last spin. This would be the last time that we see the Brigadier in Doctor Who. He would make a brief appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures but this is his final story in the main show. It's a bit of a strange coincidence that I should be watching his final story now, just as his very first story from 1968 has been discovered after being lost for 45 years!

Ace gets quite a few fun things to do in this one too as she is given a mate, Shou Yuing, to play off. It's good to see Ace hanging out with people her own age and the scene where Morgane tries to turn Ace and Shou against each other is another highlight of the story.

We also see one of the best realised monsters in the classic series in the form of The Destroyer. The makeup is brilliant and I reckon they could easily get away with it in the new series. Unfortunately The Destroyer only really turns up in part four and doesn't really get much to do.

Also if I didn't know better I would have been getting some very uneasy feelings about the fate of the Brigadier. Every thing seems to be building up to his demise. Of particular to note is the touching scene where he says goodbye to his wife promising her that the will be back safe and sound. In fact I think it was an idea that was going around to kill him off and actually I think it would have worked. It would have been totally heartbreaking. But then if he was killed of here then we would have been denied the moment in The Wedding Of River Song when the eleventh Doctor hears of the passing of his old friend, but I'm getting way ahead of myself now!

Back to the 60s once again!

As if the chronology of this blog wasn't confusing enough, I find myself in a situation where I once again have to re-visit the prior days of the challenge. Days which have already been blogged about but given the recent events I now need to return to. Think of it like in Back To The Future Part 2 when Marty McFly travels back in time and once again witnesses some of the events from the first film but this time from a different persepctive...it's sort of like that.

In this blog entry I will be travelling way back to days 186 to 191 of my challenge in May 2012. It seems such a long time ago now. During these days I was watching the second Doctor story, The Enemy Of The World, a six part story with all but episode three missing from the BBC archives. To watch the other five episodes I had no alternative but to watch reconstructions of the missing scenes with the original audio and track accompanied by various visual imagery such as the few existing pictures etc.

Well the reason I bring this all up again is that over the last week I have seen for the first time the actual episodes themselves!! Found in Nigeria and returned to the BBC, they were available for download on ITunes earlier this month! Therefore I thought the story needed reappraisal

I can't really remember what I said about this story when I first blogged about it and I purposefully don't want to go back to see what I put as I don't want to colour my opinion of the episodes by reading what I made of it originally..does that make any senses at all??

Anyway the basic plot is that the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria land on Earth around the year 2015 (the near future now but the distant future when this story was first broadcast!) to find a man called Salamader on the verge of becoming dictator of the entire world. The twist being that Salamader is a dead ringer for the Doctor!

There were just so many moments in this story that were lost when watching only the reconstruction of it. The first episode alone includes a hovercraft chasing a helicopter! It's also great to see Patrick Troughton's duel performance as both the Doctor and Salamander. I haven't seen Patrick Troughton in anything other than Doctor Who (apart from the moment he is stabbed through the chest by a church spire in The Omen!) and this was a real joy to see him playing a completely different character.

The moment the two characters come face to face, which doesn't happen until right near the end of the story is pretty cool too. 

It just seems typical that as I'm nearly at the point of watching every single Doctor Who episode that exists, they go and find more of them! 

Days 685 to 688 - The Greatest Show In The Galaxy

 

It seems that things are destined to get worse before I finish this latest stint of my challenge. Good grief this one was awful! I wonder if the title was supposed to be ironic..

The Doctor and Ace visit a circus. The seventh Doctor is proving to be a bit of a bastard at times as he is taking Ace here even though he knows full well that she has a fear of clowns.

From what I gather (my attention drifted considerably whilst watching this) some aliens have taken over the circus and are capturing the people who come to visit and then forcing them to become one of the acts. As soon as they find them not entertaining enough then they are killed. If this story itself was one of the acts then I would have killed them off before the end of episode one!

At the time this story was made they had found asbestos in the studio that was needed and therefore instead of abandoning production, the decision was made to move it all and film it in a big tent so I guess it was fortunate that the story revolved around a circus.

So I have now completed the 25th season of Doctor Who and there is only one more season to go before the axe was swung in 1989. Time for one final set of adventures with the seventh Doctor...

Days 679 to 681 - The Happiness Patrol

I was so excited to see this one. It's one I've owned for quite a while but knowing that I would be watching it for my quest I decided to not watch it until I reached it on my journey. When I first got into Doctor Who back in the late 90s I bought a video containing a documentary all about the various monsters in the show and I was fascinated by the one shown in the picture above, The Kandy Man, and as such this is a story I've wanted to see for about 15 years. And it's utter crap!

It had a bad reputation anyway but I went into it wanting to enjoy it so much that I just don't think it could live up to all those years on anticipation. The basic plot is that the Doctor lands on a planet where it is illegal to be unhappy. The planet is governed by a woman called Helen A, who apparently written as an attack on Margaret Thatcher, but I'm afraid to say that I'm thick when it comes to politics so I would never have picked up on that if hadn't been told. In fact this story caused a bit of a outrage only a few years ago when the creators of it admitted it was an attack on the Thatcher government, and therefore contravened the strict unbiased stance of the BBC. All I can say is it must have been a quiet news day as its a bit of non story.

So the Kandy Man is a robot made out of sweets and is henchman to Helan A, handing out various horrific punishments to the "kill joys" I.e all those people who dare to be unhappy! Such punishments include drowning people in strawberry fondant. That's a little nasty I must admit.

It just seems that this is one of those stories where I didn't really understand what was going on half the time. 

Of all the stories left to watch there is now only one that I have never seen before. Therefore when I see that one I will have seen every episode that exists. Talking of which that's now not strictly true! I'm thrilled to say that we now 9 new second Doctor episodes for me to watch! With the recent recover of all nut one posted of The Web Of Fear and all of The Enemy Of The World, both fantastic stories! 

Days 682 to 684 - Silver Nemesis

 

The Cybermen are back! And they're more "silvery" than ever before!

This story began on the 23rd November 1988 which was exactly 25 years to the day that the series began. Hence it is the show's 25th anniversary, meaning silver anniversary, and the silver monsters are Cybermen. The thought that must have gone into that!

I'm afraid to say that I think this is my least favourite of all the Cybermen stories, even the ones that no longer exist! This is a real shame as it is the last time I will see the Cybermen in the classic series.

The plot is fairly similar to that of Remembrance Of The Daleks, with the Doctor trying to correct the mistakes of his past.

I wish I could say more about it but I'm boring myself just thinking about it again. Basically there are three groups after the "nemesis", those being the Cybermen, some Nazis and a Jacobean lady (Lady Peinforte) who has somehow managed to travel to the future...I was a bit unclear on that.

There is a pretty funny scene where Peinforte is forced to share a lift in a car with a loud but lovely American lady. As the American lady is chatting away to Peinforte's servant, Peinforte chips in with "All things will soon be mine" which just made me laugh because it comes completely out of the blue.

The Cybermens' weakness to gold is taken to ridiculous lengths here with them being hit by everything from gold dust, to gold arrows and even golden coins fired from a slingshot.  

I have now seen the last of the Cybermen in the classic run of the series. Not long to go now before I will be on the new series and finally people may actually know what I'm talking about!

The Lost Stories and how they do NOT compromise my challenge...ok!!

Over the last 30 years television archivists have been scouring the globe in attempt to hunt down copies of the missing episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s. As of the start of my quest there were 108 episodes still missing. The last episode to be recovered had been way back in 2004. As such, it was firmly believed that unfortunately there would be 108 missing episodes of Doctor Who forever. With regards to my quest this meant that when I got up to an episode that was missing, in order to "watch" it i would have to use one of the fan reconstructions. For the most part these are pretty good. All audio from all missing episodes does exist as fans recorded these on tape from the television upon first broadcast. These audios have then been combined with telesnaps, pictures, brief moments of existing footage, pictures of characters from other episodes, some CGI etc in order to make as complete an episode as possible. As I said these are pretty good for the most part but they could never compare to watching the real episode and its a crying shame that for these 108 episodes this joy would be denied me.

However...

My quest started in November 2011 and the news came through in December 2011 that 2 more episodes had been discovered. One from the first Doctor and one from the second Doctor. Unfortunately these were both from pretty rubbish stories but nevertheless this was amazing! It came completely out of the blue and I really thought that no more episodes would ever be found after the search had seemed to dry up in 2004. However it seems this was a taster of what was to come as in October 2013 the BBC announced the finding of 9 more! And not just any 9, but 9 episodes from two of the most wanted stories of all, The Web Of Fear and The Enemy Of The World!

 

It seems amazing to me now that after being missing for 45 years these lost classics are now safely stored on my iPad. I can't describe what a thrill that is. However the one question I find myself answering a lot now is this

"Don't you need to start over again now that they have found more?"

So let me answer this here....absolutely not!!!

I think people may have thought that as these episodes were missing that I may have just skipped them completely but I did no such thing. I got my hands on the best reconstructions I could find and watched them and as such each and every episode has been included in this quest. So there! I refuse to answer that question anymore! 

However what I thought I may do (assuming I don't fall any further behind with this blog!) is revisit these stories now that I can properly watch them and write up an updated blog entry for each of them. iWeb

I can't believe that having found nothing since 2004 that during the course of my quest a further 11 episodes have been restored to the BBC archives. As such there are now only 97 missing episodes and before this challenge ends in May 2014 that number could have dropped again! We can only hope..

Days 675 to 678 - Remembrance Of The Daleks

Is that just not the coolest Dalek ever! The special weapons Dalek!

So the 25th season of Doctor Who kicked off with probably one of my favourite seventh Doctor stories. The Doctor returns to the Coal Hill School in 1963 which just happens to be where we first met him way back in the very first episode when the two school teachers, Ian and Barbara, stumbled into the TARDIS.

This story attempts to explain what the Doctor was doing on Earth in the first place. He was attempting to his the "hand of Omega" which is a rather over the top name given to the remote stellar manipulator used in the old days by the Time Lords in order to create the power needed to travel through time. Unfortunately the Doctor has not done a very good job of hiding it and now two separate factions of Daleks are on the hunt for it.

There is an absolutely fantastic scene in the middle of the story when the Doctor retires to an empty cafe and reflects upon his actions and the impact that they have had. 

The Doctor: "Every great decision creates ripples. Like a huge boulder dropped into a lake, the ripples merge and rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences"

It's also clear in this story that the new script edition Andrew Cartmel has begun his so called master plan which was to introduce more mystery back into the character of the Doctor. When we first met the Doctor we knew nothing about him. For example we didn't find out he was a Time Lord for six years! At this point in the show's history some of that mystery had been removed and therefore Cartmel was trying to inject more of it back in. The Doctor occasionally lets slip little bits that imply that he more than just an ordinary Time Lord and may in fact have been one of the very early pioneers in the creation of time travel on Gallifrey.

Ace is great in this story too. Her love of explosives is a little strange but it does help the Doctor get out of a few scrapes. I also liked the scene when she is finishing her breakfast in the boarding house they are stopping at and casually turns over a banner in the window which shockingly says "No Coloureds". The story is set in 1963 and therefore shows how far we have come since then but also it's a nice link  to the Dalek ideology of racial purity. It is pretty much saying we are not so different ourselves.

As I reach the last years of the classic series it feels like this challenge is reaching a big turning point. For example I have now seen my last Dalek in the classic run. The next time I see one will be with the ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston. Also I have seen Davros for the last time until he returns to face the tenth Doctor, David Tennant. The quest has just over 7 months left to go but as the end of the classic run approaches I realise I'm going to feel a little sad to leave these stories behind.

Days 672 to 674 - Dragonfire

The 24th season of Doctor Who comes to a close with Dragonfire and to be honest it's a bit dull with just a few highlights.

The first is related to the picture shown above, the Doctor dangling from a railing by his umbrella in the cliffhanger to episode 1. But the thing is he had no reason what so ever to put himself in such a ridiculous situation. He is walking along and then for no reason decides to climb over the railing and dangle there. It seems to be that maybe the Doctor is subconsciously aware that he needs to be in mortal danger roughly every 23 minutes and so is just fulfilling that demand. It's also quite funny that this is the clip that they used in the most recent episode, The Name Of The Doctor and therefore through hatchway somewhere Clara is watching on in despair!

This story also debuts Ace as the Doctor's new companion. She's pretty good but I don't really follow her explanation as to how she came from present day Earth and ended up working as a waitress on Ice World in the far future. I also think it would have been better if they had allowed Sophie Aldred use a less posh accent. Ace seems very much to be the beginning of the more modern companions like Rose but it's just a shame that she is not quite believable. Saying that I still think she's great.

Finally, with Ace's debut in the series, it means we have to say a farewell to Mel as she decides to leave the Doctor and this is a pretty heart wrenching scene actually as the Doctor at first seems not to accept the fact that she is leaving him and then goes on to discuss the ramifications of time travel. It also sort of shadows the rather weird way that she entered the series, being a sort of future companion of the sixth Doctor, it's all very confusing.

Anyway that's enough for now. I'm going back to sulking because the promised announcement of missing episodes has now been put off to midnight meaning I have even longer to wait!

Days 669 to 671 - Delta and the Bannermen

The Doctor goes to a holiday camp! In the 1950s. He is sent there by the toll master played by Ken Dodd. This seems very much a case of stunt casting once again. My brothers reaction of "is that Ken Dodd??" Coupled with my sigh of embarrassment goes to show how I feel about some aspects of this story. Saying that it is quite horrific later on when we see a terrified Dodd being shot in the back!

And I don't care what people say, I like Mel as a companion. I think Bonnie Langford is a bloody good actress and her reaction to all her friends being blown up on a bus (believe me it's not quite as horrific as it sounds) is fantastic.

This story does have its downsides though. The cliffhanger to episode one is the reveal of a horrific green mutant hatching out of a silver egg. By episode 2 this mutant has been changed to a baby painted green...yes...a real baby..painted green. 

This story also sees the debut of the Doctor's umbrella with the question mark handle. Now I'm not a fan of the question marks as I don't really think they make any sense but even I have to admit the umbrella looks pretty cool. In fact I own one :-)

Lost and Found

In a slight change to my schedule of blog posts I couldn't let this event go without comment. The BBC have just confirmed the discovery of more of the missing Doctor Who episodes! I cannot begin to explain how exciting this is. This is not something that happens very often and as such we have always thought there would be over 100 missing episodes. The last find was in 2011 when 2 more episodes were returned bringing the total missing to 106.

As yet we do not know just how many episodes have been returned or which episodes they are but I cannot wait until the announcement later this week. All the stories will be ones that I was forced to watch reconstructions of when watching them for my quest. Basically all audio from every episode exists because fans would record it from the tv but unfortunately this was in the days before video recorders and so fans were unable to record the video from the tv. As such the audio has been combined with existing photographs (where possible!) to create reconstructions of the missing stories. By Friday I may be able to see these episodes....episodes that people haven't watched for nearly 50 years and were thought lost forever!

Day 480 to 483 - The Ribos Operation

So finally I have come full circle and its time to say something about this story which will bring my blog right up to date. There has been many a day when I've nearly given up on the blog because its been a massive undertaking (about 70,000 words so far which is like the size of some novels!) but I'm glad I've stuck with it.

The Doctor is called upon by The White Guardian in a scene which is reminiscent of the Time Lord being called upon by God! The White Guardian explains to the Doctor that occasionally the universe gets in such a state that it is necessary to stop everything for a few seconds in order to allow things to settle. In order to to this the Doctor needs to find the six segments to The Key To Time. This led into a whole series of adventures as the Doctor and his new companion Romana, a fellow Time Lord, went about locating the segments.

This first story has to be the strongest if the season in my opinion. I love several moments in it. The Doctor asks the White Guardian what will happen to him if he refuses to help find the segments to which the Guardian replies "nothing will happen...(relief sets in on the Doctor's face)....ever" In other word the Doctor will have no more adventures and will be eternally trapped in a kind of limbo, but the way the threat is delivered is just amazing.

There is a seemingly minor character in this story known as Binro the heritic. He was a well known scientist on his planet until he spoke out with his belief that stars were other suns and the his planet orbited the sun and not the other way round. As such he has been living as an outcast for years, mocked and ill treated by all around him. When he learns from one of the secret alien visitors to the planet that he was right his joy is infectious and its a really sweet scene and he is told that years in the future people will be saying "Binro was right"

Another scene I loved was when the Doctor had upset the Graff and so the Graff slapped him with his glove. Tom Baker performs this great delayed reaction as he clutches his cheek, shocked to have been slapped. Then he grabs the Graff's glove and slaps him back giving him a look that clearly says "we'll fuck you!" Makes me laugh every time!