Days 661 to 664 - Time and The Rani

A new Doctor! I really do feel like I'm flying through the regenerations now!

Having been unceremoniously removed from the show Colin Baker was understandably a little peeved off and as such refused to come back to the show for his regeneration scene. Therefore we are left with a bizarre per credits sequence where we see the TARDIS being shot at and crash landing on a planet. Then we see the Doctor (still in his multi coloured coat so clearly still in his sixth persona) has fallen of his exercise bike that Mel had no doubt forced him to work out on again and is lying face down on the floor. As the Rani enters the TARDIS the Doctor is flipped over and his face quickly changes into that of Sylvester McCoy. In fact it was Sylvester McCoy all along, lying on the floor in a curly blonde wig pretending to be Colin Baker. It's all very strange.

So the Rani is back (you would never have guessed from the title) and this time she is up to ...well...I'm  not quite sure what she is up to this time. Despite all the shit she gave the Master in her previous story for having complicated schemes it does seem very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Let me see if I can explain this...

In her lab on Lakertya, the Rani is planning on firing a missile at an orbiting asteroid which is made up of the very dense "strange matter". The resulting explosion will attract chronons (time particles??) into the atmosphere of the planet and then...she will have mastery over all of time and become a god..or something. But her main problem is that she does not have the knowledge of how to construct a rocket capable of destroying the asteroid so she has gathered together a group of genius (including such people as Albert Einstein) and plugged them into a kind of giant brain thing. This is where she needs to stick the Doctor too. However something else goes wrong in her lab and taking advantage of the Doctor's vulnerable post regenerative state and the resulting amnesia she dresses up as Mel and pretends to be Mel in order to convince the Doctor that this is his lab so that he will fix what needs fixing....what a load of crap!

To be fair though Kate O Mara does a fairly good Bonnie Langford impression and the scenes whee she is required to skip back and for the between acting as Mell and being herself as the Rani are pretty funny.

As for the Doctor himself...well it's early days. He seems to have developed this really annoying habit of getting well known sayings wrong such as "time waits for snowman" instead of "time waits for no man"

There are a fair few seventh Doctor stories that I have never seen before so its going to be an interesting month for my quest as I finally get to watch them all. Quite a few I have owned for well over a year and just haven't got round to seeing them yet. I hope they work! God, that would be a nightmare!

Days 647 to 660 - The Trial Of A Time Lord

The trial begins....

The TARDIS is pulled inside a mighty space station and I have to say that this is one of the most impressive effects shots I've ever seen in Doctor Who!

The show was in troubled water at the time, having only just survived the axe the year before. Therefore with the show effectively being on trial it was decided to put the Doctor himself on trial. The theme music is changed to be something darker and more haunting and then the very first scene of this new series is a slow close up on a huge space station with the camera circling around it until a tractor beam shoots out of it and drags the TARDIS inside. I had to watch this opening several times because I love it so much!

The Doctor enters the courtroom and meets his prosecuter, the Valeyard. The Valeyard is a massively important character in the history of the show and something that I will go into more later.

The story is 14 episodes long but split into 4 distinct stories throughout as the Doctor's actions are reviewed by the court thanks to the projections of the matrix on Gallifrey. The idea was to use the basis of A Christmas Carol with the first story being from the Doctor's past, the second story being from the present (and therefore the adventure he was in the middle of when taken out of time by the Time Lords) and then the third story from his future which then left 2 episodes to clear the whole trial up.

So lets begin at the beginning...

The first story takes place in the Doctor's recent past. It's nice to see that his relationship with Peri has mellowed somewhat and there is much less squabbling between them. The TARDIS lands on the planet Ravalox but through a series of encounters we discover that Ravalox is actually the planet Earth that has been moved out of its solar system and renamed to hide its true origins. This brilliant and adds some mystery as to what is going on. The reason for Earth being moved is actually something that is not resolved until right near the end of the trial.

The second story sees the departure of Peri as a companion and good god does she get a good departure! Poor Peri has her brain wiped and replaced by replaced by the mind of Lord Kiv whose own body is unfit for his use. Peri is therefore effectively dead! She gets even deader moments later when King Yarcarnos (played very brilliantly and very loudly by Brian Blessed) bursts into the room and upon discovering Peri's situation sets about slaughtering everyone in the room in his heartbreak. 

One of the really cool things about this trial season is the moments we see the Time Lords interfere in events. They freeze Yarcarnos in a time bubble and only release him at just the right moment to kill Peri so that the work of the evil scientists does not live on. They are effectively using him as an assassin without his knowledge.

The Doctor delivers his defence by showing an adventure from his future. Here we meet his new companion, Mel played by Bonnie Langford. Mel has been unfairly maligned in my opinion as a truly awful companion but I actually quite like her.  At the time it was seen as stunt casting by casting someone as well known as Bonnie Langford to play the new companion and as such fans turned against her which is a shame. Her debut story involves a murder mystery and plant aliens who have heads that look like a penis! I mean what is there not to like?

The trial comes to an end in the final two episodes with the revelation that the Valeyard is actually a future incarnation of the Doctor and is a distillation of all his dark thoughts etc. He wants the Doctor dead so that he can take all of his future regeneration. Quite how that would work confuses me somewhat. However the revelation of the Valeyard being the Doctor is fantasic! It's even been mentioned in the most recent episode of the show broadcast this year in 2013.

With the Valeyard finally defeated and all charges dropped against the Doctor, the Doctor and Mel set off for new adventures in the TARDIS. This is a little confusing as the Doctor should not have met Mel yet...I can only assume that he drops this version of Mel off somewhere and then further down the line meets her again and then goes on to experience the adventure so the adventure with the penis aliens mentioned earlier...if that makes sense.

I love The Trial Of A Time Lord but I'm afraid to say it didn't win the viewers over and as a last ditch attempt to save the show the order was given to replace the Doctor. I feels so sorry for Colin Baker. From watching the interviews he gave when he was first going into the show then it was clear that he had a great enthusiasm for the part and wanted to be in the series for a considerable time but I'm afraid that want to be. 

Of all the Doctors Colin is one of the ones I would most like to meet. He always speaks well of the show and is just a really friendly bloke and is very generous with his time with fans etc. He's such a great ambassador for the show and out of all of them he is the one with the most reasons to turn his back on it. The fact that he hasn't done this is a testimont to what gent he is.

Days 645 to 646 - Revelation Of The Daleks

Every Doctor has to meet the Daleks at some point and so it becomes time for the sixth Doctor to meet the pepper pots from Skaro. 

This time they are hiding away at the funeral home Tranquil Repose. Well I say "hiding" they are sort of working there. And I say "funeral home" but really this is one of those places where people go before you die in order to wait in suspended animation until medicine advances to such a stage that whatever is killing you can now be cured... I say "one of those places" like these places actually exist!

Davros is masquerading as "the great healer" in charge of Tranquil Repose and but is using the patients as either experiments for his Daleks or processing them in order to turn them into food. This leads to one of the best lines ever when the truth if the extremely popular food source is discovered Davros claims that truth of the matter was not revealed as it would have created consumer resistance. Do you think??

Some great moments but I'm afraid to say that this story has possibly one of the most annoying characters I have yet to witness in the show. Alexi Sayle as a DJ "entertaining" the people in suspended animation is just so cringeworthy! I actually found myself cheering when the Daleks lasered him to death! If I was one of the near dead being entertained by this DJ I think I would be praying that death came sooner rather than later!

This was the last story of Colin Baker's first season as the Doctor and it was after this that the show was put on hiatus for 18 months. I'm now entering the part of the series when the show hit some very troubled waters!

Days 643 to 644 - Timelash

I was pretty busy with various things when it came time to watch Timelash. I had a great day out at my friends Laura and Rob's house where we played games and caught up with each other having not seen each other for a while. Of course I made sure to watch the episode before I went out. Otherwise I would not have enjoyed myself as much as it would have been lingering in the back of my mind!

Usually, even at a weekend when I'm free all day, I don't watch the episode until evening time unless I really have to. I'm not sure why but it just feels right somehow. Doctor Who needs to be watched around 7pm.

Timelash has a fairly bad reputation and I agree it's not great but as is so often the case when I come to these "bad" stories I actually found myself enjoying it! I think the makeup on the Borad pictured above is superb! A man who has accidentally been blended with a monster! It's a shame some of the other effects are a bit ropey!

The Doctor picks up a temporary companion in the form of Herbert, a man from the 19th century, who is very enthusiastic to discover all the secrets of the Doctor's time machine. Now maybe I'm a bit thick but the first time I watched this it came as a genuine surprise to me at the end when Herbert turn out to be HG Wells. The clues were everywhere but I just didn't pick up on them!

Something that does really annoy me in this one though is the end. The Doctor has to sacrifice himself by steering the TARDIS in front of a missile which is about to strike the planet. We see them collide and explode and its actually quite touching and sad. Then the TARDIS rematerialises on the planet and when Peri enquires how the Doctor escaped all he says is "I'll explain one day, it's a neat trick" and that is literally the only explanation we get! What the hell!!!!

Also there is a weird blue faced robot which I find unnerving!

The Doctor mentions that he has visited this planet before and it's not until we see a portrait of him that we realise that this was as his third persona and with Jo Grant. This story was never actually seen on screen but it's great to hear (much later down the line) Jo Grant reference the adventure when she returns in the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Days 640 to 642 - The Two Doctors

Patrick Troughton (a.k.a the second Doctor) returns once again to the series, this time meeting the sixth Doctor.

Patrick Troughton loved playing the Doctor and it was often said that if himself and companion Jamie (played by Frazer Hines) had not been influenced by family and agents, then they would have remained in the series for much longer than they did. As such Troughton makes three reappearances after his initial departure and it's sad to think that this would be his last one.

This time he is not alone as he also brings his companion Jamie along! The pairing of the second Doctor and Jamie has always been one of my favourite ones so it's great seeing them back together again.

Now as mentioned several blog entries earlier when I talked about the 25th anniversary special The Five Doctors, the reappearances of the second Doctor throws up some continuity issues especially here. In the Two Doctors it is made clear that Jamie is aware that the Doctor is a Time Lord (which should be inpossible as Jamie only found this out when he left the Doctor) and also that the Doctor is being used by the Time Lords to run errands for them which also makes no sense with what we know so far. This is further developed and explained in the Season 6B theory which is the idea that the Doctor was not exiled to Earth straight away at the end of season 6 but was made to perform secret missions for the Time Lords...to be honest I just try not to think about it to much as it makes my head hurt!

The Sontarans are also back which marks their final appearance in the classic series. The next time I will see them will be in a tenth Doctor story with David Tennant! Things like this are just making me realise how close to the end my challenge feels now.

Days 638 to 639 - Mark Of The Rani

A nice two part historical story set during the events of the industrial revolution. The Doctor faces another rogue Time Lord in the form of the Rani played by Kate O'Mara.

The Rani is a great character. She could so easily have just been a female version of the Master but she is not completely evil like him. I mean she can be pretty nasty but she always has a reason for doing it. She is basically a ruthless scientist who doesn't care who gets hurt during her experiments.

The Rani is on Earth to extract a fluid that she needs for her experiments that can only be found in the human brain. Unfortunatley it has the side effect of making the humans that she has taken the fluid from turn insanely violent. As such she chooses moments in Earth's history when she can perform these procedures without arousing too much suspicion. For example here she is using the Luddites and their smashing of any new machinery as cover for her experimentation.

The Master is also back, with pretty much no explantion as to how he survived the events of Planet Of Fire! His role in this story is simple. He is not so much after the conquest of the Earth this time but simply wants to see the Doctor dead!

The Master disguises himself as a scarecrow at the start of the story for no reason what so ever! His plans are as convoluted as ever! Even the Rani comments on it when she is wondering what he is up to she says:

Rani:- "It'll be something devious and over complicated. That man would get dizzy if he walked in a straight line"

The story was filmed at the surroundings of the Ironbridge Gorge museum which is somewhere I've actually been! I didn't know Doctor Who had filmed there when I first visited as this visit was about 20 years ago so most likely before I'd ever seen an episode of the show but I'd love to revisit it now.

Season 13 continued - Days 406 to 427

Broadcast Dates: 27th September 1975 - 6th March 1976

Relative Dates: 1st January 2013 - 22nd January 2013

After describing the debacle I had with the first story of this season (Terror Of The Zygons) it's time I moved on to talk about the rest. Only 3 more seasons till I've caught up with myself. This blog is so confusing but I suppose it's appropriate that it should jump about in time like it is.

Planet Of Evil

 

Talk about a melodramatic title! So poor Harry is left behind on Earth after the events of Terror Of The Zygons leaving the classic teaming of the fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane. 

This one was pretty dull but had a good central idea. A ship lands and attempts to take precious minerals from a planet but every time they try to leave with the minerals they are dragged back to the planet. It is as if the planet itself will not allow them to take part of it away with them.

There are some "invisible" monsters which I guess are cheap to create but in the moments when you do catch a glimpse of them they seem pretty crap looking so just as well that they are invisible for the vast majority of the story. The best part of the story however is the whole look of it, mainly the sets used for the jungle scenes. They are fantastic! It really does feel like they go on forever and are suitably alien looking with all their various shades of red and purple. I'm a man so I can't tell you exactly which shades. As far as I am concerned there are only about 10 different colours in the world!

One of the crew members becomes possessed by the planet and starts to kill off the crew as he goes all mental. Writing this now I think it sounds quite exciting but for some reason that excitement doesn't come across well on screen.

This story started off the various homages to classical horror stories with this one meant to be a type of "Jekyll and Hyde" story. I can sort of see what they are trying to do but it is no where near as successful as some of the later stories of this type that they would create.

Of course it goes without saying that Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane is superb as ever. Knowing what an important character she is to the show I was enjoying watching her character develop through the series.

Pyramids Of Mars

From Jekyll and Hyde we now move on to the Egyptgian theme and robotic mummies that strangle people with their giant breasts! I'm not even joking.

This one is rated as one of the very best stories and as such it has always failed to live up to expectations in my eye, except this time. Maybe it was because I was coming to it from the rather dreary Planet Of Evil., but for some reason I just loved watching it this time.

The villain of this one, Sutekh, has to be one of the most creepy villains ever. The actor playing him has a very creepy voice and the scene near the end where Sutekh has captured the Doctor and is torturing him, the creepy voice combined with the screams of Tom Baker make for a very unnerving and dark scene to watch.

The basic premise is that Sutekh has been imprisioned beneath a pyramid in Egypt for thousands of years by a forcefield being projected from another pyramid on Mars. An archeologist, Marcus Scarman, discovers Sutekh and is taken under his spell in order that Lawrence can be used to create a rocket capable of destroying the pyramid on Mars and thus freeing Sutekh.

As well as the dark scene mentioned earlier where the Doctor is tortured by Sutekh we also have another very disturbing moment when a possessed Marcus Scarman murders his own brother! Now that is very dark!

Sarah Jane raises an issue that I can't believe it has taken this long to address. As this story is taking place in the past then why are they worried about Sutekh escaping and causing havoc on Earth as they know the future is fine. The Doctor goes on to explain that time is constantly in flux and can be rewritten. To prove his point he takes Sarah back to the present day to a world ravaged and destroyed by Sutekh. This scene is brilliant because now we are aware of what will happen should they fail and it's not pretty!

 

Loved this one!

 

The Android Invasion

 

 

I'm going to really struggle with this one. This was a fairly new purchase when I watched it and therefore I was watching it for the first time. I haven't watched it since and as such I can't really remember much that happens.

 

The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive in a village where things are a little off. We soon discover that we are not on Earth as first believed but in a mock up of an Earth village where aliens are training up androids to take over the Earth...I think.

 

I remember the shocking moment shown above. Sarah Jane turns against the Doctor and as they struggle she falls down a hill and her face falls off revealing that she was an android!

 

I think this is also the last time that we get to see Harry and Seargent Benton. Having pretty much said goodbye to the Brigadier in Terror Of The Zygons (for now at least) it was sad that I was finally leaving the UNIT stories behind.

 

The Brain Of Morbius

 

 

From Jekyll and Hyde to Egyptian mummies, we now move on to Frankenstien's monster!

 

Another cracking story. This one is about an evil Time Lord, Morbius whose body has been destroyed when his ship crash landed on the planet Karn. The only part of him that survives intact is his brain which is supported in a load of green goo in a jar. Fortunately a fanatical supporter of his is also a brilliant surgeon and is therefore harvesting body parts from the other creatures who crash land on the planet in order to build Morbius a new body.

 

The body is ready and whilst it may not look all too pleasant it is a least functional. All Doctor Solon is missing is the perfect head to house the brain of Morbius. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) this is when the Doctor and Sarah Jane turn up and Solon therefore sets his sights on obtaining the Doctor's head!

 

Very atmospheric with all the usual Hammer Horror style tropes of old castles and lightening storms, this story is just brilliant. Having failed to obtain the Doctor's head Solon is forced to take up plan B which is to house the brain of Morbius in an artifical casing as shown in the picture above.

 

It's also another strong story for Sarah Jane as she goes through the terror of being blinded halfway through the story. Solon examines Sarah Jane and tells her that her eye sight will return but with a slow shake of the head to the Doctor we are made aware that he is lying purely to comfort her.

 

Philip Madoc who plays Solon in this story has been in many Doctor Who stories in his time but I think it is for this one that he is most well known and he gives an excellent performance as the passionate surgeon with his horrific creation.

Another moment to talk about is when the Doctor and Morbius take part in a mental duel. We see various faces on a screen as they battle one another. We see the third Doctor, then the second, then the first and then...more faces! Much talk has been had since about who these faces are supposed to be. I believe at the time that these were meant to be further incarnations of the Doctor and therefore the Doctor as we knew him then was not the fourth but maybe a much later version! Of course this now completely screws up some of the continuity in the show so I guess you could think of them as maybe being earlier incarnations of Morbius? At the end of the day it is a television show written by many different people for 50 years and therefore there are always going to be contradictary moments like this. It's not worth worrying about. But some people really do.

 

The Seeds Of Doom

 

Not to be confused with the second Doctor story The Seeds Of Death...which in turn is not to be confused with the fourth Doctor story City Of Death. This story is another gem of the Tom Baker era!

 

Six part stories such as this one can sometimes drag a little as they are spread a little thin to fulfil the epsiode count. Here is a perfect example of how to do one right. I think it helps that we effectively have a 2 part story and a 4 part story tagged togther. The first two episodes deal with the recovery of some mysterious seed pods in Antartica and then the remaining four episodes deal with the aftermath of the seeds recovery as the wealthy plant enthusisat Harrison Chase takes illegal possession of the alien pod that then starts wreaking havoc on his estate.

 

The idea that the Krynoid that emerges from the pod can make plants turn violent and attack people is a terrifying one. Plants are everywhere and just imagine if they started attacking people! It reminds me a little of Hitchcock's The Birds, with the idea of just what would happen if something that is familiar and around us every day suddenly turned on us.

 

Harrison Chase is a fantastic villain. His obesession with his plants is superbly creepy!

 

We also get to see a young John Challis (aka Boycie from Only Fools and Horses) as one of Chases's henchmen! It's amazing how many people have been in Doctor Who over it's 50 year history!

 

So that was season 13. I started my blog up again this year when I had just started season 16 which has led to this unfortunate necessity of jumping backwards and forwards along the timeline of my quest. But I'm very close to catching up with myself now and hopefully by the end of September I'll be up to date. God knows how I'm going to cope with the new series when there will probably be an entry required every day!