DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 4th MEET-UP - MARCO POLO (RE-CON) PARTS 5-7 & THE KEYS OF MARINUS PARTS 1-3

Sunday 16th February 2014

This time our intrepid bunch of future Whovians (and me MJ - full time Whovian and all round bloody nice chap!) met around Mark's house to finish watching our Marco Polo re-construction.

Firstly I met up with Jim and we called for Jason..... and there was no answer!  We also tried ringing him..... and there was no answer!

So we tried knocking louder..... and there was no answer!  So we thought, oh well, maybe he's forgot we're calling and will be around Mark's.

With that in mind we trotted off to Mark's house and were delighted to be joined for this session by Mark's brother-in-law Gavin!

After getting settled with teas etc (and FINALLY being joined by a delayed Jason!) we sat down to watch the remaining parts of the Marco Polo re-con.  I found them very good indeed and enjoyed some great character actors - especially enjoying the Kublai Kahn himself - a very amusing character.

Photo 1: Gavin, Mark (holding obligatory sign and with his eyes shut - as is the norm!)
Jason, Jim and Michael posing around Mark's house
with Marco Polo mock-up DVD cover and obligatory sign.

Just before the last episode, Mr. Leigh turned up (it was great to have the team back!) and sat down very patiently watching the last episode of something that must have been quite bewildering to him!

Photo 2: Gavin, Mark (holding obligatory sign)
Jason, Jim and Michael posing around Mark's house
with Marco Polo mock-up DVD cover and obligatory sign.

After that we then switched back to ACTUAL moving-picture episodes with the first three episodes of "The Keys of Marinus"!  I must say I did find the first few episodes quite fun and exciting - even if Susan is becoming more of a token screamer!

Photo 3: Gavin, Mark, Jason (holding obligatory sign),
Leigh (hooray!) and Jim posing around Mark's house
with The Keys Of Marinus DVD cover.

There were a lot of different locations and stories within stories and Barbara helped add to the fun by doing the classic "twisting her ankle" routine!  But the story seemed to start off on exciting feet - a sea of acid (that attacked Susan's shoes!!!), aliens in rubber "gimp" suits and a good guy being stabbed to death.  I look forward to watching the rest of this fast-moving (well fast-moving for early Who!) tale!

Photo 4: Gavin, Mark, Jason (holding obligatory sign),
Michael and Jim posingaround Mark's house
with The Keys Of Marinus DVD cover.

Anyhow we'll be back again in 2 weeks to watch the remaining episodes!

Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 18-02-14

EXTRA:

Shaun (who joined our marathan later in the year, played catch-up and watched this in September 2013) said this about the tale:
“The Doctor and Kubla Khan, bonding over the aches and pains of old age.
Didn't see that coming.  Fantastic.
That was pretty good, a nice amount of depth to the main characters, an interesting journey that seem to really progress, an elaborate plan to kill...

......KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!!

It was enjoyable."

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 3rd MEET-UP - THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION & MARCO POLO (RE-CON) PARTS 1-4

Sunday 2nd February 2014

So this time the gang met around my house as 1pm but unfortunately we lost a Leigh.  Only the third serial in and we're a man down!

After saying a couple of prayers for our fallen comrade we started with the excellent two parter "The Edge Of Destruction".

Photo 1: Jim, Jason, Michael (holding replacement Leigh) and Mark posing

around Michael's house with The Edge Of Destruction DVD cover and obligatory sign.

Not much to say except that we actually all seemed to enjoy it - it was quite creepy and there was some real paranoid and creepy acting!

Photo 2: Jim, Jason, Michael (holding replacement Leigh) and Mark posing

around Michael's house with The Edge Of Destruction DVD cover and obligatory sign
I added this second photo to show our dog, Yana, trying to get some Mark-loving!

Jim said of it:
" Very surprised they did a one-set story with just the four of them.  At first I thought "lack of budget" but I like to think it was a brave move by the writers.
Susan's overacting reached crescendo-point though!  Put the scissors down!!"

Good points there though I do actually believe they made this episode DUE to lack of budget!

Then the real challenge came for us as we came face to face with the first serial with missing episodes - in fact "Marco Polo" has NONE of it's 7 episodes left!
Still some bright sparks have put together the originally soundtrack (taped off the TV onto audio tape back in the 1960s!) with still photographs (taken off-screen).

Photo 3: Jim, Jason, Michael (holding replacement Leigh) and Mark

posing around Michael's house with Marco Polo mock-up DVD cover and obligatory sign
- it's a bit blurry but hey-ho!

So we watched the first four episodes and everyone seemed to find them watchable enough - which pleased me as there are a lot of cracking stories that don't exist any more!
So this is an excellent way to see them all.  I think the only episode that was hard to watch was the one where Susan gets caught in the sandstorm - it's hard to hear what's going on!

So that was that.  Oh and Leigh missed some yummy cheesecake!

Anyhow we'll be back again in 2 weeks!  Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ - 04-20-14

Extra.... Monday 5th May 2014 - Leigh's Catch Up!

So I'd stayed over the nights at Leigh's (separate beds of course!) after a heavy night's drinking and suggested it might be a nice time to watch this two-part story that Leigh had missed before!

Photo 4: MJ and Leigh around Leigh's house for the Edge Of Destruction Catch-up!

Photo 5: MJ and Leigh around Leigh's house for the Edge Of Destruction Catch-up!
Not a too bad shot for a selfie!

Photo 6: Mr. Leigh around his house for the Edge Of Destruction Catch-up!
Note the sign - I'd made it for another meet-up (which hadn't happened)
so had to biro in the new date!

I enjoyed watching it again (such an odd serial) and I think Leigh liked it as well!  Also I felt that Leigh might be missing Susan (seen as she'd left in the serial we had watched the day before...!)

I ask you, what better way is there to spend a hungover morning!?!