DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 8th MEET-UP - PLANET OF GIANTS

Monday 21st April 2014

Monday??  What's going on!?  Yes, it was a Bank Holiday and what better thing to do, whilst it's sunny outside, than to gather in a dark room with your chums and watch some goddarn Doctor Who from the 1960's!  We were once again around Mark's and this time all of us had made it - including our some-time member, Gavin!  Today we had something important to sort out.  Something that had bugged me right from the very first time we'd met.  Our goal was to watch every Doctor Who episode from the start and we had done that.....except that we'd fallen down at the first hurdle by accidentally watching the Pilot Episode and not Episode 1!  So to right this wrong (and because Planet Of Giants was only 3 episodes long) we decided to watch Episode 1 (An Unearthly Child) properly whilst it was still vaguely in our collective memories.  I think it was a good decision as it's an enjoyable episode, we could spot a lot of the changes and Gavin had never seen it (we told him he really didn't need to see the 3 following cavemen episodes!!).

With that wrong righted we moved onto "Planet Of Giants"!

Photo 1: Gavin, Mark (holding sign), Jason, Leigh (with DVD cover)

and MJ posing around Mark's house.

The story had originally been filmed as four episodes, but the Head of Serials (Donald Wilson) found the story too slow so ordered episodes 3 and 4 to be spliced together in order to form a faster-paced climax.  A strange decision seen as we've sat through stories that were a lot longer and could have happily been cut down!

Photo 2: Gavin, Mark (holding sign), Jason, Leigh (with DVD cover)

and MJ posing around Mark's house.

The story starts with the TARDIS malfunctioning causing the crew to be shrunk down!
They then land in an ordinary earth garden - but with themselves being only a fraction of the size!

Photo 3: Gavin, Mark (holding sign), Jason (with DVD cover), Leigh

and Jim posing around Mark's house.

Things get worse for the crew as they witness a murder and Barbara gets contaminated by a dangerous new pesticide!  Meaning she could die if they don't go back to actual size!

Photo 4: Gavin, Mark (holding sign),Jason (with DVD cover and pulling a cracking face!),
Leigh and Jim posing around Mark's house.

I was impressed with the sets and the messing around with over-sized props!  Plus the story, only being 3 episodes long, zipped along nicely without too much room for boredom!

 Photo 5:
Jason (with DVD cover and pulling a cracking face!) 
posing around Mark's house.

Jason tells me he got annoyed by Barbara getting ill from the pesticide and not telling anyone she was about to die!  Which is a fair enough point!  Barbara seemed to be the main reason for them being slowed down - oh and Susan screamed some more.

One thing that slightly bugged us was that as Barbara got bigger the pesticide in her blood stream stayed the same size (i.e. stayed small) and so was muted as not really dangerous to her any more (it being too small to harm her).  We all did discuss whether this would actually work but didn't come up with a satisfactory answer!  In the end, it's best to let some of these things go....

Still the serial got us singing "Dead Ant" (a la Pink Panther theme) when we saw a giant dead ant! So that's all good!

Afterwards we all went out in the sun and played in the play parks with many of the "widows of the four-whoresmen"!  It's shattering running around playing "it" when you're nearly 40!

Next time we return to the Daleks!  Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 22-04-14

Shaun (after his catch-up on 08/12/14): The Planet of Giants was a really odd one, I’d say unlike any other serial so far, but a lot of fun.

I liked the idea of a basic murder plot, tied to a dangerous new pesticide, had the miniaturised team work together to bring the killer to justice.

Special note goes to the villain, who fit the role of generic, murderous businessman Perfectly. Barbara was uncharacteristically dumb in this one, poisoning herself pretty quickly after the Doctor had warned them of the danger.

The cliff hangers were delightfully terrible. A cat that… just leaves, then the unplugging of a sink. High drama indeed!

A really entertaining filler.

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 7th MEET-UP - THE REIGN OF TERROR

Sunday 6th April 2014

Another Sunday and, after a last minute switch from Jason's house, we all met up around Leigh's to watch the last serial of the first season of Doctor Who!!

"The Reign of Terror".

Sadly Mark was not able to join us for this meeting (making me, Jim and Jason the only ones to attend all the meet-ups!).  So, once we got the "hello's" and teas out of the way, we proceeded to put the shiny DVD into Leigh's machine and we were off!

This was a six parter with two missing episodes (4 and 5).  However, like all 60's Who, the soundtrack exists so the missing parts have been re-created by animation overlaid with the original soundtrack.

Photo 1: Jason (holding open-eyed Mark!), Leigh (with sign)
and MJ posing around Leigh's house.

For a longer story I really quite enjoyed it - set during one of the bloodiest periods in French History (i.e. The Reign Of Terror) it set out to educate the 60's children about that period in history.  That may make it sound quite dull, but it was filled with a lot of humour, well written (and acted) characters and, for 60's Who, very impressive sets!

Photo 2: Jason (holding open-eyed Mark!), Leigh (with sign)
and Jim posing around Leigh's house.

We did have a brief pause in the middle when Jim's phone went and he had to nip to the shop for his wife, before they closed! (see photo!)

Photo 3: Jim around Leigh's house.

His wife on the phone needs something bought from the shop!

As far as acting goes there were some strong performances - I particularly enjoyed the very Yorkshire sounding jailer - obviously from the very north of France!  And the Doctor who, along with his usual fluffs, gave a very strong performance.  Arguing and tricking the bully-type guy on the road to Paris and later bluffing his way into the Bastille as a fancily dressed dignitary!  He really seemed to enjoy pea-cocking around!

Photo 4: Jason around Leigh's house.

Proudly protecting his groin with new "Mark On A Cushion"(™)

I think the only thing, for me, that let the serial down was the animation.  The style was great as was the sets and the drawings - however sometimes it wasn't overly clear who was being animated.  This would have been get-overable (if that's a phrase!) if it wasn't for the fact that they had so many quick-cut shots.  This may be how it would be with modern animation but did not match the style of how they would have made the 60's shows - which used longer shots with not too much quick cutting.  A shame as I've seen other animated episodes which have been of a much higher quality!  But apart from that niggle I did enjoy the serial - did you like it Jim?


Jim: "I was worried that it may be a let-down after The Sensorites.  It wasn't as good as that but as a non-sci-fi one it was enjoyable.  Actually, all the historical ones have been good, probably better than the sci-fi ones which is odd for a sci-fi show!"

So, rather brilliantly, we've reached the end of Doctor Who Series 1 and it's taken us 12 weeks!  Not too bad but we still have a long way to go...!

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

MJ 08-04-14

Extra.... Thursday 17th April 2014 - Mark's Catch Up!

So on a dark Thursday night I popped over Mark's to watch "Reign Of Terror" with him and to get him up to date with the rest of us!

Photo 5: Mark and MJ around Mark's house for the Reign Of Terror Catch-up!

Photo 6: Mark (with his eyes permanently closed) 

at his house for the Reign Of Terror Catch-up!

I think I actually enjoyed it a lot more watching it the second time and even enjoyed the animation better!

Shaun (after his catch-up on 08/12/14): “The Reign of Terror took a long time to grow on me.

The first couple of episodes were general fare, historical event, Doctor wanders off for a charming little adventure, Ian meets historical figure and befriends him, Barbara and Susan in danger, blah, blah, blah.  Seen it all before.

This may seem unfair, as RoT might have been the first historical serial to be set up this way, and so becoming the template for future ones, but even so it wasn’t a very thrilling start.

I did enjoy the Doctor’s meanderings, though, especially conning the tailor.  That was pretty funny.

Once the threads started coming together, though, with Ian being betrayed, The Doctor being arrested and forced to find the rebel, and the team getting a little hands on with the actual events, it became a lot more interesting and entertaining.  As Jim said (later) about The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, it probably wasn’t very forgiving if you knew nothing of the era, but it set things up better (probably a benefit of being a longer arc), had a smaller pool of characters and I knew a bit about this time anyway, enough not to be lost at any point”.