Sunday 30th November 2014
So the last day of November and this meet-up has been quite a chore to organise - people being busy and all. Still at least we’re back to a Sunday meet-up! Hoozah! It was great to have the full gang along once more! Oh, except that it WASN’T the full gang! We sadly lost a Shaun....
...Oh, and Leigh. Bugger. Well we decided the best thing to do would be to meet up anyway and they play catch-up! With so few Hartnell left to get through we need to plough on! So, Mark, Jim and I ambled over to Jason's house to watch the four part story "The Ark".
Photo 1: Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover), Mark (with the sign)and MJ giving the thumbs up around Jason's house.
Still, keeping in mind that we have a lot to get through and we’re SO close to the end of Hartnell’s reign of absent-mindedness, we decided to go ahead with just the four of us. So four of the Four Whores-men met around Jason’s house on the last day of November. Our objective? To watch a four parter that exists!! Wow! We haven’t had THAT happen in a while! Yes the story “The Ark” is complete and, not only that, it was also a story which I had never seen before as well! In fact it was so new to me that Jason had bought it for me on DVD for my birthday!
Anyhow - the story starts with the Doctor, Steven and the newly picked up Dodo arriving in a jungle. Steven wonders if they are back on Kembel (from the Daleks’ Master Plan) and Dodo for some reason is dressed in some kind of knave outfit! It actually seemed like we’d missed a story or something! However it’s explained that she found the dressing up box and was just playing around - she also didn’t believe they were on an alien planet - instead thinking they were in Kew Gardens in London. Especially when they chance upon an elephant and other earth creatures!
However this is not the case - they are in the far future (almost ten million years you know!) on a space-ship version of Noah’s Ark. The Earth was dying so a load of humans and animals took to the stars to go to a new planet - with many of the humans having being shrunk and stored in stasis. They are aided by another alien race - The Monoids - a servant race that can’t speak, have a single eye where their mouths should be and seem to don Beatle-type hair-do’s!
Photo 2: Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover), Mark (with the sign)
and Jim around Jason's house.
and Jim around Jason's house.
The future humans welcome our TARDIS crew on board and show them around their ship. they tell our chums that they are the remainder of the human race on a destination to an Earth-like planet called Refusis II. As this will take nearly 700 years to get to they, as an amusement during the journey, are building a vast hand-carved statue, depicting a human being. Well that’s all lovely and friendly but what’s this? Dodo starts sneezing! Oh, she must have picked up the common cold before she came along in the TARDIS - no biggy you’d think? Ahh but these future humans eradicated the common cold thousands of years ago and now have no bodily defense against it!
Neither do the poor Monoids and both races soon start dying off! Of course the Doctor and his gang get blamed and sentenced to be shrunk down and ejected into space!
As you can guess after some to-ing and fro-ing the Doctor comes up with a cure and everything seems to be solved after just 2 episodes. Having never seen this serial before I was quite surprised and wondered how they were going to pad out 2 more episodes.
Well this is where things go different for early Who - the TARDIS takes then BACK to the Ark and to the very same spot but 700 years in the future! The crew think the humans must be nearly at their destination and notice that the statue is complete - but it’s not a human! It’s a Monoid! Yes, having staged a coup during the long journey, the Monoids are now in charge (with numbers to distinguish them) and can now speak through a special translation device! The poor old humans are slaves and Steven is sent to join some to work in the “Security Kitchen” - if such a thing is needed! Steven tries to get a revolt going - which fails!
Meanwhile as they finally approach Refusis II a landing pod is prepared and the Doctor, Dodo, Monoid 2 and a subject Guardian named Yendom fly off to the new planet. The new planet, although seemingly deserted, is occupied by invisible giants (which must have been kind on the budget!) who are very welcoming. However the naughty Monoids (which isn’t all of them - some are nice chaps!) have constructed a bomb inside their statue and plan to escape the ship leaving the humans on board to be blown up!
Photo 3: MJ hovers over Jason (holding The Ark DVD cover) and
Mark (with the sign).
Mark (with the sign).
We are left with the cliffhanger of the Doctor being turned invisible!
Honestly I really enjoyed “The Ark”. I don’t know if it was because it was the first full story we’d seen in a while, but I liked it a lot! I liked the way the TARDIS crew interacted with the aliens, I liked the sets and I especially loved how you thought the story was over but they went back to it thousands of years later!
But what did Jason think?
Jason: “As we haven't all seen these yet, I'll try to not to give too much of the plot away.
I really enjoyed 'The Ark'. It might just be the novelty of the actors actually moving, but the whole thing entertained me and didn't drag along at all. Sometimes with Doctor Who I feel the there can be be a lot of padding to the stories. Not in this case. At times it was both visually and thematically reminiscent of the 1960 film version of HG Wells' 'The Time Machine' which as far as I'm concerned is surely a good thing.
Dodo wasn't as annoying as I predicted from her first appearance. Her accent is still in 'Daphne from Frasier' mode and she currently feels a bit more - for want of a better word - spunky than some of the other females. I find her easy acceptance of time & space travel bit unbelievable, but I take it she's just a very easy-going character who does and says whatever she feels like at the time. I enjoyed the Doctor's disgust for her unacceptable slang words such as 'Fab', 'Gear' and, of course, 'O.K.'.
I liked the concept and design of the Monoid race. Though I understand this is to be their only appearance in Who, I believe they could have been developed more in the way that they would later do with the Ood race (but that's in the future!).
Overall a good solid enjoyable story. 8/10”.
After that we decided to watch the first two parts of the next story “The Celestial Toymaker”. As a lot of stories in this season we’re missing a lot - the first 3 out of 4 episodes to be precise! Still we sat down to watch the 1st 2 recons of this mad little tale!
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.
It starts with our heroes stepping outside into a strange room where the Doctor reappears, saying he recognises the place they are in....
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.
...They are in realm of the Celestial Toymaker, an eternal being of infinite power who sets games and traps for the unwary so that they become his toys and playthings. The TARDIS is removed to prevent their escape and hidden with hundreds of copies so that can’t tell which is which. The only way of escaping is for Dodo and Steven to play a series of puzzle games against various foes (firstly against a couple of clowns and then against some real life Playing Card people) and for the Doctor to play a Trilogic game with the Celestial Toymaker himself (played wonderfully sinister by Michael Gough (later to become the butler Alfred in four Batman movies))! There is plenty of scope for comedy and daftness but it all has quite a dark edge as most of the games will end with the death of one or more of the players! Oh, and I didn’t say that the Doctor has been turned invisible again (I guess it was time for another Hartnell holiday!). But what did Jason think?
Photo 5: MJ (holding The Celestial Toymaker DVD cover),
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.
Mark (eyes shut) and Jim (with the sign) around Jason's house.
Well, I look forward to seeing the conclusion of this all next time. So, until next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....
MJ 02-12-14
Extra.... Tuesday 10th December 2014 - Leigh & Shaun's Catch Up!
So before we met on the next Sunday the two boys needed to catch up on what they’d missed so we gathered around Leigh’s on a dark Tuesday night to watch “The Ark” and the first two re-cons for “The Celestial Toymaker” - not much to say but they seemed to go down well on a dark, cold night. Which was nice.
Shaun: "The
Ark was an interesting and different storyline that benefited greatly
from splitting into two different time-periods, almost giving us two
mini-stories with the same set-up.
It’s always interesting seeing the Doctor actually being a scientist, something often mentioned but rarely seen, and Dodo’s cold causing the problems was a nice twist.
I can’t lie, Dodo was really irritating at first, but did begin growing on my after a few episodes.
The Monoids were interesting and understated in the first two chapters, and their mysterious origins and seeming subservience leant a decent level of suspicion to the audience.
On arriving at the later time period, it was clear that the Monoid rebellion was fairly recent and they overcame the humans because of the mistreatment they had suffered over generations. They wanted to turn from slaves to masters, as generations of resentment turned to hatred (at least in some). This was a solid motivation and, in typical Doctor Who style, the leader was the worst.
I enjoyed Number 4’s story, it was steadily plotted as he slowly turned on Number 1 and gave a hopeful ending of reconciliation.
On reaching Refusus, we meet our second(?) invisible species. These benevolent creatures were once physical entities, evolved by a cosmic accident (or whatever) into beings of pure energy. I always appreciate the invisible creatures, and the way the limited technology of the time is used to bring them to life (still easier than using a person in costume convincingly).
I always like seeing The Doctor talking to another being about humans, making it clear he isn’t one. I enjoy being reminded that he is beyond us, that, despite appearances, he is something far older and greater than we could ever be, and talking like we’re a young species trying its best for all our faults.
Ultimately, everyone learns a lesson about peace and tolerance, and it all seems to work out nicely.
This may be an odd point to pick up on, but at the start the Guardians freeze a guy for 700 years (until they reach the new planet). Although this is important for showing how the Guardians deal with justice, and allowing us insight into the duration of the journey, I found it strange that this character didn’t play any part in the outcome of the storyline.
Finally, the greatest thing about the storyline, my favourite part, and even the most outstanding character: the slow-moving baggage truck. It survived over 700 years, and slowly transported several things and characters integral to the plot. It even got to end out a scene (and made the recap) by slowly backing away as the TARDIS fades into the time-stream.
I salute you, slow-moving baggage truck!"
It’s always interesting seeing the Doctor actually being a scientist, something often mentioned but rarely seen, and Dodo’s cold causing the problems was a nice twist.
I can’t lie, Dodo was really irritating at first, but did begin growing on my after a few episodes.
The Monoids were interesting and understated in the first two chapters, and their mysterious origins and seeming subservience leant a decent level of suspicion to the audience.
On arriving at the later time period, it was clear that the Monoid rebellion was fairly recent and they overcame the humans because of the mistreatment they had suffered over generations. They wanted to turn from slaves to masters, as generations of resentment turned to hatred (at least in some). This was a solid motivation and, in typical Doctor Who style, the leader was the worst.
I enjoyed Number 4’s story, it was steadily plotted as he slowly turned on Number 1 and gave a hopeful ending of reconciliation.
On reaching Refusus, we meet our second(?) invisible species. These benevolent creatures were once physical entities, evolved by a cosmic accident (or whatever) into beings of pure energy. I always appreciate the invisible creatures, and the way the limited technology of the time is used to bring them to life (still easier than using a person in costume convincingly).
I always like seeing The Doctor talking to another being about humans, making it clear he isn’t one. I enjoy being reminded that he is beyond us, that, despite appearances, he is something far older and greater than we could ever be, and talking like we’re a young species trying its best for all our faults.
Ultimately, everyone learns a lesson about peace and tolerance, and it all seems to work out nicely.
This may be an odd point to pick up on, but at the start the Guardians freeze a guy for 700 years (until they reach the new planet). Although this is important for showing how the Guardians deal with justice, and allowing us insight into the duration of the journey, I found it strange that this character didn’t play any part in the outcome of the storyline.
Finally, the greatest thing about the storyline, my favourite part, and even the most outstanding character: the slow-moving baggage truck. It survived over 700 years, and slowly transported several things and characters integral to the plot. It even got to end out a scene (and made the recap) by slowly backing away as the TARDIS fades into the time-stream.
I salute you, slow-moving baggage truck!"
Catch Up Photo 1: Leigh and Shaun around Leigh’s house for The Ark catch-up!
Catch Up Photo 2: Leigh and Shaun around Leigh’s house for their The Celestial Toymaker catch-up!
Catch Up Photo 3: A rubbish selfie of Leigh, Shaun and MJ trying to hold both DVD covers and signs around Leigh's house.
Catch Up Photo 2: Leigh and Shaun around Leigh’s house for their The Celestial Toymaker catch-up!
Catch Up Photo 3: A rubbish selfie of Leigh, Shaun and MJ trying to hold both DVD covers and signs around Leigh's house.
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