DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 26th MEET-UP - AN ADVENTURE IN TIME & SPACE AND THE POWER OF THE DALEKS (PARTS 1 & 2)

Sunday 25th January 2015

Here we all were again - ready to start the new year and a bit of The Trout-Man - aka Troughton.  But before that I thought it might be nice to watch a drama about the First Doctor's era on the show.  Produced and broadcast last year during the show's 50th Anniversary, "An Adventure In Time & Space" was a journey through William Hartnell's time on the show - tracing the show through it's origins to Hartnel's last story.

Sadly Jim couldn't join us this week and, after a heavy night, Shaun had fallen asleep!  he said to watch the drama without him as he had seen it and he would drive over and join us for the start of Troughton.

Photo 1: Leigh, MJ (holding the sign), Jason (with the DVD cover)
and Mark around MJ's house.
Note my yellow Dalek mug!

The story was written by Mark Gatiss (a well known comedy writer and actor AND a writer on the modern Doctor Who show) and was originally broadcast on the 50th anniversary night on 21st November 2013.  It weaved key moments of the show, how the show came together, the problems with the pilot, the fight that producer Verity Lambert had to put the Daleks on and showed the various ups and downs of making the show.  David Bradley played an excellent William Hartnell and got all the nuances and noises spot on.  They kept in all of his mistakes, his irritable moments - as well as the softer side of this often grumpy man.

Photo 2: Close-up of Jason (holding the sign) around MJ's house.

There were cameos by many of the companions of Hartnell - in fact all of the living ones appeared in it apart from Jackie Lane aka Dodo.  A lovely cameo came at the end as The First Doctor prepared for his final scene in the TARDIS and, looking across the console, sees the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) looking back and smiling.  I thought it was wonderful, a real love-letter to those early days of Who.  Made by the fans for the fans and I found it very touching indeed.  Also it was fun for us seeing all these scenes made familiar by the past years viewing - it also reminded us how we all missed Ian and Barbara and that the First Doctor got it right.  That first performance was very important and he got it spot on.

However to make sure the show continued they needed to make sure that they could continue the show without Hartnell and with a strong actor.  That leads us onto our first episode with the Second Doctor, Patrick Troughton!  His first story, although being thought of as a classic, is completely missing.  So back to re-cons it was - so to ease into this gently I thought it would be nice to just watch 2 episodes out of the 6 part story.

Photo 3: Leigh, Shaun (holding the sign), Jason (with the DVD cover)
and Mark around MJ's house.
Note my yellow Dalek mug!

So the episode starts with Ben and Polly not sure if the newly transformed guy is the Doctor - especially as the Doctor himself is acting strange and referring to "The Doctor" as a third person!  What's nice about these scenes is that we actually have a few clips and so get to see Troughton's first few moments testing out his Doctor!  He then starts rummaging through a chest a picks out a recorder (which he tootles a tune on), a 500 Year Diary and a piece of metal - about which he utters "Exterminate"!  He then leaves the TARDIS with his head down in his Diary.  This is a dangerous rocky planet, filled with pools full of mercury - all of which the Doctor avoids (head still looking down in his book).  They are on the planet Vulcan (nothing to do with Star Trek!).  Vulcan was a small planet proposed to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun.  It was theorised to exist by a French mathematician to explain why Mercury had an peculiar orbit - however Albert Einstein later disproved it's existence by saying that the anomalies in orbit could be explained by his Theory of Relativity.  Still no-one saw fit to tell this to the writers of this story and so here we are on Vulcan!  Anyhow the Doctor sees a man shouting for assistance, however the man is shot and killed before the Doctor can get over to him!  Things start heating up (no pun intended) as the Doctor gets knocked out and Ben and Polly (having left the TARDIS) also get knocked out by getting too close to the mercury pools and collapsing from the fumes! 

When they all wake up they find they have all been collected and taken to the Governor of the planet.  The Doctor avoids trouble by claiming that HE is the Examiner - thus giving him a full run of the base.  In a labratory the Doctor comes across a bespectacled scientist, Lesterson, who seems particularly irritable and nervy!  They also discover a capsule there that Lesterson has been studying.  The Doctor, though silly, is wise enough to know something else is going on and, later that night, goes back the capsule and inside frinds two dormant Daleks - oh and Polly screams when she sees a Dalek mutant slither over the floor!

So that was Part 1!

Photo 4: Leigh (holding the sign), MJ, Jason (with the DVD cover)
and Mark around MJ's house.
With my yellow Dalek mug!

Anyhow Part 2 starts with them leaving the capsule and being found by Lesterson - who is angry at our heroes being in his lab - he doesn't even mention the open capsule.  This makes the Doctor believe that Lesterson has been inside already and accuses him of hiding a third Dalek - which Lesterson denies!  However when the Doctor leaves Lesterson bring out the Dalek from a secret compartment!

Anyhow this wholse episode is some to and fro-ing as the Doctor tells everyone at the base not to revive the Daleks but they get revived and end up shooting one of the Staff - thogh not killing him.  Further excitement occurs as they try to discover who killed the Examiner (the dead guy they found by the mercury pools in Part 1) and the whole episode ends with a Dalke being brought into an enquiry room (with some sort of courtroom bobbins going on) but not to destroy the people.  Instead it states that "I am your servant!" over and over again - whilst the Doctor pleads for them to destroy it!

So there's not really much else I can say about this until we watch the rest - 4 more re-cons!
I do however like the idea of the Daleks being cunning and not just going in and killing!  They're being very-very sneaky!

But until then I shall return, yes, I shall return...

MJ 30-01-15

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POWER OF THE DALEKS EXTRA!

So in November 2016 the whole of this completely missing story was released as a complete black and white animation!  In April 2017 me and Shaun decided we would catch, up as an extra, to watch the results.  No transcript or review - just some photos.

So on Wednesday 26th April we got together at Shaun's to watch Parts 1 to 3.  I think we quite enjoyed it - it was also good for Shaun as he couldn't remember much of it at all!

Above: Photo 1 - Shaun. Photo 2 - MJ. Photo 3 - Shaun & MJ
All with the DVD and sign

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 25th MEET-UP - THE TENTH PLANET

Saturday 10th January 2015

Wow!  This was it - the end of the Hartnell road.  It had nearly been a year since we had all set off on this journey - well all except Shaun who joined us later!  However he hadn't missed out as he'd been beavering away, in his own time, watching all the stories that he'd missed!  Yes, even "The Web Planet"!  So, a nice thing was that, after a big push, he was fully caught up with us for this final Hartnell meet-up!

Sadly I'd already revealed that this was Hartnell's last story to the group - I sort of wish that I had kept it a surprise and saw how they reacted - but anyhow it did give us a reason to celebrate so I thought it would be nice to meet on a Saturday night and have a few drinkies
to celebrate!

So we all (including Gavin who was with us again) gathered around Jason's house (where we'd met for our very first meet-up).  Jason had very nicely left some Jelly Babies for us (though this reference won't make sense until Doctor number four!) and a lovely printed photo of the First Doctor which Shaun had printed off for us (which we placed just below the TV) and we all sat down to watch Hartnell's swan-song: "The Tenth Planet".

Photo 1: Gavin (holding the sign), Leigh (with the DVD cover),
Shaun (holding a photo of the First Doctor),
Jim, Mark and Jason around Jason's house.
All celebrating with some cheap bubbly!

The story was set in the future - in the year of 1986!!!  And the first episode (with a funky animated title card) starts with the TARDIS landing at the South Pole.  Leaving the TARDIS Ben, Polly and the Doctor are soon surrounded by armed men who have come from a nearby snowbase (called Snowcap).  Wondering what the heck they are doing there the men take our TARDIS crew into the base for questioning.

Inside some men interrogate our heroes eventually calling for a very grumpy General Cutler!  He has no time for nonsense and puts them into an observation room to deal with them later.  In the meantime the base is having trouble with a space ship (Zeus IV) which has contacted them because it keeps being taken off course and whatever is taking it off course is draining it's power!

Photo 2: Gavin (holding the sign),
MJ (holding a photo of the First Doctor),
Shaun (with the DVD cover),
 Jim, Jason and Mark around Jason's house.
All celebrating with some cheap bubbly!

The Doctor writes a note on a piece of paper saying what he thinks is the issue, the base crew ignore this and carry on trying to work out what the issue is.  They finally see what's been causing the issue - there is a new planet up in the sky - it is the mirror image of Earth (with all the landmasses upside down).  The Doctor then tells them (specifically Doctor Barclay) to look at his piece of paper and on this he has predicted that there would be a new planet in the sky.  This new planet was the Earth's twin - Mondas - but it became a rogue planet, soaring through the galaxy!  A completely nonsense idea - but one I liked just for it's sheer fun!

The General doesn't believe a lot of what is going on and suspects the Doctor has caused all the issues - he gets a couple of his men to go outside and try and break into the TARDIS - but when they can't one of them goes back to getting cutting equipment.  During all this a strange spaceship lands and one of the occupants of the spaceship comes along and knocks out the remaining man by the TARDIS!  He then knocks out the other guy when he returns and we see the full reveal of a robot with human hands - a Cyberman!   That's where we leave the first episode.

Photo 3: Leigh (with the DVD cover),
Shaun (very happily holding a photo of the First Doctor),
and Jim (holding a mini TARDIS around Jason's house.
All celebrating with some cheap bubbly.

Onto episode 2 and we have the General still not believing the Doctor about visitors from the alien planet - well that is until the Cybermen enter the base - disguised in the clothes of the chaps they killed outside!  The Cybermen explain that their planet, Mondas, was Earth's twin and as that they were once like humans but had slowly replaced most of their body parts with cybernetic parts - most importantly they had removed all emotions! 

Polly pleads that they allow them to try and save the lives of the crew of the spaceship
Zeus IV - but the lead Cybermen tells them there is no point as they will be dead! This leads to my favourite exchange:
POLLY: But don't you care?
CYBERMAN 1: Care? No, why should I care?
POLLY: Because they're people and they're going to die!
CYBERMAN 1: I do not understand you. There are people dying all over your world yet you do not care about them.....

Fantastic stuff.  In fact the Cybermen don't come across as really evil.  In fact, as far as they are aware, their main objective to turn humans into Cybermen - free from disease, pain, suffering.  They certainly aren't like the Daleks who destroy life and certainly don't want to "help" other creatures become like them.

Photo 4: Gavin (holding the sign),
MJ (holding a photo of the First Doctor),
Shaun (with the DVD cover),
 Jim (holding a mini TARDIS keyring),
Jason and Mark around Jason's house.
All celebrating with some cheap bubbly!

Still the Cybermen do allow the base to contact the space ship but it's too late - Mondas's pull is too strong and the ship explodes.  Back in the base Ben takes a gun from a dead soldier and tries to unsuccessfully use it against the Cybermen - but this doesn't work and he gets locked away!

In the mean time it's discovered that General Cutler's son has been sent up in a rocket (Zeus V) to try and rescue the crew of the Zeus IV - of course it's too late now and his son is trapped in orbit.  The base then discovers that a fleet of Cybermen ships are coming to the Earth!

Episode 3 starts with the Doctor fainting (another break for William Hartnell then - in fact I believe that "The Doctor" that we see fainting probably was another actor in disguise!  Ben and Polly take the Doctor to some quarters with Polly saying that he seems "worn out".  The sad fact is that, about from brief clips, this is the last we see of the Doctor.  He'll be back for the last episode, but as that's missing we'll only have an animated Doctor!

Anyhow in the meantime General Cutler is getting more gruff and irritable - now that his boy is in danger he wants to launch a Z-Bomb (a series of nuclear bombs that are placed at strategic points around the world) to destroy Mondas.  His bosses at Geneva refuse but he re-words the question asking if he can do anything he deems suitable in order to destroy the Cybermen.  His bosses agree and Cutler takes this as permission to use the bomb!
Ben argues with General Cutler saying this isn't what the Doctor wanted but Cutler doesn't care and locks Ben up - this leaves Polly in the control room where she convinces Doctor Barclay to help her save Ben so they can diffuse the bomb.

So whilst this happens more Cybermen land but the General soldiers destroy them (with some of the old weapons left by the other Cybermen!) but of course more will be on their way.

Meanwhile Ben has been released by Polly and has reached the bomb to disarm it but during this he is discovered by Cutler and knocked out.  The episode ends with Ben coming around and not remembering if he'd succeeded in his mission or not - whilst the launch of the bomb countdown approaches zero.....!

Photo 5: Jason holds Shaun's print-out of the First Doctor
around his house.

Episode 4 is lost.  It's an episode that many people would like to see returned but in the meantime we have many still tele-snaps, the audio and now an animated version!  It's this animated version we watch and it starts with the Doctor recovered and back in the control room.  He's just in time to see the Z-bomb failing to launch - this angers Cutler so much that he ignores the fact that Cybermen have entered the base and that Mondas is about to blow-up!  All he wants to do is kill the Doctor - luckily he himself are killed by the Cybermen who have just enetered the base.

Anyhow lots happens, The Doctor and Polly are taken to the Cyber ship and held captive whilst Ben is made to disarm the bomb.  He wonders why, quite rightly, the MUCH stronger Cybermen aren't doing it themselves?  He deduces that they must be afraid of the radiation - which they are and he uses this (holding a rod of radioactive stuff with tongues) to attack the Cybermen and get out of the room and run around the base.

Anyhow most of this is irrelevant as Mondas soon melts (I'd have loved to see how they did this!) and, as this was where they draw their power from, all the Cyberman (all over the world) collapse and die.

And so that's the end of the Cybermen - I guess we'll never see them again....!

Of course Ben rescues Polly and the Doctor but the Doctor is in a very sorry state.  He mumbles some nonsense stuff and stumbles quickly back to the TARDIS - leaving Ben and Polly to follow confused!  Once they de-materialise the Doctor collapses and in a long flash of blinding white light changes into a completely different man!  Welcome to Doctor Two!

Of course the regeneration footage does actually exist (thanks to being shown in Blue Peter), so after the end of the episode I showed the proper footage to the gang.  So there we go!  The end of Hartnell.  I felt we needed to celebrate and we all said cheers with a bottle of Lambrini!

Photo 6: Three Jelly Babies pose in front of my
TARDIS key ring around Jason's house.
This reminds me of a shot of three Yeti's in front of the TARDIS in a
later story - but that's not for now!

I did like the last story but have to say that I found the sound-quality to be rather bad!  Maybe that was just me!  The story itself was quite silly in places but it had enough fun characters and stuff going on that I could forgive it!  The Cybermen were a huge success in my books.  I honestly feel that they are the creepiest they have ever been in this story.  I loved the odd sing-song way in which they spoke and the look is awesome - Cybermen are supposed to be human's augmented with electronic parts and they really look like it in this! They have human hands, they have human mouths and I like the cumbersome look they have.  It's like they've been put together, not because a funky-design ethic, but through a necessity to survive.  It really feels like the need all the bulky equipment.

However, here we are at the end of nearly a years worth of viewing, with no more Hartnell (unless he comes back for some sort of anniversary special of something....!) and I felt it was time to reflect.  We all talked about the companions and I think everyone felt that Ian and Barbara couldn't be topped (those early stories really were the best) - though we really liked Vicki.  Plus, although we've only had them for a couple of stories, Ben and Polly seem like they could be really good!  Already they seem a lot more fun than Steven and Dodo.

We also had a little poll on what we thought were our favourite stories of each season.
Season 1 was a strong season and Jason opted for the completely missing "Marco Polo", Mark went for "The Aztecs", Shaun was an "Edge of Destruction" man whereas the rest of us went for "The Keys of Marinus" (though I was torn between this and Marco Polo).
So "The Keys of Marinus" was the winner!

Season 2 was another strong season and this split us all a bit more!  Shaun was a fan of "The Dalek Invasion Of Earth" whereas Leigh liked "The Rescue".  However the winner was a draw between Jim and Jason's choice of "The Romans" (which I too thought was a strong contender!) and mine and Mark's choice of "The Time Meddler"!

Season 3 was possibly the weaker season of the 3 but there was a clear winner - "The Dalek Master Plan" was voted for by all of us - except Jason who preferred "The Ark" (oh Gavin liked "The War Machines" but that might be because he only watched a couple with us!).

As Season 4 had only just started it's a bit unfair to vote just between two stories (though "The Tenth Planet" would win!).

Photo 6: Three Jelly Babies pose in front of my
TARDIS key ring around Jason's house.
One has been killed since the last photo!

We then voted pitched our overall winner and surprisingly the (mostly missing) 12 part epic "The Daleks Master Plan" won - voted by all except Jim and Jason who liked "The Keys Of Marinus" best - and why not!

So that's Hartnell.  Thank you, you were a fun Doctor to watch and, even with the fluffs, you were amusing and interesting to watch.  Plus you were the first it was down to you to pull it off and make it a success.  Well done you!

Next time we meet we shall watch the drama based on Hartnell's time on the show "An Adventure in Space and Time" before continuing with Season 4 in the shape of a Mr. Patrick Troughton.  We'd better start getting used to re-cons....!

But until then I shall return, yes, I shall return...

MJ 12-01-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 24th MEET-UP - THE WAR MACHINES (PARTS 3 & 4) & THE SMUGGLERS

Tuesday 30th December 2014

Well, here we go again!  But this time it feels different...why?  Because it's our last meet-up of the year!

Last time Leigh and Jim had missed "The Savages" but had caught up in the interim - however, although Leigh had, Jim hadn't managed to see the first parts of "The War Machines".  So he decided to join us later after the rest of us had watched the final two parts.

Photo 1: Gavin, Shaun (holding the ginger cat),
Mark (holding the sign), Jason, Leigh and
MJ (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house.

But first we had the second two parts of The War Machines to watch and we last left our new sailor friend, Ben, behind some boxes behind cornered by a War Machine!  Oh no!  Thankfully there was a nearby doorway to Ben and so he happily dives through there.  He then finds Polly telling her she needs to get out - but she's been hypnotised by WOTAN and locks him in a room!

Anyhow here's a side-note thing about WOTAN - it was made in Britain, by British, so why do they pronounce "WOTAN" as "VOTAN"?  That's a very Germanic way of doing things!  Oh well on with the story and eventually Ben manages to escape and get back to The Doctor (who is back with Sir Charles).  He tells them about Polly and about the killer machines!  Sir Charles thinks it's all nonsense but still decides to send in Soldiers to go to the warehouse.  The Doctor travels with them and thus begins a "HUGE" battle between the soldiers and the war machines!  With their slow-moving arm-hammers and their fire-extinguisher shooters, the War Machines easily defeat the soldiers - especially when the soldiers gins keep jamming!  Sir Charles gets the area evacuated but the episode ends with everyone retreating (I think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's "Run away!!" Knights!) except the Doctor who stands against an advancing War Machine....

Photo 2: Gavin, Shaun (holding the ginger cat),
Mark (holding the sign), Jason, Leigh and
MJ (with the DVD cover) around Mark's house.

So the final part starts with the Doctor not actually in trouble - the War Machine decides not to run him over - it wasn't part of it's programming!  We see in a local pub a news report on TV telling London about the War Machine attacks (the newsreader was played by real life newsreader Kenneth Kendall - who also went on to host the Channel 4 show "Treasure Hunt" back when I was younger!).  Anyhow the Doctor and his friends end up capturing a War Machine in what (to me) looked like a Boxing/Wrestling Ring (albeit an electrocised (is that a word!!??) one).  The Doctor then reprogrammes this machine and it goes back to the Post Office tower and destroys WOTAN!  Yes I've missed out loads but you can watch the damn thing yourselves!!!  The episode ends with Ben and Polly meeting the Doctor at the TARDIS telling them that Dodo sends the message that "Dodo feels much better, she wants to stay in London and that she sends her love!"  "Hmmm - there's gratitude for you!" says the Doctor.  That would be fair enough but the actress who played Dodo, Jackie Lane, had actually been chucked off the show in real life, so it's a bit of a harsh send off - she doesn't even get a nice send off!  Just a cursory line.  I wasn't always the biggest Dodo fan but it does seems a tad harsh!  Anyhow the episode ends with Polly realising she has a spare TARDIS key - they try knocking on the door but the Doctor doesn't answer - so they both use the key and enter the TARDIS just before it dematerialises....

And that's the end of another tale - and the end of the third series of Doctor Who.  Big changes would be coming for Season 4 - but of course that's in the future!

So we all had a break and told Jim he could come over to join us - which he did.  All in time for "The Smugglers"...

Sadly no episodes exist of this story so it was time for four re-cons.  Here the Doctor and new companions Ben and Polly land in 17th century Cornwall.  Of course Ben doesn't believe a word of this time travel malarkey and wants to get back to his sailor's barracks - Polly I think does believe that they are back in time.  Anyhow they all set off and find a church where the warden is fretting that he may not be long for this world (which turns out to be true!) and tells the Doctor a clue as to where to find his treasure.

 

Photo 3: Gavin, Shaun, Mark,
Jason (holding the Smugglers re-con DVD cover),
Leigh (with the sign) and Jim around Mark's house.

Our heroes wander off leaving the warden behind and it's not long before a Ne'er-do-well in the form of a chap called Cherub wanders in to speak to the Church Warden - demanding him to tell him where Avery's treasure is buried - the Warden refuses and so Cherub kills him by throwing a knife in his back!  The nice thing about this story is that, although all the episodes are missing, the most gruesome parts do exist - thanks to Australia censors chopping out and keeping the "scary" parts!

One thing I must point out was that Cherub (a greatly acted character - gritty and nasty in equal parts - but able to switch on the charm when needed) was played by an actor whom I recognised from the children's school drama Grange Hill - he played the caretaker Mr. Griffiths!

 

Photo 4: Gavin, Shaun, Mark,
Jason (holding the Smugglers re-con DVD cover),
Leigh (with the sign) and MJ around Mark's house.

Anyhow what follows is a tale full of pirates, treasure, double crossing, smuggling, a dodgy (very chubby) magistrate, murder and a black pirate actually named Jamaica! (Brilliant.)  Such a shame it doesn't exist as I believe it would have been excellent to watch!  Although one thing probably doesn't add up - they all decide to refer to Polly as a boy (as it might be safer that way) and nobody bats an eye!  Have they seen her!??  She looks nothing like a boy - and does have lady-parts which do seem quite noticeable!  Ahh well, maybe it's only me that notices lady-parts...

Photo 5: Shaun, Mark,
Jason (holding the Smugglers re-con DVD cover),
Leigh (with the sign) and MJ around Mark's house.

I enjoyed the story - though it does suffer from being a re-con.  I thought the sets were quite excellent and I believe it was the furthest that they had shot outdoor locations (all the way down in Cornwall).  There were a lot of actors I enjoyed and some great scenes as well - the pirate captain being charmed by the Doctor was fun.  The betrayals that everyone seemed happy to take part in. No-one seemed safe!

Photo 6: Gavin, Shaun, Mark,

Jason (holding the Smugglers re-con DVD cover),
Leigh (with the sign) and Jim around Mark's house.

Anyhow the whole serial ended with a big shoot-out, lots of death and the Doctor and co escaping down a secret tunnel in the church - back down to the seashore where the TARDIS was.  All three enter the TARDIS and leave. Suddenly, the interior of the ship is freezing cold, and the Doctor announces they have arrived at the coldest place in the world.....

This ending will lead us into the next story - a tale which will be the first Doctor's last!  Hopefully we shall watch it on the anniversary of when we first started this marathon!

Well done chums - we're almost there!

But until then I shall return, yes, I shall return...

MJ 27-12-14