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