DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 28th MEET-UP - THE HIGHLANDERS

Sunday 22nd February 2015

In the cold of February the gang met up again - but once again lacking our "And Jim" - a moniker which had made our group sound so attractive to outsiders!

Well me had no time for tears - we had four episodes of (mainly) still photos with audio to get through and today had brought us the historical tale "The Highlanders"!

The Doctor and co land in Scotland (I think possible our first trip there!).  Ben and Polly are hopeful that this is their own time and they can get a train back down to London.  Sadly, for them, this isn't the case and they find out that they've arrived just after the Battle of Culloden (in 1746).  The British army is triumphant over the rebel forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie and our crew encounter fleeing Scots rebels and are taken prisoner by them.  They all hide in a deserted cottage with the Laird Colin McLaren, who has been badly wounded, his daughter Kirsty, his piper Jamie McCrimmon and his son Alexander.  Sadly for them Alexander doens't last long - and when a patrol of English soldiers finds them he ends up pretty-well dead!  The English patrol leader is Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch - double F.  He's pretty wet and foppish but his Sergeant is more forceful and takes the Doctor, Jamie, Ben, and the Laird to be hanged; while Polly and Kirsty manage to escape!  Kirsty then takes Polly to a cave, known to her and her family.  Whilst in their she shows Polly a valuable ring that she owns - a family heirloom - Polly wants to sell it.  Kirsty, quite rightly, doesn't want to and pulls a knife on Polly!  Polly gets in a strop and marches out - falling down an animal pit!  Suddenly someone lurks above the pit with a knife!

And so the episode ends - I have to say I do think Polly is a bit heavy handed here.  Wanting some girl she's just met to give away and sell something that's clearly important to her!  Having just met each other it does make Polly come across as a bit of a cow!  Perhaps some time in a pit is what she needs!

Photo 1: Shaun, Mark, Leigh (holding the sign)
and Jason (with the DVD cover) around Leigh's house!

Part 2 starts with revealing that it was Kirsty with the knife!  Doh!  Anyhow Kirsty tries to help Polly out the hole but ends up falling in as well!  This isn't so bad as soon Ffinch is on the scene and, after telling his men off for losing the girls, falls down the animal pit himself.  Here they rob him, take a lock of his hair and leave him in the hole!  Nice.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Ben are thrown into a prison pit in Inverness - with a load of other prisoners.  There is also an ill Laird in the pit who is wearing the Prince's Standard!  The Doctor tries to tend to the Laird but then has an idea of escape!  He tells the guards he's a German doctor with information of a plot to kill the Duke of Cumberland!  He (with the Prince's Standard) gets taken away, much to the jaunts and jeers of the other prisoners!  Poor left behind Ben has to explain to them that it must be a ruse and he'll be back...

The Doctor gets taken in front of Solicitor Grey, a dodgy character who is profiting from the prisoners by selling them as slaves in His Majesties colonies (Boo!).  The Doctor manages to escape from here (by locking Solicter Grey in a cupboard and convincing Solicitor Grey's assistant, Perkins, that he's very ill and must blindfold himself and rest for an hour!  "But what about the noises by Solicitor Grey from the wardrobe" I hear you ask?  The Doctor's thought of that - he's no idiot and in a quite comical scene he convincesPerkins to ignore the noises as they are just in his head!  The Doctor then runs away to the kicthens and disguises himself as an old washer woman - there's something slightly Monty Python-esque about the whole disguise!

Elsewhere Ben and the prisoners are taken aboard a ship - where the Captain, Trask, orders a bound man to be thrown over the side and allowed to drown.  He then tells the prisoners that's the only way they'll ever get off the Annabelle....!

 

Photo 2: Mark, Leigh, MJ (with the DVD cover)
and Jason (holding the sign) around Leigh's house!

So the third episode has Jamie, Ben and the Laird shoved into the ship's hold.  Ben of course gets accused of being a spy (well, he is English!) but is vouched for by Ben and the Laird.

Meanwhile Polly and Kirsty are having a fun time - they go to the Sea Eagle Inn and find poor old Ffinch there.  Once again they threaten him and make him help them out!  He arranges for them to speak to Perkins (Solictor Grey's assistant) but this is a ruse and the girls sense this is a trap - thankfully the Doctor is on hand to get them out and, now re-united, they all go off to find weapons - this results in a broken sword and pitchfork and a couple of knives from the girls - and a whole wheelbarrow full of goodies from the Doctor!
The Doctor also manages to convince Kirsty to give him her ring as bait for "a greedy man"!

Back on the ship the prisoners are offered contracts to sign (which will bound them as Slaves in the colonies - a hard life which will result in an early death) - Ben asks to look at the contracts and then tears them up!  This serves him no good as he gets trussed up and thrown over board!  Thus the episode ends with a wet, possibly drowned, Ben!

 

Photo 3: Shaun, Mark, Leigh (holding the sign)
and Jason (with the DVD cover) around Leigh's house!

Of course Part 4 starts with the crew pulling up the rope and finding that Ben is no longer at the end!  Has he drowned??

No, don't be silly.  This isn't "The Dalek's Master Plan"!  There will be no killing of assistants!
He ends up on the shore - held at musket-pint by a Redcoat!  Luckily for Ben it's the Doctor in another disguise!  Ben, Polly and Kirsty then take the weapons back to the ship and arm the prisoners!  The Doctor meanwhile goes back to Solictor Grey and says that the prison ship hold the Prince - he shows Kirsty's ring as proof!  This gets Grey's interest up and they all go back to the ship - where the prisoners are waiting!  A battle commences (which would have looked good - sadly not so much in audio and still photos!) and the good guys seem to win!  The prisoners all decide to sail for France where they have allies!

The Doctor and co, after a few more tussles with Grey, and some help from Ffinch, FINALLY get back to the TARDIS!  Here the Doctor, egged on by Polly, asks Jamie to join them on the TARDIS - as long as Jamie teaches him the bagpipes!  So they all disappear in the TARDIS.

Photo 4: Leigh, MJ (with the DVD cover)
and Jason (holding the sign) around Leigh's house!

I know, from documentaries etc, that Jamie wasn't meant to be an assistant - but the actor, Frazer Hines, had impressed the production team and they had liked his charcter.  So he was written in - just like that!  Good job as Jamie will turn out to be one of my favourite companions!  Anyhow that was that.  I really enjoyed the story - it pelted along nicely and there were some nice moments of comedy and some very well-written characters.  It's a shame it's missing, but at least we had the full tele-snaps and even some moving images of the more gruesome parts (thanks to those fussy Aussies!).  Anyhow that's what I thought - what about Jason?

Jason: "My 'Highlanders' Review.

I was excited to see the Highlanders as I have always wondered what Jamie's introduction story was like.  I imagined it involved lots of men in kilts running over grassy hills and sword fights.  Though this did occur it was only briefly and actually featured little of Jamie McCrimmon at all.

What we did get was an enjoyable trip which I felt featured quite a few glimpses of what was to become 'Doctor Who' staples for me.

I love that the Doctor has become a bit more comical and devious.  We're starting to see that he's just better and smarter than those around him.  For example he manages to gather an arsenal of weapons while Polly and Kirsty only come up with a few swords.  He also manages to escape his prison cell by outsmarting his captors and taking control.  For me this is what Doctor Who (especially the post-2005 Doctor) is all about.  His main power is getting away with telling everyone else what to do by seeming to be an expert.
I liked the more light-hearted moments with Perkins (the secretary), Ffinch and Trask ("Arrrrrr!").  Polly is really growing on me.  She is very capable when left to deal with situations.  She can be a bit rude and bitchy too, which makes her seem more real and well rounded to me.

As for our new companion, Jamie, we have yet to see.  He did well, but seems to have become a companion in the same way as Katarina did - By just still being around at the end of the episode.  However I have a hunch he may last a little longer.  I do think they should have given him a bit more information before whisking him away from his time and planet though.

Overall this was the type of historical story I like.  It puts our heroes in an actual historical event but it's more about smaller characters and their story.  Doctor and the companions can have a worthwhile adventure and make things better for those around them without worrying about changing any major historic events.

7/10"

Anyhow next time we have more re-cons BUT we also have our earliest surviving Trout-Man episodes!  I also need to update our group photo - so here we go:
 

Nice eh?

Until next time, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 26-02-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 27th MEET-UP - THE POWER OF THE DALEKS (PARTS 3-6)

Sunday 8th February 2015

So another Sunday and we were sadly lacking in the "J Department" - for both Jim AND Jason couldn't make it.  This was a shame for Jason as it meant that I'm the only one to have not missed a single meet-up!  So I win!

Yay me


Anyhow we had the final 4 re-cons of "The Power Of The Daleks" to watch!  A lot of us had been out the night before celebrating Leigh's Girlfriend's Niece's 18th Birthday (keep-up with me!).  So lots of drink was consumed and we'd even been to a nightclub for a boogie - well actually a lot of the music was rubbish so there wasn't much boogieing!

All this made us very up for watching 4 episodes of still photos, muffled audio and written descriptions as to what was going on....!

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

That maybe a little unfair as The Power Of The Daleks is a fun story.  We start in episode 3 with the Doctor trying to convince the Governor of Vulcan that the Daleks are dangerous.  He however ignores his pleas - thinking how useful the Daleks would be as servants and says that Lesterson can continue his experiments.  The Doctor quietly vows that he will stop the Daleks.  We then learn that it was the Deputy Governor, Quinn, who had called the Earth and brought asked for the Examiner to help deal with the rebels.  The Head of Security, Bragen, dismisses this as nonsense and says that Quinn is in league with the rebels.  The Governor agrees and imprisons Quinn and promotes Bragen to deputy.

Bragen has also been meeting secretly with Janley (the only lady on the base (so it seems) and one of Lesterson's assistants).  She's the one who brought the Daleks to Bragen's attention and mentions that they could be used to overthrow the Governor and take over the colony - it turns out she's the rebel leader.  Bragen agrees but we can all see he's a sneaky one (he's a bad man (not Batman!)) and will be trying to take over himself - using the Daleks.  It didn't work with Mavic Chen, mate, but feel free to try!

So we then follow the next few episodes with Dalek sneakiness, lots of death, a kidnapped Polly and lots of recorder playing by the Doctor.  I did like Bragen and his badness but another performance I enjoyed was Lesterson the scientist who thinks the Daleks are a force that can be used for good - but he slowly unwinds, becoming quite deranged, as he realises that the opposite case is true!  He tries to stop them by limiting their power but that doesn't work with Janley and Bragen working against him.  The Daleks soon create their own source of power - a ring of power that surrounds the base giving them the static electricity they need to move.  The story ends with the Doctor sabotaging that and meaning the Daleks lose their power - but so does the base!  It will apparently take months to repair!
With that in mind the Doctor suggests to Ben and Polly that they'd better leave "before they send us the bill," and they hurriedly sneak away back to the TARDIS.

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

So that was the first Troughton/Trout-Man story.  Such a shame it doesn't exist in full-moving form as it looked like it would be a really good classic.  Still there were enough moving clips and good performances to keep the interest from waning and I DO like this new Doctor - he's cheeky, fun and you never know what he's quite up to - and are never sure if he knows either!

I seem to have lost the photos of me AT this meeting!  So I got some taken at Mark's the next time I got Leigh to pose as one of Shaun's cats - I think he does a grand job!

Photo 3: Leigh poses as one of Shaun's cats
(to give the illusion that we're still at Shaun's house
and not at Mark's!) with MJ (holding the sign and DVD cover).

Photo 4: A second shot of Leigh posing as one of Shaun's cats
(to give the illusion that we're still at Shaun's house
and not at Mark's!) with MJ (holding the sign and DVD cover).

Anyhow more re-cons next time - but until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 09-02-15