DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 37th MEET-UP - THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD

Sunday 14th June 2015

Hello fans-of-dull-blogs!  You join me on our continuing quest to watch all of Doctor Who in order and we are up to a story that, up until 2013, was missing five of it's six parts!

The Enemy of The World kicks off with the TARDIS crew enjoying themselves on a beach in Australia in 2018.  Suddenly out of the blue the Doctor is subject to an assassination attempt.  The controller of the would-be assassins, an agent named Astrid Ferrier, rescues them by helicopter.  Yes it all kicks off early on - gun fighting, helicopter rides!  There's even a hovercraft at some point!
 
Anyway Astrid takes them to her boss Giles Kent who tells them that the Doctor is the physical double of Salamander, a ruthless megalomaniac who is dominating the United Zones Organisation.
 
Salamander has ascended to power by concentrating and harnessing the sun’s rays to generate more crops, but he wants MORE POWER!!
 
Kent, who was once Deputy Security Leader for North Africa and Europe, reveals that he had crossed Salamander, who ruined him and removed his various allies.  The only remaining Kent ally with any authority is Alexander Denes in Central Europe.  When Kent’s home is surrounded by troops led by Security Chief Donald Bruce, the Doctor is persuaded to impersonate Salamander to save his companions and to gather more information on his designs.

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

And so we get the joy of Patrick Trout-Man playing two roles - the Doctor and the (possibly) Mexican Salamander!  He seems to relish playing a suave but totally evil wannabe dictator - which also makes it fun to watch.  He seems to have no morals - poisoning a man in one place, shooting other ones - in fact the full extent of Salamander's scheme is revealed as we see him take a lift that goes DEEP underground which takes him to a gang of people who believe that a nuclear war has gone on above ground and that they are only safe under the Earth!  Salamander has convinced them that only mutants have survived and is getting his underground gang to cause all sorts of natural disasters (tsunami's, volcanoes etc) with special machinery and the like.  Salamander seems to want to cause all this chaos so that he can step in and take charge.

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

Anyhow there are nice character moments like when The Doctor picks up parts of some crockery, that some bad guards have broken up, and says “People spend all their time making nice things and then other people come along and break them!”
 

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

Another character who is quite fun is Fedorin who is second in command to Controller of the Central European Zone -  Alexander Denes (whom Salamader has locked up - saying he was negligent for ignoring Salamander's warnings about the volcanoes.  Volcanoes - of course - that were caused by Salamander's underground people!).  Salamander blackmail's Fedorin into poisoning Denes - but Fedorin can't go through with it.  Salamander smiles, telling him it's all okay - they find another way - and then poisons Fedorin with some poisoned wine!
 

Photo 4: Shaun, Leigh (holding the sign),
 Jason (holding the DVD Cover) and Mark
around Shaun's house!

So overall we have a good tale - a cracking villain (in the form of Patrick Troughton) and Doctor who is funny and quick (in the form of Patrick Troughton).  A good supporting cast - plus we had a helicopter AND a hovercar chase (in the form of Pat - oh no, he can't become vehicles.  Pat Troughton's great - but he aint no Transformer!).  The end scene is great too - when Salamander, having gotten into the TARDIS by pretending to be the Doctor, attempts to fly it off with the doors open!  This does him no good as he gets sucked out into the Time Vortex!

Well I enjoyed that one - and we have even MORE excitement next time as we find ourselves battling Yetis again!  Ooooo!

Well when I say "We" I mean the Doctor and chums!

So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 22-06-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 36th MEET-UP - THE ICE WARRIORS

Sunday 7th June 2015

Say whaaaaaaaaaat?!  Another weeky - another meety!  Now it was looking like Jim wasn't coming back, so I decided to change our sign - it now states "AND SHAUNY-JIM".  I LIKED having the name Jim in it, so Shaun got a re-christening!!

Anyhow, this time we all met around Jason's house to watch the six part story "The Ice Warriors"!  Yup we were BACK in the snow "Oh no, not again!  Tibet was bad enough, but I think you've put us down just further up the mountain!" Jamie tells us!  But never fear - we're actually in England again, but in the distant future during a future ice age!  Human beings are struggling to keep the glaciers from taking over England, with the aid of computers and keepy-icey-away-machines!
Meanwhile other scientists on an archaeological dig find a massive warrior entombed in the ice!

We're mainly set in Brittanicus Base where senior control technician Jan Garrett and her staff struggle to control an ioniser they are using to slow the progress of glaciers rolling over Britain.  Leader Clent is convinced they can avert a new Ice Age, but the group knows they are only a few hours away from being forced to abandon the base.  Tensions rise when Penley, a maverick scientist who has defected from the team, is mentioned. 

Thus opens "The Ice Warriors" - four episodes of this exist (found back 1988) but the other two have been animated.  Thankfully we start with an actual episode which at least gives us an idea of what the characters look like!

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

And what great characters we had!  Leader Clent was marvellous - he was ALWAYS right.  Even when he wasn't!  He was so uptight and didn't care for others opinions as he limped around the base with his cane!  We also had Penley, the defector (that sounds wronger than I meant it to!), played by Peter Sallis (famous as playing Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine AND the voice of Wallace from the animated Wallace and Gromit films).  He had a fun world-weariness about him.  He'd seen all that humans were trying to do and didn't approve of any of it!

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

But what of the Ice Warriors?  Apparently they had come to Earth from Mars but their ship had crashed and frozen solid in the ice.  Though I wasn't OVERLY convinced by the Ice Warriors rubber pincer type claws (how on Earth (or Mars) did they build anything with those?!) or the way they moved their mouths (it looked like hey had something wrong with them!) I did think the look of them was quite impressive - tall and bulky.  They were all played by very tall actors - in fact their leader, Varga, was played by Bernard Bresslaw who was a very famous tall actor who was well-known from the Carry On film series.  In fact that was quite an oddity - why have a world famous actor and them completely cover him up!?

Oh and the way they talked was very hissy (or hissssssssy) - I guess they got the actors to do that as they were reptilian, but it did get a little wearing after a while.

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

I thought the animation was good - Patrick Troughton must have been a joy to animate as he has such a wondefully expressive face!  The style was simpler than "The Reign Of Terror", "The Tenth Planet", and "The Moonbase" but I think it suited the story well.  Plus you could always tell who was supposed to be who!
 

Photo 4: Jason, Leigh (with the DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and MJ (doing an "Ice Warrior Hand")
around Jason's house!

So that's that - next time we shall be watching a serial that was only re-found again back in 2013!  So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 10-06-15