DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 49th MEET-UP - SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE

Sunday 3rd January 2016

Happy WHO year to you all!  A new year and a new Doctor to watch - and in COLOUR!  Oooo!  So all of us met around Mark's (including Gavin) to watch the four part story 'Spearhead From Space'.  Here is what went down in Groove Town....

****************************************************************************************************

MJ: "WELCOME BACK TO" *singing* "Doctor Whoooooooooooooooooooo - in the New Year!!" *Not singing* "in 'COLORRRRRRRRRRRRR'!  Hey so we're here at Mark's - we're with Gavin again - hello Gavin!"
Gavin: "Hello, hello."
MJ: "And we're going to watch 'Spear-He-Ad from Spacky' - or 'Spearhead From Space' for all you English speaking people."
Jason: "Hello!"
MJ: "I tell you something interesting about this story - which isn't interesting!  People at the BBC were on strike - so they weren't allowed to film at all at the BBC.  SO they did it ALL on film.  That's why this one still exists because they couldn't do anything with film - you know they can't re-wipe over it.  So this one exists on it's entire ORIGINAL film.  You know on these you often see it on film outside and then it's back on videotape when they come back in the studio?  Well this is ALL on film - so it looks like it's filmed on the outside."
Mark: "So they all exist from here on out?"
MJ: "Yes in some form or another"
Marl: "Okay"
Shaun: "You don't mean re-cons by 'some form or another'?"

MJ: "Noooooo!"
Shaun: "We've been promised the re-cons are done!"
MJ: "Noooo, no more re-cons! Some are only in black or white - "
*The guys see spoilers clips on the DVD menu and start laughing*
MJ: "Oooo wow spoilers!  Right shall we put press play and see the thing?"
Jason: "I've seen it all now!"

Leigh: "I wonder if there will be foam as well?"

Mark: "Yeah I don't think it's as scary as foam."

Leigh: *Pointing at Telly* "Look this is in colour - I've never seen this in colour before!"

Jason: "You've NEVER seen this in colour?"
Leigh: "NEVER seen it in colour."
Jason: "Wow."
MJ: "Mark, turn the volume up!"
Leigh: "He's not playing it yet!"

Mark: "I was waiting for the general ramblings to stop."

Jason: "Does the theme go 'Doo-be-de-doo, doo-be-de-doo?"

MJ: "This is a new year, new Who and new me!"
Jason: "New song?"
MJ: "One of those was a lie."
*Laughter*

Mark: "Here we go..."

*Part One is put on*

MJ: "The Earth in colour!" 

EPISODE ONE GETS WATCHED...

Photo 1:

Jason, Shaun (holding the sign), Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
MJ (hovering above) and Gavin around Mark's house. 

MJ: "Well that was the first one."

Jason: "I'm guessing Talfryn Thomas was the Welsh man."

MJ: "Yes I think he WAS the Welsh man - he was also Sergeant Cheeseman from 'Dad's Army'." *Reading Titles*  "Prentis Hancock - I know that name from something?"
Jason: "Two surnames."
MJ: "One World Cup..."
Jason: "Well that was good."
MJ: "Yes that was good, I enjoyed it - lots of intrigue.
Shaun: "That was certainly colourful."
*Leigh Laughs*

MJ: "Hooray!  Well Pertwee's playing a very confused, post regeneration Doctor very well at the moment.  That's usually what they do."

Shaun: " 'Very well'??  He's been in it for, like, two minutes!"
Leigh: "And then he was shot!"

*Laughter* 

MJ: "Yes, except that he was shot stupidly...or was he!?"
Shaun: "We're not sure to sure about that."
Jason: "He got his shoes!"

MJ: "I liked him hugging his shoes."
Jason: "That was good - that shows compassion."
MJ: "I like the creepy men who wanted to steal him - who DID steal him!"
Shaun: "Well everyone is completely incompetent as always."

MJ: "Yep!"
Shaun: "There were three guys in UNIT, The Brigadier left leaving the two guys in UNIT whose ONE job it was to make sure the Doctor wasn't kidnapped.  He was IMMEDIATELY kidnapped and during said kidnapping he immediately escaped - "
Mark: "- And then was shot by UNIT!"
*Laughter* 

MJ: "And we had a nice stereotypical 'Ooo-arr' poacher maaaaannn!  I forgot to see what his name was but I'm sure it's something like Josh Pigbin or Pigbin Josh." 

*Laughter* 

MJ: "I think it IS!"

Shaun: "It won't be 'Pigbin Josh'!!"
MJ: "It's something like that - I'm sure the book will tell us!  Or we'll see on the next part.  Anyway - Part-ey the second!"

Photo 2:

Shaun (holding the sign) and Mark (holding the DVD Cover)
around Mark's house. 

EPISODE TWO GETS WATCHED...

Leigh: "So did anyone look to see if it was 'Pigbin'?"
Jason: "I looked but I didn't see."

MJ: "No it isn't Pigbin - I'm going to have to look online to check what that was.  Well that was the end of Episode Two!"
Jason: "There's a book right THERE with cast in it!"

*Leigh Laughs*
MJ: "Are you enjoying it?"

All: "Yeahhhhhh!"
MJ: "General 'Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhs'."
Jason: "Yeah it's alright - don't know what's going on."
MJ: "You never know - "
Jason: "- Which I like - I like that.  I hate it when they tell me stuff."
MJ: "I like all the intrigue and the weird characters and the guy who goes 'Ooo-Arr' - and the Doctor's....alright!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "He's not done much - just flirted with the new woman."
Mark: "He's, yeah..."

MJ: "He got changed!"
Jason: "And showered - AND he got a tattoo at some point."

MJ: "Oh yeah!  The Doctor with a tattoo!  That's what the Time Lords did - 'You can change your face - you've changed your face before.  We're going to give you a tattoo -"

Leigh: "Doctor Tattoo."
MJ: *Second Doctor impression* " 'Oh nooooo!'  Hah - 'Doctor Tattoo'!  Brilliant."
Jason: "I like his watch."
MJ: "I like his watch."
Mark: "'Cos it saved two episodes."
Shaun: "Yep!  Without ANY explanation as to where he had it hidden!"

Jason: "The Time Lords."

Mark: "Yeah where was that hidden?"

Jason: "He's been back to Gallifrey - he hasn't but...."
Shaun: "He left all his clothes in that locker so presumably his watch would ALSO be left there."

Jason: "It was in his shoes!"
Shaun: "It wasn't in his shoes!  The TARDIS key was in his shoes - we saw that!"
MJ: "It's the shoes!" 
Mark: "His watch was up his arse." 
*Laughter* 
Shaun: "The only remaining place dropped out during his shower."

Jason: "FOUR LONG YEARS it was up his arse!"

*Laughter*

MJ: "You'll be happy that this is the first use of the term 'Arse' in this recording - this year!  Well I think we'll pause it there as there's not much more to say at this time."

Photo 3:

Jason, Shaun (holding the sign), Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
Leigh (hovering above) and Gavin around Mark's house.

EPISODE THREE GETS WATCHED...

MJ: *After awfully singing part of the music AGAIN!* "Well that was good, so we just had another cliffhanger of the General - "

Leigh: "General Scooby-Doo."
MJ: "General Scooby-Doo being menaced by his own waxwork at his doorway - DUM-DUM-DAAAA!  OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!  And there you go - lots of waxwork stuff going on - don't really know what to say about that."

Jason: "It's alright."
MJ: "It's good innit?"
Jason: "Stuff.... happens."
MJ: "I'm enjoying it" *Reading Titles* "Derek Medus" is enjoying it."

Jason: *Reading Titles* "Dicks!"
MJ: "Arrrrr!  We liked that.  Doctor's still good, his companion, Liz Shaw's, hair bun still annoys me!  Looks stupid."
Jason: "I'm fine with the bun."

MJ: "You like a bit of bun-fun don't you?  Hah!  And on THAT bombshell -"

Leigh: "- Bunshell."

MJ: *Singing with titles* "Part Four!"

Jason: "That's a creepy photo."
MJ: "Good titles though, they've changed them and obviously brought in Pertwee's face - that's good.  And that a new thing with the bendy 'H' in the title.  I DO like a bendy-H!"
Jason: "This would go down better in a typographical magazine."
MJ: *Reading* "By Robert Holmes!  He wrote 'The Croutons'!"
Shaun: "I hated that!"
MJ: "Well it was alright - this is a better story.  That had the South African robots but these are a bit more movable in this story"
Shaun: "Yeah another cyclical plan that went nowhere!"

MJ: "I like the way in this how they made the false General creepy - with the wax."

Jason: "He was creepy anyway!"
(Part Four has started and The Doctor blows up a lock on screen)
MJ: "Ohh That's blown it!"

Photo 4:

Jason, Shaun (holding the sign), Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
MJ (hovering above) and Gavin around Mark's house.

EPISODE FOUR GETS WATCHED...

MJ: "Hear the cheers from everyone."
*Laughter*

Jason: "So that was basically the pilot episode for the new Doctor Who show."

MJ: "It pretty much was!  And he ended it with us finding out his name - it was Doctor John Smith!  So there we go, that's his REAL name it's not just a pseudonym he just made up!"
Jason: "They'll have to change the titles then."
Shaun: "He's already used 'John Smith' before."
MJ: "He has!  So Shaun, how did we find that story, did you enjoy it?"
Shaun: "I liked the set-up but the Autons or whatever was behind them was just rubbish.  The main story was just awful."

MJ: "Ahh okay."
Shaun: "But I did like the set-up and I did like the first episode - to the exception of how little sense anything made!  I'm alright when it's kinda like 'Oh we're building a thing' but it was a couple of shots of they may or may not be hypnotised - bleh."
MJ: "I see this one as not REALLY about the Autons - it's about establishing the new Doctor
and doing that thing.  The rest of it seems like a back-drop - it could be ANY alien."
Shaun: "The Doctor was hardly in the first episode and hardly in the second episode.  So most of his set-up was still done in those short scenes he was actually in."
MJ: "Yep."

Shaun: "You got that little bit at the end which was about three minutes tying up - this was the new status quo."
MJ: "Well I liked it, I liked it, I liked it, I liked it. I l-l-l-liked it..."
*Jason laughs*

Shaun: "So 90% of this was just not great."
MJ: "No I suppose not."
Shaun: "I LIKE Pertwee."
MJ: "YES!"
Shaun: "And I liked the fact that - "Mark: "- I liked the tentacle!"
Shaun: "I DID like the tentacle just 'cos it was SO ridiculous!"
MJ: "It was ridiculous."
Shaun: "I like the fact that, um, as he's now going to be a major character, the actor who plays the Brigadier is putting a little more character to the Brigadier."
MJ: "Yes yes."
Shaun: "He's being a bit more quip-ier, he's being a bit quirky.  He's acting rather than just being a standard bolt-straight up, generic army guy."
Mark: "His mustache has more character to it."

*Laughter*
Shaun: "It does!  It's lustrous, lustrous I say!"
MJ: "I don't know about THAT!"

Shaun: "It's lustful!  Lustful I say - it very much fancies the girl."

MJ: "I don't know what I make of her (Liz Shaw) yet.  I'm not overly sure, she's - "
Mark: "- Hah!  'Sure/Shaw'."
MJ: "Arrrr!  Yes that wasn't meant but was very good."

Mark: "Does Shaw hang around for long?  I don't remember seeing her before."
Jason: "Spoilers!"
MJ: "Well we shall see!"

Shaun: "Obviously she's going to be in all these ones where she's based in UNIT."

MJ: "She has a wry smile a lot - like she's sharing a private joke.  Or she's a bit bemused by everything.  I don't know if I've warmed to her or not.  And that's not just because she Ginge!"

*Smiles towards our resident Ginge, Jason.*

Jason: "I know!  She's quite itellegent.  She fixed the little box thing on her own."

Shaun: "The one that randomly broke itself!"

Jason: "As boxes are wont to do."

Shaun:  "'Cos it was fine the scene before hand - and they were killing Autons with it."

Mark: "Yed how they made the faces glazed when they were, like, the Auton replicas of the people."
Shaun: "I liked that.  I did NOT like the rest of the make-up effects.  They were terrible."

Mark: "They weren't supposed to look like normal people the rest of the time."
Shaun: "No they were supposed to look like mannequins."
Mark: "Yeah but mannequins were shit in the 70's!"
Shaun: "They weren't THAT shit!"
*Laughter*

MJ: "That's not what I expect from mannequin, I expected a woman - a DUMMY on the back of a motorcycle."
Leigh: "With 'We Built This City' - no.  What was the other song?"

MJ: "I can't think what that song was?"
Shaun: "WHAT??!"
Leigh: "From the film 'Mannequin'."

Jason: "I had it on the other day!  And I meant to play 'We Built This City' but I put this one on instead."
Shaun: "Are we talking about a band called 'Mannequin'?"
MJ: "No the film."
Shaun: "Oh I haven't seen 'Mannequin'."
Jason: "Starship, erm?"
Leigh: "Jefferson Starship."
MJ: "It's not 'Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong'?"
Leigh: "No."

Shaun: "Jefferson Starship?"

Leigh: "Or is it just Starship?"

Jason: "No it's just Starship."

Leigh: "Ahh okay."
MJ: "Yeah."
Shaun: "Yeah that was 'We Built This City On Rock & Roll'."

Leigh: 'Yeah but they've got another one, which was from 'Mannequin'."
MJ: "Yeah, they have, yeah."

Jason: "Mark put Youtube on."
*Laughter*

MJ: "We'll never know!  How about youself, did you enjoy it Mr. Mark?"
Mark: "It was alright - it wasn't great but it wasn't terrible."

*Laughter*

Mark: "It was alright."

MJ: "How did you find Pertwee?  'Cos you were saying you weren't overly sure on him before you started watching this?"
Mark: "I think I've decided it's the concept of Pertwee I don't like."

*Laughter*
MJ: " 'The concept of Pertwee'?"

Leigh: "The VERY concept of him!"
Mark: " 'Cos when I was a kid they kept repeating them all and I went 'Arggh I'm going to watch Doctor Who yay - oh it's ANOTHER Pertwee one'.  It was never a Pertwee one I wanted to see - it was a different Doctor."
MJ: "Ahhhh."
Mark: "So it was the concept of Pertwee - so my main problem is - he's not another Doctor!"

Shaun: "Be thankful he's not Colin Baker!"
MJ: "Hey I like Colin Baker!"

Leigh: "Or Doctor Feelgood."
Jason: "Doctor Crippen."

*Laughter*

Photo 5:

Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
Leigh and Gavin around Mark's house. 

*Jason's phone makes a 'chung-chung' noise*

Jason: "I said Doctor the phone went off."

*Laughter*

MJ: "That's from that programme isn't it?"
Leigh: "Doctor Who."
Shaun: "What?"
MJ: "That 'chung-chung'?"

Jason: " No it's just Nokia noises - it's not 'The Chase' or something."

MJ: "No there's like a drama where they investigate - it's like 'CSI' or something like that and they have that 'chung-chung'.  'Cos Sheldon used it in one of the episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' - oh you lot are rubbish!" *Laughs* "Not knowing what I'm on about!  Jason you ALWAYS know what I'm on about!"
*Leigh Laughs*
Jason: "Oh yes I remember THAT.  That was a great episode or series or thing."
*Laughter*

Shaun: "I heartedly endorse that event or product!"

*Laughter*

MJ: "So Leigh, not a big fan of that serial?"

Leigh: "It was fine like everyone else has said.  It wasn't fantastic."

Jason: "It was alright, I just hope they never try and introduce a new Doctor by putting Autons in there and some silly companion trying to save the day, that would be a rubbish idea!"

MJ: "Yeah that would be rubbish."
Leigh: "They won't make THAT mistake again..." (Referencing the first ever Modern Doctor Who Series episode 'Rose')

Shaun: "You all shutup!  That had a bin trying to eat a woman."

Jason: "That had glazey-effects as well."

MJ: "It did!  'Pi-zza-za-za!' "Shaun: "That was also NOT a great episode."

MJ: "That was a good introduction to the Doctor and a companion I thought.  It was light-hearted, it got across them."
Shaun: "Which one are we talking about?"
Jason: "Both."
MJ: "Yes, both, to be honest!"
Shaun: "Ahh okay."
Jason: "I think the Autons are a good basic enemy to do other stuff around."
Leigh: "They're not, they're dreadful!"

*Shaun Laughs*

Jason: "They're alright - you look and them and you go - "
Leigh: "- that's a plastic person!"
Shaun: "That's worse than introducing the Doctor and his companions with a f**king orb!"

MJ: "This is almost like a new beginning, completely, for Doctor Who."

Shaun: "Yes it's basically a soft-reboot."

MJ: "It is a soft reboot, yeah.  No carry-over companions - apart from The Brigadier who is from a previous stories."

Shaun: "Which means you'd have thought it would have been better!" *Laughs*

MJ: "I didn't think it was bad!  I quite enjoyed it."

Jason: "It's not BAD."

Shaun: "I didn't think it was TERRIBLE."

Leigh: "It's just not great."

Jason: "Nothing particularly happened for three episodes - I mean things DID happen -"
Leigh: "The Doctor was barely in the first couple."
Jason: "Well that's going back to the roots of Doctor Who!"

*Laughter*
Leigh: "And Columbo DIDN'T turn up - despite what you said!"

MJ: "How about you, Gav?  Did you enjoy that one?"
Gavin: "I liked the first episode - I thought it was good way of introducing them."
MJ: "But not so much for the rest of it then?"
Gavin: "Not so much the story, no.  But I'd be interested to see what later Jon Pertwee stories will be like."
Shaun: "Why was the, um, the sinister guy, whose name I didn't actually pick up on and who was hilariously stood behind that bit of glass - staring at the Brigadier -"
MJ: "Oh I LOVED that scene!"

Shaun: "Why had he got that glazed thing - "
Leigh: "- Ahh what, Pigbin?"

MJ: "No we've established he's not in THIS!"
Shaun: "Presumably he was the first mannequin?"

Jason: "I guess.  Well not mannequin, but yeah."
MJ: "Auton."
Jason: "Yes, 'Auton'!  That's the word!"

Shaun: "Auton, sorry.  But he looked completely human the whole time."

Mark: "Yeah who was he copied from?"

MJ: "Was he Scobie?  Or am I getting mixed up?"
Shaun: "No Scobie was the General."

MJ: "Yeah I can't remember who he was - he was brilliant but that first scene behind the glass - "

Shaun: "He was the main bad guy!"
MJ: "Yeah I know who he is, I just couldn't remember his name!"

Jason: "Who was Hibbert?"

Shaun: "Hibbert was the guy who owned the plant (factory)

Jason: "Ahhh yes second in command - with the neck."
Leigh: *Does Frog Impression* "Ribbert!"
Shaun: "He was fine."
MJ: "He was good - touching the back of his neck."
Shaun: "I quite like the guy who was fired by 'Ribbert' and, erm, he played really over the top scared."
Jason: "Ransome."
Leigh: "Yeah Ransome was the one who was fired, yeah."
Shaun: "Yeah Ransome was fine - he overacted well.  I enjoyed him."

Mark: "He did overact a lot."
Shaun: "Yeah."
Jason: "I might act like that if I a had load of plastic people starting coming at me."
MJ: "Did the old woman get killed?  Who went:" *Does old woman/Nanny (from 'Count Duckula') impression* " 'Ohhhhhh I've found this - Oh you going off poaching!!  Ducky-poos' " 

*Jason laughs* 

Shaun: "Yes.  She was killed by the Autons."
Mark: "No, no I think she was unconscious."

MJ: "I think they brought her round with a brandy or something, I dunno."

Mark: "She just never came back again."
Jason: "That doesn't bring ME round again!"
Shaun: "I think that implies that she's dead.  He AIMED the weird gun-hand at her."
Jason: "There was a lot of stuff done off-camera."
MJ: "Hmmm."
Shaun: "Yes."
Mark: Which I like, 'cos in the old Doctor Who - or oldER Doctor Who, that would have been eight episodes that."
*Laughter*

Shaun: "Well that's true."

Mark: "You would have known EVERYTHING that would have happened."
MJ: "The Brigadier's saying 'Doctor we've got to cross this canyon'." *A reference to the third serial 'The Daleks'*

*Chuckles*

Shaun: "I'll agree with Mark, a HUGE positive of that is that it wasn't longer!"

*Laughter*

Gavin: "So you think that if it hadn't been for a strike at the BBC it would have been eight episodes possibly?"

MJ: "I don't know...."
Shaun: "In the old episodes there would have been a whole episode of that tentacle slowly coming out!"

Jason: "Why was it a tentacle?"

Leigh: "Why not a tentacle?  What's scarier than a tentacle?!"
Jason: "Two tentacles?"

*Laughter*

Leigh: "FOUR tentacles!"
Shaun: "Six, yeah!  It was bringing itself about in that chamber, so the more of the balls of it's essence they fed into the machine, the more it was actualising into reality."

Jason: "Why was it a green octopus-like tentacle?  Why choose that?"
Mark: "It was inter-dimensional."

Shaun: "No it wasn't?"
Jason: "It was a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, clearly."

MJ: "I'd remembered that the dummies smashed out of the shop windows, but they clearly didn't.  You HEARD them smashing - the sound of glass - but you didn't... I think they said that in the new series that apparently they couldn't afford to do that back in the day.  So you heard the smashing glass and then suddenly they're out walking down, like, Ipswich High Street - I thought it looked like." *MJ does a miming silly walk*

Jason: *In response to MJ's daft walk-mime* "Or George the Bear from the advert."

Shaun: "That was great 'cos they were clearly walking out of the doorway."
Gavin: "I think it was Tottenham Court Road, actually, 'cos you saw Hills shop."

MJ: "Ahhhh, right."
Shaun: "I didn't see 'Forbidden Planet' so I disagree with you!"

*Mark laughs*

Jason: "I know exactly where it was 'cos I saw a Tesco."

Gavin: "I went on a bus down Tottenham Court Road the other day.

Photo 6:

Jason and Shaun (holding the sign),
around Mark's house.

"MJ: "Well we'll have to see what The Book says, but what do we give that out of ten?"
Leigh: "Six."
Mark: "Five and a half - I will not give full scores for this entire series."

Jason: "I would say four and a half but I'm going to say five to give myself up or down for the rest of it."
MJ: "I think six as well."
Gavin: "Yes six as well - I think the first episode was great but the rest brought it down."
Mark: "Shaun, you can do it fractionally if you like."

Shaun: "Well as Mark wants it, this time, to be piecemeal I'm going to give it 4.25."
MJ: "4.25 from Shaun the awkward bugger!"
Shaun: "The .25 is just for the tentacle, 'cos that was great!"

Jason: "There's plenty of room for it to go worse, you've got to allow yourself some space."

MJ: "And remember after this it's all seven parters for this series."
Leigh: "Really?"
Mark: "So there we go."

*Shaun laughs*

Jason: "That's a weird number!?"

Shaun: "Seven?  Which means we're going to have to watch, like, the seven parts per time!  'Cos we can't do a three and a four."
Jason: "Three and a half.  Three point five."
MJ: "It depends if it's a good story it'll be fine - if it's not..." *Laughs* "I mean this one was zippy!"

Shaun: "I'm not going to say that we've sprung off to the strongest of starts, for the rest of them to be seven!" *Laughs*

Mark: "There's more Judo-chopping in these."
Jason: "I'm waiting for Judo-chopping!"

Shaun: "Did Judo-chopping this morning?!"

Jason: "And we're going to get a car."

Mark: "Yes there will be a car."

Shaun: "The Welsh porter character just disapperared."

Mark: "Yeah he went of to be in 'Dad's Army'..."

Shaun: "Yeah, fair enough."MJ: *Looking through the review book* "Ah here we go!"
Jason: "Who did THAT!?  Season Seven right at the bottom of the page?!  I'd better turn over then!"
MJ: "The guy who wrote it... the printers."

Jason: "No but they could have spaced down a bit."

Shaun: "I'm assuming the editor."

Jason: "Let's see how much space is at the back - look LOADS of space!"
MJ: *As if reading from this future transcript* "MJ sighs!"

Jason: "Erm, Pigman Josh was played by..."
*Laughter*

Leigh: "It's PigBIN!"

MJ: "He's not in it yet, apparently."
Jason: "Betty Bowden played Meg Sealey - the wife."

Shaun: "Mark's wife, yeah."
Jason: "Old Alex as we called her."

Shaun: *Laughs* "It's not like she reads these!  Or approves!"

Mark: "True."
Jason: *Still reading* "Channing!  Of course his name was Channing!"
MJ: "Channing, tho!"

*Jason read various bits and pieces from the book which I'll omit here*

Jason: "Oh!  So they actually fimed in Madam Tussards?  I assumed it was just a school hall!"

MJ: "Or church hall - it looked rubbish didn't it?"
Jason: *Reading* "Pertwee's dandified costume was the creation of Christine Rawlins."

MJ: "Ooo I know that name!"
Shaun: "Yes, wasn't she the costume deisgner on Doctor Who?...."
*Laughter*

MJ: "Yes that's it!" (actually I knew her from a Toby Hadoke's 'Who's Round' interview I'd listened to)

Jason: *Reading* "The verdict: Stilted and often inaudible.  This is really only noteable for it's iconic scenes of rampaging shop dummies.  Repeated music cues, a crass comedy performance from Pertwee and a monster that would be more at home in 'The Goodies' all conspire to drag this story down.  Four out of ten."

*Laughter*

MJ: "Ooo wow!  The book hates it!"

Shaun: "There was something else I just wanted to just mention in passing.  Why did they crash out of the window and start attacking people?  The plan was to replace high Civil Servants with realistic looking dummies.  Nothing happened with that - the Doctor didn't stop those ones.  So presumably they've gone and ACTUALLY taken over the Earth!  And a couple of dummies knocked down a window and crashed in the street."

MJ: "No because they were all controlled by 'The Conciousness' back at the lab - that tentacled thing - and once that's been knocked out they all just collapsed didn't the?  The rest of them collapsed."

Mark: "The original plan was they all come out smashing windows and shooting things - everybody's distracted, they nip in round the back and take over.  That's the plan - with the people that they'd copied."

Shaun: "But there was NO need for that as they had literally already copied the General and had him in place and was fooling people!"

Jason: "The way I see it is that it was all going to plan - with the subterfuge and getting in all the right places.  And then - 'Arrgh panic!  They're onto us!  Just do stuff!' "

Shaun: "Hah!  'Just do stuff'!" *Laughs*
Jason: "Shoot everyone!"
MJ: "Well we got to Episode Four and it was like 'There's LOADS of stuff to do!?  Where are they going to fit it??' "
Shaun: "Well we hadn't seen the tentacle thing from the DVD menu!"MJ: "That's right!"
Mark: "I mean they managed to wrap up the entire story in ten minutes having not done much with the story for the last hour... and twenty minutes."

*Laughter*
Jason: " 'How we gonna solve this?' 'Well I made a weapon and it will work perfectly until we meet a tentacle!' "

Shaun: "I think we're all just bitter that there wasn't foam."

*Laughter*

Leigh: "Yeah."
Shaun: "I was looking forward to foam."

Jason: "There was a bit of green stuff - there was lots of colours in jars and stuff.  They did a lot with colours."
MJ: "They did, yeah."

Jason: "The Fire Escape was red on a green background and everything!"

Shaun: "It was DEFINITELY now in colour."

*Chuckles*

MJ: "Yeah, back in the day, though, not may people would have SEEN it in colour 'cos I mean when I was little we only had black and white for a while.  So I reckon even then..."
Shaun: "Are you like 90??!"

*Laughter*

MJ: *Puts on old timey American voice* "We used to ride the Trolley!"
*Laughter*

MJ: "Okay group picture time - let's turn this off!"

********************************************************************************************************

Well that was fun.  Looking at the scores it seemed to get an average rating.

Jason - 5/10

Leigh - 6/10

Mark - 5.5/10

MJ - 6/10

Shaun - 4.25/10

Gavin - 6/10

In fact the proper rating works out to 5.46 out of 10!  Not that these things matter.  Just that we had fun, kept our clothes on AND ate cheese and biscuits!  Thanks Mark.

Thark.

Before I go it's a new TARDIS gang - well a new gang outside the TARDIS!  So here's a new Photoshopped group photo of us!  Enjoy!

Jason gets to be a proper ginge!  WHO-zah!

So until next time I shall return, yes I shall return!
MJ
07/01/16