Well this one took a while to organise! We couldn;t get everyone together as we all seemed to be busy on Sundays! Even on this one we lost a Mark. Anyhow, undeterred, the rest of us gathered around mine to watch the four part story The Ark In Space AND the two part tale The Sontaran Experiment. This is what did go down and what did do happen, like...
MJ: "Here we are around mine, just a quickie as we've already started - I forgot to record. But we're watching The Ark In Space without Mark, because he's doing something with a dog at a car boot sale! And we're watching Arkwright In Space!"
Jason: "You're missing it!!"
Leigh: "You ham-fisted idiot!"
MJ: *Looking on screen* "There's Harry Sullivan. 'Oh I say'!"
Shaun: "Who's that guy?"
MJ: "That's Harry Sullivan!"
Leigh: "He was the doctor!"
Jason: *Pointing to Tom Baker* "That's The Doctor."
Leigh: "No, the doctor-doctor - the real GP!"
Shaun: *Laughs* "I do NOT remember him at all!"
MJ: "He wandered in (the TARDIS) at the end of the last one and went:" *Posh voice* "Hello?" *Normal voice* "Anyway..."
*EPISODE ONE OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
Photo 1: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with DVD case), Leigh and Jason with the sign!
MJ: "So Harry just opened a door and a great big alien bug has fallen on him - "
Jason: "- A praying mantis!"
MJ: "- Could be dead - could be attacking him. We don't know - but yes, they're on an ark in space - obviously - and all the human race are there in cryogenic suspension." (Bit of a leap! Not ALL the human race, Mr MJ!) "Or something even more than that - I dunno."
Jason: "No, that'll do."
MJ: "And, err, yeah, just three actors in it."
Jason: "Well, and all the extras. And the sloth-monster..."
MJ: "Well they didn't do anything, did they?! Although somebody did a slug - there was like a green bag that was crawling across the floor." *Laughs*
Jason: "Don't forget the attack of the Table-oids!"
Leigh: *Laughing* "Yeah the Table-oids!"
Jason: "And the snarky-voiced door...voice!"
MJ: "Ahh yeah. Oh well, with all THAT going on I can't wait for" *Announcers voice* "Episode Two of Doctor Who And The Ark In SPAAAAAACE!!" *Normal voice* "And Doctor Who used his Sonic Screwdriver."
Jason: "He did. To undo screws!"
MJ: "Yay!"
Jason: "Still limited to just screws - that's quite good."
MJ: *Reading Opening Titles* "Robert Holmes - Part Two."
*EPISODE TWO OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
Photo 2: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with DVD case), Leigh and MJ with the sign!
Jason: *Reading credits* "Her name was Vira!??" (Which sounds like 'Vera')
MJ: *Does deep voice of Jack Duckworth - an ex character from the soap opera Coronation Street - who was arried to Vera Duckworth* "VERA??!" *Normal voice* "V. I. R. A."
Jason: " I know - but it's still 'Vera'!"
Shaun: "I thought she was saying 'Vira'."
Leigh: "Yeah I think it was Vira. Like Elvira - but less Mexican!"
*Jason & Shaun laugh*
MJ: "It's good so far, it's quite intreguing."
Leigh: "Yeah it is, yeah."
MJ: "It's a bit of a mystery thing."
Jason: "A good use of minimal sets and bubblewrap."
*Leigh laughs*
MJ: "That one had very angry commander in charge who didn't want to investigate ANYTHING that was going wrong!"
Jason: "Well, he was between minds."
Leigh: *Laughing* "Between minds! I know how he feels!"
MJ: "But that was BEFORE he got smeared by the green stuff."
Jason: "I think he'd been like that forever.... Actually I don't really!"
MJ: *To my dog, Yana* "What do you think, Dog?" *Makes growly noises* "Is that right!?"
Leigh: *Growly voice* "Sausages!"
Jason: "Harry's doing well - as far as I'm concerned."
MJ: *Laughing* "Yeah I'm quite enjoying him!"
Leigh: "Yeah, he's better than Sarah Jane."
Jason: "She been asleep!?"
Shaun: "I was just giong to say, Sarah Jane's character seems to have completely changed in this one."
MJ: "In what way?"
Shaun: "Well essentially, other than being knocked-out - and then she seemed to be drunk - she spent the entire time just worrying about The Doctor, rather than going off and figuring s**t out."
Leigh: "I disagree. I think she's been just as annoying as she always is."
Jason: "Right you know they've just brought Bill in to the new (2017) series?"
Shaun: "Yeah?"
Jason: "And you know they're constantly saying Nardole has been sidelined in that?"
Shaun: "Contstantly what?"
Leigh: "Talking Narwhal??"
*MJ laughs*
Shaun: *Realising* "Oh yeah! That's a good thing! The less Matt Lucas in anything is better!"
Jason: "Maybe they're pushing her (Sarah Jane) back a bit to introduce him (Harry) and then they'll go back to both of them."
Shaun: "Yeah maybe."
Jason: "Or maybe she's on holiday!"
MJ: *Going outside with the other guys - after fretting about the dog eating something which she probably shouldn't* "Anyway that's Part Two and One. So..."
Shaun: "Part Two and One are in your shed? What are they doing in there??!"
Leigh "With the rabbit."
*Chuckles*
MJ: "So I'll record again after Part Three..."
*EPISODE THREE OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
Photo 3: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with DVD case), Leigh and Jason with the sign!
MJ: "Ahh that's the end of Part Three and The Doctor's being menaced by a Commander who's pretty much turned all the way into a Wirrn creature! (The alien bug monsters in this story) Oh they also had a man in -" *Laughs* "- a sleeping bag chasing them!" *Laughter* "Which was supposed to be one of the pupae of the creature. Really getting a wriggle-on - he was! It was quite impressive! And there's a grumpy man who didn't want to leave Earth anyway!" *Laughs*
Jason: "So far I'm liking it!"
MJ: "Yeah!"
Jason: *Reading end credits* "Before I was even born."
MJ: "Yeah, 1975. I probably wasn't either (I have since checked and I wasn't!)... Part Four...."
*EPISODE FOUR OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "So that's the end of that, so I..." *Laughs*
Jason: *Laughing* "No, the insect man (Lazar, The Ark Leader, nicknamed Noah - who got infected that slowly morphed into the Wirrn) sacrificed himself."
MJ: "Yeah."
Leigh: "He killed all the other insects."
Shaun: "He led all of the insects into a place -"
Jason: "- Two by two I believe!"
Shaun: "- where they could be shot off to be killed. Then he didn't set up the stabelisers so the whole thing blew-up."
Jason: "Genius."
MJ: *Reading end credits* "There's a guy called Kenton Moon there."
Jason: *Reading end credits* "Oh THAT'S how you spell 'Wirrn'!"
Shaun: *Singing to the tune of old kids TV show Button Moon* "We're off to Kenton Moon!"
MJ: "Hah! So at the end they didn't go back to the TARDIS. I didn't get that?"
Shaun: "They went to see Earth!"
Leigh: "They went to see the Earth and what it was like and whether the planet was viable, whilst she (Vira) stayed behind and un-froze all the people."
MJ: "Right okay."
Shaun: "They're just continuing to help a bit longer - after the end of the adventure."
MJ: "Ahh but not the Earth, because the Earth has gone?"
Shaun: "THE Earth, yes. That was the whole point of that!"
Jason: "Remember it was cured with fire?"
Leigh: "It was cleansed with fire!"
MJ: "Ahh!!!"
Shaun: "They left the Earth and now they're going back."
MJ: "Right." *Suddenly an extra bit comes up AFTER the end credits!* "Ooo!" *We watch this extra scene* "What!?? Okay that must have been an extra bit!"
Jason: "That inspired Marvel films!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "Very good Jason!"
MJ: "Easter egg. Fantastic!"
Shaun: "So the next one we've got, is it just two episodes on one DVD?"
MJ: "Two episodes, yep!"
Leigh: "That's a waste of a DVD."
MJ: "I know!"
Shaun: "Did they charge you full price for that!?"
MJ: "I think it was a bit cheaper than the others - a lightweight one." (Although it does have a documentary about the Sontarans on there - so you do get extra stuff!)
Photo 4: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with DVD case), Leigh (pointing) and MJ with the sign!
Jason: "Well I thought that was delighful."
Shaun: "'Delighful'?" *Laughs*
MJ: "Did you enjoy that one?"
Jason: "I did! It was a rip-roaring adventure. All in one. Enclosed base-under-seige - well it wasn't really a base-under-seige was it? Well, it kinda was..."
Shaun: "Yes it was!"
Leigh: "It inspired the film Under Seige you know!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "It DID! It inspired MANY a film -"
Shaun: "- Before AND after it!"
Jason: "Yeah, I was quite impressed! I mean the effects weren't great, but then you expect that."
MJ: "I didn't see any that were terrible? They were fine."
Jason: "Well, no, when I say 'No great' I mean 'You can tell how they're done immediately'."
MJ: "Oh yes."
Shaun: "You didn't see an effect that wasn't terrible? Did you SEE the monsters!??"
Jason: "The bubble wrap. The wonky spaceship just sort of drifting on a string."
MJ: "No but I've watched a lot of these Doctor Who's now, so I didn't see anything that was worse than usual. I thought they did well for what they had."
Jason: "For watching it for today's point of view it's 'charming'."
MJ: *Laughing* "'It's charming'!"
Jason: "I don't know what I'd have felt at the time. I might have gone 'Oh that's just bubble wrap' or I might have gone 'That's AMAZING'!!"
Leigh: "I really believe there ARE space insects!"
Jason: "Although I did like the eye in the thing - in the second episode."
MJ: "Oh yeah!" *I say knowingly but as I type this I have no idea!*
Shaun: "Yeah that was quite cool."
MJ: "And who was the one who was grumpy all the time? I liked him."
Jason: "I didn't catch his name."
Leigh: "It was Lycett, it was the other one. Kevin."
Shaun: "He only wanted to be happy...dead!"
Jason: "Even he sacrificed himself at the end - the moody git. He died Goddammit!"
MJ: "And you all seem to like Harry - he seems to be quite popular there."
Jason: "Yeah."
Shaun: "Yep!"
Leigh: "Yeah."
Jason: "Leigh doesn't, but I still like Sarah Jane."
MJ: "Yeah I do!"
Leigh: "She's an idiot."
Shaun: "I didn't like Sarah Jane in THAT one! They re-wrote her character to be just annoying."
Jason: "I liked her cagoule!"
Leigh: "Where they dressed her as Crommity from Portland Bill!"
Jason: "Oh I'm not a big fan of Portland Bill. I don't know any characters from it!"
*We then have a brief chat about THAT week's new Doctor Who that had been on telly and that there was a character that reminded, some of the guys, of Pigbin Josh!*
MJ: "So do we read The Book now? I suppose we should..."
*All say 'Yes'*
Jason: "'Cos we're going to forget this story!"
Shaun: "We must do scores!"
MJ: "Yeah!"
Jason: "I'm going to give it eight point six two."
MJ: "Oh that's quite high. There was quite a lot of comedy in it, wasn't there? I thought there was quite funny parts."
Jason: "It made ME laugh - I don't know if it was meant to! But yes there were lots of one-liners and snappy things with The Doctor."
Leigh: "I don't think it was as good as last week's."
Shaun: "Last week's?!"
Leigh: "Yeah last month's ago! I don't think it was as strong as the Robot one. But I'll give it seven."
Jason: "I thought it was better than Robot. Or, if not, I enjoyed it more!"
MJ: "I probably did too so I'll go for eight as well."
Shaun: "I'm going to go for a six! Fine, but all of the monsters looked sh*t!"
Leigh: "You can't mark it down for THAT!!!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "I am!"
Jason: "That's because your level of monster realism is The Master!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "Actual humans! No, things like the Daleks look quite cool. Things like the Cyberman and stuff like that. Even, you know, we've had minotaurs that were quite good. That just looked like a load of papier mâché bug things or bubble wrap!"
Jason: "I tell you what, my marking down is purely for the effects and I don't mind it. They were fine but not amazing. I have no issue with the story."
MJ: "I don't know that the aliens were AS bad as the Psirens were in Red Dwarf VI (a sci-fi sitcom) - which was like in the nineties!"
Jason: "It inspired that! It was probably the same company!"
*Leigh laughs*
Shaun: "Yeah but if we start marking all sci-fi we've seen, at the end of these, MJ's never gonna get these typed up! 'I watched Alien, I watched this week's Doctor Who, I watched a bit of Red Dwarf!' Right let's mark all of those!"
MJ: "Okay well we're going to have a pause now."
Leigh: "Book!"
Jason: "The Book!"
Shaun: "Book!"
Jason: "We've turned into chickens!"
MJ: "Okay Jason's got The Book."
Jason: "Here we go - Ooo, it's a short one! Errrrrr..."
Leigh: "Filmed in a quarry in Surrey!"
*Shaun laughs*
Jason: "MJ was not yet born!"
MJ: "Actually it was on film this one - it was all on video. They did all of this indoors and all of the next story outdoors."
Jason: "Right, the first bit of this is a spoiler for a couple of episodes time - do you want me to say that?"
Leigh: "Yeah."
Shaun: "Just read it!"
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Studio sets were shared with Revenge Of The Cybermen -'"
Shaun: "- Ohh! You've spoilt that now!!! What's wrong with you!??"
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'The Wirrn - larva - was made from the cutting-edge new material of bubble wrap'!" *Laughter* "' This, and the following story, were last minute replacements for a six part serial by John Lucarotti. Producer, Philip Hinchcliffe, heavily edited the part three scene of Noah begging to be killed, fearing it was unsuitable for young children. Verdict: A harrowing tale of posession. The explicit horror is made all the more disturbing by the story's clinically, white visal style. Ten out of ten'. "
*Ooo's from us!*
MJ: "That really liked it then!"
Jason: "It did!"
MJ: "So there you go. you can't improve on that. That's the BEST ever! According to
The Book."
Shaun: "Yeah."
MJ: "Well there you go. Okay then so onto the next one after a break. So Yay!"
Photo 5: At MJ's house.
A final shot of Jason with the sign!
***********************************************************************************************************
So there we go! I shall give the scores for this story again:
Shaun: 6
MJ: 8
Jason: 8.62
Leigh: 8
Mark: 8 (see later for his catch-up)
Which gave us an average 7.724 of out of 10.Usually we end there - but not this time!! After a break we went onto the next story The Sontaran Experiment....
***********************************************************************************************************
*EPISODE ONE OF THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "Okay so we've just watched the first episode of The Sontaran Experiment?"
Jason: "No that's in the future!"
MJ: "What is it called then?"
Jason: "I don't know what it's called actually?"
MJ: "Sontaran Stratagem?"
Jason: *Laughs* "No that's the future as well!"
Leigh: "Erm... The Sontarans...La-la-la."
Jason: "The Sontarans..."
Shaun: "Experiment?"
MJ: "That's what I said! Jason said no!"
Jason: "You never said Experiment!"
MJ: "Yeah!"
Jason: "Well it's on record so we'll find out..." (BOOM! We DID find out - I was right!!)
Leigh: "The Sontaran Dance!" *Laughs*
Jason: *After checking* "It IS Experiment though."
MJ: "Brilliant!"
Jason: "I'm glad I looked it up!"
Shaun: "You go go and ask someone else if you want, if you don't believe your friends!"
*Laughter*
MJ: *Laughing* "Yes! And at the end of that... what happened at the end of that? Oh yes, there was a big robot and then the Sontaran came out of his space ship. We hadn't seen him all the time."
Leigh: "Which used to be a barbeque."
Jason: "He took off his helmet!"
Shaun: "And he was smiling!" *Yes the make-up made him look extra smiley!*
MJ: "And they (The Doctor, Sarah and Harry) transmatted there and Harry fell down a trap... and then Sarah Jane fell down a trap - didn't she?"
Jason: "No."
Leigh: "No. The Doctor fell down a trap."
Jason: "She fell down a hill!"
Shaun: "She was the only one not to fall into the trap. She has found increasingly large sticks!"
MJ: *Laughing* "That's right! And there's people there who don't believe they are foreign - or whatever!!"
Jason: "There's a bunch of South Africans -"
*Leigh laughs*
MJ: "- Yeah! South Africans!"
Jason: "- who are trying to make dope on a barbeque." *Leigh laughs* "Errr they don't believe anything The Doctor says. Or Sarah Jane - though they haven't really met her yet
and there's a MAD one running about!"
MJ: "Yeah."
Shaun: "He's been tortured by the Sontaran." *Laughs* "There's also a fantastic crap robot!"
MJ: *Laughing* "There is!"
Shaun: "Which I love!"
Jason: "Sorry, I didn't see a CRAP robot!!"
MJ: *Laughing* "No! I saw an EXCELLENT robot!!" *Shaun & MJ laugh* "Part Two then!"
Photo 6: At MJ's house.
Shaun, Leigh (with the sign) and Jason (with DVD case).
*EPISODE TWO OF THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT STARTS*
Jason: "It inspired Metal Mickey!"
MJ: "Inspired Metal Mickey to go 'bleh'!"
Jason: *Reading opening credits* "Why's there no space between 'PART' and 'TWO'? PARTTWO!"
MJ: "I didn't see..."
Leigh: "It's got a Sontaran this time!" *Shaun laughs*
MJ: "Now she (Sarah Jane) said 'Linx' but I don't think it is?" (Linx was in Sarah's debut story The Time Warrior)
Jason: "Well, she's only met one. Racist!"
MJ: "But he looks completely different! He's got a smiley face hasn't he?!"
Jason: "They all look the same to me!"
Leigh: "He's got a Fisher Price My First Gun!"
*Shaun laughs*
Jason: "It's not! It's a Nintendo Light Gun thing! AND he's got a joystick!"
*On screen the Sontaran menaces Sarah Jane and says "The female of the species'*
Jason & Shaun: "Is more deadly than the male!!"
MJ: "HAH!!! I'm glad I was still recording for that! Okay Part Two..."
*EPISODE TWO OF THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT GETS WATCHED*
Photo 7: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with the sign), Leigh and MJ (with DVD case).
*Jason singing 'Woo-ooo' to the music*MJ: *Laughs* "And that was the end of The Sontaran Experiment! A little two-part story. At the end The Doctor fed-back some energy of the Sontaran ship and melted the Sontaran and destroyed the ship, so there we go! And they've disappeared again (The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane) to go where? Who knows!"
Leigh: "Back to the TARDIS."
Jason: "Well I'm thinking Genesis Of The Daleks thing."
MJ: "Shut-uppppppp..." *Laughs*
Jason: *Reading end credits* "Fight Arranger!"
MJ: "I should think they did because The Doctor sort of fought Styx (I meant Styre!) or he just ran away, didn't he?"
Leigh: "That fight was arranged?? You mean it wasn't real!?"
*MJ laughs*
Jason: "I did enjoy it but I thought it was a bit fanfic-y!"
MJ: "Fanfic-y? In what sense?"
Jason: "It just seemed like something someone would come up with to bridge two other stories. Like: 'Ahh well they're on this - we're on this....' Oh I dunno!" *Leigh laughs* "Not THAT fanfic-y as they obviously didn't write it with all the imagination. 'We've got one rock in the middle of a field. How can we use THAT for the entire story'? I dunno, nothing much happened. It reminds me of the sort of thing that I would write!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "Oh, way to big up your OWN creative talents!"
Jason: "Well it's just: 'Oh we'll stick a fight in there. We'll stick characters we've already heard of. South Africans in it for no particular reason! We'll rip-off Wizard of Oz."
MJ: "That would have spoiled it - his face melting!"
Jason: "Yes, that would have spoilt it as well."
MJ: "And we had that great robot."
Shaun: "I loved the robot!"
Leigh: "The robot was sh*t!"
Jason: "The robot didn't do anything!"
Shaun: *Smiling* "Yeah! That is all part and parcel of being a crap robot!"
Jason: "I hope the robot comes back in the future and we get to understand its motivations!"
MJ: "It was very shaky, wasn't it? Like if anyone slightly pushed it, it would probably break!"
Shaun: "Yes!"
Jason: "Actually the robot: what is the thinking behind the robot? Is it on it's own? Is it with the Sontaran?"
Shaun: "No, it was built by the Sontaran."
MJ: "Mm."
Jason: "Okay, I didn't really pick-up on that."
Leigh: "It's his assistant."
Jason: "It doesn't look like a Sontaran kind of thing."
Leigh: "It's Kevin." *MJ laughs* "The Robot."
MJ: "Kevin The Robot! So, did you enjoy that Shaun?"
Shaun: "Yep."
Leigh: "Even the bits you slept through?!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "Yep."
MJ: "Oh were you sleeping?! I didn't know!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "I stayed awake until the robot was destroyed and then I had a bit of a kip!"
*Leigh laughs*
Jason: "That was the end!?"
Shaun: "It was fine!"
Leigh: "It was fine. It mean it's nothing to write home about!"
MJ: "No, no."
Jason: "Good use of a rock though..."
Leigh: *Begrudgingly* "Yeah..."
Jason: "Whoever's the location manager got everything sorted this time."
Leigh: "Yeah I mean where do you find a Ball-henge nowadays!?"
*Shaun laughs*
Jason: "Yeah, 'cos I suppose they HAVE built the balls."
Leigh: *Sarcastically* "Oh, you think?..."
Jason: "Or one of them found them there..."
MJ: "I can see that they were limited with what they could do and I thought they did something quite interesting with it."
Jason: "They've obviously thrown all their money at -"
Shaun: "- The awesome robot!!?"
Jason: "- Genesis Of The Daleks next time!"
MJ: "Or maybe the previous one - that had a lot going in it! The whole sets and space ships."
Jason: "Well, not really! One corridor, filmed from various angles and a couple of other rooms with some white table-oids!"
Shaun: "They spend five grand on bubblewrap!"
*Leigh & Shaun laugh*
Jason: "And they're going to re-use that in the next story anyway!"
MJ: "That's true. So what do you give that out of ten?"
Jason: "I do like the fact that they are continuing the story a bit."
MJ: "Mm! Yeah I liked that!"
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "And when they disappeared at the end of this to go into the next story."
Shaun: "Well no, they went back to the Ark to go get the TARDIS - didn't they?"
Jason: "In theory - they disappeared..."
MJ: "Yes they disappeared to go there, but whether they do - or not - we shall see in Genesis Of The Daleks!" *Jason laughs* "I won't give you any clues what THAT'S about..."
Shaun and Leigh (with the sign).
Jason: "Erm I'll give that..." *Long pause* "I think I liked it? So I'm going to go.... six."
MJ: "Mm."
Jason: "Nothing wrong with it - apart from falling down hills a lot."
MJ: "I was thinking six but then I thought 'Actually I DID enjoy it!' So seven, I'm going to go."
Jason: "Yes but I tend to over-mark things, so I'm just using this as my new barometer!"
MJ: "Okay."
Leigh: "I'm going to go six as well. It was FINE but it WAS just filler."
Shaun: "I'm going to give a clean sweep then! Six as well!"
MJ: "There you go! Perhaps I should have gone six but I didn't!"
Jason: "What I meant by, like, filler and fan-ficcy -"
Leigh: "- 'Cos it had a lot of sex in it!?"
Jason: "- And not like romantic fan-ficcy where they pair up The Doctor and The Master but the sort of fan-ficcy where you are very rigid to what you know what the rules of Doctor Who are and you're going to stick to them and not put any decent story in. You're just going to go: 'Well I'm sure this is exactly what the Sontarans do get up to.' And I can fully believe that this is what the Sontarans get up to when we're not following them in an ACTUAL story."
MJ: "Yeah I suppose, but it was probably written by - and I check..."
Shaun: "A Czech?"
MJ: "Oh!? Bob Baker and Dave Martin! I don't think they came up with the original Sontaran - I think that was by Robert Holmes."
Leigh: "It was."
MJ: "Yeah."
Jason: "So what did you think MJ?"
Leigh: "He's already said - he gave it a seven."
MJ: "Mm!"
Jason: "Oh I never listen to you!"
MJ: "Oh thank you!"
Jason: "I always miss your mark! I miss Mark as well!"
Leigh: "Awwww - I miss Mark!"
MJ: *Mark-ish voice* "Ohh it's not Pertwee!"
Jason: "Mark doesn't like South Africans! Well, he likes some of them."
MJ: "He said he's never met a nice South African and that's not bloody surprising now. That's a song!" (It was indeed! By Spitting Image - the b-side to The Chicken Song!)
Leigh: *Referring to Jason as he flicks throught The Book* "That's MILES back! You just went past The Smugglers!"
Jason: "Can I read them from the beginning?!"
MJ: "So Jason has got The Book now!"
Jason: "The Smugglers - is that the one with the character Jamaica in it?"
Leigh: "Yeah. So that's QUITE a way off!"
MJ: "It is!"
Jason: *Flicking through The Book* "The Abominable Snowman - The Web Of Fear - Seeds of Death - Krotons!!"
MJ: "We're LOADS past that!! We've got ALL of Pertwee! You're on Troughton!!"
Jason: "Look how far we are through The Book?!! We are almost half way - if you squeeze it in..."
Shaun: "Jason stop squeezing things and find the bloody page!"
MJ: "There we go!"
Photo 9: At MJ's house.
Shaun (with the sign), Leigh and MJ (with DVD case).
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'The Sontaran Experiment. On Earth a Sontaran is conducting experiments on human colonists prior to invasion'."
Shaun: "With an awesome robot."
Jason: *Laughs and continues reading from The Book* "'The first story to be shot entirely on exterior locations - OB' - Outside Broadcast."
MJ: "Yeah."
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "Videotaping was carried out around Hound Tor on Dartmoor, Devon.' That's where we can go!"
MJ: "Okay, cool!"
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "Tom Baker slipped and broke his collarbone, necessitating stuntman Terry Walsh-' not Kat's dad (Kat Slater - a character from the soap opera Eastenders - has an actor (Derek Martin) play her Dad who had been a Doctor Who stunt man/extra) '- doubling for him in long-shots and fight sequences. John Friedlander -' Why do I know that name?"
MJ: "Because he's designed costumes and stuff before."
Jason: "Okay." *Reading from The Book* "- sculpted a Sontaran mask for Styre, although the costume was reused from The Time Warrior'."
MJ: "Oh so just the costume." (Which was obvious as the Sontaran had a weird new smiley face!)
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Verdict: Very atmospheric, although the story makes no sense!'" *MJ laughs* "I disagree!" *Reading from The Book* "Styre is a Magnificent creation (...) thanks, mainly, to Kevin Lindsay's chillingly sadistic performance. Eight out of ten'."
MJ: "Mm."
Shaun: "I didn't think he was sadistic."
Leigh: "What?! It was Robert Lindsay?!"
Jason: "No, it was KEVIN!"
Leigh: "I can't believe Rodney was a Sontaran!?"
Jason: "Not Richard Lyndhurst! No, was it Richard Lyndhurst?"
MJ: "Nicholas Lyndhurst!"
Jason: "Richard Lindley - oh for God's sake! Robert Lindley, Jeremy Paxman..."
Leigh: *Laughing* "Nicholas Lyndhurst was the Sontaran..."
Jason: "You plonker."
MJ: "Well that is a load of nonsense!"* Laughter* "Nonsensical stuff. Well, that was The Book and that was The Sontaran Experiment and that is us for today. Bye!"
All: "Bye!"
Shaun (with the sign), Leigh and MJ (with DVD case).
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So that was that!! Here are those scores again:
Shaun: 6
MJ: 7
Jason: 6
Leigh: 6
Mark: 7 (see later for his catch-up)
Mark: 7 (see later for his catch-up)
***********************************************************************************************************
Sunday 23rd May 2017
Okay, still not the end as we had to have Mark's catch up!
So I caught up with him on a Tuesday night for both stories - but first was The Ark In Space - or should that be The Mark In Space?! No....
**********************************************************************************************************
MJ: "So we're around Mark's for a catch-up. This is just a quick hello-"
Mark: "- Hello!"
MJ: "- To watch, erm, Mark in Space - sorry The Ark In Space - see what I did there?!"
Mark: "Ahh MARK In Space.."
MJ: "And we've got a big cat between us and you can press play as there's not much I'm going to say. Just capture what you think at the end."
Mark: "I think you should say lots and make it half an hour! Then transcribe this!"
MJ: "Noooooo!"
Mark: "Yeah." *Laughing* "Because that's our aim! Just to drive you insane with the transcripts!!!"
MJ: *Laughing* "In the membrane! Insane in the brain!! And the cat says:" *Long pause (Paws!!)* "Brilliant! So Part One!" *Laughter*
*EPISODE ONE OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
*Mark is laughing*
MJ: "End of Part One and Mark is giggling because a bug has fallen down on Harry!"
Mark: "I know, it was terrifying, yeah." *MJ laughs* "It looked really real..."
MJ: *Laughing* "Damn straight!" *Mark laughs* "Well, unfortunately they couldn't find any real giant bugs, so they had to make their own!"
Mark: "That was REAL! They found a giant bug!! Clearly one giant bug died in the making of this show!"
*They both laugh*
MJ: "It's woaahhh! Isn't that right cat? (To Mark's cat Morph - he doesn't reply) You're going to get me, aren't you? If I stroke you... So there you go. 'I say!' said Harry a lot!"
Mark: *Laughs* "He's urr yeah urr." *Clears throat*
MJ: "He IS urr yeah urr!"
Mark: "But yeah, a good first part."
MJ: "Very good. Some intregue and Part Two!"
*EPISODE TWO OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED & EPISODE THREE STARTS*
MJ: "Okay we've just watched Part Two and the guy in charge (Noah) has a hand that's all bleh!"
Mark: "It's covered in bubble wrap!"
MJ: *Laughing* "Yeah! Covered in bubble wrap! Mark has never seen the like! It's green."
Mark: "I mean look at it! What the Hell could have happened to him??! He doesn't like the look of bubble wrap!"
MJ: "I think he put his hand in a load of jelly and then didn't want to lose it. So he wrapped his hand in bubble wrap to keep it safe."
*Mark laughs - then an old woman comes on screen in a spooky voice telling us she is the Earth Prime Minister!*
MJ: "Oh!" *Mark giggles* "His Mum."
Mark: *Mocking the Prime Minister* "I'm REALLY high!" (She's floating from a projection)
MJ: *Laughing* "This is Part Three!"
Photo 11: Mark at his house for his catch-up,
with the sign and DVD case.
*EPISODE THREE OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "End of Part Three and the main guy's fully turned into a bug."
Mark: "Yes. A bug... A very convincing bug...."
MJ: "Yep."
Mark: "Yep." *Giggles*
MJ: "And Mark's giggled at a lot in that."
Mark: *Giggling* "To be fair they've done quite a LOT on the ten quid they were given!"
MJ: "Ten quid back then is fifty million today!" *Laughs*
Mark: "Sorry, the ten PENCE they were given, to go out and buy some bubble wrap and pipe cleaners!!"
*MJ & Mark laugh*
MJ: "And they had to buy that spray-on sweat stuff for The Doctor when he was gettig hot."
Mark: "That is also true, yeah. Erm, I think Blue Peter did good work on this, to be honest!"
MJ: *Laughs* "Yes! They got their sh*t together!"
Mark: *Laughing* "They DID get their sh*t together!"
MJ: *Laughs* "And the last part now! What will happen?... They'll probably win."
Mark: "They'll probably all die - that's it." *MJ laughs* "No more Doctor Who..."
*EPISODE FOUR OF THE ARK IN SPACE GETS WATCHED*
Mark: "It's a different story for the next one then?"
MJ: "Yeah."
Mark: "'Cos it's sort of still the same..."
MJ: "Yeah, it's still the same - it's part of an arc. They landed on the station. Then obviously they are going to the Earth to check out things."
Mark: "Yeah."
MJ: "So the next one is just a two-parter on Earth - with a Sontaran. As is wont to do! And they've STILL not got back to the station with Genesis Of The Daleks."
Mark: "Oh okay."
MJ: "So it's like a little thing of it's own. Did you enjoy The Ark In Space?"
Mark: *Sounding surprised* "I DID actually! I liked it. The insects were stupid but..."
*Suddenly that same extra bit comes up AFTER the end credits! Even though I saw it I am ATILL surprised!*
MJ: *Laughing* "I don't know what that's about! That surprised us the last time, we were like 'What'??" *Mark laughs* "So yes, you liked that story?"
Mark: "Yeah, it's pretty good. It went along at a nice pace. I liked the idea - the concept and stuff. It was all good I liked it."
MJ: "Yeah. If you were giving it a mark out of ten?"
Mark: "I'd give that an eight out of ten"
MJ: "Oh that's good - a nice round figure."
Mark: "It is a nice round figure." *Laughing*
MJ: "Yeah I think we all pretty much enjoyed that one. It was supposed to be a bit of a classic anyway - written by Robert Holmes who is quite well thought of as a writer."
Mark: "The one downside to it, would be Sarah Jane who got written like a stupid girl - as opposed to being the journalist and everything she was before."
MJ: "Yeah."
Mark: "She would go out and do her own thing. But here she was all just:" *Whiney voice* "Arrgh - oh no! Save me!"
MJ: "And old, erm, the grumpy guy in charge - who turned into the thing."
Mark: "Yeah. He didn't last long. After forty thousand years on that ark." *Laughs*
MJ: "Yeah that's right! All them years and then he goes 'Oh I'll touch this green stuff... Ohhh! I've got bubble wrap'!"
Mark: *Laughs* "He was just very bad at wrapping parcels!" *MJ laughs* "He got more trapped in the bubble wrap whilst trying to escape."
MJ: "He did."
Mark: "'Cos he just used his own anger - as opposed to logic!"
MJ: *Laughing* "It made no sense! If you want to know what The Book said you'll have to read when I do the transcript!"
Mark: "I shall read the transcript!"
MJ: *Laughing* "You have to, so you can see what we talked about more, in-depth! But do you want to watch the two-parter now?"
Mark: "Erm, I think we can do that!"
MJ: "I was thinking you may as well - then you'll be up to date!"
Mark: "Yeah."
MJ: "Okay - Sontarans we are!"
Photo 12: Mark with the sign and DVD case
with MJ. At Mark's house for his catch-up,
with MJ. At Mark's house for his catch-up,
*EPISODE ONE OF THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "So there we go - that was the first episode of The Sontaran Experiment and we just saw the reveal of the Sontaran!"
Mark: "Yeah. The Sultana looked all Sultana-ry! Like normal!" *Laughs*
MJ: "Yep, you'll see it better in the next part, but he's got a big grinny face! You saw him briefly there. He looks silly!" *They laugh* "And you've got lots of mad South Africans!"
Mark: "Yeah. And strangely accented colonists, that have crash-landed. I'm not quite sure where all their accents are supposed to be from?"
MJ: "Yeah."
Mark: *Laughing* "But there was definitely one that was South African!"
MJ: "Yeah, and the mad one was... I don't know? Err, Russian? Or Welsh?!" *Laughs*
Mark: "Somewhere in between?"
MJ: "Azerbaijan! Oh shoot I've got to spell that!!"
Mark: *Laughs* "Ah-ha! Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan!"
MJ: *Laughs* "I shall look it up and copy and paste!" (Which I did do!)
Mark: *Disappointed* "Ohhh. Well you could spell it different every time."
MJ: "You can only spell it one way... I.T!" *They both 'Ahhhh' together* "Part Two!"
Photo 13: Mark (doing his Sontaran tongue-sticking-out-face)
at his house for his catch-up,
at his house for his catch-up,
with the sign and DVD case.
*EPISODE TWO OF THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "And that was the second part of the two part little story."
Mark: 'Yeah, if I was watching that at the time I would have thought: 'That's surprisingly short'!" *Laughs* "I expected them to fall down holes some more and have to cross, you know, ravines or something. And THEN..." *Laughs*
MJ: "And only THEN! Did you enjoy the little story then?"
Mark: "I'm not sure what the point of it was? But yeah, it was... you know? It happened." *Laughs*
MJ: "I think it was to fill a gap. They did a four-parter and needed to replace a six-parter, so..."
Mark: "Yeah, so they just needed two parts. And, you know, they still managed to get in everything Doctor Who should have. Falling down holes..."
MJ: "Captured, re-captured..."
Mark: "Captured several times. Yeah, so yeah they managed to condense it all down to like what they should have done with almost every other story they've ever done!" *MJ laughs* "Condense them to two parts!"
MJ: "You'd be happy with two-partners wouldn't you? Be an ideal situation for you!"
Mark: "To be fair, they've not missed anything out from a Doctor Who story!" *Laughs*
MJ: "No, no I don't think so! You've got crazy people, errr aliens, dodgy robots."
Mark: "Dodgy robots, yeah."
MJ: "What would you mark that one?"
Mark: "Erm, I think I'd give that one a seven out of ten."
MJ: "Yep. Slight bit of fluff."
Mark: "Yep, slight bit of fluff and it was fun."
MJ: "I think that's all we need to say about that - it's just a two-parter. Oh anything else?"
Mark: "Oh Sarah Jane was back to normal again. Which was good."
MJ: "Oh okay!
Mark: "She wasn't just falling over and screaming. Which was nice. She was DOING things!" *Laughs*
MJ: "The Sontaran? Was he alright for you?"
Mark: "The Sultaran? We all like the Sultarans -" *MJ laughs* "- and their little tongue action there."
MJ: "Yes he was doing some tongue action which was dodgy as it always is!"
Mark: "There's nothing wrong with a bit of Sultaran tongue-action, is all I'm going to say..."
MJ: "It's a good job that, when he decided to fight the Doctor, that they didn't do it in front of an open fireplace, naked!" *Laughs*
Mark: "I think that would have made it better!"
MJ: "Sticking his tongue out!" *Mark laughs* "If only this was video, you'd see the tongue that I'm sticking out!"
Mark: "It's a great tongue."
MJ: *Laughing* "And on THAT bombshell I'm going to stop the recording there! That's Mark caught-up so we're all ready for watching Genesis Of The Daleks - oh 'cos at the end of that they disappeared. They're going back to the station..."
MJ & Mark: "Or are they?!"
MJ: "Ahhhh!"
Mark: "They're not are they?"
MJ: "No, not 'Ahhhh'!"
Mark: "If they WERE they wouldn't be on Skaro."
MJ: "No they wouldn't be on Skaro. Yeah. So that's Yaro! No, that doesn't really work..."
Mark: "You're just saying things now... You're making this longer for yourself!!"
MJ: "I am! it's not the first time..." *Laughs* "Okay - Baro!"
Mark: "Byyyye!"
*MJ laughs*
Photo 14: Mark with the sign and DVD case
with MJ. At Mark's house for his catch-up.
with MJ. At Mark's house for his catch-up.
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So there we go! All caught up! Next time is Daleks! And we will have no ACTUAL transcript because of machine error....
But until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....
MJ - 31/05/2017
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