It was a Sunday and nearly a month since our last meet up! This time we all gathered around Shaun's (he was finally free to recieve us again!) to watch a four part story that combined Pyramids, Mars and the guy who played Mr. Bronson in Grange Hill....
The light must have been funny at Shaun's house as every photo came out as a soft-focused-porn image!
Oh well, you join us after Jason's anecdote about shopping, decorating, food, freezing food and wallpaper pasting tables. Sorry I missed it but, you know, I don't like to make this blog TOO thrilling....
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MJ: *Flatly* "We're at Shaun's. It's a Sunday."
Leigh: "I don't seem to have a cup of tea."
Shaun: "It's boiling as we speak."
*Leigh laughs*
MJ: "So, Pyramids Of Mars - Tom Baker - Sarah Jane who everyone loves..."
Leigh: "I hate Sarah Jane."
Shaun: "I'm alright with Sarah Jane."
Mark: "Leigh's the only one that hates her."
MJ: "Oh I thought you didn't like her as well?"
Shaun: "No I'm alright with her."
MJ: "Oh okay."
Shaun: "I don't like some of the WRITING for her."
Jason: "All companions can be written badly."
Mark: *Noticing DVD menu* "Oh I HAVE seen this one!"
Jason: "Polly was a good companion when she was written well."
*Leigh laughs*
Shaun: "Yes! What about Dodo?"
MJ: "So this story should be fun as we get Mr. Bronson in this one."
Leigh: *Bored* "We've had Mr. Bronson before!"
MJ: "And we'll have him again!"
Mark: "Yeah. He's back!"
MJ: "He meets, err, Doctor Who as Hitler and signs his book - oh no, that's Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade..." *Laughs*
Shaun: "You USED to drink tea, Mark. You've changed.... but not for the better!"
MJ: "Okay Part One - I'm not recording stupid stuff about drinks!"
*Recording stops but then resumes*
MJ: "Oh as an extra: Shaun has given us fun-shaped crisps. Remember that! 'Bugles'. Or 'Bewgles'. Or 'Beagles' - 'Buggles'" *Singing* "Video killed the radio star!"
Mark: "They're not Beagle-shaped!" *Laughs* "That would just be weird!"
Leigh: "Well, not the dog! But perhaps the moon-lander!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "Or Paul McCartney - wasn't he in The Beagles?..."
Mark: "No, that was The BEATLES...."
*EPISODE ONE GETS WATCHED*
Photo 1: Soft-focus fun at Shaun's house.
Leigh, MJ (with the sign),
Jason (pulling a great face with the DVD case) & Shaun.
Leigh, MJ (with the sign),
Jason (pulling a great face with the DVD case) & Shaun.
MJ: "So a couple of the guys have said the servant of Sutekh's head looks like one of the Bomber Men." (from the old computer game)
Shaun: "And the Mummies. Yeah the Bomber Men just have, kind of, roundish heads and great big arms!" *Laughs*
Jason: "Who's the other Scarman (There were two Scarman's. Marcus Scarman was the surname of the main character who gets killed by Sutekh but then gets re-animated as a vessel to house Sutekh's power. His brother (Laurence) was played by Michael Sheard - aka Mr. Bronson!)? The one who got shot - was he a Scarman?"
Shaun: "No."
Jason: "Oh. Bronson was a Scarman." *Laughs* "I'm going to keep calling him 'Bronson'!"
Shaun: "(Marcus) Scarman was the bloke who made the inter-dimentional portal and the other one was the Doctor at the start wasn't he? The Egyptologist."
MJ: "Anyway, end of Part One!" *Laughs* "Some blocky Mummies have come to life in the nineteenth century - no, early twentieth wasn't it?"
Shaun: "Nineteen Eleven."
Jason: "Nineteen hundred and eleven!"
MJ: "And they're in an old house in the country and Mummies have been summoned."
Mark: "And there's a very big organ..."
MJ: "Yes there's a very big organ that keeps being played... Even when the guy's not playing it! He gets up and it's still playing away!"
Shaun: "Yep!"
Jason: "Don't forget it's also a fun shape!"
MJ: "Hah! Fun shape."
Shaun: "Oh yes, fun crisps!"
MJ: "A whole lot of fun... crisps to be won! But anyway we're onto Part Two!"
*Leigh laughs*
*EPISODE TWO GETS WATCHED*
Photo 2: More soft-focus fun at Shaun's house.
Leigh (closed-eyed & grinny), Mark (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun (with his cat).
Leigh (closed-eyed & grinny), Mark (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun (with his cat).
MJ: "Ooo end of Part Two and the robot Mummies have strangled Sarah Jane and knocked Tom Baker to the floor! And Sutekh's trying to build a rocket. No, he's getting his SERVANTS to build a rocket 'cos he's trapped on Mars."
Mark: "No, he's trapped under a pyramid."
MJ: "Yeah, trapped under a pyramid on Mars."
Mark: "No, the power source is on Mars."
MJ: "Yeah, and he's going to get a rocket which is going to launch from Earth, destroy the power source and then he can be free! Is that right Mark?"
Mark: "Something like that..." *MJ singgers* "I thought the pyramid was on Earth, but the power source was on Mars?"
Shaun: "Yeah! The pyramid's on Earth."
Mark: "Yeah!"
Shaun: "The power source for the force-field, holding Sutekh in place, is on Mars."
MJ: "Ahh! 'Cos with the title being Pyramids of Mars I assumed the pyramid was on Mars! Hance the name..."
Shaun: "Yeah but how could that nineteen eleven bloke have gotten to Mars?!"
*MJ laughs*
Leigh: "That's a good point."
Jason: "The same way he did in the last series." (He mean Empress Of Mars from new Doctor Who)
Leigh: "Stock footage?"
*Laughter*
Jason: "I say 'Last series' I mean the two-thousand seventeen series!"
MJ: *High voice* "Oh with Alpha Centuri at the end!!"
Shaun: *Laughing* "Which would have delighted Leigh!"
*Mark chuckles*
Leigh: "It didn't. It didn't delight me at all."
MJ: "Awww."
Leigh: "Stupid Alpha Centuri."
MJ: *Laughs* "Well I think this one's zipping along nicely!"
Mark: "Yeah I'm enjoying it. I like this one."
MJ: "Very good so far - I like, erm, Mr. Bronson in it!"
Mark: "And sinister organ player."
MJ: "Sinister organ playing's always good!" *Laughs*
Leigh: "Playing with his sinister organ!" *Laughs*
Jason: "It was interesting that Sarah Jane decided to wear a Victorian outfit this week before they landed in the Victorian era!"
MJ: "Yeah!"
Jason: "Well, it's not the Victorian era, but you know what I mean!"
MJ: "Yes she wore one of (ex companion) Victoria's dresses - apparently."
Jason: "When I say 'Victorian era' I mean of HER - Victoria - not Queen Victoria."
MJ: "I was quite surprised that must be the first mention of Victoria since she left."
Jason: "No, I think the writing-process went like this:
'We need people to not comment on her clothing'.
'How about she just randomly puts on Victoria's old dress?'
'Okay we'll mention Victoria then!'"
*MJ laughs*
Mark: "Yeah. I think that was the logic to it."
Shaun: "You mean that MUCH thought went into it?"
Jason: "Despite the fact that she's probably like fifteen years AFTER Victoria wore it. It's WAY out of fashion now!"
MJ: "Well, I'm enjoying it - I think it's a cracking good story so far!"
Shaun: "'Cracking good story'??"
Jason: "I'm liking the music and the wobbly robots!"
MJ: "I like the big organ music that's there - making it more sinister. Oh I like the effect of, whatshisname's brother? Marcus - who's taken over by Sutekh. I like when he got, erm, the shooting effect - that was good. But I also like when he walked backwards with the smoke effect coming off him!"
Jason: *Smiling* "He didn't walk backwards! He walked forwards and then smoke got sucked into his chest!!"
MJ: "Oh yeah, yeah but I'm talking about how they achieved that effect!"
Shaun: "I liked how when he was walking down the steps and the smoke was coming out of his feet and he put his hands on the guy (and more smoke came out and killed the guy) - that was good."
MJ: "Mm!"
Mark: "I liked his socks being on fire."
Jason: "He was vaping as well! I was less impressed with that."
MJ: "Were you?"
Jason: "The smoke coming out of the wrists thing."
MJ: "I thought that was good! But yeah to get the effect of smoke sucking in him, whilst walking forward, he would have had to have walked backwards."
Shaun: *Smiling* "That was very, very clearly reverse-footage!"
Mark: "Reverse-footage, yeah. But he did very good backwards walking."
MJ: "He walked backwards better than I would."
Mark: "Yeah."
MJ: "But then he's an ACT-TOR!"
Shaun: "Yes!"
Mark: "And a Demon Headmaster."
MJ: "He's NOT!" (Completely different actor)
Shaun: "And he gets to be in fifty year old Doctor Who - and you didn't!"
MJ: "No."
Shaun: *Laughing* "It's nothing to DO with you not being born at the time!!" *MJ laughs* "Because you've not got a good enough moon-walk!"
MJ: "Chamone! Okay we've got two more episodes! Pause there."
*EPISODE THREE GETS WATCHED*
Photo 3: Fun angle at Shaun's house.
Big-face Leigh, MJ (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
Big-face Leigh, MJ (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
MJ: "So, they've blown-up the little pyramid on Earth and The Doctor's gone through the sarcophogus to go to Mars."
Jason: "Yeah."
Shaun: "To be immediately killed by Sutekh."
MJ: "Yeah, that's the cliff-hanger - he's in a green light going 'Arrgggh'!"
Jason: "They blew up a tent."
MJ: "They did, yeah."
Shaun: *Smiling* "It wasn't 'a tent'! It was a highly sophisticated Mars-missile!"
Leigh: "A WAR missile!"
Shaun: *Laughing* "A WAR missile!"
Jason: "Like a tent showroom! All the modern amenities!" *He babbles on with nonsense as I try to speak until...*
MJ: *Quickly* "And The Doctor's dressed as a Mummy!!!" *Mark chuckles*
Leigh: "Not anymore he isn't!"
MJ: "No, he was."
Leigh: "Briefly!"
Jason: "He was, then suddenly he wasn't! When he wanted to infiltrate the building he took his outfit off."
MJ: *Sniggering* "Part Four!" *Mark giggles*
*EPISODE FOUR GETS WATCHED*
Photo 4: More soft-focus fun at Shaun's house.
Grumpy Leigh, Happy MJ (with the sign),
Happy Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
Grumpy Leigh, Happy MJ (with the sign),
Happy Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
MJ: "That was Pyramids Of Mars... it's all gone! Sutekh got trapped in a Time Tunnel."
Jason: *Clearly reading end credits* "My favourite Mummy was Kevin Selway!"
*Laughter*
Leigh: "I liked Karkus."
*Laughter*
Jason: "MARCUS - he was good."
MJ: "'Marcus Noooo!!' And then Sutekh killed his own servant! 'Cos he didn't want ANYONE! But then his name IS 'The Destroyer' so -"
Mark: "- He will destroy things."
MJ: *Laughing* "Yes he will destroy things!"
Mark: "So you get the name 'The Destroyer'!"
*MJ laughs*
Jason: "I think it had some very good moments but I was trying to score it throughout and it went down at the end." *Leigh chuckles* "Because I thought 'Meh'."
MJ: "Why did you think 'Meh'?"
Jason: "I dunno! It didn't hold itself together too well for my liking! I REALLY liked the beginning of this story - it shot up to an eight!"
Shaun: "You just didn't like all the traps?"
Jason: "Oh yeah the traps got a bit annoying. That's just filler 'Let's get over this crevice' thing!"
Shaun: "Yeah."
Mark: "It would be better if Richard O'Brien was involved!"
MJ: "Well it was the same things as Death To The Daleks and I liked that they acknowledged that by Sarah saying that it was like the Exxilons!"
Jason: "I liked that - yes, that was good. The point went up again for that!" *Mark chuckles* "Because at least they KNOW when they are repeating themselves."
Shaun: "I mean it was nowhere near as BAD as in Death To The Daleks! The stupid floor puzzles and everything."
MJ: "Yeah."
Jason: "No but at least that was funny, as it was the first time we had seen it. But now it's just 'Let's do Labyrinth.' I know, obviously, this was BEFORE Labyrinth and I KNOW it's an old puzzle anyway! But, I don't know.... I think once I'd seen three of them learning how to open the door I was a bit 'Ugh - not ANOTHER one?!'"
*Chuckles*
Shaun: "Look, locking up an ancient Egyptian God, are you just going to make it EASY or are you going to make it HARD!?"
*Laughter*
Jason: "But that is easy!! Do some hand-signals to open some doors, like an air-hostess!"
*Leigh chuckles*
Mark: "But you have to KNOW the hand signals..."
Jason: "Read the key on the left-hand side -"
Shaun: "- I mean GET to Mars!"
Jason: *Laughs* "Yeah, that's part of it, yeah!"
Mark: "Yeah but you had to know the code to work out the message..."
Jason: "I don't know probably on a re-watch, which this was (!), it would probably all make sense!"
Mark: "And you would have had to have watched Labyrinth to know how to get past the guard."
*Leigh laughs*
Shaun: "Yeah!"
Jason: "No, I'm pretty sure I did that puzzle at school."
MJ: "Yes! I was thinking that I knew that puzzle! The 'What would he say?' one. It's from
Labyrinth, yes! Erm, yeah but I liked that one. I don't think it's the best - I mean I don't know if it went off towards the end or not?"
Photo 5: Soft-focus fun at Shaun's house.
Leigh, Mark (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
Leigh, Mark (with the sign),
Jason (with the DVD case) & Shaun.
Jason: "I like the baddie."
Mark: "I liked Sutekh and I liked The Doctor confronting him and stuff."
Jason: "I actually like the Mummies more than I did before, now."
MJ: "Oh right! Because you called them 'Blocky, crap Tomb Raider Mummies'!
*Leigh chuckles*
Jason: "They're still blocky, crap Tomb Raider Mummies - but they've got a nice walk!"
MJ: *Laughing* "They've got a right sqagger!" *Puts on 'Geeza' type voice* "Alright! I'm a Mummy, in-ni?"
Jason: "That's how they sound, yeah. I forgot The Doctor dressed up as one of them - for two minutes!"
Shaun: "I thought the Mummies were somewhat pointless to the whole affair!"
Leigh: "Yeah."
Jason: "They made it Egyptian!"
Mark: "Yeah you would have NO Egyptian context if it weren't for the Mummies."
Jason: "Well apart from the sarcophagi."
Shaun: "No, the whole point at the start was that he was a Doctor in an Egyptian tomb and he (Professor Marcus Scarman) was taken over by Sutekh - he's got a load of Egyptian sh*t in his house!"
Mark: "Yeah but how disappointed would everybody be!?"
Jason: "Well APART from the Egyptian God, the sarcophagi..."
*Shaun and Leigh laugh*
Shaun: *Smiling* "APART from ALL of the Egyptian things WITHOUT Mummies how do you know if it is an Egyptian thing!!?"
Mark: "Exactly!"
MJ: "They even had a rocket that was a pyramid shape."
Leigh: "A WAR missile!"
MJ: *Laughs* "A WAR missile, sorry!"
Jason: "And Mars was the God of War - and he was Roman, not Egyptian..."
Mark: "I wanted the fez-wearer to last a bit longer."
MJ: "Yeah!"
Mark: "To play with his massive organ a bit more."
Jason: " I mean the organ kept playing so maye his ghost is still there."
MJ: "It did actually."
Jason: "I liked the music. There was ominous music, there was rattlesnakes! There was a mime war... Lots of shot of forests."
MJ: "And we had model burn at the end!"
Mark: "There was lots of nice effects with dry-ice."
MJ: "Yeah, yeah I did like them!"
Jason: "I didn't mind Sarah Jane this week. I thought MOST of the things she said were sensible - a couple of crappy bits."
Mark: "She had about three lines that were good."
Leigh: *Sarcastic* "When she was AMAZED by a DOOR!"
Jason: "She wasn't amazed by a - well, yeah, that bit doesn't make sense!" *Laughs* "I was thinking the exactly same thing as you were 'No, it's just closed!'"
Mark: "Yeah it doesn't make sense as a VIEWER but I think what it's supposed to be is a solid rock wall suddenly."
Jason: "Maybe in the script it was an actual wall and they, like, superimpose a portal over it and then THAT disappears. It doesn't just go nurr..."
*Leigh laughs*
Mark: "Yeah and she was paying attention to the fact that The Doctor was dead and not the wall was sliding around." *Laughs*
MJ: "Oh yeah The Doctor got hypnotised - that was good - and then they thought he was killed - how was he killed again?"
Jason: "He was faking it."
Shaun: "He said something like 'I stopped all my own bodily functions' or something."
Mark: "He's got bi-pass airways - he breathes through his ears or something."
MJ: "Yeah but who 'killed' him? Did Sutekh just say 'You're dead' and then... I can't remember what happened! Was it a bee?!"
Leigh: "A Mummy strangled him."
MJ: "Ahh a Mummy strangled him. A bit like the two Mummies that killed a guy by crushing into him."
Jason: "I loved that sitcom!"
Leigh: "What, My Two Mummies?!"
Jason: "Yeah!"
*Laughter*
Mark: "Watch it every Christmas!"
MJ: "So there - that was Pyramids Of Mars! It's thought very highly of."
Mark: "I liked it."
Jason: "Meh. It had flaws although, you know me, I do like an evil genius who has no real reason. I like to question his reason and go 'But why?'"
Mark: "He HAS a reason!! He's called Sutekh The Destroyer!" *Laughs*
MJ: "So I suppose score-wise what would you give this?"
Mark: "I shall give it a seven point five."
MJ: "Yeah, I was going to give it a seven...which I will!"
Jason: "Six point seven!"
MJ: "Because, when it started off, I was really thinking 'This is brilliant! I am really enjoying this' and then towards the end I was a bit like 'Not so much...' - I don't know... So yeah. Err Shaun, did you say yours?"
Shaun: "I really enjoyed it! I'll give it an eight!"
MJ: "Eight."
Shaun: "The only thing I didn't really like was the, erm, the silly Horus head at the end! That weird model thing."
MJ: "Oh yeah! When he (Sutekh) transformed into the horse thing!"
Shaun: "If they'd have just kept his regular helmet it may have even got a nine!"
*Mark laughs*
Jason: "An extra point for a nice helmet!"
MJ: "Aww! And Leigh?"
Leigh: "I'm going to say a seven as well."
MJ: "Ah! I think we all thought it was good - better than average."
Leigh: "It had some good points."
Jason: "I quite enjoyed it!" (Even though you gave it the lowest score?!)
Mark: "Yeah."
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'A possessed Edwardian attempts to free an imprisoned Egyptian deity' dot dot dot!"
MJ: "Deity Of The Doctor...."
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Stargrove Manor in East End -' not East End of London '- Hants (owned by Mick Jagger) -'" *Gasps from the group* "He was very upset when they burnt it down!"
Mark: "So they burnt down Mick Jagger's house??!"
Jason: *Ignoring and reading from The Book* "'- was the chosen film location. John Friedlander fashioned three mummy costumes' -" *Cheers from group* "-'from fibre-glass shells overlaid with fabric bandages.'"
MJ: "Oh it was only three?! I seemed to think it was more 'cos - well, I don't know why..."
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Christine Ruscoe designed a new version of the TARDIS interior'."
MJ: "I didn't notice?"
Shaun: "Did she?!"
Leigh: "No, I didn't notice."
Jason: "It looked a bit like the First Doctor's one." *Reading from The Book* "'Verdict: Splendid for the first three episodes -'" *Leigh and Mark chuckle* "'then it all goes a bit Pete Tong!'"
Leigh: *Laughing* "It does NOT say 'Pete Tong'!"
Jason: "No, it said 'pear-shaped'!"
*Laughter*
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Sutekh looks and sounds great although his inability to move is a major weakness.'."
Shaun: "Yeah, but he's imprisoned!"
Jason: "Yeah but they don't make it clear that he can't move! Get a prison!"
MJ: "Yeah, I didn't know he couldn't move until that end point! I thought he was just sitting down just..."
Jason: "It's like watching Porridge - and in the last episode Ronnie Barker saying 'Oh I'm paralysed'!" *MJ laughs loudly* "'That's why I've been in bed the whole time'!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "What!!?"
Jason: "This is not what it says in The Book!"
*Laughter*
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'Still, the mummies are terrifying, the music is generally excellent -'"
Shaun: "- Bad sound design! I love it!"
Jason: *Reading from The Book* "'- and the trip to nineteen eighties Earth provides a memorable moment. Eight out of Ten.'"
MJ: "Oh right!"
Shaun: "Yeahh! It was a good one."
Jason: "Whereas next time... four! The Android Invasion." (He is lying with that score!)
MJ: "Ooo I've not seen that one!"
Shaun: "Jason, you didn't do the thing."
Jason: "What's 'the thing'?"
Shaun: "I like it when you say -"
Jason: *But Jason gets it and re-reads from The Book* "'- and the trip to nineteen eighties Earth provides a memorable moment. Eight out of Ten.'" *Slams The Book shut!*
MJ: "Yayyy!"
Shaun: *Laughing* "You need to do that when you say the number! So MJ can't record it!"
*Mark chuckles*
MJ: "I've already got it now, so...! Anyway join us all next time - bye-bye from us all at Shaun's - and Shaun's cat."
Shaun: "How long is this recording?"
MJ: "Eighteen forty!"
Shaun: "So it's a short one!"
MJ: "Yeah!" *In the style of Shaun from previous times* "I'VE IMPORTANT DOCTOR WHO THINGS TO SAY!!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: *Smiling* "How DARE you I would NEVER do such a thing! I will so do that next time...."
MJ: *Laughing* "Bye!"
Photo 6: Close-up of MJ (with the sign) &
Jason at Shaun's house.
Jason at Shaun's house.
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Well, that was good fun and a good story. But here are those scores again are:
Shaun: 8
MJ: 7
Jason: 6.7
Leigh: 7
Mark: 7.5
Mark: 7.5
So that was all lovely! Join us next time (for a tale we have already seen! AND we've seen the one after - but shush!) to see if Queen Darka the Eighth finally accepts Jason's hand in marriage! Will Shaun find the amulet of Funky Diarrhoea!? And will Mark and Leigh do, do, do the 'Funky Gibbon'?!
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return...
MJ - 06/10/2017
P.S. What's that? You want another couple of pics with the attack of Shaun's cat? Oh okay - here you go!
P.S. What's that? You want another couple of pics with the attack of Shaun's cat? Oh okay - here you go!
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