DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 15th MEET-UP - THE TIME MEDDLER

Sunday 7th September 2014

Yay!  Our next meet-up was cause for celebration!  We had reached the end of Season 2 of Doctor Who!  As we all gathered around Jim's house on a lovely sunny day there was a real sense of excitement and achievement!

Sadly, this was only felt by me!  Still that's not important and after our usual greetings we (and drinks) we settled down to watch this dodgy-sounding ("Time Meddler"???) four parter.

Photo 1: Leigh, Michael (with the sign), Shaun, Jason (holding the DVD cover)
& Mark (at the front - eyes closed) around Jim's house.

The story starts off with Vicki and the Doctor sad at having left behind Ian and Barbara.  This is soon halted when they hear a noise from another room in the TARDIS!  It MUST be a Dalek, they assume so get ready for an attack.

Surprisingly they instead discovery that a disorientated Steven has stumbled into the TARDIS at the end of the previous serial (minus his panda), unknown to Vicki and the Doctor.  When they discover him he laughs at the notion that they are in a time machine and thinks it's all some kind of jokey-trick!  The Doctor and Vicki hope to convince him and land in England back just before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Photo 2: Leigh, Michael (with the sign), Shaun, Jason (holding the DVD cover)
& Mark (at the front - eyes closed) around Jim's house.

For a change the TARDIS materialisation doesn't go unnoticed and they are observed by a strange monk on some cliffs.  He doesn't seem surprised by the TARDIS, more concerned.  He has a little check and then goes back to his monastery, when singing of the Monks soon floats out of the building.

Photo 3: Jim (with the sign) and a surprised Shaun (holding the DVD cover)
  plus part of a Mark around Jason's house.

Anyhow, it's the usual meet the locals (Saxons this time!  The main women was recognisable as one of the cave-women from the very first serial!) who, at first, think our travellers might be Viking spies!
Soon that's sorted and they decide to go and visit the monks on the hill....

Photo 4: Leigh (bored with photos!), Jim (with the sign), Shaun (holding the DVD cover), Jason (trying to keep awake!) & Mark (at the front - eyes closed) around Jim's house.

Anyway lots happens over the course of the next episodes in which the Doctor has a holiday - aka gets locked in a cell by The Monk.  The Monk reveals he's pretending to help the Vikings as he wants to help Harold (and get rich himself) but the main surprise of the reveal is that the Monk has a TARDIS and is one of the Doctor's own race! (Note the phrase "Time Lord" isn't used yet).

Photo 5: Leigh, Jim (with the sign), Shaun (holding the DVD cover), Jason & Mark (at the front - eyes closed) around Jim's house.

 
Anyhow all goes back to normal - the Viking scouts get killed (in a 12 second scene that's now missing - we have the audio, which we had a listen to afterwards!) and the Monk gets trapped after the Doctor sabotages the Monk's TARDIS!  When the Monk looks inside he realises (the Doctor takes the dimensional control and the interior of his the Monk's TARDIS has shrunk beyond use, leaving him stranded in 1066!  He promises revenge on the Doctor!)

So with the tide having gone out, the Doctor and Co. are free to depart!

Personally I really enjoyed these episodes - The Meddling Monk (played by Carry On star Peter Butterworth - surely the first “Star” guest they’d had?) was really funny and likeable.  The scenes between him and the Doctor were great to watch.  Like all the best “bad guys” he was actually quite likeable (bad is probably a bit strong - “mischievous” might be a better term!) .

So what about the guys opinion?

Shaun: "I liked it, but it could have been an ep shorter.  I was starting to drift during the last one.  I find Purves a bit distant at the moment, kind of wooden, so the full ep without the Doctor suffered for it. Hopefully he loosens up in the near future.  Looking forward to the next one and very much the Daleks' master plan you mentioned. :)"

Jim: "It was OK.  I'm a fan of the whole "can you change the past" malarky but this seemed a bit pedestrian.  I liked the script though and it was the right length."

I'll leave the last quote to Jim's daughter Evie (Driving home from Shana's mum's):

Evie - "Are the boys still there?"
Shana (Jim's wife) - "The boys...?"
Evie - "The man-boys."

Haha!  Yes we are indeed the man-boys!  We'll leave on that fun note!  See you next time!

Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....


MJ 08-09-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 14th MEET-UP - THE CHASE

Sunday 11th August 2014

And thus it was declared that the Four Whoresmen Of The Apologetic Nature & Jim (with added Shaun) should meet only a week after their last viewing.  For, it was written, that the rest of August was a bitch and people were busy all month!  So our intrepid gang marched over to Jason's house to watch the next story in their very long quest.  It was thusly called:
"THE CHASE"!

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

This time we had another complete story (i.e. no recons) and this time with added Daleks!  the story continued on from previously with the Doctor having taken a Time-Space Visualiser from the Space Museum.  This could show them various places in time or space.  Indeed they do by watching various bits from history including Queen Elizabeth I in court (the first of many appearances by this colourful monarch) and The Beatles performing ("Classical music" according to Vicki!).  This prompts some awful Dad-dancing from "with it" Ian - though it is very amusing!

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

So the TARDIS lands on a desert planet (which included location filming - which looked pretty impressive).  The Doctor and Barbara, for some bizarre reason, think that this is a GREAT time to sunbathe!  And so lay out in the sun whilst Ian and Vicki leave to explore the desert wilderness.

Photo 3: Leigh (excited to be let out of the house again)
around Jason's house.

Of course this all goes pants up and after a short while Ian and Vicki find an ancient trap door in the sand - and of course go in a get trapped!  Pretty much immediately they are set upon by hostile tentacle creatures called Mire Beasts.  Great big wobbly, dodgy looking things - which we've come to expect from this series.  We'd be disappointed otherwise

Photo 4: Michael, Mark (with the sign),Shaun (holding the DVD cover)
& Jim around Jason's house.

The Doctor and Barbara, for some bizarre reason, think that this is a GREAT time to sunbathe!  And so lay out in the sun whilst Ian and Vicki leave to explore the desert wilderness. After a short while they find an ancient trap door in the sand - and of course go in a get trapped!  Pretty much immediately they are set upon by hostile tentacle creatures called Mire Beasts.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Barbara interrupt their sunbathing to look at the 'Visualiser' and see a "broadcast" of the Daleks preparing to give a report.
The Daleks' plan to follow "the enemy time machine" (the TARDIS) to the Sagarro Desert on the planet Aridius (get it!?  'Cos it's an arid desert planet.  It's clever...!).  The Daleks plan to take the TARDIS, find the Doctor and his companions, and exterminate them.  The Doctor and Barbara watch these Daleks embark and de-materialise.  Of course the Doctor immediately realises that, as these events happened in the past, the Daleks may already be here! They must find Ian and Vicki and leave immediately!

Photo 5: Mark (asleep with the sign!) & Shaun holding the DVD cover)
around Mark's house.  Plus parts of Jason & Jim!

 
Anyhow lots of stuff happens from then on - threats from Daleks, sand storm burying the TARDIS etc etc.  Suffice to say they all get away in the TARDIS and then begins the ACTUAL chase through time and space!

We then have a lot of fun as they visit various places in history including the Marie Celeste, the Empire State building (where we see a hillbilly character played by Peter Purves - more of him later....!) and a haunted house!  Seeing "Dracula" facing a Dalek whilst the Dalek pronounces "I AM A DALEK" is equally glorious and stupid at the same time!

Photo 6: Michael, Mark (asleep with the sign!), Shaun holding the DVD cover),
Jim and Leigh around Mark's house.

The story settles into one place as the TARDIS crew lands on the jungle world of Mechanus, however they leave poor Vicki behind!  So she has to stow away on the Dalek time machine.  It's here that she spots the Daleks evil plan.  They create a robot replica of the Doctor - unconvincing double Doctor "indistinguishable from the real thing" according to the Daleks.  Well it certainly was when they used Hartnell himself for the close-ups, but the actor looked nothing like the Doctor.  They could have done this a LOT better by using Hartnell in all the scenes where there was only one "Doctor" needed.  The rest of the time (when both Doctors were needed) they could have gotten away with it by just having the double's back showing.

Anyhow the soon sort it out and meet up with NEW robots called the Mechanoids - the most cumbersome robots ever!  (the production company thought that maybe THESE would take off like the Daleks did....!)  And they meet up crashed astronaut (and soon-to-be new companion) Steven Taylor and his toy Panda.
Anyhow Daleks defeated, city set on fire, companions escaping down a long cable etc etc.
And Lord knows where Steven and his Panda went...

The main thing that makes this episode stand out is the leaving of companions Ian and Barbara - who take The Daleks time machine to get back to England.  It's sad to see them go as they have been there with us from the beginning and seemed to be very popular with all of us.  It adds a bit of poignancy to an otherwise exciting set of episodes.

Well we have a wait now as everyone's busy the rest of the month, so September will see our first adventure without Ian and Barbara.

Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....


MJ 11-08-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 13th MEET-UP - THE SPACE MUSEUM

Sunday 3rd August 2014

Another Sunday and we were now seeing the end of season 2 waving at us!  So on another lovely sunny day we all gathered around Mark's house to watch the four-part story "The Space Museum"!  This time, as well as new member Shaun (who had been playing catch-up with some previous stories in between) we were also joined by part-time member Gavin, which was all very lovely!

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

This time we were graced by a full story and, as it was only four parts, nothing too taxing!

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

The TARDIS lands near a vast Space Museum on the planet Xeros, but it has jumped a time-track.  Basically it meant that they had arrived at the planet before they were meant to (if you can follow that!) and so ended up a bit like ghosts - noone could see or interact with them.  During this time they saw their future - which was to end up as exhibits (contained in glass/perspex tubes) in this Space Museum!

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

After this first episode we get into a more usual story - the Moroks had a some point invaded the planet Xeros and were ruling over the Xerons.  However the Moroks now seem quite bored with the whole affair - indeed the Administrator of the Museum moans about how all the empires glories were in the past!  So when they bump into the TARDIS crew they seem extra keen to interrogate them and see them as great enemies!

Photo 4: Gavin, Mark, Jason (with the sign), Leigh (holding the DVD cover),Jim and Shaun around Mark's house.

So the crew gets split up - with the Doctor hiding inside a Dalek shell (and doing quite an amusing impression of one!  Well, it makes him chuckle!).  However the Doctor is the first to be caught and interrogated but seems very amused by the whole thing and chooses to not answer any questions - and so is ripe for being frozen to be used as a museum exhibit.
So the freezing process is started upon the Doctor!

Photo 5: Jason (asleep with the sign!) and Leigh holding the DVD cover)
around Mark's house.

 
In the meantime Vicki has made contact with the planet's original inhabitants and is rousing them into a rebellion (something they had already started planning before the TARDIS crew arrived).  And so it all ends well and lovely with the good guys winning and the bad guys looking a bit glum about the whole affair (well, the ones that live anyway!)


Anyhow the story ends well and leads nicely into the next story which has the return of the Daleks - promising to chase the Doctor through all of time and space!!
Which will lead nicely into our next story "The Chase"!

So overall it was a good story - with some good Bored-acting from the actors playing the Moroks.  Also I thought the sets looked really good.  Certainly not the best story we've seen, but not the worst.

Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....


MJ 05-08-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 12th MEET-UP - THE CRUSADE

Sunday 20th July 2014

Well, THAT was a long break!  What with various people being busy with birthdays, holidays and plays (that was me - and I was excellent in it!) we hadn't met in 6 whole weeks!  Well now we were going to get back on track - and this time with an added bonus to our group.  Our friend Shaun Clark had decided to pop along and join us!  So on a very hot Sunday we all trekked over to Leigh's house - after the usual greetings, drinks and him showing off about seeing Monty Python live (damn him) we settled in to watch the historical tale "The Crusade".

Photo 1: Jason, Shaun (holding the re-con DVD cover), Leigh (with the sign),
Michael and Mark (holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

Sadly Parts 2 and 4 are missing of this story - so it was down to the "Lost In Time" 3 DVD set (a collection of orphaned episodes) and some damn fine re-cons to fill in the gaps!

Photo 2: Jason, Shaun (holding the re-con DVD cover), Leigh (with the sign),
Jim and Mark (holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

The Tardis lands somewhere in the Middle East (near Jerusalem) in the 12th century - and right in the Middle of one of the crusades of King Richard (The Lionheart).

Immediately they are set upon by nasty Saracens!  Ian fights bravely (as per usual) and they are joined by some of King Richard's knights who help get rid of the attackers.

Photo 3: Jason, Shaun (holding the re-con DVD cover), Leigh (with the sign),
Jim and Mark (holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

Then what happens?  Yup Barbara gets kidnapped and so they have to try and get her back.....  A familiar plot line but the story does zip along nicely - some good sets and costumes and (as is usual with the historical stories) we have some great character's and a fair bit of comedy as well!  Ian also gets made into a Knight!  Sir Ian Chesterton - of Coal Hill School!

Photo 4: Jason, Shaun (holding the re-con DVD cover),
Leigh (with the sign and eyes closed!), Michael and Mark
(holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

I did also recognise a chubby actor from Marco Polo in the serial!  Playing another comedy part - this time a merchant upset when his fine clothes get tipped up on the dusty ground!

Photo 5: A nice photo of the original gang altogether!  Jason, Michael (with the sign), Leigh, Jim (holding the re-con DVD cover) and Mark (holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

  
I think the re-con parts seemed to go down well and were followable enough (if that's even a proper phrase!).  Our newest team member had this to say of the story:

Shaun: "Solid, if not very sci-fi outing.  Decent characters and a nice build, but an odd, rushed ending. It definitely wasn't... moving. Good, OTT acting.  Special shout out to the crooked merchant.  And Richard the cowardly Lionheart.  Looking forward to Seeing a museum in or about space (either outer or measurement variety)".

Photo 6: The original gang again!  Jason, Michael (with the sign), Leigh, Jim (holding the re-con DVD cover) and Mark (holding the "Lost In Time" DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

So overall it seemed to go down well.  The historicals mainly do though!  Anyhow we shall meet again in a few Sunday's time.
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 21-07-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 11th MEET-UP - THE WEB PLANET

Sunday 8th June 2014

This time we returned to Michael house for the second time to watch the six parter "The Web Planet" - it seemed such a shame on such a sunny day.  But we're committed - or at least should be!  So after the usual "Hoozahs" we got on with some damn Who!

The crew land on a very foggy planet (Vortis) with very strange goings on.  They soon encounter lots of bizarre large ants, moths (we discussed this - I thought the big stripy insects were bees at first but they were called "Menoptra" (which sounds a little bit like the scientific name for the group that includes moths and butterflies "Lepidoptera")).

Photo 1: Thanks to the wife we have a group photo!
Jim (holding DVD cover) Jason, Leigh & Michael (with the sign) and Mark
WITH HIS EYES OPEN!!  HOOZAH!

Anyhow the crew get ill, lost or just weird things happen to them.  I have to be honest, I had really enjoyed the story when I'd first seen it many years ago, but re-watching it with the guys I did found it drag and a lot of things seemed very silly.

One thing was Ian being constantly called "He-ron" (or similar) by on of the "Menoptra".  Also there were some annoying sound effects.

Photo 2: Jim (holding DVD cover), Leigh & Mark (with the sign) and Jason
MARK HAS HIS EYES OPEN AGAIN!

It didn't help that it was a glorious day outside and the story did seem to drag.  Positives for me were the costumes and sets.  I thought they were really good for the time and the budget.  also I did find the little underground grub-men amusing!

Photo 3: Jim (holding DVD cover), Leigh & Mark (with the sign) and Michael
MARK HAS HIS EYES OPEN AGAIN!

So let's hear what comments people have - and we have a few this time.  They must all be positive, yes?....

LEIGH: "I didn't like it at all - I didn't really know what was going on for the first episode and a bit - when the antagonist (ANTagonist) were revealed, they quickly became annoying with the overused sound effects and I found the protagonists rather unsympathetic - I can't help but think if they hadn't all been so wet then their planet wouldn't have been taken over! Worst storyline since that caveman one at the start of the first series in my opinion."

JIM:  "In my opinion, the biggest mistake in this episode was taking a considerable amount of screen time off of the regulars and giving it to the natives.  I thought they were annoying, grating and pretentious depending on which bug/man hybrid you look at.  Everything seemed to take an age to say and the whole story could have been condensed into 2/3 episodes.  I tried hard to like it, but I just thought it was really, really bad."

Oh well, at least Mark should have something to say - oh no, what's this?....

MARK: "I wanted to like this one but unfortunately the doctor took a backward slide with this story.  He's become more doctor like in the last few stories being the guy that knows more than anyone else in the room but he was back to slightly useless doddery old man in this one, which wouldn't have been so bad if the story held up.  However this was at least 2 episodes to long and I didn't care much for what was going on.  Also was a badly done swap of good guy to bad guy of the ant people.  I have to agree this was the worst story since we suffered the quest for fire in a cave, at least there was no talk of orb."

Wow that's some really negativity there!  I asked Jason if he thought it was total poo as well and he seemed to think it was unfair dismissing it completely. So maybe it was just two episodes too long and would have made a better four-parter.
Well let's hope next time's episode fairs better.  We shall meet again in a few Sunday's time.
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 11-06-14