DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 20th MEET-UP - THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S EVE

Tuesday 12th November 2014

Yes once again, with busy weekends ahead we decided to meet on a Tuesday - this time around Mark's house.  This time we were just sticking to a four-parter - and a four-parter where no episodes or clips exist!

"The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve" is a four part story set in Paris, France in 1572 and precedes the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.  A quick history lesson tells us it was started by a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion.  Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place five days after the wedding of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre and the esitmated dead range from 5,000 to 30,000.

Thank the Lord such violence between various religious ideals doesn't exist these days.....

Anyhoo on with the story in which Steven and the Doctor arrive in Paris and make no mention of the horrific losses occurred in the previous story.  However, as I mention, we don't know how much time has passed between this story and the Dalek's Master Plan - maybe Steven and the Doctor went for a nice holiday in between.  They deserved it!
 

Photo 1: Mark (with the sign), Leigh, Jason (holding The Massacre DVD cover),Jim (thoroughly bored!) and Shaun around Mark's house.

The both find out where they are, dress appropriately and head outside!  The Doctor, is quite excited to find out where they have landed as he wants to talk with a scientist (apothecary as they called it!) of the time, Charles Preslin.  Charles is ahead of his time in envisaging germs as the cause of disease.  However Charles is quite coy about revealing this as such talk at the time would have been seen as blasphemy (blas-for-you!), but he slowly loosens up when he sees the Doctor is genuine.  But where is Steven??  Well the Doctor, of course, has left him back at a tavern with no money, which doesn't please the craggy old Landlord.  Luckily for Steven a jolly decent chap called Nicholas Muss (who is drinking with his angrier friend Gaston) pays for his drink and engages him in chit chat, telling him of what is going down in France at the time.  Lots of political stuff that I won't bore you with now.  Suffice to say they warn Steven there's a curfew on and offer him a place to stay for the night.  With the Doctor nowhere to be found Steven agrees and as they are wandering home, they find a frightened serving girl, Anne Chaplet, who is terrified of being pressed into the service of the Catholic Abbot of Amboise. 

Photo 2: Mark (with the sign), Leigh, MJ (giving the thumbs down!)
Jason (holding The Massacre DVD cover) andJim (thoroughly bored and sleepy!) around Mark's house.

The Abbot of Amboise is an important character in this story as he looks exactly like The Doctor - and not in the way the robot double looked "exactly like the Doctor"!  No this role was also played by William Hartnell.  The Abbot of Amboise is a bad egg - finding out anyone opposed to the regime he is a part of - like some sort of witch-hunt.  Anyhow Steven goes to meet the Abbot thinking  he's really the missing Doctor in disguise.  Sadly he finds this is not the case.
 

Photo 3: Mark (with the sign), Leigh (holding The Massacre DVD cover), MJ,
Jason (sleepy) and Jim around Mark's house.

Anyhow lots of plot follows - including an attempted assasination of a character nicknamed "The Sea Beggar", amusing royal chit chats between a fairly wet King and his plotting Mother (who is silent for a good time when we first meet her!).

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

So Steven finds out that they can't change history and the Massacre occurs as himself and the reunited Doctor escape in the TARDIS.  Steven is very angry at having left poor Anne behind to be killed by the raging mob.  The Doctor says they have no idea if she died or not and some things cannot be changed!  This isn't good enough for Steven who decides to leave the Doctor and time travelling (hoorah - Steven was given the chance to have a bit more Ooomph to his character!).  This leaves the Doctor, for the first time to reflect on all the companions who have left him and he starts to wonder if he should go back to his home planet!  This is quite moving and is the first mention of a potential home for the Doctor in a long time.  However things soon change as a new woman, the Northern accented Dodo, bursts into the TARDIS wanting to use the phone to report a road accident!  It's now 1966 outside and Dodo has seen a little girl be knocked down by a car and wants to use the Police phone box!

Steven also arrives back, saying that policemen are approaching, and is happy when the new woman introduces herself as Dorothea or Dodo Chaplet - this means she must be a relative of Anne and so Anne survived the massacre...

Well that was where they left it.  Why Steven thought there was only one Chaplet family in the world and Dodo MUST be related to Anne I do not know - also why would Anne's surname have been passed down?  If she were to marry then surely she would have had her husband's name?  As a re-con it did feel hard to follow everything some time but I did feel a lot of the clever wit and sophistication of earlier historicals wasn't there.  I also felt like there could have been a lot more made of the Doctor/Abbot look-a-like plot.  That was surely ripe for some excellently serious scenes - or some comedy.  Usually they did historicals very well and this could have been so much more!  There was a potential for a great story here  - in fact the set-up for it leant towards that way but it was very let down by  the unfocused script and that was very annoying for me!

Still that was the end of that - but what did Shaun think?

Shaun: "Honestly, I felt this was a place holder.  Nothing of any consequence happened, save for the very end, and the Doctor and Steven essentially just observed or got in the way. The sub-plot of the Doctor and the Abbot looking alike had no substance, went nowhere, wasn't explained and was ultimately waved off as unimportant.  One of the weakest so far".

Well, I suppose the boy makes some fair points!  How about Jason?

Jason: "I agree.  Bit of a placeholder.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.  I feel my opinion of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve would have been improved if I'd known more of the actual historical events it was based on and if I could have seen the performances of the actors, but not by much.  I can't wait for the novel or audio adventure that tells us what the Doctor got up to for almost 3 episodes.

My biggest issue is that it completely focuses on the historical events instead of giving our main characters anything dramatic to do.  I love the idea of historicals and enjoy seeing the past brought to life, but we have to feel more involved.  I'm starting to see why straight historicals without aliens eventually disappear.

As I said, seeing the performances might have added a lot.  The "sword fight" may have been amazingly tense with visuals.  The silent exchanges between the Stephen and Gaston could tell us everything we need to know in this battle of wills.  But I suspect not.

I often find myself asking "what were the writers thinking?".

1. What's the point of the Doctor and the abbot looking alike?  I was constantly thinking something more would be made of it.
As far as I remember it's used briefly to get Stephen into trouble when he announces that the abbot is his friend.  This results with him suspected of being a spy.  It's used again when the abbot is killed so that Stephen (and maybe the audience) think that the Doctor is dead.  I just don't think the pay-off is worth the whole doppelganger set-up.

2. The writer's brief for the episode probably said "visit the time of tensions between French Protestants and Catholics in the lead up to the massacre and introduce a new companion". So why isn't Anne - the girl we've been getting to know throughout the story - the new companion?  Why throw in someone completely new (and apparently stoned or stupid) at the last second?  I think the answer to this is actually there if the viewer looks for it, but it's paced terribly.

I'd have preferred the following:

Episode 1. Arrive France 1572.  The Doctor and Steph en stay together.  We haven't seen them alone before, so we get to see their relationship.  They meet the Huguenots in the pub and hear of the current historical events.  Anne appears and they are put in danger trying to protect her.  Cliffhanger.

Episode 2. The Doctor, Stephen and Anne are hiding out.  We get to know Anne and learn more about how the historical events directly affect her.  Stephen in particular starts to bond with her.  There's the usual running around.  Stephen's accused of being the assassin of the Abbot and events escalate towards the massacre/riots.  Stephen and The Doctor discuss how much they can alter historical events.  They are in danger of getting caught up in the fighting and try urgently to get back to the Tardis.  Can they make it?  Cliffhanger.

Episode 3. We make it to the Tardis, but the Doctor leaves Anne behind.  Her fate unknown. Stephen throws a wobbly and argues with The Doctor about his actions.  He can't live like this and says he will leave when they land (we're still only 10 minutes in to the episode). They land in modern day France and Stephen leaves.  The Doctor ponders on what he will do next and gives us hints to his backstory.  We follow Stephen around Paris where he tries to find out what happened to the girl he was falling for.  While doing this he meets a girl called Dodo who is researching her family history.  She is drawn to Stephen as he seems to know so much about the past and speaks of it so vividly.  In no uncertain terms we learn through dialogue that leaving Anne behind was absolutely the best thing to do for Anne and the future of France.  It would eventually lead to the birth of Dodo.  Stephen sees that maybe The Doctor does know better than him and begins to regret his decision.  Stephen returns to the Tardis where the Doctor is preparing to leave.  He apologises and talks about their travels in time.  We then find out that Dodo followed him and has heard everything.  She is amazed at the Tardis interior and begs to go with them excited by the prospect of seeing history happen in front of her.  The Doctor is initially reluctant, but gives in due to her keen-interest in travelling and because she reminds him of his granddaughter.  They all leave in the Tardis for their next adventure.

No need for 4th episode.

I feel this way is much more dramatic and forces conflict between the leads.  We learn more about the The Doctors motivations and even get a bit of a love interest.

Anyway, I didn't actually mind this story.  I just feel it could have been better and more than just "Stephen watches stuff happen, gets pissed off, leaves, immediately returns.  Idiot girl turns up." - 3/10."

Well strong opinons there and I very much agree with Jason's summing up.  He makes a lot of good points!  Still at least Jim must have liked it...

Jim: "It was rubbish.  It made no concessions to the viewer and made no effort to be exciting or interesting.  The Doctor and Ian were bystanders and may as well not have been in it.  Considering how well done Marco Polo and The Reign Of Terror were, there was no excuse for an historical serial to be so tedious.  I miss Ian.   He would have given those Frenchies a damn good thrashing.  Two thumbs down from Mr. Jim."

Oh well, as ever, until next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 12-11-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 19th MEET-UP - THE DALEKS' MASTER PLAN (PARTS 8 - 12)

Tuesday 4th November 2014

So again with a lot of weekends not free we decided to meet again on a Tuesday night - this time around Leigh's.

We were there to FINALLY finish off watching The Dalek's Master Plan - and it happened to fall on My Birthday Eve (which is a proper date - just like Christmas Eve and New year's Eve!)!  Like last time we were to watch 4 recons and 1 episode.  The first exciting title we had to look forward to was: "Volcano"
 

Photo 1: Shaun (holding THE BOOK!), Mark,Jason (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover), Jim (with the sign) and Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Leigh's house.  All are doing the Mavic Chen evil pose!

We started off with the Doctor and his two companions escaping from the Daleks and Mavic Chen (to whom the Doctor had given the fake taranium core).

They detect another time ship after them and assume it's the Daleks so try to shake them off by landing first in The Oval (the English cricket ground) during the middle of a cricket game.  The Cricket Commentators start moaning about the game being spoiled by a Police Box!  This is quite a bizarre sequence and I thought we'd gone back to the mental-ness of the Christmas episode!  they soon get back on their way and end up on a volcanic planet (Tigus) in which the time ship catches up with them - but it's not the Daleks!  It's our old friend The Meddling Monk!  So apart from the Daleks this was our first recurring villain (if you want to call him that).  It was great to have him back and see the banter between him and the Doctor!  The Monk's revenge, for the events of the Time Meddler, is to damage the Doctor's TARDIS lock.  Luckily for us all the Doctor manages to free the lock by shining sunlight through his ring onto the lock and that frees it.....  Hmmmm - not sure about that - still they get away and the Doctor explains "the sun in the galaxy that Tigus is in possesses certain qualities that when filtered through the gem in his ring reversed the process of the Monk's device"....  Okay well we'll let him get away with that - this once!

Meanwhile The Daleks and Mavic Chen, having realised they've been duped by the Doctor have ordered a Time Ship from the Daleks home world and are now in pursuit of our heroes....

 

Photo 2: Shaun (holding THE BOOK!), Mark,MJ (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover), Jim (with the sign) and Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Leigh's house.
We're all doing the Mavic Chen evil pose!

We then moved on to re-con number 2 - "Golden Death" in which the Doctor and co land in Ancient Egypt at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza!  However Mavic Chen and the Daleks are only 4 minutes behind!  Not only that but a small Egyptian boy tells the adults about there are strangers around - so guards are sent and immediately they arrest and tie up Sara and Steven - but not before they see that the Daleks and Mavic Chen have arrived.  This is a fun tale with the Monk throwing his lot in with the Daleks and then the Doctor.  In fact he sides with whoever he thinks will help him at any given moment!  The Doctor is also up to mischief (and revenge) and steals The Monk's TARDIS' directional unit. After a while the Monk and the Doctor meet up again and it looks like the Doctor is not going to put up with much more.  In fact the episode end with Steven and Sara, having cut off their bonds searching a sarcophagus which opens and a bandaged hand emerges...!  Very Scooby Doo!
 

Photo 3: Shaun (holding THE BOOK!), Mark,Jason (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover), Jim (with the sign) and Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover)
around Leigh's house.

We then move to our one existing episode of this run "Escape Switch" - where we discover that the bandaged hand belonged to The Monk - whom the Doctor had overwhelmed!
Sadly it doesn't take long for the Daleks and Mavic Chen to capture them and they send out a loud-speaker message telling the Doctor he can have the hostages back for the real taranium core.  This the Doctor does and they quickly make their escape and, using the newly fitted directional unit from the Monk's TARDIS, they can be more precise with where they land - Kembel to try and stop the Dalek's and Mavic Chen from using the Time Destructor.  Meanwhile the Monk, having escaped in his TARDIS end up on an ice planet - annoyed that this wasn't where he was supposed to land he checks his TARDIS and realise what the Doctor has taken.  He vows to meet the Doctor again one day and get his revenge!...

Back on the TARDIS the directional unit is smoking away and the TARDIS veers about - has it not worked???....

Photo 4: Shaun (holding THE BOOK!), Mark,MJ (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover), Jim (with the sign) and Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Leigh's house.

Moving on from that cliffhanger we FINALLY moved on to our last 2 recons of the evening "The Abandoned Planet" and the gloriously titled "The Destruction of Time"!  In the first one we have the Doctor fretting about how they are to get back to Kembel - luckily for them, they are already arrived there - the directional unit must have broken after the trip!  Anyhow they head off into the jungle - the Doctor getting split up from Sara and Steven.

Meanwhile Mavic Chen has come back to his council of weird and wonderful aliens (well those that haven't been killed by the Daleks already!).  He tells them all that he (Mavic Chen) has got back the taranium core and is the ruler of them all - the delegates don't appreciate this and then get locked away by the Daleks!  Sara and Steven find them later on and release them all and the delegates escape in their own ships but Mavic Chen's ship has been boobie-trapped and blows up!  Of course this is a ruse and Sara and Steven get set upon by Chen who (thinking the Daleks will change their minds and appoint him in charge again) takes them into the Dalek bunker at gunpoint...

This leads into the final episode "The Destruction of Time"!

So Chen still has Steven and Katarina captive and is convinced that the missing Doctor and his companions intend on usurping Chen's place as leader of the solar system by allying with the Daleks - and he won't believe when told otherwise!  Chen is really starting to lose the plot from now on and is trying everything to get back in with the Daleks.  However, after he's brought them prisoners and they still ignore him he goes ballistic and tries to shoot at the Dalek Supreme - which leads to his EXTERMINATION!!

Poor Chen - but this confusion allows the Doctor to emerge from the shadows where he turns on the Time Destructor and threatens the Daleks with it - using it as a shield to stop the Daleks from shooting.

They try to make there way back to the TARDIS, Steven get to he TARDIS fne, but the Time Destructor makes good on it's name by turning everything around it to dust - the Daleks start to crumble and age - but so do the Doctor and Sara!  The Doctor, though struggling, at least can live for hundreds of years so hardly seems to age - but poor Sara ages quickly until she becomes a frail old lady and then turns to a skeleton and dust!  It's a shame this episode is missing as I would love to see this - it looks (thanks to some off screen photos) and sounds horrific!

Steven gets back to the Doctor and helps him back to the TARDIS whilst the
Time Destructor burns itself out!  So it could only destroy Time in a limited range eh?

Steven and the Doctor come out afterwards with the Doctor being pleased the Daleks are destroyed - Steven reminds him of all the lives that and the Doctor agrees saying "It's a waste... What a terrible waste...".  They both leave in the TARDIS leaving a real downbeat feel to the whole thing!

For me the story was excellent and quite bleak for back then.  I do acknowledge that the tale had a lot of padding in parts but it did feel the most epic we've seen so far.  All those locations and aliens.  Not only that but it must be the darkest tale we've seen?  Has there been so much death and destruction before?  Famously this story was only ever sent to Australia for a potential sale and they refused to put it on as they found it too violent!
 
Next time we shall watch a lot shorter story (they never did another 12-part single story) but that's all for now.  As ever, until next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 07-11-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 18th MEET-UP - THE DALEKS' MASTER PLAN (PARTS 3 - 7)

Tuesday 21st October 2014

What Tuesday!??  What's going on!?  My whole world has been turned upside down!  Surely that day must be a mistake?!?  Nope sadly we all had quite busy weekends coming up so to save there being TOO much of a gap we decided, as a first, to meet up on a Tuesday.  Another first was that we got to meet up around Shaun's for the first time - so many firsts indeed!  Well two.

Anyhow, no time to waste!  Last time we had started the 12 part epic "The Daleks' Master Plan" epic and need to continue with Part 3 - "Devil's Planet"!  This again was a re-con though did seem to have a few existing clips - which was always good for helping the story flow better.
 

Photo 1: Leigh, Jason, Mark (with the sign), Jim (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover) and Shaun (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Shaun's house.

Last time Space Agent Bret Vyon had been about to take off in Mavic Chen's ship (which they had stolen) with Katarina and Steven - leaving behind the Doctor!  Thankfully the old boy made it in time and in possession of the Dalek's taranium core!  However they are soon pursued by The Daleks and are forced to crash land on a Prison planet (Desperus) - a planet where convicts are simply left, without any guards or means of escape!  Thankfully the ship only has minor damage and they are soon able to fix it - not before some of the local convicts spot them and try to break in the ship to escape from the planet.  As the Doctor and gang try to take off a prisoner (Kirksen), who has stowed aboard, holds Katarina at knifepoint demanding that the ship goes to Kembel.  This ends that particular episode...
 

Photo 2: Jason, MJ, Mark (with the sign), Jim (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover) and Shaun (holding the upside down Lost In Time DVD cover)
around Shaun's house.

So onto the next episode ("The Traitors") and things don't start off well for our new companion!  Her and Kirksen get knocked into the airlock and Katarina opens the airlock, blowing herself and Kirksen into space!  Now you see why I didn't bother doing a new photoshopped photo of the group showing Katarina!  I guess they found it a pain that they were stuck with her from the previous story and decided to kill her off!  The death count in this one is starting to escalate!  Steven thinks Kataraina must have opened the airlock accidentally, but the Doctor thinks it was deliberate in order to allow the Doctor and his companions to return to Earth and warn of the coming invasion.  So Bret takes them back to Earth and Central City where he has a friend (Daxtar) that can help.  However Chen also arrives on Earth telling the Security there that Bret is a traitor and he should be killed.  He assigns Sara Kingdom, the toughest security agent they have, to do the killing and get the taranium back.

The traitor in this episode actually turns out to be Bret's friend (Daxtar) and so Bret kills him... and then ends up being killed himself by Sara Kingdom who has caught up with them!  So ends another fun episode!

 

Photo 3: Starting to look tired!
Leigh, Jason, Mark (with the sign), Jim (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover) and Shaun (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Shaun's house.

After a bit of a break we come to our one REAL episode of the lot: "Counter Plot".  Here we see the Doctor, Steven and Sara (still after them both) rushing into a room (in which a teleportation experiment is happening) and they all (and some white mice) get transported to the distant planet Mira!  Here the budget gets blown on invisible aliens (whom the Doctor describes as Visians)...!  Soon the Daleks also arrive on the planet - killing the mice (Boo!) and then killing off some of the Visians!

Meanwhile Chen is revealing his true plans to a very camp, bald fellow (with an amazing voice!) called Karlton.  Karlton agrees to help Chen to take over the Universe - starting with the Galaxy!

Back on Mira the Daleks find the Doctor and gang and surround them - for the Doctor to announce "The Daleks have won"...
 

Photo 4: Jim (holding The Dalek's Master Plan DVD cover) and Shaun (holding the Lost In Time DVD cover) around Shaun's house.

So comes episode 6 "Coronas Of The Sun"!  The Doctor and co escape the Daleks after the invisible aliens go bat-shit crazy and start attacking the Daleks!  This let the Doctor and co steal the Dalek's ship (throwing mud in the eye of the one Dalek guard - thus impairing it's vision!).  On the stolen ship the Doctor then proceeds to make a fake taranium core and then suggests to the Daleks and Chen (who are hot on their heels) that they will give them this (fake) core at their TARDIS - if they are allowed to go free.  The Daleks don't like this idea but Chen over-rides them and agrees.  So at the TARDIS the Doctor and Sara go inside the ship whilst Steven hands over the core.  Immediately the Daleks shoot him - only to find that the Doctor has erected a force field over the TARDIS!  And so the all escape but end up on a planet with, what seems like a very poisonous atmosphere...
 

Photo 5: Jason, Michael and Mark (holding the sign) around Shaun's house.

And so we come to the last episode of the night "The Feast Of Steven".  Now all 60's episodes that exist no longer have their original videotapes - these were all wiped and re-used a long time ago.  However before they were wiped a lot of episodes were recorded onto film to be sold overseas and it is these film copies which form the basis of all episodes we have today.  Sadly the Dalek's Master Plan was never sold abroad - Australia did have viewing prints sent but they found it too violent and scary to broadcast!  So film copies were made of all Master Plan episodes....

..except one episode!  "The Feast Of Stephen" was broadcast on Christmas Day and the producers felt that a lot of people might miss it because of this - so they made a special caper that didn't have much to do with the main Master Plan narrative.  It was this episode that a film copy was never made and so it was never even tried to be sold over-seas.  This makes it the one episode which is most likely never to be found!This probably isn't a bad thing as it really is the most bizarre piece of throwaway Who produced!  Still it probably alleviated the many deaths we'd previously seen!  Anyhow we find out the pollution the Doctor detected is actually a polluted area of 1960s England and they've landed outside a police station.  Here a group of policemen are quite suspicious of the sudden appearance of a Police Phone Box!  Anyhow The Doctor and Sarah nearly end up arrested whilst Steven dresses up and pretends to be a policeman!

Anyhow he Steven gets them away and then the TARDIS pops up on a Hollywood film set - where the crew meet famous stars (Charlie Chaplin and Bing Crosby (not the real ones - just actors pretending!)), interrupt filming and end up on a Lawrence Of Arabia type film set!

When they finally get away the film director is WOWED by the effect of the TARDIS disappearing!  The show finishes with the Doctor getting them all champagne as it's Christmas Day (why it's Christmas Day on a ship that can land anywhere and any time is beyond me!), toasting Steven and Sara.....and then turning to the camera and toasting us all at home!!  HE BROKE THE FOURTH WALL!!

With that episode done I felt we had done enough and we decided to catch up on the other five episodes next time.
So what did Shaun think?  Shaun:

"Very good.  It will come as a surprise to no one that I love the darker stuff, and this was pretty brutal in places.  The death of several key characters, the new companion Katarina, shortly after Bret's death at the hands of his sister Kingdom (who got the far more epic name in the family!) was pretty jarring.  In a good way.

There genuinely seems a lot at stake in this one, and killing characters we are coming to know and expect to be around for a while is giving the entire arc a sense of danger that Doctor Who to date doesn't really have.

It's much better than an assistant just leaving for some guy they just met at any rate.
Mavic Chen, and the actor playing him, are really holding a lot of intrigue throughout and giving us a human, down to Earth (sorry, pun attack) 'evil' to root against.... And for...
The Daleks are charismatic as always, and are holding the arc up as usual.
The Doctor on the back-foot is quite compelling.  He seems to be making on the spot decisions with the fate of the Solar System in the balance and is noticeably more serious than in other story-lines.

Also, the inclusion of the various political machinations is very interesting and something I didn't expect, at least not in any depth.  We have the uneasy alliance,  The Daleks planning to betray everyone eventually, of course, by Chen's ambitions are highlighted well, and it's nice to see that other factions are also planning the others' downfall (although we get little POV stuff from them).

It's also nice that, on a limited budget, we've seen several new worlds, technologies and species.  I was not surprised to see Terry Nation's name on the credits for this.  I think he's our best bet in these early days.

I am wondering how much darker this will get by the end.  And look forward to Chen's horrible fate, of course.  Greatly looking forward to the conclusion (and no more Xmas episodes!!!)."

Wow lots of stuff there Shaun - but what makes you think Mavic Chen will have a horrible fate?.....

Jim also had stuff to say: "Bloodbath!  Never expected so many 'good' characters to kick the bucket.  I get why Australia thought it was too violent.  Certainly by 60s family TV standards.
I'm enjoying the power-struggles between the Daleks and Chen, and between Chen and cool-voiced-chap.  It's moving along at a good pace, the writers aren't trying to fit too much in too soon.  The prison planet (read Australia) seemed a bit extraneous but apart from that - great."


So that's all for now.  As ever, until next time I shall return, yes, I shall return....


MJ 22-10-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 17th MEET-UP - THE MYTH MAKERS & THE DALEKS' MASTER PLAN (PARTS 1 & 2)

Sunday 12th October 2014

Another Sunday meet-up and this time we were around Mark's house - meaning we were joined by a Gavin!  Which was nice.

It was also nice that we had two firsts for this meet-up.  It was the first meet-up we had where I was beardless (having shaved it off the week before!) and, perhaps more importantly, it was the first meet-up where Jason was a married man!  He'd gotten married the previous Saturday where all of us Whoresmen had had a glorious time!
 

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

Anyway now that Jason's wedding was FINALLY out of the way we could concentrate on more important things....namely carrying on with our marathon - and this week we started with "The Myth Makers".  Now this was our first COMPLETELY missing story (if we ignore the one part "Mission To the Unknown") since we watched "Marco Polo" many months back.  I did worry that it might be a slightly tedious watch.

However such thoughts were to be unfounded!  It was a really good story, fairly pacey and extremely funny!  First time writer for the series, Donald Cotton, really nails some great characters and gives them fantastic dialogue.  The actors seem to rise to this and I, for one, found myself laughing out loud at many a moment in the script!
 

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

The story, to give a brief re-cap, shows us in ancient Greece where the Greek army has besieged the ancient walled city of Troy for 10 years.  On the plains just outside Troy the Greek warrior Achilles slays the Trojan Hector, another son of King Priam, when the materialisation of the TARDIS disturbs Hector's concentration.  When the Doctor emerges from within the TARDIS, Achilles believes him to be the god Zeus disguised as an old beggar, and insists he accompany him to the Greek encampment.  This he is done whilst companions Vicki and Steven can only watch as he's being led away!
 

Photo 3: Gavin, Leigh (holding the holding the Myth Makers DVD cover),
Shaun (with the sign), Jason, Mark & Jim around Mark's house.

They stay within the TARDIS - but that doesn't stop the TARDIS being taken away and left within the walled city of Troy as a prize for King Priam by his, rather bumbling and funny, son Paris.  Priam's daughter, the prophetess Cassandra, thinks the blue police box is dangerous – she has dreamt that the Greeks will leave a gift on the plain which will contain soldiers to attack the Trojans.

Anyhow the story continues on along these lines and of course ends with the Doctor giving the Greeks the idea of building the legendary giant wooden (Trojan) horse that the Greek Army hide in.  Of course Troy gets ransacked and destroyed by the Greeks and history/mythology unfolds.

Quite unexpectedly the story ends with the departure of another companion - Vicki has quickly fallen in love with the warrior Troilus and decides to stay!
Apparently she will pass into legend as Cressida (the name given to her by King Priam).
 

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

However as one companion leaves - another joins!  A Trojan girl Katarina ( Cassandra's handmaiden who has been flirting around the edges of the story) enters the TARDIS in Vicki's place.  And so the travels leave - with Steven quite badly wounded after having had a fight with a Trojan soldier.

As I said before I really thought this an excellent story - top-notch stuff with some great acting - yes the story unfolded as expected but the ride was pretty fun!

Jim: "I liked the Myth Makers.  Wasn't expecting the John Le Mesurier-type Paris character but it elevated it above just another historical serial.  Story-wise, it wasn't too great (it ended up unfolding as I thought) but enjoyed it on the whole".

Shaun: "The Doctor's interference directly caused the slaughter at Troy (at which he felt no remorse, in fact didn't even acknowledge it!), and Vicki, out of nowhere, f**ked off with a guy she spoke to two/three times.  So quite jarring.It was a fun romp, Paris was an absolute highlight, and Cassandra's overacting was fun.  A good, solid 4 parter.  I think it included enough characters to hold the two hours, but not too many to feel cluttered".

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

We then had a quick break and decided to start the feast that is the 12 part(!) story that is "The Daleks' Master Plan".  This is quite an epic and, sadly, one that never got sold overseas, so the chances of any episodes existing are quite low.....

Photo 5: Gavin, Leigh, Jason (holding the Daleks' Master Plan DVD cover),
Michael, Mark (with the sign) & Jim (with The Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Mark's house.

...however luckily 3 parts DO!  And one of them was episode 2 (viewable on the 3 disc collection of orphaned stories called "Lost In Time") - which was lucky as we only planned to watch just 2 parts of this story today!

The story starts back on Kembel (where we had seen the doomed mission during the earlier one-off story "Mission To The Unknown" - in fact this is 6 months later) and has the Doctor and Katarina worrying what to do with the still wounded Steven.  Also on Kembel are two Space Agents, Bret Vyon (played by Nicholas Courtney - an actor that would go on to greater glory in later Who!  But that is for later....) and Kert Gantry (played Brian Cant - more known for being a presenter of the kid's show "Play School"!).  Sadly Kert doesn't last long and, in a sequence that still exists, he gets shot down by a Dalek!  Bret, after an initial aggressive meeting with the TARDIS travellers (he very nicely holds them at gunpoint and demands to be taken away from the planet!), cures Steven and agrees to work with them to escape and warn Earth of the massive Dalek-led alliance that is amassing on the planet!

Photo 6: Gavin, Leigh, Jason (holding the Daleks' Master Plan DVD cover),
Michael, Mark (with the sign) & Jim (with The Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Mark's house.

The Doctor wants to know what's going on and disguises himself as one of the Aliens that are in league with the Daleks (by knocking out said alien and nicking his cloak!).  We then find out that the treacherous Guardian of Earth, Mavic Chen, has brought a sample of a rare mineral Taranium, which is to become a part of the Daleks' ultimate weapon, the Time Destructor.  Why they would want to destroy time isn't explained!  Surely destructing time would destruct them as well?

Photo 7: Gavin, Leigh & Jason (jointly holding the Daleks' Master Plan DVD cover),
Shaun, Mark (with the sign) & Jim (with The Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Mark's house.

Anyhow the Doctor steals the Taranium but the alien, who he had knocked-out, sounds the alarm!  The Doctor's companions and Bret escape onto Chen's spaceship!  But Chen wants to take off without the Doctor - and so it ends with Steven and Katarina pleading with Bret not to take off....!

Photo 8: Leigh & Jason (jointly holding the Daleks' Master Plan DVD cover),
Shaun, Mark (with the sign) & part of Jim (with The Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Mark's house. 

Great stuff.  I personally found it quite a good start and I really like the Bond-esque villain Mavic Chen and his little-finger acting!

Photo 9: Mark (with the sign) & Jim (with The Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Mark's house.

But that's what I thought - how about Shaun?

Shaun: "Slow, but steady pace.  Never boring, but future parts could easily go that way.  We'll have to see.
Interesting politicking, the Guardian of the Solar System's turn and motivation were good. The new assistant is giving a light comic relief to stop it feeling too bleak.

I like that it took less than 2 eps for the Daleks to reveal they plan to betray everyone.
I'd like to see more from the other conspirators and their motivations.

The Doctor was more or less irrelevant to the story so far.  A good start, anyway". 

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I look forward to seeing the next few parts!  But that's for next time (AND the time after!!)! 

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

MJ 13-10-14

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 16th MEET-UP - GALAXY 4 & MISSION TO THE UNKNOWN

Sunday 21st September 2014

Another Sunday, another meet-up and this time we had a casualty.  Jim, feeling too shattered after a busy few days, bailed out on us!  I know how he felt, having spent the previouse night on the floor at Liverpool Street Railway Station in London!  Still the Who Show must go on!

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

So, after ringing Jason to ask him to pick up snacks, the gang gathered around Michael’s house to watch Galaxy 4 - the first story of Season Three.  Sadly, like a lot of episodes in the third season, most of this story was missing.  So it was down to three re-cons to accompany the existing single episode!  The first episode starts off in the TARDIS with Stephen getting his hair cut by Vicki (some of this scene exists thanks to some off-air cine-camera recordings!).

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

Anyhow the crew lands on a planet with no life on it - which confuses the Doctor as the signs say that there SHOULD be life on it!  So after wandering outside they happen across a funny little robot that Vicki christens a “Chumbley”!  The Chumbley indicates to the Doctor and Co. that it wants them to follow it.  Steven is wary and tries to attack it.  However, as a warning, the Chumbley produces a gun from its shell and sets fire to a plant.  So the gang are led away.

Photo 3: Leigh (holding the DVD cover) around Michael's house.

They have not gotten far when a group of women lying in wait for the Chumbley throw a metal mesh on the machine and deactivate it.  The blonde-haired “beautiful” women introduce themselves as Drahvins, from the planet Drahva in Galaxy Four.

They say that the Chumblies are controlled by a race called the Rill, who are not to be trusted!  They then take the TARDIS gang to meet their leader Maaga (a scene which exists pretty much in its entirety thanks to having been taken out and used in another program that wasn’t Doctor Who!).  Maaga tells them that they were shot down by the evil Rills - but they managed to shoot down the Rills as well!  Maaga’s ship no longer works but the Rills, who tell them lies, have a fully working ship.  Maaga insists that the Doctor must help them steal this other ship as the planet is going to explode in “14 planetary cycles”!  The Doctor goes back to the TARDIS and finds that the planet IS going to explode....

...but in 2 days time!  With this is mind the Drahvins send the Doctor to kill off the evil Rills and help steal their ship - keeping Stephen behind as a guarantee that they won’t disappear.

Well of course it turns out that the ugly “bad guy” Rills turn out out to be the decent ones who have only been trying to help the Drahvins (who turn out to be the “bad gals”).  We learn it was the Drahvins who had shot first at the Rills ship!

Anyhow, Doctor helps Rills, they save Stephen and finally Maaga and her gang end up being fried on the exploding planet!

Although some of the sound quality on the re-cons was a bit muffled I really enjoyed this tale.  There was some good acting - especially by the fantastic villainess Maaga!

After a quick break we then moved onto the single episode story “Mission To The Unknown” sometimes known as "Dalek Cutaway".  This was basically a prequel to the up-coming “Dalek’s Master Plan” - I suppose a longer version of what you might catch before an episode from recent times - via the Red Button!  Back then it would be the Grey Button though!  The main thing that distinguishes this episode is that the regular cast are completely absent (although William Hartnell is still credited on-screen!).

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

 
The story focuses on Space Security Agent Marc Cory and his attempts to warn Earth of the Daleks' latest plan, whilst at their damaged ship on the planet Kembel.

Kembel is a dangerous place to be - one of the crew gets stung by a Varga plant (the thorn, once embedded, slowly turns you firstly mad and then into a Varga plant!) and tries to shoot his crew mates - however Cory sees him and shoots him dead first!

Photo 5: Shaun, Michael (holding the DVD cover),
Jason (with the sign) & Mark around Michael's house.

Yes, this sort of thing goes on and ends with no-one surviving!  Some are killed by the Varga plants - the remaining crew are picked off by the arrival of The Daleks!
However, before they all died (horribly!), they did manage to set up a rescue beacon and the message survives, beaming out to the galaxy.... Meanwhile in the nearby new Dalek city, the representatives from the seven galaxies have gathered in a conference room.  They are worried about the humans, who they believe are hostile, but the Daleks assure them that the humans will be dealt with. The representatives all approve the Dalek plans to conquer Earth...

This will all be picked up next time (after a quick four-parter)!

So apart from the sound being a bit hard to make-out sometimes, the stories were pretty good.  Galaxy 4 was a lot of fun and Mission To The Unknown whets the appetite for a Dalek EPIC to come.  More important than that, however, is the fact that we have a new TARDIS group!  So we need a new TARDIS group photo!  Here it is!

Photo 6: Us as the third TARDIS team - with some Chumblies!
Mark (Chumbley), Leigh (Stephen), Me (The First Doctor),
Jason (Vicki), Shaun (Chumbley)......AND JIM!

Well, we shall meet again in a few Sunday's time.
Until then I shall return, yes, I shall return....

MJ 22-09-14