DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 37th MEET-UP - THE ENEMY OF THE WORLD

Sunday 14th June 2015

Hello fans-of-dull-blogs!  You join me on our continuing quest to watch all of Doctor Who in order and we are up to a story that, up until 2013, was missing five of it's six parts!

The Enemy of The World kicks off with the TARDIS crew enjoying themselves on a beach in Australia in 2018.  Suddenly out of the blue the Doctor is subject to an assassination attempt.  The controller of the would-be assassins, an agent named Astrid Ferrier, rescues them by helicopter.  Yes it all kicks off early on - gun fighting, helicopter rides!  There's even a hovercraft at some point!
 
Anyway Astrid takes them to her boss Giles Kent who tells them that the Doctor is the physical double of Salamander, a ruthless megalomaniac who is dominating the United Zones Organisation.
 
Salamander has ascended to power by concentrating and harnessing the sun’s rays to generate more crops, but he wants MORE POWER!!
 
Kent, who was once Deputy Security Leader for North Africa and Europe, reveals that he had crossed Salamander, who ruined him and removed his various allies.  The only remaining Kent ally with any authority is Alexander Denes in Central Europe.  When Kent’s home is surrounded by troops led by Security Chief Donald Bruce, the Doctor is persuaded to impersonate Salamander to save his companions and to gather more information on his designs.

Photo 1: MJ, Leigh Jason (holding the sign),
 and Mark (the DVD Cover)
around Shaun's house!

And so we get the joy of Patrick Trout-Man playing two roles - the Doctor and the (possibly) Mexican Salamander!  He seems to relish playing a suave but totally evil wannabe dictator - which also makes it fun to watch.  He seems to have no morals - poisoning a man in one place, shooting other ones - in fact the full extent of Salamander's scheme is revealed as we see him take a lift that goes DEEP underground which takes him to a gang of people who believe that a nuclear war has gone on above ground and that they are only safe under the Earth!  Salamander has convinced them that only mutants have survived and is getting his underground gang to cause all sorts of natural disasters (tsunami's, volcanoes etc) with special machinery and the like.  Salamander seems to want to cause all this chaos so that he can step in and take charge.

Photo 2: MJ, Leigh Jason (holding the sign),
 and Mark (the DVD Cover)
around Shaun's house!

Anyhow there are nice character moments like when The Doctor picks up parts of some crockery, that some bad guards have broken up, and says “People spend all their time making nice things and then other people come along and break them!”
 

Photo 3: Shaun, Leigh (holding the sign),
 Jason (holding the DVD Cover) and Mark
around Shaun's house!

Another character who is quite fun is Fedorin who is second in command to Controller of the Central European Zone -  Alexander Denes (whom Salamader has locked up - saying he was negligent for ignoring Salamander's warnings about the volcanoes.  Volcanoes - of course - that were caused by Salamander's underground people!).  Salamander blackmail's Fedorin into poisoning Denes - but Fedorin can't go through with it.  Salamander smiles, telling him it's all okay - they find another way - and then poisons Fedorin with some poisoned wine!
 

Photo 4: Shaun, Leigh (holding the sign),
 Jason (holding the DVD Cover) and Mark
around Shaun's house!

So overall we have a good tale - a cracking villain (in the form of Patrick Troughton) and Doctor who is funny and quick (in the form of Patrick Troughton).  A good supporting cast - plus we had a helicopter AND a hovercar chase (in the form of Pat - oh no, he can't become vehicles.  Pat Troughton's great - but he aint no Transformer!).  The end scene is great too - when Salamander, having gotten into the TARDIS by pretending to be the Doctor, attempts to fly it off with the doors open!  This does him no good as he gets sucked out into the Time Vortex!

Well I enjoyed that one - and we have even MORE excitement next time as we find ourselves battling Yetis again!  Ooooo!

Well when I say "We" I mean the Doctor and chums!

So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 22-06-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 36th MEET-UP - THE ICE WARRIORS

Sunday 7th June 2015

Say whaaaaaaaaaat?!  Another weeky - another meety!  Now it was looking like Jim wasn't coming back, so I decided to change our sign - it now states "AND SHAUNY-JIM".  I LIKED having the name Jim in it, so Shaun got a re-christening!!

Anyhow, this time we all met around Jason's house to watch the six part story "The Ice Warriors"!  Yup we were BACK in the snow "Oh no, not again!  Tibet was bad enough, but I think you've put us down just further up the mountain!" Jamie tells us!  But never fear - we're actually in England again, but in the distant future during a future ice age!  Human beings are struggling to keep the glaciers from taking over England, with the aid of computers and keepy-icey-away-machines!
Meanwhile other scientists on an archaeological dig find a massive warrior entombed in the ice!

We're mainly set in Brittanicus Base where senior control technician Jan Garrett and her staff struggle to control an ioniser they are using to slow the progress of glaciers rolling over Britain.  Leader Clent is convinced they can avert a new Ice Age, but the group knows they are only a few hours away from being forced to abandon the base.  Tensions rise when Penley, a maverick scientist who has defected from the team, is mentioned. 

Thus opens "The Ice Warriors" - four episodes of this exist (found back 1988) but the other two have been animated.  Thankfully we start with an actual episode which at least gives us an idea of what the characters look like!

Photo 1: Jason, Leigh (holding the DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and Shaun
around Jason's house!

And what great characters we had!  Leader Clent was marvellous - he was ALWAYS right.  Even when he wasn't!  He was so uptight and didn't care for others opinions as he limped around the base with his cane!  We also had Penley, the defector (that sounds wronger than I meant it to!), played by Peter Sallis (famous as playing Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine AND the voice of Wallace from the animated Wallace and Gromit films).  He had a fun world-weariness about him.  He'd seen all that humans were trying to do and didn't approve of any of it!

Photo 2: Jason, Leigh (fighting over the DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and MJ
around Jason's house!

But what of the Ice Warriors?  Apparently they had come to Earth from Mars but their ship had crashed and frozen solid in the ice.  Though I wasn't OVERLY convinced by the Ice Warriors rubber pincer type claws (how on Earth (or Mars) did they build anything with those?!) or the way they moved their mouths (it looked like hey had something wrong with them!) I did think the look of them was quite impressive - tall and bulky.  They were all played by very tall actors - in fact their leader, Varga, was played by Bernard Bresslaw who was a very famous tall actor who was well-known from the Carry On film series.  In fact that was quite an oddity - why have a world famous actor and them completely cover him up!?

Oh and the way they talked was very hissy (or hissssssssy) - I guess they got the actors to do that as they were reptilian, but it did get a little wearing after a while.

Photo 3: Jason, Leigh (holding the DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and Shaun
around Jason's house!

I thought the animation was good - Patrick Troughton must have been a joy to animate as he has such a wondefully expressive face!  The style was simpler than "The Reign Of Terror", "The Tenth Planet", and "The Moonbase" but I think it suited the story well.  Plus you could always tell who was supposed to be who!
 

Photo 4: Jason, Leigh (with the DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and MJ (doing an "Ice Warrior Hand")
around Jason's house!

So that's that - next time we shall be watching a serial that was only re-found again back in 2013!  So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 10-06-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 35th MEET-UP - THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN

Sunday 24th May 2015

Hello Cheeky?  How have you been?  Okay?  Well that's nice.  Here's a story about 5 chaps and their continuing adventures in Dr Who Marathon Land!

The week in question saw us gather around Leigh's house to watch the 6 part story "The Abominable Snowmen"!

Once again it was mostly re-cons (5 parts re-con - 1 part real) but from now on the amount of re-cons left to watch is getting quite small!  Only 1 more story left which is totally re-cons and only a couple with over half as re-cons.

Anyhow what can I tell you about this week's story?  Well Part 1 (re-con) starts off with the TARDIS landing in the Himalayas (actually the Welsh Mountains, but they looked impressive)!  Here we find an explorer, Professor Edward Travers,who is awoken from his sleep when he hears the screams of his companion!  He is horrified to see a lumbering, hairy creature standing over his friend's lifeless body - The Abominable Snowman - aka The Yeti!

Elsewhere The Doctor is happy at where they've landed and tells Jamie and Victoria to start searching for a 'Holy Ghanta' in his chest of treasures/junk.  He tells them that they have landed in Tibet, and the Detsen Monastery will "give them a welcome of a lifetime" if they arrive with the Ghanta: a bell and holy Buddhist relic the Doctor took three hundred years ago for safe-keeping.  Whilst his companions search, the Doctor steps outside but finds the dead body.  He picks up the rucksack that the man dropped and travels up to the nearby Monastery to prepare the way for his companions.  It seems the Doctor has been here before and cannot wait to go to the Monastery and get a heroes welcome!  However he comes against a lot of angry suspicious monks who think he's up to no good.  This leads once again the Doctor being locked up in a cell!

Photo 1: Leigh, Shaun (holding the mock DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and Jason
(holding the Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Leigh's house!

Travers goes to visit the Doctor in his cell and says he's been looking for the Yeti - which the Monks say are a race of peaceful, shy creatures.  And yet these ones are attacking people.  Naturally suspicion falls upon the Doctor - especially as his big furry coat makes him look a little bit Yeti-like.  Oh, did I mention the furry coat?  Ah well, he's wearing one.  That bit was important!  Still the Doctor manages to get free by showing the Monk's (specifically their leader - the easily named Padmasambhava!) the Holy Ghanta (that Bell!).  Once free he starts investigating!

Meanwhile Jamie and Victoria have been terrorised on the hills by the Yeti.  The find a cave with a huge pyramid of shiny metal balls. The Yeti however finds them and attacks - causing a cave-in!  Our plucky companions escape (with a shiny ball!) and take it back to show the Doctor at the Monastery.  We view all this as it all happens in the existing Episode 2!  So that's nice.

Photo 2: MJ, Shaun (holding the mock DVD Cover),
 Mark (holding the sign) and Jason
(holding the Lost In Time DVD Cover)
around Leigh's house!

Well as I said I won't bang on about the plot - it seems silly when you can watch it yourself!

Instead let's look at what I liked.  Well firstly Padmasambhava was fantastic!  The poor chap HAD been an old friend of the Doctor's but he'd been possessed by "The Great Intelligence" - an alien being with no form of it's own.  I think Padmasambhava had encountered the formless alien when he was meditating and had been travelling outer space in a sort if out-of-body experience.  It was here that The Great Intelligence had overtaken his body and come back to earth.  The actor, the gloriously named "Wolfe Morris" was great, both playing the gentle, but slightly creepy sounding, weary Monk who had been forced to live hundreds of years!  The Schizophrenic performance reminded me of Gollum from Lord of The Rings - one moment calm - the next rasping with hatred!

As with Marco Polo, most of the oriental people were played by English white chaps with make-up.  Though I thought the Abbot played it quite English like!

Photo 3: Close up of Leigh (very happy)
and Shaun (holding the mock DVD Cover) 
around Leigh's house!

The Yeti's weren't bad - they did have huge bottoms which they didn't shake to music - so that was disappointing!  They turned out to be robots - created by Padmasambhava with guidance from the Great Intelligence.  The metal balls turned out to be important - they were like a battery that, once slotted into a hole in the Yeti Robot's (not like that!), turned them on (again, not like that...!)

Oh I've had to copy and paste "Padmasambhava" every time I've used it!  You try remembering that damn spelling!


Overall it was quite enjoyable - I thought the sets and locations were good.  Some good actors and the Yeti's were quite cute!  Oh and we do get to see a "real one" right at the end - which pleases Travers.  He was a bit down having spent all that time looking for them - only to have them to have been robots!Well that's it - next time we're back in the snow!  So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 29-05-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 34th MEET-UP - THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN

Sunday 10th May 2015

Well once again we met on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Once again we were Jim-less but this time we had a GIRL in our midst!  Shaun (or "Added Shaun" as he's known) invited his sister Toni to come along and sit in a darkened room with five guys to watch black and white 1960's Doctor Who.

Luckily for her she joined us to watch "The Tomb of the Cybermen"!  Not only does it feature the return of a recurring villain (The Cybermen, but you guessed that) but it exists - completely!
 
No re-cons, no animation.  Four complete episodes - found in Hong Kong back in 1991!  What a great way to kick of Doctor Two's second season.

Photo 1: Mark, Toni (holding the sign),
Shaun, Jason (holding the DVD Cover)
 and Leigh around Mark's house!

So we start with the TARDIS crew still on Skaro with new companion Victoria in tow - she can't believe they are about to travel through time and space).
However she soon starts to believe when the TARDIS takes off from Skaro and then lands on the planet Telos/usual quarry pit!

It's on Telos we find an expedition who are trying to find the tombs of the legendary Cybermen.  After setting some explosives they blast away part of a cliff face which reveals the entrance to the Cybermen's tombs.
 
They all cheer and are ecstatic - and quite right as well - it's a very good model shot!  However there cheers are soon muted when the Doctor turns up (having been found by another member of the expedition and brought to the main team at gunpoint) as they assume he's part of a rival expedition!  Still they don't have time to fret as they need to get into the Tombs via the main doors.  One guy tries (ignoring the Doctor's warning) and ends up being electrocuted!  Thankfully, although the guy is dead, the doors have lost all their electrical charge and so Kaftan (a lady on the expedition who is the female villain of the piece) gets her manservant (the giant Toberman) to open the doors!
Toberman is great - a giant, black actor with muscles as large as Birmingham!  He doesn't say much just grunts and shouts odd words - much like The Hulk might say "HULK SMASH"!  His mistress, Kaftan, is a member of the Brotherhood of Logicians.  Along with her colleague, Eric Klieg, she financed Professor Parry's expedition to Telos.  The Logicians secretly hoped to find the Cybermen and re-animate them so that they could form an alliance to rule the Earth.

Photo 2: Mark, MJ, Shaun (holding the DVD Cover),
Jason (holding the sign) and Leigh around Mark's house!

The Cybermen do get found, frozen in suspended animation inside catacombs.  However they don't stay frozen for long as Klieg re-activates them and they quickly thaw out.  It's a really impressive scene to see them slowly thaw and break out of their holes before releasing the Cybercontoller!  He's a tall fellow, with no handles on his head - but he does have a cyber brain on show!

Photo 3: Shaun (being a robot),
Jason (holding AND pointing to the DVD cover) and
a bit of Leigh around Mark's house!

Well I for one really enjoyed watching the story - it zipped along nicely and had a nice mix of stuff that made sense and stuff that was outrageous!  Again we had a nice mix of accents and nationalities (though I wasn't sure on the accent of the American pilot who kept calling Victoria "Vic"!).  I think the Cybermen's design was impressive again, but I still find you really have to concentrate hard to understand what they are saying!  The supportive cast were strong and seemed to be quite fun - oh and of course we have the first appearance of the Cybermen's pet robots - The Cybermats!  They may be small but they can inflict some damage - well unless you trap them within a loop of electrical cable - which seems to fry their brains!

I think the highlight for me, was a quieter moment between Victoria and the Doctor in which they talk about how Victoria's feeling.  I mean let's not forget, she been yanked out of her own time after having had her father brutally killed.  So it's nice that they acknowledge this and we even get the Doctor talking about his own family - and revealing his age, which I think was the first time we heard it - though I might be wrong!

I think the gang (and the new girl) enjoyed the story - a strong start to the Trout-Mans second season.  Next time we're off to the Himalayas!

So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 18-05-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 33rd MEET-UP - THE EVIL OF THE DALEKS

Sunday 26th April 2015

Our last meet-up for this April AND it was also the last story of the first Troughton (sorry, Trout-Man) season.  This time we all met around Shaun's house.

What was lovely was that we were finishing the season how we started - with a Dalek story.
What wasn't so lovely was that we were missing a Mark (and still a Jim) and that most of this SEVEN-PARTER were missing.  Only episode 2 existed.

Photo 1: Smug-Shaun (holding the sign),
Laughy-Leigh (holding the mock-DVD cover) and Jaunty-Jason
(holding the Lost In Time Cover) around Shaun's house!

Still that didn't deter us and we decided to meet at 1 o' clock and watch the whole damn lot!
Episode 1's re-con started with Jamie and the Doctor looking for their missing TARDIS - they see it being driven off on the back of a lorry!  With a bit of investigating, which spills over to the existing Episode 2, they find the trail that leads to an antique shop that has many brand-new looking Victorian antiques.  Jamie states that they must be fakes but the Doctor disagrees and says they may be new-looking, but they are all genuine.  They also find half a photo of the Doctor!?  Wandering through to a back room they see the second half of the photo clamped down in a box - however, when Jamie lifts up the box, gas pumps out of the box knocking Jamie and the Doctor out....

Photo 2: Shaun (holding the Lost In Time Cover),
Leigh (holding the sign) and MJ
(holding the mock-DVD cover) around Shaun's house!

So when they both wake up they are in a very posh town house, however they are no longer in 1966 but in 1866 - in Victorian London!  We are here introduced to two Victorian gentlemen Theodore Maxtible (a fantastically bearded and slightly unhinged man) and Edward Waterfield (who owns the house) who say they had been playing around with static electricity in order to try and invent a time machine - sadly, for them, they seemed to invite trouble in the form of the Daleks!

The Daleks are there being quite sneaky - they are fed up with losing against the Doctor (and humans) and decide that Humans have some factor that the Daleks are missing!  They threaten to destroy the stolen TARDIS unless the Doctor helps them by conducting an experiment to isolate the "Human Factor" - not the X-Factor but a quality that the Daleks think is unique to human beings.  They seem to want it as they surmise it is THIS factor that has meant that the Daleks have never been able to defeat them.  So once the Doctor has isolated the Human Factor, he is to implant it into three Daleks, who will then become the precursors of a race of "super" Daleks!  They hold the upper hand as they say they have Jamie prisoner AND Edward Waterfield's daughter, Victoria.  So to help learn what the "Human-Factor" is the Daleks send an unknowing Jamie on a task to rescue Victoria where he encounters lots of obstacles and a giant, mute Turk called Kemel (who was ordered to find and fight Jamie).  I really liked Kemel (and his fez!) after initially fighting with Jamie he nearly falls off the roof - but Jamie saves him.  Kemel is confused by this but then gets a chance to save Jamie's life and they both work together to save Victoria.

Photo 3: Shaun (holding the Lost In Time Cover),
Leigh (holding the sign) and MJ
(holding the mock-DVD cover) around Shaun's house!

So we had a lot of re-cons to get through, but they were made easier to watch by having some computer animation AND some re-filmed bits of Daleks and the back of a girl pretending to be Victoria.  This all seemed to work well and not jar too much.

I also enjoyed the trip across time and space to revisit Skaro (the Dalek home-world) and meet the BOOMING voiced Dalek Emperor!  It's here the Human-factor Daleks start attacking the Emperor and the other Daleks - which results in the whole place blowing up - Sadly Kemel is killed by a "Dalekised" Maxtible - they both fall off a precipice together.

Of course the Doctor and Jamie manage to escape but not before Victoria's father, Edward, is killed saving the Doctor's life.  Before dying, he asks the Doctor to take care of Victoria.  So welcome along to our new assistant!  Like Jamie she's another assistant not from present day Earth - well present day fro back in the 60's!

Photo 4: Leigh (holds the mock-DVD cover) ready to
put it up Jason's bottom, around Shaun's house!

So that's that - yes it IS a long tale but there is much to like about the story.  The plot is a bit all over the place (and a tad stretched for 7 episodes) but there's a lot of imagination with it and some great sets.  Maxtable is a great villain - well he's not REALLY bad - he just wants to know how to turn base metal into gold and be rich!  He doesn't care who gets in the way of this pursuit!  He plays it all over the top with his UBER beard and mad eyebrows!  I think Jamie does very well on his own - solving puzzles, being brave etc.  I liked Kemel, the mute giant Turk guy - and not JUST because he wore a fez!  The Daleks are great being sneaky and I LOVED the child-like Daleks with the Human factor - they were quite creepy (spinning the Doctor around on them chanting: "DIZ-ZY DOC-TOR, DIZ-ZY DOC-TOR!").  The finale with the glorious Dalek Emperor was impressive - something that was actually filmed and kept so we could see the Daleks "Final End"....

Well, amazingly that's the end of our first season of the Second Doctor - the season most heavily hit by missing episodes.  Thankfully our next story is a four-parter that exists and sees the return of those pesky Cybermen!

So until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 29-04-15


Extra.... Sunday 3rd May 2015 - Mark's Catch Up - with added Gavin!

Just as an extra Mark caught up with what he missed over the Bank Holiday weekend.  Gavin was also there so it felt like more of a group gathering!  I didn't get a chance to print a new sign - so had to stick new dates on an old sign!  Still at least we had a sign!  Anyhow I really enjoyed re-watching the story again and it seemed to go down well with the two chaps.  More importantly it means that we have all finished Season 1 of the Trout-Man.  Well all of us except our "& Jim".  I miss our "& Jim" - maybe he's become our very own Ian Chesterton!

 

Catch Up Photo 1: MJ and Mark lurk above Gavin around Mark’s house
for The Evil of The Daleks catch-up!

Catch Up Photo 2: Gavin and Mark around Mark’s house
for The Evil of The Daleks catch-up!

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 32nd MEET-UP - THE FACELESS ONES

Sunday 12th April 2015

Here we are in April, and it was meet-up time around MJ's again!

Yes I'd not held one for a while and, much like when we met around mine for "The Web Planet", it was a lovely sunny day outside!  Also like "The Web Planet" this was a six part story.  However UNLIKE that story only 2 episodes of this story exist!

So re-con city it was.  Thankfully the first episode exists - which is helpful as it gives you an anchor to the rest of the story and some of the characters that are in it.  We started Episode 1 with the TARDIS landing in modern day (well - modern in the 60's) Gatwick Airport!  Right in the middle of the runway.  As the gang leave the TARDIS they immediately get spotted by Airport Police who shout at them making our gang scatter in different directions!

Polly ends up hiding in the Chameleon Tours (apt name as we shall see...) agency hangar, where she sees a guy dressed in air pilot clothes (Spencer) kill another man and report to his superior, Captain Blade.  Polly runs out and back to the Doctor and Jamie and tells them what she saw!  They all go back to the hangar and examine the body - the Doctor noting that the victim was electrocuted by a weapon that can't possibly exist on Earth at that time!

They leave to find someone in charge but Blade captures Polly without the Doctor or Jamie noticing!  He hides her along with the corpse before Jamie and the Doctor return with skeptical airport authorities!  Here we are introduced to a great chap in charge, simply known as the Commandant.  Not only that but he also has a great moustache!  He doesn't seem to care for the Doctor - and, as none of them have passports, he assumes that they are stowaways.  It doesn't help when he's told of a dead body (that isn't there anymore) and scorch-marks (by a ray-gun)!

Luckily for them all they soon deal with was a Detective Inspector Crossland - a moustached (yes another one!), pipe-smoking chap who has been investigating people disappearing after they have boarded planes at Gatwick airport.  He believes the Doctor is more than a stowaway and between them both they persuade the Commandant to give the Doctor time to investigate - so The Doctor is given 24 hours to investigate the airport and find out where the people are disappearing too.

Handily they do come across Polly again - at a check-in desk - but she claims not to know the Doctor or Jamie and that she works for Chameleon Tours.  Very strange!  A hypnotised Polly!  During all this we are introduced to another lady, Samantha, a Scouse gal who's trying to find her brother who, yup, went on a Chameleon Tours flight to Rome and never returned!  During the course of the story she and Jamie end up together investigating a bit.  They have a nice chemistry and she's quite feisty and fun.  I believe the actress (Pauline Collins - who would appear as Queen Victoria in a 2006 episode of new Who) was so liked that she was asked to be a full time companion.  She refused and had a much bigger career (in fact she was well known for appearing as the title character in the film Shirley Valentine).

A shame, but it might have been a bit grating having a Scouse accent every week!

Photo 1: Leigh, Jason (with the Lost In Time DVD cover), Shaun (holding the sign),
Mark (with eyes open!) and MJ (holding the DVD cover) around MJ's house!

This is a fantastic story!  The main premise is that Chameleon Tours is a cover up for aliens - they've come to Earth and have no faces - so THESE are the Faceless Ones.  They take would-be passengers on their planes, get them to write postcards to send home (on the plane), then take them up to an alien spaceship that's orbiting the Earth.  Up there they create bodies - using humans as templates - apparently a giant explosion on the Chameleons' home planet resulted in the loss of their faces and their identities.  So to save their race from dying out, their scientists developed a process that would allow them to assume the identities of other beings!  The Doctor stops them of course, but is kind enough to help them find other ways to carry on existing.  So in the end all is lovely!

Photo 2: Leigh, Jason (with the Lost In Time DVD cover), Shaun (holding the sign),
Mark (with eyes open!) and MJ (holding the DVD cover) around MJ's house!

However at the end we lose Ben and Polly - they were really side-lined in this tale and I can see why!  Behind the scenes the producers had decided to get rid of the character of Ben and keep Polly.  However Anneke Wills (Polly) felt loyal to Michael Crayze (Ben) and decided to leave with him.  So we have a rather rushed, but sweet goodbye scene at the end.  It sort of made sense, they had landed back in Polly and Ben's correct time, so it made sense for them to get off and get on with their own lives.  Still as I say it did feel a little rushed and I felt the pair deserved a much better role in their final tale.  Samantha was more of a companion than them both in this tale!

Anyway after their goodbyes the Doctor and Jamie go off to find the TARDIS which has disappeared!  Ooo, what can that mean?....

I enjoyed the story, there was enough intrigue to keep us getting through 4 recons, the actors who played the "Human-Chameleons" were fantastically menacing - but all whilst being slow and measured.  There were also some cracking performances from the airport staff and all the extra characters.  Yes a fun tale!

Anyhow that's it for now - next time we have some Daleks to be evil with!

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!
 
MJ - 13-04-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 31st MEET-UP - THE MACRA TERROR

Sunday 29th March 2015

A revolutions has occurred - and not just one against giant crabs - oh no!  There's revolution in my reviews!

You see I have been looking over some old reviews and I find myself just explaining the plot out - which is ridiculous!  You can read about that elsewhere online or can watch the re-cons/real episodes yourself!  So no more LONG explanations!  It also makes it less fun for me if I spend AGES writing out a blow by blow account of what's happening!  Especially if no-one reads this! :)
So onwards with my review and yes, another Sunday and we were back to TOTAL-RECONAGE!  Still, sadly, Jim-less but with added Gavin, we all trooped over to Jason's house to watch the four-part story "The Macra Terror"!  At last time meet-up we'd been left with the cliffhanger of a giant claw on the TARDIS screen!...

Oooo!  The sad thing is that none of this story exists in the archives!  So with tele-snaps, the soundtrack and odd bits of moving footage (thanks Aussie censors and people with cine cameras!) we ploughed into this little-known story - well, little-known to my friends! 

I'll tell you a little about the start where our travellers arrive on a new unnamed planet/usual quarry pit and are immediately greeted by Medok, a half-crazed colonist!  They don't spend long with him as Ola, the Chief of Police, comes along and arrests him and takes the TARDIS crew back to his colony.
 
And what sort of sinister place IS this colony?  Why it's quite like an English Holiday camp - similar to Butlins back in the 50's and 60's.  It's camp, bright and cheery (someone described it a "Gay"!) - all of which are HUGE signposts that something sinister MUST be going on!  The Doctor also is unconvinced by the joviality of the place and, when the mysterious Colony Controller appears on a television screen to welcome the new guests to the colony, he's even more convinced of the fact!

Medok is brought in front of the crowd and he tries to tell everyone about the horrible creatures that come out at night - with hideous claws!  He's taken back to jail but later The Doctor visits Medok to find out more and so releases him.

Photo 1: Jason sits behind Gavin, Mark (with the DVD cover),MJ, Leigh (holding the sign) and Shaun around Jason's house!
Me and Jason are doing our best Macra-claw impression.

So we have lots happening.  To start off the whole base is not run by the Controller - but by giant crab like creatures called Macra!  The Controller also isn't the macho looking guy whose photo appears on the screens throughout the base every time there's an announcement - but instead he's a rather frightened, confused, white-haired, frail man! When we eventually see this real Controller on screen he doesn't last long and gets menaced, then killed, by a giant claw!  A shame - I liked this confused chappie!

The Macra need pollution to live so they get lots of gas pumped down into the earth where they seem to mainly live.  The whole base does what they are told as they seemed to be placed under a hypnotic trance every time they go to sleep.  Voices come out of speakers in their bedrooms telling them that "Everything on the base is good - everything is lovely" - I paraphrase of course - but it also re-iterates that "There Are No Such Thing As Macra".  A mantra that most of the base seem to adhere to!

Photo 2: Jason lounges behind Gavin, Mark (with the DVD cover),MJ, Leigh (holding the sign) and Shaun around Jason's house!

So what about our team?  Well The Doctor gets arrested, escapes and gets up to the usual mischief.  Jamie gets sent to the mines (where they mine for the gas), Ben gets hypnotised to be one of the base guards and turns on all his friends and Polly... well, Polly gets a haircut!!

Photo 3: Jason sits behind Gavin, Mark (with the DVD cover),MJ, Leigh (holding the sign) and Shaun around Jason's house!
Me and Jason are doing our best Macra-claw impression.

Of course that's not just it  Ben and Polly do get trapped down in the under-parts (oo-er) of the colony and get menaced by a Macra - about the size of a Mini (the car).  The clips of the Macra exist and, although quite impressive with their size, glowing eyes and claws, they are VERY slow and when Polly gets caught in one of the claws you can see she's REALLY trying to help it achieve that task.  However the low lighting and smoky atmosphere really help the mood - especially when compared to the brash, overly-lit and camp uper levels where everyone lives.  I think the juxtaposition works well!

The episode ends up with the Doctor using the Macra's own gas to blow them up and the colonists no longer appear hypnotised!  Sadly this does turn them into happy-holiday-camp people and, quite, rightly, our TARDIS crew see fit to leave!

So overall I enjoyed this zippy tale.  Although unweildy, the Macra are convincing enough for this one serial and the other characters in the base give some fine performances.  It would be lovely to see this story back in the archives!

Next time we're off to Gatwick Airport!

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!
 
MJ - 09-04-15