DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 40th MEET-UP - THE WHEEL IN SPACE

Sunday 9th August 2015

Well the year rattles on and we've finally gotten to the last story of Troughton's, sorry, Trout-Man's, second season!  "The Wheel In Space" is a six-part story - set on a wheel.....in space!

Oooo!  Sounds exciting!  So, for our 40th meet-up (we should have all had a glass of Ruby Port - or a curry (Ruby-Murray) to celebrate!) we all met around Jason's to watch a story which had 2 real episodes and 4 re-cons.  Happily (if you're not a re-con fan) this is the last re-con we shall watch UNTIL Trout-Man's penultimate story!

Anyhow onto today and the story starts (as a re-coon) with The TARDIS landing but the scanners show nothing!  The Doctor's readings show that air and temperature is OK but they are surrounded by metal!  Then the scanner begins to work and Jamie is happy to see a lake which soon turns into a scene with birds then into a waterfall and then a beach.  Jamie is confused but the Doctor explains that this is the TARDIS' defence mechanism and that there is danger!  Something I believe we may have seen WAY back in the third story (The Edge of Destruction).  Anyhow before they can take off again there is a power overload which triggers a mercury vapour in the console room.  Our duo have to leave and the Doctor opens a panel near the TARDIS door and removes a rod.  The TARDIS begins to shake and tremble as they leave.  The Doctor explains he has disengaged the time vector generator - the TARDIS is no longer bigger on the inside. They start to have a look around and realise they are on a spaceship - with a random servo robot slowly moving about!  After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing they manage to blow-up the robot, but not before it has released some orbs into space....

Oh and the Doctor and Jamie get knocked out!

Meanwhile at a nearby Space Station ("The Wheel") the leader, Jarvis, notices the random spaceship coming towards them and decides to blow it up - with his X-Ray laser!  This episode ends with the Doctor waking up not knowing that he is about to be blown-up!

Photo 1:

MJ (holding the sign), Mark, Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD Cover)

and Shaun around Jason's house!

Anyhow we move on to episode 2 (still a re-con) and Jamie saves the day by taking some technical equipment he's ripped off the wall, pointing at the Wheel and causing a right noise!
When the Wheel Crew hear this they deduce that someone MUST be on board.  So they go across and rescue Jamie and the still knocked-out Doctor!  In fact the Doctor stays knocked out all the episode (Patrick Troughton was on holiday!).

Photo 2:

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

Anyhow blah blah more orbs get sucked in etc the crew want to blow up the rocket still - but, as the TARDIS is still on it!  In episode 3 (which exists) Jamie stops them blowing up the rocket by spraying some equipment with liquid plastic and thus knocking out the laser.

Anyhow ALL this not important - what's more important is that we are introduced to a young lady called Zoe Heriot - a young (slightly know-it-all) genius who will be the next companion.

I like Zoe - she's all big-eyed and pretty!

Photo 3:

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

I'm finding it quite hard to remember all what happened - the story was a bit too long and the plot had to be stretched.  I liked a lot of the characters, the Cybermen looked cool BUT I still found it quite hard to understand what they were saying!  The effect on their voices is good but you have to REALLY concentrate to get what they are saying.  This could have been a better four part story.

 

Photo 4:

Close-up of Jason (holding the sign),

and Mark (holding the mock DVD Cover)
 around Jason's house!

We had some good destructive Cyber-Mats (the Cybermen's little pets) beeping about causing mischief!  Oh and we had some of the crew being hypnotised by the Cybermen - which is always good.

Photo 5:

Close-up of Leigh (holding the Lost In Time DVD Cover),

and Shaun around Jason's house!

I think all of us found it quite hard going, but there were some positives.  The look and design of the piece was excellent.  I liked the Cybermen (even if I couldn't understand them).  Zoe, though a haughty know-all, seems like she could have potential AND it's our penultimate re-con (and our last one for a while)!  Well that will be it for now.  Before I go - we need a new group photo, so here it is!

Seen as we were missing one other character I decided to add in Leigh as Victoria - well I hadn't created a group photo for her and I didn't want her to feel missed!


So now I'm going to leave and go YAY!

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return

MJ - 14-08-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 39th MEET-UP - FURY FROM THE DEEP

Sunday 26th July 2015

And lo it was said unto the Four-Whoresmen group:
"You've watched enough full-on re-cons.  Well done.  From now on, as your reward, there will be no more COMPLETELY re-con stories.

Well, except for this one!"

Yup we were all gathered around Mark's house to watch the 6 part (completely re-con) story "Fury From The Deep".  This time we were all present - but still Jim-less.  At this stage I think Jim ain't coming back.  Still he did do all of Hartnell, so kudos for that.

In fact for the last few group signs I've changed the "& JIM" to "& SHAUNY-JIM" (Still gotta keep the "Jim" name in the group - I LIKE that name!)

Photo 1:

MJ (holding the DVD Cover), Mark (holding the sign),

Shaun and Leigh around Mark's house!

So anyway onto the story (which featured the first ever use of the "Sonic Screwdriver"!).  The TARDIS lands on the sea (just off the East Coast of England) and they have to use a rubber dinghy to get ashore!  The Doctor says they must be in England - Jamie agrees pointing out the rubbish weather as proof and suspects that the TARDIS must be broken as it keeps returning them to Earth - a nice little in-joke!  The come across a pipe (with "EuroSea Gas" written on the side) leading into the sea and hear strange noises coming from it!  After larking about throwing foam at each other the Doctor tries to get a look inside a box that is attached to the pipe.  He can't but does use a stethoscope on the pipe where he hears a strange distant, faint, pumping heartbeat!  Definitely not what you should be hearing in a gas pipe!  They move on but are soon all shot down by a remote controlled camera - with a weapon attached (I presume!).

Photo 2:

MJ (holding the DVD Cover), Mark (holding the sign),

Shaun and Leigh around Mark's house!
MJ and Shaun were the only ones to do the
"Possessed Poisonous Gas Breathing Men" from the story!

When our team are woken up they are in a power station and are accused of being saboteurs, interfering with the pipe.  The guy in charge here is John Robson.  A no-nonsense London-accented chap who's constantly tetchy!  I could have seen Sid James playing that part!  Anyhow they (including another Scientist called Frank Harris) give our gang an antidote to the knock-out drug and try to question them some more.  Not happy with the fact that "they just turned up and aren't saboteurs" excuse, Robson gets Harris and guards to lock them up in a bunk room.

Photo 3:

Jason (holding the DVD Cover), Mark (holding the sign),

Shaun and Leigh around Mark's house!

So we get some to-ing and fro-ing as we discover that the enemy is SEAWEED!  It's intelligent and when it stings you, you become taken over by it!  Oh and it makes you equipped with poisonous breath!  In fact one creepy scene that does exist (thanks to being snipped out by those Aussies) has two characters, Mr. Oak and Mr. Quill, mentally controlled by the seaweed (or Possessed Poisonous Gas Breathing Men!), advancing silently towards Maggie (Harris - wife of Frank Harris) before opening their mouths to choke her with poisonous fumes!

In fact they aren't the only ones to be possessed!  Even grumpy Robson gets possessed and steals a helicopter (whilst kidnapping Victoria).  There was a cool scene of him covered in foam in the middle of a room talking quite calmly - quite the opposite of the usual hot-headed character we were used to (who had been on the rigs for FOUR YEARS).

Another cool and creepy scene was set outside on the beach Robson and Maggie (Harris) meet up.  They are both now possessed by the seaweed and Maggie, quite cryptically, that  there is little time and that Robson knows what to do!  Then Robson stays there and  watches as Maggie walks out into the sea until she is no longer visible....!  VERY eerie scene indeed!  It's like she's walking out to her death...

...Except we see her again later when all the possessed people are released from the hypnotic seaweed!

SPOILERS!

 

Photo 4:

Close-up of MJ (holding the DVD Cover),
Mark (not impressed andholding the sign),

and Shaun around Mark's house!
MJ and Shaun were the only ones to do the
"Possessed Poisonous Gas Breathing Men" from the story!

Ahem, anyhow the seaweed tries to take over but they stop it by, well firstly Victoria screams at it, which seems to make it recoil (as most of us would!) and the Doctor records this and plays it through an amplifier - which makes the seaweed retreat.

So, yes, our last completely missing story seemed to go down well.  PLUS we had the leaving of a companion.  Victoria has finally had enough of screaming and being constantly scared, so decides to stay.  In fact there were plenty of hints throughout this serial - her moaning about them ALWAYS being in danger and not knowing where they are going.  I wish we could have SEEN this scene as it would have been nice to see Jamie's reaction.  Although never stated you can see he adores Victoria - possibly even loves her.  You might wonder, if it was real life, he would have stayed with her.  Thankfully he doesn't as we NEED a Jamie in the TARDIS!

I think overall though we were most amused by Robson constantly (and irritably) telling everybody not to tell him what to do  as he'd been "FOUR YEARS" on the rigs!  "FOUR YEARS"!

Did I mention "FOUR YEARS"??!

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return - IN FOUR YEARS!!!

MJ - 31-07-15

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 38th MEET-UP - THE WEB OF FEAR

Sunday 6th July 2015

And so we advance into the heat of summer to our next meeting!  I was slightly worried.  The last time we had watched a six-parter, when it was really hot, had been during The Web Planet - which made everyone thoroughly miserable.  The previous few days had been such a hot few days that I was worried how we'd fair with today's story...

Not only that but I'd only just bought the DVD and it hadn't arrived in the post yet....


...I needn't have panicked!  The DVD arrived on Friday, Sunday actually turned out to be a cooler day than the days before - and the story turned out to be a lot of fun!

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

Re-discovered (minus one episode) back in 2013 the story starts with the TARDIS crew being nearly sucked out of the TARDIS doors (like Salamander was at the end of the previous story).  Thankfully they manage to close the doors and the story continues!

So this story take place nearly 40 years after The Abominable Snowmen, and we see an elderly Professor Travers (replete with white beard and extra grumpiness) who has reactivated a control sphere (the shiny, metal balls that controlled the Yeti Robots) during his studies.  He goes to warn his friend (Julius Silverstein - a collector of unusual objects), who actually has one of the de-activated robot Yeti's, that the sphere has re-activated and that he should hand him back the Yeti saying it's dangerous.  Silverstein (a funny little fellow with big glasses) refuses thinking that it's all a scam and that Travers must have found out that the Yeti is worth a lot of money and wants it back!  Travers's daughter then comes along and takes away her supposedly confused father...leaving Silverstein to be, surprise surprise, attacked by the re-activated Yeti!

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

And so follows 5 episodes and 1 re-con (an official high quality re-con, don't you know!) of Yeti's (redesigned with big glowing eyes) on the London Underground shooting guns that make webs.  Yes, webs!  Webs that cover lots of London!  As Russell T Davies would later say "Web guns?  Surely that should be a spider-story?" - but isn't it even more fun that it's not!?  I think we should keep spiders out of Doctor Who until, say, the next Doctor's last story?....

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

Other things of note in this story are the soldiers that the Doctor meets - especially one in particular: Colonel (later Brigadier) Lethbridge Stewart.  He would play a MUCH bigger part in Doctor Who mythology - but more on that at a later date...!  We'd also seen the actor before as he had played Bret Vyon in the Daleks Master Plan.
 

Photo 4: MJ (doing his best menacing Yeti impression),Leigh (holding the sign) and Mark (holding the DVD Cover)
around MJ's house!

I'd never seen the story before and would have to re-watch it to get a better idea of it all but I really enjoyed the tale myself.  There were some great locations, some great characters (the smarmy TV reporter was quite fun and Travers was great as an older grumpier man).

Photo 5: MJ (sneering whilst holding the sign AND the DVD Cover)
around his house!

I think the story went down well with all of us and the re-con was done so well that I almost forgot I was watching a re-con.

A bit of fun trivia was that the production team at the time asked to use an ACTUAL London Underground station but got refused permission.  So the team made their own version in the studio which was SO realistic that London Underground got in touch with the BBC and had a go at them for filming at a real station when they had already been refused permission!

Idiots.

Anyway that's it until next time when we shall be furious about deep stuff....

Until then, I shall return, yes I shall return!

MJ - 14-07-15

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