The Doctor Who Thread - Page 776

Demdike@Cult Labs · #**7751** 5th April 2018, 09:37 AM

The Zygons, including one using Clara's body, in the 2015 two parter The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion.

Gothmogxx · #**7752** 5th April 2018, 09:32 PM

The Web of Fear.

In 2011-2013 i'd pretty much accepted that this would never- could never, be found. I thought that the chances of a single episode return, let alone the whole thing, was impossible. A shame. Its the one I wanted back the most. Episode 4 specifically is the episode I wanted more than any other, just to see the Yeti vs Army scene.

So when it was rumoured by some users on Gallifrey Base with alleged connections that several episodes had returned and one of them was Web (the other two were Enemy of the World and Marco Polo, still waiting on the last one Philip, next to Evil of the Daleks its the one I want the most now), I just couldn't believe it.

By the time the news became uncontainable however I just knew episodes had come back, especially when the radio times confirmed it. We still speculated what was back: people "in the know" on GB were saying Enemy and almost all of Web was back bar episode 3 (today we know that they weren't lying, those people actually did have sources connected with the whole thing if they knew about Web 3). Quietly hope began to rise.

And then the Daily Mirror, I think it was, leaked the story and I just went nuts in a good way. It had actually happened. I was just hoping that no mistakes had been made and Episode 3 had actually been the one that was missed. Yes I'd love it back (and apparently Phil is close to finding it so he apparently says on the Enemy special edition), it has the Brig after all. But had it been Episode 4, my most wanted return that'd been missing, I'd have been quietly disappointed. Selfish? Maybe, but I don't know how I could have watched the other episodes without some form of regret. I still want Episode 3.

Anyway. Is it the best story ever? Is it Tomb of the Cybermen again with people being disappointed? The answer in my view is no and no. I loved it, not quite as much as the revelation that was Enemy, but I loved it all the same. I definitely wasn't a let down. Episode 1 I'd already seen probably a dozen times, both loving it as an episode and hating it when the credits rolled because the rest of it was missing. Not this time: I enjoyed it in a way i'd never done, knowing the story was going to continue.

Troughton is on holiday for Episode 2 (typical, you wait so long for a Troughton to return and its one he's not in haha) but the regulars carry it. Pretty much the entire guest cast in this rocks. The soldiers all have distinct personalities. Anne Travers is fantastic and could have been a companion. Professor Travers is also great. Chorley who you want to punch because the actor does such a good job making you hate him, works well. And of course you have the Brig himself. Still not a Brigadier yet, he "hasn't gone up in the world" as he puts in in The Invasion, he is as suspect as anyone when it comes to who is working for the Great Intelligence against HQ.

Episode 4 is obviously the highlight. Easily one of the best episodes of the 60's and it didn't disappoint at all. One of few times in any TV or film where I've hyped it up and didn't regret it, usually it never lives up to expectations. The fight between the Yeti and the Army is without a shadow of a doubt the best firefight I've seen so far in the show. Douglas Camfield is the greatest director the original show ever had.

I feel like it kind of becomes filler in Episode 5, not completely but nothing really happens. Episode 6 was a great ending though, even if by then the twist was blatantly obvious.

SPOILER:

. The tension as the Intelligence holds Troughton hostage is unique: there are two ways that he can get out the situation

SPOILER:

yet it still feels threatening. I'm glad they found this. Now Marco Polo or Evil? Or... Fury From the Deep?

I had to take a few sittings to get through Fury (the only Troughton story I note that doesn't have "The" at the start of the title) but only due to work in the morning. Had that not been the case i'd have ploughed through it quicker.

This is a good one. I don't love it as much as others do but I liked it. The cliffhangers are a clear strength here. Victoria under threat works well in episode 1 because she sounds genuinely scared. episode 2 just ends with the idea that the weed monster is down there, in the darkness, waiting... 3 has Maggie just walking into the water, which is very disturbing. 4 has the weed monster on the attack, 5 is kind of similar. Not being able to see it obviously makes it hard to judge but from what was censored and available, it looked to be a nicely directed story.

I liked Victoria departure. A HUGE improvement over just dumping Dodo on earth and the absolute shambles that was Polly and Ben just walking out. Here they actually foreshadow it and you can see Victorias point. Everywhere they go they get attacked, so why even be there in the first place? She clearly shows she is going to miss them though, hence her why she delays her decision. Overall a good story.

Our next base of the week is The Wheel in Space. I can't think of a better example of average Doctor Who. I don't really have much to say about it. I did like the first episode which consisted of mostly just Jamie, the Doctor and that robot on the ship. It has you intrigued. It has Cybermen in it and they look cool "you know our wayzzzz". Zoe and Jamie have a funny kind of relationship, constantly throwing jibes at one another. But that's all. After 6 episodes it goes nowhere very far, lots of let's blow up the rocket let's not blow up the rocket etc...

Season 5 was a fun run with the bases under siege. Feels very routine aside from Enemy. Nothing explicitly bad is present. The weaker links are The Abominable Snowmen and The Wheel In Space but even they aren't the worst the show has thrown my way. In comparison you have the likes of my favourite story so far The Enemy of the World and other classics like Tomb and Web so the goos outweighs the bad.

Season 6. I'm happy to be here because most of it exists for a start and I like a lot of these stories, I've seen The Invasion at least a dozen times since 2008 (weird to think its been 10 years since I first watched it) and I remember binge watching The War Games in one sitting and not getting bored. All 4 hours and 10 minutes of it.

Susan Foreman · #**7753** 6th April 2018, 03:47 AM

April 6th: Today in WHO-story

Births
1902 - John Cura (telesnap photography of 1960s Doctor Who episodes)

1923 - Michael Rathborne (Taxi Driver in The War Machines)
1932 - Leon Eagles (Jabel in The Face of Evil)
1937 - Katie Cashfield (Thal in The Daleks); Terence Hardiman (Hawthorne in The Beast Below and Reverend Hobbs in the AudioGO story Serpent Crest; Big Finish Productions actor - Sitric Silkbread in The Book of Kells, Hepworth Stackhouse in The English Way of Death, Richard Pollard in the Charlotte Pollard story The Fall of the House and Escape in the Torchwood story Aliens Among Us)
1957 - Glen Murphy (Dibber in The Trial of a Time Lord and an extra in Kinda)
1958 - Richard Willis (Varsh in Fill Circle)
1959 - Mark Strickson (Turlough [companion]; Captain McDonnell in the Big Finish audio Zagreus)

1967 - Jonathan Firth (Big Finish actor - John in The Doomwood Curse and Cadwallader in Hard in Harvest of the Sycorax)
1977 - Teddy Sears (Blue-eyed Man in The Beast in the Torchwood story Miracle Day)
1986 - David Avery (Fabian in The Name of the Doctor')

Deaths
1968 - Keith Pyott (Autloc in The Aztecs) died aged 66

Episodes
1968 - Fury from the Deep, Episode Four: 6.6 million viewers
1974 - The Monster of Peladon, Part Three: 7.4 million viewers
2013 - The Rings of Akhaten: 7.45 million viewers

Releases
1998 - Legacy of the Daleks and The Hollow Men (BBC Books)
1999 - Revolution Man and Players (BBC Books)
2000 - Issue 210 of Doctor Who Magazine (Panini UK)

2015 - The Ghost Trap (Big Finish)
2017 - The Companion's Companion (BBC Children's Books); issue 511 of Doctor Who Magazine (Panini); T is for TARDIS (BBC Children's Books)

Behind-the-Scenes
2011 - Recording of the Big Finish audio The Witch from the Well took place

Susan Foreman · #**7754** 6th April 2018, 11:53 AM

The first in (possibly) a semi-regular quiz/game

Can you solve these anagrams to find the titles of nine Classic Who serials....and then work out what all these serials have in common?

1. RUNE MIST
2. FOGHORN FROCK ROAR
3. HUSTLE MRS EGG
4. THEN MEN TINGLE
5. RETHINK EARTH FOAM
6. WATCHMEN ARE NEUTERED
7. SPRAYS FROM AMID
8. KNEAD CANES
9. NO SHIES FOUNTAIN ADVISOR

It's just for fun, so the answers are revealed below

SPOILER:

Demdike@Cult Labs · #**7755** 6th April 2018, 12:09 PM

Giant Maggots from the 1973 tale The Green Death.

Susan Foreman · #**7756** 7th April 2018, 04:11 AM

April 7th: Today in WHO-story

Births
1927 - Lawrence Davidson (Draconian First Secretary in Frontier in Space)
1930 - Andrew Sachs (the Doctor's Scarf in the AudioGO story Serpent Crest; Big Finish Productions actor - Skagra in the audio adaptation of Shada, the alternative version of Adric in The Boy That Time Forgot and Crassostrea in Orbis)

1934 - Arthur Cox (Cully in The Dominators and Mr Henderson in The Eleventh Hour)
1937 - Ian Richardson (Narrator of Reeltime Pictures' Doctor Who spin-off Dæmos Rising; son of Reeltime Pictures and Big Finish actor Miles Richardson)
1940 - Roger Jacombs (Yeti in The Web of Fear and an extra in The Faceless Ones)
1941 - Janie Booths (Hospital Patient in the Torchwood episode Dead Man Walking and the Old Woman in the Class episode Nightvisiting; Big Finish actress - System in The Harvest, Old Woman in Medicinal Purposes and Eve Morris in The Gathering)
1952 - Clark Peters (Night Eagle in the animated special Dreamland)
1983 - Jonathan Fidgen (Camera Assistant and Focus Puller on Doctor Who and Torchwood)

Deaths
2017 - Tim Piggott-Smith (Captain Harker in The Claws of Axos and Marco in The Masque of Mandragora) aged 70

Episodes
1973 - Planet of the Daleks, Episode One: 11.0 million viewers
2007 - The Shakespeare Code: 7.23 million viewers

Documentaries
2007 - Doctor Who Confidential: Stage Freight

Releases
2003 - Reckless Engineering (BBC Books)
2004 - The Iron Legion (Panini UK)
2005 - Horror of Fang Rock (DVD - region 4)

2008 - The Myth Makers and The Creature from the Pit (BBC Audio)
2011 - Issue 212 of Doctor Who Adventures (BBC Magazines); issue 433 of Doctor Who Magazine (Panini)

Behind-the-Scenes
2000 - Recording of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield story The Extinction Event took place
2006 - Recording of the Big Finish audio Red took place
2011 - Recording of the Big Finish audio Army of Death took place