The Doctor Who Thread

[Susan Foreman]

Gordon Craig, doubling for William Hartnell, takes a break during the filming of 'The Smugglers' in 1966. Craig would also appear as The Doctor in episode three of 'The Tenth Planet', when Hartnell was too ill to work

[Susan Foreman]

Setting up a model shot for 'Enlightenment'

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The skull of the Fendahl from 1977's Image of the Fendahl.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Genesis of the Daleks to be shown in cinemas.



Pity it's US only.

[Demoncrat]

Isn't it the 'movie' version anyhow??

[Gothmogxx]

Yeah The War Games is many things... The best Story of Season 6 for a start... Troughton's best Story as well (besides this I'd probably go with Mind Robber as the other best one that isn't his Final story)... The best Black and White Story... And one of the very best Stories Doctor Who has ever put out. How very lucky we are as fans to have such a wonderful story. And THANK GOD ALL 10 EPISODES EXIST

Yes this is a 10 parter Story. As such you might think it'd drag. But no. It never, ever does. And its the only one of the super long B&W Stories to not drag. Daleks Master Plan has its strong points (Episode 12 is a masterpiece) but I never thought it was anything other than good/average overall. The Invasion almost gets it right but the last half of Episode 8 starts to slow down (maybe i'm being unfair but in fairness everything else about that one was great).

This doesn't drag, and its length although not intentional is a worthy tribute to Troughtons final story. Very clever as well. It doesn't give it all away at once or even in a few episodes. It slowly reveals information in tantalizing clues, starting out pretty historical, then we get the General, then the war chief and security chief then finally the War Lord. Then the Time Lords!!

A simple glimpse into the War Chiefs thoughts with the " I wonder.." Sets the scene of more to come.

We need the two episodes spent in the WW1 warzone... Just as we needed the scenes in Rome as a means of raising more questions. We needed the scenes in the barn just to understand the scale of it all and just how many soldiers from different eras are involved... There honestly isn't any fat to this steak that needed cut off, it just somehow works with its immense length.

Villains. We have General Smythe and Von Weich in charge of the ground troops. They work well enough. But the real deal here is The War Chief, the Security Chief and The War Lord. The War Chief and the Security Chief hate one another and its entertaining watching them constantly trying to one up each other. The War Lord is played by Philip Madoc who can never fail acting in Doctor Who...

But the ending has to be discussed. In fact practically everything from the end of Episode 9. By episode 10 we the audience are left in no doubt as to what is happening and boy it's sad. It's like the kids have finally been reprimanded by their parents: the party is over. The Doctor knows this as we do and he even tries to keep Zoe and Jamie away from him because he knows its pointless, escape isn't possible. By the time he's in the TARDIS trying to get away he knows the game is up: I believe he's just trying to supply Jamie and Zoe with false hope. The Time Lords can't be outmatched: and they never were this scary again. God-like beings who can bring down terrifying villains with ease (before they get humiliated by Omega a few more seasons down the road that is and have to get several Doctors help).

In conclusion... I'm going to miss Troughton. But by this point I want to move on. Doctor Who survives on account of its greatest strength: To change. To adapt to a new format. And it needs to do this again as it did with Hartnell (the people behind the scenes knew as well with viewing figures pretty low) Troughton was amazing as a Doctor and his era was on the whole good. All throughout but especially at the end (off topic but Hartnell deserved something like this). In his final scenes goes out fighting. The Time Lords mention how in his defence while on trial he said that he was fighting the evils of the universe, which makes me think of him all the way back in Moonbase "There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things which act against everything we believe in. They must be fought." And that was the very heart of his era. Hartnell did it too but he was more about historicals and human villains, at least for the most part. Troughton took on monster after monster after monster almost every week. In his defence while on trial he mentions Quarks, Yeti, Ice Warriors, Cybermen and of course, the Daleks. But we didn't even get to hear about the Macra, or the Krotons, or the Chameleons, or the brain from the Land of Fiction... Monsters was his speciality, usually with a bit of base under siege thrown in. And of course Zoe, she'll be missed. The best, strongest female companion since Barbara easily. Jamie, the best male companion since Ian. And like Ian he stuck around for a while so he'll also be missed. Its cruel how they get their memories wiped but it is a good departure. Again, the first good one since Ian and Barbara left. The 60's had one last chance to get it right with a good departure and they took it.

Great Doctor, great companions, great era. Shame to be leaving it but at least they went out on a high with a moving ending and wonderful conclusion to the 60's opening the door to a whole new decade and format for the show. Troughton did bow out at the right time leaving the way for a fresh start and a new actor to take the reigns. Its time for change. It's what I love about the series, just when you think it can give you no more, someone else comes along and adds to the series. That is a strength which continues to this day (good luck Jodie!).

Goodbye Patrick Troughton and roll on Jon Pertwee, UNIT and the 70's...

[Susan Foreman]

May 2nd: Today in WHO-story

Births
1925 - Peggy Mount (Stallslady in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)

1927 - Ray Barrett (Bennett in The Rescue); Esmond Webb (Sergeant-Major Burns in The War Games)
1939 - Peter Dean (extra in The Face of Evil)
1941 - Paul Darrow (Captain Hawkins in Doctor Who and the Silurians, Tekker in Timelash, Guidance in the Big Finish Productions audio The Next Life and Kaston Iago in Magic Bullet Productions' Doctor Who audio spin-off series Kaldor City)

1961 - Tom Arden (writer of the Telos Publishing novella Nightdreamers)
1963 - Esther Freud (Threst in Attack of the Cybermen)
1975 - Finlay Robertson (Larry Nightingale in Blink)

Deaths
1998 - Alan Viccars (extra in The Aztecs, The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, The Underwater Menace and Doctor Who and the Silurians) died

Episodes
1964 - The Keys of Marinus, Episode Four ('The Snows of Terror'): 10.4 million viewers
1970 - The Ambassadors of Death, Episode Seven: 6.4 million viewers
2003 - Shada, Episode One

Introductions
2003 - Launch of the webcast adaptation of Shada, a story originally written and partly-recorded in 1979. A co-production between Big Finish and the BBC, Paul McGann reprised the role of the Eighth Doctor (Tom Baker was reluctant to be involved with Big Finish at the time) and some scenes were added to explain the Eighth Doctor's presence rather than the Fourth Doctor

Releases
1973 - The Daleks (2nd paperback edition), The Zarbi (1st paperback edition) and The Crusaders (2nd paperback edition) (Target Books)

2002 - Issue 317 of Doctor Who Magazine (Panini Comics UK)
2013 - Issue 318 of Doctor Who Adventures (Immediate Media Co.); issue 460 of Doctor Who Magazine (Panini)

Behind-the-Scenes
1964 - The First Doctor doesn't appear in episode four of The Keys of Marinus ('The Snows of Terror') due to William Hartnell being on holiday during filming

[trebor8273]

For anyone that is interested this is 2.99 at the moment.

https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Sci-Fi-...ics_typ_gb#_=_

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Missy (Michelle Gomez) as seen in 2014's Death in Heaven.

[Susan Foreman]

It's not what you think!

First published in 1954, a full nine years before Terry Nation gave the Daleks a home planet

From the dust jacket:
"Jess Matthews, a fully accredited American foreign correspondent, had come into the People’s Free Federal Republic in comfort on the Orient Express. But events had moved too swiftly in the Balkans and now he was trying to escape from that terrorized country by masquerading as a peasant driving a herd of goats.
He had come in alone. Going out -- if he was ever to get out -- he had company: Cora Lambert, a high-voltage American newspaper woman, who was equally in trouble. For Jess and Cora had learned a secret that could destroy Bulic, head of the dreaded Security Police, and to Bulic it was a choice of his life or theirs.
Jess had decided their only chance of survival was to head for the frontier at the border town of Skaro -- with the Security Police hot on their heels. Adventure piled on adventure, escape on hair-breadth escape. Mile by mile the two correspondents made their way toward the hoped-for lights of freedom, hiding in gutted farmhouses, riding in a Model T truck full of singing girls and, finally, creeping into the darkened graveyard above the brightly lit frontier river -- just short of safety."