7th Doctor Audio Overview (1 of 7)

Audios

·         The Lost Stories: Season 27

-          Thin Ice

-          Crime of the Century

-          Animal

-          Earth Aid

·         Destiny of the Doctor

-          Shockwave

·         Main Range

-          The Fearmonger

-          The Genocide Machine

-          Dust Breeding

-          Colditz

-          The Rapture

In my last blog, I mentioned how it was such a crushing shame that Doctor Who originally ended when it did – when it had been at its best for the first time in over a decade and had seemed to be given a new lease of life. With a new direction in the series of companions with more depth, stories for the family with a touch of darkness, and a Doctor with more mystery to him than ever, it seemed like the show was finally starting to find its feet again, and it looked like the BBC had cancelled it at the wrong time.

However, having listened to the stories that were originally planned for season 27 before its cancellation, I’m instead now wondering if, as terrible as it is to say it, the BBC made the right decision after all.

That’s not to say that season 27 is terrible, in fact, there’s a number of things to enjoy about it. There’s the brilliant character of Raine Creevy for a start, perhaps the only companion in Doctor Who history where the Doctor’s not only been there at her birth, but delivered it, too! I love her mixture of having an excellent education, well manners, and of course, the pleasure she gets from being a thief. Beth Chalmers is excellent at not just playing the posh, clever girl but also Raine’s own mother. That’s one thing I really loved about this season – that it had such a cool idea as introducing a character first as a baby, then have the Doctor skip ahead over 20 years to when she’s grown up and have her tag along for a few adventures. With some characters, that’d probably be considered creepy, but for someone like the Doctor, especially the Seventh Doctor, it’s almost Gandalf-ish in the way he turns up out the blue (or in this case, out of a safe that Raine was trying to break into) and brings Raine along for an adventure due to knowing her parents first.

There’s something else I like about the season – there’s a little more development of the Doctor’s character, of seeing a little more of the man with the master plan at work. What I love is how he not only comes up with such brilliant schemes to fight his enemies with, but how one little thing can bring those plans crashing down. And that’s where the Doctor really shines – when he has to think of something on the spot at the very last minute to save the day, and the fact is, he usually does it brilliantly.

So what’s the problem? Why don’t I enjoy “season 27” as much as seasons 25 and 26? Well, for one thing, there are the stories. Again, they’re not terrible, and I really enjoyed both Thin Ice for the really strong ideas (then again, it was written by Marc Platt), and Crime of the Century especially is such a ridiculously fun listen. But while those two stories are pretty good as the highlights of the season, there’s nothing that matches the greatness and multi-layered complexity of stories such as Remembrance of the Daleks, Ghost Light, or The Curse of Fenric.

One thing that possibly doesn’t help is that, surprisingly, there’s a considerably lighter tone throughout this season, which is a shame, as the darker storytelling of season 26 in particular made it one of my favourites. This is especially noteworthy of the Doctor – while he’s still a man who likes to have his plans, we see less of the secretive, darker nature that we caught glimpses of in Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric, although I must say (and this is another reason why I enjoyed Thin Ice), it was great to see him testing Ace, sometimes being forced to leave her in the lurch to see if she’s ready for a potential major change in her life. It’s disappointing that there wasn’t more of this throughout the season, really.

Interestingly, had Thin Ice been made on television as originally planned, this would’ve been Ace’s last story in the series, as she would’ve been sent away to Gallifrey to become a Time Lord. However, Big Finish made the bold move of adjusting the story accordingly so it fitted better with the continuity that Big Finish had created rather than simply aiming for a “what if?” season and have Ace fail to enter the Time Lord Academy – as a result, the rest of the season contains a significant difference than its original televised form by including Ace for the entire run.

Neither Animal nor Earth Aid left much of an impression on me. There were some good ideas in there, but neither story grabbed me. Good ideas were that in Animal, there was a nice way of dividing the 4-part story into two distinct halves, the first half involving flesh eating plants at a university, the second involving altogether different aliens on a spaceship. Earth Aid has the return of an alien race introduced in Crime of the Century and even reveals more about their origins, so I liked that the season had a number of arc elements throughout.

What I didn’t like was how the stories were executed. The aliens in Animal weren’t particularly interesting, a complaint I also have of another race entirely that’s introduced in Earth Aid. There was also a potentially interesting idea of Ace pretending to be the captain of a starship in the final story, but I felt that it wasn’t written quite as well as it should’ve been, as I often found myself questions such as “Why wasn’t the Doctor pretending to be the captain when he clearly knew more about the job than she did? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to be undercover instead of her?”

Overall, I found season 27 to be good with a couple of hit-and-misses, but after the excellent season 25 and 26, it’s just a bit of a disappointment, especially with its slightly lighter take of the 7^th Doctor than what we had seen previously.

The next story I listened to was the seventh release of the Destiny of the Doctor series, which focuses on a different incarnation with every story, all in very different adventures and yet with hints of a much larger story, especially the messages that every incarnation is receiving from a certain guy in a bow tie. Listening to this between season 27 and Big Finish’s main range’s story of the Seventh Doctor and Ace seemed as good a place as any, and honestly, I thought this was much more in tone with the darker Doctor we had seen in the final TV season than in what would’ve been the 27^th. The Doctor and Ace arrive on a spaceship escaping from an exploding star, and Ace thinks that they’ve arrived to help everyone. But the Doctor has his own agenda, arriving there specifically at a point in history when it’s easy to retrieve an object that’s usually impossibly secure. This idea of the Doctor working towards his own agenda and even using history itself in his aims to achieve it, no matter how terrible Ace might feel about it, fits in much more with the Doctor who kept secrets from his companion on why she was taken away from her home in the first place, or forcing her to confront a childhood nightmare than the portrayal we got in the Lost Stories. He may still try to save people, but more and more, he’s becoming more interested in something that’s potentially dangerous: the ‘greater good’. It’s this part of the Seventh Doctor that makes him such an interesting character to me.

Of course, he’s not all bad – after all, the key thing about the Doctor is that, no matter what incarnation he’s in, he always tries to be a hero. This is something I saw throughout the earliest productions from Big Finish featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace. His character isn’t as dark as what I saw in season 26, but it’s hardly as light as what I listened to in season 27, either. This is helped by the stories having a somewhat darker tone than even the TV series a great deal of the time, although overall I’d say it doesn’t venture too far into ‘adult’, with the possible exception of the Rapture, which I’ll get round to. Grouped together, these 5 stories aren’t perfect, but overall, I enjoyed them more than the Lost Stories.

Highlights are The Fearmonger, Colditz and, for originality and radicalness at least, The Rapture. The Fearmonger’s an excellent tale that examines fear, paranoia and mob mentality. The alien in the story is an intriguing premise in that it’s not out to take over the universe or even ‘possess’ people, it’s just a creature that feeds on fear itself, and the way it does it in the story is so brilliant that I really can’t give anything more away. But it was a story that felt modern while also feeling like a natural extension of where the series was heading, and an excellent use of the audio medium of storytelling, especially with the monster.

The next story, The Genocide Machine, wasn’t so great. Worth listening for being the beginning of the Dalek Empire arc that continued with 6^th Doctor story The Apocalypse Element (featuring the first time the Daleks invaded Gallifrey), 5^th Doctor story The Mutant Phase and 8^th Doctor story Time of the Daleks (with the arc also setting up events for the excellent spinoff series Dalek Empire), but the story of the Daleks invading the greatest library in the universe just didn’t grab me. I loved the return of the Emperor of the Daleks though, and the story is great at highlighting just how dedicated and cunning the Daleks idea – the idea of an ancient ziggurat on the planet turning out to be a Dalek ship that had waited thousands of years for the opportunity to enter the library was especially brilliant.

The story also introduced thief Bev Tarrant, who bumps into the Doctor and Ace in the following story Dust Breeding. Overall, while there were a few characters who didn’t grab my interest (the psychotic artist especially was one I really wasn’t keen on), I liked it a little better than the Genocide Machine, quite possibly helped by the fact that the second part of the story has an AWESOME twist that brought back a much loved enemy into the Big Finish audio range. With how vicious the Krill are, the story could be considered a little too violent at times (although hardly much of a problem on audio), and the story of possessed dust and artwork is ok, but the story didn’t interest me quite as much as it should have.

Thankfully, this is where the excellent Colditz comes in. The Doctor and Ace arriving at an important place in history – in this case, the prison Colditz castle in World War II – is refreshing, and there are a number of excellent characters throughout. The Nazi soldier Kurtz (played by at the time future Doctor David Tennant) is a wonderfully evil and sadistic character who believes that what the Nazis are doing is right but frustrated and paranoid at the thought that he might be too easily ignored by his superior officers. Schafer’s equally excellent in that, while he might be in charge of his prisoners, he treats them with respect, particularly Gower, a man more eager for himself and his fellow prisoners to escape than anyone. It comes as quite a blow when Gower pushes Schafer to do as he asks or Gower will inform the Commandant for all the favours that Schafer has already done for him. As I said, all the characters in this story feel real and three-dimensional, and the fact that the historical part of the story is (minus the Doctor and Ace, of course) inspired by real events more than likely helps.

But the best character of the story, and indeed the best reason for listening to the story in the first place (yes, better than hearing the Tenth Doctor play a Nazi) is Elizabeth Klein. She’s a Nazi, but not from 1944 Germany – she is, in fact, from England in the 1960s, or rather, an alternative timeline accidentally created by the Doctor and Ace’s arrival in Colditz. Played brilliantly by Tracey Childs, Klein is someone who genuinely believes that England is a better place under Nazi leadership, who believes that living in a country of peace is more than worth the cost of both countless lives and freedom. More interestingly, she believes her version of history to be “the real one”, and is surprised that the Doctor seems keen to change it for reasons such as genocide when in her mind there have been far greater crimes across history. Considering how excellent and intriguing Klein’s character is, and the implications of not just an alternative history, but also an alternative timeline Doctor manipulating Klein to alert ‘our’ Doctor and put history back on track, it’s no wonder that Klein not only returned later in the audios (much, much later – it was 8 years before Klein finally returned in a Big Finish story), but has arguably become one of its most popular original characters. As for how her story develops, well…more on that later.

Overall, I’d rate Colditz as highly as my favourite 7th Doctor TV stories, and believe me, that’s saying a lot. A mixture of some fantastic time travel ideas with excellent characters and a great use of history, this is a highly recommended listen.

The Rapture, while not being quite as good, is still another great listen in how radical its approach to Doctor Who really is. Featuring the Doctor and Ace arriving in Ibiza and a story that involves clubbing, drugs and long lost family members, this story at times almost seems closer to Torchwood than Doctor Who (unsurprisingly, writer Joseph Lidster later wrote an episode for series 2 of Torchwood). And that’s why I like it. It tries something different, and while at times, especially with the clubbing scenes, it tries too hard to be ‘hip’, for the most part, I think it succeeds really well. With a story that features characters trying to escape depression through drugs and dancing and one of the alien characters of the story being less ‘mad’ and more genuinely mentally ill, this is certainly a story with a lot of darkness to it. But, and this is where I really appreciate Lidster as a writer, he’s not afraid to throw in some humour in there, too.  The Doctor’s usual routine of trying to check up on Ace is given a great twist when Ace is at a club and the Doctor is struggling to convince the bouncer to let him in is a wonderful example. There’s not a lot of humour, but it’s enough to add a little bit of light in a very dark story with some surprising depth.

Overall, the audios have been enjoyable to listen to so far. A little hit-and-miss in some places, but ultimately worth it for such excellent stories like The Fearmonger and Colditz. And thinking about that, it brings me back to my earlier point. When I began this blog, I said I wondered if the BBC actually made the right decision in cancelling Doctor Who when it did, which I’ll finally explain. Firstly, as I mentioned, the stories planned to follow the final season of classic Who weren’t particularly great, or at least, they didn’t match the standard that had been set by the previous 2 seasons, and Doctor Who had been living with the axe over its head for a number of years at that point. I was frustrated that the BBC had decided to end it just as it was starting to become great again, but having listened to season 27, I beginning to wonder if it might have been a blessing in disguise. When the show finished, it ended at such a high point that it left the fans wanting more and no one felt it had outstayed its welcome (well, not the people who were still watching the show at least, anyway).

The second reason why I think that the BBC letting Doctor Who go is a good thing is that, as I said before but to re-emphasise, the fans wanted more. And one way or another, we got that. It was no longer on television, but we got it. We got it from books, we got it from comics, and of course, we got it from audios. Based on Big Finish’s earliest stories featuring the excellent pair of the Doctor and Ace and compared with what was planned for season 27, in my opinion I think we’re rather lucky with the directions they’ve taken both the Doctor and especially Ace in, the latter of which growing up in Colditz and finally deciding to use her real name of “Dorothy McShane” (well ok, maybe not the first name, but it’s still a wonderful bit of development). I’ve really been enjoying the earliest Big Finish stories featuring the two, and I can’t wait to hear the next lot. Especially as they’re about to introduce the brilliant companion Thomas Hector Schofield aka Hex. I am so eager to start listening to that team from the start.

Actually speaking of which, there’s a lot of things I’m looking forward to about listening to all of the Seventh Doctor audios in chronological order. These include:

·         Arcs. Bloody hell, there’s so many that I don’t even know where to start. The excellent thing about Big Finish is that they love setting up arcs or little threads that can take years to pay off – there’s a secret the Doctor keeps from Hex that Hex doesn’t find out about until six years after he was introduced. Admittedly, this is helped by the fact that Big Finish have not just four Doctors to include in their main range but even more multiple on-going storylines – in fact, Big Finish being able to have such variety based on one single series is just another reason why I love Doctor Who so much – but still, having on-going threads that pay off in big ways like Project: Destiny and Gods and Monsters is a rewarding experience. The latter especially had so many details – including elements from a whole mixture of arcs, not just the season it was in but the Black TARDIS from the season before, the Elder Gods appearance from Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge from the season before that and even a hint of a returning villain in 2009’s The Magic Mousetrap – that I’ve been dying for an excuse to listen to all of it all over again and try and make as much sense of it as possible.

·         The return of Klein. Like I said, I loved her first appearance in Colditz, and I’m really keen to re-listen to her further appearances, especially the excellent epic UNIT Dominion. She’s also in the current season that Big Finish are releasing, which I’m really eager to get round to, especially as it’s set very near to the Seventh Doctor’s final chronological appearance in the TV movie, but I think it’s better to wait it out and reward myself with such a trilogy when I finish.

·         A Death in the Family. I love this story. I think it’s a beautiful, beautiful story that…well, like I said, more on that later, but it honestly is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories in any medium, and I’m hugely eager to re-listen to it.

·         Hex. Did I mention Hex? Hex is awesome! But shockingly, there are a number of his earlier stories that I’ve yet to listen to, which is almost everything between his first story The Harvest and The Magic Mousetrap, so it’ll be great to hear his whole story for the first time.

Right, that’s my thoughts on the first part on my journey with the Seventh Doctor done. Time for me to take a short break by listening to Dalek Empire III while waiting for my next cds to arrive. Hope you enjoyed the blog!

The Name of the Doctor Analysis (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Wow. What a finale. You gotta hand it to Moffat – after all that worry over whether an anniversary ep would be able to celebrate 50 years of continuity, he practically gives us the equivalent of such an ep 6 months early, with multiple Doctors, a ton of references from all over the history of the show, and of course, what makes Doctor Who arguably so great, a cliffhanger. No, not just any cliffhanger: after a season of practically no cliffhangers (with the possible exception of The Snowmen), we get the MOTHER of all cliffhangers.

So where to begin? The beginning seems appropriate, since we are talking about THE beginning here: seeing the moment when an old man leaves Gallifrey with his granddaughter, in an old type 40 capsule, was just fucking glorious for so many fan-gasming reasons. I mean, for starters, there’s the obvious, like seeing the actual beginning of the story like never before, seeing not only Gallifrey itself but some nice clips of William Hartnell included, but there’s also the little things, like the early TARDISes being reminiscent to the TARDIS capsules that we saw in classic story The War Games. Followed by some nicely included clips of The Five Doctors, Castrovalva, The Invasion of Time and Dragonfire, to name a few. All of which involving Clara, the Impossible Girl we had been wondering about since Asylum of the Daleks kicked off. What a way to kick off the story by celebrating both the past 50 years and building up the finale to the past 13 episodes all in one.

Then we got cracking on with the main plot, involving Trenzalore. Having been built up since the end of season 6, I was eager to see it. And what is Trenzalore, exactly? The place where the Doctor will one day be buried. The place where his entire timeline exists and could potentially be accessed by anyone. Now, I've gotta wonder, is this worth all the build up? Not just since the ending of the series 6 finale in which Trenzalore was first directly mentioned and “The Question” was fully revealed, but since The Eleventh Hour, when the arc of the Silence first started and which slowly revealed over time how an entire order had been set up to make sure that the Doctor never, ever answered “the Question that must never be answered”? Well…yes and no.  Yes in that trying to protect the Doctor’s entire timeline – a timeline in which he has not repeatedly saved the universe but also visited so many places and so many times – would be something you’d want to make sure never got touched by the wrong hands, even if it meant ending the life of that person, (and the irony that River, some who was originally meant to kill the person who was supposed to answer the most dangerous question is the one who gives the answer is absolutely fucking delicious,) but I still think there’s numerous questions left to be answered, including why they blew up the TARDIS in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang (if it was really them). I still don’t buy that the explosion was caused by either the events of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, which was clearly an accidental explosion or by the Great Intelligence accessing his timeline (although a voice without a body COULD explain the “Silence Will Fall” moment in Pandorica, it is, at the moment, not entirely satisfactory, considering the Intelligence re-wrote EVERYTHING in the Doctor’s history and Clara helped re-write it back). To be honest, I really think the Silence should’ve returned for this episode, although we still have the anniversary episode to look forward to, with some massive rumours going around that it will answer MANY questions from across Moffat’s entire run of the show. Gotta say, I really hope those rumours are true.

Now, that’s pretty much my main complaints out of the way, now onto what else I enjoyed about the episode. First, how much of a rollercoaster it was for my emotions to go through. Honestly, there were some beautiful moments for me to watch, including, but not limited to: the Doctor’s reaction to finding out about Trenzalore and what it really means to him; the site of the dead TARDIS as the Doctor’s tomb (“where else would they bury me?”); Clara accepting her fate and jumping into the Doctor’s timeline to save him; even the kiss between the Doctor and River was great, not to mention hysterical (“since I’m the only one who can see you right now, god knows how that looked”). There was something emotional about the episode in general, as it is, as with season 6, the Doctor confronting his own mortality – only here, he really is confronting it literally. He’s seeing that, no matter how much he’s cheated death before and no matter how many more times he’ll continue to cheat it, one day, he will die, and his beloved blue box will be buried with him with no one to look after her. Neither he nor we know when it’ll happen, but still, it’s a sad sight for all when the Doctor is forced to accept that his story will have, one day, an ending.

It’s not just the future the Doctor has to face in this episode, however. It’s also his past, which brings us to the Great Intelligence, (of which I was glad to see make a return appearance, rounding off not just the trilogy of stories that he’s appeared in this season, but also his entire story since The Abominable Snowmen with the Second Doctor), and of course, River. Now, bringing River back post-Forest of the Dead was a bold move on Moffat, but it wasn’t a decision I minded, for two reasons. First, the fact that they didn’t really bring her back from the dead, considering it was always made clear in the episode Forest of the Dead that she still lived on, just in data format, and what’s beautiful here is that she’s still just that. She isn’t magically given a new body, she is, essentially, still a ghost. And I really do hope it stays that way.

The other thing I liked about including this particular version of River in this story is how fitting it is, both for the story of the episode and for season 7 in general. It’s the Doctor not just facing up to his past; it’s facing up to another ending. He’ll continue to see River perhaps, but (hopefully) not as she is now. It’s saying goodbye to another Pond. That, more than anything, is why I liked seeing this version of River in the season 7 finale.

As for the other returning characters…I like the trio of Vastra, Jenny and Strax, but I do think they are overused at times, especially as comic relief. It was great to see Strax acting as a proper Sontaran though when history started to change, I must admit. It was a great reminder of how scary and how ruthless the Sontarans can be and how much the Doctor can change things so drastically. Can we have more scary Sontarans back soon Moffat? Please? And less of the, to quote The Office (UK), “She’s deaaaaaaad…” “SHE’S NOT DEAD!” moments, thanks? Hearing Jenny say, “I think I’ve been murdered,” I couldn’t help but think, “Don’t worry, it’s a Moffat script, you’ll be back in no time.” And sure enough, she was…before she died again fifteen minutes later, and was brought back from the dead less than five minutes later! That’s gotta be some kind of record, even for Moffat!

Still, the climax and the resolution of the “Clara mystery” was worth it. I’ll be honest, I did guess some time ago that there was never anything special about this version of Clara, not until some kind of future event would cause the whole multiple Clara thing would one day happen, but only because we all know how much Moffat loves his timey-wimey plots, and to be honest, so do I, so I was glad to see that the resolution made sense, at least.

And now, onto the biggest part of the episode of all: the cliffhanger. “Introducing John Hurt…as the Doctor.” Wow. Bold, Moffat, definitely bold. How do I feel about it? Well, if it is who I suspect it’s meant to be, it completely writes out my McGann death scene fanfic. Ok, seriously, do I think that Hurt is supposed to be the “original” Ninth Doctor? Yes. Looking back, there are clear hints about it, if you rewatch Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS – where Clara discovers the Doctor’s name, where does she discover it? In a book about the Time War. Not of Gallifrey in general, but specifically the Time War. I thought it was odd that the book would mention his real name, but now it kinda makes sense. If the Doctor gave up his chosen name when he did the things he did in the War, it not only explains why his name would appear in a book specifically about the War, it also gives greater significance to where the series began again in 2005. Suddenly, the idea of Eccleston’s Doctor being so different to all before makes more sense than ever – he’s not just recovering from the War, he’s learning to be “the Doctor” all over again. And I’ve gotta be honest, that’s an idea I really, really like. I could be wrong, he could be a pre-Hartnell Doctor, but considering the leather jacket and the idea that he “broke the promise”, I’m convinced that he’s meant to be the incarnation between the 8^th and the 9^th.

I do have to say though that there is a bit of a missed opportunity here, especially if Moffat’s had this planned for a while. Namely, who’s cast as the “missing” Doctor. Now don’t get me wrong, John Hurt’s brilliant, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he’ll do with it. But I can’t help but be reminded of Scream of the Shalka. In 2003, an animated webcast, Scream of the Shalka, was made to celebrate the 40^th anniversary. What was so special about this particular story? It was set after the end of the TV movie and featured a brand new Doctor and was supposedly the start for a brand new online series. Who played this Ninth Doctor? Richard E Grant. That’s right, the guy that played the Great Intelligence. Now this story wasn’t AMAZING, but it did have plenty of great little ideas (my favourite being the Master being turned into a robot servant of the Doctor and was forced to be his companion), was funny and was a pretty cool way of bringing Doctor Who into the 21^st century, or so it seemed at the time. Then of course, in November, they announced that Doctor Who was coming back anyway and Scream of the Shalka was written out of canon altogether, along with Grant’s version of the Doctor. Now, with this episode, I can’t help but imagine how much cooler it would've been if they had held off casting Richard E Grant until this particular episode, therefore revealing that actually Shalka was canon after all. Would’ve been even more of an amazing twist for this fan. Still, like I said, Hurt’s a fine choice for playing the part, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his incarnation.

One more thing I'll mention: the title, and how the story relates to it. I think it was genius of Moffat to have the title suggest one thing, something I was very afraid of, before revealing it meant something else entirely. We thought "The Name of the Doctor" referred to his real name, or at least, the name he had before he became the Doctor. I was incredibly worried that Moffat would actually reveal it, as in my opinion, the name had been so shrouded in mystery for so long, and that mystery was so important to the series, that I didn't think there was any possible way that the revelation of the name itself could've been anything better than anti-climactic. (Unless his name turned out to be Batman, that would've been cool enough.) But instead, it's about something else entirely. It's about the Doctor's identity. About what it is to be the Doctor, and not just any Time Lord. About his life, his death and, most importantly, why being the Doctor is so important. "What I did...I did in the name of peace and sanity." "But not in the name of the Doctor." Perfect words to end on.

So that’s my analysis of the episode: flawed, but overall a great episode. 8/10. As for season 7 overall? I’m not going to give it a rating until I watch it a 2^nd time through, but I must be honest, this season hasn’t impressed me as much as season 6. Don’t get me wrong, there are a number of individual episodes that I enjoyed, particularly Asylum of the Daleks, the Snowmen, the Bells of Saint John, Cold War, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and of course The Name of the Doctor, but I haven’t been as eager to watch it week in, week out as I did last season. I do think that the lack of cliffhangers is partly responsible for that. I love cliffhangers, I love going “WTF?!?” and wondering what the hell’s going to happen next, and more importantly I think that they’ve been a vital part of the show’s 50 year legacy. Season 6 was full of some amazing examples, too many to list, although my favourite still remains The Almost People, and I wasn’t even much of a fan of that story. Season 7, by comparison, hasn’t had nearly as many. Aside from this episode, there’s been no stand-out cliffhanger, other than the Snowmen – the closest thing we’ve had to a cliffhanger since then was “Oh no! The Doctor’s going to be stuck with KIDS in the next episode!” So, as great as it was to have a terrific cliffhanger for the finale, I hope to God Moffat brings the cliffhanger back on a more regular basis for season 8. There’s also been not much development for either the characters or the arcs this season, so I think that’s affected it. But most of all, season 6 really was one of my favourite seasons ever, in fact it was pretty much my ideal season of Who. Anything after that was, for this fan at least, going to seem like a step down. I’m looking forward to re-watching season 7 in full at least, hopefully after catching up on my entire series watch, anyway.

(One more thing that I couldn’t fit into the analysis: LOVED the mention of the Valeyard, one of my favourite ideas for a Who villain ever. Wasn’t an overall fan of the story he appeared in in the Classic series (The Trial of a Time Lord), but the revelation that he was the Doctor more than paid off. Glad to see that he’s finally been name-checked in the new series at last.)

Big Finish Review - January

It occurred to me earlier that, with this year being the 50^th anniversary of one of the greatest shows ever, audio company Big Finish has a number of ranges dedicated to telling a large number of Doctor Who stories every year. Hell, at the moment, I’m currently subscribed to 4 monthly ranges – that’s 4 Doctor Who stories every month on audio alone! Fortunately, I subscribe well in advance, but for those who can at best afford only one cd per month, out of each month’s releases, what would be the best ones to buy? That is why I’ve written this: the first in what I hope will be a regular review of the monthly output of a number of ranges of Doctor Who that Big Finish releases. A great way to further blog and discuss my favourite show, and, to those who can afford it, to perhaps help some decide what would be the ideal releases to listen to, including a couple of recommendations, one for the new fans and one for those who appreciates their serious continuity.

Main Range

The Wrong Doctors

What better way to kick off the 50^th anniversary year than by having a multi-Doctor story? But this is a “multi-Doctor” story with a difference. It does feature two Doctors, but instead of the usual take of having multiple incarnations argue with each other, we instead have something quite original in which its two versions of the same incarnation, at two different points in life. Really thinking about it, this is probably the most full-on multi-Doctor story we’ve had from Big Finish – others have involved either clones, doubles or the briefest of exchanges (yes, this includes The Four Doctors, although to be fair, that’s still a cool story). But here, we have two Doctors, one older and wiser than the other, arguing with himself. Himself. Thank you, Big Finish, for finally having the balls to do something like this.

Bear in mind though that this isn’t just about the gimmick of having two Sixes. This is a tribute to two things. The first is Mel Bush, of which this story pays a lot of respect to, as the Sixth Doctor finally tries to meet her. Tries and spectacularly fails as…well, I’d rather not go into detail, as (a) I wouldn’t want to spoil too much here, and (b) it’d just be too difficult to explain even if I did want to spoil it (especially for those who haven’t seen The Trial of a Time Lord). We get it all here – her home of Pease Pottage, her excellent memory, her knack at computers and her travels with the Doctor – all are important to the story here, and it’s a testament to Matt Fitton’s writing ability that none of it feels forced whatsoever.  I’m not sure I completely understood the plot all the time, but it didn’t matter: there were numerous well drawn out characters, especially the villain, Mr Petherbridge, brilliantly played by Tony Gardner, to really draw me into the world of the story, at least.

There’s something else that’s great about this story though, and what really makes it a good one to kick off the anniversary year – the Sixth Doctor. Specifically, the Sixth Doctor of the Big Finish adventures at least, with a few nods to even beyond that. (Including BBC novel Business Unusual, where the Sixth Doctor really meets Mel for the first time – yes guys, amazingly, this story doesn’t contradict that story whatsoever.) The contrast of the two Doctors is amazing – yes, they’re the same incarnation, but still quite, quite different. Whereas the younger Doctor is his usual “bolshy” self as we saw on television, his older self is definitely mellower by comparison – both of which are of course amazingly portrayed by Colin Baker. We’re reminded that really, this is a Doctor that we never really saw on television, at least not with this amount of development. He is the Big Finish Doctor – a kind, intelligent, at times sombre but mostly happy incarnation who is, at least in the audio medium, considerably popular. There is no finer way for Big Finish to kick off such an important anniversary of a show nearly half a century old than to celebrate just what they (and indeed other formats of the expanded universe) can do that the tv series couldn’t or wouldn’t – take the scattered seeds that were left untended in the tv series, and let them grow. And that includes the potential brilliance of the Sixth Doctor. 8/10

Companion Chronicles

The Flames of Cadiz

Marc Platt? Writing a story that’s purely historical? Can it be true? Indeed it is! And, even better folks, compared to the usual 1 disc release of the Companion Chronicles, this is the special 2 disc release that comes every January, so it feels even closer to the more fleshed out 4-part historicals of the early seasons.

I was pretty impressed with this story. Partly for how much it draws you into its historical setting, with its fleshed-out characters, both regular and of the story in particular, giving you a good insight in what it was like living in the time of the Spanish Inquisition, specifically near the time of the Spanish Armada.

Another thing I was impressed by was how much Platt nailed the era of the kind of story this would’ve taken place in, tv series wise. The dark tone of the story showing the horrors of history, the well fleshed out companions of Ian and Barbara being caught up in it, sometimes being caught up in the sheer thrill of it, and of course, just how alien, dark and mysterious the Doctor is at this point – one of the best traits of a great deal of Platt’s stories is reminding us that the Doctor is an alien, not just biologically but psychologically, seeing people, events and morals completely differently to how a human would. This is a key aspect to the first Doctor at this point, so it’s no surprise that Marc Platt has written a number of stories for this particular incarnation, even one set before the beginning of the tv series. (One Companion Chronicle I’m especially looking forward to that’s released in November has the simple title of The Beginning, a story involving the Doctor and Susan leaving Gallifrey. Naturally, I’m greatly looking forward to listening to such a story.)

One more thing I enjoyed about the story was the added layer of how dangerous it can be wanting to meet your heroes. An old story perhaps, but still a classic, especially when it’s done as beautifully as this. Because some men may disappoint, perhaps inevitably, but still be great men. Not necessarily good men, but still great.

This is a fantastic story that really feels like it could’ve been shot and filmed in 1963 (well ok, maybe 1964, the second story hadn’t even finished in ’63), and is another nice way to kick off the anniversary year – a story that does a great job at reminding us just how wonderful both the first TARDIS crew and their stories really were. 9/10

The Fourth Doctor Adventures – Season 2

1. The Auntie Matter

And so another season begins for one of the series’ most popular Doctors! Last season was set during his time with Leela, which overall I thought was a pretty strong start, including just the right balance between old school and modern day storytelling, with 4^th Doctor stories that fitted perfectly in between the gothic horror of the Holmes/Hinchcliffe era with the lighter scifi of the Graham Williams era, in a faster pace and further expansion of companion Leela, all stories brilliantly performed by Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, acting as though it had only been a matter of months since they worked together and not over 35 years (in the roles of the Doctor and Leela, at least). So that first season has set a very high standard. What of the second?

The second season has gone for a different approach, taking place later in the Fourth Doctor’s life as he travels with Romana in her first incarnation. One thing that comes across clearly right from the start is how easily these two make us believe that no time has passed at all since we last saw the pair on screen, especially with Mary Tamm as Romana, who plays the role with the same intellect and strong attitude that we saw in the tv series. It’s a tragic and shocking loss to think that she’s been gone for over six months now, as her performance here was so full of life, you could really believe that she could’ve easily done it for many more years.

The first story is a bit of a fun if basic romp, taking place in 1920s England and featuring androids, body stealing aliens and ultra-posh Englishmen who can’t pronounce their r’s. Overall, it’s a nice start to the season, but I’m eager for darker and meatier stuff that is surely yet to come. (Or at least, another Doctor Who story featuring the great, great, great David Warner and of course, the reunion of Jago & Litefoot with Four.) 6/10

Destiny of the Doctor

1. Hunters of Earth

The Flames of Cadiz isn’t the only First Doctor story this month. We also have the beginning of a brand new series, specially made to not only celebrate the 50^th anniversary but to also be more welcoming to new listeners who haven’t discovered the wonderful classic Doctors and their stories. This is an unusual series that Big Finish is involved in as (a) the narration for the stories is done in the third-person, unlike the Companion Chronicles which usually use the first-person narrative structure, and (b) due to being co-produced with AudioGo, the later stories will involve Doctors from the New Series, which Big Finish aren’t normally allowed to touch. So it’ll be great to have a series with Big Finish involvement that’ll allow them to make great stories for all the Doctors, not just the first eight.

So how is the first one? Definitely an interesting opening, as it begins not long before the very start of the series. It’s very reflective of both the era and of the very time of when the original series began, in days of when random violence between groups like mods and rockers would break out. And violence is very much key to this story. This is a very dark and disturbing tale in which Susan finds herself not only distinctly branded as an outsider, but dangerously targeted for it. There are some really creepy images – particularly one of Susan being completely surrounded while people try and throw rocks at her – but along the way, the story occasionally soaks in the lighter aspects of 60s culture, too. There’s also a small but vital moment in the story that’s very clearly important to the arc of the whole series. Mostly though, it’s a fantastic standalone story that gives us a glimpse both of Susan’s life (the Doctor is more of a background presense here) before the start of the series as well as 60s life in general. This is a really great jumping on point for anyone who’s yet to discover the joys of the classic stuff. 8/10

Recommendations

For the newbie: Hunters of Earth

If you know nothing of classic Who or even new Who and are wanting to buy a story that you can just switch on without worrying about any background knowledge beforehand, this is definitely your safest bet, as being a jumping-on point is what this particular series was designed for in the first place. It’s also a great standalone drama to boot, so you should fully enjoy it. Another story to enjoy that's also not too bad continuity wise is The Flames of Cadiz.

For the continuity obsessed: The Wrong Doctors

Starting with direct references to previous companions, thorny tv continuity issues and even an out-of-print novel, this is definitely one for someone with at least a basic knowledge of the Sixth Doctor. It’s not too bad, and it is a wonderful celebration of the life that the Sixth Doctor has had in audio form at least, but that’s exactly it – it’s paying tribute to over a decade of this incarnation on cd, and while you hardly need to know all of it, it helps to know just how much this Doctor has changed and why to fully appreciate it.

So overall, a very strong start to the year for Big Finish. Can they continue such a high standard? Who knows. Judging from the February releases I've listened to so far, very possibly, although I'll save discussion for that for the next blog. (Which hopefully won't take too long.) Personal favourite for the month? It's tied between Hunters of Earth and Flames of Cadiz, probably because I have a soft spot for Hartnell's darker and more mysterious Doctor, but mostly because those stories are simply great, mature (but not too mature) stories that completely stand on their own. Keep it coming, Big Finish!

Diary of a Who Addict #5

18/11/12

I haven’t been keeping up with this blog much. This is partially for two reasons: one, I’ve been sick all week, and I haven’t been in the mood for much writing as a result. Two, with the pause in the actual watch, there hasn’t been as much for me to talk about. Of course, that’s just the tv stuff – there’s plenty of other stuff I can discuss.

Like, for example, comics. Read two collections this week: The Crimson Hand and The Child of Time, featuring the 10^th and 11^th Doctors respectively. Both volumes proved to be really great, epic stuff. It’s stuff like that that reminds me that I seriously need to read the Doctor Who Magazine on a regular basis, as it’s amazing how much those guys really plan ahead with their comics stuff, and how they can tie up story threads that have been running for nearly two years, in some cases. Now got all the 8^th Doctor volumes to make my way through, and boy, am I looking forward to that.

But the piece of Who expanded universe I have to give the rave review to this week is without question the Eighth Doctor epic Dark Eyes. I listened to this story the moment it was available for download last week, and now I’ve just finished listening to this wonderful story a 2nd time, to process it a little better. This was a story that I’ve been looking forward to all year, even more so than anything in the tv series this year, if I’m honest.

This is due to two reasons: first, the Eight Doctor is my favourite Doctor, particularly his audio stuff, as Paul McGann really does throw himself into the role and always gives a wonderful performance, sometimes portraying the mad eccentric alien, sometimes the ancient traveller, sometimes the dark, weary soul that he’s become – all shades of the Doctor are always performed wonderfully by McGann.

Which leads me to my second point: To The Death. This was a story that marked an end not just to the previous season, but to an entire 4 year storyline that had covered the ongoing relationship between the Doctor and his companion Lucie Miller. That was a series that had begun light-hearted enough, aiming to be a cross between the era of the classic series with the style of the new series, with shorter, faster paced stories and season long arcs mixed in with the Doctor rebelling against his own people the Time Lords (something the new series can’t really do ever since getting rid of them) and the occasional appearance of a classic series monster. But then the fourth season came along, and things began to get noticeably darker and slightly more complex, in a season which carefully looked at who the Doctor had become, how much he valued life and how heroic he really was, before bringing that all down in the series finale To The Death. To those who haven’t listened to it, I won’t spoil it, but I will say this: it more than lived up to its title, so much so that by the end, the Doctor had become a changed man, a much darker figure, and it was unknown just what he’ll do next.

I must admit, the way To The Death ended, I thought, "If Big Finish decide to do no more Eighth Doctor Adventures, at least none set after this one, I'd be happy with that". This is purely because I thought TTD was, in some ways, a really good way to end things with McGann's Doctor. Since Big Finish doesn’t have a license for anything to do with the new series, including covering anything relating to the Time War (in which both the Daleks and the Time Lords were (almost) entirely wiped out) and the regeneration from Eight to Nine, there’s only so much of the Eighth Doctor’s story they could reasonably tell. Leaving him a considerably darker figure and more hateful of the Daleks than ever isn’t that much of a bad way to end things – certainly, it acts as a better bridge to the start of the new series with the battle-scarred lone survivor Ninth Doctor than the ending of the tv movie with the Eighth Doctor having only just been “born”, happy as ever and heading off to see the universe with brand new eyes. So when I heard that his story would continue, I was both incredibly excited and very apprehensive. Yes, as ever, I’m always excited to hear more of McGann’s Doctor – especially considering how his performance in TTD was one of his greatest ever – but how would this new story deal with the aftermath of such major events?

As it turned out, amazingly well. Ok, so this story doesn’t have the Doctor out on a mission to wipe out every Dalek in existence or appeal to the Time Lords to start a war. It’s actually a lot more subtle – and a lot better – than that. Because the Eighth Doctor clearly isn’t the man that he once was. There are moments where he tries to be by making a joke or trying to find just a small moment of fun, but overall, his Doctor is a lot more tired and a lot wearier of life than the man who woke up in San Francisco and found joy in a pair of shoes. He’s a man who begins the story without hope. Dark Eyes is the story of how he recovers some of that back. Not all of it, which is what I was partly afraid of, but a little, anyway. This story of a Doctor without hope works incredibly well for two reasons. Firstly, the continuing excellent performance of McGann as the Doctor. Like To The Death, Dark Eyes really allows him to explore the darker aspects of his Doctor without over-doing it. It’s amazing performances like this that continue to show just why he’s my favourite Doctor, and probably one of the best actors to have ever taken the role.

Secondly, Nicholas Brigg’s writing. He really seems to have found a nice balance between pushing the Doctor into darker emotional territory and adding in a few touches of light along the way. But it’s not just the Doctor he’s written well. The new companion, Molly, (as brilliantly played by Ruth Bradley,) a WWI VAT nursing assistant, not only acts as a way of introducing new listeners to the Eighth Doctor, but feels a fully fleshed out character in her own right. She’s someone who has, understandably, been through a lot already in her young life, but also tries hard not to let any of it get her down. Stubborn with a no-nonsense attitude, she’s exactly who the Doctor needs at one of the lowest points of his life.

Another excellent point regarding the script is the story. Taking full advantage of the unlimited budget of audio, this is a story that is both epic and, due to a surprisingly great deal of the story being effectively carried by McGann and Bradley as Molly, personal, this is a fast paced story that satisfies on so many levels. Whether you’ve followed all the Eighth Doctor’s adventures so far (like myself), or whether you’re looking for an ideal jumping on point, Dark Eyes is well worth listening to, and a brilliant start to a new era in the Eighth Doctor’s life. 10/10

Diary of a Who Addict #4

7/11/12

So, first day of no Who, and even though I’m back to currently watching the amazing show Breaking Bad and the fact that I’ve watched 26 episodes of Who in 4 days this week, not to mention 75 eps in the past 3 weeks alone, I’ve gotta say, I’m still really itching to crack on with another episode. And that’s something that I’m actually surprised about – 75 eps in 3 weeks, maybe even 100 in a month, and that’s not even including the audio stuff I’ve listened to, even I thought I’d be Who’d out. After all, with the first 6 seasons, I’d take gaps where it’d be months before I watched the next ep. Of course, one thing to consider in that case, there’d be a ton of eps missing, with only the soundtracks surviving, which made it a little difficult to get into without that vital visual element. This stood out especially in Troughton’s first two seasons, where the number of surviving eps are sadly very few.

His final season though was mostly watchable, which I started watching last month. Actually watching what was going on rather than listening and trying to guess was a lot more fun, particularly seeing the physicality of Troughton’s performance and his wonderful variety of expressions. There were one or two stories that weren’t quite up to scratch (Dominators, I’m looking at you!), but overall, it wasn’t a bad final season, especially with such classics like The Mind Robber, the Invasion, and the epic War Games, which ended things so brilliantly, and made it clear that whatever happened in the next season, it was going to be a lot different to what we had seen over the past six seasons, with a new Doctor, no time/space travel, and, most important of all: colour!

Then not even a week later I find myself on season 7, and the more I watch of Pertwee’s kick-ass dandy of a Doctor, his reluctant relationship with the Brigadier and UNIT, and his sheer desperation to escape, the more I found myself compelled to watch more and more eps.

I think my increasing addiction to the classic stuff definitely has to do with watching it in order, not random serials of random Doctors as I used to. Because, while a lot of serials are almost completely stand-alone in story at this point, there is something to be said to watching the whole grand story slowly be told, of watching characters slowly develop and relationships grow. The more I watch the series in order, the easier I find myself getting attached to companions and Doctors. For example, before, I liked Jo Grant, but I couldn’t say that she was one of my favourite companions. She did seem to be more than a bit of a ditz at times. However, the more I saw of her, the more I saw her learning, of forming a bond with the Doctor, until it’s now reached a point where the Third Doctor/Jo Grant relationship has become one of my favourites of the series so far. It’s a much more enjoyable experience than watching snapshots of the Doctor’s life at certain points, and better still, I’m getting to watch some of my favourite stories in a whole new light.

So, now that I’m taking a break from the series for a couple of weeks, will I have nothing to post on this blog? Fat chance! While I’ll be taking a break from the series itself, it won’t stop me from checking out the comics or audios, or better still, the spinoffs! The current series I’m listening to at the moment is Dalek Empire, a series I will go into more detail later on. Watch this space!

(By the way, just worked it out: started watching season 6 on the 7^th last month, and the grand total of eps I watched since then? 120. 120 eps in exactly 1 month. Boo ya!)

8/11/12

Current topic at the top of my mind right now (or should that be front of the mind? Do minds have sides?): magazines. Two actually, both to do with the Eighth (and greatest) Doctor.

First one to mention is the most current: the cover for the next issue of Doctor Who Magazine has been unveiled, and it looks terrific! Amazingly, it has nothing to do with the tv series, but in fact promotes the wonderful work of audio company Big Finish by showing the Eighth Doctor in his new bad-ass gear, with the following tagline: “PAUL MCGANN IS THE DARK DOCTOR”. Two things leap out about this: first, it’s amazing how, after more than 16 years since his one-off tv appearance in the 1996 movie, McGann still looks pretty darn great enough to be given an awesome up-to-date photoshoot. In fact, I’m more than pretty sure that his work on Dark Eyes has been the first official photoshoot he’s done as the Doctor since the film – all the covers featuring his Doctor have usually been a stock photo from promotional material for the film. Considering there’s been more than 60 cd releases so far and McGann only ever had the one story on tv, it’s amazing they were able to keep those photos as varied as they did, really.

Secondly, and far more importantly, it’s quite possibly the first time that anything to do with Big Finish has been given the front cover treatment, certainly the first time in years, at the very least. This is no minor achievement. The magazine isn’t just a popular Who magazine – it’s one of the biggest scifi magazines in Britain. Then again, considering Who is easily the biggest scifi show in Britain, that’s no real surprise. What’s more than likely helped is of course the biggest selling point being anything to do with the latest or upcoming series, with covers from the last few years usually showing an important actor/actress from the show or an image from a recent or upcoming episode. Hell, only a couple of issues ago, there were multiple covers used for the same issue, each based on a different ep from the current series. To give the front cover to something that will be listened to by thousands at most instead of watched by millions is a bit of a risk of DWM’s part, but a more than welcome one for both Big Finish and Big Finish fans. If this draws in more listeners to the range, or even better, get people who were fans of the tv series but who had no idea of the audio stuff interested, especially with such a striking cover, then it'd be absolutely marvellous. Big Finish have made some of the best Doctor Who in any format ever, and McGann is an absolutely amazing Doctor, getting a chance to shine in audio format that he sadly never got to on tv, and both fully deserve as much recognition as possible.

There’s also another magazine I’d like to discuss, one that deals with the 8^th Doctor even more directly. No, more than that: it’s to do with my very fandom. It’s a magazine from 1996: The Doctor Who Movie Special. I spotted it on ebay, and I just had to get it for nostalgia’s sake, more than anything. There’s nothing really special about it. It’s got a summary of the plot of the tv movie, mixed in with a couple of interviews from the cast of the film and a brief history on the previous Doctors. Really, it’s just another purely promotional mag you’d expect to find with a number of new films, really. But I think this made at least as much of an impression on me and turned me into the fan I am today at least as much as the 1996 movie itself.

Now, before 1996, it wasn’t like I was unaware of Doctor Who. Hell, back in the really early 90s, when there were still repeats being shown of classic Doctor Jon Pertwee, I used to enjoy watching it. Never had a clue what was going on, of course – I couldn’t have been any older than five, really – but I loved the theme tune. A truly unearthly, synthetic sound with a hell of a hook, it’d pretty much be the biggest reason for me to watch the show. I’d always join in with the main tune especially – “oooh-weee-oooooooooooh!” And the Daleks, of course. Even then, I think I was a fan of the Daleks, even if I wasn’t yet a “fan” of Who itself. Close, but not quite. Anyway, eventually, the repeats stopped, and I forgot all about it.

A few years later (practically a lifetime, or so it seemed to me back then), I started to notice a number of trailers on the telly, most of which had the tagline, “He’s back…and it’s about time!” One thing especially leapt out – it didn’t have the same unearthly quality to it, as it was played by a traditional orchestra, but I still heard it – the “boom-bam-booooooom!” sounding strangely like the beautiful “oooh-weee-oooooooooooh!” of my distant memories. And, to my pleasant surprise, I heard it: Doctor Who was back. “Great!”, I thought. “The show with the greatest theme tune ever is back! Can’t wait!”

Now, I honestly can’t remember what happened first: me watching the tv movie or the magazine special I picked up. I remember how amazed and fascinated I was by certain parts of the film – a ship that was bigger on the inside than outside and looked like an ordinary phone box, a completely bonkers alien that looked human, a man who can die and come back to life, but in a different body (that one blew my mind especially – I honestly had no idea that the man in the new movie was the exact same white-haired old geezer I had seen from before. I must admit, that was the key idea more than anything that made me want to find out more about the show). The tv movie wasn’t exactly popular with the fans at the time, but one thing’s for sure: it certainly got me interested to find out more.

Which leads me to the magazine. Now, the tv movie had my interest, but the magazine helped to cement that as something more than a mild curiosity for an 8 year old boy. It was a rather brief guide to the history of the show. Very brief, not covering much at all on the previous Doctors, but it was enough. It showed me that this was a show that had changed over many years; that it had built up a large history for itself; that it could take such bonkers ideas and somehow make them…magical. For the first time in my life, due to both the movie and a random magazine, I actually had a good idea of what Doctor Who was about. And the moment I did, I wanted to know more. Not just know – enjoy more, too. I wanted to start watching as many episodes as possible, and with a proper new series not looking like it was turning up any time soon (oh, my 8 year old self had no idea), I convinced my mum to get me a video. It starred the Doctor I could remember bits of as a kid: Jon Pertwee, the very Doctor I’m up to in my current watch. It was a long one, too: at 6 episodes it was more than two whole hours! Amazingly great value for money!

Soon as I got home, I put the tape in and watched as stars stretched past me before turning into some kind of strange tunnel of many colours, then the Doctor’s face appearing out of it, all to that wonderful, wonderful music. The title appeared in a diamond shaped logo – DOCTOR WHO – before the story title showed in big white letters: “THE MONSTER OF PELADON…BY BRIAN HAYLES…PART ONE…”

And that, dear reader, is how my lifelong journey/obsession truly began…

Diary of a Who Addict #2

3/11/12

Well, as you can see, it's happened again. What I had planned to be only a few paragraphs long to sum up today grew to be, well, a little longer than that. As such, I thought it best to post just the whole of today's entry anyway.

So, I bought a storage unit for my cds today. It’s another step towards making my room – which more than likely, I’ll be living in for a couple more years yet – a more organized, less chaotic area, something which a reasonably sane adult could live in. I’ve got a lot more planned for it over the next year – a better bed, clear some stuff, be less of a klepto and all that. None of the Doctor Who stuff, of course, but a few impulse buys that have remained over the years that I’ll need to clear out. Try and grow up a little bit, even if I am a 24 year old who still lives with his parents. 

Does that last point bother me? Sometimes, I must admit. Not because of mum and dad, they’re two of the best people I know, but more because of me. I see a lot of people I know from high school moving on with their lives – getting married, having kids, all “grown up” stuff. And while I’m not exactly wanting to rush into any of that, I’m not keen on being an overgrown kid who lives in his parent’s attic (not exactly a basement, I know, but still) all his life.

On the other hand, it’s not like I haven’t discussed this with them, or that my situation is unique, or that it’s even a serious worry. I’ve worked out the costs of moving out, and at the end of the day, paying rent and expenses for my own flat in an economy that’s pretty much fucked at the moment, and may be fucked for quite a while, while paying for college every month isn’t exactly an ideal situation for me to walk into. Perhaps I’m making excuses, but for the moment, if my parents are happy to have me around, and as long as I continue to pay them back and don’t leech off them while working in a decent job like I've been doing, then I should aim to be happy for the moment, too. As long as I don’t turn into a c**t – and I trust that my friends will tell me if I do – then I’ll try not to worry. Well, not about my living situation, at least.

Anyway, moving on from that glimpse into how paranoid and insecure my mind can be on occasion, back to what my life is really all about – Doctor Who! As noted in my previous entry, I finished season 8 on Thursday. I think I’ll plan to start season 9 tonight. Day of the Daleks... ah, now there’s a story from my childhood. One of the earliest stories I bought on video. Watched that quite a few times, too. A really decent story, although problems in production let it down – specifically, the fact that only 3 Dalek props were used and how obvious that was,  most notably during an “invasion” scene towards the end, and even the Dalek’s voices, which just didn’t sound…Dalek-y enough.

Bear in mind that I am a huge Dalek fan, although unlike Who, this was something I only fully realized within the last couple of years or so. It’s funny, really, to think of them as separate, considering that the Daleks not only started in Who, but have been so closely connected to it that, in Britain, at least, it’s hard for the average person to separate the two. Indeed, comedienne and actress Catherine Tate (who played companion Donna Noble in the new series) actually said that before she did Doctor Who, she didn’t know there were other monsters in the show, she just thought that the Doctor fought the Daleks every episode. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what a lot of Brits who didn’t watch the show think. It says a lot about how much an image or idea has on a culture when most people will have a basic idea of what something is without having watched a single minute or read a single page of the original source. As far as Britain is concerned, Doctor Who and the Daleks are as iconic as Sherlock Holmes and his deerstalker hat.

But when it comes to a Doctor Who fan, there’s no guarantee that that person will be a fan of the Daleks as well. Some may think that they’re over used; that they’re not much of a convincing enemy; that in many cases they’re pretty straight-forward and one-dimensional. These traits are especially clear in rather weak stories like Victory of the Daleks or the Chase, two of my least favourite Dalek stories in the entire series (although the latter is still well worth watching for the wonderful final episode, and a rather emotional goodbye).

So why do I love them, and when did I work out how much of a fan I am of them? It was about last year, maybe even a matter of months ago, when I worked my way through the black and white episodes. As I watched and listened to their stories in order, I realised something: practically all my favourite stories were also Dalek stories. I also realised why – when the Daleks are written well, when they’re given good stories to be in, then it’s clear exactly why they work so well as villains: they are pure evil. There’s no reasonable side to them, no real motive other than the one established in the first episode – they hate any and all beings that are not Dalek, and therefore, deserve to die, according to their point of view. Nothing else is given, there’s nothing more superficial given to them, like a love of money or a need for vengeance or anything like that. They’re just creatures of hate, and in one way, it’s “stupid and ridiculous” to quote companion Ian Chesterton, but in another way, it’s absolutely terrifying because it’s also completely and utterly believable. You only need to look at some of the history of the human race to see just how believable it really is.

But it’s not just the Daleks themselves. It’s the human beings as well. The ones who run, the ones who stand and fight, the ones willing to do anything to survive, to help others to survive, even the ones who help the Daleks for their own ends – so many truly fascinating characters and stories were written with the Daleks in the 60s, and so many I loved because of just how strong those characters and stories were. It was enough to inspire me to finally get the first season of audio spin-off Dalek Empire, the story of a Dalek invasion where, as can be expected most of the time in the Doctor Who universe, the Doctor isn’t there to save the day – instead, it’s the story of how a bunch of humans, on their own, fight back. And my word, did that first season live up to its promise! It was exactly as brilliant a series as such a simple concept was expected to be. I bought the remaining 3 seasons last week, hoping to start season 2 later tonight.

So, as you can see, I really do love the Daleks. And I like to see their awesome pepperpot evilness fully justified when possible. So while the weak voices given to them in this story isn’t enough to ruin it for me – like I said, it’s a very good story – it does lessen the experience a little.

When the story was released on DVD last year, it came with a rather wonderful bonus – a “special edition” version of the story, one that overall aims to improve a few problems the original version had, like adding in a couple of extra Daleks during the invasion at the end, or adding in a couple of laser effects to make it more exciting. Mostly, bar one or two shots, it’s not too drastic, it’s just showing how it might’ve looked at the time had it had a bit more budget thrown at it and maybe if the director and technical effects people had shown more imagination. However, I’m not one to be entirely swayed by that sort of thing, and I was originally planning to watch the original version in the Who watch…then I remembered that the Dalek voices in this story had been replaced by, well, actual Dalek voices. Believe it or not, that was enough to persuade me to just bend the rules of the Watch a little bit and watch the special edition over the original.

So, I’m off to sort my room out and tidy it up a bit before watching some more classic Who. Will write more afterwards to give some thoughts.

***

Ok, finished tidying up and had some dinner (lasagne, lovely!), now watching Day of the Daleks. Two things that the ongoing watch has given me that watching this serial out of order, as I used to do, couldn’t give. One: an appreciation of seeing UNIT as a proper military organisation. Over the past couple of seasons, I’ve seen the soldiers fighting more than a few alien invasions, but sometimes, there’s something more domestic but vitally important going on in the background. In this episode, important delegations are going ahead to prevent a third world war, in the Mind of Evil, UNIT were initially busy running security on a peace conference, finding no time to help the Doctor out with his usual alien problems (until they find out that it’s a danger to the peace conference, of course) – it all really reinforces the idea that this is a military organisation that has other problems to deal with on Earth, not just the ones involving the Doctor and aliens that we see.

Two: a nice sense of continuity. There was a nice little conversation near the start between the Doctor and Jo while he’s fixing his TARDIS over events from last season, involving the TARDIS briefly working and visiting another planet, but only because the Time Lords allowed it to do so for a limited period. I always love seeing the Doctor’s constant rebellious side: it’s not enough that he got to leave Earth for a brief period of time – it’s escaping the controlling reach of the Time Lords he’s concerned with. “I don’t want it to work for them. I want it to work for me.” The Doctor’s relationship with his own people is something I’ve always liked about the original series.

However, there’s another side I like to the Doctor, and it’s specific to the Third incarnation: his love of good food and fine wine. One of the most hysterical Third Doctor moment’s I’ve seen yet occured in this story when, while occupying a politician’s house, he helps himself, with a big smile on his face, to a bottle of wine and some cheese. His gentleman dandy behaviour is doubly brilliant when combined with his extraordinarily high level of kick-arseness, a prime example being his greeting to a huge thuggish monster – “How do you do?” – before bitch-slapping that geezer’s arse with not just martial arts, but Venusian martial arts!

As for the story itself – considering it’s the first story in five years to feature the Daleks, it’s certainly not a bad one. It’s great to get a glimpse of what happens when the human race gets enslaved by creatures as evil as the Daleks – some are so desperate they are willing to kill anyone and anything to stop them, some only get by by selling out their own race, but most are forced to work to the point of exhaustion, if they’re lucky.

Another point I liked is the reason the Daleks took over in the first place – it’s because of the human race fucking up more than anything. Overall, like many Dalek stories, it’s the strength of the human characters that make it work. The Controller, (as rather wonderfully played by Aubrey Woods,) either the man with the most power or the man more enslaved than anyone, depending on your point of view, is a particularly fascinating character. Essentially a puppet leader put in charge by the Daleks, he sees himself as someone who is doing good by negotiating with the Daleks and trying to make things easier as much as possible for the human race. Or he tries to, at least, and yet clearly, deep down, he’s aware of just how much he lies to himself.

One final thing I’ll say about the story and appreciating it in context: UNIT versus the Daleks. The first time I watched it, it was only the 2nd Third Doctor serial that I had bought on video, so with characters like Mike Yates, Benton and of course the Brigadier, it was my first time meeting these characters. So the Dalek attack and UNIT fighting back was cool, but not nearly as cool as it is after I’ve gotten to know these wonderful characters and how awesome UNIT is as a whole after more than two seasons already. It may have been more than a little helped by the fact that the battle I watched actually looked rather impressive and a lot closer to looking like, well, a battle on the special edition than it did in the original version, but still, seeing UNIT fight off the Daleks was, for this fanboy at least, a delight to see.

So overall, what did I think of it? I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t rate it quite as highly as my favourite Dalek stories, but it was still a very strong story, with some nice use of time travel, questions over what’s set in stone and what can be changed (and this was over a decade before the Terminator did it), with a pretty decent pace and some kickarse action, too. In short, a strong start to season 9 and a more than welcome return of the Daleks. 8/10

So now that that story's finished, what now? I'm already tempted to watch the next story, particularly as it's the first Peladon story, the reason for which I'm eager to re-watch I'll explain in my next post. But for now, I think I'll rest my eyes a bit and listen to more Dalek Empire. And sorry, dear reader, if I've rambled on. I hope you've got some enjoyment out of reading today's post. Who knows, maybe tomorrow, the entry for the day will only be one page long. Maybe even a couple of paragraphs, as I had originally envisioned. In the light of my impressive record so far though, I will make no rash commitments.