Season Two@60- The Dalek Invasion of Earth

 

Its sixty years since the second season of Doctor Who was first broadcast so I thought I’d take a look at selected stories courtesy of the Collection box set, recently re-issued in standard packaging. To begin with, a story that brings back the Daleks at the height of Dalekmania and waves goodbye to a companion for the first time ever…

I originally knew of this story when it was called `World’s End` back in the days when the `official` titles of many First Doctor stories were actually those of the opening episode. Certainly most viewers in 1964 would not know the overall name with which we are now familiar so would have no idea till the end of part one that the Daleks were returning (unless the excitable press gave it away- these days there would be location shots on TikTok) and the suspense is well built. What I’ve noticed about these Sixties stories is how grounded they are from the travellers' perspective.  So, each predicament or puzzle is debated initially in the context of something every day- it could be this, it could be that- until those options are discounted slowly to unpeel the real problem.  The modern series rarely does that preferring to leap to the Doctor explaining something that he already knows.

The Season 25 Collection- The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

 

This is a curious story with two facets. On the one hand, it is a very clever sort of story of the type that increasingly became the norm during the original series’ closing couple of seasons. Elliptical happenings, unorthodox visuals, symbolism aplenty  and a sense that we’re a long way from standard invasion of Earth stories.  Yet there appears to be something darker here as well, about entertainment, fandom and most of all depression. The events may present in bright colours and vivid locations but, rather like a circus, it’s just face paint.

 

The Season 25 Collection- Silver Nemesis

 

I’ve never rated this story very highly, so though this is the second time I’ve owned it that is only because it was packaged with other content. Last time it came out with `Revenge of the Cybermen` , now with the Collection you get the entire season whether you like it all or not! The fact that there seem to be more different editions of this story than any other suggests the original needed more work. I wondered if time would be kind to this peculiar adventure and I have to say its not quite as bad as I recall. The latest Special Edition is an improvement simply in that it makes the narrative more coherent though nothing can hide the fact that this is quite similar to the plot of `Remembrance of the Daleks` and that many of the developments seem unnecessary.

 

The Season 25 Collection- The Happiness Patrol

 

Its curious how time can alter one’s opinion of things. For example, if you’d asked me twenty years ago to compare the opening two stories of season 25 I would have placed `The Happiness Patrol` above `Remembrance of the Daleks`. Now, I would reverse that ranking after recent watches. `Remembrance` has not only stood the test of time but seems stronger now. On the other hand, there’s something odd about `Happiness Patrol`, something suggesting that not everyone is on the same page.  In isolation each element of the story is interesting; the stage flats providing an atmospheric backdrop, the idea of not being happy a crime, a creature made of confection yet subject to mood swings, people living in the pipework underground, the idea of the blues as a salve for life’s problems and a revolution taking place over night. Yet put all these together and they don’t quite gel. That’s not to say this isn’t a good story, it is very good, it’s just that the visuals sometimes get in the way of what the story is trying to say. 

The Season 25 Collection - Remembrance of the Daleks

 

The popular conception of Doctor Who in the second half of the Eighties is of a series in terminal decline yet the material in this latest Collection set contradicts that notion in quite a significant way. In fact, the last three seasons of what has become known as Classic Doctor Who show a new creative energy invigorating the series and it was outside problems rather than artistic ones that would lead to the cancellation. Had Doctor Who enjoyed more support from BBC management and been scheduled properly this story could be looked back on nowadays as the starting point of a successful comeback. This box set offers different versions of each story so I thought I’d look at the newest version of each plus also some highlights from the extras.

The Visitation

 

A well- remembered story from 1982, `The Visitation’s` position in the history of the show is enhanced by following in the footsteps of `The Sea Devils` and `Robot` in having its production examined for the `Making Of Doctor Who` books. As a result we are almost as familiar with behind the scenes stills as those taken front of camera. The so-called pseudo historical was always a popular option for the show making the most of its limited budget in a way that gleaming spaceships and alien worlds would always struggle with.  This was a popular story with viewing figures over nine million for each episode peaking with 10.1 million for part four, very healthy even by early Eighties standards.

 

Review- The Season 15 Collection

 

Season Fifteen brims with character and is bristling with ideas. If the production values sometimes flag you hardly notice because there is so much going on. Admittedly it’s not always cited as a fan favourite because it was the point at which Tom Baker’s presence became larger than life but if you enjoy that- and I certainly do- this is essential classic Doctor Who. Season Fifteen is a changeover season and these can be the most interesting ones where a production team are finding their feet and yet aspects of their predecessors remain. The results here are more varied than you’d expect.

 

The Sunmakers

 

The Season 15 Collection bluray box is about to drop and, cards on the table, you’ll never convince me that the Graham Williams years are bad and that may be because I was the right age for them and therefore always will be.  At that point I may have abandoned the series altogether where it not for the fact that it became witter, sillier and more willing to take chances. Honestly all this stuff about production values – we didn’t notice on our over richly coloured analogue TVs watching just the once. Plus, the appeal of Doctor Who then- at least for me- was not the special effects but the stories and the dialogue. I still maintain I learned more interesting words watching the show in this period than I learned concurrently at school.

All but one of the stories in this season have already been reviewed on this blog in 2017/18 - see links at the foot of this post. Due to personal reasons I wasn’t able to do `The Sunmakers` so I have done so below. A look at the extras in the box set to follow on the main blog shortly.

Doctor Who - The Nightmare Fair

 

In this unpublished article from a couple of years back I examined the script to see what the unmade Toymaker story `The Nightmare Fair` might have been like.

 Five years after leaving Doctor Who, Graham Williams was due to return to the programme with the story `The Nightmare Fair`. Scheduled for the pre-hiatus version of season 23 it was ultimately never made though there have since been a couple of audio adaptations and Williams himself novelised the story. As producer he’d been subject to certain restrictions including budgetary cuts and a directive to tone down what had been seen by some as gratuitous violence. Ironically his return came at a time when Doctor Who was again under scrutiny over its more extreme content. As far as is known the story never reached the casting stage but studio dates were booked to start in May 1985 and arrangements made to shoot some location footage in Blackpool itself. 

Daleks Reloaded!

 

The Daleks in colour and Destination Skaro

The question of how modern Doctor Who should relate to its long history arose twice in the last week or so with these programmes. `Destination Skaro`, though ostensibly a sketch for Children in Need, reconfigured one of the show’s most iconic characters. `The Daleks` meanwhile was premiered tonight as an edited down colourised version of the second story. Both broke unspoken rules suggesting that whatever the new `Whoniverse` will be like, it will not be quite as expected.

 

Some thoughts on Doctor Who Season 20

 

I recently bought the twentieth anniversary season Collection so thought that as well as watching the extras, I'd give the actual stories a gander as well. Some of them I'd not seen in ages.  For an anniversary event, season 20 can seem odd with its best stories leaning on the more abstract and its less good ones the more traditional. Not exactly a great advert for the show’s history but a suggestion of a new direction? Forty years distance does allow the more nuanced feel of the season to shine rather more than had it been rammed full of big action stories. There may seem to be long sequences were not a lot happens but the better parts of the season are still rich in content if not pace. So now its recently been released in a great big blu ray collection it’s a good reason to re-watch. Here’s some thoughts on each of them from a 2023 perspective…

Arc of Infinity

Notwithstanding the Ergon, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Fan lore suggests a third-tier tale and while it’s definitely not in any danger of being an under rated classic it does open the season with some verve considering the more thoughtful pace of the rest of the stories. It’s a traditional offering with the added luxury of location filming supported by a decent attempt from writer Johnny Byrne to justify the location. Byrne’s behind the scenes interview hints at aspects that perhaps were shunted to one side by the shopping list of contents – Omega, Tegan coming back (having never really left), Amsterdam – that sit awkwardly together. Coincidence is essential in fiction but the levels it rises to here are somewhat implausible. The story does manage to froth up into a decent thriller though would surely have been better had the antagonist been a new character.

An Unearthly Fuss

 

How one writer’s son stopped Doctor Who’s first four episodes appearing on the iPlayer

 It seems that the placing of all the extant classic Doctor Who being made available on the iPlayer will be missing four vital episodes.  Variously called `An Unearthly Child` or `The Tribe of Gum` this was the world’s first encounter with the Doctor and for a select few fans the series was all downhill from here. (I’m joking, aren’t I?) The son of the story’s credited writer Anthony Coburn- who is called Stef Anthony Coburn - has declined the BBC’s payment for the story meaning the episodes cannot be included in the iPlayer package. There’s quite a bit to unpack in this incident not least because X (aka Twitter) has been busy with messages ranging from sympathetic support to vituperative allegations as the drama frogs swarm. 

 

The Robots of Death

 A triumph that still hums with energy! Looking back at one of classic Doctor Who’s best ever stories. 

Earlier this year I saw the World of Wonder exhibition and amongst the many exhibits from the series’ past and present were some robot masks from this 1977 classic. Even now, mounted on stands devoid of the rest of the costume, they look impressive. So it is for the story they come from. Its one of those tales that they could remake today without the need for much alteration, Sure the Sandminer -which in real life was quite a modest sized model – could look better, you could have more robots, a larger crew. Yet the essence of the story works just as well forty-five years later.

There is something stately and unhurried about ‘The Robots of Death' that makes it a joy to watch every time. On paper the story is hardly original, purloining much of its content from the likes of either Murder on the Orient Express or Isaac Asimov's Robot stories, while the use of mostly brightly lit sets and a robotic enemy realised by people in costumes and masks could have been a disaster. Yet the story towers over these potential problems with ease to create a timeless 90 minutes that is amongst the very finest Doctor Who ever made. It also remains one of the series’ most quotable stories yet crucially this above average dialogue never obstructs the flow of the story, often aiding it along.

Fan Scene CT 1978

 In the final look back at some of the early years of the DWAS publication Celestial Toyroom we alight at 1978. In Gallifeyan tradition we've been travelling largely backwards in time from the early 80s and before 78 CT was more or less just a Swaps and Pen Pal zine so not really of significant interest even then. Unless of course you wanted to offer rare items for a genuine Chumbly bathmat or something. In 1978 however it became a monthly newsletter though back then news was much thinner on the ground than you might expect. In fact the front page was not current news at all but imagined headlines each relating to a particular Doctor Who story. Most of the news was included inside Jan Vincent Rudzki's Presidents Column while the rest to the issue comprised press cutting, announcements and, yes, still the swaps and pen pals which in fact went on for many years. So, here's some scans of some of the issues to give a flavour of what they were like. It may seem inconsequential now but back then we used to get quite excited by the arrival of each issue if only to try and guess what colour paper it might be printed on! 

Fan Scene - 1979 October- December

 

October

That rumour of a Marvel Doctor Who publication becomes fact this issue with the news of the new Doctor Who Weekly which for 12p (cheaper than most fanzines!) will give you a professionally produced Doctor Who fix every seven days. The editor Dez Skinn is adamant it is not a comic but a magazine including a comic strip. Meanwhile, two of the three Convention organisers are now leaving meaning that there is no one to organise next years. In his column JVR talks about the event highlighting a move away from just guests to showing visual material. “The best part for me,” he writes, “was the incredible atmosphere during the showing of the old episodes.” He mentions guests not wanting to repeat themselves by attending every year though he chooses to mention Jon Pertwee who was of course something of serial repeater of anecdotes! At the end of his column outlining the latest Ref Dept releases, J Jeremy Bentham thanks people for their ideas and signs off by adding “part of that future could depend on reaction to Doctor Who Weekly`…” Watch this space...