What will they do with Doctor Who?

 

As anyone reading this might know, today the BBC announced that this year’s proposed Xmas special had been cancelled and that  both Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf are leaving the franchise. Doctor Who as a property will remain owned by the BBC and the programme making will be put out to competitive tender. Neither of these are too much of surprise, rumours to this effect have been circulating online for a few months. What it means is that the show may not be back for an unknown number of years. Conservative estimates say two years, some suggest more like five or six. As I’m sure the tabloids of old would put it- Who Knows?

My Time on the DWAS Executive Part One

 To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (aka DWAS) this year, I thought I'd post this amended two part version of an article I wrote back in the early Nineties. Its about the time I spent as part of the DWAS' organising committee... 

“Hold the Door!”

It’s 1985. The location is a plush hotel somewhere in London. I’m standing behind a table holding two large doors shut because if someone doesn’t keep them closed a breeze will chill the two guests currently sat at a table in front of me signing autographs- John Nathan Turner and Colin Baker. Or perhaps there’s a bison lurking on the other side of those doors, I’m not quite sure. I doubt the two stars are even aware of my presence and I’m not really even supposed to be here. However, as the person who is supposed to be here hasn’t turned up, here I am. For me it affords a view of the heart of Doctor Who fandom eagerly queuing for a few moments chat and an autograph. If this sounds like a familiar pastime (the autographs not the door holding) then it’s worth remembering that at conventions nowadays people pay a fee for this sort of thing and doors are so good nobody needs to physically hold them closed. Back in the day you would pay to attend the event but autographs were free. You could even take a picture though there was no social media to publish it on.

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The DWAS Yearbook 1976

 

In the Society’s early days as well as the regular fanzines they would also publish a Yearbook and the first of these covers much of what happened during the DWAS’s first year. Fronted by Stuart Glazebrook’s artwork of the  Doctor Sarah and the TARDIS in front of a planet and a sun (with the Doctor’s scarf providing a frame for the picture), the first yearbook had forty pages and was A5 size. Published in February 1977 and edited by Keith Barnfather it includes reviews of each Season 13 story accompanied by artwork.

Season 21- The Caves of Androzani

Is `The Caves of Androzani` the best Doctor Who story ever? It’s a bold claim that’s not quite as unanimously supported as people imagine. Looking at old zines recently I found a letter from someone who preferred `The Twin Dilemma`! What we can say is that it is the best of this season by a significant distance and probably the best story for eight years at least. Had Robert Holmes not been contracted (producer John Nathan Turner was initially opposed to any old writers returning) or had Graeme Harper not been given a chance despite relatively little overall directorial experience, then the fifth Doctor’s finale might have turned out rather differently. The old hand and the new recruit combined to create something that still seems fresh and which, unlike most old Doctor Who, could still be shown to modern audiences and appeal to their sensibility.

The Dalek Masterplan

 

With two further episodes of this story having been recently found and now available to watch on BBC iPlayer, we can get a broader impression of `The Dalek Masterplan` though there is still more than half of it missing. The lengthy gap since any other missing episodes were found raises hopes that it may still not be too late for more from this story to be found. Given the speed with which characters and locales change there’s still a fair amount of significant material we’ve not seem. Nevertheless we now have the first three episode plus part five giving us a large portion of the first half. Let’s be optimistic that some more of the second half might be found to join the only later episode available. Anyway, this does seem an opportune moment to review the episodes we do have, in sequence.

Season 21 - Planet of Fire / The Twin Dilemma

 Planet of Fire

`Planet of Fire` seems to have been somewhat forgotten over the years despite being only the second time the show filmed overseas as well as Turlough’s farewell and Peri’s debut. Yet amidst gemstones like `Revelation, `Frontios` and `Caves` its volcanic landscape cannot really compete when the drama happening within it is comparatively tepid. Its just one of those Doctor Who stories about which few fans have strong feelings about either way. So is that reputation justified?

Season 21- Resurrection of the Daleks

One of the aspects that distinguished the Hinchliffe/ Holmes era was that, however bleak the scenario, lively dialogue, character interaction and some dark humour gave it more depth. Eric Saward seems to have watched that era but perhaps not as closely as a script editor should because while he brings the nihilistic grit, he omits the nuances that made it more palatable. Sometimes this works giving the show an unexpectedly dark thematic palette. Sometimes however it can be too unrelenting. The Daleks were never a barrel of laughs so one expects their stories to skew grimmer than others and `Resurrection of the Daleks` definitely does that.  

 

Season 21- Frontios

 Studio bound, dialogue heavy with a bold concept and lashings of incidental music `Frontios` is very much like season eighteen in style, not surprising since it’s penned by that season’s script editor Christopher H Bidmead. It does make you wish he’d done a second season as whatever shortcomings the production has, its intent is steelier, more sci-fi and definitely serious. He writes the main trio so well and the actors each rise to the occasion while the story incorporates some interesting ideas. He did later admit some of these were poached from Nigel Kneale but that you should “steal from the best”. If the results are like this, then why not? Doctor Who had some of its greatest successes with stories filched from outside sources and remade in the series’ style.

Season 21- Warriors of the Deep

 

I once found myself chatting with Pennant Roberts back stage at an event and when the conversation switched to `Warriors of the Deep` I pondered why he’d not decided to spruce up the atmosphere by having everything doused in emergency red lighting, like that on a submarine. Was it, perhaps, something technicians would not agree with, was it too expensive or was it because it was felt viewers would find the results too murky? As it turned out, it was none of these things. He agreed it would have definitely added something to what is a somewhat over lit production but admitted that, simply, nobody had time to think about it. This was a hint of what we now know was a troubled production that had two weeks’ time taken from its schedule. By those criteria it’s a miracle anything much turned up on screen. Even when things were proceeding as normal there were crazy deadlines and limited scope which was Doctor Who’s biggest enemy whatever the era.

The Sea Devils 2025 Mix

 Classic Doctor Who has reached that point where it’s been through so many different formats from the original broadcasts through releases on video, DVD, Blu ray and streaming, individually and in collections. The stories have been novelised, analysed and enjoyed multiple times.  Many have had updated effects and re-edits applied, others have had AI additions made by fans. So you could argue that the only option left is to allow a new generation to tinker with them enabling them to be more relatable for the TikTok generation for whom even ninety minutes is a very long time.

Season 13 Collection- new extras reviewed

 As the previous individual dvd releases for this season were fairly comprehensively packed with additional features- most included here- there’s not quite as much brand new material in this Collection as there have been in others. Of course, the sheer quality of the actual stories is enough in itself yet somehow the team has found some interesting new documentaries to present as well as cleaning up the episodes with AI. The method used has sparked some controversy with some people saying it has caused a loss of detail and some odd looking moments. I believe that, just like when there are new special effects options available, the original episode as it was should still be an option. Apparently, this was thought to be something people would not be interested in yet the large number of social media posts on the subject suggests otherwise. To be honest I didn’t notice that much on my nearly three year old tv, but some of the stills posted online suggest peoples faces are the most affected with them ending up looking too smooth and unnatural.

 

Season 13: The Seeds of Doom

 

It’s been said that atypical Doctor Who often works best – and unconventional stories such as `Caves of Androzani` or `Blink` often appear to poll highly - but `Seeds of Doom` might seem to be an example where the reverse is true. It shows what the series can do well and what its strengths are. It’s a variation of a story that’s been told often in the show yet something special comes together to make it a prize specimen. No doubt a modern take on this story would highlight the ecological issues and perhaps even delve into Harrison Chase’s undoubtedly colourful past but such depth is not needed for what remains at its heart an adventure yarn with a threat our confined heroes have a limited time to sort out. 

 

Christopher Bidmead

 

Christopher Bidmead, who has died, was the first of producer John Nathan Turner’s trio of script editors each of whom ushered in quite different approaches to Doctor Who. Bidmead was the chosen enabler of JNT’s intent on making the series more serious and drawn from real science as opposed to the boggle eyed, humorous iteration that Graham Williams and Douglas Adams had delivered the previous season. From a forty five year distance, Bidmead’s ideas and commissions were not that far removed and no less ambitious that those of Douglas Adams; it is just the way they were played was tonally different. 

Season 13: The Brain of Morbius

 

`Brain of Morbius` should not work. Studio bound yet including such locations as a cliff edge and the exterior of a stormy planet and populated by characters whose larger-than-life personas fill up the screen it would surely be a mess? Yet it’s like a glorious, bonkers stage play that should really have transferred to the West End and run for years. It has that melodramatic edge to it which is what happens when you get a cast that is willing to hurl themselves into something as mad as this. In any other season this would be the pinnacle, here it has to make do with sharing the acclaim with others. Whatever the disagreements about the script that led to the credited `Bland` pseudonym this is a story that proves that classic Doctor Who is always more about the story than it is about the effects.