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?

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In this unpublished article from a couple of years back I examined the script to see what the unmade Toymaker story `The Nightmare Fair` might have been like.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

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. 

 

Some Doctor Who things that are also real things

The Gravitron

Doctor Who- Weather control device in `The Moonbase` (1966)

Real life- An amusement ride that first appeared in the US in 1983. Brandon Flowers memorably referenced it in his 2015 song `Lonely Town` when he sang about “Spinning like a Gravitron”. At least we don’t think he was talking about the weather machine.

A Gravitron. Patrick Troughton not pictured.

Kraal

Doctor Who- Grumpy, squishy faced aliens from `The Android Invasion` (1976)

Real Life - A traditional African village of huts, typically enclosed by a fence. I don’t think Styggron would like to live there. Mind you he doesn’t like most things.

Fan Scene - Tardis 77 Issue 1

The story so far: Tardis` started out as an independent Doctor Who fanzine but in 1976 was absorbed into the fledgling Doctor Who Appreciation Society (aka DWAS). This series of posts looks at the zine’s 1977 issues which went out under the title `Tardis ‘77`.

If you saw the posts last year about the first volume of Tardis you’ll recall the rather tatty covers but 1977 gets under way with a much improved front design featuring the second Doctor and a Kroton. The latter are one of those monsters which always look better as artwork than if you see the real thing. Its there to illustrate a series called The Doctor Who Compendium written by Richard Landen which summarises the Krotons, Gonds and HADS. It worth remembering that back in the day such information was not as widely known and there would be many readers who were too young to have seen the story. 

The Time When the Doctor was fired

On 24 November 1986 Colin Baker appeared on the kids show Saturday Superstore a normal promotional event for the incumbent Doctor promoting his latest season. However something he said during the interview seemed far more significant not long afterwards. Asked where he would go if he had a real working Tardis he replied: “I think I’d probably go back to the beginning and start it all again because I’ve enjoyed doing Doctor Who so much that I would like to go right back to the beginning and do it all again, because I’ve met so many nice people and talked to so many nice people that it would be nice…to go back and start from scratch.” These are not the words of someone nearer the start than the end of his tenure because although it had yet to be announced he knew at this point that he had become the first Doctor to be directly sacked from the role.

How to deal with changes in Doctor Who

Things on a long running television programme cannot stay the same and they will change which doesn’t always sit well with people. Fans however are well versed in the art of dealing with change and it seems appropriate, as we wait for a new Doctor to be announced, to bring together the sum of their experiences. When these things happen all you have to do to get through it is follow the standard response patterns in this handy dandy guide. Just work your way through each step and you’ll be fine. There, there.

#1 A new Doctor is cast. “Who’s Next? It’s Patrick Housego!”

• OMG Not Patrick Housego
• He will ruin the series
• He’d be better off cast as The Master
• Actually he was ok in that historical series
• Oh the costume looks ok
• Maybe he won’t be too bad
• He’s the best Doctor since Tom Baker
• I hope he never leaves
• What! He’s leaving after only three years. The series is finished!!

New Doctor Who Book!

Saturday Night Monsters is a compilation of fan written articles and reviews about Doctor Who originally published in the zines Faze and This Way Up. Covering the whole span of the series from the early days right up to recent episodes, this 260 page volume is packed with comment, analysis, opinion and flapdoodle about different aspects of the programme. It builds into a complete hovercraft and It is a book. You'll love it!
Features include: The triumphant 2005 Return ,The 1985-6 Cancellation Crisis,Hartnell’s Historical Stories, The Philip Hinchliffe Era,The stories of Robert Holmes & Robert Sloman, Season 21,The road from Survival to the TV Movies and more… 

Reviews include: Talons of Weng Chiang, The Dalek Masterplan, Spearhead from Space, The Macra Terror, The End of Time, The War Machines, Dalek, Remembrance of the Daleks, Blink, The Tenth Planet,  The Name of the Doctor, Logopolis, Tomb of the Cybermen, School Reunion, Pyramids of Mars, Human Nature / Family of Blood, The Dominators, Day of the Doctor, City of Death, Amy’s Choice, Earthshock, Day of the Daleks, The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon, Carnival of Monsters, Trial of a Time Lord,  The Android Invasion,  Deep Breath,  Castrovalva,  The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, Death to the Daleks, Horror of Fang Rock,  Vengeance on Varos, Dragonfire, The Three Doctors,  The TV Movie, The Doctor’s Wife,  The Ice Warriors, Heaven Sent, Turn Left, Web of Fear, The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End and many more...
Writers: Tim Worthington  David Rolinson, Sean Alexander, Matthew Kilburn, Daniel O’Mahony, Colin Brockhurst, John Connors, Ashley Stewart, Roger Jones, Chris Orton, Adam Povey.

The book is available from Amazon in either print or electronic form. The links below should take you to the very actual place where you can buy it.

For Print Version click here!

For Kindle Ebook version click here!

For more info about the book including excerpts check out the Saturday Night Monsters Book page via the tab at the top of the blog.

The Face of Evil

“At last we are here. Us.”

Why did BBC4 show `Face of Evil` this week? Do people celebrate the 39^th anniversary of something? Who am I? Yes, a curious end to 2015 sees this 1977 tale being broadcast on a main(ish) BBC channel which is about as random as you get. It’s nice though that they chose this rather than the more obvious stories that surround it. In another season `Face` would be highly regarded but appearing in between `The Deadly Assassin` and `The Robots of Death` it doesn’t stand a chance really. I can’t imagine BBC4 are showing it because it has thematic links to the season we’ve just seen but you never know. It is really the precursor to the current series’ interest in the Doctor’s mistakes though there are no confessions dials or guilty admissions to be seen here, just a dogged determination to sort it out. 

The Tale of the Africa 90

(Or at least the Nigeria 9!)

WARNING! This post does not include any new information about the location or future release dates of any missing episodes. Just in case you got too excited.

Africa 90 sounds a bit like the name of a football tournament but is actually the unofficial name given for a supposed haul of most of the missing episodes of Doctor Who in Nigeria. It’s the most fluid Doctor Who related news story there’s been in years and by the time you read this it may well have changed again. It’s a tale of dangerous expeditions to Africa, of financial intrigue in the UK and of how key movers in the Doctor Who world can close ranks with surprising effect. It is about blatant denials from various sources. It’s a better plot than anything last season! The one immutable fact is that some of these episodes have seen the light of day. `Web of Fear` and `Enemy of the World` both containing previously missing episodes were made available in the autumn of 2013 first via iTunes and subsequently in 2014 on DVD.  The rest is less certain.

"Please! No!! I don't know where the missing episodes are!"

 

The origins of Doctor Who (possibly!)

Doctor Who’s beginnings- the `real` behind the scenes story

as researched by JJJ Pixley

The cast flee after reading the first script

Sydney Newman liked to tame lions and it was this mixture of bravery and madness that he brought to the BBC in the early 60s. Fired out of a cannon he arrived at Broadcasting House full of ideas for programmes. A new science fiction based series aimed at children had already been discussed when Newman had a glorious idea. He was walking through Hyde Park one afternoon in late 1962 when he saw a crotchety old man trying to strangle a duck. This set him thinking; what if there was a series featuring a crotchety old man. At this point that was the only idea he had; in fact the same crotchety old man was approached to star in the series but was deemed too fierce for television. 

Daleks Death Ray Ice Lolly

Kids love ice lollies so linking them to a tv series is a great idea yet this ice lolly which enjoyed popularity in 1975-76 did not feature the Doctor but instead starred his greatest enemies. Comprising a moregous combination of chocolate and mint, the Dalek Death Ray would taste amazing whatever it was called. The top half of the lolly was mint followed by a chocolate base.  Unlike some overly sweet lollies it also did the trick of really cooling people down in the days when we had normal summers.   

Produced by Walls, the product had the added attraction of the stunning Frank Bellamy artwork that adorned the wrapper meaning many fans kept them for years. The lolly also had other Bellamy drawings included which were taken from the 1976 Dalek Annual. These showed aspects of the Daleks’ world and history beyond their encounters with the Doctor. Evocative titles include `The Swamp Creatures of Terroth!, `When Daleks Flooded the World` and `How Daleks Bend Time`. 

As part of the promotion of the lolly, Walls were even reputed to have a fill sized Dalek in the reception of their main office.

 below. Yikes! it's those pesky swamp creatures from Terroth.