Season 13: Pyramids of Mars

There is an experience Doctor Who fans will never have again that anyone watching the series in the Seventies did have and that is watching your first episode in colour. After years of various shades of grey there would finally be an episode when the series exploded into bright COLOUR! For some it had started with `Spearhead from Space` when the series itself was first broadcast in colour. Some of us had to wait a while longer. For me it was episode 2 of `Pyramids of Mars` first broadcast on 1 November 1975. Having avidly watched most of the third Doctor’s era in monochrome – and therefore spared the garish colours of the Axons- nothing could prepare me for the experience of seeing the series as it should look. It’s difficult to describe in a world now where black and white material is either ancient or used as a novelty. Somehow watching in monochrome you did have some idea of things being different shades yet whenever a photo turned up it was still a surprise. I think the reason why I loved the Target books covers was because of the vibrant colour of the artwork. Yet Doctor Who was still a black and white series for me. Then in 1975 we got a colour television and suddenly everything was different. 

 

Fan Scene- CT82 #2

The world of Doctor Who in 1982 as seen by the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom (aka CT)
Something that made a comeback in 1982 was the coloured paper which used to be a regular feature of CT. Last issue had a pink cover but for March a sort of lime green was used which had Ref Dept Announcement -Page Two emblazoned across the top even though the actual announcement isn’t really very exciting. They’re going to stop doing detailed synposes as these are now being done in DWM and there is also the Programme Guide.  Elsewhere on the cover comes news of the 1983 Annual which will include some behind the scenes material (Annuals usually confined themselves to new fiction). Those Dalek films posters keep showing up; this time around the rather splendidly named Powerpulse Productions are selling them. There’s even a mention of a Human League concert recently where slides of the Doctor were included in the show; well they did have a song called `Tom Baker`. 

Season 13: Planet of Evil

I remember finding this the least impressive story of the season when I first saw it but back then I suppose I wanted it to have more monsters than it does. It just seemed very talky especially at first. Oddly re-watching now I prefer the first half to the second as it contains some interesting ideas whereas parts 3 and 4 seem to become more of a standard base (or in this case spaceship) under siege.  Less outwardly showy than it’s season counterparts, `Planet of Evil` takes its cues from both Forbidden Planet and Jekyll and Hyde. It shows just how effectively Messrs Hinchcliffe and Holmes- here with writer Louis Marks- were able to filter and splice elements of classic stories into something fresh. 

 

Fan Scene - CT82 #1

The world of Doctor Who as seen by the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom (aka CT)

While accounts often cite the Seventies as the original programme’s most successful period, ratings in the early Eighties were high driven partly by the popularity of Peter Davison. 1982 seems as if it will be a busy Doctor Who year and the January issue is testament to that activity with a variety of snippets relating to the programme. Though much of it resides in a column called Trivia it provides an interesting snapshot of just how much attention the series was receiving at this time. So there’s a piece about the uncovering of a sixteen year old poster for the Doctor Who and the Daleks film during the redecoration of Southgate Underground station (it’s a shame the photo looks rather like a flash of white light). There’s something about Madame Tussauds advertising their Doctor Who Experience with a `Guess Who’s at Madame Tussauds` campaign. The Five Faces of Doctor Who repeats on BBC2 are getting good ratings with the first episode `An Unearthly Child` placing tenth in the channel’s ratings that week. `Carnival of Monsters` is also reported as faring well beating Grange Hill. Even the Society’s own event DWASocial 2 held in Edinburgh in November 1981 was reported in `The Scotsman` newspaper. Target have published a quiz book which Gary Russell reports is more accurate than their Programme Guide though not entirely correct. It is selling for £1.25. Also the 70s play Doctor Who and the Seven Keys to Doomsday has been staged for the first time since 1974 by the Buxton Drama League.

 

Fury from the Deep review

The new animated version of `Fury from the Deep` arrives with a big reputation. Word of mouth from those who saw it fifty two (!) years ago suggest it’s one of the scariest adventures but we’ve been here before. `Tomb of the Cybermen` enjoyed similar reverence until it was actually found and revealed to be nowhere near as amazing as we’d expected. Sure it was good but had a major narrative flaw that was impossible to reconcile. After struggling with `The Faceless Ones`, dipping out during the interminable scenes with Scouser Pauline Collins, I was certainly hoping for more inspiring material because however good the animation is it can’t really alter the story significantly. On the surface `Fury` fits the late Sixties model of a place under siege with a variety of characters defined more by their job than their personality. They shout and argue a lot about procedure, ignore any obvious warnings that things are going wrong allowing the Doctor to lurk in the background till he pulls a solution out of the hat early in the last episode. However what unfolds is much more interesting, that rarity of a second Doctor story that gets better as it progresses.

 

Season 13: Terror of the Zygons

Doctor Who never scared me - it thrilled me! Even as a child I watched it without feeling the need to leap behind the sofa. Instead I revelled in all those monsters and slime and robots and everything else. Yet I think that one of the scariest moments in any iteration of the programme is the end of episode one of this story when we see a Zygon for the first time. It is something to do with the fact that, as well as  the appearance of the creature being grotesque anyway – a cross between an embryo and a sea horse- it has its mouth wide open and Sarah’s scream is given a slight echo and mixed into the end sting when the theme music starts. Somewhere in the land of What-if there is a period of Doctor Who called the Banks Stewart Era when the writer Robert Banks- Stewart took over the series and every story was delivered with same brio as `Terror of the Zygons` and `Seeds of Doom`. It would be full of hard action, vicious antagonists, quirky characters and lashings of richly swirling Geoffrey Burgon incidental music. In the event though we have just ten episodes with these ingredients but they do stand out even from their much admired fellow stories this season. Unbelievably `Terror` was supposed to end season twelve - can you imagine this story being shown in the summer?

 

Inferno review

Season 7@50. Over the past decade or so `Inferno` has gained in reputation amongst fans of the original series to the point where the story is now often cited as the finest Third Doctor adventure usurping the traditional poll topper `The Daemons`. I’m not sure I agree with this consensus to the point where I would pin it in fourth place in an admittedly very strong season. While there is a huge amount to enjoy about it and some great performances there is also a nagging sense of repetition about a lot of the dialogue. And this is before we get to the parallel world. As the third story in a row to be set around a scientific establishment there are similar scenes to its two predecessors in which authority figures clash with experts while the Doctor tries to get his view across. There is also carefully calibrated scientific or engineering work going on again for the third story in a row and, whisper it, this can be a little tedious. However these are often compensated for by the vigour of the production into which a cast hurl themselves with enthusiasm. By the time the story is running in two dimensions it has built up as much steam as the drilling process it is depicting and there is a genuinely thrilling denouement in the parallel world. 

The Blackpool Weekends #2

To provide a true flavour of what the Blackpool gathering was like, there's a short video on YouTube made by Kevin Davies of the 1981 gathering and if you look very, very carefully you’ll see me crossing the road around 3 and a half minutes in with someone wearing a big scarf though that is not really the most exciting moment- unless there was a dinosaur heading for us! You can also see a Sea Devil pootling about. Link to Blackpool 1981 video

It is with a little trepidation also that I present some (slightly edited) reviews I wrote at the time for the fanzine `Shada`. You may not know the names mentioned but these give a further illustration of what the weekends were like, there’s also some photos from various events. If you were there see if you can spot yourself. 

1983

The Blackpool Weekends #1

Doctor Who fan events in the `old time` were not always just about large scale conventions - in the pre-internet, pre-video days people had to get out a bit if they wanted to get to know other fans from different areas and if they needed to see those episodes they had hazy memories of. So there were lots of extra things in between conventions and one of them was the annual gathering at Blackpool, the North's premier seaside town and the location for the Doctor Who Exhibition. Each year, in early May from around about 1977 until 1989, fans would converge on the town for a weekend of relaxed fun and fan networking. And in a town as crazy as Blackpool did anyone even notice the occasional Sea Devil or long scarf? 

The Ambassadors of Death review

Season 7@50 Often viewed as the least successful of this atypical season, the fact that  `The Ambassadors of Death` was ever made at all is remarkable given the behind the scenes politics. That it turns out to be as coherent as it is when it was written by four people is equally surprising. Trevor Ray is a bit of a mystery character but David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks are such different types of script writers, it is tempting to speculate which aspects of the story they each penned. You can possibly best see Hulke’s work in the themes. There is a moral clash, a cultural misunderstanding at the heart of what is happening and we are given both sides of the argument so we can see what drives the antagonist. Whitaker is supposed to have supplied the overall concept and it may be his intricately detailed technical script that dominates the first third. As for Dicks it is likely he introduced more peril- I may be wrong but surely the whole Liz escaping and nearly falling into the water is his? I bet he spiced up the drier aspects of the story with some runarounds. We’ll probably never know but the end result is that the script appears to be the work of one writer. It may lack some pace at times, though some events are unbelievably truncated (how long does it take to prepare a rocket?) but it is never found to be wanting in interest. 

Farewell Sarah Jane review

Sarah Jane Smith, first time round, was my favourite companion. Not only was Doctor Who the greatest tv programme ever, not only did both lead actors come from my home town but Lis Sladen had lived in a road five minutes’ walk from where I lived. My Dad had played piano for some of her dance classes.  Many years later at a convention I found myself sharing a lift with her and even though I am perfectly capable to separating reality from fiction I was half expecting the lift to suddenly halt- there’d be a shower of sparks of course- and the lights would start flickering. As I wasn’t a Time Lord it would be up to her to rescue me with her sonic lipstick. Of course it was just a normal lift. Second time round when she appeared first in Doctor Who and then her own series I was so pleased that this character from my childhood had come back. 

The Silurians Episode 7 review

Season 7@50. It may be seven episodes long but there is no fat on this story so much so that a lot if packed into this final one. The Doctor’s captivity in the Silurian base after he was taken from the lab is short lived, pretty soon he’s back with the reptilians though as they employ a fall back plan- destroying the Van Allen belt. I had to smile at how easily and simply this actual real life bit of science is explained knowing its equivalent in the modern series would be a good two minute lecture from the Doctor all about it. You do wonder though why the Silurians didn’t just go with this plan in the first place as they must have known what was inside the research centre. Perhaps there had been arguments for months between Old and Young Silurian on this particular topic.

The Silurians Episode 6 review

Season 7@50 Unexpectedly this episode seems gruesomely topical right now and judging from this week’s headlines very little has changed when it comes to dealing with a dangerous virus or infection. What was entertainment fifty years ago is now a reality though I doubt if a race of subterranean lizards are responsible. Given this accidental topicality it is even easier to admire the manner in which the production handles it. Plotting the outbreak from Masters to the ticket collector to other passengers and then a phone call that reveals the first foreign case you can see how easily something like this can take hold. Just like our current coronavirus the Silurian’s version doesn’t infect everyone but some die quickly. I think the way the production conveys all this is masterful and quite bold. After all imagine that back in 1970 over seven million viewers watched several minutes of two actors doing chemistry, putting blood samples on slides, making notes and looking at the sample under a microscope. Somehow in the current light it seems much more urgent and serious than it might back then.

The Silurians Episode 5 review

Season 7@50 Something I’d never really thought of before is how versatile the Silurians’ third eye is. In this episode, a large chunk of which we spend in their subterranean company, it is used to open and close doors, create a forcefield, operate a console and finally to kill another Silurian. Presumably it is controlled by the power of thought but even so it must have to be concentrated thought of some strength. Perhaps that’s why they are so jumpy. Each of the three main Silurians we see seems to have been given a different movement in order for us to differentiate between them and it gives them an eerie quality. They are jerky movements whereas we might expect reptiles to be slinkier. The most remarkable aspect to them is that Peter Halliday does all the voices arguing with himself over Silurian politics. It’s a cruel game with someone able to seize power simply by turning that third eye on their rival. I’m not sure why Old Silurian as he is known in the tv version (see below about the novel) doesn’t fight back, maybe its because he’s old? As for Silurian scientist (aka K’To if you’re reading the book) he’s clearly not a fighter and will acquiesce to whoever’s third eye looks the most threatening.

The Silurians Episode 4 review

Season 7@50. Mid- way through this episode (and hence mid- way through the story) there’s one of those conferences that Seventies Doctor Who excelled in. It serves several purposes; firstly to get across some story points in as interesting a way as possible, secondly to state everyone’s position and thirdly to give the actors some juicy officialdom to get their teeth round. In the room each person represents their profession whether a soldier, a bureaucrat, a boss or a scientist. If I were awarding points I’d say Peter Miles comes out on top here; his slowly seething Doctor Lawrence is a study in repressed anger. You can just tell he wants to literally lamp the Brigadier!