BFI: William Hartnell "An Unearthly Child" Screening

Jessica Carney, Donald Tosh, Waris Hussein, host,
William Russell, Carole Ann Ford & Jeremy Young.

I had an absolutely marvelous time at the screening of An Unearthly Child at the BFI today, for the first of 11 events (1 for each Doctor) set for this year to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

There were a number of brilliant guests including: Waris Hussein (Director); Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman); William Russell (Ian Chesterton); Jeremy Young (Kal the Caveman); Mark Gatiss; Donald Tosh (Hartnell Era Script Editor); Brian Hodgson (Radiophonic Workshop, creator of the TARDIS sound effect); Clive Doig (Vision Mixer) and Jessica Carney (William Hartnell’s grand-daughter and biographer).

It was great to see An Unearthly Child on the big screen and with an audience, but for me finally getting to meet William Russell and Carole Ann Ford in the flesh was the biggest highlight.

The next event to celebrate Patrick Troughton will take place on February 9th. The event is already sold out, but for those of you who snapped up some tickets, I'll see you there.

BFI Announce Guests for Unearthly Child Screening

The BFI have finally announced their guests for this Saturday's screening of An Unearthly Child; the William Hartnell story chosen to kick off the 50th Anniversary celebrations, and it's a very impressive gathering.

The guests include: Waris Hussein (Director); Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman); William Russell (Ian Chesterton); Jeremy Young (Kal the Caveman); Mark Gatiss; Donald Tosh (Script Editor); Brian Hodgson (Radiophonic Workshop); Clive Doig (Vision Mixer) and Jessica Carney (William Hartnell’s grand-daughter and biographer).

I'm going and I can't wait. Anyone else going?

BFI To Celebrate 50th Anniversary By Screening Doctor Who

The British Film Institute have been a big part of Doctor Who for many years, so like the rest of us they're celebrating the fantastic 50th Anniversary of a certain Time Lord.

Each month the BFI will screen an iconic episode of Doctor Who for each Doctor, starting with William Hartnell and An Unearthly Child, then going on to Patrick Troughton and The Tomb of The Cybermen, a special advance screening of the colourised version of The Mind of Evil for Jon Pertwee. These three are the only ones announced thus far, but a story per Doctor is expected each month. 

Also! The BFI are planning a very special Preview screening of the inception of Doctor Who Drama: An Adventure in Space and Time penned by Mark Gatiss.

Each screening will feature a guest or guests involved in each story. The announced screening thus far include:

An Unearthly Child Saturday January 12th 15:30pm

The Tomb of the Cybermen Saturday February 9th 14:30pm

The Mind of Evil (Recolourised) - March - Date and time TBC

An Adventure In Space and Time - November - Date and time TBC

All in all it's shaping up to be a very exciting 50th Anniversary.

64: The Time Monster - Masterful But Hardly A Master-Piece

Written by: Robert Sloman.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant, Brigadier, Captain Mike Yates, Sergeant Benton.

Monsters/Villains: The Master, Kronos, Minotaur.

Brief Synopsis: The Master goes all the way to Atlantis to unleash and harness a powerful being known as Kronos.

Rating: 5/10.

Here we are at the end of Season 9. It's been a fantastic one, but what of the Season Finale? We're back in Atlantis, but it doesn't bare the slightest resemblance to how it appeared in The Underwater Menace just 5 years prior. Penned by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, The Time Monster is not one of the most loved, or highly thought of stories; this is most likely due to it lacking a memorable design element. The "monster" of this piece spends most of the story waiting in the wings, the location and studio work for the Newton Institute are pretty good, but not particularly memorable, the odd camera work and poor design of Atlantis really pull down the production as a whole and the less said about the one-off, washing up bowl interior TARDIS redesign the better.

The Master's assistants Stuart and and Ruth.

However this story does have some wonderful touches, the most noticeable has to be the Master having assistants. The Doctor's "best enemy" often has allies or cronies, both willing or hypnotised but in this story it feels somehow different. When we first see him posing as Greek Professor Thascalos, the genius behind TOMTIT (Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time) he is working with Dr. Ruth Ingram, and Stuart Hyde; clear assistant archetypes. Surely someone of the Master's intellectual prowess wouldn't need assistance. He is changing. Maybe he thinks it's the Doctor's assistants are what give him the edge. And later the Master takes Krasis under his wing and even in to his TARDIS. In what would be Roger Delgado's penultimate story as the Master, he really excels as the maniacal renegade time lord.

Delgado at his best.

He has some fantastic moments including a reminder/in-joke about how he hasn't used hypnosis in a while, an impression of the Brig, some wonderful scenes of an amorous nature with guest star Ingrid Pitt, and of course being the third explanation/person to blame for the destruction of Atlantis.

Baby Benton.

I noticed something that was clearly homaged recently in with Matt Smith's Doctor in the episode The Lodger. The Doctor constructs a Time Flow Analogue, which is kind of like jamming a radio signal, claiming the Master and he, "used to make them at school to spoil each others time experiments."

The Doctor makes a Time Flow Analogue.

The Doctor makes a similar device in The Lodger.

The story plays out fairly consistently, the Brig and UNIT get frozen in time and Benton gets regressed into a baby. Everything is going well until, at the beginning of episode 5, the Doctor and Jo follow the Master and arrive in Atlantis. The first time we see Atlantis at the very beginning of this story is in an appropriately filmed bad dream of the Doctor. When we finally arrive there in episode 5 it seems as thought the director has forgotten we're not still in a nightmare, as the camera filter quality remains rose-tinted. The sets are equally lacking in budget, this is especially noticeable when the Atlantian hero Hippias, is thrown through a mirror clearly made of tin foil. Fans defend Doctor Who through many tribulations, but this one might be hard to explain away. 

Kronos.

We don't see much of the titular Time Monster itself, and when we do, you can see the stings in an entirely literal sense. The design is impressive but badly presented and sadly underused.

Ingrid Pitt as Atlantian Queen Galleia.

The story boasts a couple of impressive guest stars, Ingrid Pitt (Hammer Horror Starlet) as queen of Atlantis, Galleia. And the second but easier to miss is Dave Prowse who plays the minotaur, famed for another unrecognisable role, as the body of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.

Dave Prowse as the Minotaur.

There is a wonderful monologue from Pertwee in a scene where the Doctor and Jo are locked up: "When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. Behind our house, there sat under a tree, an old man. A hermit, a monk. He'd lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and had learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me." This presumably alludes to something to do with what would come to be known as regeneration. The hermit is almost certainly a character that we will meet in person in Pertwee's final story, Planet of the Spiders.

The denouement of the story is impressive, but the stakes aren't entirely clear. The Master finally manages to release Kronos thus destroying Atlantis, and escapes with his and the Doctor's TARDISes and Jo Grant. He seems to have finally won. He's bested the Doctor, with Kronos in his control the Master could dominate the universe and he holds all the cards. The Doctor threatens to Time-Ram the Master, which would destroy them both and stop Kronos. But the Doctor can't do it, he can't kill Jo.  In the Master's eyes the Doctor's compassion and pity are his weakness. It is Jo who takes the impetus and activates Time-Ram. This is a huge moment for the role of the companion. When the Doctor's values, which we cherish and respect so much, stop him from doing what he must it is Jo who steps up and saves the universe.

Jo saves the Universe.

Thankful for it's freedom, Kronos saves the Doctor and Jo and at the Doctor's behest the Master as well. The Doctor and Jo are returned but the Master escapes, his ex-assistants Ruth and Stuart manage to free the Brig and UNIT and return Benton to his correct age. After all this impressive high octane stuff, the story fizzles out at the end with a naked Sergeant Benton asking "Can anyone tell me what exactly is going on?"

A Nude Benton.

My answer: "No, I really can't." There are some wonderful moments in this story, some parts I really love but it's let down on too many points to ignore. Roger Delgado rules as the Master, but the story isn't well produced, ultimately it just doesn't feel like a season finale.

But it is, which means we've reached the end of Season Nine. The season in which we saw the long awaited return of the Daleks. We took a trip to Peladon and met the Ice Warriors once more. We caught up with the Master twice, we discovered the Silurians' brothers: the Sea Devils, saw the oppressed Solonians freed from the tyranny of the evil Marshal and colonial Earth and finally, returned to Atlantis. My favourite story in this season has to be The Curse of Peladon. I don't really have a least favourite, if I had to pick one it would be this story, The Time Monster. Out of a possible 50 points I scored Season Nine 37/50. Giving it an average score of 74/100 putting Season Nine in second place overall thus far, after Season 7. It was a really strong season with great monsters, ambitious plots, and thought provoking themes. It didn't quite have the consistency of Season 7 but it certainly earns it's number 2 slot so far.

Join me next time for a new season, an anniversary special, and the return of some familiar faces in The Three Doctors.

Colin Baker To Appear In I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here?

It was leaked today that amongst others Colin Baker (Doctor No. 6) is going to be a contestant on the upcoming new series of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Others rumoured to be appearing in the "reality" tv series are: a wrestler-cum-actor, several washed up soap stars, a pussy cat doll, a former MP, a 70's pop star, a former heavy weight boxer, a celeb cook, a darts player, a comic, and someone from Made In Chelsea.

The programme begins on 11th November, will you be watching?

63: The Mutants - Don't Be Mutt Mad, It's Not That Bad

Written by: Bob Baker and Dave Martin.

Companions: The Doctor, Jo Grant.

Monsters/Villains: The Marshal, Mutts.

Brief Synopsis: On the planet Solos, the sadistic Marshal is experimenting on the mutant natives.

Rating: 7/10.

The Mutants is not the best produced story ever, it's a bit pacey, quite long, the acting of a few members of the cast is more than a little suspect, and the monsters are somewhat under par. This story could easily be judged by and dismissed for all the above reasons. However it's the meaning and the message behind this story by which it should be measured. A story that clearly uses science fiction to draw parallels between the Mutts and Overlords of Solos and real life colonialism, apartheid and racism. The Mutants isn't rated very highly but Salman Rushdie thought enough of it to give it a mention in his infamous book, The Satanic Verses. I ask that you consider the following before judging this rough and ready story.

Salman Rushdie with his book The Satanic Verses.

The story sees the Time Lords sending the Doctor on another mission, this time delivering a box to an unknown someone on the planet Solos. Arriving on a Skybase in orbit of the planet, the Doctor and Jo find the sadistic Marshal ordering his pet scientist Jaeger to attempt experiments to change the atmosphere of Solos making it breathable for humans but not for the native solonians (a perfect sci-fi parallel with colonialism). The Marshal, along with the other humans in attendance claim they are their to "help" the savage natives, and civilise them, but the Solonians want freedom from the overlords oppression and rule.

Paul Whitson-Jones as the Marshal
and Geoffrey Palmer as Administrator.

The cast assembled really shouldn't be too bad, Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter, Star Wars and  the undertaker Abraham in A Town Called Mercy) is our leading man Ky, Geoffrey Palmer makes a brief but excellent appearance as the Administrator, John Hollis as Sondergaard, Christopher Coll as Stubbs, Paul Whitson-Jones as the Marshal and George Pravda plays Dr. Jaeger. 

Rick James as Cotton.

I have to admit that The Mutants does boast some of the very worst acting in Doctor Who history. The  side is let down by James Mellor who overacts terribly as native warlord Varan, and Rick James as the Skybase soldier Cotton, whose character name is even a reference to the cotton plantations used in colonial times. His dialogue is awful and take some of the responsibility but sadly he isn't the best actor either.

Garrick Hagon as Ky, beside the segregated transmat.

Aboard Skybase there are separate cubicles for the transmat to Solos, marked 'Solonians' and 'Overlords,' showing a segregation similar to that of apartheid in South Africa. This segregation is driven by fear of the unlike and fear of difference. The people of Solos appear diseased and are gradually transforming into apparently savage mutant 'Mutts.'

Eventually we learn that the Solonians are naturally meant to mutate, but the Marshal and Jaeger's experiments with the atmosphere have sped up and changed the rate of mutation causing their fearful appearance. With the help of the Doctor, another scientist, Sondergaard (who was presumed lost on Solos) and a bit of radiation, Ky is able to open the time lords box, decipher the tablets within and complete his intended mutation.

John Hollis as Sondergaard.

It's a clear comment on colonialism. A group of colonists arrive in a new place, they try to "help" the natives of that place by civilising them but all they actually achieve is restricting and halting the natives own ways by holding them to colonial expectations and standards.

Once Ky has completed his mutation he appears as highly developed being a kind of telepathic, floating rainbow angel. Showing what Ky and the natives of Solos can achieve if left alone clearly comes down  against Colonialism.

A wonderful caricature of The Mutants by Ben Willsher. 

In the end Ky kills the Marshal, Cotton takes over command of Skybase, and Sondergaard stays on Solos to help the remaining Mutts to complete their mutation. 

All of this may seem like I'm looking for needles in a haystack, but the messages of this story are still as important today as they were in the time when The Mutants was originally shown (1972), and their execution through a family sci-fi television show was a wonderful and covert way of getting these important points into the public awareness.

The Mutants isn't the best story ever and it's messages could certainly have been put across in a more accessible way, but the fact that it deals with these big issues in the first place should surely make it in some way worthy. I leave you to decide.

Doctor Who Season 7 "P.S" The Scene That Was Never Shot Concerning What Happened to The Ponds and Brian.

For those who were left a tad cold from the Ponds departure, watch this wonderful video of a scene that was never shot, which reveals what happened to the Ponds and to Rory's dad, Brian.

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death DVD Review

The Ambassadors of Death had a turbulent genesis. It was originally submitted by writer David Whitaker in 1968, titled 'Invaders From Mars' and written for Patrick Troughton's Doctor. In '69 the script was reworked for Jon Pertwee and renamed 'The Carriers Of Death.' The scripts were handed to Terrance Dick's assistant Trevor Ray who reworked episode one. After going through three different producers, Peter Bryant, Derrick Sherwin and finally Barry Letts, Whitaker's working and reworking on the scripts was deemed unsatisfactory; therefore episodes two and three were rewritten by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, and Four-Seven by Hulke alone. The Ambassadors of Death is a great story but this complicated process sadly reflects on the finish product.

The story centres around the Doctor and UNIT's investigation of the mystery surrounding Mars Probe 7. Space Control hasn't had any contact with the astronauts on board since it started back from Mars seven months ago and then the Recovery 7 rescue mission runs into similar difficulties. It transpires that the ship's occupants are not the human astronauts after all but a trio of radiation-dependent aliens. The earth is threatened once more by invasion but who is behind the plot? The Ambassadors of Deathis arguably the closest Who gets to James Bond. It also goes without saying that the narrative owes a great deal to the 1953 tv-serial The Quatermass Experiment, where an astronaut returning to earth is replaced by an alien life form. The story boasts one of the first uses of CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) on Doctor Who and some of the programme's greatest ever stunt and action sequences.

The Quatermass Experiment (1953)

Extra Features/Value Added Material:

Much like the story's production itself the DVD release has had a somewhat troubled past and development. Originally planned for release in 2011 alongside The Sun Makers,Ambassadors was delayed due to ongoing restoration issues. These issues were finally resolved in November 2011 and it has taken until October 2012 for the DVD to finally see release. So, was it worth the wait? I'll say, it was! Like other early Who,The Ambassadors of Death benefits immensely from theDigitally Remastered Picture and Sound Quality. This is probably the best it has ever looked.

The difference from VHS to
DVD speaks for itself.

The main boast of the DVD's V.A.M. is the documentary Mars Probe 7: Making the Ambassadors of Death from BAFTA-nominated director Chris Chapman.  The doco chronicles the making of this story brilliantly; covering it's sticky inception, writing, rewriting, production, stunts and effects. There is some lovely old footage of the HAVOC stunt team, who share their anecdotal experiences with glee. We also get some interesting insights from the show's director Michael Ferguson. Just as the story was when it was original aired, the documentary is framed beautifully by the real life events of the Apollo 13 space mission.

Toby Hadoke ably moderates the Commentary with the massed collective of Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier), Peter Halliday (Alien Voices) and Geoffrey Beevers (Private Johnson), director Michael Ferguson, script editor Terrance Dicks, stunt co-ordinator Derek Ware and stunt performers Roy Scammell and Derek Martin. The assembled team give an enjoyable and amusing recanting of their experiences working on the story, with plenty of jolly anecdotes on hand. Hearing Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney's voices from beyond the grave is at times haunting and at others wonderfully comforting.

Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John.

The disc features the final installment of the Tomorrow’s Times series, this time for The Third Doctor. The extra looks at the press coverage of Doctor Who during the Pertwee era and is presented by Peter Purves, who gives the piece an experienced and grounded feel.

Also included are the original BBC Trailer for the story, and the usual Photo Gallery, Coming Soon, and Radio Times Listings.

The Ambassadors of Death is a fairly long, seven-part story with a troubled background, but it's action packed and offers a rare cocktail of Doctor Who, James Bond, and Quatermass, shaken but not stirred. The extras are a little thin on the ground but it's quality over quantity.

Story: 7/10

Extra Features: 4/5

The Ambassadors of Death is released on DVD in the UK on 1st October, the US on 2nd October and in Australia on the 3rd October.