The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

The Tomb Of The Cybermen - Part One (02/09/07) A good start to the new series and another return for the Cybermen! Much better than The Moonbase already, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria have stumbled across an archaeological group on an alien planet looking for the lost tombs of the Cybermen (obviously). Already one of the rocket crew has been killed at the entrance, and the cliffhanger saw an archaeologist shot down. The plot seems fairly straight-forward, based on all those films about excavating cursed mummies tombs, and the villains are a bit blatant and cliche being arrogant, rude, greedy and possibly German, but after the convoluted plot to last season's Dalek finale a simple plot is quite welcome. Exactly why the Doctor is helping the archaeologists, though, is beyond me - first he gets them in there, then he shows them how to get the power up and running, and tells them where the doors they've missed are. Surely it would've been a better idea to just not show the...

The Evil Of The Daleks - Part One (20/05/07) A very interesting episode this week. It's a Dalek story (obviously) and they're on contemporary Earth. A man called Edward Waterfield (who may be a Victorian) is, for some reason, helping the Daleks lay a trap for the Doctor and Jamie by stealing the TARDIS and luring them to Waterfield's antique shop. There seems to be a transmat of some sort that Waterfield and the Daleks use in a back room there which may be linked to the 1870s (implied by Waterfield's pristine antiques) - I can only assume that, having chased the Doctor across the universe and throughout time, the Daleks have decided that the best way to bump him off is to set up shop (antique shop!) in the 1960s and just wait for him to turn up. They probably twigged that that's where Ian, Barbara, Polly and Ben came from - plus Susan's fashion sense was always a bit 60s). Speaking of Polly and Ben, I had no time to miss them this week - their absence in the...

The Faceless Ones - Part One (08/04/07) They're back on contemporary Earth again!This is starting to be a regular thing and works quite well. The Doctor has carelessly landed the TARDIS on a runway at what appears to be Gatwick Airport and they all split up when chased by a policeman. Polly entered a hangar belonging to a company called Chameleon Tours and saw a man being killed with a ray gun. It just shows how used she's become to travelling through time and space as she didn't twig that they don't have ray guns here yet! Also, I'm wondering how much time has passed since The Macra Terror cuz her hair is very long again. It's probably hair extensions, but where would she find those in the TARDIS? She found the Doctor and Jamie and they went back to the hangar to see the body, then went off to report the murder to the Airport authorities but the murderers from Chameleon Tours (who seem to be pilots) followed them and kidnapped Polly! The Doctor and Jamie sp...

The Macra Terror - Part One (11/03/07) An intriguing and atmospheric episode this week, playing mystery against the setting of an overtly happy Earth colony on another planet. The Doctor et al. arrived at the colony and, uniquely, were welcomed as travellers with open arms, being shown about the place like a tour guide showing prospective holiday-makers round Butlins. There's irritating jingles, happy colonists, and enjoyable work (in the mines!). The episode was largely spent setting up a relationship between the Doctor and unhappy camper Medok, who seems to know that there's something insidious going on. I'm actually quite liking the Doctor now; Patrick Troughton seems to be continuing the tack he took on the character in the last story - all mysterious and anti-authoritarian. He freed Medok and persuaded him to show him what was going on after curfew. Lo and behold, the colony appears to be suffering from an infestation of crabs - giant crabs. The Doctor seems...