The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

The Mutants: Episode One (08/04/12) IT'S... not as good as the last few stories, despite the Monty Python-esque opening shot of an old, ragged man stumbling through some decimated trees towards the camera. The Time Lords, it seems, have sent an odd-shaped box to the Doctor for him to deliver to someone - "three-line-whip" style (he has no choice) so off he goes with Jo in the TARDIS to Skybase One orbiting the planet Solos, 3,000 years in the future at the end of Earth's Empire. Earth has been in control of Solos for centuries, apparently. According to native Ky they used to be farmers, but if that's so then the colonists, led by the atmosphere-experimenting Marshall, have made a right fucking mess of it judging by the bleak, desolate landscape from the opening scene, and the view seen by the Doctor and Jo from orbit of a grey, rocky planet shrouded in mist! However, the Earth Administrator has turned up to give Solos independence (something they surely had ...

The Sea Devils: Episode One (26/02/12) Only episode one and already this is really good! The Doctor and Jo have gone to visit the Master (!) who's being held at a fort on an island off the south coast - apparently a lot of people wanted him executed (!!!) but he got life imprisonment instead - under the eye of fuddy-duddy ex-Colonial Trenchard. Trenchard proved to the Doctor that all the guards were hypnosis-proof (in an obvious set up) and the Master convinced the Doctor that he's turned over a new leaf! However, Trenchard is actually collaborating with the Master and providing Naval charts; probably something to do with mysteriously sinking ships in the area (surrounding a nearby sea fort). Trenchard's mention of missing ships piqued the Doctor's interest and having learnt from local ferryman Robbins that the Navy at the local secret Naval Base hold the only remnant of the missing ships - a scorched lifeboat - the Doctor gave him a bribe and went off to look in his ...

The Curse Of Peladon: Episode One (29/01/12) Wow! Okay, so we're on an alien planet (Peladon) this week and I don't think there's ever been a story with so many different aliens! For a start, the Ice Warriors are back (Yay!) along with an Arcturan and an Alpha Centauran (respectively, a head in a jar and a penis in a cape). The Doctor took the TARDIS for a test run following his experiments at the start of the last story, Jo going along 'all dolled up for a night on the town with Mike Yates' apparently (though what she was thinking they were going to do in that  get up is anyone's guess - 'Come Dancing' is about all that springs to mind!). Anyhow, the aliens are on Peladon as delegates (again - two stories in a row with delegates!) of the Galactic Federation, deciding whether to allow Peladon to join. Only the Earth delegate is missing. The TARDIS landed on a cliff beneath the hugely impressive Peladonian Citadel and fell to its non-destruction, le...

Day Of The Daleks: Episode One (01/01/12) Happy New Year! The Daleks are back after an age away! I have to say it's been a refreshing break and their return is actually quite exciting. They didn't appear much, but it was only Episode One. Anyhow, there's another World Conference, like in The Mind Of Evil, and the Chinese are playing up again. Sir Reginald Styles is on the case, but he's been targeted by a group of Guerrillas, seemingly from the future, where it seems the Daleks and some great big ape men are working with a shiny-faced man and his beautiful shiny-faced assistants (I wonder if they're Autons - if so it's a bit overkill!). UNIT has been called in by Styles' aide, Miss Paget, and they've discovered the unconscious assailant (twatted by the ape guys and left for dead) and his Time Machine - a handheld box stashed under a railway bridge by a canal. The Doctor, however, activated it and it sent the Guerrilla back to the future before Bent...

The Dæmons: Episode One (22/05/11) Very peculiar, this week! As is obvious from the title, this episode is heavily influenced by Hammer Horror. Great used of a TV reporter and his news team throughout - he was annoying and a little camp, interviewing an archaeologist who was preparing to open the Devil's Hump, a barrow near Devil's End (Wiltshire?) a man not willing to take any shit from poncy reporters! Some great interplay between the archaeologist, the reporter and the AFM. Also, the local White Witch, Miss Hawthorne, is warning against the dig as it's legend that the Devil will appear when it's opened! She's very good; plummy, nutty, in her 50s and dressed in Tweed and an Ankh. The episode started with a mysterious death in the Churchyard at Devil's End, then saw the Doctor teasing Jo about believing in magic. Then the UNIT crew sat down to watch the preparations for the dig on TV (BBC3!) and saw Miss Hawthorne trying to dissuade the Professor from going...