The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon

The Ambassadors OF DEATH: Episode 1 (21/03/10) Well, that was just like The Sweeney! Welcome to 'The Ambassadors...OF DEATH'. It was all very fast and exciting. What to say? Well, basically Mars Probe 7 blasted off from Mars with its crew seven months ago, then contact was lost. Recovery 7 docked with Mars Probe 7 in a weird-but-cool sort-of pre-titles bit and now communication has been lost with that! Meanwhile, the space station has received a coded communication which the Doctor heard on the News report and is trying to decipher. However, someone in a warehouse in London has already sent a coded reply - UNIT went in and had a gunfight, the lackies were caught but their bosses escaped, destroying their transmitter. And back at Mission Control, French Taunter, er, I mean the uncooperative Frenchman Doctor Taltalian has just pulled a gun on the Doctor and Liz. It all looks very swish and is very gripping, if a little confusing, but just as good as last week. What else? Li...

Doctor Who And The Silurians: Episode 1 (31/01/10) Good start this week. The Doctor and Liz have been called to help the Brigadier investigate goings on at a Nuclear research complex built into a cave system in Derbyshire. There's an unusually high level of people having nervous breakdowns on the staff, and two scientists were attacked while pot-holing - one was killed and the other has gone mad and started drawing weird reptile men on the walls of his hospital room. Meanwhile, chief scientist Doctor Quinn and his deputy seem to be up to something; the man running the place, Doctor Lawrence, is determined to keep the place running at full power and seems likely to crack up at any point, too; and the security officer is determined to make sure everything's done by the book, which means he's very suspicious of the Doctor as the Brigadier has forbidden a security check on him. There was a wonderful scene at the start with the Doctor tinkering with an old yellow road...

Spearhead From Space: Episode 1 (03/01/10) Wow! It's in colour! It's on film! It's on location! It looks fantastic! The Brigadier's back along with UNIT who are investigating a meteor shower in some woods near Ashbridge Cottage Hospital. The Time Lords have put the TARDIS down right at the centre of the shower and the Doctor's unconscious body was found by UNIT soldiers and taken to the hospital. The Doctor has two hearts and weird blood, and the Brigadier went to see the Doctor but didn't recognise him. The new Doctor does look quite different (played now by Jon Pertwee, who's famous for comedy radio shows and a couple of Carry On films) being tall with greyish brown and white hair. He still sounds the same, but also a little different. The story started with UNIT tracking the meteors, then went to Lethbridge-Stewart meeting scientist Dr Elizabeth Shaw who's been hijacked from her studies at Cambridge to aide their investigations. She's a sc...

Having reached the end of the Troughton era it's time for me to cast an eye back on the Second Doctor and his adventures. I have to be honest about this one; after three years of variety and experimentation throughout Hartnell's reign, I find the Troughton era a difficult one. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with either Patrick's performance (which would influence more than one actor to take on the role in the decades to come), the stories or the companions, but the era is very much one of transformation. In the space of three seasons it goes from being a family-orientated show to being one quite squarely targeted at a younger audience. Whilst there are still a number of stories which hark back to the days when there was something in there for everyone (and foreshadow the grittier take of the early 70s), this era is where the remit for the show being an adventure series with educational leanings comes to an end and it becomes an adventure series for children ...

The War Games - Episode Six (24/05/09) This story continues to be very good. Jamie isn't dead and was taken for interrogation by the Security Chief who, having spoken with the Alien Scientist, believes that the War Chief is betraying the aliens to his own people, a race called the Time Lords. The War Chief interrupted the conversation before the Security Chief could find much out and they had an argument over how stupid the Security Chief [Argh! Why don't they give these characters proper names??? From now on they're Time Lord and Spectacles!] would look alleging Time Lord's betrayal with no proof when his master, the War Lord (who we haven't met yet) arrives. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Zoe and Carstairs rescued Russell from the Scientist before he was reconditioned, rescued Jamie, got disguised as soldiers (WWI) and legged it to the transmat-thing bay. Russell and Zoe headed back to the American Civil War Zone where the guy guarding the Yankee/German Ge...

The War Games - Episode One (19/04/09) Another radical shift in quality! For the first time since The Abominable Snowmen we're back in Earth's past, this time on the front line during the First World War. Immediately, the quality was remarkably better than  during the last story in the script, the direction, the design and the acting. The location footage is excellent, really evoking the grimness of the time. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe arrived just in time to be barraged with shells then rescued by WVR Lady Jennifer Buckingham who was driving an ambulance through No Man's Land. Hijacked by Germans, they were rescued by Lt. Carstairs and taken to Major Barrington in the trenches. Suspicious of the three civilians in No Man's Land (obviously) he sent them to General Smythe at a nearby chateau - and this is where it stopped being a straight Historical. I was quite excited that we might have a proper Historical story again, as the last one was way back when Jamie arriv...

The Space Pirates - Episode One (08/03/09) Well, that was different! Firstly, it was a full 15 minutes before the TARDIS even arrived - that's well over half way in - and then all the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe did was run away from some space soldiers and get trapped in an exploding beacon! Secondly, what wonderful model work! In a script which comes across as some sort of space adventure akin to Flash Gordon (but without the planets) or Barbarella (ditto) the production have really pulled out the stops with the design. I don't think I've seen such cool spaceships in the entire series - miles away from the last story's crappy rocket. That kind of makes sense, in a way, as the rocket was meant to be primitive and contrasts greatly with this far future society for whom space travel is like cycling. So, what was it about? Um, well, there's some space pirates (duh) who are attacking beacons, breaking them up and carting them off to plunder for their Argonite (the mo...