I will forever associate this story with Sachertorte. Not the most obvious connection, but in my case I first watched it while I was attempting to whisk cream (by hand!) to make a Sachertorte. My dismal failure may have accounted for why I never gave the story a fair viewing, and enjoyed the following serial, The Romans, much more.
Continue readingIn a recent blog I made the case to remake missing Season One adventure Marco Polo using a brand new cast. Since that post, I began to ponder what other stories could be recreated using a new cast to re-shoot the lost content. Considering every story currently lacking an animation will take some time, given that one must necessary weigh up some very important questions: how many cast members would you need? Does the story feature location shots? How long is it? Some stories will obviously be much easier than others to reproduce.
Over the past fortnight I have been enjoying the latest lost episodes animation to hit our screens – Season 5 classic Fury From The Deep. I still maintain that in the absence of freshly recovered material, this is the next best thing – although I know some readers prefer listening to the audio and allowing their imaginations to fill in the gaps.
Continue readingThe debate about colourising episodes of Doctor Who originally broadcast in black and white is not new. Techniques for adding colour to black and white footage have been around for decades and used with varying degrees of success, most often for commercially lucrative projects such as Laurel and Hardy movies. To date, the debate has been slightly irrelevant for Doctor Who, as the cost has been so extravagant that it has only just been viable for episodes missing their original colour episodes, such as the Mind of Evil. That however, may be about to change.
Continue readingIt is a strange twist of providence that Season 2 of Doctor Who is the one that has best survived out of the first six. Only two episodes from the whole are missing, both falling in historical adventure The Crusade. Unlike fellow historical adventure Marco Polo, The Crusade is perhaps more easily forgotten as it at least survives in part. Like Marco Polo however, it is odd that it has not survived, given that the remainder of Season 2 has survived to the present day and several copies were sent overseas.
Continue readingI was very surprised when I realised I hadn’t actually reviewed The Reign of Terror, even though it is a DVD that sits proudly in my collection. The reason however is straightforward enough; as with The Moonbase and The Ice Warriors I was holding off buying the DVD under the mistaken impression that the animated episodes were sitting in a warehouse somewhere just waiting to be dusted off and handed to the Beeb. As with the other incomplete adventures, it is absolutely right I give my thoughts on the story!
Continue readingDoctor Who fans are hugely fortunate. Thanks to the intervention of Ian Levine, the series first three serials were rescued hours before they would have been lost forever. While fans can get caught up in The Beginning DVD boxset, a jarring note hits the viewer as The Edge of Destruction fades to a close, and viewers are forced to the horrified realisation that we cannot see what happens next.
Universally recognised as the story that transformed Doctor Who into a nationwide hit, The Daleks is much, much more than a mere introduction story to the alien race that would go on to become the Doctor’s deadliest enemies. The series’ second story is a fantastic sci-fi adventure that stands up well more than 50 years after its initial broadcast, and is superb television, nevermind superb Doctor Who.
Back in 1973, a bright spark at the BBC suddenly realised that Doctor Who had reached a significant milestone – its tenth season. To mark the occasion, the producers took the bold step to write a story featuring every one of the Doctor’s incarnations, and the resulting story was entitled exactly what it was: The Three Doctors.
Of all the ‘multi-doctor’ stories, I believe that this one is the best. Unlike The Five Doctors it is not overly self-referential, instead telling quite a good story; unlike The Two Doctors it is clear and cohesive, and reasonably well told! It has to be said that, in my view, it is the participation of the Doctor’s first three incarnations in one story that makes what might have been a quite ordinary U.N.I.T. adventure into a truly great one, and one that is a pleasure to enjoy.
At the beginning of this story the Doctor is still trapped on earth; but having found a variety of different ways to circumvent the BBC’s restriction (or rather, dressing up in different ways sending the Doctor off on missions for the Timelords) the BBC finally gave up and decided it was time to let the Doctor off his leash. The narrative device to restore the Doctor’s freedom was for Gallifrey itself to come under attack from an unknown source, requiring the help of the Doctor to overcome it. When it transpires he requires the assistance of another Timelord, the High Council decide there is only one other person they can spare – the Doctor’s past self!
The villain of the piece is one of the original Timelords – a chap called Omega who harnessed the power of a star near Gallifrey, creating the conditions in which the Timelords would be able to travel in time. He himself was thought lost in the resultant supernova, but had in fact been sucked into a parallel anti-matter universe. The force of his will enables the world to exist, but he cannot escape it without someone else willing it to exist. He is therefore seized of two purposes – to destroy the Timelords (who he felt abandoned him) and to bring to himself another Timelord to take his place and enable him to return to the matter universe.
The Three Doctors does require you to shrug your shoulders and go along for the ride – but it is an extremely enjoyable ride! The scenes between Pertwee and Troughton are genuinely funny rather than forced, leaving it only a pity that Hartnell was so unwell that he could not participate as fully as one otherwise would have hoped, appearing instead in pre-recorded scenes from the TARDIS monitor. It also feels like the beginning of the end for the U.N.I.T. family – at the end of this story the Doctor is given his freedom by the Timelords in gratitude for defeating Omega. As The Brigadier and Benton depart to ‘mop things up’ while the Doctor prepares the TARDIS for take-off, one rather senses that the dismemberment of the U.N.I.T. family, which would start in the season finale The Green Death was already taking place.
The Three Doctors is by no means the most complicated Doctor Who you will ever watch – but it is good fun, easy to follow, and features some extremely enjoyable acting – not least from the three leading men. As the Brigadier famously remarks: “Wonderful chaps. All of them.”
Next time: A savage introduction to a new companion, facing against a schizophrenic computer
This was not a serial I expected to enjoy when I bought the Rescue/Romans boxset, and I am sure is a story several fans will be surprised to see so high in my list of enjoyed stories. Yet it is deservedly in the top fifty classic Doctor Who adventures for me, a charming story that is both well told and engaging in equal measure!
Dan Talks Doctor Who 