Using Dalek time machine

It’s back to school time

The Daleks return for the second time and once again the story ends with a farewell. This time, Ian and Barbara return to earth, using the Daleks’ time machine, at the conclusion of The Chase, which seems to work more accurately than the TARDIS.

With the departure of Ian and Barbara, the viewers have lost the viewers entrance into the ongoing story and indeed three quarters of the original cast. Season two of Doctor Who was definitely one of change with only William Hartnell remaining from the original cast by season’s end.

But the departure of Ian and Barbara marks a big shift from the original premise of being “educational” and transforming into science fiction. An example of this is the very next story which is set in 1066. Barbara would be very familiar with this year and the most famous battle of this year is the battle of Hastings but this story does not focus on this but on a Viking invasion that happened before the battle. And just to remove this from the elements of a purely historical story, another time traveller is involved.

Doctor Who was evolving…

Barbara Wright: A school teacher who taught history, her cardigans were ruined in her last two stories but she had also been mistaken as an Aztec god and also managed to acquire a suntan while left on a space ship in The Sensorites.

Ian Chesterton: A science teacher who was the action man of the series (a role that future companions Steven Taylor, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon and Harry Sullivan would step into).

Although the characters never returned to Doctor Who, Jacqueline Hill would return to play Lexa in the fourth Doctor story, Meglos and Ian Chesterton was scheduled to make a return to Doctor Who in 1983. Unfortunately, William Russell wasn’t able to return so another character from the Doctor’s past [or his future from this point in time], Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (retired). This change in cast has led to real problems for any fans trying to make sense of the UNIT timeline but more of that later.

What are your favourite episodes featuring Barbara and Ian?

His adventures continue

With Lucie Miller

Paul McGann was the Doctor for just one night on television but thanks to Big Finish, he has had a chance to be the Doctor and continue with new adventures.

Starting on Monday 20th February, Big Finish will have  the four series of Paul McGann Doctor Who stories with his companion Lucie Miller on sale over four days. Series one on Monday, series two on Tuesday etc. click here for more details.

These stories have a feel of the new series in style and format (the stories are approximately 60 minutes and Lucie Miller (played marvellously by Sheridan Smith) would feel right at home in the TARDIS with any of the new Doctors.

If you still aren’t convinced, then you can download part one of Blood of the Daleks to hear for yourself or get them as a treat for that special Doctor Who fan.

A podcast with more information can be found here.

If you are already a fan, I’d love to hear your views about these stories.

Assisting the Doctor with

The Unquiet Dead

Today, 7th February 2012 celebrates the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens and what better way for a Doctor Who fan to celebrate than by watching the Doctor Who episode “The Unquiet Dead” written by Mark Gatiss featuring Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. A great episode from the Christopher Eccelston era. Now, where did I put my copy of The Signalman?

To chase the TARDIS through time

Another farewell

The Doctor has taken a space visualiser from the space museum (the previous story, click here for more) and watches a few moments from history, including an appearance of The Beatles. The crew then land on a planet that resembles Tatooine from the Star Wars universe (although not as vast). Vicki and Ian go wandering off while the Doctor and Barbara soak up some rays from the multiple suns.  A sound emanating from the TARDIS  leads the Doctor to realise that the space visualiser hasn’t been switched off but when Barbara goes to turn it off she sees that on the screen, the Daleks are in hot pursuit of the time travellers. The Doctor is unsure how far behind they are but decides that they must leave quickly. Unfortunately, Ian and Vicki have gotten themselves in trouble. Episode one ends with a Dalek rising up through the sand and you can hear it straining as it rises to the surface which is reminiscent to the end of episode one of the Dalek Invasion of Earth.

But if you think that The Chase is confined to just this planet, you would be wrong. The Daleks rather helpfully dig out the TARDIS (that was covered after a sandstorm) and have a short moment where one Dalek commands what seems to be a teenage Dalek judging by his response to some orders, the crew manage t race back into the TARDIS and head to earth for the next few episodes stopping of in a sailing ship, the Empire State building (hmmm I wonder if the TARDIS sensed any Dalek activity connected to this building…see Daleks In Manhattan [a long way away in my quest]) and a building occupied by Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster.

But the finale of the story takes place on the planet Mechanus and features the first doppelgänger of the Doctor as the Daleks create a duplicate of the Doctor that is designed to infiltrate and kill. The planet of Mechanus is very odd in that the surface is very smooth but has a fungal plant life but it is on this planet that a foe was to appear to rival the Daleks…the Mechanoids. These are kind of spherical dodecahedral who have similar mobility issues as the Daleks but the final battle between the Daleks and Mechanoids takes place on a smooth floor. The Mechanoids did appear in comics but never returned to the classic series. They have, however, made a reappearance in the Big Finish audio story The Juggernaughts that features both Davros and the Daleks.

As far as Dalek stories go, this isn’t one of the best but does have some interesting features.The Dalek design here becomes the classic series design with the slats on their middle appearing for the first time. The Daleks learn time travel. And for the second time in three appearances, the story concludes with a departure. This time, Ian and Barbara use the Dalek time machine to return them home (which Vicki and the Doctor watch on the space visualizer).

In the previous story, a Dalek was featured in the space museum and the story was the first (but by no means the last) to feature the Doctor visiting a museum [something that River Song in the new series has relied upon]. Perhaps the Daleks too thought that this behaviour would help them in tracking down the Doctor at the start of this story and donated several Dalek shells to numerous museums across the galaxy. It would certainly be a more reasonable explanation for the Dalek exhibit in the space museum.

What a wonderful project

See how it is done

I am indebted to my twitter friend @ten_ten_ten who RTd* a tweet by @boingboing featuring someone who built their own TARDIS. Click here to watch it being built.

Have you built a TARDIS? If so, how did it turn out? Click here to read about other TARDIS builders.

*Note for none twitter readers, RT stands for ReTweet which is when you share a post from someone you follow with your followers. Twitter etiquette suggests that you credit the original source of the tweet.

Now that I’ve told you all this, please excuse me as I go and complete my Davros collection.

Note: Davros first appeared in the tv story, Genesis of the Daleks magnificently played by Michael Wisher. The next story to feature the creator of the Daleks was Destiny of the Daleks, this time with David Gooderson wearing the mask. This was also the last Dalek story to be written by Terry Nation (the creator of the Daleks, the writer rather than the scientist). The final three Dalek stories in classic series Doctor Who all feature Davros. In all three stories, he is played by Terry Molloy who plays him in the audio dramas. The stories feature Doctors 5, Resurrection of the Daleks, 6, Revelation of the Daleks and 7, Remembrance of the Daleks.

Leaves the travellers seeing

A new exhibit

The first thing to notice about the Space Museum is just how good the first episode is. It is possibly the most sci-fi time travel concept used in the series to date and brings up the subject of fate and how you can influence the future to the fore and kind of questions the notion that you can’t change history.

The crew land on a planet but there have been some odd occurrences on the TARDIS beforehand. Things such as an amazingly quick change of clothes (clothing plays an important part to this story) and a dropped glass of water suddenly reassembles itself. [Aside note, I was watching the Jon Pertwee story “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” where a similar thing happened].

After they land, they notice strange things about the dusty/sandy surface or rather they notice that they are not leaving any footprints. Then a group of people pass and although their mouths are moving, they appear to be making no sound. As the crew hide from another group of people, Vicki cannot prevent herself from sneezing but the group don’t react. The planet is a space museum and at the climax of the first episode, the crew encounter a startling exhibit. They come face to face with themselves as lifeless exhibits. The Doctor realises they have made a jump in time and what they are seeing is their future and judging by their clothing, from a time in the not too distant future.

One of the DVD extras sees Robert Shearman defend this not highly thought of story and describes the remaining 3 episodes as a comedy. You can see what he means as the controllers of the Space Museum, the Moroks, a once powerful race that have long rested on their laurels and the indigenous people of the planet are trying to organise a revolution but tend to sit round tables discussing things. The crew are also at a bit of a loss about what they should actually do in order to avoid their fate. They bicker like a family at a museum deciding where to go next and, after the Doctor is captured, he has fun with his captors after they use a mind reading device on him.

If you read the credits and see a name that rings a bell, it may be that one of the revolutionaries, Tor, is played by Jeremy Bulloch who would later return in Sarah Jane Smith’s debut adventure, The Time Warrior and would later wear the suit of a certain bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe, Boba Fett.

Amongst the exhibits in the museum is a Dalek (which the Doctor hides in during the story, which also acts as a hint to the finale of the story. The Daleks (looking as they would for the remainder of the classic series with the slats around their middle) have located the Doctor’s time machine and are to give chase in order to exterminate their greatest foe.

1. The Space Museum
2. The Dimensions Of Time
3. The Search
4. The Final Phase

During time of Crusades

Ian is knighted

This story is one of the incomplete/missing stories. The audio narration is once again done by William Russell (who played Ian Chesterton in the story). It is another historical and features some fine performances and sees the debuts of two actors who will return to the Doctor Who universe again (and for one of the actors, in the not too distant future). The actors are Julian Glover and Jean Marsh.

This story is also one of the very first to be novelised (even predating the amazing Target range of novels, although it was reprinted and released alongside the other Target novelisations). Both the script and novel was written by Doctor Who’s first script editor, David Whittaker.

It is a good story and it is a real shame that 2 of the episodes are missing but it shows the potential limitations of the historical stories. The framework of the story has the TARDIS crew having an adventure set around the time of the crusade of Richard II (Richard the Lionheart). The story centres upon the capture of Barbara and her subsequent attempt to reunite with the rest of the TARDIS crew. This happens while Richard is trying to negotiate a peace with Saladin, even offering his sister in marriage to Saladin’s brother Saphadin (a marriage to which she is vehemently opposed to).

This story also shows the Doctor being adept at material theft and Vicki is mistaken as a boy and Ian is knighted by Richard.

This story is a four parter but lacks the epic scale of the 7 part Marco Polo or the 4 part Romans. The story itself is enjoyable but the Doctor doesn’t seem to be a vital element to the story which is a shame as there are moments between the Doctor and Richard II that allow both actors to sparkle and there is a touch of sadness at the end after the Doctor predicts that Richard will see Jerusalem but a few moments later admits to the crew that Richard will only see the city from a distance.

The crew in this story are not so much time travellers as time tourists, stopping only to get in a spot of trouble and annoying the locals before making their getaway, onto the next adventure. By no means is this a bad story but after the excellent previous historicals, this one feels as if it should have been earlier in the series.

1. The Lion
2. The Knight Of Jaffa
3. The Wheel Of Fortune
4. The Warlords

That number is now 106 with the discovery of two missing episodes. One of the episodes is from the William Hartnell story, Galaxy Four and the other features Patrick Troughton in The Underwater Menace.

Galaxy Four sees William Hartnell’s Doctor accompanied by Maureen O’Brien as Vicki and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and also features the infamous Chumblies. Some extracts from episode one are on the Lost In Time DVD but the episode that was found is episode three.

The Underwater Menace sees Patrick Troughton’s Doctor accompanied by  Anneke Wills as Polly and Michael Craze as Ben and by new crew member, Jamie McCrimmon. The episode found pre-dates  Episode 3 (also on the Lost In Time DVD), as it is episode 2 of this 4 part serial and in being so is now the earliest episode to feature Patrick Troughton with all episodes from his first two stories, The Power Of The Daleks and The Highlanders missing.

This is the first discovery since episode 2 of the Daleks Master Plan was returned in 2004.

For more information about the discovery, please listen to this special edition of the Doctor Who podcast here.

It will be interesting to see what they will look like after the amazing restoration team get to work on them but if you want to have a sneak peak, click here.

This discovery gives Doctor Who fans hope that somewhere, there may be more treasures to be found and that magic number will keep on decreasing.

If you think you may have information about missing episodes, please contact missingepisodes@drwho-online.co.uk or click here