Ding dong merrily we're high, la la la la la la laaaaa...
In the fine WHOers tradition of cobbling the last of the years interviews together by way of a festive gift to our (poor misguided) audience, here's some stuff for your ear. The irrepressible Nick Briggs and writer John Dorney talk (mostly) about Tom Baker and the upcoming Big Finish for 2012.
Stick this in your stocking. Part 2 to follow the next time we're sober.
Happy Doctor Who Day y'all! :)
[They were] "purchased by film collector Terry Burnett at a village fete near Southampton in the early 80s. He had been unaware that the canisters contained material missing from the BBC."It's really fantastic news, since there are over one hundred episodes that are still missing. Missing because, back in the 60's and 70's the episodes were wiped by the BBC and recorded over with other shows to save money and space. (This seems unbelievable to us whovians now, but I suppose it made sense to some heretical non-whovian BBC efficiency expert at the time.) There are 27 incomplete Doctor Who stories (composed of multiple episodes). 106 of those 256 episodes are still missing. Occasionally, over the years a few would be recovered, usually from overseas broadcasters. Luckily for Doctor Who, it has legions of dedicated fans who recorded the show. Many missing episode stills and short video clips have been found, enabling reconstructions of the episodes and giving fans a peek into those missing stories.
Thanks to the kind loan by Mr Burnett, the classic footage has been shown today at the British Film Institute's annual "Missing Believed Wiped" event at the National Film Theatre in London. Host at the event was Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss who said: "Christmas has come early for Doctor Who fans everywhere. It's always wonderful when a missing episode turns up but it's been years since the last one so to have two is just brilliant. Add to that a proper bit of action from the legendary Chumblies (and the horrifying Rills!) plus the utterly mesmeric Patrick Troughton on great form. Well, what more could we all ask for?"
Research has shown that the returned episodes originated from the ABC channel in Australia. In fact, the copy of The Underwater Menace is still missing a few short sections which were removed by the Australian censors upon its original transmission Down Under. Fresh scans of the missing material have been made by the National Archives of Australia and will be incorporated into the restored episodes ahead of a DVD release.Preview clips from the two recovered episodes:
Details of a commercial release will be announced by 2 entertain in 2012.
Pour an extra brandy. You're going to need it at the end.
Our one-off Nicholas Courtney tribute special, with the usual muppets plus contributions c/o Tim Drury, Who director Mr. Graham Harper, series writer and Big Finish chappie Rob Sherman, the inestimable Nev Fountain, myth maker and Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe Mr. Nick Briggs, and Mr. Frazer Hines talks fond memories and poker.
A labour of editing love and collecting from The Prof and Fuschia. Nicholas and The Brig are sadly missed, and fondly remembered, and we take this time to raise a glass or 3 to the great man's memory.
To The Brig. Forever in Peru.
So, I don't write a whole lot here, but this one has been wanting out of my system for a while – much like taco night gone wrong.. When people ask me who my favorite Doctor is, I always have trouble answering. I claim that every Doctor had at least one story that ranks as the best in the show's history. So, to back up that claim, I'm listing my top 11 stories in the show's history – one from each Doctor. Please, feel free to call me a dumb ass, but only if you post your own list :-).
Hartnell – The Edge of Destruction
Sci-fi perfection. Virtually no budget or special effects. Just 100% story with rock solid acting and directing to back it up. Twilight Zone eat your heart out.
Troughton – The War Games
The first of a couple outstanding regen eps. Troughton shows us a Timelord playing the big game for the first time, really. It just all works here, and is brilliant Who. For all his clown act, Troughton's Doctor knows what it means to be a Timelord as well as any.
Pertwee – The Daemons
Perfect ensemble cast. Great story. Great production values (for the era). 'Nuf said.
T Baker – The Deadly Assassin
In spite of all the amazing companions during Tom's era, he is just badass in this serial. The Doctor's character played to perfection, and Doctor Who telling a story that no other venue in sci-fi could ever tell.
Davison – The Caves of Androzani
An ok story completely stolen by Peter Davison, who simply acts the every-living-crap out of every scene. He is just amazing straight through.
C Baker – Attack of the Cybermen
Arrogance tempered with compassion, but on a scale that only a Timelord can appreciate. This is The Doctor as Colin Baker envisioned him, and it was written and played to perfection in this story.
McCoy – The Curse of Fenric
We see the character development cut short in the Colin Baker era played out here. McCoy's Doctor is just damn creepy here, playing a game on a scale that would make the Master blush at his own small mindedness. 10th Doc take notes – this is how you BE a god, and not just play one in the mirror.
McGann – well, duh. We only the one, but it had to be one of the strongest out-of-the-gates performances to date. Oh, what we could have had from him...
Eccleston – Dalek
Our beloved hero got screwed up by the Timewar. And Eccleston plays it brilliantly here. His emotional collapse (recovery?) at the end is exactly what we would expect. The badass-ness we saw develop with McCoy had to come to a head, and the human side of the Doctor we saw in Davison just couldn't cope with what he'd become.
Tennant – Blink
It may be “Doctor lite”, but still outstanding. This is how a Timelord should steer history. A perfect intervention into the course of history, with Tennant's few scenes reminding me of having just a few sips of a fine Scotch and realizing that more would spoil it.
Smith – The Doctor's Wife
Look at the evolution of the relationship between The Doctor and the TARDIS from Edge of Destruction to here. It's simply amazing, and something unique in all of sci-fi and all of TV. I'm a TARDIS freak, and I can't imagine this episode being written, acted, or directed any differently.
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| Never say f... |
This is what happens when the lunatics run the asylum.
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| Er, really? |
A few new Doctor Who action figures out worth shouting about this week, which makes a change.
Let's start with the Classic stuff, another Forbidden Planet one-off. The 'City of Death' collectors set.
You get 'Big Tom', all open-shirted and in his prime, with obligatory sonic, plus (minor geek-gasum) the frightfully dapper Count Scarleoni with Scaroth Jagaroth interchangable head, pistol, and 'painting accessory' (whatever that means, it's not in the picture) for the relatively light anal damage of £26.99. Pre-order now for deliver after October 19th. Yes, I'll be having one. Feckers may as well have a direct debit out of my bank account for the classic tat.
Also this week there's been an addition to the new series collection, now on 20011 Wave 2 (or Series 5-6 Figure Wave 2a/b, depending how keen you are on keeping things in packets). There's kinda 2 lots, just to add to the confusion and to try and stop us going on about the last lot being so inexcusably shit. A ball-ache for collectors, in summing up they are, sorta:
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| Come on. Say it! You know you want to: AWWW! |
We know this fun fact about Matt thanks to the amusing and silly video ramblings of Charlieissocoollike(Charlie McDonnell), another hopeless WHOvian. He's turned into a sort of regular or at least occasional 'Doctor Who Confidential' tourist, allowed to wander the sets of Doctor Who filming and production while being his charming Charlie self. Christmas rolled around and while they were filming those Almost Fleshy Creepy Milkshake People episodes, Charlie took it upon himself to spread some Christmas cheer to our favorite TARDIS team. During his detective work he found out that Matt Smith is partial to Badgers. And otters...and other things.Badgers and otters, respectively, are sort of my animals. -Matt Smith
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| Awww! |
Badgers are short-legged, heavy-set omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are eight species of badger, in three subfamilies (see links in species list below): Melinae (badgers of Europe and Asia), Mellivorinae (the Ratel or honey badger), and Taxideinae (the American badger).
The behavior of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts, which may be very extensive. Some are solitary, moving from home to home, while others are known to form clans. Clan size is variable from 2 to 15. Badgers can be fierce animals and will protect themselves and their young at all costs. Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals such as wolves and bears.
The diet of the Eurasian badger consists largely of earthworms, insects, and grubs. They also eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds as well as roots and fruit.[12][13] Indeed, in southern Spain, badgers mostly feed on rabbits.[14] The honey badger (<--click the link, you know you want to.) of Africa consumes honey, porcupines and even venomous snakes (such as the puff adder).
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| Beware, do not click the cute baby badgers. |
Charge your glasses, and let's raise a toast to the lady.
It's a been a while in the making, and it's a big one (ooo, er, Mrs.), but this is our Elizabeth Sladen tribute episode with contributions from Dirty WHOers listeners and assorted Who peeps. This ones' from the heart.
Having been alerted by our good friend Dalek Bruce, on Saturday 2nd July we trundled down to Stockton for Re-Generations, Who-Ray’s first birthday party, with guests Graeme Harper and the Northern Charity Daleks.
Who-Ray describes itself as a gifts and memorabilia shop, but what it actually is is a little treasure. Nestled on a side street just off Stockton High Street (widest in Europe, you know), it caters to both the hippy chick (incense, candles, crafts and jewellery) and the geek (comics, toys, badges and books, mostly but not exclusively Doctor Who). Run by Brian and Martin, it’s a friendly place that found itself that Saturday very much the centre of attention. It felt like the whole of Stockton had turned out to celebrate in the sunshine and apparently by day’s end, approximately 1500 people had indeed done so.
The staff and volunteers were a little overwhelmed by the turn-out (having only been expecting a hundred or so), but coped superbly wrangling Daleks and members of the public backwards and forwards between the main shop and some borrowed vacant units over the road. First off was a fan-film, which was pretty entertaining from what I could hear (being short and at the back, I couldn’t see the telly). Then Graeme Harper was introduced, only to be rudely interrupted by the Daleks making their presence felt by bursting through a screen of wall-paper, to the great surprise of those assembled.
Not only was Dalek Bruce there, but also Dalek Mack and a new addition to the clan, Dalek Nation (who was only 3 days old, bless him). The children were all very keen to have their photos taken with the Daleks, although some were a little spooked when they started talking. Being Northern Charity Daleks, the proceeds from the photo-shoots went to Butterwick House Children’s Hospice. As the day wore on and the temperature rose, the Kaled mutants were starting to melt a bit, but they were steadfast in their fundraising activities. The Prof even bought a Dalek Bruce mug. Which has 60 rells on it. Needless to say, he couldn’t stop laughing…
Graeme Harper was there not only to promote his book, Calling the Shots, but also to be interviewed by BBC Tees’ DJ Bob Fischer, an ardent Doctor Who fan we first met at Dimensions last year. This “Audience With” session was highly entertaining; mind you, we knew it would be as we’d gone to see him, Nicola Bryant and Maurice Roëves at a showing of Caves of Androzani at the Quad in Derby for Oolon’s birthday last year. Mr Harper is a very friendly, considerate and generous man who can spin quite the tale and who kindly allowed himself to be dragged into an alley for an interview (coming soon, as they say, along with Bob’s interview). His experiences on Doctor Who were fascinating to listen to, seeing as he practically grew up, career-wise, on the show and so knew many of the Doctors and assistants even if he didn’t actually direct them. He also holds the distinction of being the only original series director to have directed Nu-Who.
The highlight of the day had to be the Baa-leks, though; knitted Daleks from Nana Val, being raffled to raise more money for Butterwick House. I had my heart set on Baa-lek Doreen, the shocking pink hussy, but the Prof did manage to win Baa-lek Custard for me (as some lucky blighter managed to get to Doreen before him). He even came with an adoption certificate, signed by Nana Val and Mr Harper. He’s a bit soppy for a Dalek; we have to give him cuddles every night (it says so on the certificate and we can’t argue with Graeme Harper).
So if you are in the vicinity of Stockton, please do pop in to visit Brian and Martin. If you’re there on Saturday 3rd September, there’s going to be a showing of the Cushing movies (yes, Martin says they’re not canon, either) along with a guest appearance by Terry Molloy, the artist formerly known as Davros
You can also follow Who-Ray on Facebook here
San Diego Comic Con 2011 exclusive Leela action figure (Louise Jameson, from '77 (S14) to '78 (S15)) c/o Underground Toys and including dagger, Tesh blaster, Janus thorn, and crossbow. Forbidden Planet already have them pre-order.
Not much else to report yet, but, it's rare we break some action figure news and look at this bad bugga!
Officially announced, the Character Building Doctor Who TARDIS Console Room Mega Set, with (actual plastic) Rory, exclusive Pond-in-my-Pocket, The Doctor, and River MILF.
"This arrangement is my own and learnt purely by ear. The performance, as with all my performances on Youtube, is played straight/live with no before or after editing whatsoever, the strings sound you hear is just dual voiced with piano for effect, but still played at same time as the actual grand piano voice, so there is no added parts to the performance. I cant remember the last time I had so much fun with a piece or had so much enjoyment from learning a piece and practicing it..."
Having thoroughly insulted Tony Lee the other week (by accident, I hasten to add; blame our Colonial cousins for making me stay up past my bedtime), I thought it only fair to make my next review not only a Big Finish one, but his Big Finish one. So, having batted my eyelashes at the Prof to download it for me, I settled back to listen to Tony’s first foray into Big Finish audio adventures: Rat Trap.
This is a Fifth Doctor adventure (yay!), with Nyssa (even bigger yay!), Tegan and Turlough along for the ride. As often happens to our favourite time-traveller and his friends, the TARDIS has deposited them in the right place but not the right time, leaving them stranded in the allegedly abandoned tunnels deep beneath Cadogan Castle. The Doctor’s been here before, but not everything is as it seems. And there’s something out there in the darkness…
If you suffer from murophobia, this is probably not a good story to listen to unless you fancy giving yourself a serious case of the heebee-geebees. The anti-vivisection message is a little over-played although amusingly done (for the most part) and is very in-keeping with the whole Doctor Who evil scientist ethos. As an ex-research scientist (who never did any animal experiments, I hasten to add) it’s always interesting to see how lay-people tackle the field and I wasn’t disappointed by the cod-science in this story; it really made me giggle. This is a Good Thing(TM), because I have been known to shout rude words at the telly in response to the sheer crappiness of the “science” on display in some purported sci-fi offerings. I get glared at in cinemas as well.
I was always a fan of Nyssa; she was a smart, pretty scientist who only suffered the odd bout of utter girliness. She even got to change her outfit occasionally. Because of the story arc, this isn’t that Nyssa exactly, but she’s still in scientist mode and of all of the actors, Sarah Sutton still sounds virtually the same as she did in the TV series. Davison once again turns in a well-pitched performance and, as with Colin Baker, his Doctor really comes into his own through the audios. Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson are both good, although Tegan just doesn’t sound the same vocally. I’m reasonably new to Turlough as a character because I’d stopped watching by the time he showed up originally and have only seen a few of his appearances on DVD, where he came off as a bit of a slappable whiny brat. He seems to have grown out of that (thankfully) and let's face it, it’s always nice to have a bit of trouser in the TARDIS.
There is ongoing continuity here, but its not overwhelming and I’m sure a quick check on the précis for other recent Fifth Doctor adventures would quickly get you up to speed if need be. My only real issue with Rat Trap wasn’t the story, but the voice effects on the villains. I have a minor hearing issue and the processing made it difficult at times to work out exactly what was being said. It was worse for some characters (particularly during the first episode) so it did make it a bit of a struggle to keep up in some places. Having said that, this is a fun Fifth Doctor romp, and even if everybody doesn’t end up dead in the end there’s just enough psychological damage for all concerned to make you feel like you just stepped back in time to the 1980s.
Brace yourselves, fellow Whoers.
In uncharacteristic timely fashion, thanks to Terry and The Prof, we review end of mid-season ender 'A Good Man Goes to War'.
Did he rise and fall as much as Mr. Moffat would have us believe? Was the big reveal actually a big reveal at all? Was it the satisfying climax we'd all cough up the dollars for?
Enquiring minds want to know, and should probably get out more.
This is one of the LOST DirtyWHOers Episodes but is available for download from our Dropbox archive HERE.
Despite the exceedingly large back catalogue the Prof has of Big Finish audios that I’ve promised to listen to, I’ve been taking a bit of a detour into Nu-Who lately, inspired by our rather fun freebie “The Hounds of Artemis”. Having received a £5-off voucher for Audio Go, I decided to once again investigate what else James Goss had been up to. Perusing the extensive Doctor Who collection, I stumbled across “Dead Air”, a Tenth Doctor story which had won a best audio-book of the year award from The Audiobook Store (who?) in 2010. The sample sounded interesting, despite apparently having been recorded a fraction too slow, and for 49p (after using the voucher, obviously) I figured I couldn’t be robbed.
There’s a reason why the sample is too slow, which I won’t spoil for you; it’s another example of Goss playing with the story-telling format to give this audio-only story a little twist. There are overtones of “Blink” and “Empty Child” (no bad thing) in a variation on the base under siege story so beloved by Doctor Who writers over the years, when the Doctor lands on a pirate radio ship in 60s Britain hunting for an escaped super-weapon. There are also touches of Big Finish’s Sapphire and Steel (again, no bad thing), which all helps to create a claustrophobic atmosphere and the certainty that, as with so many of Tennant’s episodes, its all going to end really badly for someone.
Goss has captured the Tenth’s over-confident manner and glibness to a tee, including his incessant habit of saying sorry without ever actually meaning it, making this feel like a proper Tenth Doctor story. Now Tennant may not always have been my favourite incumbent of the role, but given the right director and story he could and did turn in some great performances. Which is what he does here, giving each of the characters a genuine voice (unlike his replacement, who needs a bit more practice at that sort of thing). Having said that, I enjoyed “The Hounds of Artemis” more, even though “Dead Air” has a much more interesting premise (now there’s perversity for you). Maybe it’s because I find Liverpudlian accents hard to cope with, or because our lovely mate Dave Bulmer had done a superb skit on the resolution mechanism in his "Festive Books on Tape" (here or here) last Crimble (completely unintentionally, it must be said), but “Hounds” just has more charm.
Even if you don’t have a fiver off, it is worth listening to and you will get repeat plays out of it if you want to catch all of the subtle sound effects. As with “Hounds” it’s not very long (almost an hour and a quarter), but if you enjoy Goss’ work, then it’s definitely one to add to the collection.
Double episodes. Double the Doctor. Double the conspiracy theories. Double the measures of spirits. This episode 3 drunks and the designated Pixie chew the podcasting fat over all things Flesh...
...on the plus side, it's mercifully short.
The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People [2011].
This is one of the LOST DirtyWHOers Episodes but is available for download from our Dropbox archive HERE.
Fuschia attacked fellow Whovian Tony Lee with a microphone at MCM Expo, the big comic con down in London. Here are his death cries.
Nice bloke. Great writer. Shame really.
This is one of the LOST Dirty WHOers Episodes, no longer available for streaming, but is available for download from our Dropbox archive HERE.
A few days ago I reviewed “The Hounds of Artemis”, a BBC audio-book written by James Goss. I enjoyed it, so much so that I began to investigate what other things he’d written for the franchise. One in particular caught my eye: “Doctor Who: Dead of Winter”. It sounded suitably creepy and, demanding instant gratification, I bought it for my precious, precious Kindle so I could set to straight away. That and its only available as a hardback and Pixies don’t do well with hardbacks (excellent weapons, but too heavy for delicate hands).
Basically, the Doctor and the Ponds crash-land on a beach in the South of France in the 1780s. Only problem is, they can’t really remember who they are and the sanatorium they’ve landed next to shouldn’t exist for another hundred years (give or take). Add to that the fact that the TARDIS has gone missing, there is a dense, clinging, glowing fog and the sea is singing to people and you have a very tidy little mystery on your hands. I really can't say anything more than that without giving the game away, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.
The story is told from several people’s perspective, often in the form of the diary entries so nicely exploited in “Hounds of Artemis”. Mind you, you do have to wonder about the things some people include in a diary (although its not even close to the ludicrously salacious guff that gets included in the official ship’s log in one truly awful steampunk novel I read last year), but it still works very well.
It’s often a big problem with novelisations that the author doesn’t get a handle on the characters so that the portrayals never quite sit comfortably, jarring you out of the action. Once again, though, Goss has captured the characters’ voices really well, so much so that you can tell when things aren’t quite right. There are a couple of nice twists, which you can spot if you’re paying attention, but it doesn’t spoil your enjoyment of the story if you do. There are nods back to the original series and Goss gently plays games with past knowledge regarding the potential source of the mystery. And it is creepy, really, really creepy; in fact, this would have made a cracking TV episode, either of Doctor Who or Sapphire and Steel (for those of us old enough to remember, that should give you a fair idea of just how creepy it is).
The Prof was always a big Doctor Who novel reader, but he pretty much stopped when the reboot started as he found the books too childish. It’s not a problem he’ll have with this one; Goss has the ability to capture the feel of the series whilst delivering a story that works for both children and adults. In fact, I think I may have to lend him my Kindle for a few days…
As you dear, loyal reader know, I’ve listened to a fair few Big Finish audios over the last few years, but I’d never actually listened to any of the Beeb’s audio-books until “The Hounds of Artemis” came along. I’ll fess up, I got it free. Pixies love free stuff although, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I do draw the line at free Touchwood. I am fond of Matt Smith’s interpretation of the Doctor, so I was more than willing to give this a go, seeing as its read by him and Clare Corbett (who’s done some other audio book stuff with Tom Baker). I’m not quite sure why they didn’t get Karen Gillan in to help out, but Ms Corbett does a very good job in her stead.
Make no mistake, this is a good old rip-roaring period adventure involving archaeologists, aliens and ancient curses. There’s even a loving nod to “Pyramids of Mars” at the beginning, showing that writer James Goss knows his stuff. The narrative has been very sensibly divided between the two actors, Smith (obviously) reading from the Doctor’s point of view with Corbett filling in much of the detail via a series of Amy’s diary entries. I did wonder at one point if Smith would only be reading the first chapter or so as Corbett does make up most of the running. To be honest, this is actually a blessing in some ways, for as good as Smith is as the Doctor, his impersonation of Karen Gillan’s accent is pure Sylvester McCoy with a not-so-helpful dollop of Jamie on top. It’s all very hilarious in a frightening sort of way, but does detract from the story at times. Still, when he’s not strangling the Scottish vernacular, Smith is most definitely enjoying himself immensely. In fact, that would be my only criticism of this CD; Smith is a bit too rushed and over-enthusiastic in his reading at times, and really could have done with the director slowing him down a touch when dealing with the exposition sections. Other than that it’s a good production, set up very much like an actual episode, including the obligatory pre-credit sequence.
I say only criticism; I’d need to check with our lovely Emilly Ladybird about 1929 corset construction, but I’m fairly certain they weren’t made the way the author thinks they were. Seriously, its just common-or-garden wire in there is it and no stays? Okay, it makes for a light-hearted solution to a plot problem, but I’d still like to know exactly how the Doctor gets all the wire out of Amy’s corset without completely defrocking her…
This is not a long piece by any means; at about 70 minutes it comes in around the same length as one of the TV specials, so is just long enough to let the story develop without making it too long for younger listeners. James Goss has taken what could have been a real pot-boiler and given it a sparkling sense of humour with some beautifully observed lines. He has captured the main characters extremely well; even though it isn’t Gillan playing Amy, you can still hear that it is the same character (although Corbett’s Doctor impersonation is almost as challenging as Smith’s Pond).
So if you’ve listened to all of your Big Finishes and still need your audio Who fix, I’d definitely recommend “The Hounds of Artemis” to while away the time until the next episode.
As you know, myself and the Prof are fans of Big Finish. I have to say that the Prof is far more versed in their productions than am I, seeing as I am still very much a happy dabbler rather than an aficionado. Its something I keep meaning to rectify and now the weather’s improving, I have determined to listen to a few on the walk to work of a morning (and evening, obviously; it’s not like I sleep there or anything, despite what my students might think).
Having talked to Nev Fountain at Dimensions last year about his (then) upcoming Companion Chronicle, I decided to pick up “Peri and the Piscon Paradox”. For those of you interested in chronology, it takes place somewhere between Peri’s first meeting with the Fifth Doctor and also a bit after the mess commonly known as “Trial of a Timelord”. In it, Peri and both the Fifth and Sixth Doctors have to battle a fish-alien by the name of Zarl who, as you would expect, is up to no good on Earth in 2009. Problem is, there’s two Peris, one from the past and an older one who really shouldn’t be there at all…
Now I’m not a fan of Peri; originally I only saw her in “The Caves of Androzani” (having given up on the show somewhere around Omega’s search for happy flapjacks in Amsterdam) and was not impressed. She was whiny and annoying and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why everyone was determined to get themselves killed on her behalf. Nothing I’ve seen since has made me change my mind. So that makes this Companion Chronicle a bit of an odd choice then, really, doesn’t it?
If it hadn’t been for the fact that Nev had written it and I’m a big fan of “Kingmaker” (no matter what my illustrious podcast companions might say, its fab), I freely admit that I would never have looked at this. My dislike of the character did make the first disc difficult to get through despite the quality of the story, as Nev and Nicola Bryant have done far too good a job of catching young Peri’s voice. The Companion Chronicles rely on the person chosen to be able to pull off a reasonable impersonation of the Doctor they’re travelling with and even though there’s a joke about how rubbish she is at it in the script, Ms Bryant really doesn’t convey a sense of Davison at all well. That said, it’s the only misstep in an otherwise excellent production.
Things really get going in the second half of the story, told from old Peri’s point of view. It’s helped by the appearance of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor (quite unusual for a Companion Chronicle, I’m told), doing sterling work as ever in these things, and the fact that older Peri is a far more sympathetic character. You can hear in her voice that all of that irritating brashness has been knocked out of her the hard way. Parts of the story were very painful to listen to, and if you know us and you’ve heard this production you will know why, but they were handled superbly by both Nev and Ms Bryant (proving here that she really can act her socks off, given the right script). Nev may be known as a comedy writer, but his ability to deliver tragedy is heartbreaking; let’s just say, I was grateful that there weren’t any dog-walkers about that morning to see my trying not to cry all over my iPod.
The wrap up is cleverly timey-wimey; even though I haven’t seen the episodes to which it refers, I know enough about them to get and appreciate the way the denouement deals with a particularly thorny fan problem. Yes, the underlying story is a bit daft when you look at it closely, but then, aren’t a lot of Doctor Who stories? It’s what’s going on between the lines that makes it. I’m never going to be a big fan of Peri, but all in all, I went away glad that I hadn’t let my age-old prejudices stop me from listening.
Another review episode from the new series. Almost in two halves this one, as we argue and nit-pick our way through 'The Curse of the Black Spot', and froth on about the 'The Doctors Wife'.
After a masterful edit c/o The Prof we almost sound sober. Really. It's incredible. We don't know how he did it.
Performed under contractual obligation.
This is one of the LOST Dirty WHOers Episodes, no longer available for streaming, but is available for download from our Dropbox archive HERE.
As we mentioned in the last podcast, Big Finish are having a special day at Barking Abbey School, Longbridge Road, Barking on Saturday 11th June from 10am - 4pm. There's lots of guests, ranging from stars to writers to the essential backroom staff without whom nothing would happen, including Dirty Whoers victims Mr Briggs, Mr Fountain, Mr Shearman and Ms Aldred (and a few others we've got our eye on for future stalking, sorry, interviews). Sadly David Warner will no longer be there, but there's always Katy Manning, Caroline Munro and Colin Baker. A new Doctor's assistant will also be revealed...
Hello? Hello? Is anyone still out there? Yeah, we know, we're a bunch of lazy, unreliable, work-shy, layabouts who can't organize their lives enough to al be on Skype at the same time. It's a fair cop.
This time we review Dalek Invasion of Earth [1964].
FINALLY, here's another episode (and for the new season too). Sure you've probably listened to all the reviews from all the other podcast first. Presumably, this is no new news. But this a review born or Gin, excess, and obsession. As such you owe it to yourself to grab your favourite tipple, run a nice hot bath, and join in us our non-sequential meanderings through the latest offerings from Auntie Beeb.
Oh, and don't forget, you can join us for daily disposable casual alcoholism and frothing about Whovian tat on our new Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/DirtyWHOers.
Boomshanka.
Sputters, Lightfoot, Sen and Fuschia.
This is one of the LOST DirtyWHOers Episodes but is available for download from our Dropbox archive HERE.
