jakob1978

I love Mary Poppins, genuinely one of my favourite films...David Tomlinson is really awesome. Julian Glover was also awesome as the villain in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (my fave in the series)

and more book news. Fans of Douglas Adams (like Dan) might be interested in this tweet from SFX magazine BBC Books are to publish a novel of Douglas Adams #DoctorWho story "Shada" (unfinished due to strikes) in March 2012 - author Gareth Roberts — SFX magazine (@SFXmagazine) March 22, 2011 SFX's full story below. Looks like this will be the third of the more adult scifi aimed, Doctor Who books after Michael Moorcrofts book last year, and the heavily rumoured Stephen Baxter second doctor novel. http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/03/23/douglas-adams-doctor-who-story-finally-gets-novelised/

For those fans of the novelisations of the classic series, BBC Books has announced that it is reprinting 6 of the early novels. http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/03/dwn180311132508-bbc-books-classic.html Here's the covers (under the spoiler tabs cause they're quite big), using the original artwork by Chris Acchileos. I'm amused by the fact that (presumably because they're mostly bigger and well known names) the people doing the introductions get a bigger credit than the original authors...which means that Terrence Dicks gets a bigger credit doing an intro for "Cave Monsters" than he does for having written "The Auton Invasion" or "Abominable Snowmen".

Just listening to this now...a great episode :-) you mentioned "Nightmare of Eden VAM wheels in motion" and didn't know what VAM is...VAM is "Value Added Material", basically a fancy word for DVD extras. I have to say...these 2 are among my least favourite stories...both just incredibly bad and dumb and boring lol. Power of Kroll is just awful and dull...It's not Holmes best script (although he reuses the same storyline for Caves of Androzani to far better effect)...and the split screen/model shot is a notoriously bad effect I do love the fact that the makeup designer forgot to order the dye remover that would get rid of the green makeup, so many of hte actors had a green tinge to them for a while afterwards lol Armageddon Factor....sigh....The climax to the whole Key to Time is just so disappointing...the only redeeming feature is the introduction of the wonderful Valentine Dyall as the Black Guardian (he did a radio show for years where he introduced horror/mystery plays as the sinister "The Man in Black" and has a wonderful voice...he was also the voice of Deep Thought in the radio and tv versions of Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy). This season as a whole is one of my least favourite seasons of the whole show. I actually like Mary Tamm a lot though.

Not strictly Doctor Who news, but for anyone outside the UK who wants to watch it (or Confidential, or any other BBC show) http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news/a306770/bbc-global-iplayer-to-cost-less-than-usd10.html

I disagree...the angels can obviously see in the dark (they can advance on a human in the dark because the human can't see, but they can obviously see where the human is) so even if the bulb goes they will still be able to see each other. That's my reading of it anyway

Some casting news from the BBC site...a character from last series returns. There was the name in the URL so i'm using tinyurl so noone will be spoiled if they don't want (altho casting spoilers are hard to avoid). My thoughts under the spoiler tag http://tinyurl.com/6x5njey

People may already have read this, but here is doctorwhonews report on Nicholas Courtney's death, with links to many obituaries from across the world. Tom Baker's comments are especially lovely http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/02/dwn230211003008-nicholas-courtney-1929.html

Sad news that Nicholas Courtney, who played the Brigadier, has passed away tonight. No news sources yet, but lots of Who fans who would be in the know are confirming it on twitter http://twitter.com/claytonhickman (writer on SJA, former DWM editor) http://twitter.com/MarkAyresRWS (from the DW restoration team)

wow..I'm behind, i've only just listened to this. But it's another fine episode I have to say, I'm not a fan of Season 16, I find quest storylines pretty dull for the most part, and this one is no exception particularly....no, i won't go furthur cause of spoilers lol. Having said that I do think Ribos is a very good story, with some excellent acting. Pirate Planet is just a mess of a story. The combination of Tom Baker and Douglas Adams' humour doesn't often work for me (although strangely I love Horns of Nimon which has a fair dose of silliness).

Another great episode :-) Yeh, Bob Baker and Dave Martin's stories for Doctor Who were never the best...it's bizarre to think that Bob Baker is the cowriter of 3 Oscar Winning films (3 Wallace and Gromit films). The thing that gets me about the budget problems which meant they had to use green screen instead of full sets is...Once they made the decision to do it through green screen..why then choose to make them ordinary boring caves? why not do something imaginitive and strange. I'd forgive the moments of bad CSO (which aren't that many really...it's done ok for the most part) if they'd been doing something a bit more unusual than just caves. I really like Invasion of Time, including the final 2 episodes which i think aren't as bad as you found it. The Cockney Sontaran commander amuses me imensely lol I really love the first few eps though with Tom Baker acting so strange :-)

Another great episode :-) Jacqueline Hill (not Wright, Dan :-D), died in 1993 of cancer, aged just 63. I like Fendahl, it's sorta the last appearance of the Gothic/Hinchcliffe era atmosphere. There's a lot of space stuff from now on. The house used was the same house which was used in Pyramids of Mars (it was owned at the time by Mick Jagger lol). I believe Boucher is pronounced Bow-cher, and he script edited every episode of Blake's 7 (and wrote most of the best episodes too). This is his last story for Who, he only wrote 3, his other being Face of Evil (he created Leela). trivia fans will note that Wanda Ventham who plays Thea, is the mother of Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Sherlock Holmes in the recent BBC series (created by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gattis). Sunmakers is notoriously Robert Holmes being pissed off at paying high taxes, so a lot of the things in it are reference to that (the various corridors are named after tax forms). I actually really enjoy it, I love the Gatherer and the Collector. It's sad tho that it's obviously a carpark that they throw Gatherer Hade from (you can see the car park markings lol). I hope you can stay totally unspoiled for Invasion of Time, cause there's a really effective cliffhanger in there. Can't wait to hear what you think of Underworld too LOL

just downloading it now, didnt' realise it had been uploaded cause it hasn't appeared on itunes. love Fang Rock so i'll be interested to hear your opinions

There's an interesting article on wiki about the production of Blake's 7, which talks about the writing of Series 1. I would say though, that if you're planning on watching it, don't read anything about the series, particularly the final episode. It's worth remaining unspoiled. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Blake's_7

really enjoyed the first episode. I love Blake's 7. a few thoughts...Your Doctor Who actor count has missed out the regular characters (Avon, Vila, Zen all had Doctor Who appearences). regarding all the actors from Face of Evil appearing in Space Fall, they were both directed by Pennant Roberts, which probably accounts for it. The Way Back is such a good story, and so different in tone to everything else. It's so adult and grim. Terry Nation may be credited with all the episodes in series 1, but there's a quote from Chris Boucher (the script editor who wrote so many great episodes of the show (and also did 3 Doctor Who stories)) that the deadlines were so tight that Terry Nation told them, you can have the first drafts of every episode, or you can have rewrites of them. So a lot of the final script rewrites were done by Boucher. this is more to do with the next episode too, but I can't watch Space Fall (and Cygnus Alpha), without wondering what Avon, Blake and Jenna got up to on the Liberator for the 4 months it took them to travel to the prison planet (they boarded the Liberator when the prison ship was 4 months into the 8 month journey, and then arrive at the planet after the prison ship arrives). Given they don't discover the transporter room till they're in orbit around the planet, the mind boggles

Yes, he's 86 now, although still as sharp as he ever was in interviews (and his audiobook readings of target novels is brilliant). I always find it strange when I realised that his son plays a schoolboy in the Harry Potter films (his son plays Dean Thomas...he's 22 now, so he was born when William Russell was 64!).

I love Blake's 7, so i'm looking forward to this :-) Downloading now. :-D

a great show..i'll post some deeper thoughts later, but I was intrigued by the discussion about how the look of the show starts to look cheaper, because they were trying to be like star wars but couldn't afford it. The other problem facing Graham Williams, was that throughout Tom Baker's first half era, Britain entered a period of incredibly high inflation. in 1975 inflation was 25% (so everything that had to be bought for the show cost so much more, something that was 100 pound in 1974, cost 125 pound in 1975. a basket of shopping that cost £25 in 1970, cost £125 in 1980. And of course the budget never increased by much (the perils of long running series i suppose). It is true also that Graham Williams was more interested in producing space based stories. In the Hinchcliffe series, a lot of stories were on earth (present day or past, or sometimes future), in Williams era, it's the reverse, most stories are set away from Earth, on space ships and space colonies (i'm trying to think, and in the next 3 years there are only 4 stories set on Earth, 2 next year, and 1 in each of the following seasons). And of course, with the BBC having produced a lot of period television, they were always more able to produce convincing sets and costumes for stories set in the past, where they could use stock items.

Oh and for all those nerds (like me) who have thought about the various changes to the Police Box prop over the years, try this site for more than you'll ever need to know about it :-) http://www.themindrobber.co.uk/tardis-police-box.html

I rather like certain sections of Trial of a Time Lord I can't wait to hear discussion of Pip and Jane's bizarre dialogue :-) I'll save you the suspense: Pip and Jane are, without a doubt, the worst writers ever to darken the door of this show. Ever. I hate, hate, hate Pip and Jane. Hate them. LOL...I quite agree, their dialogue is AWFUL (perhaps their most baffling line is "There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!", but I also always laugh at "Whoever's been dumped in there has been pulverised into fragments and sent floating into space, and in my book, that's murder."), but i do have a fondness for their stories. They didn't write the worst story in Trial of a Time Lord.

I rather like certain sections of Trial of a Time Lord I can't wait to hear discussion of Pip and Jane's bizarre dialogue :-)

ahh...I can't wait to hear your show dealing with this story (Robots and Talons...possibly the greatest set of episodes you'll deal with in one ep...only War Games could come close so far )

I'll second that. Robots of Death also feature what I think is the best companion that never was. Which one? It's packed full of interesting characters...but if you mean D-84, I agree...far better than k9

very good episode :-) 2 good stories, The Deadly Assassin is excellent, one of my favourites. Regarding the Face of Evil, the idea that it was close after the regeneration when the doctor made the visit is taken, i think, from the Target Novelisation. An intersting little fact is that the child's voice isn't provided by an actor, it was a boy who had won a competition to visit the Doctor Who set, and while there they just asked him to record the line. I must admit though, when you were talking about the best story which you are covering next time, my first thought was "Oh yes, it's Robots of Death next...good" :-D I'll still maintain that Robots is a better story than Talons :-)

Personally I'd love to hear you discuss the two Peter cushing movies