jakob1978

BBC Press Office has released the program info for the 2 specials http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/2009/wk51/bbc_one.shtml#bbc_one_doctorwho PART 1 PART 2

it's also available on BBC America's site. http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/123/doctor-who-video.jsp?bclid=26821308001&bctid=51597547001 edited to add....that and the trailer on BBCAmerica's site, also have the date of broadcast in the US...December 26th. Not sure if that's been confirmed before.

Incidentaly...you mentioned that the Krotons is available on Itunes to buy, but it's also available for free on BBC Worldwide's youtube channel part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck0is75v_sw part 2 - part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehby6mYIc10 part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHVAodVM11w

for those outside the UK who want to see the trailer for End of Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDdmqD37eDM

another great podcast. I love the Mind Robber too...such an odd story. It's such good luck that of all the stories being filmed, it was during this one that Frazer Hines fell ill. That first episode is so odd, but good. It's the only episode to go out without a writers credit...as mentioned it was written and tagged onto the beginning of the story to make up for the loss of an episode of the Dominators, which caused a lot of trouble behind the scenes, it was edited down without any input from the writers (Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, who had written the 2 Yeti stories). They were upset with the results, so it went out under a penname and they never wrote for the program again, which caused problems later on in the season because they were supposed to write a 3rd Yeti story set in Scotland which would have written out Jamie. It's part of the reason that the stories later on in S6 start getting longer, and written more at the last minute. The Master of the Land of Fiction, is clearly based on Frank Richards, who was a prolific writer of "boys own" stories in magazines like "Magnet". His most famous creation was a schoolboy called Billy Bunter. He was once in the Guiness book of Records as the most prolific writer in the english language, and is estimated to have written over 100 million words over his long career. Actually, the estate of Frank Richards complained to the BBC after the broadcast episode 3 of "Celestial Toymaker" because Cyril in the story (who even says his friends call him Billy) is so obviously a carbon copy of Billy Bunter, from the costume, look, performance. The BBC had to put out an announcement after episode 4 was broadcast saying that the similarity was coincidental.

there's info here - http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/11/hollywood-star-joins-cast-list-for.html Basically there is a trailer after WoM, and also a scene during the CiN telethon next Friday (but not the first scene as that's too plot heavy to work as a preview).

Just realised that the next edition will be the first since way back in April (number 11, The Chase and The Time Meddler) which has no missing episodes. Both the Dominators and the Mind Robber are complete. In Fact I think I'm right that there's only one more reconstruction for you to watch (there are only 2 stories in Season 6 missing episodes, but I presume for the other one you'll be watching the BBC DVD release which has a different way to cover the missing episodes). Mind you, the story which is reconstructed is "The Space Pirates" and i can't wait to hear your views on that one (if you thought the Underwater Menace was bad....lol)

No, we never see the seaweed creature again. I don't want to give anything away....all I'll say is it's not the primary enemy of the story, but it's a tool/weapon used by the aliens in the story. But it still looks like soap suds :-)

Another enjoyable podcast. Fury from the deep is a really enjoyable book (one of the best of the TV novelisations)...I find the tv story quite atmospheric and creepy. It's amusing that they use Victoria's scream to destroy the enemy...it was a deliberate reference to how much she'd screamed throughout her run (the actress was nicknamed "leather lungs"), in the original script the weed was destroyed by the sound of Jamie playing the bagpipes!! Oh..and get used to the foam. The BBC must have bought a new foam machine because it's not the last time we'll see it used in the Troughton era. Regarding The Wheel in Space, the Dalek appearance at the end was actually put in as a lead in to a repeat run of "The Evil of the Daleks". It shows how rare repeats were at this point (the only previous for Doctor Who was the first episode which was reshown a week after the first broadcast) that a repeat of a story was actually written into the show.

And BBC America will be showing Waters of Mars on Saturday 19th December. Although i'm sure people in the US will be able to find it earlier (like half an hour after it's been broadcast in the UK lol).

And David Tennant has just done an interview on morning TV where he announced the airdate for the next special "Waters of Mars". It'll be shown on Sunday November 15th at 7pm (gmt obviously). Which if my quick calculations are right is the release date for Bigger on the Inside 26

And in the UK this Saturday on Disney XD is a sneak peak of the first episode of the new K9 series for kids (made in Australia with no link to the current series, although there's supposed to be mentions/links to the original series). It's airing next year and is skewed a lot younger than any of the other shows, but i think it looks quite fun. Here's a trailer here for anyone who hasnt seen it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tCcgO6TlrM

Douglas Camfield is one of the best, if not the best director that worked on the original show (he did The Crusade, The Time Meddler, Dalek's Masterplan, Web of Fear, The Invasion, Inferno, Terror of the Zygons and the Seeds of Doom...all very good stories). Under him (and it should be said Derrick Sherwin who was the producer who really created UNIT and came up wiht the idea of confining the Doctor to Earth) UNIT soldiers really acted like soldiers. As UNIT became more integrated into the show, the soldiers shown did become less convincing throughout the Pertwee Era (The charactarisation of the Brig himself, particularly degenerates throughout Pertwee's reign...but you'll see that yourselves )

Another great installment. I love the Web of Fear. The interesting thing for me, which you touch on a bit, is that part of the whole mystery of the story is changed by our knowledge of the later stories. If you try and ignore the fact that the Brigadier (i'll call him that too ) becomes a regular, then actually he is the main suspect of the story...all the clues are pointing to him being the traitor...except we know that he can't be. It was mentioned how the Brig is the first proper military guy we see...most of that is down to the director, Douglas Camfield, who is one of the best directors to work on the classic show, was an ex military guy who was very insistant on making the soldiers look like proper army guys (He also directs UNIT's first story, The Invasion, which is another very military heavy show).

Some very sad news. Barry Letts (producer of Doctor Who during the Pertwee Era, Director (he directed Enemy of the World, which was in the last podcast, among many others), Writer, Executive Producer) has passed away. http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/10/barry-letts-1925-2009.html

Ah...that's a shame, still it was only a video showing the logos that have appeared before. I haven't seen it posted elsewhere. There's a nice photogallery of the logos on there that shows the same material http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/features/galleries/gallery_logos

lol...to be fair, it was only announced today that it was being released tomorrow. here's the page that the announcement will be made (8am our time, which is...what...3am Eastern time?). http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/features/videos/video_new_logo there's also a nice video showing all the previous logo's

another great episode. I also love the Ice Warriors, and hope they reappear at some point (I somehow doubt they'll appear in Waters of Mars, although I'd love to be wrong about it). It's a bit odd though, because the actor playing the lead Ice Warrior, Varga, is probably best known in the UK for playing slightly dumb characters in the long running "Carry On" Film series...very much playing against type. The reason the reconstruction was so good, with such good audio, was that it was made for an official BBC video release in the 1990's, so was allowed to use cleaned up audio and all the best pictures (whereas the fan made ones can't legally use the digitally cleaned audio). Enemy of the world is entertaining....sadly the one episode that exists is obviously the "cheap" episode (the budget can't even stretch for a cell, so people are kept prisoner in a corridor??). Regarding news about the new series, the only new thing coming up is the new Logo being revealed tomorrow (Tuesday 6th). A good story coming up next week though, one of my faves (and of course see's a popular characters debut).

Oh..of course, I knew there was an obvious one i was forgetting. Not forgetting that Geoffrey Palmer's son is one of the new series directors (Charles Palmer who directed Smith and Jones, Shakespeare Code, and Human Nature/Family of Blood) And in fact also in Voyage of the Damned was Clive Swift, who was also in Revelation of the Daleks.

Another good episode, and 2 very good stories. Have to say, that was a bad day to be in London wasn't it? If it's the same day that Ben and Polly joined the TARDIS, then WOTAN was using his War Machines on the same day the Chameleon's were up to their plan, and just along the road the Daleks are hanging around. You also talk about Jamie being with any other doctor...well, next year we get the chance to see what it'll be like, because he'll be the Sixth Doctor's companion in his next run of Big Finish stories. Regarding actors/actresses appearing in both versions of the show. Pauline Collins and David Troughton are two...there's also Louis Mahoney, who played the Older Billy in Blink, and appeared in Frontier in Space (3rd Doctor) and Planet of Evil (4th). An actor called William Thomas had small speaking parts in both Boom Town (he's the guy who trys to warn Margaret Slitheen at the beginning) and Remembrance of the Daleks (playing an Undertaker)..he also played Gwen's father in Torchwood. Oh, and Christopher Ryan, who played the Sontaron Leader in The Sontaran Strategem and The Poison Sky also appeared in The Trial of a Timelord.

The clip of Hartnell to Troughton does exist...there's a few clips of leading up to it, with the regeneration itself...I think it's rather effective with the way the picture whitens out then drops back. for anyone who hasn't seen the full clip, the BBC did a reconstruction of episode 4, and the regeneration from that with all the clips is here (from 3:30 onwards) - pertwee to Tom Baker is just incredibly dull, a boring fade with no additional effects. Baker to Davison is ok, the way the watcher combines with Baker then fades into Davison works quite well Davison to Colin Baker is by far the most effective, the companions urging the doctor, then the Master taunting him..the way the music comes to a crescendo (you can tell the influence of the Beatle's "A Day in the Life"), and I really like the way the Doctor sits up as soon as he's regenerated. Colin Baker to McCoy...or should I say McCoy in a Wig to McCoy. They did the best they could with not having Colin there, but it's undermined by the total lack of explanation about why he's regenerating (plus you're still reeling from the shere campness of the Rani striding into the TARDIS and exclaiming "Leave the Girl...it's the Man I Want!!!!") McCoy to McGann...Not bad, the alternating between it and the Morgue attendant watching Frankenstein is quite effective. Eccleston to Tennant...I must be one of the few who don't like the "standing up with cosmic fire" effect....watching it recently, the actual effect looks a bit...well...crap. The scene leading up to it is good and effective, but the regeneration itself is just a bit dull. So I'm going with Davison to Colin, followed by Hartnell to Troughton.

I should add to my earlier post, that if you are planning to watch a reconstruction of Evil of the Daleks, there's apparantly a new one completed this year which is supposed to be very high quality (with CGI, and new scenes filmed at the locations used) - http://www.recons.com/recons/lc31.htm I don't know if that's the one you have, but people i've seen discussing it on other Doctor Who Forums are incredibly impressed by it. i'd still recommend the BBC Audio's though LOL

The problem with Jamie so far has been that the stories were written before they decided to have Jamie join, so a lot of the time all they did was give him half of Ben's lines, or knock him out. Jamie really comes into his own over the next few stories, and particularly after Ben and Polly leave. More complaints about the reconstructions...I've said it before, and i'll say it again LOL...but I genuinly think you'd be better off listening to the official BBC Audios with the added narration (and it's completely cleaned up so it's really easy to understand). For me, the Moonbase is tolerable, but it's EXACTLY the same story as the Tenth Planet. The voices used in this and the next Cybermen story, are the ones that the New series have based their Cybermen voices on. The Macra Terror, I quite enjoyed. It's also the debut of a new title sequence (the first with the Doctor's face in the titles). I think you'll enjoy the next 2 stories a lot more than these two.

Another great episode. Have to say, I love this story. I'll say again though that I do think you're missing out by not listening to the BBC Audio releases of these stories, with cleaned up audio and additional narration (by Anneke Wills on this story). If you like listening to the Big Finish stories, It's sort of like listening to one of them. I know you like the reconstructions but personally, i find it really hard to watch them. Maybe you should watch the reconstructions, while listening to the Soundtracks...best of both worlds. Patrick Troughton is a great actor..along with Peter Davison he's probably the strongest "actor" that has played the part (and like Davison, managed to avoid being typecast and would go on to appear in a lot more after his time as the Doctor). It is such a shame that so much of his era is missing, because watching the surviving episodes, there's so many little visual touches that he puts into his performance which are lost forever. Can't wait to hear what you say about "The Underwater Menace"...I'll just wish you good luck on that one

Listening now...very good again. About the Toymaker - The Nightmare Fair, which was planned for the 6th Doctor has now been recorded by Big Finish and will be released later this year - http://www.bigfinish.com/101-Doctor-Who-The-Nightmare-Fair he's also a character who's appeared in a lot of the spinoff media (in the New Adventures and the comic strips)...I think it would be fun to have him appear again. I'm trying to remember if we've seen other people opperating the TARDIS...I'm pretty sure Romana did, and Tegan seems to operate it in Castrovalva, but at the end it's revealed she didn't really do it. Can't remember anyone else. Have to say, I love the Gunfighters...it's interesting how fan opinion has changed over the years. Back in the late 70's and Early 80's, before videos, opinions on all these early stories were really formed by a few people writing reference books (Peter Haining, John Peel), and the fans writing for Doctor Who Magazine and the fanzines. And the opinion from all of these was that "Celestial Toymaker" was an absolute classic, and "The Gunfighters" was undoubtedly the worst Doctor Who story ever made. And now we can see/hear these stories, opinion has changed on both and Toymaker's reputation has plummeted, while Gunfighters is a lot more well regarded now.