Cover Versions

With David Tennant and Freema Agyeman adorning the latest front cover of the “Doctor Who Magazine”, Issue 374, in which you can win a talking K9 no less, I got to thinking about the covers and asked myself when was the last time they printed a full cover image relating to the original series? I discovered that since the magazine, published every four weeks, proudly announced “We’ve Regenerated!” on the front of Issue 352, and dispensed with the staple binding and adopted the new series logo, the answer is never. They got close with Issue 369 which heralded a “Blast from the Past”, and pictured Elisabeth Sladen as erstwhile companion Sarah Jane Smith with the aforementioned doggy, but this was simply to promote latest episode “School Reunion” and thus nothing to do with the original series.

I discounted images of the TARDIS, as seen on Issues 353 and 350, as these are generic and pertain to all eras of the programme. Dalek and Cybermen covers have been specific to the new series such as the gold Dalek featured on the cover of Issue 356, the Emperor on 358, and, more recently on Issue 370, the newly designed Cyberman, followed, on Issue 372, by the newly designed black Dalek. I want to know why there have been no pictures of Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker, for example? Is the magazine, consciously, only wanting to promote itself to those only mostly interested in RTD’s version of the programme, happy to lose those who have remained faithful to the publication while the show was off air? Or, are they hoping to draw fans of the new to the periodical and get them interested in classic “Who” through the articles within?

I do think the occasional cover harking back to the good old days wouldn’t go amiss. Would it really hurt sales that much to remind everyone that the series has a long and very fruitful history? I had to travel back in time almost two years to find a cover featuring something pre new series! Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook reunited eight years on from the TV movie, in Issue 351, published on 9 December 2004, to share their recollections with each other and the readership. This still, strictly speaking, isn’t classic “Doctor Who” I hear you cry! OK, then. Travelling back another couple of months to 14 October 2004, and Issue 349, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are on the front, promoting a major feature on the radio adventures of the Doctor and his associates. And, those still not happy that even this doesn’t refer to the television series, as seen on BBC1 between 23 November 1963 and 6 December 1989, then there are many covers to choose from prior to this one! I chose it because it’s the last front cover of a regular issue of “Doctor Who Magazine”, to date, to feature an actor who portrayed one of the first seven Doctors. Maybe it’s time for another McGann cover, this time with Sheridan Smith, but with the same headline as the Colin Baker issue, “Radio Activity!”.

Miller’s Tales!

Just for a brief moment last week, I actually found myself feeling excited again on hearing news pertaining to the “Doctor Who” universe. It was the announcement of eight brand new audio episodes, a season if you will, featuring the return of Eighth Doctor Paul McGann to BBC7, from New Year’s Eve, in a run of six stories. Produced by Big Finish, they have adopted the double length episode format of the recent TV revival and the mix of two part and single episode stories, so beloved across the Atlantic, that we have embraced here in order to conform and thus compete in the marketplace. The two two-parters open and close the season, the first featuring the Daleks, the latter the Cybermen.

It’s interesting to mull over the story titles. My favourite has to be Paul Magrs “Horror of Glam Rock”! Nice play on “Fang Rock” and certainly brought a smile to my face. I wonder if it’s about Gary Glitter? Anyway, that one follows the opening story “Blood of the Daleks” by Steve Lyons. Two stories (three episodes) have been written by Eddie Robson, the closing Cybermen tale “Human Resources” and “Phobos”, fourth in the sequence, presumably set on, or about, the larger and closest of the two satellites orbiting the planet Mars. The title of the preceding story, “Immortal Beloved” by Jonathan Clements, is intriguing. This was also the name of a film about a letter written by Beethoven to an unknown lover, starring Gary Oldman. So, I’m wondering if my wish, mentioned a couple of posts ago, that the Doctor should encounter a famous composer, is about to come true?! The penultimate story of the second McGann radio season of “Doctor Who” is “No More Lies” by Paul Sutton. I wonder if he’s related to Sarah?!!

As well as an impressive guest cast, joining the Doctor on this two-month aural extravaganza, just after Christmas, is new companion Lucie Miller. After two days of auditions, Sheridan Smith was chosen to replace India Fisher’s outgoing companion Charley Pollard from last year’s debut season. Following Doctor John Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, and Mickey Smith, does this mean we’ll finally have a real Smith aboard the TARDIS? Sheridan will be a familiar face to anyone who has ever switched on BBC THREE! She has played the part of Janet for well over fifty episodes in six seasons of sitcom “Two Pints of Lager & a Packet of Crisps” and, more recently, led the cast of similar sitcom “Grownups”, as Michelle, from the same writer and production team. I’m nothing, if not curious, as to how this pairing will turn out!

All Spooked Out!

“Spooks” returns next weekend, on BBC ONE, to begin its fifth season with the now traditional opening two-part story. Currently enjoying reruns of last year’s season on BBC THREE, now halfway through, and with the box set of the same season available from last Monday, September is definitely a good time to be a fan of this high octane spy drama. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a grown up version of the much underestimated 90s’ action adventure series “Bugs”. And neither that show nor this one would have existed without seminal 60s’ series “The Avengers”. That’s the lineage sorted!

“Spooks” went through a bit of a dull patch during its third season when it lost its three leading characters, Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen), Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) and Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo). But the production team seemed to start over with season four, despite opening with Danny’s funeral, in an excellent two-parter, “The Special”, that timely dealt with a terrorist bombing campaign in central London and featured a spunky performance from guest star Martine McCutcheon as Tash. She demonstrated such balls that, at the end of the story, I was disappointed she didn’t become a series regular.

All was not lost though as by the end of episode five of season four, an equally adroit heroine, Jo Portman (Miranda Raison), was invited to join the “Spooks” team by new leading man Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones). I love her introductory story, “The Book”, despite the plot holes and having to suspend disbelief over the number of coincidences, simply because the whole thing is carried off with such panache. Curiosity having got the better of her in following Adam, Jo shows great presence of mind when setting off car alarms to alert our agents to the proximity of assassins about to enter an MI5 safe house and, again, in dumping her mobile phone in the assailants’ getaway car in order that they may be traced. Beauty and intelligence are a winning combination.

Playing Devil’s Advocate!

The “Doctor Who” production team, having completed filming on the second Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride”, originally scheduled to be the second episode of the second season, is now busy recording material for season three. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman, as new companion Martha Jones, are on location in Coventry, doubling as Tudor London, for an episode in which they meet Shakespeare. I’m all for promoting the heritage of a once Great Britain but why does the Time Lord have to meet another author quite so soon after meeting Dickens? Yes I know there’s a difference in that dear old Bill was a playwright, whom the Doctor has already met incidentally, and Charlie boy a novelist but couldn’t RTD have gone a bit further afield and chosen a scientist or a musician?

I would find it interesting, for example, if the Doctor were to encounter Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Bringing him forward in time, to the present day, the Austrian might ponder over the evolution of the composition of his age into the modern music written by luminaries such as Hungarian born Gyorgy Ligeti, and you’ve probably all heard his scores in the Stanley Kubrick films “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Shining”, or the relatively-recently deceased Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski. Or Sir Peter Maxwell Davies if you want someone closer to home. Too intellectual for BBC1! If it happened we’d no doubt be treated to Mozza’s thoughts on Robbie or Britney!! Now, Beethoven and John Lydon would probably get along!!!

Knowing the Doctor’s predilection for meeting famous figures, surely the ultimate storyline would be if the Doctor were to “rescue” Jesus from the kiss of Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane. The TARDIS could again bring him forward in time to meet Richard Dawkins, for a bit of a chat, on one of Melvyn Bragg’s Sunday night religious discussion programmes! Too controversial for BBC1!! Actually, I’ve had the first part of that scenario in mind since I was a boy. I even started to write it at one stage…

The point I’m making is that there doesn’t seem to be much imagination coming out of BBC Wales for the third series. “Doctor Who” is an adventure so get adventurous! It all sounds as though RTD is resting on his laurels and content to dish up more of the same. Maybe “Doctor Who” has always been thus and I’m finally growing out of it. And yet, many older stories still excite me. Maybe, and in my bones I know this is a big maybe, but maybe Russell will surprise his doubters and come up with a terrific script involving England’s greatest writer. And even if the Bard himself might enjoy them, that means absolutely no infantile fart gags because they quite simply stink! What it does mean is more dialogue like Jefferson’s extremely moving monologue after the death of Scooti, in “The Impossible Planet”, or subtle touches like those remembered by acting-Captain Zack as “deceased with honour”, before our favourite science fiction programme dies in dishonour.

The Ood Couple

Because of where the three episodes, that comprise the two stories on this DVD release, are placed in the second series run, it is a little unfortunate that they have ended up on the same disc! Perhaps there is truth in the old adage “opposites attract”. What we have here, in the two-part black hole tale, is not only the best story of the second series but the best of both last year’s and the most recent combined, coupled with, in “Love & Monsters”, not only the worst story of the second series but also the worst of both series together. A marriage made in heaven then!

And BBC THREE have also managed to pull off the same remarkable feat, over the Bank Holiday weekend, with their recent season of repeats. On Sunday night they ran the opening episode of the two-parter, “The Impossible Planet”, concluding the story, with “The Satan Pit”, the following evening as part of a double bill with the previously disclosed offending episode! What a shame their schedules didn’t allow a better combination. Or maybe it was a ruse to get us to watch Marc Warren battling Peter Kay all over again. If it was, it didn’t work. This viewer’s viewing terminated at 8:10pm precisely. Though, I have nothing against the Electric Light Orchestra! And even Elton wrote some good songs, back in the early Seventies, before giving up rock ‘n’ roll for showbiz!!

Many “Doctor Who” fans are no doubt waiting for the box set of the second series but, putting that to one side, I would be more inclined to buy this release if it only contained the first two episodes. It’s such an odd pairing of stories that here I am actually asking for less for my money! Imagine buying a box set containing both “The Caves of Androzani” and “The Twin Dilemma”!! If I watch “Love & Monsters”, especially after “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit”, I end up feeling depressed over the state my favourite show is in after 43 years but if I switch off at the end of the two-parter I leave the experience on a high.

With this in mind, there’s no point in the Abzorbaloff episode being on the disc. I long for incompleteness! Well, at least in this instance. I have in mind a scene missing from the original omnibus video release of that other story featuring Gabriel Woolf, “Pyramids of Mars”, to do with getting in and out the Priory, which made little sense until the repeats on BBC2, early 1994, when something illogical suddenly became completely clear! A DVD without “Love & Monsters” would still be the length of many classic releases, such as the aforementioned Sutekh story, and I, for one, would be happier if this artistically Ood coupling went their separate ways!

Charlie Salutes t.A.T.u.

This picture brought a smile to my face when I found it earlier in the week. Russian rockers meet British Royalty shock! Actually, Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina, better known as pop duo t.A.T.u., look really chuffed at meeting HRH the Prince of Wales. What I want to know though is how long does it take to get your handkerchief looking so perfectly poised?!! Charles seems to be enjoying himself, however, getting down with the kids, as a certain Doctor Tennant once put it. Usually dark-haired but here blonde, Yulia is drinking white while Lena is also drinking wine to match the colour of her hair.

The occasion is to celebrate the work of pop producer Trevor Horn. He was the man behind Buggles, giving us the immortal “Video Killed the Radio Star”, but is perhaps best known for producing Frankie Goes to Hollywood and their notorious number one hit single “Relax”. As is usually the case with me, I prefer some of his lesser known output. In particular, Propaganda’s “A Secret Wish” is one of my three favourite pop albums of all-time (the others being Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “The Scream” and Magazine’s “Real Life”). This LP spawned the hit single “Duel” and before that the equally excellent “Dr. Mabuse”. Trevor also produced a single by a little known French singer called Anne Pigalle, “Hey Stranger”, which is also worth a listen. And, bringing us into the 21st Century, he has applied his skill to bringing the Russian duo to a British audience. Including Prince Charles it would seem!

Psycho Killers!

Last Tuesday, on ITV4 at 6pm, there was another opportunity to see what is, in my opinion, the finest episode of perhaps the most consistently excellent SF series ever made... the series is Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's "UFO" and the episode... "The Psychobombs". Originally shown twelfth, on 30 December 1970, in a run of twenty-six, the story pits the operatives of SHADO against three human agents of the aliens, bent on destroying first a SHADO tracking station then a Skydiver submarine and finally SHADO HQ itself unless they cease operations immediately!

The episode boasts an excellent guest cast in the roles of "The Psychobombs". Deborah Grant plays Linda Simmonds who, whilst under the influence of the aliens, falls for series regular Michael Billington as Colonel Paul Foster. He is sent to investigate her after she strangles a policeman with superhuman strength given to her by the UFO which has landed in England. Deborah is perhaps best known to television viewers for playing the ex-wife of Eighties' cop "Bergerac".

David Collings plays Daniel Clark, the man who, again under alien influence, attacks Commander Straker (Ed Bishop) in his car and presents him with the written ultimatum. David is well known to "Doctor Who" fans for three guest appearances, as Vorus in "Revenge of the Cybermen", Poul in "The Robots of Death" and Mawdryn in "Mawdryn Undead". He also guested as Deva in "Blake", the last-ever episode of "Blake's 7" recently released on DVD. He is familiar to fans of "Sapphire and Steel" as Silver in eight episodes of that series.

The remaining human bomb, Clem Mason, is played by Mike Pratt, best known to viewers as Jeff Randall in cult late-Sixties paranormal comedy drama "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)", which has also recently enjoyed a reshowing on ITV4. Eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted Christopher Timothy in this episode of "UFO", as the navigator of Skydiver 3, who, having recently starred in "Doctors", weekday afternoons on BBC ONE, is still perhaps best known as James Herriot opposite fifth Doctor Peter Davison and Robert Hardy in "All Creatures Great and Small".

The episode may have modern resonances in the light of suicide bombings but was produced in undeniably more innocent times. It is stylishly made, especially the close-ups of teardrops on Deborah Grant's cheeks, who incidentally looks stunning throughout, with some great explosion sequences but "UFO" was an attempt to populate a science fiction drama with real people with real emotions. "The Psychobombs" is one of two episodes that does not begin with the regular opening title sequence and the terrific Barry Gray theme tune.

(Revised Post)

Time to Order

It might seem hard to believe now but there was a time, back in the early Nineties, when I thought Russell T Davies would be good for “Doctor Who”! Following on from the excellent children’s serial “Moondial”, he was commissioned to write his first television drama “Dark Season”. Essentially two three-part serials, comprising 25-minute episodes, the lead character Marcie, played by Victoria Lambert, became thought of as a kind of female teenage Fourth Doctor figure with a slight nod to Sophie Aldred’s Ace. Some have said since that this serial inspired Joss Whedon’s “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” in that there is a school, where much of the action takes place, under which is a Behemoth, brought to life in the second story by none other than Servalan herself, Jacqueline Pearce. For Behemoth read Hellmouth. The serial is also notable in featuring an early performance by a young Kate Winslet.

“Dark Season”, like “Moondial” before it, was directed by Colin Cant and lucky enough to have a music score by David Ferguson. David is probably best known for sending shivers up the spine in the second season of “Cracker” as well as having the same effect in the BBC adaptations of several Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) mysteries (“A Fatal Inversion”, “Gallowglass”, “A Dark Adapted Eye”), again in the early Nineties. Trained as a composer myself, it’s inevitable I’ll regard incidental music of the utmost importance in a drama’s success. I believe one of the reasons Graeme Harper’s two “Doctor Who” serials of the mid Eighties (“The Caves of Androzani” and “Revelation of the Daleks”) were so successful was because of the Roger Limb scores. Anyway, together with RTD, this talented triumvirate went on to produce a further six-part children’s serial, a couple of years later, in the much more adult themed “Century Falls”. Again centring around the activities of three teenagers, the story concerns the inability of the women in a village to conceive, and the possibly paranormal reasons as to why they should remain barren. Sterility being quite a heady subject for teatime possibly explains why this serial has never been repeated. A small point of interest is the inclusion of sisters with the surname Harkness, seemingly popular with RTD and no doubt distant relatives of a certain space-faring Captain.

In the light of the two recent only-moderately-successful (for me at least) seasons of “Doctor Who”, I wonder if I will enjoy “Dark Season” and “Century Falls” quite as much when rewatching them, now that they have become available on DVD? I actually viewed “Century Falls” just before “Doctor Who” returned to our screens last year, from a Beta tape made at the time of transmission, to help get in the right frame of mind for the new series! I hadn’t actually seen any of RTD’s other work since these two productions, not even the most notorious and best known of them “Queer as Folk”, simply because the subject matter didn’t particularly appeal. I do regret still not having seen “The Second Coming” however. “Dark Season” I remember as fun but lightweight with much more meat on the bones of “Century Falls”. I was disappointed RTD didn’t continue to write for this genre and now I’m disappointed that he has! Had he shown us his version of the Time Lord before the advent of “Buffy” I believe his “Doctor Who” would’ve been a completely different proposition. It might’ve been partly directed by Colin Cant with music by David Ferguson! Ironically, if Davies hadn’t influenced Whedon, with his most “Doctor Who”-like serial, who in turn influenced him to create “Rosie, the Alien Ex-Terminator”, we might have actually got a new series of “Doctor Who”!

Revelations and Reservations!

The final two episodes of the second season of new “Doctor Who”, “Army of Ghosts” and “Doomsday”, followed a similar path to the concluding two-part story of last year’s opening season. Although not as pronounced as last year, it was still really a case of two single episode stories tenuously linked together. “Army of Ghosts” was protracted padding up to the supposedly big reveal. I’d already guessed the Daleks were in the sphere, just from watching the trailer, despite the script’s desperate attempts to wrong foot us into thinking the void ship contained more Cybermen! It had to be something bigger otherwise the episode would simply have been replicating the climax of “Rise of the Cybermen”. I was more surprised, though only slightly, knowing these concluding episodes were shot back-to-back with the earlier Cybermen episodes, by the reappearance of Mickey towards the end of “Army of Ghosts”!! After that, it was only to be expected that Pete would put in an appearance in “Doomsday” and, surprise surprise, not to leave anyone out, up pops resistance-leader Jake, restraint being an unknown concept to RTD!!!

Everything RTD does is so obvious. I wonder how many children actually got the “Ghostbusters” reference in “Army of Ghosts”? Only those whose parents own a copy of the film on DVD I suspect, or have seen it by chance on TV. He seems to have a checklist of things “Doctor Who” has never done and wants to be the first to do them. Three examples spring immediately to mind. Firstly, a Dalek had never appeared inside the TARDIS until “The Parting of the Ways”; secondly, a Dalek and Cyberman hadn’t appeared in the same frame until “Doomsday”… One question that occurred to me, before “Doomsday” aired, was how well would the Daleks and Cybermen look together, bearing in mind their difference in size? It would obviously have to be shot quite carefully to avoid making the Cybermen seem ridiculously tall or, conversely, the Daleks too short; and finally, Martha Jones, to be played by Freema Agyeman, will be the first black female companion. There is nothing wrong with any of these ideas as long as they evolve naturally out of a good script.

Good scripts are currently very scarce in “Doctor Who”. Matt Jones wrote the strongest story this year, with “The Impossible Planet” and ”The Satan Pit”. You could argue even those episodes are highly derivative but when has that not been the case in “Doctor Who”? Jon Pertwee’s first two seasons borrowed unashamedly from “The Avengers”, “Adam Adamant Lives!” and especially the Fifties’ “Quatermass” trilogy, for example. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing intelligently from the best! Tellingly, Matt is the one writer who won’t talk about his work on the show. Could that be because it was tampered with too much by a certain Executive Producer? It didn’t need jokes about Walford, just as the plot of “Army of Ghosts” wasn’t advanced with the inclusion of Peggy Mitchell. Not all of us are slaves to “EastEnders”. Could it be RTD wants us to think of “Doctor Who” as “EastEnders” in space?!! I’ve only ever watched one episode of “EastEnders” and that was because, ironically, it was directed by Graeme Harper, the man at the helm of these closing Cybermen episodes!!!

Stuck in the middle with "Who"!

"Fear Her" was another story with a paper-thin plot just when the series ought to be toughening up if we're really about to face an "Army of Ghosts" resulting in "Doomsday". There were some nice ideas in the episode, such as the scribble monster, but when the thing you remember most is the multi-layered joke about parking the TARDIS, rather than any psychological fear, then there is a need to scribble a different script. This was already a different script, however, as episode eleven was originally the slot intended for Stephen Fry. His story was postponed until next year but now doesn't have the time to contribute. It occurred to me, the day after transmission, that maybe what I found momentarily funny on Saturday evening might contain some metaphorical truth about the series itself. The TARDIS is stuck on Earth, the Doctor can't get out/away so he needs to do a ninety degree turn... just like the programme.

The story borrowed from all over the place. "Survival", Sylvester McCoy's swan song, figured prominently at the beginning with a supposedly typical street, though it was too busy to be believable, unearthing mysterious disappearances of its youthful inhabitants and even featured a real, rather than animatronic, moggy! The cat was revealed to have been a bit of a diva in "Doctor Who Confidential" afterwards. Maybe they should've bought some tins of Whiskas like good ol' Sly back in 1989! With Chloe seemingly capturing individuals in her drawings, the obvious influence on "Fear Her" is the children's novel "Marianne Dreams" by Catherine Storr. The motivation of the aliens, in this episode, bore more than a passing resemblance to the ambition of the Gelth in "The Unquiet Dead", as well; as the number of individuals imprisoned in the artwork escalates, initially, to a stadium crowd, with a final desire to seize the entire population of the planet.

It was all just a little dull, however, and when "Confidential" talked about the fear factor in "Doctor Who", illustrating it with clips from the classic series, it only served to make "Fear Her" feel even weaker. Hartnell, looking totally dishevelled and distraught, and frantic to return to his ship at the climax of the original "Doctor Who" story, takes some beating. And, Russell T Davies, during the discussion, getting the name of my all-time favourite story wrong doesn't endear me to him either. It's called "Fury FROM the Deep", Mr Executive Producer and Chief Scribbler!!! Finally, I think it even less likely that Shayne Ward will still be in the public eye in the year 2012, never mind have a Greatest Hits album as the poster in the above picture indicates, than a planet can orbit a black hole!