"Revelation" Revisited!

I was quite taken with the above photo when I saw it on the "Doctor Who" restoration team's website. It occured to me that, at the time it was taken, three of the four people pictured had worked, in one capacity or another, with both Daleks and Cybermen! One of them had worked only with the Daleks. Almost a year later, it's with great optimism I mention that that fact has just changed. All four have now worked with both. Let me explain...

The picture was taken when the four of them were recording a commentary for last year's DVD release of "Revelation of the Daleks" called "Revelation Exhumed". It reunited them twenty years on from the original recording, "Revelation of the Daleks" being the only "Doctor Who" title with 1985 at the end of the closing credits.

On the left is actor Terry Molloy, best known to radio listeners as Mike Tucker in Radio 4's farming soap "The Archers". To "Doctor Who" fans, he's best known for his portrayal of Dalek creator Davros and the only actor to have played the role more than once! He inherited the part from Michael Wisher's original characterisation in 1975's "Genesis of the Daleks" and David Gooderson's 1979 interpretation in "Destiny of the Daleks". Terry has put on the mask of Davros on no less than three occasions during the Eighties, firstly in "Resurrection" ('84), then in "Revelation" ('85), and finally in "Remembrance of the Daleks" ('88). To keep his reappearance in the latter a surprise, the Emperor Dalek was credited to Roy Tromelly (anag.)! In 1985, he also played a character called Russell in "Attack of the Cybermen"...

Sitting next to Terry is writer and script editor Eric Saward. He was responsible, in his capacity as author, for returning the Cybermen to our screens in 1982, in a story called "Earthshock", after an absence of seven years. As well as writing "The Visitation", for the same season, he also wrote "Attack of the Cybermen" three years later, in 1985, despite the credit going to Paula Moore, his girlfriend at the time! That year also saw him write two stories for a season as he was also responsible for "Revelation of the Daleks". It was a sequel to his previous year's "Resurrection of the Daleks".

Next to Eric is actress Nicola Bryant. She played companion Perpugilliam 'Peri' Brown from 1984 to 1986. She joined the TARDIS crew as the fifth Doctor's era was coming to an end in "Planet of Fire" and stayed until partway through sixth Doctor epic "The Trial of a Time Lord". Since "Doctor Who", she has appeared in "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" (1988) as Millicent, children's serial "The Biz" (1994) as dance instructor Martine alongside Geoffrey Bayldon and had guest roles in medical dramas "Casualty" and "Doctors", both in 2000. During her time in "Doctor Who", however, she battled the programme's two most popular villains in "Attack of the Cybermen" and "Revelation of the Daleks".

On the right of the picture is "Star Cops" (1987) director Graeme Harper. He directed Nicola Bryant in both of his "Doctor Who" stories of the Eighties, "The Caves of Androzani" and "Revelation of the Daleks" but was the only one in the photograph to have never worked with the Cybermen... until now! He has just completed the filming of four episodes to feature them, for the second season of the new series, most likely beginning its run on 15 April. As the new episodes are almost twice the length of the regular length of classic episodes, this is quite some feat, and must have taken quite some organising, putting them on a par, in that respect, with the Douglas Camfield-directed eight-part Sixties' Cybermen story "The Invasion"!

Where Eric Saward brought the Cybermen back in "Earthshock" twenty-four years ago, Graeme Harper, beginning with "The Rise of the Cybermen", is doing the same eighteen years since their last proper appearance in the 1988 story "Silver Nemesis". The Cybermen's revival falls on the monsters from Mondas's fortieth anniversary, having first appeared in the 1966 final William Hartnell story "The Tenth Planet". The beauty of the "Revelation Exhumed" photo, and this accompanying story of connections, is that it firmly links classic "Doctor Who" (1963-89) to the new series (2005-?)!

Psycho Sci-fi!

This Saturday, on ITV4 at 7pm, there is an 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, pictured with 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. She is perhaps best known to television viewers as the former wife of Eighties cop "Bergerac".

David Collings plays Daniel Clark, the man who, 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 "Blakes 7" due out on DVD shortly. 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)", currently also reshowing on ITV4, on Mondays at 7pm. Watch out for Christopher Timothy in this episode of "UFO", as the navigator of Skydiver 3, who can currently be seen in "Doctors", weekday afternoons on BBC ONE, but is 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 perhaps more innocent times. It is stylishly made 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.

Enterprising New Role!

Patrick Stewart returns to our television screens on Thursday 19 January at 9pm in a new ITV1 drama series called "Eleventh Hour". The production consists of four, weekly, ninety-minute thrillers played out against the world of contemporary science. He plays Professor Ian Hood, emeritus Professor of Physics now serving as Special Advisor to the government's Joint Sciences Committee. At his side is Rachel Young, his Special Branch bodyguard played by Ashley Jensen.

Hood's a roving troubleshooter. His remit is to seek out or respond to any human crisis arising out of, or offering a threat to, current scientific endeavour. Hood and Rachel are perpetually on the road, living in hotels and out of suitcases, travelling from one challenge to another in an unassuming hand-me-down official pool car.

Patrick Stewart has never really had a primetime show on British television as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was sidelined into a weekday teatime slot on BBC TWO. I've sometimes wondered what the ratings would've been like had it been transmitted early Saturday evenings on BBC ONE in the slot allocated to "The New Adventures of Superman". Patrick was already a highly regarded character actor, in films such as "Lady Jane", "Excalibur" and "Lifeforce", before getting the "Star Trek" job and that success has continued post "Trek" with the "X-Men" trilogy.

Ashley Jensen is perhaps best known to British audiences for roles in "May to December" and, more recently, acting alongside Ricky Gervais in "Extras". Interestingly, Patrick Stewart guest starred in an episode of "Extras".

"Eleventh Hour" was devised by Stephen Gallagher whose credits include "Bugs", "Chimera" and "Oktober". He also wrote the scripts for the "Doctor Who" stories "Warriors' Gate" and "Terminus". Gallagher has taken inspiration from "Quatermass" in the creation of the Professor and Emma Peel of "The Avengers" when writing the character of Rachel. The show sounds a little like early Seventies science fiction series "Doomwatch". So, all things considered, the prospects look good for a cracking new science fiction series!

Getting the better of Bond!

I have grown to love the James Bond Films. When I started exploring fantasy television and films in a more academic fashion, I decided to look into this series and began by simply sorting out in my mind which set pieces belong to which film et cetera, instead of seeing them as a homogeneous mass!

Most people prefer Sean Connery's portrayal of James Bond but my favourite actor in the role is the underrated Roger Moore who went straight from playing Lord Brett Sinclair, in the ITC television series "The Persuaders!", onto the set of "Live and Let Die", the first of his seven consecutive appearances as the secret agent.

Receiving its third terrestrial screening tonight on ITV1 is the twentieth and most recent entry in the James Bond adventure series, "Die Another Day". This has turned out to be Pierce Brosnan's fourth and final outing as James Bond, 007, with Daniel Craig having recently been named as his successor. My personal favourite of the Brosnan quartet, it features Halle Berry recreating original Bond girl Ursula Andress's unforgettable first appearance from 1962's "Dr. No", forty years on, rising bikini-clad from the surf.

Out of this World!

The New Year brings a new season of drama and, for fans of cult television, two shows begin next week. Saturday sees the return of the supernatural series "Sea of Souls" for a third season. It stars excellent Scottish actor Bill Paterson as Doctor Douglas Monaghan with former "Monarch of the Glen" actress Dawn Steele (pictured) and Iain Robertson as his associates Justine McManus and Craig Stevenson. This year, instead of three two-part stories where each pair of episodes ran on consecutive evenings over three weeks, the season consists of six single-episode tales to be broadcast one a week.

On the BBC's website, Bill Paterson, explaining the success of "Sea of Souls", says, "People are fascinated with the paranormal and issues of reality. We are living in a non religious age but people are still trying to find extra terrestrial reasons for why things happen. Formal religion is the greatest psychic superstition of all and in the absence of that people often look for alternatives about lives continuing and messages coming from beyond the grave."

The second episode of the new series of "Sea of Souls" was shot in an old disused ironworks at night which Dawn Steele found horrible and spooky. She says, "When you're filming the kinds of scenes where the subject matter is quite disturbing and you're somewhere as vast and eerie as that, you can't help but get a shiver down your spine. There were a few times at the ironworks when I felt really spooked out, you know weird noises and tricks of the light - I was like: 'I want my mum - now!' "

The other show of interest, from the makers of "Spooks" and "Hustle", concerns a time-travelling cop who is transported back from the present day to 1973. "Life On Mars" stars John Simm as Sam Tyler (interesting surname!) who has to come to terms with an unfamiliar environment and an archaic CID unit. His new boss, DCI Gene Hunt, is played by Philip Glenister who sounds like a hard-nosed cop of the Regan variety. Sensitivity comes in the shape of WPC Annie Cartright, an educated and open minded woman played by Liz White.

The title "Life On Mars" comes from my favourite song by David Bowie, which can be found on his 1971 album "Hunky Dory". The eight-part series promises plenty of action and humour and, also like Seventies' cop show "The Sweeney", the cars play an important part! It also sounds as though there's a touch of "Crime Traveller" about this new series. I'm looking forward to watching both "Life On Mars" and "Sea of Souls".

"Not bad for a fella in jim-jams!"

The overnight viewing figures are in for Christmas Day and "Doctor Who" performed well, pulling in an audience of 9.4 million, being beaten only by "EastEnders"! That's slightly more than Paul McGann's debut in 1996 but a little under Christopher Eccleston's earlier this year. It was a sensible move to schedule "The Christmas Invasion" for broadcast actually on Christmas Day rather than in its regular slot of Saturday evening, when its potential audience might still have been engaged in last-minute Christmas shopping!!

The story began on Christmas Eve so there may well have been a temptation to put it out on Saturday at 7pm instead of Sunday. It occured to me, while watching the BBC THREE repeats of episodes three and four of series one on Tuesday night, that we've already had a perfectly good Christmas special earlier in the year in the shape of "The Unquiet Dead". This story was also set on Christmas Eve but in 1869 as opposed to the present day and, while I'm on the subject, the current four-part serial on BBC 7, "The Chimes of Midnight", is also set on Christmas Eve, on this occasion at the beginning of the twentieth century. So, Doctors eight, nine and ten have all visited Christmas Eve! It's getting to be a habit!!

It's hard to form an opinion on David Tennant's interpretation of the role just yet because he didn't really enter the fray until the last twenty minutes of the hourlong episode but he does look very promising. I shall wait until the end of the next series before making up my mind as my opinion of Chris Eccleston's Doctor has grown more and more favourable the more I watch him.

I will say that David's sword fight with the Sycorax leader put me in mind of Jon Pertwee's Doctor, specifically the fencing sequence with Roger Delgado's Master in "The Sea Devils", while the undermining of his enemy with humour was obviously inspired by Tom Baker's portrayal. The new Doctor's reaction to the Prime Minister's destruction of the retreating Sycorax vessel was also that of Jon Pertwee's to the brigadier's annihilation of "The Silurians". I was reminded of Chris Eccleston's Doctor's disposal of Cassandra, in "The End of the World", in David Tennant's final dispatch of the enemy leader as the pyjama-clad hero walked detachedly away with the words "no second chances".

Only a few minor quibbles! I found Camille Coduri's voice very shrill in the Christmas tree sequence and I thought the signposting of the upcoming BBC THREE spin-off series, "Torchwood", a bit heavy-handed. I enjoyed the teaser for the second series, at the end of the episode, and I guessed the final shot would be that of a Cyberman! The design of the cat people, from next year's opening episode "New Earth", looks good on brief acquaintance and it will be interesting to compare it to the cheetahs from Sylvester McCoy's finale "Survival". David's debut was a nice present from the BBC and, despite recording it, watching the repeat should provide everyone with a happy New Year.

Tomorrow, A New Beginning...

It's Christmas and Jackie Tyler is at home preparing for the festive season, not knowing if her daughter Rose will be home in time - or at all! Then she hears the familiar, ancient grind of the TARDIS...

Mickey, Rose's sometime boyfriend, is hard at work at the garage when he also recognises the sound. Both he and Rose's mum race across the estate just in time to witness the TARDIS' gloriously chaotic crash-landing. The doors open and, much to their delight, out steps Rose but with a complete stranger - except it isn't a stranger - it's the Doctor.

Disorientated, yet overwhelmed to see them, the Doctor takes a few minutes to regain his balance and consider what it is he wants to tell them. "Oh! I know! Merry Christmas!" he yells, before collapsing.

The Doctor falls in and out of consciousness, with Rose and Jackie powerless to help him. In a bid to boost Rose's spirits, Mickey suggests a spot of Christmas shopping. A good plan - until they find themselves under attack by a sinister brass band of masked Santas.

However, the Doctor and his friends are not the only ones with problems. Prime Minister Harriet Jones has just been informed that a British space probe, on its way to Mars for a Christmas Day landing, has gone missing. It has been kidnapped by a monstrous race known as the Sycorax, who are hellbent on taking over the world.

Meanwhile, back at the Tylers', Mickey and Jackie are trying to fend off a killer Christmas tree, while Rose tries urgently to wake the Doctor...

"Angel" - No Show!!!

Five are not going to broadcast the fifth and final series of "Angel". The "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" spin-off has had a rough ride on terrestrial television since it began on Channel 4. The programme was deemed too violent and, during its first season, was consequently heavily, and rather badly, edited for a 6pm transmission slot. People complained and it was rerun, often in double bills, late on Saturday nights. The damage was done though and it obviously didn't find an audience as, after running the second season in the same late night slot, Channel 4 gave up on the series.

Five acquired the rights, moved it to Mondays, but continued broadcasting it late at night. Had I been Five's scheduler, I would have put it on straight after "Charmed" around 8pm on Saturday evenings, where, at the time, they were running James Cameron's "Dark Angel". Ironically, the reruns of "Dark Angel" are now in the graveyard slot once occupied by "Angel"! Even more ironically, since "Dark Angel" finished its first run on Saturday nights, this early evening slot has been occupied by reruns of the first season of "Buffy" and more recently the first season of "Star Trek: Voyager"!!

There have been rumblings about Chris Eccleston's prompt departure from the recent revival of "Doctor Who" because, it is claimed, audiences had invested in his character. At least "Doctor Who" is returning to our screens just with a different lead actor, which is, in any case, built into the concept of the programme. But, what about when an audience invests in four seasons only to be told they are not allowed to see the final year? You could argue that you have had your time wasted, been sold a book with the last chapters missing! This happened with "Millennium" on ITV1 several years ago. They broadcast the first season, at least twice to get their money's worth, and then left regular viewers wondering "what happened next"?

I am a fan of Juliet Landau. Interestingly, I was already a fan of her parents' work, particularly on the Gerry Anderson series "Space:1999", although, when I first noticed her as Drusilla in "Buffy", I was unaware of who she was until I did a little research! She is pictured above with vampire accomplice Darla, played by Julie Benz, in both actresses' last ever appearance in "Angel", in the twentieth episode of season five, "The Girl in Question". Just as I have yet to see Juliet's guest appearance in a season three episode of "Millennium", it seems as though I will have an equally long wait before seeing her final two appearances in the last season of "Angel", if at all! Perhaps I should take consolation in that I have seen her guest appearance in "La Femme, Nikita"... twice!!!

All Rise!

Last night's BBC Radio 2 documentary, "Doctor Who: Regeneration", exclusively revealed that the first of the four episodes to feature the long-awaited return of one of the series most popular adversaries is entitled "The Rise of the Cybermen". This will appear fifth in the run of thirteen episodes likely to air from the end of March 2006. The title of the concluding episode of this two-part story is still unknown while both episode titles of the Cybermen story that concludes the second season are now known. Episode twelve is called "Army of Ghosts", as stated in a previous post, and is followed by the apocalyptic sounding "Doomsday".

The first of the two two-part Cybermen stories is set on an alternate Earth doomed to disaster, making it sound like a reworking of the Jon Pertwee classic "Inferno" which incidentally is due out on DVD next year. The second outing sees the Cybermen awaken in our universe where they have allied themselves with something from the Doctor's past. All four Cybermen episodes are directed by Graeme ("The Caves of Androzani" and "Revelation of the Daleks") Harper, as seems likely is the other two-parter. Set on a nightmarish alien world, and opening with the episode "The Satan Pit", this would make a total of six episodes, almost half the season under the helm of the classic series director. Good news indeed.

Other news concerning the next run is that the Face of Boe, originally seen in second episode "The End of the World", will be making a return appearance and this time in a speaking capacity apparently having "some important words for the Doctor"! Stephen Fry's episode is being held over to season three because of the demands it makes on the effects department. His episode, the eleventh, is now being written by Matthew Graham. Episode ten will feature the Abzorbaloff, the creature created by a "Blue Peter" viewer.

Meanwhile, returning to the Cybermen episodes, Roger Lloyd Pack was worried he wouldn't be able to take on the role of enemy John Lumic after he fell down the stairs at home and broke a leg. Scripts have been rewritten to accommodate his injury and now sees him wheelchair-bound. Apparently, this has had the effect of adding to the mystery and intrigue surrounding his character! Let's hope he makes a speedy recovery.

"Bleak House", then and now!

It's difficult to choose a stand out performance from the latest television adaptation of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, when they were all so uniformally excellent, but, if pushed, I would have to say newcomer Burn Gorman as Mr. Guppy (pictured) stole the show. He had the voice, the facial mannerisms, the body language, all off to a fine art. The only thing he didn't do was wipe his hands in the table cloth while first proposing to Esther Summerson, as Jonathan Moore did in the same role twenty years ago!

It's been difficult to avoid comparison with the production from 1985 as it was this earlier version which first brought the story to my attention, despite already being a fan of costume drama and the novels of Dickens. Denholm Elliot brought more grit to his portrayal of John Jarndyce in the mid-Eighties while Denis Lawson, in turn, brought much humanity to a truly good-natured human being.

Both versions of "Bleak House" featured a comedian but in different roles! Charlie Drake was Smallweed in the older dramatisation; Johnny Vegas played Krook in the serial which concluded its eight-week, fifteen episode, run yesterday evening. Both versions featured actresses better known for cult roles in the same part!! Diana Rigg, Mrs. Emma Peel in Sixties classic "The Avengers", played Lady Dedlock previously while Gillian Anderson, Dana Scully in US SF series "The X Files", portrayed her on this occasion.

For anyone who has missed what is, without doubt, the drama of the year, there is an opportunity to see the final two episodes again this Sunday afternoon or view the entire serial on BBC FOUR over two nights at the end of the month. Failing that, I thoroughly recommend investing in the DVD release available from the end of February, next year.