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 | Nicely Written, Average Episode |
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| What: | Phobos (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 7 September 2007 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
The Doctor and Lucy arrive in a snowy sports entertainment dome on Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. There are stories of dangerous alien creatures, but they don't keep the thrill-seekers from coming and enjoying their high risk sports. But now the threat is about to turn deadly...
Nicely scripted and well-acted, and having quality sound design, Phobos really doesn't try too hard, but ends up as a solid, entertaining episode.
| What: | The Underwater Menace (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Thursday 6 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
The Underwater Menace is silly, silly, silly. When the TARDIS crew stumbles into Atlantis, it's Dr. Who vs. Dr. Evil! Yes, Dr. Zaroff is like Dr. Evil with a full mop of frizzy hair and a Russian accent. Except he's about 1/1000th as funny. He has convinced the Atlanteans that he is working on a scientific way to raise Atlantis. But the Doctor (who signs a note as "Dr. W" in episode 1) realizes that Zaroff's plan will actually blow up the Earth! Atlantis will be raised all right - in a thousand pieces as it flies into outer space! Mwuhahahaaaa! Zaroff is able to provide power for sections of Atlantis and is able to rig up a drill that will penetrate down 15 miles into the earth's crust, but he can't build a refrigerator!
I must admit, though, that it is pretty cool to see Troughton on video here in the sole surviving third episode of The Underwater Menace, which I believe is the earliest video footage of his Doctor that has been found. But even he is not immune, and gets his share of over the top hammy silliness.
Even as intentional cheese, The Underwater Menace is little more than a rather embarrassing curiosity...
| What: | The Tenth Planet (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Tuesday 4 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
The Tenth Planet is another of those early stories that are difficult to do a critical review of. Watching it a second time, I found a lot more of value here than on the first viewing, though it should be mentioned that my first viewing of it was without any of the fourth episode except for a brief clip of the regeneration scene at the end. The Tenth Planet is now available with video of the first three episodes, and a specially reconstructed fourth episode that features the audio, still photos, and a few video clips - more than just the brief regeneration clip.
Arriving at the South Pole in 1986 near a space tracking station, the Doctor, Ben and Polly are spotted as soon as they step out of the TARDIS, and hauled into the base. A new planet has entered the solar system, and is disrupting two space flights that are under way and being coordinated by the tracking station. The planet is called Mondas, and is home to the Cybermen, who are cybernetic creatures that no longer have emotions. They soon begin arriving at various locations on Earth, including the South Pole base, and forcefully dominate these key installations. Mondas begins to absorb energy from Earth, and to prevent Mondas from being burned out, the Cybermen plan to take captives from Earth and then destroy the planet, the captives to become as they are.
The Tenth Planet is really kind of fascinating, in quite an odd way. In this first story to feature the Cybermen, the Cybermen are very primitive, and quite unlike any others that we see throughout the series' history from then on. Rather than having a solid metal head, these Cybermen have blank facial features on a sort of ski mask-like covering, making them much more organic than any of their successors. They also have human hands, rather than metal or silver-gloved ones. These are creatures more than robots, and bizarre ones at that. Their voices are superb here - much better than the voices the subsequent models were given during the Troughton years. Though the voices have a more organic sound to them, they also sound more emotionless than the more robotic voices that would come in many of the future stories, being delivered in a very strange, sing-song manner with oddly timed syllabic accents that are all wrong to normal English speakers. But there's a glaring problem with the way the Cybermen are voiced: when they speak, the actor in the costume simply opens his mouth, and this is very poorly synched throughout the story.
Of course, in addition to these strange and unique Cybermen, we get the Doctor's first regeneration at the end of the story. As I understand it, William Hartnell had become too ill to continue in the show, and he was absent from episode 3 due to poor health. When he returns in episode 4, he doesn't seem his usual self, though he does seem to have a final burst of energy, which becomes the same for the Doctor. The Doctor manages to be a significant presence in the situation once more, only to fizzle out quickly. The characters basically wrap everything up by stalling the Cybermen long enough for Mondas to be consumed by the energy transfer that has been taking place. When this happens, all of the Cybermen inexplicably collapse and shrivel up, and the problem is solved. A quick and dirty resolution to a storyline that had become problematic for the writers, probably due to Hartnell's deteriorating health.
Then we get the great final performance from Hartnell, "It's far from being all over!" as he staggers back out to the TARDIS, which starts to freak out as he sets it to dematerialize and then collapses on the floor, and the famous transition to Patrick Troughton takes place.
There are several little quibbles with this story, but it's quite an interesting spectacle. And the structure of this story would become the quintessential Doctor Who format: you have a small group in a small base or some other kind of place where all of the action happens, and a monster/threat comes onto the scene, and the story is about how to deal with it and save the day. The Tenth Planet is considered to be the first of the so-called "monster stories" that were so common during the Troughton period. They really weren't done before this, with the possible exception of The Celestial Toymaker, which had more or less the same structure, but without the actual "monster" per se.
Sadly to say, with the downward-sloping progression the show had taken over the course of the previous four stories, I really think the most interesting thing the First Doctor could've done at this point was to regenerate. The dramatic changes ushered in by The Tenth Planet were "not a moment too soon," to quote a future Doctor... This story itself, and some of the execution, just isn't good enough to merit a high rating, so again, I'm calling this a qualified 7 out of 10.
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| This was the Season 4 Premiere? |
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| What: | The Smugglers (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 3 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
The Smugglers really highlights how much things have changed since 1966. Placing this story at the very beginning of the season (Season 4) seems to me like a very poor decision indeed, and makes me wonder, particularly after Dodo, Ben and Polly, The Gunfighters, The Savages, and (to some extent) The War Machines, whether Doctor Who would have survived beyond 1966 if not for the radical changes that were about to come, five episodes after the end of The Smugglers, with the introduction of the first new Doctor. The Smugglers is an awefully weak start for Season 4.
The beginning of the first episode is a bit fun though, because Ben and Polly had only just wandered into the TARDIS using Dodo's spare key at the very end of the previous story. The Doctor had (somehow) not noticed them entering, and had dematerialized, whisking them away with him inadvertantly. So the Doctor's shock and dismay at this while in transit - "How dare you follow me into the TARDIS!" - makes for a few fun scenes, with Ben and Polly refusing to believe they had just traveled in time and space until exiting the TARDIS on the coast of Cornwall, in what they later determine to be the 17th Century. A bit too far to just catch a lift back to London (of 1966).
From this point onward, we get a fairly uninteresting historical, and I can only imagine the sound of thousands of channels being switched across England in September, 1966...
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| An Odd Mix... Seeds of the Future? |
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| What: | The War Machines (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 3 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
In The War Machines, The Doctor and Dodo find that they have arrived back in contemporary (1966) London, and immediately the Doctor senses something sinister at work nearby, in the Post Office Tower. It turns out that what he had sensed, in a manner similar to what he experiences when Daleks are nearby, was the supercomputer WOTAN (Will Operating Thought ANalogue), which has artificial intelligence (i.e. the ability to reason on its own terms). WOTAN promptly begins to hypnotize people, taking over their minds to such an extent that they build 'war machines' for the superbrain that are meant to control or destroy humanity.
It's kind of difficult to critically review The War Machines. Some elements of the production are intriguing and work really well, while other aspects really do not work well. One rather interesting part of the plot is the Doctor's easy familiarity with high-level government authorities, as if he has been known to them and respected by them for some time. This is something the viewer did not see in previous episodes, and bears more similarity to The Avengers than to Doctor Who, as seen up to that point. Intriguing, but curiously inexplicable. Nevertheless, this works well and is one of the better features of the story, and seems almost a precursor of the Doctor's affiliation with UNIT that would develop and follow in future seasons.
On the other hand, Dodo, the companion who received what was arguably the single worst introduction into the series, back at the end of The Massacre, here receives what is arguably the worst sendoff any companion ever had in the series' history. After being hypnotized and manipulated by WOTAN, Dodo's hypnotic state is broken by the Doctor, who sends her away to the countryside in episode 2 to rest and recover, and this is the last we see of her. In addition to this, WOTAN repeatedly refers to the Doctor as "Doctor Who," which struck me as being totally absurd the first time I viewed this story, and now just seems amusingly strange (but still ridiculous, I guess). Other quibbles would include the impossibly fast reporting of the tramp's death and the highly improbable picture of him in the paper, the impossible 'W' labeling on the boxes containing the war machine parts (not to mention the ridiculous speed of the startup of the production operation), the lack of an explanation for how the war machine reprogrammed by the Doctor is able to reach the upper floor of the Post Office Tower, and the uninspired casting and introduction of Ben and Polly as the new companions.
Back on the plus side, being set in (the at the time) contemporary London of 1966 makes this story rather more interesting than many that had come before it; the visual style of the entire production, and the vocal effects of WOTAN are just cool; and the special 'War Machines' graphic intro to each episode is a fresh approach that gets one's attention and lends the entire production a sort of higher energy and attractiveness.
Overall, style and experimental elements make The War Machines too interesting to give a low rating, but the troublesome script elements significantly take away from what was in other respects a very nicely-executed production. A qualified 7 out of 10.
| What: | Lost in Time (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Now this is more like it, shame there arent any complete stories in the vaults to these adventures but what a collection. The great days of the Dr. Now if only they did a DVD of the dalek master plan or the 10th Planet with animation like they have done with the Invasion. Lets start the campaign eh eh what do you say....
| What: | Doctor Who (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This was meant to be the one to relaunch the series ... and they wouldve gotten away with it to if it wasnt for the American market not liking it.
P Mc was ok in this, the story let it down as did Eric Roberts (actor my behind). Shouldve been a lot stronger as P Mc proved in audio adventures to be a good Dr.
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| Good and bad points... ok maybe only bad |
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| What: | Dragonfire (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Lloyd, Kent, UK |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 September 2007 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Dull script, stupid effects, Bonnie Langford.... what more can I say this is one that should have been frozen as well ARghhhhhh
One of the lamest, boring and visually dull Who stories. Not many are worse than this.... well maybe a few including Gunfighters andsome of the new series stories.
This was voted one of the best stories in the histry of Who, it is a great story and a great read as well and deserves not to be in this list.
| What: | Circular Time (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Friday 31 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Circular Time is absolutely amazing. I am blown away.
Listening to the first two of the four parts, I was beginning to wonder about the high rating this production has received here. The first two parts were good, but not 'near a perfect 10' good. Then, as I continued through the third and fourth parts, the realization of just how special Circular Time is began to set in.
Each of the four parts is a short-story that stands on its own, and yet the simple concepts of linear time and 'circular time' bind them all together, linear time being what we consider to be 'real life,' and circular time being the kind of life that dies and is reborn... the seasons, the perennial flower, the yearly time of cricket matches, and time travel, in which people and times long dead are resurrected and experienced again.
Part One is about a Time Lord named Zero, who is exiled and finds himself getting quite involved with a society of avian creatures on an alien planet. Part Two is about a visit to Earth's past, in which the Doctor and Nyssa are imprisoned by Sir Isaac Newton (played magnificently by David Warner). Part Three is sheer poetry. It is a story that sees the Doctor and Nyssa spending a rather long period of 'linear time' in the English countryside, the Doctor enjoying his time in a cricket league, and Nyssa setting out to write a novel and finding romance as the time passes. And Part Four, ah... well, telling would spoil the most satisfying final episode ever. Absolute brilliance. I'll just say that Part Four is like an audio version of some of the best of the New Adventures book range, but featuring the Fifth Doctor. You'll just have to listen yourself. It was breathtaking.
Parts Three and Four particularly were so full and rich that they almost seemed like they covered the full length of an entire CD each.
I should also mention that the sound realization, music, and acting are all top notch here throughout the entire production.
In this listener's opinion, Circular Time is by far the best Big Finish monthly audio play that's been released in probably the last five years, maybe the best ever.
| What: | Minuet in Hell (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | carrma, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Ever wonder what it would be like to listen to an audio version of a direct to video b-movie? Now you can! All the key elements are there: stereotypical flat characters, bad dialog, bad acting, bad plot and retarded sexuality. Nicholas Courtney was nice to hear, wish he was placed in a better story.
| What: | The Savages (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 29 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
I'm not entirely sure why, but I found The Savages to be a very satisfying, engaging story. On the face of it, there isn't really anything particularly spectacular about the story. I think the attraction here has to do with a few different things that worked really well, including the fact that the story is a tidy four episodes in length, and that it features Frederick Jaeger in a leading role (Jaeger is later seen during the Fourth Doctor's era in leading roles as Sorenson in Planet of Evil and Marius in The Invisible Enemy). It also features something rare for the aged First Doctor - the threat of technologically induced torture and bodily injury to the Doctor. Whereas getting strapped to a machine and zapped in some way was somewhat commonplace for, say, the Fourth Doctor, we really didn't see it with the First Doctor, who was much less physically involved with such things, most likely due to William Hartnell's (and thus, the Doctor's) aged state. And so perhaps this lends more gravity to the episode 2 cliffhanger, in which the Doctor has been forcibly placed into the humming machine that is getting ready to suck his life essence out of him. And finally, this is Steven's final story, and he has a very strong role that is fairly well-written. He gets sent off nicely here, staying on to be the new leader of the Elders and the Savages, and it's really sad to see him go. I realized that I had come to see him as being by far the best male member of the TARDIS crew of Hartnell's tenure, and quite possibly the best of the First Doctor's companions, period.
While perhaps not one of the more memorable Hartnell stories, The Savages does feature some rather interesting elements.
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| Certainly Lived Up To It's Title... |
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| What: | Longest Day (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Piers, UK |
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| Date: | Tuesday 28 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I approached this novel with some trepidation after reading other poor reviews of it. Now I can certainly see why it has its reputation...
After a prologue that seems reminiscent of the far superior Anachrophobia, the novel falls rapidly downhill. It's certainly nothing new that the Doctor and his companion get separated, but in this case you really wish they hadn't. Sam's adventure is so mind numbingly dull you wish you could fast forward it. The rebels she falls in with are so cliched; it is very hard to care about them, or even remember who is who. The Doctor's story is slightly more interesting, and his pairing up with the prissy Anstaar is probably the highlight of the book. It's a shame that she get's written out at the end, it would have made sense to keep her until the Doctor finds Sam again. There's also no real resolution to her storyline: the Doctor promises to help heal her after she rapidly ages, but she seems to leave him without her youth restored. The one problem with the Doctor storyline was the appearance of Nashaad. It was implied we should know who he was, but I had no recollection of him from earlier in the book. Was this a case of bad editing? Either way, the character was just as pointless as many others in the book.
Two other aspects really let down this novel: the planet Hirath, and the Kusks. The former makes little sense. The planet is split into different time zones. Fair enough. But how is this possible? Planets move in their orbits around the sun, therefore each piece of the planet should be located in different places within that orbit if they are temporally separated. Hirath should not be able to exist intact. Perhaps I am reading too much into this...! As for the Kusks, they really scrape the bottom of the barrel when it comes to alien villans. Their physical appearance is terribly cliched, and as for the skirts... Collier may have been aiming for Giger, but he ended up with villians from a Butlins panto.
My final gripe is the violence. There is so much of it that it becomes unrelenting in some places. And what happened to the leader of the moonbase has to be one of the most gratuitously sick things I have ever read in a Who novel. If the violence helps the story, OK, but in that instance I failed to see what the point of it was other than to terrify Vasid (who then gets killed anyway).
This book is only useful in setting up the subsequent story arc. If you know what that is (i.e. the Doctor has to find Sam), then there is little here of interest. One to avoid unless you are a completist.
| What: | Immortal Beloved (Eighth Doctor Adventures audios) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 27 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Immortal Beloved goes where many have gone before. The idea of switching bodies, the ethical questions that come with that, as the consciousness of the previous occupant is snuffed out, and the renewal of bodily vitality, are familiar concepts. Immortal Beloved throws a conjecture on human cloning into the mix. This is another exploration of identity, a search for the soul, and a questioning of traditional ways. While there's a lot of familiar territory here, there is also uncertainty about just how it will all come out in the end. That suspense, along with fine performances from all of the actors, makes for an entertaining 50-minute story.
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| Ambitious and Imaginative |
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Production of The Ark was a somewhat ambitious undertaking in its day. The setting the TARDIS arrives in is a huge spaceship that includes a large wild animal habitat and living areas for the last humans from Earth, who are leaving because the time has come (some millions of years in our future) for the death of the planet. They have with them the one-eyed alien Monoids, who are their servants. The slightly creepy, mop-headed Monoids are very intriguingly designed, with their single eye where a human's mouth would be, animated by the actor's tongue, apparently. They're rather fascinating to look at. The action all takes place beneath the vast dome of the ship, a nicely achieved effect.
The story is divided into two parts, the first two episodes having to do with a deadly outbreak of disease created by the introduction of Dodo's foreign cold virus, against which these people of the future have no resistance, and episodes three and four take place 700 years into the future, as the ship nears the end of its journey to the planet the humans and Monoids will be colonizing. The ability of the TARDIS to locate the ship again in a different part of space, at that particular point in the future, is rather interesting, as at this point, the Doctor still has no control over where his ship goes. When they arrive, they see that the colonists' giant statue has been completed. The plan was for it to be a statue of a human, but it now has the head of a Monoid, making for a fairly impressive cliffhanger for the end of episode 2. The visual effect of the completed statue is, again, an ambitious element for that period, nicely done. Other visual effects, such as the scenes in space and the Refusians' invisibility, were also nicely done, considering when this story was produced.
In some ways, The Ark deserves a very high rating, but points come off for some occasional sloppy work with the sets and costumes, and for some dumb script elements. At one point, the dome ceiling of the spaceship is seen billowing a bit in a breeze, and on a couple of occasions, we see the zipper on the back of a Monoid costume. These troubles could've been avoided with a just a little more care. As for the script, both the future humans and the Monoids are written to be pretty stupid at times, and that rankles a bit, considering that at least the humans should be a pretty intelligent bunch, if they have the ability to make such a journey across space.
But overall, this was an innovative story, nicely executed, and one that still holds up fairly well, over 30 years later.
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| Sleepy, Slow-Moving Historical |
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| What: | The Massacre (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Sunday 26 August 2007 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
Some Spoilers Ahead
The Massacre starts out rather nicely, as the Doctor and Steven arrive in sixteenth-century Paris and decide to try to blend in with the populace and enjoy themselves. Having some knowledge of this period of France's history, the Doctor decides to seek out the famous apothecary, Charles Preslin, while Steven remains in a pub on his own.
When the Doctor doesn't return on time, Steven is forced to find a place to stay. This leads to him becoming entangled with political troubles between the Catholics and the Hugenots. The Doctor has disappeared, but Steven finds that the Abbot of Amboise, who is residing in the city, looks just like the Doctor. But is he the Doctor, or is he just his double?
After a nice first episode, The Massacre drags considerably through episodes two and three. In some respects, it's a nice period piece. It is largely character-driven, consisting mostly of dialogue, with little action, and very little incidental music. But it could've been better at three episodes rather than four. When Steven and the Doctor are finally reunited in episode four, they make a hasty exit when the Doctor realizes that they are on the brink of The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve. In the process, the Doctor sends a girl, Anne Chaplet, that Steven has gotten to know, off to a very uncertain fate. Steven believes that she died in the massacre, and that they could've saved her by taking her with them. As a result, he is determined to leave the TARDIS at their next stop, and does so, briefly. While the doors are open, the Doctor has a very interesting scene in which he soliloquizes on the fact that all of his traveling companions have left him, even his dear Susan. He considers the possibility of returning to his home planet, but states that he mustn't do that. Then, Dodo comes running into the TARDIS, looking for a police telephone to report an accident and call for help. Steven runs back in as well, telling the Doctor that he must take off because policemen are heading for the TARDIS. Dodo remains in the TARDIS, stating that no one would care if she went missing. The scene is quite odd, and is the most improbable introduction of a new companion in the show's history, in my opinion.
And so, while The Massacre has some nice moments and is well-acted by the cast, I really fail to understand how it merits a rating of 8.9 after 42 votes (the stats at present). And since it appears that no video footage of this story has survived, it seems that I'm not alone in this assessment...
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| Interesting. Groundbreaking. |
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Having had access to not only the audio portion of The Power of the Daleks but also the telesnaps and some bits of recovered video footage, I can say that this story is very impressive and a very unfortunate loss, since it no longer exists in video format.
As Patrick Troughton steps in here as the Second Doctor, the transition is fascinating. Traveling companions Ben and Polly are not sure that this is the Doctor, and his initial behavior is quite an odd change from what had become the familiar personality of the First Doctor. Troughton's first few scenes are rather shocking in this respect, but once the story set on the planet Vulcan begins in earnest, he hits the ground running, so to speak, and smoothly establishes the new character with impressive authority.
The sound effects and incidental music here create a very atmospheric feel that lends the entire production a sense of quality and importance. In other words, The Power of the Daleks was rather nicely produced. Once we get into the actual Dalek story, we have an interesting situation, in which a crashed Dalek capsule has been discovered and one of the Daleks is being reactivated. Since at this point, Daleks are still dependent on static electricity for power, the Dalek is inert unless it is fed power by the scientists studying it. The newly "renewed" Doctor comes along, posing as an Examiner, after lifting the real Examiner's credentials off of his corpse outside. The Examiner had been murdered in the course of an unfolding political coup taking place on the planet. This strange action by the Doctor was part of the general strangeness and often silent mysteriousness of his post-regenerative state, and so adds to the rather unusual feel of the story.
As the story progresses, the Dalek has persuaded key people that the Daleks will serve the humans, so they are given increasing power and resources, with which they secretly reproduce themselves, and we actually see a small Dalek production plant in operation, which is quite interesting. Another scene with interesting visual effects is the scene in which the Doctor is ultimately able to deal with the Daleks, which sadly is almost entirely lost. A bit long at six episodes, the story actually doesn't feel all that long, and works fairly well at that length.
The Power of the Daleks clearly set the program in a new direction, nearly recreating it, and taking a huge risk in the process. I think the production team pulled it off beautifully.
the best book I have read because of it's good description . I have got the clockwise man , I can't wait to read it I hope it is as good as this
great read good story with interesting plot
