Each of the previous events had focussed on a particular element of Doctor Who spinoff media – Vworp Vworp!/Vworp 1 focussed on Doctor Who Magazine and comic strips, while NovelCon looked at  the Virgin and BBC novels.

This time, rather than head down the obvious route and look at Doctor Who audios, mastermind Gareth Kavanagh opted to mix things up and invite an interesting selection of guests to discuss their “favourite things” about their involvement with Doctor Who.

The schedule for the day looked a bit like this:

9:30am Doors open
10am Dez Skinn (with Gareth Kavanagh)
11am Rob Shearman (with Christian Cawley)
12pm Sophie Aldred (with Charlie Ross)
1pm Lunch
2pm Terrance Dicks (with John Cooper)
3pm Chris Achilleos (with Ade Salmon)
4pm Andrew Cartmel (with Gareth Kavanagh)
5pm Teabreak
5:30pm Graeme Harper

With some minor chopping around, that’s pretty much how the day proceeded; Doctor Who stars and creators chatting with video clips or stills about their involvement with the show. All this of course was interspersed with the smashing hospitality afforded at The Lass, with a great menu available through most of the day.

This Malcolm Hulke created “villain” was not so much a villain at all – at least that was the point of the story. They were in 1970, and again in 2010 shown to be a proud, intelligent race won just happened to be residents of planet Earth, along with man. The drama of both these stories was based around the fact that both races felt the planet was theirs, and wasn’t particularly thrilled at sharing. A big deal with the Silurians is their NOT being a random angry enemy – at least not all of them, anyway. That’s what made their appearance in 1984′s Warriors of the Deep not nearly as good for me, as it was mostly rampaging in that story. 2010′s version is a mix as there’s some rampaging (by just a few) and the regal intelligence.

Anyway, back to 1970. This story was indicative of its era (as is its mostly bad incidental music). Stories were generally longer and more stretched out during this time. The original Silurians story ran 7 episodes (the modern equivalent of 3.5 episodes). I always felt this was too long, and my feelings on this haven’t changed a whole lot watching this now 40 year old story for this review. Its not just the fact that the story is 7 episodes, because Inferno from the same season is also 7 episodes, and that is better paced. Thing is Inferno has an alternate universe to play around with for a couple of episodes; The Silurians does not, and I think suffers a lot early on because of that.

I felt huge bits of this could have been cut out. This is borne out in most of the fact that Episode 1 is mostly the Doctor and UNIT standing around in offices and whatnot. It almost reminds me of Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation being in the middle of a battle, and calling for a conference room meeting. It’s not all that really, but it does start out slow, and I think the first three episodes could have been done in one. Here’s an example of that from the first few episodes.

Most of Episodes 2 and 3 feature more posturing between UNIT and the people at the base, with one not wanting to give way to the other more or less. There’s a few trips into the caves (actually a lot over the run of all seven episodes), and down there is some bad CSO effects, although it probably was a big deal in 1970. Speaking of effects, there’s some nice camera work in Episodes 2 and 3 which is meant to be the point of view of a Silurian. One rogue Silurian is going around on the surface attacking people (one of which is companion Liz Shaw in an episode cliffhanger) – some of this footage turned up in the confidential episode for the 2010 Silurian stories.

By the third epiode, everyone is still running around trying to figure out what’s going on. The modern series would have sorted this out 10 minutes into the first episode, yet we’re still looking for the one rogue Silurian on the surface midway through the third. The two series have major differences in pacing, and this story REALLY shows it. We don’t actually see a proper Silurian in full until 22:25 of Episode 3, that episode#s cliffhanger.

Episode 4 is when the meat of the story starts. The Doctor’s immediate reaction is to offer the hand of friendship, while the humans do little but talk - pretty much this is the path for the rest of the story. It’s the contrast between the Doctor wanting to explore things with a calm head and the Brigadier wanting to blunder in the military way. The Doctor eventually makes contact with the Silurians, and we discover there are the kind there that have the mindset of the Brigadier that want to attack the humans, much like the character of Restac in the 2010 Silurian stories. There is a lot of back and forth with the Silurians and UNIT and the humans in the facility about what to do. A lot of posturing and all that kind of bluster we’ve seen in many stories. But this diminishes the story, because while I’m not a fan of the slow paces first three episodes, episodes 4 through 7 are much better paced, a lot of the time is spent trying to diffuse a disease released into the world by the Silurians; or at least some of them. This actually was my favorite bit from the whole story. This isn’t so much an issue with the revived series, but the classic series talked several times about worldwide situations, and how things can be bad around the world. But other than getting reports via phone through the Brigadier, we rarely saw things like that. This story showed some of that, and I liked it. When Masters got to London, we saw him in the ticket booth, saw people being affected, I enjoyed that scale. I felt it far more conveyed the problem than just hearing the Brig or Liz talking to someone on the phone about it. The virus/cure plotline stuck through a few episodes, and I thought it helped push the last four episodes quite well.

If you’re reading this on kasterborous, it’s highly likely you’ve seen this story before, and as such know the ending. Still, I won’t blow it, as it’s one of the better endings of not only a Pertwee story, but a Doctor Who story period. Most of them just end, but this one ends on an emotional kick that’s exceptionally good. The only better moment in Pertwee’s era for me is the last few minutes of The Green Death when the Doctor bids farewell to Jo Grant.

Future stuff: Not counting the Silurians themselves, there’s a couple of actors here who appeared in other episodes.

1. Paul Darrow – He is most famous for Blake’s 7‘s “Avon”. He appeared again in Doctor Who as “Tekker” in the Colin Baker story, Timelash (please don’t make me review that one any time soon, Christian!).
2. Geoffrey Palmer – He played Masters, the guy who takes the virus back to England. He’s also been in Doctor Who two other times. First as The Administrator in 1972′s The Mutants, and again in 2008 as Hardaker, the captain of the Titanic in Voyage of the Damned.

Here’s a few shots of them in their various appearances:

The Silurians themselves have gone through an overhaul. The original 1970′s version (for obvious reasons) seriously looks like a man in a rubber suit. I suspect that’s partially why they’re not often shown to be in bright light or fully visible. Here’s a look at the three times the Silurians have appeared in the show:

Aside from the long standing joke used in show dialogue about “The Doctor? Doctor Who?”, this is of of the rare times the phrase “Doctor Who” is used. This time in the title. Officially, this story is titled Doctor Who and the Silurians, and not just The Silurians. The other times this is used is in the credits for many years where the Doctor was called “Doctor Who”, and also in the Hartnell story The War Machines, where the Doctor is erroneously called “Doctor Who” by name in the show.

One other oddity here. The Doctor refers to his own age thusly, “You know, I’m beginning to lose confidence for the first time in my life — and that covers several thousand years.” This of course contradicts several other age markers in the series. He said he was about 400-450 years in the Troughton serial, Tomb of the Cybermen. The fourth Doctor said he was 749 years old in Brain of Morbius. The Sixth Doctor said he was a “900 year old Time Lord”, and finally in the classic series, The Seventh Doctor said on screen that his age was 953. He also said it was the same age as the Rani. Anyway, when the show returned in 2005, the Ninth Doctor said he was 903 years old in The Empty Child, and the Doctor’s age has more or less kept up with real world time since then. It’s one of the harder things to reconcile, as it’s so contradictory.

In summary, I liked the Silurians, but only half of it. I felt the slow pace early on hampered things, and might tune people out who prefer a speedier pace of story. Still, once you get past that, it’s pretty good story from about Episode 4 onwards. I’ll probably hear it from people who like slower pace stories, and I generally do too, but I think it’s too slow early on here.

Overall Story Information:

Story Title: Doctor Who & The Silurians
Production Code: BBB
Writer: Malcolm Hulke
Director: Timothy Combe
Script Editor: Terrance Dicks
Length: 7 episodes (25 minutes)

Jon Pertwee – The Doctor
Caroline John – Liz Shaw
Nicholas Courtney – Briadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Specific Episode Information:

• Episode 1: Broadcast Jan 31, 1970. Viewership: 8.8 Million
• Episode 2: Broadcast Feb 7, 1970. Viewership: 7.3 Million
• Episode 3: Broadcast Feb 14, 1970. Viewership: 7.5 Million
• Episode 4: Broadcast Feb 21, 1970. Viewership: 8.2 Million
• Episode 5: Broadcast Feb 28, 1970. Viewership: 7.5 Million
• Episode 6: Broadcast Mar 7, 1970. Viewership: 7.5 Million
• Episode 7: Broadcast Mar 14, 1970. Viewership: 7.5 Million

External Links of Note:

• BBC Doctor Who Site
• Wikipedia Page
• Tardis Index File

Ordering this story:

Doctor Who and the Silurians was released on DVD in 2008, and is available for purchase a couple of ways. You can either buy it individually, or as part of a larger set entitled Beneath the Surface, which also includes The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. The individual release of The Silurians appears to only be a US release, however. Finally there is a BBC dramatization which can be purchased as an audiobook download. Here are some links for all this:

• The Silurians (US)
• Beneath the Surface Set (US)
• Beneath the Surface Set (UK)
• Dramatized BBC Audio (US)

Not that the plot of this episode is anything more than a framework to drape the central concept around, but that becomes forgivable when said concept is such a corker. Like Amy’s Choice, a simple premise – the Doctor lodging in a house which, essentially, eats people – fares much better than this series’ attempts at large scale stories, whilst also avoiding the pitfalls of the two-wildly-different-stories-smashed-together approach, as modelled by Richard Curtis’ preceding Vincent and the Doctor. Personally, I haven’t read the comic this story is based on, but with such a delicious ‘why hasn’t anyone done that before?’ idea, it isn’t at all surprising that it’s the latest story from the spin-off media to make it onto the small screen.

In common with Simon Nye’s episode, there’s a sense of this story making good on this season’s promise, the bold-but-twisty, storybook-tinged style premiered in The Eleventh Hour. (So much so that it felt credible that Prisoner Zero could be making a return appearance. Albeit sans dog.) There are certainly shades of that story in the Aickman Road house and its creepy upstairs neighbours.
 
Outside of Moffat’s own episodes, relatively little of season fnarg has lived up to the fresh stylistic approach of its earliest episodes, mainly inhabiting a more generic version of the Doctor’s universe, but, despite being set in unremarkable environs, The Lodger’s Colchester does feel something of a spiritual cousin to Leadworth. It’s surprising for a somewhat unassuming story – which it might be assumed would be filed alongside other equally low-key suburban stories like Love & Monsters and Fear Her - would be one to realign the season with the Moffat house-style most successfully. Not that it doesn’t have similarities with those season two stories, most notably the former – though James Corden, despite apparently doing his best to become an eminent hateable nonentity in real life, brings a shade more realism to the borderline-useless everyman catapulted into the Doctor’s life which both stories share.

Roberts’ effort also wins out over those episodes’ Barratt Homes soullessness by acknowledging that perhaps there should, or at least could be more to life than pizza-booze-telly. While it is perhaps unappealing for every single guest character the Doctor meets to come away with an epiphanous new outlook on life, the resolution of Craig’s unrequited love is certainly preferable to the equivalent woman in Marc Warren’s life being transformed into what I think Lawrence Miles memorably described as a ‘concrete fellatio machine’.

It’s easy to forget how relatively short a period it has been since Doctor Who returned to television, and despite those four and a bit years peppered with Russell T Davies’ trademark ‘realist’ settings, it’s still quite a surprise to see the Doctor placed in such a rigorously ordinary environment. Human Nature aside, we’ve never seen the Doctor so fully immersed in day to day life (in 47 years, this is, what, the third time we’ve seen him have a bath or shower? And I’m sure a lot of people will thank Roberts for that). In fact, it seems absurd to imagine (say) the Third Doctor popping round the Brigadier’s pad for cribbage and a Heineken. (Or… whatever.) Obviously, this unexpected culture clash forms the crux of the episode, and it’s perhaps the closest we’ve had to the Doctor as a Starman/Watt on Earth-style alien-baffled-by-everyday-life.

Fortunately, Roberts makes this chestnut funny rather than tedious (“Call me the rotmeister. No, I’m the Doctor, don’t call me the rotmeister”), and doesn’t seem too out of character, despite this season alone (and the new series at large) having already demonstrated his greater knowledge of the minutiae of human life than previously acknowledged (internet porn and Kylie Minogue, anyone?)

There’s a danger, arguably, that Matt Smith’s Doctor is becoming an out and out comic figure in a way perhaps only formerly true of Tom Baker, predominately during season seventeen. For a lot of people that won’t be a bad precedent, but given that the whole series was pitched at a more blatantly comic register it does give rise to the question of how appropriate it is to the ‘dark fairytale’ stylings of the Moffat administration. In fact though, the Doctor’s eccentricity may be exaggerated (the air-kisses…), but Smith is in the enviable position of making it seem perfectly natural, and in fact delivers what may prove to be one of his definitive performances as the character. Also, whereas Fourth Doctor would probably be too aloof and alien for such a domestic arrangement, the Eleventh’s enjoyment of the situation is what brings this rather glorious concept alive.

Already the first outing for the revived series’ second era is coming to an end, and, it has to be said, it’s been a mixed bag. For what it’s worth, on a personal level, the leads and the general timbre of the series – both richer, more whimsical, but also more traditional than the last few years – are a joy, so I’m prepared to overlook the occasional slides into mediocrity. It’s just unfortunate that these have mainly come later in the run, giving the impression of a series that’s lost its footings after a confident and original take at the get-go. The Lodger goes some way to assuage those disappointments though, and as the last one-episode story of the Eleventh Doctor’s opening run, it’s a welcome reminder of the deftness that has been displayed throughout the season, if not consistently.

If an episode like this – and its earlier fellow standout, Amy’s Choice - demonstrate anything (and really, we should know this already), it’s that small-scale stories with a solid, simple concept, small but well-chosen casts, are, frankly, the way to go. (Especially given the visible strain budget cuts have apparently placed on some of the grander FX requirements of this series – by contrast, the pseudo-TARDIS upstairs look a quite magnificent set).

Gareth Roberts has written a deceptively effective episode, and one that may perhaps be easy to dismiss given its frivolity. However, in its effortless blending of equally effective humour and creepiness, in a far more equal balance than, say, Vampires in Venice, The Lodger is in a position to become something of a high benchmark for the Smith era.

More like this for next time, please.

Neil Clarke writes the Doctor Who reviews page ‘Shall We Destroy?’: shallwedestroy.blogspot.com

I am happy to say that Vincent and the Doctor did not let me down. In fact, my expectations were exceeded when they gave us another touching story, subtly referring to Amy’s loss from the last story.

This is a huge testament to the main cast that they can portray a wide range of emotions extremely convincingly. But then you would expect that from leading actors Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, so what’s more impressive is the casting of Tony Curran as Vincent Van Gogh. What a stoke of luck that the Doctor Who production team were able to hire an actor who looked like a dead ringer for Van Gogh and who can act his socks off.

From beginning to end we were taken through all the emotional ranges a human can possess and never once did it seem too much or to be over-reaching. By the end of the story, despite the sad themes and real life end of one of the worlds most impressive impressionists, we – the viewers – walked away with a very uplifting feeling. And again, despite the sadness of the story it was a great contrast to last weeks ending.

Full credit must go to writer Richard Curtis, of whose vast body of work I am not that familiar with outside of Blackadder. But just like Steven Moffat before him, his Doctor Who work proved to me that a good writer is a good writer. Pitching a Doctor Who story of an impressionist painter with depression and actually making it all the way to filming on that idea shows true conviction by the artist and his work. Which parallels nicely with Vincent Van Gogh. He knew his pieces were worthy; otherwise he would not have continued painting and trying to sell them.

Vincent and the Doctor‘s location filming added a visual richness to the overall look, which coupled with the perfect (minimal) use of CGI made me forget about the oft-discussed BBC budget cuts. Croatia certainly is a beautiful and versatile place.

What’s interesting still, as if you can cram more interesting into this weeks episode, is the lack of the usual story links that have been building up. Both the Cracks in space and time and the Silence were missing, although the effect of at least one of them was still being felt. Unless there was something that we missed? You won’t have to twist my arm to get me to watch this one again, so I’ll be keeping a close eye for any little hints of things to come myself.

Ten episodes in and with each new episode Matt Smith is showing us more and more why he was the only man for the job. His portrayal of the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor is rapidly moving up the ranks in my favorites list. And for an actor whose name was never even connected with the role until he was announced says a lot. But there was another actor connected to the role for years who makes an unforgettable appearance in this story: Bill Nighy. Playing the Musee d’Orsee Curator, Dr Black, Bill is responsible for one of the story’s most moving scenes. At the beginning I honestly felt that they had wasted his talents with what I thought was nothing more than a funny cameo, but then in the end his role became just as important as the episodes other three main players.

In the end, what we were given in Vincent and the Doctor was not just another adventure in the lives of the Doctor and his faithful companion, but an awareness of a real life struggle for many in the world today, yesterday and sadly tomorrow as well. We were shown how depression can affect not only the people suffering from it, but also how it can affect the people around them – the people who love them.

Most of all, Doctor Who this week showed us that no matter how hard we may try to help someone in need, sometimes the battle to get better just can’t be won. And that no matter how much we may blame ourselves for not doing enough or not being there, that at the end of the day we did what we could and so long as we never stopped trying, we have made a difference in their lives.

TV with a message for making the world a better place, that’s what I like to see.

First let’s talk about what it’s not. It’s not a huge sandbox of a game. It’s small and the plot runs on rails. There are puzzles but it’s not a classic puzzler. It’s not a First Person Shooter, though some of the sneaking will be familiar to FPS fans. It’s not a platformer as you can’t fall off stuff but some of the three dimensional puzzle solving is similar. It’s is very much it’s own thing and what it mostly resembles is an episode of Doctor Who.

And it would make a pretty good episode of Doctor Who. It starts very well. There is some lovely dialogue between Amy and the Doctor in the TARDIS leading up to that great staple of Classic Who: stepping out of the TARDIS to find that they are definitely not where they expected to be. This moment is then topped by wonderful “Ooh crap!” moment that I wont spoil for you and into the opening titles. The actual plot is simple but engaging. The Daleks are messing with the fundamental nature of time in a way that makes the Doctor very cross and threatens the continuing existence of the Universe. It’s up to the Doctor and Amy Pond to stop them and this is where the player comes in.

The basic mechanic of the game is a like a simplified FPS crossed with a point and click adventure. You explore your 3D environment by moving the Doctor and/or Amy around using the mouse or the cursor keys. You interact with your environment by right clicking whenever something glows. If you get stuck you can talk to Amy or hit the Esc key to pause and be reminded of your current objective. You can pick things up and combine them with other objects in your environment and the Doctor always carries his Sonic Screwdriver.

Some objects simply move the Doctor and the plot along but some trigger much more complicated interactions. This is the puzzle element of the game. I play a lot of puzzle games and I was expecting the puzzle element to be one of the weaker areas. After all many of the gamers will be young or inexperienced. The puzzles were fairly well integrated and well explained. At no point did I find myself unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. However these puzzles are not easy. The first puzzle, re-wiring a an electrical panel, took me a good 20 minutes on my own. When I re-played it with my son he easily understood how the puzzle should work but found it very hard to crack. If he had been playing alone he might have given up.

But not everything that you can interact with has anything to do with the plot. This is Doctor Who after all. It’s not just thrilling science fiction it’s educational. Some objects don’t help advance the plot but instead trigger facts. You can learn about history, science and classic Doctor Who. There are also ‘collectables’ – virtual cards featuring previous Doctors, enemies, friends, and companions.

Let’s get technical. Will it run on your system? Actually it probably will unless you are using a netbook. The download page has its own system checker which seems to be fairly reliable. I first tried the game on my netbook and although the netbook exceeded the minimum specs the game didn’t so much run on it as crawl. Next I tried my old laptop which passed the system check easily (much to my surprise as it’s practically steam powered). The game ran surprisingly well. If you too have an older machine then I would suggest defragging the hard drive after downloading the game and turning off everything that runs in the background.

So you’ve downloaded the game and you’ve got it running. Will you enjoy it? I think so. I certainly did and so did my kids. Even with minimal quality graphics it’s absolutely gorgeous. The sound is stunning and the music perfect. The voice acting is everything you’d expect from the BBC. The animation is good. The game play is exhilarating and infuriating by turns, but mostly in a good way. Perhaps the most impressive thing is the way the whole thing integrates. The puzzles make sense and you care enough about the plot to want to succeed and when you hear that triumphant music it feels great. Even the frustration of being shot by the Daleks again feels kind of good when it stops. Though I think my kids learned a few new words.

I have very few criticisms and it seems churlish to mention those at all when the game is free but here goes. Some of the puzzles are repetitive, too hard for younger gamers and there’s no way to skip them. There’s also no way to skip the cut scenes. Many will feel there is too much sneaking around and not enough running down corridors but some will find that pleasingly reminiscent of Classic Who. It’s really annoying when Amy or the Doctor get hung up on any object more than six inches high but at least they can’t fall off things.

My conclusion? If you have room on your hard drive then download it now. And if you don’t then go and delete something.

For starters, the Silurians (I know, I know, we can have a big debate about what to call them – but I’m way too lazy to keep on typing Homo Reptilia) are back on form. Despite the absence of a third eye, silly voices, and Leslie Ash style trout pout, these are clearly the same reptiles created by the late, great Malcolm Hulke. This story has the exceedingly beautiful lizards sneering at us humans, boasting of their technological superiority, and almost immediately forming factions comprising of ‘kill the apes!’ and ‘learn to live with the apes!’ supporters.

This is all classic stuff, and a suitably respectful nod to Hulke. Crucially, too, we are forced to ask who the real monsters of the piece are – just as the Doctor raged against the Brigadier and UNIT for bombing the Silurian base back in those halcyon days of capes, Bessie and Liz Shaw, so now we have the Doctor shouting “What did you do?” at the blundering ape that is Ambrose. Just where did she find that Tazer anyway? In a mining village populated by one small family? Maybe it was used to stun the Police and ‘scabs’ during the miners’ strike? The point, of course, is for us to question the Doctor’s faith in us. His exhortation to Nasreen and Amy to “be extraordinary” was well made, as it is the all too ordinary behaviour of a threatened human that prevents any real chance of compromise between the two races.

The Silurians’ makeover has been a total success in my view. While I loved the Target novel Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters, I do remember finding it a bit hard to get into the psyche of some bloke in a big old rubber suit in the televised version. That’s the thing about Silurians – they’re not evil, they’re clever, civilised, and they have a right to be here. All of that is what makes them so fascinating, and now we’ve lost that rubber barrier. The make up and costumes are astonishingly well realised for these modern Silurians, and I wholeheartedly applaud all those involved for creating convincing reptilian humanoids whose emoting we can now actually see. Furthermore, we’ve been blessed in this story with some really top notch acting, with all the key Silurians giving plausible, and at times, moving performances. Just try not to be distracted by Kevin the teenager’s dad trying to negotiate for the future of planet earth.

I’d like to end this review on a positive note, so I’ll get my gripes out of the way. Why is the village so devoid of human life? Can you really conduct a hi-tech, groundbreaking (sorry, couldn’t resist!) drilling operation with one bloke reading The Gruffalo? Where did all the surveillance tech and weapons come from in a deserted village? Chris Chibnall continues to have a flagrant disregard for credibility, matching the daft pub quiz security system, and essential buttons being located on the outside of a spaceship in 42.

Much worse though, he has now committed a cardinal sin. He has given all those people who bang on about the sonic screwdriver being a magic wand a whole pile of ammunition. Time is running out, the poison gas is going to be released, the drill is coming closer, and the ‘kill the apes!” Silurians are closing in. Brilliant! Tension, excitement, danger. This is what Doctor Who is all about. And the Doctor whips out his sonic screwdriver and disarms a whole platoon of angry reptiles. Terrible. For all the world, it appears that Chibnall wrote himself into a corner, and just played it the easy way. I’m still in shock that Steven Moffat didn’t tell him to go away and rewrite it. Sigh.

Still, this episode is not without considerable merits. Yet again, I find myself enchanted by Matt’s portrayal of the Doctor. He deals with every situation with flamboyance, style and gravitas. From the cheeky “squeaky bum time!”, to the heartbreaking scene of the Doctor pulling Amy away from the dying Rory, we know exactly where we are with this Doctor. Oh, poor Rory. I loved Rory, and he really hasn’t been around for long enough. I doubt that he’s going to make a Rose/Donna style comeback, but then, you never can tell. So, Arthur Darvill – you were fantastic, Rory may have been erased from time and memory, but your performance certainly hasn’t.

When I was a little kid, I loved the original Star Trek (I was 1 when it started). My favorite stories were ones that showed other parts of the ship, and particularly ones treat took place completely inside the ship. Modern TV calls something like that a “bottle show”; a story that saves money. But for me as a kid, I just wanted to see other bits of the Enterprise. I loved shows like that. So when I got into Doctor Who, I scanned the back catalogue of episodes, and found a distinct lack of that kind of story. One episode in Tom Baker’s era was like this (Episode 6 of Invasion of Time), and just one full story, an old William Hartnell story. That was it. So that was a bit disappointing. But when Hartnell’s stories started airing in the US around 1986 or so, I looked forward to The Edge of Destruction for this reason – it was an “all on the ship” show, which lends to one of this story’s names, Inside the Spaceship (although I prefer the more common The Edge of Destruction).

This story was the third story overall, following directly from the wildly successful original Dalek story. It was designed to explore the characters interactions with each other. The Doctor at this point was a rather cantankerous fellow, even for the First Doctor. It starts off innocently enough with the travelers around the TARDIS console, and for some reason unknown, at the time, they’re knocked unconscious and lay on the floor of the TARDIS, which was kind of an odd start to the episode. As they start to come around, they obviously wonder what happened to them to be knocked unconscious. On top of that, they don’t seem to recognize their current situation, or all of each other. The Doctor is the worst off, with his head being cut in the fall and spending a decent percentage of time of the episode unconscious. Something that seems to happen a lot to Hartnell as his time in the role went on.

The early part of this episode seems to feature Barbara a lot in a mothering role to the other characters. I point this out, as it seemed well, I don’t know. I start to say weird, and then it isn’t, and I start to say “in character”, and it isn’t either. Not entirely sure how I feel about that.

As they come around, strange things start to happen. Susan goes to get a glass of water from some sort of food/drink machine, and is told the machine is empty when it was not. The doors of the TARDIS open and close on their own when people walk towards them. Another was the fault locator saying every single thing was wrong with the TARDIS simultaneously. All of these things are later on shown to be clues towards the final resolution of the story. One of the more notorious bits was Susan trying to attack Ian with a pair of scissors, which she freaks out over and stabs the bed a ton of times. If you watch the extras on the DVD for this story, Verity Lambert admits the scissor stab bits were something that were probably better left out. This goes on until the characters all suspect each other of sabotaging the ship, or being under alien control or just outright mutiny. Even up until the point where the Doctor threatens to put Ian & Barbara off the ship. At which point Barbara loses it, and yells at the Doctor, calling him a “stupid old man”. Other strangeness was Ian trying to strangle the Doctor. This all carries on for awhile – pretty much through most of Episode 2 as well. The crew mistrusts, threatens, and says a bunch of rude things to each other.

One of the better moments in this story is a dialogue by Hartnell towards the end of part two. Hartnell is known for his frequent muffing of his lines. Due to the production values of the time, a lot of these are left in. However, there’s a couple minute speech by the Doctor where he pulls it off well, and is one of the better moments of the Hartnell era in terms of his own acting. Shortly after said speech, the overall plot is resolved, and everything is made well again. I won’t divulge exactly what it was, but look out for some handwritten words on the TARDIS console, which were allegedly there to help Hartnell locate specific spots on the console during filming.

Parts of this story have been used in other stories further down the line – way down the line in the series. The biggest one of which is that the TARDIS itself is seemingly alive – or at least can think for itself. It is eventually revealed that the ship itself was the cause of all the strange happenings to try and hint the crew as to the real reason behind all the strange happenings. This was used later on many times in the show’s future. A specific TARDIS “feature” from this story was that the power of the TARDIS is under the console, something that was used later on in Eccleston’s run a few times. One of these times was in Boom Town where the TARDIS itself manipulates time to turn Margaret into a Slitheen egg. You could also extrapolate this into perhaps the TARDIS turning back time and reviving Grace & Chang Lee from death in the Eighth Doctor movie. There’s also the time in Eccleston’s final episode where Rose looks into the TARDIS console and get the power of time and space inside her, too. The Confidential episode for that story references “The Edge of Destruction” and this concept too as inspirations for these specific plot points.

There’s also some strange contradictions to other established bits of Who lore in this story, however, since it’s just the third overall, and the 12th & 13th overall episodes, that can be forgiven, I suppose. Ian mentions “his heart”, implying that he has just one. I forget where exactly it was established for sure that the Doctor had two hearts – I think it was Pertwee’s first story. Susan also says “the ship can’t crash, it’s impossible”. This has been shown to be false, as it has crashed a few times over the years, most recently in Matt Smith’s debut The Eleventh Hour. This story is also one of only two times that I’m aware of we see a bed in the TARDIS console room. The other time was when Pertwee was knocked unconscious at the end of Frontier in Space going into Planet of the Daleks. Oddly enough, both beds come out of walls – “oooh, so modern looking!”

As I said earlier, this story served to galvanize the TARDIS crew as friends. They were more companions by situation up until this point. After the problems were resolved, there’s a rather nice scene or two at the end where the Doctor makes up with Barbara, and there’s some fun with throwing snowballs and whatnot, which is a direct lead-in to the next story, Marco Polo.

In all, this story is a somewhat overlooked story from what I can gather, but it was important in establishing character relationships, and somewhat unintentionally (I gather) responsible for putting forth a few show concepts that are still in use now in 2010. When I reach for an early series DVD or whatnot, this isn’t the first one chosen, but there are some great points here to see. Give The Edge of Destruction (or Inside the Spaceship, or whatever you want to call it) a shot. You might enjoy this long ago small scale bottle story as much as I did.

Overall Story Information:

Story Title: The Edge of Destruction (aka Inside the Spaceship & Beyond the Sun)
Production Code: C
Writer: David Whitaker
Script Editor: David Whitaker
Length: 2 episodes

William Hartnell – The Doctor
Carole Ann Ford – Susan Foreman
Jacqueline Hill – Barbara Wright
William Russell – Ian Chesterton

Specific Episode Information:

Episode 1: “The Edge of Destruction”

Broadcast Date: Feb 8, 1964
Director: Richard Martin

Episode 2: “The Edge of Destruction”

Broadcast Date: Feb 15, 1964
Director: Frank Cox

External Links of Note for the Edge of Destruction:

• BBC Dr Who Site
• Wikipedia Page
• Tardis Index File

Ordering this Story:

The Edge of Destruction was released as part of a box set entitled “The Beginning”, which also includes An Unearthly Child, The Daleks, and a reconstruction of Marco Polo. You can buy this box set online at the following links:

• Amazon.com (US)
• Amazon.co.uk (UK)

Video:

NOTE: The BBC has legally allowed the two episodes of this story to be placed on Youtube for full and free viewing. The links to the two episodes are below:

• Episode 1: “The Edge of Destruction“
• Episode 2: “The Brink of Disaster“

Gosh, that was jolly good. I’d been looking forward to this story for ages, ever since I caught my first glimpse in the series preview trailer of what I thought at the time would be a Sea Devil – a scene which will be in next week’s closing part of this two-part story with the female Silurian holding a gun with a design very similar to those lamp-like weapons used by their sea-faring cousins.

I wasn’t disappointed with the execution of The Hungry Earth, either. Chris Chibnall’s story was quintessential Doctor Who at its best that could have featured the third or fourth Doctor quite easily. A remote village where strange things start happening and The Doctor and companions wander in, being split up early on putting the glamorous girl into immediate peril with an indistinct monstrous threat looming over her while she is held captive. Meanwhile, The Doctor and second-fiddle male companion run around shouting a lot. Classic stuff!

The sense of menace builds early in the story with a mysterious sink hole that appears out of nowhere and proceeds to swallow the night watchman. The Doctor and crew gleefully exit the TARDIS to what The Doctor declares is Rio…but turns out to be a village near to a “mining thing” as The Doctor calls it. “I do like a mining thing,” he says and proceeds to head off in the direction of the drilling facility. Amy smiles and Rory frowns as The Doctor bounds off down the hill like an excited schoolboy. Rory gets conveniently left behind and is soon mistaken for a policeman with his “portable crime lab” by the son of the doomed watchman from the pre-credits sequence. Rory is obviously an intelligent and insightful chap so he could have played along with the policeman role a bit more convincingly than he did. I place the fault for this in the scriptwriter’s hands, not Arthur Darvill who does a splendid job playing the fish-out-of-water Rory.

I am wondering at this point in the season if Rory should now be considered a fully-fledged companion. He has, after all, fulfilled all of my selection criteria – travelled willingly with the Doctor on multiple adventures via TARDIS. What more do you have to do to be considered a companion? Apart from wear short skirts and pose in glossy magazines, that is? On the other hand, he may not be entirely willing as he just seems to be following Amy around to keep an eye on her and to regularly put the Doctor in his place. He does this quite well in this episode and several before it, constantly reminding The Doctor of the dangers he ends up putting his “friends” in.

Meanwhile, at the “mining thing” the Doctor and Amy break in and soon find themselves under attack from the ground beneath their feet! The drilling has awoken something and it’s fighting back. There are obvious comparisons here to classic series stories like Frontios (with the ground “eating” people) and Inferno (with its drilling project) but I believe that this story has the legs to stand on its own and beat off those comparisons. The pacing seems just right with the slow build punctuated by moments of frantic activity as the assembled crew find themselves trapped in the village surround by a force shield. A nice touch to have the light blocked out to induce a night-terror feel to the proceedings as the threat reaches them on the surface. When Tony gets stung by the Silurian tongue and later reveals a maze of green lines on his shoulder, I can’t help but think of another classic Pertwee story – The Green Death – also set in Wales featuring a mine. More touchpoints to Doctor Who’s DNA. We’re really being spoiled this year!

Meera Syal puts in a delightful performance as Nasreen Chaudhry, the boss of the drilling project. You can quite clearly see how much fun she was having making this show, and the fanboy inside me started wondering what she would be like as an official companion… Much in the Donna style with the playful banter between friends rather than the love-sick puppy of recent nu-Who companions. Loved the moment when she twanged The Doctor’s braces whilst picking themselves up off the floor of the TARDIS.

This new-look Silurian design is beautifully crafted and a big improvement on the static faces of yesteryear. Although, some prosthetic teeth would have been nice to hide Neve McIntosh’s pearly-whites. I’ve read comments on the forum here about this Silurian’s xenophobia being out of place… It does jar a bit if you think of the Silurians as an advanced race, but then I figured that she was part of the warrior caste that was awoken to deal with the threat to their existence from the drilling. Her purpose as a warrior was to deal with this threat… besides, I think this is a ploy in order to goad the bereaved Ambrose into killing her to provoke a war.

Matt Smith’s Doctor continues to enthrall me with his every gesture and word. I am not blinded to his flaws (not his fault he’s so young… damn his youth and good looks!) but he has taken on the biggest role in British TV drama and made it his own in a very short time. It’s his physicality that makes him so alien – “the drunken giraffe,” as Steven Moffat calls him.

Amy didn’t really have much to do in this episode apart from get herself swallowed by the ground and provide Rory with another chance to berate The Doctor. I’m still not convinced by her relationship with Rory, though. Is it just me, or does it seem like Amy has “settled” for Rory? A case of “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” I hope this is a deliberate plot device and not a result of a lack of onscreen chemistry between Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan.

The reveal of the Silurian city at the end was quit e a muted ending compared with the glorious cliffhanger from the previous two-parter, but it was a wonder to behold an entire civilization underground. Actually, I think “understated” is a better description rather than “muted”, to emphasise the full extent of what lies ahead and let it sink in.

The set design of the Silurian city as seen in the Next Time trailer looks glorious. Who says that the budget was cut this year? If this is what they can do with less money then that just shows what a talented bunch we have behind the camera!

I do love a good episode of Doctor Who. Which is sad because this week this is not what I got. Or did I? One episode really great, the other, really poor. Did I dream one? But if I did, which one was real?

Let’s start with the facts then. In one reality I was sitting on the sofa, glued there by 45 minutes of brilliant drama and science fiction, while in the other I was in High School watching a mediocre story with about 700 of my peers while I was in my underwear. So hard to tell which one was reality…

Well, forget that for now, let’s talk about one of them, I don’t know we’ll choose one at random and see what happens.

Amy, Pregnant. Rory with the worlds worst pony tail. And the Doctor with more realities than he knows what to do with. Let’s start with the simple details, Amy’s pregnancy. Very nice effect by the productions team. Somehow adding on that baby pouch made the rest of her look pregnant as well. She even seemed to have a bit of extra weight in the face. Which you don’t often get in pregnancy stories. Karen looked great though, not huge or anything, it worked very well. Not like Rory’s pony tail. But we don’t need to go on about that.

Do we?

Really though, it was bad, right?

Next, scary village with scary people. Love it. Some of the best classic stories took place in scary villages. Never mind those big cities, scary little villages hold lots of dark secrets. But then so does the TARDIS doesn’t it? Such a complex machine, such and impressive machine, and yet something so small can make something so dangerous happen.

It’s been a long time since we had that much of a story take place inside the TARDIS and while it would get boring if done too often, it certainly was anything but in this case. It helps that the 3 principles in the story are such fun to watch. Sure Rory is a bit of the typical bumbling boyfriend that we have come to expect in the show, but Arthur Darvill is giving that typical character just enough of a twist to make him not only likeable but also realistic. He is a fish out of water. All he wants in life is the girl of his dreams and in order to get her he has to step out of his comfort zone and survive. Who hasn’t been in this situation before? Okay fine, we’ve never been in a time machine or to other planets, but we many of us have had to stand in someone else’s shadow. It’s not an easy place to be and it sometimes is very humiliating. Arthur understands this and it is very refreshing to see such a character come to life rather than perform the basic needs of the situation.

Moving on to the guest star of the week, we have Toby Jones as The Dream Lord. Had a look at his CV and I am embarrassed to say that the only thing I know him from is his voice work on the Harry Potter films. Such a shame to be able to say that, as he is clearly a talented actor. Anyone who can make you simultaneously hate and like them really has the talent it takes to do great things in this business. The Dream Lord was never over the top and never underplayed. If anything Toby left me wanting more. Which has all the hallmarks of a good returning villain. Something Doctor Who needs more of these days.

But all the credit can’t go to one man can it? Someone else was pulling the strings of the man pulling the strings this week. Writer Simon Nye successfully navigated his way through a 45 minute script without the story feeling rushed at all in either starting or ending. Ordinarily I’d say 45 minutes is too short for a good story, but this one in hit the mark all the way through. The humor was light, which was perfect the story being told and scares made you want to back away from them just as much as the characters did. But the real gem was the character relations. From Rory’s dedication to his one true love, to Amy’s realization of hers, to the Doctor’s caring for any and all life but most of all his friends, the scenes felt real. They made you feel for each and every one of them.

Credit where credit is due again. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were all picked for a reason and if you haven’t seen why by now, then look no further than Amy’s Choice. This is Doctor Who at it’s best. This is why this show has survived the test of time.

Now then, I think I know which reality was my dream and which wasn’t. But if this is it, then why can’t I find my pants?

Following a classic story such as City Of Death would have been a hard task for any writer, but David Fisher did a sterling job by presenting The Creature from the Pit, a traditional Doctor Who tale that brought the show back to its traditional roots. Time has been kind to parts of it, but some moments will have fans shuddering. More of those later, first, here’s what this one is all about:

The Doctor and Romana receive a distress signal and arrive on Chloris, a lush and verdant world that has only small quantities of metals, al lof which are controlled by its ruler, Lady Adrasta. Without metal to make the tools needed to keep the jungle under control, the plant life dominates. Lady Adrasta controls the planet’s very last metal mine, holding on to power through the Huntsmen and the Wolfweeds. After making a forced landing on Chloris, the Doctor, Romana and K9 soon find themselves caught up in dangerous events…The Doctor is captured by the power-hungry Lady Adrasta, who needs his scientific skills. Meanwhile Romana is taken prisoner by rebel bandits, looking for ways of getting their hands on Adrasta’s wealth. Plus K9 is made of metal – a valuable commodity indeed.

This was the last Doctor Who story to be directed by the legendary Christopher Barry and he pulls out all the stops to deliver top drawer Doctor Who. And he almost does which is surprising considering the era in which he found himself. Remember this was 1979 and the sea of change was coming and possibly the cast and crew could feel it. But let’s not dwell on that. David Brierley is the voice of K9 here which doesn’t spoil the feel of this almost legendary team-up, Lalla is quite wonderful being all smart yet not big-headed whilst Tom, though losing his edge, still produces some wonderful moments of alien type bizarreness.

Talking of aliens, the much talked about Erato is here in all its synthetic glory. I won’t lower the tone here but this beast is huge, a mighty erection you could say (sorry, couldn’t resist it) but considering the budget restraints of the Visual Effects Department and the way they’ve taken criticism on the chin about it viewers should overlook this creation.

The supporting cast, which includes the cult favourite Geoffrey Bayldon as Organon, throw themselves at the script and the aforementioned Baker reigns in his character enough without bombarding the viewer with the absurd tone he would take for his last few stories. The filmed sequences look really good with the studio segments standing up to inspection. Set design on the show was never stronger than it was here.

Extras

Commentary – Lalla Ward, Myra Francis, director Christopher Barry and visual effects designer Mat Irvine are all onboard to give their honest opinion of this adventure. Lalla in particular is on fine form, only ever criticising herself and bigging up all others involved. She even has time to praise the title sequence, well, who can blame her? If Tom had been on board I’m sure it would have been riotous, anyone who saw the VHS release of The Tom Baker years and his reflections on this story will know what I mean.

Christopher Barry: Director – One of the shows most charming production team, Barry helped bring some of the best Doctor Who serials to screen including The Deamons, Robot and The Brain Of Morbius. This all too short on camera interview is a charming piece which should have lasted for hours. More from and about this great man, please!

Team Erato – Members of the BBC Effects Team recount the difficulties encountered trying to realise the creature for this story. From the rather obtuse description found in the original script its amazing that they actually came up with anything but they most certainly did and under the guidance of Mat Irvine created a rather infamous monster. A nice extra that gives you a different point of view of Doctor Who production especially when the team were criticised and ridiculed, even though they were working with low budget.

Animal Magic – Taken from the classic TV show Animal Magic, this small segment has Tom Baker talking on the set of Creature From The Pit, directly to camera about the various beasts he’d encountered as the Doctor. Fun and eccentric this sums up Tom’s professionalism when it came to staying in character for us kids.

Photo Gallery – Never my favourite extra, this is nearly five minutes of shots from the production of the serial. Well researched and with added sound effects it will only appeal to hardcore fans.

Extended Scene – A slightly longer take from the serial. Doesn’t really add to the story but things like these are always nice inclusions.

Info Text – Ah yes, a Doctor Who DVD would be lost without this and it never fails to impress.

PDF Materials – Radio Times listings are contained in this section if you insert the disc into a PC or MAC.

Coming Soon – A rather drab and uninteresting trailer for The King’s Demons and Planet Of Fire box set.

To sum up, The Creature from the Pit was one of Tom’s last great adventures. Yes his reliance on obscure humour is beginning to take hold but the old magic is still there. Just don’t think about the Erato creature too much.

Released on May 3rd 2010, The Creature from the Pit can by ordered from Amazon for a low price of just £12.91!