In 1979 while Doctor Who was filming the story City Of Death at BBC
Television Centre John Cleese was busy recording the second series of
Fawlty Towers in the next studio. Both Baker & Cleese seemed to get
on with each other so the Doctor Who script editor at the time Douglas
Adams (Yes, THE Douglas Adams) wrote a small cameo appearance for
Cleese along with actress Eleanor Bron, a good friend of Cleese playing
the part of a pair of art critics in the Louvre Gallery where the
Tardis happened to be parked during this story.
As well as this scene Baker & Cleese also recorded a short comedy
sketch that would be put on the BBC's Christmas tape, A tape that was
traditionally shown during the BBC's annual Christmas party for it's
employees which usually featured out-takes & specially recorded
sketches.
Doctor : 5th (Peter Davison)
Companions : Tegan (Janet Feilding) Turlough (Mark Strickson)
Series : 21
Originally Transmitted: 5th January - 13th January 1984
When I think of the 80s as a decade, I always think the same thing.
Everything to me seemed to be brightly coloured, tacky & plasticky.
And that's exactly what Warriors of the Deep is, brightly coloured, tacky & plasticky.
It's supposed to be set in a sea base with nuclear weapons at the bottom
of the ocean that's been there for years. So your first thought is why
does it look so bright and new, and why do all the crew have bizarre eye
make up?
Granted it's supposed to be set in 2084 and they want things to look a
little futuristic. But you would think that in a story that is
essentially a base under siege type story you would set an atmosphere by
have things creeping around in the shadows with hidden monsters going
around killing people, but no. I mean how can things lurk in shadows
when your set and your lighting is so bright that there are no shadows.
It's supposed to be an old sea base after all. Brightly lit sets and
lack of atmosphere would be something that would plague Doctor Who
during the 80s.
Warriors of the Deep also see the return of two of the more popular
monsters from the Jon Pertwee era who had only featured one story up
till now. The Silurians last seen in the 7 part 1970 story Doctor Who
and the Silurians
And The Sea Devils last seen in 1972's 6 part story of the same name.
This time wearing full battle gear rather than the silly string vests
made out of fishing nets they wore in the previous story.
Both creatures were reptiles who existed on Earth before man. They both
went into hibernation during a time when lots of solar flares were due
to hit the earth. For some reason after the solar flares they never woke
up until the present day. During the story 'The Sea Devils' The Doctor
mentions that the scientist who discovered the Silurians got his dates
mixed up and that they should have been called Eocenes as they are from
the Eocene era not the Silurian era, however during this episode they
refer to themselves as Silurians. During the new series they would
become known as Homo-Reptilia. The Sea Devils strangely call themselves
Sea Devils too despite this name only being used to describe them by an
Irish sea fort worker who went mad after being attacked by them.
Our story starts in the Tardis where Turlough has decided he wants to
stick around with and travel with the Doctor for a while longer and the
Doctor wants to show Tegan something of Earth's future. They materialise
in space where they are warned to leave and then suddenly attacked by a
security satellite.
The Doctor takes evasive action and a split second before the Tardis is hit he makes a quick jump and they land on Sea Base 4.
It's 2084 and the world is divided up into two power blocs with nuclear
missiles trained on both sides. Sea Base 4 is one of the bases that
holds these missiles with their advanced launching program, which means
that the missiles can only be launched by a 'Sync Operator'. The Sync
Operator links his own mind to the weapons system for authorisation.
Sadly for Sea Base 4 their sync operator has just been murdered and now
they have a trainee in charge of the weapons. Let's just take a moment
to look at this advanced computer launching program...
Makes you kind of wonder why they didn't just use a shot of someone playing Missile Command. It would have probably looked a lot more realistic.
I was always rubbish at missile command.
Anyway the Doctor and co arrive on the base and because things have been
going wrong with the base they're imminently labelled as foreign spies
sabotaging the base. The Doctor gets thrown into a big tank of water
during a fight but managed to escape. He changes into underwater outfits
and we have this running joke where there's an unpleasant smell inside
his helmet.
After Tom Baker had left it was thought that there was too much humour
in the series so they decided to make Peter Davison's Doctor much more
serious. After a couple of years of this they decided that there did
need to be some humour in it after all and inserted this one joke about
the smelly helmet, and that was it. One joke throughout his entire run
as The Doctor.
They soon realise that The Doctor is not their problem when they begin
to be invaded by the Silurians & Sea Devils using their secret
weapon, The Myrka.
The Myrka has gone into Doctor Who folklore as being possibly the worst
made monster ever to make it into the series. In the original script the
writer Johnny Byrne had this big sea creature that would enter the base
and kill people in the shadows while not really being seen by the
viewer, just the occasional glimpse of it. Of course because the thing
was so brightly lit this wasn't done and so they just had it in the
middle of the studio in all it's crapness being shot at. Also there was a
delay in BBC visual effects making this thing so when they did finally
get to film with it it left green paint all over the set and the actors.
The two actors inside the Myrka operating it were William Perrie &
John Asquith who were more well known at the time for playing Dobbin,
The Pantomime Horse in the childrens TV show Rentaghost (I loved that
show).
Anyway back to the story.
At this point Tegan chooses this moment to become trapped under the
world's most unconvincing piece of debris which wobbles around as soon
as anyone touches it even though it's supposed to be crushing her leg.
The Myrka breaks through the outer doors of the base and is just about
to trample on Tegan when she's freed by the Doctor and the Sea Base crew
close the inner doors to trap the creature.
While the creature is trapped the Doctor works on a big ray machine to
deal with it as the crews weapons have no effect on it. The Myrka breaks
through the inner doors but before The Doctor can use his machine we
are treated to one of the worst scenes ever in Doctor Who when Dr Solow
(played by 70s Hammer Horror star Ingrid Pitt) decides to take on the
Myrka by doing a the oddest version of karate you've ever seen, even
though she already knows that guns can't harm this thing.
Michael Grade who was head of programming at the BBC at the time has
said that seeing that scene made his mind up to cancel the series in
1985. You can't really blame him after that.
The Silurians & the Sea Devils use the Mykra as a diversion tactic
to break into the base through another entrance while the crew are busy
dealing with the Mykra they kill most of the remaining crew on the way.
They plan to launch all the missiles on the base circumnavigating the
use of a Sync Operator by using their own technology. The Doctor goes
off looking for something to use to fight against the reptiles.
He luckily comes across a chemical store which just happens to be full
of hexachromite gas, which also just happens to be lethal to reptiles.
He is spotted by a Sea Devil & shot at, but the shot misses and hits
a gas cannister which engulfs the Sea Devil making snot come out of
it's collapsed face.
The surviving crew want to use the gas to fight the rest of the reptiles
but the Doctor doesn't want to end it that way, when he's reminded that
they have control of the nuclear missiles he reluctantly agrees and
fixes the gas to go through the base's ventilation shafts.
On the control deck all of the reptiles begin to die and in some cases split their trousers.
In a last ditch attempt to end it peacefully the Doctor instructs Tegan
& Turlough to give the reptiles oxygen while he plugs himself into
the weapons program and stops the missiles aided by Vorshak, one of the
base crew.
Vorshak is shot at and killed by the Silurian leader who in turn is
killed by Turlough. The Doctor deactivates the missiles. He looks around
at the carnage and sees that all of the reptiles are dead and apart
from himself, Tegan & Turlough only one member of the base crew
named Bulic are still alive. He tells the survivors that there should
have been another way.
Warriors Of The Deep never really stood much of a chance of being any
good. For a start they lost 2 weeks production on the story because
Margaret Thatcher called a General Election, from that point on they
were in a race to get this story done. In fact things were so
problematic during this story that the director Pennant Roberts was
forced to film rehearsals and use those in the final edit when the
original shots were dropped because of time constraints.
It was during the filming of this story in the summer of 1983 that the
news broke that both Peter Davison & Janet Fielding would both be
leaving, coincidence that it was during this story they decided to
leave? possibly.
Speaking of Janet Fielding, you may have noticed that Tegan &
Turlough are hardly mentioned in the story, that's because they spend
most of the story either locked up or hiding in some shaft somewhere.
Although Tegan does get let out long enough to get her leg trapped for
the cliff hanger to episode 2.
One thing I find interesting about this story is it's setting, and also
the comparisons to one of the new series stories 'Cold War'.
In 'Warriors Of The Deep' a returning Doctor Who monster (Silurians
& Sea Devils) take over a underwater sea base in 2084 to fire
nuclear missiles and destroy the world.
In 'Cold War' a returning Doctor Who monster (An Ice Warrior) takes over
a nuclear submarine to fire nuclear missiles to destroy the world. And
the year it does this in ... 1983. The year Warriors of the Deep was
made.
Which made me think that Warriors of the Deep may have been better had
it had a contemporary setting rather than a futuristic one. Instead of
giving the sea base crew snazzy outfits and eye shadow just make then
look like real soldiers. If you have a small budget then set it on a
small dingy submarine rather than a brightly lit sea base. Give it a
sense of creepiness & claustrophobia and some atmosphere. 60s Doctor
Who used to do this amazingly so it begs the question why couldn't 80s
Doctor Who do it.
No atmosphere, no tension, no real interest. In fact the total opposite
of what made the Silurians & The Sea Devils so great in their 1970s
stories.
I really hate this.
Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.
Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories
from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving
director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He
directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to
do so.
Barry joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was
assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker
who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert.
The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the
Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end
up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the
'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the
nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek
machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the
news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.
Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the
story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the
series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct
the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour
introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor
Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story
with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature
Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.
In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he
directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The
story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of
introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term
success of the series.
His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed
the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is
often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team.
Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The
Mutants.
Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so
once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the
world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous)
on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from
the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all
location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The
following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which
saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time
Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside
other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the
screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.
Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed
the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of
that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was
off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video
story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.
Christopher Barry began his film and TV career in the movies, working as
an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer
(1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955).
By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the
crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera
Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark,
Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great
and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of
the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.
Christopher Barry died after a fall at his home in Oxfordshire.
210: The Web Planet
Doctor : 1st (William Hartnell)
Companions : Ian Chesterton (William Russell) Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill)
Vicki (Maureen O'Brien)
Series : 2
Originally Transmitted: 13th February - 20th March 1965
Many people have attempted to watch every single episode of Doctor Who
since it began in November of 1963. Many of those same people even
managed to struggle through all 6 episodes of The Sensorites (Coming
soon). But very few people ever manage to make it through all 6 episodes
of The Web Planet.
The Web Planet - Ender of Doctor Who marathons ever since someone copied
it from someone else and shared it around on a 20th generation
videotape some time during the 80s. (I never did this BTW, my fandom
started in the early 90s when UK Gold repeated the whole series on TV).
The Web Planet is bad, I mean really really bad. So why didn't I include it sooner?
Well because you just have to admire the balls to try to pull something
like this off given the time it was made and the limited resources. The
shows budget around this time was approx £2000 per episode which
according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator is around
£32,800 in todays money.
That would have to pay the cast, crew, build all the sets and film the
thing as well. Not only that due to the limited editing facilities you
could only have 3 cuts per episode, the whole thing was filmed in one
night and any special effects were painted onto the film, no CGI
whatsoever.
Compare that the the show now which is rumoured to cost £1 million per
episode with 3 weeks to film plus many months in post production and you
can see the vast difference.
So what were they trying to pull off?
Well the Tardis lands on the planet Vortis, in the Isop galaxy. Well I
say it lands there it's actually dragged down there and all the power in
the Tardis is shut off. The Doctor opens the doors by waving his ring
in front of a theremin which seems to work.
Once outside he and Ian look at rocks for a while, and then the most dramatic thing in the entire episode happens....
IAN CHESTERTON'S PEN DISAPPEARS
Seriously, it just vanishes into thin air. The Doctor is highly amused
by this and for good measure asks Ian for his school tie, and then dips
it into a puddle of acid ruining it. Poor old Ian's having a really
rough ride in this story.
Vicki & Barbara meanwhile are left locked in the Tardis. Barbara
hears a strange sound and follows it out of the Tardis like she's
hypnotized. Vicki is left in there are the Tardis is dragged away by a
strange force.
All this takes around 25 minutes to happen and they've not even met the
natives of the planet yet. To say this story has been padded out is an
understatement.
One of the most annoying aspect of this episode is that to make the
shots on the planet's surface look more alien they have this really
annoying blur effect.
Later on in the episodes, especially when you see the really bad insect
costumes battling each other you have this rather strange feeling that
you're watching a school nativity play with a really bad hangover. This
is made even worse that you can hear the actors thumping around on what
is obviously a stage rather than a planets surface & crashing into
cameras. It really does look a bit amateur hour.
Finally we start to meet some of the inhabitants of the planet. First we meet the Zarbi.
The Zarbi are obviously giant ants, they were docile until the Animus
invaded the planet Vortis and uses them to try and take over the planet.
They do this seemingly by bashing things with their head and using
Venom Grubs.
The Venom Grubs are lcreatures resembling woodlouse that can spit fire
from the end that that big pointy thing at the front known as a larvae
gun. I always found the concept of a larvea gun rather odd. Wouldn't the
human equivalent be a baby gun? or a toddler gun? The Venom Grubs are
actually mentioned in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-reference during the
new series in the 9th Doctor story Boom Town where we are told they're
used to punish the Slitheen.
There are some good guys in all this meet The Menoptera.
The Menoptera are a moth like creatures who escaped The Animus when it
invaded Vortis by flying to one of the planets moons. The Animus however
used it's power by increasing the gravitational pull of the planet
bringing all of the Menoptera back to Vortis, the same gravitational
pull that forced the Tardis to land there. On their return the Menoptera
as forces work as slaves in The Crater Of Needles. A giant crater
filled with acid that the Menoptera fill with plant vegetation to feed
The Animus. The Menoptera leader is played by distinguished actor Martin
Jarvis in his first television role. Probably fair to say he's been in
better things since.
Also on the side of good are the Optera
The Optera are the descendent of the Menoptera who decided to live
underground when the Animus took over Vortis. Due to the evolutionary
process they've lost their wings, have much bigger eyes and are more
sensitive to light. For some unknown reason the leader of the Optera
speaks with a kind of Mexican accent for no apparent reason, which would
be far more annoying in any other story but in this one with the silly
high pitched Menoptra squeaks and weird speech patterns to make them
sound more alien this is almost a blessing. Oh and they also jump around
like kangaroos which is so funny you can't take anything they say
seriously.
So anyway, the Animus realises something is afoot and begins to communicate to the Doctor via an old school hairdryer.
In fact William Hartnell even calls it that in the story. At first The
Animus believes the Doctor is an agent of The Menoptera. When the
Animus realises that he isn't a Menoptera agent and knows nothing he instructs the Zarbi to bring The Doctor to him.
Meanwhile the Doctor's companions have spent the past 3 or 4 episodes
gathering together a resistance movement and they attack.(That one
sentence just saved you around 100 minutes of having to watch this)
The Doctor along with the now freed Vicki finally meets The Animus who turns out to be a giant spider plant.
The Animus tries to absorb The Doctor's and Vicki's minds by having a
psychedelic light show a full year before Pink Floyd ever thought of the
idea and which would have probably looked a lot better had it been in
colour.
Then Barbara arrived with a couple of Menoptera and an isotope which she
intends to use to kill the Animus however it treats her to a
psychedelic light show before she has the chance. Thankfully Ian and a
few friends walk in at that moment distracting The Animus away from
Barbara who uses the opportunity to use the isotope and kill it and the
story finishes.
Or so you would think, the story then drags on for yet another 10
minutes of insect backslapping & celebrating and Ian complaining
about the loss of his beloved tie before thankfully this whole thing
ends and we can get on with a decent story about The Crusades with
Julian Glover & Jean Marsh.
It's an easy target but The Web Planet is crap. It was meant to be seen
once as a piece of entertainment nearly 50 years ago and at the time and
once broadcast on TV they probably thought that was the end of it. I
doubt anybody could have foretold in 1965 that this would still be being
watched & judged by that days standards all these years later.
Amazingly the first episode of this story attracted 13.5 million
viewers, the highest ever viewed episode for Doctor Who in the 1960s. It
also spawned 2 sequels in 'Twilight Of The Gods' a novel featuring
Patrick Troughton's Doctor and Return To the Web Planet, an audio story
with Peter Davison's Doctor, so clearly somebody liked this story and
was inspired by it. Of course that doesn't make me want to watch this
the whole way through ever again.
I leave you with the one famous clip of this story that has become
famous over the years, a Zarbi running head first into the camera which
was amazingly left in the episode.....
In 1965 Dalekmania was sweeping the country and two Dalek movies
starring Peter Cushing were produced by Amacus who were usually known
more for their horror movies. Thinking of ways to promote the movie
someone came up with the idea of having the Daleks meeting the Beatles.
Dalekmania vs Beatlemania
It may have happened because the parent company of the Beatles record
company Parlophone was EMI who may or may not had some interest in the
Dalek movies themselves. I can't find anything to suggest they did other
than it was EMI that released them on video in the early 80s. Anyway the idea was approved and so
the national papers one morning showed pictures of John Lennon hanging out with a
Dalek
The BBC decided to jump on this idea and suggested that they appear on
the show, in particular the upcoming Dalek story 'The Chase'.
What happened next is up for debate as I have heard 2 stories and there is no real documentation of what happened.
The first story is that they were to appear on the show as themselves
playing a song but because each Doctor Who episode was filmed on one
specific night of the week they would have to be free on that night or
not be in it at all, they couldn't make it and so they used a clip from
Top Of The Pops instead.
During 'The Chase' the Tardis lands in what they think is a haunted
house but is in actual fact an exhibit in 'The Festival of Ghana' an
event taking place in the future... 1996 to be exact.
The second story is that the BBC pitched the idea that The Beatles are
playing the Festival Of Ghana as themselves and all the band members are
aged with make up. Brian Epstein turned this down flat and told them
just to use the Top Of The Pops footage of them playing Ticket To Ride
instead. So that was what the BBC ended up doing using The Doctor's new
toy, the space time visualiser which was like a television that could
see any event in history.
Because of rights issues you won't find that clip of this episode
anywhere outside the UK or Australia. Everywhere else the scene has been
cut out of the story. Even finding it on Youtube is fruitless as it's
taken down as quickly as it goes up.
however I do have the stills from it.
There are actually 2 gaffes in this clip.
The first is that Ian Chesterton seems to know the words to Ticket To
Ride even though he left earth in November 1963 and has never been back
since, Ticket To Ride wasn't even recorded until February 1965. (Maybe
The Doctor has a copy stashed away in the Tardis somewhere)
Also Vicki says after hearing the song she didn't realise that The
Beatles played classical music (She's from the 25th Century). Yet just a
few seconds earlier she tells Ian & Barbara that she's been to
their memorial theatre in Liverpool. You'd think she would have heard
some in there.
Also it's worth noting that those few seconds of the band playing on Top
Of The Pops is the only film clip that the BBC hold of them playing
that show even though they appeared on it dozens of times. Like a lot of
Doctor Who episodes from the time they too were also junked as they
were thought to be of no more use.
211: The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe
Doctor : 11th (Matt Smith)
Companions : None
Series : 2011 Christmas Special
Originally Transmitted: 25 December 2011
This story left such an impression on me I totally forgot it existed. It
wasn't until I received the series 7 box set this Christmas that I
remembered this being aired 2 years previously. And even then the
decision to include it in that box set was taken at the last minute by
the BBC. It should then come as no shock to anybody that I have not seen
this story since it was on TV and I don't really have any interest in
watching it again, even for the purpose of writing this.
Back in 2011 during the run up to Christmas I heard what the title was
going to be and from that moment on I had low expectations. After 2010's
'A Christmas Carol' totally ripped off Charles Dickens 'A Christmas
Carol' (naturally), and totally bored me it was fairly obvious to anyone
with half a brain that this story was going to be a rip off from 'The
Chronicles Of Narnia' and probably leave me with the same feelings about
this story. I have no problem with Doctor Who ripping off Christmas
stories 'Turn Left' looks like it was inspired by 'It's A Wonderful
Life' and that was a great episode. It's a shame they didn't do
'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation' with Matt Smith & The
Griswolds fighting off a Cyberman invasion. Maybe I'll have to start
writing fan-fic.
It's sad that I dislike this story so much because the cast assembled
for it is amazing. You have Claire Skinner from 'Outnumbered' and many
other things playing Madge Arwell, the mother of the two children and
the focal point of the episode.
You have quiz show host & comedy legend Alexander Armstrong playing
Reg, her husband & World War II fighter pilot (And anyone who's seen
Alexander Armstrong knows he is born to play WWII English fighter
pilots).
Added to that you have Bill Bailey & Arabella Weir playing a couple of comedy miners who's appearance is far too brief.
There is also a third miner too, played by some random jobbing actor
which is a shame really because they could have cast someone like Noel
Fielding or Peter Serafinowicz or another big comedy name for it and at
would have at least made all three characters interesting.
On top of all that I shouldn't forget to mention Matt Smith either
because in my opinion he is the best character actor to play the role of
The Doctor since Patrick Troughton.
So what went wrong?
Well basically the plot makes no sense, or it does make sense but is so
shoehorned together it's totally idiotic, but here it is anyway.
The Doctor blows up a spaceship, for some unknown reason he is able to
be blasted into space (in his normal clothes) chasing a spacesuit that
will allow him to be able to fall to earth safely.
Just to begin with there is so much wrong with just that first sentence.
It looks great on TV but just leaves you scratching your head wondering
why he's never been able to do that before for the previous 50 years.
When he plummets to earth leaving a massive crater in his wake he is helped by a woman named Madge Arwell.
Madge helps him up and gets him back to the Tardis, even though he's
just fallen out of space he just happens to land within walking distance
away from it. He tells Madge that if ever she needs his help just make a
wish, during this whole time she never sees his face because he is
wearing the helmet from the spacesuit back to front because he 'Had to
get dressed in a hurry'.
So we're expected to believe that after 50 years on our screens the
Doctor now is suddenly a genie that grants wishes despite the fact he's
been helped by thousands of people in the past and never once offered
any of them the same thing. This episode just gets dumber & dumber.
Just think about the plot so far and just how unlikely this would be in
past stories and how many cliff hangers in the shows history these new
events would wipe out.
Three Years Later
Christmas Eve during World War II, Madge receives a telegram saying
that her husband's aircraft had been lost over the English Channel in
the fog and he was presumed dead. She decides that rather than tell her
kids straight away she'll take them out of London to a relatives house
in Dorset and give them a happy Christmas first.
When they arrive at the house they are met by The Doctor calling himself
the Caretaker and has been preparing for their arrival by filling the
kids room with so many toys that they have to sleep in hammocks because
there is no room for beds. Next to the Christmas tree is a giant blue
package.
Madge's son Cyril comes down in the middle of the night and opens the
giant package to find it contains a time portal to a snowy forest.
A little later on his sister Lily realises her brother is missing and
goes to inform the Doctor, they go through the time portal to find him.
A little later in than that Madge realises everybody has gone, sees the portal and goes through it too.
After trudging through the forest for a while Cyril finds a large tower
with a glass dome structure on top of it. He goes inside the tower and
find a giant wood carving of a man sitting on a throne. He climbs the
stairs to the top of the tower and finds a female wooden figure holding a
gold crown sitting in another throne.
Meanwhile Madge comes across 3 miners who after laying their guns down
tell her that they are from the planet Androzani Major in the year 5345,
a reference to Peter Davison's final story 'The Caves Of Androzani'
(although he was on Androzani Minor) no doubt placed there to remind
long time fans that they were still infact. Madge tells the miners she
is from England in 1941 before pulling a revolver on them and telling
them that there is a war on.
She forces them to take them back to her base where they tell her that
the forest will be covered in acid rain in just a few minutes to create
fuel, the miners teleport off the planet leaving Madge behind.
The Doctor and Lily reach the tower and see the wooden figure in the
base of the tower, as they climb the stairs to find Cyril it begins to
follow them up.
At the top of the tower the Doctor find Cyril sitting unconscious on the
throne wearing the crown with the female figure behind him.
The Doctor realises that they are the King & Queen of the forest and
are trying to escape from the acid rain in the dome which is a
spaceship, through Cyril they tell the Doctor that the boy is weak. the
Doctor takes the crown thinking he is stronger but he cannot hold it
because of the pain, the Queen tells him that he is weak too. Lily picks
up the crown against the Doctor's advice and tells him it tingles, the
Queen tells him that she is strong, but not strong enough.
Madge arrives in the miners forest walker and allows the Queen to place the crown on her head.
The Doctor who has gone back outside sees all the lifeforce in the
forest heading towards the tower. he goes back up and sees Madge
absorbing it all.
The Doctor realises that the forest wanted a mothership (groan) and
urges Madge to think of home to pilot the spacecraft through the time
vortex, he also tells her to think of her husband.
Somewhere over the English Channel Reg who is lost in the fog sees the
light from the spaceship and uses it to guide his aircraft home.
They all wake up in the crashed spacecraft outside the house in Dorset
on Christmas morning, the two wooden figures are lifeless. The Doctor
tells Madge that their livea and that of the forest was scattered among the stars. The kids see
the telegram in Madge's hands and demand to know what it is. She is just
about to tell them of their father's death when the Doctor interrupts and tells them
to look outside where they see Reg and his aircraft outside the house.
With her family reunited Madge asks the Doctor to stay for Christmas, he chooses not to so Madge insists that spend it with someone he
loves and cares about.
The Doctor arrives at Amy & Rory's house 2 years after he
last saw him knowing that they think he's dead, but after answering the door Amy quickly reveals to him that River
Song had already told them that he was still alive. She invites him in for Christmas dinner, he tells her and Rory not to go to any trouble. Amy
tells him it's no trouble because they always lay a place at the table for him every year.
OK I accept this is a Christmas episode and that it's a bit different to
the usual series but the silliness from the beginning really distracts
from the episode. I mean it has it's good points, the cast, the scene
with the miners & Madge and it genuinely does put a lump in your
throat at the end. But for the most part this story is just a slow and
dull and doesn't really leave you with any lasting impression. Also it
doesn't really seem like a Doctor Who story this feels like a Christmas
magic story crammed into a Doctor Who episode and it's so forced it just
doesn't work.
To tell you the truth I would have rather seen the story as to what
caused him to be ejected from an exploding spacecraft into deep space without a
spacesuit at the beginning of the episode than this. And if none of that
is enough to make you not like this episode we get a 2 minute cameo
with Amy & Rory at the end that just makes you wish that they were in
the whole story.
I think this story can be summed up with the same thoughts about I had about it on Christmas Day 2011.
'What the hell did I just watch?'
While watching the recently released The Tenth Planet dvd (William
Hartnell's final story also the debut of the Cybermen). I noticed this
in the credits....
