There was a rather interesting section in The Church on Ruby Road, the first full episode with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and introducing Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. No, I don’t mean the singing; nor the time-rewriting stuff, or even the mystery around Ruby herself. I’m talking about the Doctor pondering new languages. It was somewhat tongue-in-cheek nonsense about learning the language of “rope”, but in amongst it, we experienced a new way of approaching Doctor Who. It’s a rather convoluted and difficult thing to get a grasp on, full of contradictions and things that make you squirm, but that’s language for you. You won’t find either Doctor Who or rope on Duolingo, so for now, we’ve just got to go with it, see how this language progresses, and hope we can catch up before our new-found knowledge-base becomes anachronistic.

Because for years now, we’ve been told that “Doctor Who is about change”, but it’s not really, is it? For much of its history, the franchise has adapted, yes, but essentially stayed true to its origins. There’s a clear line to be drawn between now and then; yet, like The Beatles’ last track, we find that, with all the changes and with the absence of change, nonetheless we miss you, Doctor Who. What “Doctor Who is about change” likely means is that we change, so our relationship with the series changes as well – so too our views on stories, on themes, on that central character and the overall narrative. Still, I find myself in a difficult position, admitting that that point of view was then; this is now, and our favourite sci-fi show isn’t the same as it once was. Sometimes, you drift so gradually that you don’t think to look up before it’s much too late and you’re a long way from the shore; other times, you’re caught in this riptide and the land has vanished in an instant. And in some very rare cases, both things happen, as is the case with Doctor Who.

What makes this period of the franchise so stark is that things feel so different despite there being a renewed hope a couple of years ago that returning showrunner, Russell T Davies, would bring things full circle (full circle, that is, for 21^st Century Who). But Davies is rightly a different person now. Compare how you are now to how you were in 2005. This is only natural. So why and how does The Church on Ruby Road feel like both more of the same and something new? Why does it sit so awkwardly?

Davies does a lot of things that he’s done before: perhaps most subtle (though I use that word very loosely when approaching anything by the writer) is how new companion, Ruby, is part of a band with a trans person, a retread of Russell’s Rose novelisation, which saw Mickey Smith in a band called Bad Wolf, led by a trans woman, Sally Salter. Less subtle is Ruby herself, who appears at first glance to be a generic companion – meaning a confident, sometimes sad, young, caring, pretty go-getter – for the Doctor and the audience to fixate on. Having never seen Gibson in anything before, I was certainly intrigued to see how she’d get on, and I was let down slightly by her tumultuous first scene in which she and Davina McCall have a curiously hectic TV interview. But she soon charmed me. The loud Northern façade hides a deeper performance and a lovely connection with our new Doctor.

There’s a warmth to her that draws you in, although it’s interesting that she never really feels at home in her actual home. There’s a clear love there between her, Carla (Michelle Greenidge), and Cherry (Angela Wynter), but her home doesn’t feel very… homely. There aren’t many trappings of everyday life there. That could be because Ruby is sadly the only one of Carla’s foster children to stay there, to make it her home, so it feels a little like a transitional space. That coldness is only added to because Carla doesn’t act the way she should: in writing that’s shockingly uncharacteristic of Russell, she doesn’t react as a normal person would when the Doctor, a complete stranger, wanders into her home after Ruby is erased. She’s just… okay with it. Accepting. Despite the door being locked. (And the less said about the new sonic “screwdriver” the better.) That really jars.

Ruby’s absence does hit hard though. The audience’s realisation that she’s gone surely comes much earlier than the Doctor’s; similarly, we presume that the photos on the fridge will have also vanished before the Doctor makes this revelation (if only because it was set up nicely, and Davies is much too good a writer to forget that key law of screenwriting: show, don’t tell).

The Goblins are a strange creation too. They straddle the line between what Doctor Who does and what it doesn’t do. Russell mentioned before that he’s incorporating elements of fantasy (as a genre) into Doctor Who, and that makes me nervous – I simply don’t connect with fantasy, and it troubles me that Doctor Who is straying farther away from the shore on which I’d contentedly found it. But the Goblins are just aliens. Swap them with Bok or the Zocci and there’d be very little difference. Oh sure, they sing, but so does the Doctor. Oh sure, they eat babies, but so do the giants in The BFG. They can, however, travel in time (no matter what the Doctor says), and that sets them apart, makes them a bigger threat than they initially seem. Actually, they should be a bigger threat than they are, considering they just dissolve away once their King experiences the Timothy-Dalton-in-Hot–Fuzz treatment. As with most aliens in episodes that introduce companions, they’re a gateway to our new dynamic.

Davies would’ve been safer going with an established threat, either a recognised foe or something that fits the standard alien invader outline, but you’ve got to admire his need to do things differently, even if not every note hits the right tone. Or indeed, even if a few knots can bring down the plot. This wasn’t the strongest of narratives, but it swept along at a cracking pace with enough character beats for you to invest in these additions to the Doctor Who mythos. One of the most startling things about Russell is that he exudes enthusiasm from every pore, so it’s just as surprising that The Church on Ruby Road doesn’t fizz with refreshing notions. It’s not exactly Doctor Who as we expect it to be, but it’s perhaps Davies as we expect him to be right now. It’s interesting that someone so alive with notions is still very much set in a particular mindset. That’s ironic, too, given the diatribe fed to us in The Giggle about the dangers of always thinking you’re right. That isn’t a criticism of Davies: he’s one of the show’s best ambassadors, and he will always have my utmost respect. I just find it interesting, in this strangely intangible way. That is likely the word I attach to the mixed bag that is The Church on Ruby Road most of all, and so far to Davies’ return to Doctor Who: interesting.

And what of the elephant in the room? What of Ncuti Gatwa? Our Fifteenth Doctor? He’s excellent. There’s something fascinating about him, from his confidence and fragility (is he the first Doctor to cry in his first full episode?) to even his accent and grin. You can see there’s so much more going on behind those eyes. I didn’t always buy it, sadly: the thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was his dancing in that nightclub. Why? Lots of Doctors have danced. The nightclub itself felt a strange move, but the thing that jarred most is that he looked… too cool? The Doctor is awkward! He’s not human! There’s a marked difference between the drunk giraffe the Eleventh Doctor showed off on a couple of occasions and the whirling storm the Fifteenth Doctor immediately is. The former is a storm that has the capacity to be a drunk giraffe; the latter hasn’t demonstrated anything but his sure-footedness. I hope that’s still to come because I like my Time Lord to be something other. And Gatwa is very capable of it.

Despite that bump in the road (and the awful bigeneration guff), he’s the Doctor, and that in itself is an achievement so early on. Because when things went wrong, when the Goblins took Lulubelle, when Ruby disappeared, we knew things were going to be alright because the Doctor is here to fix them. Bizarrely, I didn’t even feel that way with David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor, who was so consistently on the back foot.

The Church on Ruby Road isn’t my ideal Doctor Who: its semantics, phonology, and referents are all askew; I’m scrabbling around, looking for its foundations; and who the heck put that accent grave there?! But after watching it, I did feel this little frisson of energy, something that I’ve not truly felt since 2017. Doctor Who is back. Oooh, Doctor Who is back.

I might not be very good at it, but it’s okay – I like learning new languages.

This is easily the best of the three specials for me. Want more detail…?

In the 24 hours leading up to this story, I kept telling my family “regeneration day!” I don’t know why I get so worked up about that, but I always do. Saturday was no different. You watch regeneration episodes differently – or at least I do. Traditionally, the changeover happens in the last moment of the episode, you get a line or three from the new guy, and then you wait for the next episode. However, I felt something was going to be different this time, and it certainly was… but more on that later.

This episode starts off with a historical event, the first television broadcast. Not like we know it today, but the first televised image by John Logie Baird. This event is tied into the overall plot by the Toymaker, using the image of Stooky Bill (the doll) as part of his plan. It was a nice opening scene between the Toymaker and a guy coming in to buy the doll for use in the experiment. We get an early look at Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker: an excellent updating of a ’60s era Doctor Who villain – in fact, only the third Hartnell era baddie to return (the others being Daleks and Cybermen).

I was very much looking forward to Harris in this story, and he did not disappoint. The character was properly creepy, well acted, and despite being dispatched in the end a tad too easily, was very well executed. I could easily see this being the same character Michael Gough played in 1966. I especially loved the look on his face when Donna accused him of cheating. His accent went to a few places, and I loved the scene when he would say loudly in an American accent “Well, that’s alright then!” Very very much enjoyed his performance, and I really hope we see more of him in the future (which, given the way the story ended, seemed like it could be a possibility if they wanted to).

The overall plot was said to be a “worldwide” story, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt like it was stuck in London; we didn’t see much of the events of the Giggle ourselves — we were just told about it. Apparently, the Toymaker put an arpeggio and a laugh into each TV transmission ever made, something that was picked up by everyone, and when activated, changed how people worked. The story said that the Toymaker made everyone believe they were right about everything; an allegory to current day’s society. There were a few digs are current society too with the comment by a politician (under the titular Giggle influence) saying “Why should I care about you?” I liked that part, I just wished it was shown to be a bit wider in scale than it felt. It was during this scene where we got a body double for Wilf, as Bernard Cribbins wasn’t able to film anything here, and the character effectively disappeared at that point.

When the Doctor makes it to the Toymaker’s shop, I laughed when Donna asked if he had his own TARDIS, because I could easily see someone thinking that (bigger on the inside). It felt properly creepy in there, with rooms going to nowhere, dolls that attacked you, and people who were turned into life size dolls — the atmosphere was great. When the Doctor and Donna escaped, and watched the Toymaker’s shop disappear, I got flashbacks to watching Dan’s house shrink into next to nothing from the Flux.

There’s a great scene in the middle of this where the Doctor and Donna are made to watch a puppet show by the Toymaker showing what happened to several companions of the Doctor after Donna’s time. At first, I wondered why they didn’t do more, but these are the ones that “died” (of a sort). The Doctor had an explanation for each, but I adored the puppet show of former companions — it even mentioned the Flux again. Once again, we’re not burying the Chibnall era, but leaning into it. I like that a lot. We also got the follow-up game to the 1960s story, but it’s just a straight up cut of the cards. That’s probably my biggest disappointment with the Toymaker. There’s two games with the Doctor here: one is a simple cut the cards, and the other is playing catch with a ball. Given the trilogic game from The Celestial Toymaker was more involved, these games felt like a bit of a letdown. Of course, the 1960s story had twice as much story time to fill (being a 4 x25 min runtime and this special being one hour). A minor quibble, as they’re all played quite well dramatically. I just wish the games were a bit more involved than they were on screen.

Before I get to the big controversial part of the story, I wanted to talk about some of the fun stuff. While none of these specials played out like a traditional special with parades of old characters and references, we got some of that here. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart appears here again, now making 7 on screen Doctors she’s had some sort of adventure with (the Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and War Doctors). Did anyone else think when she walked up to him on the base at first she was going to slap him? Felt that way to me. We very quickly discover that she hired Mel out of that companion support group at the end of Jodie Whittaker’s final story, as Mel is working for UNIT now. The Doctor recognising her was sweet, and there was also a short scene later with Mel talking about what happened post Dragonfire. I loved the name drop of Sabalom Glitz, and saying how he died: a great scene that this old time Who fan geeked out on big time. That she’s portrayed as a computer expert is great, given how the character was originally designed to be in 1986. What I don’t get though is when Mel talks about her family all being gone — I don’t recall any talk of that back in the 1980s, so did I miss something? Speaking of working for UNIT, the scene when Donna Noble talks herself into a job with UNIT was also funny, and makes me wonder if it will get followed up on. Donna and Mel talking over which one of them was the first ginger companion was amusing. I also loved the Toymaker’s dance in UNIT HQ — so much fun, and gave me a bit of the Master dancing vibes (both the Simm and Dhawan versions).

After the dance scene, the Toymaker takes over this huge gun that UNIT has and threatens everyone. He shoots the Fourteenth Doctor with it, and forces him to regenerate. We get the yellow glow and then…. Nothing. Something new happens here. David Tennant regenerates into Ncuti Gatwa, but remains himself. They called this on screen “bi-generation”. The Fifteenth Doctor says “there’s no such thing, it’s supposed to be a myth”, so basically, something Russell T Davies invented. On first view, I was like “WTF is this”, but the more I thought about it, it kind of works. Something new. Now I don’t want this to be the standard going forward, because to this point, regeneration was always a mix of sad and happy. We’re sad that the old guy is gone, and happy for the new guy. That is taken away. I don’t hate this, but it is definitely different. I imagine a lot of fans will get bent out of shape over this, but Doctor Who has always tried new things over the 60 years it’s been on, so why not this? It does give us a multi-Doctor sequence in this episode, which we weren’t expecting, so that’s good.

It does raise some bizarre continuity here. Since the Fourteenth Doctor remains a Time Lord, what will happen when he naturally ages and regenerates properly? We don’t really know, but my guess is that he would turn into Gatwa properly, and Gatwa would come full circle and take off from that regeneration as well. Something that would be interesting to see during Gatwa’s tenure, a double regeneration from the Fourteenth to Fifteenth. This one here is the “too early” one, and the later one would be them catching up? It’s all wild speculation, nobody knows, except perhaps Davies, who obviously won’t play his cards this quickly if that’s what he’s thinking.

Anyway, after that scene happens, we get the aforementioned final game against the Toymaker. If you watch the cut of the game itself, it’s quite obvious the three of them are no good at this game — one of them says as much in the behind the scenes making of. Still, it’s fun to watch, and the Toymaker is eventually defeated. The Doctor claims banishment as his prize, and the Toymaker ends up inside the box that was his house from earlier. Kate says to bury it in the deepest place, surrounded by salt. That’s two episodes in a row they mention salt as a barrier. I wonder if that will come up again.

Speaking of coming up again, as everyone is walking off, we get a shot of the “tooth” that was inside the Toymaker’s mouth, which apparently contains the Master. We get some laughing when the tooth is picked up — this is very similar to the exact same thing we saw at the end of The Last of the Time Lords when someone picked up the Master’s ring (and in the 1980 movie, Flash Gordon). So it’s pretty obvious we’ll get the Master again. But whom? Simm? Gomez? Dhawan? I really want to see Sacha Dhawan’s Master again: he was amazing, and I could go for more.

We then get a scene in the TARDIS with two Doctors talking about how this will work with both of them at once. It’s in here we get a sequence of characters mentioned from the past — which I loved seeing in the final 60th anniversary special. They’re all name drops, mind you; we don’t see or hear any of them, but the list of characters and events we get checked are: the First Doctor, the trial in The War Games, Pertwee’s exile to Earth, The Key to Time, Logopolis, Adric, River Song, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, the Time War, the Pandorica, Mavic Chen, and the Gods of Ragnarok. That was quite a fun name drop there. My daughter who was a major River Song fan freaked out when they said that — much in the same way when I heard Mavic Chen!

There’s a little fun wibbly wobbly where we end up with two physical TARDISes (TARDII?) here due to Gatwa’s Doctor and leftover energy from the Toymaker. The new one has a wheelchair ramp; my first thought was “K9 can get in!” but it was Shirley Ann who was overjoyed at the ramp, which I found positively amusing that the Fourteenth Doctor then closes the door on her and doesn’t let her in. There was a comment I read by RTD about this bit saying there is something coming in a future episode which will clearly state these are the same TARDIS, not two of them, so this will get revisited.

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors say their goodbyes, and the latter takes off to future adventures. The Fourteenth stays behind with the family Noble, along with “Mad aunty Mel”. This Doctor appears to actually “stop”, although to what extent he’s able to stick to that, we’ll see. RTD has said there’s no plans to bring him back, he’s done — and it’s an odd way to finish with a Doctor. It’s never happened before. It’s a super nice scene, but it just would have been better if they could have filmed it with Bernard Cribbins, who was said to be there, but out of shot, so Wilf lives.

The final shots are of Gatwa in his TARDIS taking off to the future. Ncuti stole every scene he was in. I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since 1983 when Peter Davison was the incumbent. Gatwa was amazing here. I thoroughly enjoyed everything he did on screen. When this was over, I truly can say that I have not been this excited about the new Doctor at the end of their first appearance in quite a long time — possibly ever. I really can’t wait for Gatwa’s first episode: we won’t have to wait long — it’s on 25th December!

P.S. On Disney+ here in the states, did anyone notice that if you watched with subtitles on they referred to Tennant’s Doctor as “Tenth Doctor”, and not Fourteenth? Was it this way on iPlayer as well…?

Funny thing, Doctor Who. We’re celebrating the 60th anniversary, so it’s perhaps worth pondering again that the format has shown itself to be almost infinitely flexible; moreover, it has to have that flexibility to survive. Tonally, Who has had an enormous range: from a children’s adventure series to a grim, quasi-Quatermass format (okay, I’ve been watching the early Pertwees again); from comedy-drama to a science fiction/horror hybrid. The two specials we’ve seen so far echo one of the most successful periods of 21st Century Who: late RTD1, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate reprising their performances but acknowledging that the characters have developed. It’s similar – but it’s also moved on.

As we only have Tennant and Donna back for three stories, it was a wise decision to make Wild Blue Yonder effectively a two-hander (for most of the episode, at least).

Not all of the companion/Doctor pairings would work in this format; it needs the strongest leads to carry it off. I realise it’s not a view universally shared, but I think Donna’s one of the best realised of all the female leads in the entire 60 years. She doesn’t quite knock Sarah off her perch but she comes very close. It’s good to have her back.

And, of course, good to have David Tennant back too. It’s hard to find anybody who doesn’t like his Doctor – though the Fourteenth Doctor is subtly different from the Tenth. Older, wiser, and perhaps a little more jaded. Less bouncy and less brightly optimistic. A man who carries burdens.

Wild Blue Yonder could be seen as a riff on the base-under-siege format (although it needs a bit of bludgeoning to bash it into that pigeonhole): secure environment infiltrated by hostile aliens. But that format always works well, so who’s complaining?

The aliens were very alien. There was a real sense of otherness about them: unsettling, different, disembodied, drifting on the edge of the void. Doctor Who villains are often pretty straightforward: power-mad nutcases with an inflated sense of their own importance, motivated by a desire to dominate and to blow things up. (And why not?) These two entities, however, were genuinely cruel and disturbing: strip them of their powers, and they’re no more than nasty, spiteful little playground bullies. And superbly realised by the two leading actors. Catherine Tate’s sneer, the horrid teeth (both the prosthetics and the distorted CGI-exaggerated grins), David Tennant’s sophisticated loutishness. Brilliantly done. The way the story was plotted, involving the audience by making them ask what the hell was going on, added to the real sense of menace.

It wasn’t flawless. Some of the CGI for the spaceship wasn’t great. The TARDIS interior is hugely impressive – but is it a bit too sterile, a machine rather than a home? I’m not going to carp, though: RTD is a genuine champion of Doctor Who and it would be churlish to criticise when he’s worked so hard, and beyond the call of duty, to give us so much for the 60th anniversary. Not just the specials, but The Daleks in Colour and persuading the BBC to put that massive archive onto iPlayer. He genuinely cares about the viewers and he’s been enormously generous.

And then we had the final scene and the final appearance of Bernard Cribbins. It would have been wonderful if he’d been able to do more. Cribbins’ association with Who spanned an extraordinary 56 years, from Tom Campbell in the second Cushing film to Wilfred Mott in the Tennant stories. A great actor, an integral part of 1970s childhoods, from The Wombles to his regular slots on Jackanory. (He narrated Terry Nation’s Rebecca’s World on that, too.) His range was extraordinary. He was, of course, a very effective comedy actor (not least in the many Carry On films he did), but he was effortless when realising straight and serious parts. (He excelled as Monsignor Quixote in Radio 4’s dramatisation of the Greene novel.) Wilfred Mott was beautifully played: a totally believable human being, funny, eccentric, warm, compassionate – and capable of steel when confronted by viciousness, whether it came from ill-disciplined British soldiers or from the Daleks.

He was superb and we shall miss him.

Well, Doctor Who’s back. Still pushing the envelope, still innovating, still changing. I marginally preferred The Star Beast but this was still damn good.

(My only problem is that the scene with Isaac Newton contradicted what the Doctor said in The Pirate Planet about how he climbed a tree and dropped an apple on Newton’s head. This continuity conundrum causes me sleepless nights. I must work out how it fits into established canonicity. Only then shall I sleep again.)

Doctor Who is back! And I mean back, back. Fun, lively, challenging, and (appropriately) nostalgic… It’s been 15 years since David Tennant and Catherine Tate lit up the screens as one of the very best Doctor and companion combinations (not counting the brief return for The End of Time specials). Just think, that’s almost as long as the ‘wilderness years’…

But what was remarkable was how natural it felt to have the Doctor and Donna back together. And returning showrunner, Russell T Davies, didn’t waste time. After a rather clunky (but necessary) exposition-heavy recap, it was straight into the action. Less than 30 seconds pass after the TARDIS lands before the Doctor and Donna are reunited (a reversed riff on their protracted near-misses from their previous reunion in Partners in Crime).

Another 30 seconds and we hear that (now iconic) name uttered, ‘Rose’. This is where it pays to be a longstanding but not obsessive fan of the show. For me (and you probably), we knew Donna was calling her daughter, not the Doctor’s other faithful parallel universe-stranded former companion, played by Billie Piper. That, along with the revelation about Beep the Meep being a baddie and Donna surviving for two more adventures, meant that I probably enjoyed those moments less than casual viewers.

I didn’t read Doctor Who Weekly in 1980, but I did read the original Doctor Who and the Star Beast comic (by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons) when it was reprinted in Doctor Who Classic Comics in 1994. And, for due diligence, I reread it a few weeks ago to inform this review. I know, above and beyond… RTD has taken the essence of that story but, like the TV adaptation of Human Nature, it does not slavishly replicate the source material. However, Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors have been reproduced faithfully to Gibbons’ original drawings. As well they should.

RTD has gone on record saying that these early Tom Baker comics are basically the way he writes Doctor Who. And you can see how Doctor Who and the Star Beast has influenced his writing: spaceships crash landing in city centres, urban environments and ordinary family life interrupted by aliens, even the Doctor escaping in a double decker bus happened back in the pages of Doctor Who Weekly 40+ years ago. In fact, the bones of the plot of Doctor Who and the Star Beast is essentially the same as Smith and Jones in 2007: a harmless-seeming alien is pursued by monsters who turn out to be galactic police seeking a dangerous fugitive hiding on planet Earth.

If you have read my previous reviews from the Jodie Whittaker era, you will know that I gauge part of the success of an episode by the reaction of my children: my son (12) and daughter (8). Frustratingly, the Thirteenth Doctor’s adventures were regularly characterised by both of them fidgeting, playing with other things, forgetting to follow the story, and asking questions about the logic of what is happening on screen (and me not having a suitable answer). Not so with The Star Beast. Their attention was wrapped — they laughed, gasped, and shouted ‘no!’ at appropriate moments, staying pretty-much glued to the action the whole time. This was meant to be a welcoming romp, so there were no behind-the-sofa scares in evidence. Hopefully next week…

So, what do I say? It was a glorious return to a golden era of Doctor Who, enough nostalgic call-backs to be a worthy 60th anniversary special, but pushing things forward in the development of the characters and visually more impressive than ever, thanks to the Disney+ funding… I could go on and on about how wonderful it was. And that lovely cute furry alien was so delightful… meep meep!

Oh, to hell with this. It was a steaming pile of tired tropes and laughable storytelling. The dreadful episode was a terrible missed opportunity, resorting to desperate fan service rather than pushing the boundaries of the show’s potential. Plus all that Woke nonsense about gender and sexuality, which has no place on a science fiction programme for children. The ‘Most-High’ has an uncontrollable desire to kill Doctor Who! But the ‘Most-High’ must control himself. Business before… PLEASURE!

Sorry, I don’t know what came over me… The Star Beast was always going to be in safe hands with Russel T Davies back at the helm, ably supported by veteran director Rachel Talalay, returning producers Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, and Phil Collinson, and Murray Gold’s glorious music. It felt nostalgic rather than naval-gazing; familiar but fresh. On the whole, not the most intellectually challenging of episodes, but the most fun, thrilling adventure for many a year.

We are left with a few questions — hopefully the answers will unfold in the next two specials, or form part of the ongoing arc for the Fifteenth Doctor. First, who is the Meep’s ‘Boss’? The obvious choice would be the Toymaker, and I can’t help but think we haven’t heard the last of the Psychedelic Sun/solar psychedelia. And the Doctor’s ‘face’: why has the Tenth come back, and older? Unlike the Timeless Child ‘arc’, I suspect RTD has some suitable answers to share. What about the gonk-obsessed woman from the United Arab Emirates (Dubai or Abu Dhabi?) who buys Rose’s creations? Just a throwaway line or is RTD planting a plot seed…?

And Wilf! We know some scenes were filmed with Bernard Cribbins in a wheelchair, shortly before he sadly died. Was the footage incomplete and Ruth Madeley introduced as UNIT scientific advisor, Shirley Bingham to replace those sequences? Or will Wilf make a final appearance in The Giggle when the Doctor and Donna return to Earth? Stay tuned, as I suspect you will (I definitely will), to find out… as we head towards the Wild Blue Yonder. Allons-y!

It’s been a good couple of years for The Daleks, as I think we should probably agree to call it now. We’ve had a beautifully illustrated edition of David Whitaker’s novel, a cinema re-release of the movie version, and (for UK viewers at least) the opportunity to watch the story on BBC iPlayer. And now, on the very day of the programme’s 60^th anniversary, this brand new colourised omnibus. How wonderful that, all these years after its first broadcast, what is arguably the most important story in Doctor Who’s long history should still attract this kind of care and attention.

When it was first announced, I wrongly assumed this would be along the lines of those feature-length versions of stories that would be shown, often over Christmas, in the 1970s (and which are now frequently included on the Blu-ray classic series box sets). It was a huge treat in those pre-home video years to enjoy the likes of The Green Death and Genesis of the Daleks again. But that was to vastly underestimate the ambition of video editor Benjamin Cook, who didn’t so much cut the episodes together as strip them down to their individual parts and reassemble them from a whole new set of plans.  

Russell T Davies said in this month’s Doctor Who Magazine that the editing would prove to be more controversial than the colouring, and he was probably right. The tale now rattles along at a relentless pace, with the swift cutting we’re all used to in the modern era but would have been unthinkable when the story was made. I found myself laughing at the production team’s gall in coming up with such a wholesale reimagining, though it surely won’t have been to everyone’s taste.

It’s a shame that there wasn’t room for the Magnedon, Doctor Who’s very first alien creature, and some moments of character and charm that weren’t strictly necessary to the story, such as the food machine sequence, were sacrificed. I could have done without retconning touches like the cloister bell and mention of Kaleds, but I will allow that most people watching would have expected to hear ‘EXTERMINATE!’ a few times, even if viewers of the original didn’t. I rather liked some of the more audacious touches, such as the Daleks cunningly writing Susan’s note, though I wish there’d been room for a new scene where a Dalek clutches a marker pen as another one criticises its handwriting.

When the Daleks made it on to the big screen in the 1960s, the posters promised it was a chance to see them IN COLOUR. It was a message the team behind this colourisation seemed to have taken to heart, because boy, was this colourful. Barbara’s blouse was so vibrant a shade of pink it’s a wonder the first Dalek to appear in the series wasn’t blinded, and I couldn’t take my eyes off those vivid yellow and red dials on the control panels. Colourisation technology has clearly come a long way since those early 1980s efforts, but I don’t think it’s unfair to say it’s not yet at the point where anyone watching this would think it was filmed in colour.

But what an achievement by Rich Tipple and his team, who slaved for hours using techniques which, though assisted by software, still largely have to be done manually. We’re used to seeing colour photos of 1960s silver and blue Daleks, but it was glorious to see them moving and interacting, and of course exterminating, here.

At the conclusion, we got a tantalising glimpse of The Keys of Marinus, The Web Planet, and lots of other 1960s stories in colour, including The Beatles’ Top of the Pops appearance. Can they really be planning to do them all? I’ll certainly be watching if they do, as well as looking forward to RTD going on The One Show to promote, say, the 68^th anniversary armed with the colourised version of The Gunfighters.  

Although full credit must go to those behind The Daleks in Colour, the final tributes have to be paid to the cast and crew of the original, who against all the odds, in the face of low expectations and working in the most unfavourable conditions, came up with a production that caught the public’s imagination in a way few programmes ever do.

For all the changes made in this new edit, it’s still possible to marvel at what they achieved. That sense of danger, that the travellers are in the most desperate peril, was never quite the same after those early stories. The mystery of just who the Doctor is, and the (wholly justified) feeling that he can’t be trusted. And of course the Daleks; menacing, calculating, and malevolent, and about to secure the programme’s future. The Daleks in Colour was a highlight of this very special month in Doctor Who history, and enabled us to enjoy this landmark story all over again.      

The Daleks in Colour can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.

A DVD, Blu-ray, and limited edition steelbook will be released in February 2024.  

Ah, The Underwater Menace. A story which often languishes at the bottom of episode polls and is spoken of in hushed voices by those who enjoy it for fear of ridicule from fellow Who fans. But is The Underwater Menace actually as bad as people think? And with the new animation, is it time the Doctor’s first excursion to Atlantis gets a reappraisal?

Let’s get this out the way: The Underwater Menace is never going to be Doctor Who’s finest hour but it’s certainly not the worst. If you are looking for a fun way to while away a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than this. The main problem with this story is that it was a rushed production coming in to replace a story entitled The Imps; the serial suffered from a quick script turnaround, a reshuffle of lines to accommodate newcomer Jamie McCrimmon, and being given the smallest studio available at Riverside Studios. It seems like all the odds were stacked against it.

So it was a bit of a surprise, after the apparent death of the animations thanks to BBC America pulling their funding, that The Underwater Menace was next as opposed to a more popular story. Director AnneMarie Walsh said at the BFI screening she was aware that fans would have preferred a different story, but due to not being given a lot of money, they were limited on which they could actually animate. We also know that there is no Disney money involved — the BBC give the team their own small budget.

There are times in this animation where that small budget is blatantly obvious. For the most part, the animation team has done a great job and we should be grateful that we get these releases to complete the missing adventures. And while this is nowhere near as bad as Episode 3 of The Web of Fear, there are some sticky moments here and there, most notably for me the fact that they seem unable to get Anneke Wills’ likeness quite right. It’s not a problem exclusive to this release but what was very distracting was how her mouth seemed to move across her face in a way no other character’s did. It’s only really noticeable in the final episodes when things look a little rushed but one can understand why Anneke Wills isn’t overly fond of these releases.

The script from Geoffrey Orme feels padded throughout and one wonders, had it had the time to be tightened up, could it have been better? There are germs of a good story here: the Doctor arrives in the lost city of Atlantis, there’s a mad scientist trying to raise the city by draining the oceans, and the Fish People, for all the flack they get, are an interesting creation from a makeup standpoint. But things never quite reach their potential: there is no reason as to why Professor Zaroff is trying to raise Atlantis beyond the fact that he simply can, nor why and how the Doctor knows who Zaroff is; and why does everyone seem to know who the Doctor is? One of the Atlanteans, Ara, played by Catherine Howe, seems very familiar with the Doctor and his friends despite not really meeting them until Episode 2. Ara is an interesting character though: at the recent DWAS Riverside Event Sea & Space, Howe — who was a guest there– said there had been some rumblings that the production team were talking about bringing her on as a companion, so it seems that there were plans to move Ben and Polly on pretty early into their time aboard the TARDIS. But this still doesn’t explain why Ara seems to know who these characters are despite never having met them before.

Another issue is that Episode 4 has some repeated animated scenes, most notably where Polly and Jamie are climbing up rocks to find a way out as Atlantis floods. Now, of course, you’ve animated these segments once so why animate them again? But it does make the final episode feel very padded. This is an issue with the script too, which feels an episode too long but simply showing the same shots over and over while the soundtrack plays in the background doesn’t make for interesting viewing. Luckily, they are kept short and those who aren’t paying attention wouldn’t notice.

Ratings at this time were slipping and Patrick Troughton was questioning his time on the show. Michael Troughton, also at the DWAS event, said that his father even blamed himself for the falling ratings, believing that he wasn’t doing a good job as the Doctor. But, if The Underwater Menace does one thing, it’s prove that wrong. Troughton is easily the best thing here, giving a brilliantly charismatic performance and somehow manages to sell how dangerous Zaroff is. He also nails the funny moments, and while this may be the last time the cosmic hobo got to dress up, you can see in the performance that none of those misgivings Troughton had translate to the screen — he completely believes in this and sells every moment.

Also to their credit, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze, and Frazer Hines sell the material, though they don’t really get much to do. Anneke Wills gets a brilliant cliffhanger where she is menaced with a needle, and Craze and Hines get to do plenty of scrabbling through mines, but they all spent so much time away from the Doctor that you forget they are supposed to be a team. That’s not entirely fair; they do all reunite in the middle of episode 3, but then get separated again very quickly.

I did like that the story poses the question of what you’d do if you ended up stranded because the Doctor dies. When Jamie and Polly escape the caves as Zaroff fills them with water, they believe the Doctor and Ben to have drowned and sit by the TARDIS looking incredibly upset. While Polly says they are only in the early 1970s in the opening episode, they are stuck in a part of the world that isn’t their own, surrounded by people who were the enemy and Jamie is a couple of hundred years from his own time. It’s a precarious place for the companions to be so I’ll give Geoffrey Orme credit for having the guts to pose this question in a time when companions were pretty safe and always got happy (ish) endings.

It’s very well documented that both Wills and Craze weren’t overly keen on the idea of Frazer Hines joining them because it meant the number of their lines would be cut in half. And while one can see their point, the lines are divvied up well enough so you really wouldn’t notice. Nonetheless, poor Polly doesn’t really get much to do and while she helps the Doctor capture Zaroff, she then spends the rest of the story screaming, something that shows how dodgy her animated mouth looks. I had never realised how funny Craze is as Ben. There is an excellent scene in the final episode where Ben, dressed as one of Zaroff’s guards, is helping the Doctor to get into the mad scientist’s lab. He has to use passwords to get past the guards and says of the Doctor:

“Of course he’s the prisoner — have you ever seen another berk dressed like this?!”

Troughton plays off this brilliantly, giving the two a fantastic scene together and once again highlighting that there are some great lines of dialogue littered throughout the script.

What the animation helps to emphasise, though, is that the script is an ambitious production, one that the budget and limited studio space just couldn’t accommodate; here, the animation and the soundtrack don’t quite match. While it’s lovely to see the expansive landscapes that animation can offer, there is a definite creepiness to the Temple of Amdo set in the surviving live action episodes that the animation doesn’t capture. This also brings into question the idea of creative license. AnneMarie Walsh spoke about how she thinks these animations capture what the original director would have wanted to do with a bigger budget. Personally, having seen the two surviving episodes, I think original director Julia Smith did a terrific job with the limited space and money available.

The issue of creative license also extends to the new look for the Atlanteans and the Fish People. The Atlanteans sported some very bushy eyebrows in the original, but here they are painted a light grey to make them look more fish-like. Of course, this is a colour production: painting an actor grey wouldn’t have worked in black and white but you may find yourself missing those eyebrows. Similarly, one might find themselves missing the strange makeup for the original Fish People. In the famous swimming scene which saw the Fish People going on strike, the animation doesn’t quite do the scene the justice the original did.

The new design for them too might be quite jarring for those of us who like to watch the animations with the surviving episodes in the correct places. While it’s amazing to see people bringing a new lease of life to the missing stories, I think that creative license should be taken into account here; for some viewers, it might deviate a little too much from the rightly or wrongly iconic look of the underwater creatures.

Another issue to be taken into account here is the handling of the violence in the story. Walsh spoke about how scenes such as Polly being menaced by a needle had to be toned down from the original. Indeed, the original got responses from medical professionals concerned that the needle scene would worry children who were going to hospital for operations. These are valid concerns and we are talking about children, but even nowadays (as psychotic as this might sound), people forget that children like to be scared; while we all have differing levels of things we find scary, I’ve always thought seeing Daleks exterminating people a lot scarier than what’s on offer here.

One moment I would agree with is when Zaroff stabs Ramo with a trident. The animated scene is delivered with close ups on the trident and character reactions — though in the original, we don’t actually see the trident going in, it is a particularly nasty moment that the animation handles deftly.

The animation handles the character of Zaroff well, making him the Bond villain that he deserved to be, by giving him shark tanks and pet octopuses that the original budget sadly wouldn’t stretch to. While the animated Zaroff loses some of the eccentricities from Joesph Furst’s performance, Zaroff comes away well here and actually, seeing the whole story, he’s a much more convincing threat than he is originally.

There is an excellent scene at the end, again edited to tone down the violence, where Zaroff is drowning. Instead of clinging onto the bars and trying to heave himself up against the water, he sees his pet octopus escape and cling onto the lever that will blow up the world. He tries to urge the creature to push it down but it leaves him and he can do nothing but wave goodbye in response. It’s a vastly different moment from the original but feels like one Furst would have happily played.

It also goes a long way showing us what a tragic character Zaroff is. Behind all the bluster and bravado, he’s just a man who has been alone his whole life and when his pet leaves him too, despite the love he shows it, you are forced to wonder if that sort of treatment might turn anyone mad in the end. The Doctor asks him at one point why he wants to blow up the world. Zaroff responds by talking about the achievement of such a feat but maybe the answer is a little more obvious: maybe these are the actions of a man who has been so unloved his entire life, he’s gone insane. If no one can show him love and kindness, then why should anyone else get that with others?

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. As with every Doctor Who story, there will be fans and those who aren’t so keen on what they are seeing. But getting to watch The Underwater Menace will hopefully give people a new appreciation for the story. It still won’t win awards and the animation can be a little clunky and jerky in places, but there is a heart to this story that wasn’t there in the surviving episodes. Orme’s script has some great ideas the budget couldn’t accommodate and while I’m not sure the animation quite reaches the heights of previous releases, this package might surprise some viewers.

Originally released as the last DVD in the Classics range, we were robbed of some extras to enjoy; luckily, this new release has plenty of extras to enjoy, two of which include a making of documentary and an episode of another series which sees Patrick Troughton and Joseph Furst acting together before The Underwater Menace.

There is a surprising charm to The Underwater Menace and things aren’t as fishy as you may think. While this is no Tomb of the Cybermen or Evil of the Daleks, The Underwater Menace isn’t as dull as The Space Pirates. I would even watch this above stories like The Dominators and The Krotons. I don’t agree with previous reviews saying this story is tacky and cheap. Zaroff is genuinely scary and the main cast are excellent here, Troughton putting in an extremely charismatic performance in particular. And while the story might not reach the heights of its ambition, you certainly can’t blame it for trying.

The Underwater Menace animation is available now on DVD, Blu-ray, and in a limited edition steelbook.

Having finally obtained William Hartnell’s second season on Blu-ray — the first black and white season to get the royal treatment — I found myself once again swept up in “Overview mode”. Watching each story in fairly rapid succession, forming one larger overall story, as episodes had actions and consequences from one adventure overlapping onto the next.

For the better part of the first three seasons, the episodes had their own titles. It wasn’t until years later that they were grouped together and catalogued as larger stories. The now recognised six part story The Chase didn’t have Part One, Two, Three — no. They featured episodes with titles like The Executioners, Flight through Eternity, and The Death of Doctor Who. (That title must have rattled a few kids.)

But it was so enjoyable to experience the downtime and interpersonal relationships of the TARDIS crew. Quite the immersive experience. The little things, like at the beginning of The Web Planet, Barbara and Vicki chatting about the gold bracelet Barbara received from Nero in the previous romp, The Romans; or the toll Susan’s departure took on the Doctor as the events of The Dalek Invasion of Earth ended and The Rescue began.

It’s also worth noting that as always, the restoration team has added as much digital magic as is possible to bring us the best in sound and picture. Such wizardry gives us such good detail, you can often see the seams and wrinkles in some background “skies” and the like — and I relish it. In some productions, spotting an obvious background painting might take you out of the story, because suddenly, they’re no longer “fooling” you. Not so with 1960s Doctor Who. It’s all part of The Play. Many of these enhancements were made going into the individual DVDs, so I’m unsure how much more has or could be added here, considering the original sources’ limitations of the day.

As for the adventures themselves, the production teams of the day created without a doubt some of the most imaginative and ingenious work ever done on television. Especially considering the threadbare budget of the BBC. There were times where they clearly bit off more than they could chew, or you could say the production team’s eyes were bigger than their stomachs, but even then, you had to give your compliments to the chef for sheer determination and bravery, bringing forth a tantalising repast.

The incomparable Verity Lambert and co. brings us Doctor Who Season 2.

Planet of Giants

Written by Louis Marks, directed by Melvyn Pinfield and Douglas Camfield

Episode titles: “Planet of Giants”, “Dangerous Journey”, “Crisis”.

I’m not sure if this three parter gets its proper due when opinion polls look back on it. Not only is it economically paced, unlike some six parters I can think of (hello, The Sensorites, or insert any one of the more bloated, longer stories here…), but it’s simple, to the point, and at times, chilling. And the prop work! The detail and craft shown in creating the sink drain, the valise, the match, the INSECTS! These were amazing. Extra points on the story’s reasoning for why most of these bugs didn’t move, thus helping sell the authenticity—and then, they give us the fly, which does.

And it must be said that this is how you have the four person main cast interact. In each of these stories, no character is wasted, everyone is utilised, used to build and explore drama, emotion. The comfortable back and forth as seen through the first and second season especially is a testament to the superb writing as well as its lead actors. Here, Barbara hides the fact that she’s been poisoned by the insecticide, which builds the tension as the crew’s situation gets ever more desperate. You care about these travellers.

8 of 10.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Written by Terry Nation, directed by Richard Martin

Episode titles: “World’s End”, “Day of Reckoning”, “The Daleks”, “The End of Tomorrow”, “The Waking Ally”, “Flashpoint”.

This is a six-parter that earns its place in the ranks, as well as its length. The Daleks put Doctor Who on the map, but Lambert waited a year before bringing them back. Almost hard to believe it’s only the second Dalek story, but it’s a powerful one. We open on a poster warning against dumping bodies in the Thames. And we’re off.

Although the quality track record on six-part adventures can vary —excessive padding is the most persistent criticism— The Dalek Invasion of Earth makes the most of its airtime. It gives us a healthy dose of Daleks, an insane scheme on their part, a true feeling of hopelessness, then victory (and even romance). This was one of the rare examples of a companion relationship feeling honest and earned, even if you watch all six parts in one sitting, as opposed to over the course of six weeks as originally aired. Susan and David belonged together, and it felt right. Perhaps you can chalk up this rare, well developed relationship to having a female producer? Possibly.

The circumstances under which the Doctor leaves his granddaughter behind creates one of the most poignant endings for a companion ever. Later companions under different producers didn’t fare nearly as well.

Of course, Carole Ann Ford leaving the show upset Hartnell almost as much as Susan leaving her grandfather did, but Ford felt there wasn’t the type of character development she hoped for with Susan, and she was right. There was far more hysterical screaming than there needed to be, especially for such an allegedly advanced and sophisticated teenager. One of the rare blemishes of the Lambert era.

Along with the established remastering, the updated effects first brought in for the DVD are also here. Superbly inserted into the proceedings, blending in and elevating the effects to just the right levels. Also, kudos to the superior menu design on the Blu-rays. When choosing the updated effects on the DVD, it was never made clear if the new effects were on or off. Very frustrating.

In the end, the only thing more chilling than seeing the Daleks on Skaro, was bringing them to Earth.

9 of 10.

The Rescue

Written by David Whitaker, directed by Christopher Barry

Episode titles: “The Powerful Enemy”. “Desperate Measures”.

In this noteworthy two-part adventure, the Doctor actually sleeps through the TARDIS materialising, and even after landing on the planet Dido, he wants nothing more than another nap. He is, simply, depressed. His granddaughter is gone. It’s the first time we’ve seen the Doctor lose someone, and it’s taken away some of his spirit. Ian and Barbara are rightfully concerned for him.

But they and we soon meet a ship-wrecked survivor named Vicki, who’s kept under the thumb of the menacing Bennett, and the even more menacing Koquillion, as the TARDIS crew tackle the mystery surrounding them. Maureen O’Brien’s Vicki is the perfect tonic for not only the Doctor, but the viewers as well. Vicki may be a young girl, similar to Susan’s age, but that’s where the resemblance ends. Vicki will often give as good as she gets, isn’t a screamer, and doesn’t seem to twist her ankle on a regular basis.

Of course, some of that’s the writing, but some of it’s also how O’Brien carried herself as Vicki, refusing to be a useless, screaming hostage, I salute her for that. Having established the new crew, they moved on…

7 of 10.

The Romans

Written by Dennis Spooner, directed by Christopher Barry

Episode titles: “The Slave Traders”, “All Roads lead to Rome”, “Conspiracy”, “Inferno”.

Dennis Spooner is a fantastic writer who knew how to blend comedy and drama. I don’t know if that ability has ever been more apparent than in The Romans.

Spooner treats us to relaxing moments with Ian and Barbara as they continue to enjoy peace and quiet outside Rome in a “borrowed” villa, where the TARDIS crew has been for a month! They tease and joke with each other, further showing us the bond they have. Contrast that with facing the realities of being kidnapped and sold into slavery within the same episode! This was a real rollercoaster, this one.

While Ian and Barbara face an uncertain future, the Doctor and Vicki visit Rome, and find themselves in intrigue up to their necks. The Doctor even makes quick work of an assassin trying to do him in. Don’t know if we’d ever seen him so spry. I can’t help but think about that Power Nap he took at the beginning of The Rescue…

The Doctor even takes advantage of a case of mistaken identity and parlays it into an audience with Caesar Nero himself. Spooner masterfully weaves the independent storylines together, showing just how lovely, amusing, and terrifying visiting the past can be.

8 of 10.

The Web Planet

Written by Bill Strutton, directed by Richard Martin

Episode titles: “The Web Planet”, “The Zarbi”, “Escape to Danger”, “The Crater of Needles”, “Invasion”, “The Centre“.

Okay, a lot to unpack here. Intention, ambition, visual choices, costuming choices, budget: you name it. Maybe get a cup of coffee, make a sandwich, or grab a cocktail, depending on the time of day you’re reading this.

Verity Lambert was capable of virtually anything. What she’d accomplished with this alleged “children’s show” was nothing short of miraculous, and to do it in the face of the opposition of the times was even more impressive.

That being said, The Web Planet fell a bit short. If that had been the second ever serial of Doctor Who instead of The Dead Planet, I think it’s fair to say the Beeb might not have let them go beyond 13 episodes.

But… has there ever been a more ambitious undertaking in the history of the show? I’d be hard pressed to think of one. Here’s an episode guide note regarding the genesis of the story idea and behind scenes planning:

“When crafting an idea for the serial, Strutton recalled a memory as a child of watching two bull ants fighting, which he linked with his two sons fighting each other. Story editor Dennis Spooner found the narrative to be multilayered, with the Menoptra representing free enterprise and the Zarbi communism. Martin hired a mime artist to develop choreography for the serial, and forwent a traditional score in favour of prerecorded stock music. The Web Planet premiered with 13.5 million viewers, the highest in the series to date; it maintained high viewership across the six weeks.”

But reviews were mixed, citing a confusing story, but appreciative of the monumental attempt. Everybody went out of their way on this one. I have to imagine this story ate up a fair amount of the season’s budget, even amortizing it across six episodes.

I’ll admit, the parallels of free enterprise and communism were totally lost on me, and I’m sure the same could be said of the small children watching it live, back in the day. At the same time, I would think the kids ate this one up. Butterfly people, giant ants, and… whatever the Optera were. Grubs? All I know is, the lead Optera sounded — and I’m not joking — exactly like Razor in World Enough and Time. I’ll admit, the voice of this grub character… I pictured the Master once again staying in some bizarre disguise for years, for… some reason.

The poor costume designers. At least with The Romans, there was a fair chance they could have borrowed some togas from other BBC productions. But here… at first, I’m sure they were excited — getting to design an alien, humanoid, butterfly species! Stripes, and fur and large wings that spread out, because of course they have to fly as well. Quite the mission statement already.

But then, there was a need for a second, totally different species that look like giant ants, massive, with hard shells which would require actors and stuntmen to be bent over at awkward, back-breaking angles for hours at a time.

AND then, a third alien species, looking like grubs, were necessary. While they successfully approximated the look and feel of furry butterflies, with gossamer wings for the Menoptera, and even the menacing, hard shelled ant appearance of the Zarbi, the end result for the Optera was more like a school play, with lots and lots of felt, but I sympathise. I mean… grubs.

The set designers needed to create the Animus character, a disembodied alien underground presence, and of course the massive planet Vortis, with the painted night sky filled with stars and moons.

I’m not sure how much of this production was an exciting challenge, and how much of it was a headache, but I can only imagine the logistics of prepping a scene where several Menoptera all swoop down across an alien landscape — laid out in several levels — to engage in battle with the Zarbi.

ZAARRRRRBEEEEEEEEEEE!

Martin hiring a mime to coordinate the different species’ movements, adding a filter to the camera lens to give Vortis’ atmosphere a different, slightly blurred, alien look… So much detail. Thankfully, the visuals here are much much better and sharper than the first time I watched the serial years ago. There’s no doubt, those improved visuals help the experience quite a bit, but yes, as far as pacing goes, if this were a four-parter, the whole story would have been a bit less of a slog.

Credit where credit is due on this ambitious venture, but it was about 50 years ahead if its time.

Side note: Still also better than the puppets in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Just saying.

6 of 10.

The Crusade

Written by David Whitaker, directed by Douglas Camfield.

Episode titles: “The Lion”, “The Knight of Jaffa” (missing), “Wheel of Fortune”, “The Warlords” (missing).

The options regarding the presentation of missing episodes 2 and 4 here surprised me in a good way. The big point of contention here is that with all of season two naturally intact except for only two episodes, The Knight of Jaffa and The Warlords, you’d think the BBC would have gone to the trouble of animating those two eps. They did not, but they had their reasons.

However, they do give options on experiencing the missing episodes. One option is to watch episodes 2 and 4 through telesnaps matched with the original soundtrack, which I’ve done in the past. This time, though, I opted for William Russell, as Ian Chesterton telling us about the events of the two missing episodes while in his study, and I must say, it was lovely to see Russell back in character, reminiscing about his time with the Doctor.

In a way, it’s almost the best of both worlds. We get to see episodes 1 and 3 with stunning performances by Bernard Kay (Saladin), Julian Glover (King Richard), and Jean Marsh (Princess Joanna), and the rest of the time, we spend with Ian. I believe Russell must have filmed his connecting scenes some time ago, because he appeared some 15 to 20 years younger than he is now. Seriously, I have no complaints; I enjoyed that they did this.

Would something like that work to “patch over” the entirety of Marco Polo? Doubtful, although I don’t know if Russell happened to do anything like that for that story back in the day.

But here and now, in this instance, it worked for The Crusade.

As for the story itself — oh, how I wish those episodes would be recovered. Once again, Doctor Who meets masterpiece theater. Intense drama, and plenty of action. The Doctor battles brigands with his sword, right alongside Ian. That Power Nap again!

One final note — David Whitaker was the absolute best at writing historical adventures.

8 of 10.

The Space Museum

Written by Glyn Jones, directed by Melvyn Pinfield

Episode titles: “The Space Museum”, “The Dimensions of Time”, “The Search”, “The Final Phase”.

Not one of the more popular stories, but very high concept and something we’ve seen before and also copied quite a bit over the decades in other sci-fi shows. A very Twilight Zone feel to it, with the crew trying to change their own future to prevent becoming exhibits in the titular location. A well done story with a couple interesting side notes such as a young Jeremy Bulloch a decade before his turn as an archer in The Time Warrior and as Boba Fett in Star Wars.

Also, after being abducted, the Doctor plays opossum before getting the drop on one of his attackers, leaving him hogtied for his compatriots to find. The youth, with some crazy alien eyebrows described being attacked by the old man like getting hit by a whirlwind. Power Nap!

6.5 of 10.

The Chase

Written by Terry Nation, directed by Richard Martin

Episode titles: “The Executioners”, “The Death of Time”, “Flight Through Eternity”, “Journey into Terror”, “The Death of Doctor Who”, “The Planet of Decision”.

Lots of fun gimmicks in this six-parter, but most importantly, the Daleks have built themselves a time machine, and that’s bad news for everybody. I have to wonder if Nation were running out of gas at this point regarding what to do with the Daleks. The entire story comes across as a bit of a mish-mash, but then again, it is a chase across space and time.

From the rather blobby mire beasts on Arridia, to the not quite convincing American accents at the Empire State Building, to rather silly and OTT monsters at the haunted house, and the rather unconvincing Doctor duplicate, this felt a bit like a Dalek cash-in. The nicest part of the proceedings was Ian and Barbara finally going home. Although, with all the goings on, I can’t really say this six-parter felt padded; just maybe a bit underwhelming. I’m glad that Dennis Spooner would step in and do most of the heavy lifting the next time the Daleks showed up.

6 of 10.

The Time Meddler

Written by Dennis Spooner, directed by Douglas Camfield

Episode titles: “The Watcher”, “The Meddling Monk”, “A Battle of Wits”, “Checkmate”.

This was a wonderfully written and produced quasi-historical, that was both fun and frightening at points, but I expect nothing less from Spooner. The Doctor’s separated from Steven and Vicki for most of this one, but that may have been to spotlight the two companions as they get to know each other. Steven’s a bit abrasive here as the sceptic, but then again, he’s got every right to be. He keeps getting conflicting info about what century he’s really in. It’s the battle of wits between the Doctor and the Monk, though, that’s most entertaining.

On the dark side, you’ve got the viking raiding party that assaults and traumatises a woman in the village. Spooner always gives you light moments, but is careful to balance them out with harsh reality. You’ve got to admire the honesty there.

The Monk would only appear one more time, during The Daleks’ Master Plan. I’d have to guess that if Hartnell kept on going for a full fourth season, they might have brought in the Monk again, as they made for good rivals. At the same time, I can see why they wouldn’t keep it going when Patrick Troughton came along. The Monk was a bit too similar to the Second Doctor, what with the impish attitude and mop of hair.

This was a very good story to end the season on though. New TARDIS crew, and a new rival for the Doctor, who just happened to be one of his own people!

8 of 10.

Overall, I’d say Season 2 is easily as solid as the first, possibly even a tiny bit better. I heartily recommend getting this box set and enjoying it episode by episode even more so than story by story. Enjoy the “Overview”. It really does present the show, the narrative, the regulars in a different light. Something we lost — to an extent — by the end of the Hartnell era.

I’m very curious as to which of the back and white seasons they’ll release next. Since they’ve been filling the holes in Season 4 with animation, that’s a possibility, but Seasons 1, 5, and 6 are only missing one story each. Since the BBC have now demonstrated that they have no problem releasing an incomplete season on Blu-ray, anything goes.

It seems as though as long as the missing episode count isn’t too high, they’ll take the risk. Maybe they’re also watching how sales are for this one, monitoring feedback on exactly how much the incomplete aspect hurts them. We’ll see.

And what of you, dear reader? Which ‘60s season are you rooting for to come out next?

Among the political machinations over the last few weeks, which have played out like an unfolding, unbelievable, absurd, and terrifying political drama, The Power of the Doctor has been somewhat of a relief. It’s a fast-paced adventure story with a frankly bonkers plot, that somehow manages to be more satisfying than much of the Chris Chibnall/Jodie Whitaker era.

For all the call-backs to the last few years – Sacha Dhawan’s Master, the Lone Cyberman Ashad, Vinder from Flux, the Fugitive Doctor, and the ‘Time Lord’ Cybermen – there was a Trussian level of u-turns here. UNIT has returned to pretty much full funding after being clumsily written out in Resolution. The Daleks are back as an invasion force, despite the Dalek War Fleet being destroyed in the Flux event.

The Timeless Child story arc that cast a shadow over the Whittaker era is not even mentioned, let alone resolved. In fact, the inclusion of mostly classic-era Doctors at ‘The Edge’ seems to suggest they are still the Doctor’s main incarnations, not a myriad of Morbius Doctors, tortured children, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Of course, the ‘explanation’ is that the Doctor’s memory of pre-Hartnell incarnations is hidden. Then how come she can conjure up a convincing Fugitive Doctor hologram? (Whatever, Jo Martin is simply brilliant, if underused again.)

While Dan Lewis (John Bishop) exits in the most underwhelming companion farewell since Mel (more of her later) – why no walk into the sunset with Diane? – Yasmin (Mandip Gill) and the Doctor’s unrequited love is completely sidelined, despite it being such a signposted revelation at the end of Legend of the Sea Devils. If you missed that, then the end of The Power of the Doctor plays out like two good friends saying goodbye rather than two people who are in love with each other parting forever. And I don’t buy this ‘doing the next bit alone’ and Yaz passively nodding. If you love someone deeply, you wouldn’t abandon them to face death (basically) solo. For all of Yaz’s becoming independent and determined spirit in this episode and previous adventures, she once again becomes shrug-the-shoulder compliant in the end.

The Chibnall trick of setting a plot between multiple timelines, locations, and empty planets is in force but somehow manages to be relatively coherent. As is Chibnall’s introduction of a hugely powerful and mysterious thing (a Quoronx) that has never been mentioned before, but the Doctor knows all about and has to explain in a technobabbly speech, and that kind of works here too. That’s because the pace is frantic, much of the plot holes and fudges come and go when the next spectacle appears.

For long-term Doctor Who fans, the inclusion of ’80s companions Ace and Tegan is a thrill (particularly the glimpses of them interacting with versions of their Doctors). Also, the cameos of the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Doctors bring a sense of celebration to this BBC centenary special. (I imagine Colin Baker did it for the love of Who, rather than the corporation that treated him so badly in the 1980s.) Great to see glimpses of all of them, but any moments of McGann on-screen are precious. They seem to get David Bradley back for all occasions. We can only hope a full episode with McGann is part of the RTD2 plans.

The AA-like meeting at the end of the Doctor’s former companions is another cockle-warming toast to all of fandom. But for most viewers, it was a bunch of people in a room with no explanation as to who they were. Except, isn’t that Carmel – Bonnie Langford – from EastEnders? What’s she doing there? You just can’t conjure up nostalgia for something you have never experienced, unless you put time and effort into the story, like they did with Sarah Jane in School Reunion. And where was Polly (Anneke Wills)? And Martha? And Mickey– yes, probably best not to go there.

Despite this being Whittaker’s final regular appearance as the Doctor, she seemed a little sidelined in all the spectacle. The Master was given much better lines and profile, with the Thirteenth Doctor disappearing in the middle only to return in other forms (another repeated Chibnall trope). The sad fact is that this episode is likely to be boosted through iPlayer views, not with people wanting to see how Jodie exits but to cheer at David Tennant’s return. Jodie deserves more, frankly. But her Tigger-and-teatime turn as the Doctor never fully meshed into a convincing incarnation. Jodie is capable of so much more, but was given such a passive and (slightly) annoying persona that never transcended the too often sub-par material.

But, you know, despite all that, I rather enjoyed it. And so did my children (son aged 11 and daughter, seven). My son declared that it was a much better episode than he’d seen recently. My daughter, who had stopped watching all episodes and eras after the Flux (who can blame her?), declared that she enjoyed it and had, ‘missed Doctor Who.’ For all the fans who – whatever the BBC and production team deny – have fallen away over the last five years, I hope the teasing of Tennant brings them back. And the brilliance of Russell T Davies as showrunner and lead writer keeps them there.

Well, goodbye, Jodie. You did quite well, quite well (given the circumstances and material). But it’s reassuring to know that the future is in safe hands…

(And I don’t mean Rishi Sunak.)

Depending on your religious and cultural persuasion, Easter Sunday is either about the resurrection of something that’s believed to be dead forever, or the overindulgence of Easter eggs. Sadly, Legend of the Sea Devils falls squarely in the latter. Sad, because I genuinely felt excited after seeing the preview and trailer, and hoped that Doctor Who had fully come back to life…

As a Doctor Who fan writing for a Doctor Who fansite (albeit the very best one there is), I fall squarely in the category of ‘being excited about the return of the Sea Devils’ – something I previously experienced back in 1984 with Warriors of the Deep. And we all know how that turned out. History has been kinder to that much-maligned adventure. But the ‘Sea Devils’ still come out of the story with little glory. So it’s really the spirit of the 1972’s The Sea Devils that I was hoping would be recaptured in the latest Doctor Who special. But for most of the viewing population, the ‘Sea Devil’s’ appearance at the end of Eve of the Daleks probably enlisted very little excitement. It possibly prompted a few to seek out online what all the fuss was about, only to discover they are turtle-faced rubbery monsters of 50-years vintage. Is that it?

Much attention to detail and respect for their history is evident in the updated design of the ‘Sea Devils’. Deliberately a practical effect not CGI (but subtly enhanced by computer trickery), the race – I’m deliberately choosing not to call them creatures or monsters – are faithful (possibly to a fault) to their first appearance. At least to look at. There is little of the moral question possessed by them and their reptile cousins the ‘Silurians’, that was core to their creator, Malcolm Hulke’s conception. The question being, whether they are, in fact, the rightful owners of planet Earth. And if humans won’t give the planet back over to their rule, how should we go about sharing it with them?

The Doctor’s main aim in 1970’s The Silurians, The Sea Devils, and 2010’s The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (written by Chris Chibnall, and one of his better efforts) was to negotiate peace between the humans and the earth’s former dominant species, if at all possible. In Legend… reference to this key aspect of the race’s backstory is given scant attention:

Yaz: So you know them, these Sea Devils?

Doctor: Crossed paths once or twice.

Yaz: Where do they come from?

Doctor: Slight wrinkle there. Earth. They were here before humans. They regard Earth as their own planet.

Yaz: That’s not good.

Firstly, the Doctor seems happy to keep referring to them by an insulting, derogatory term for a ‘noble ancient’ race, and secondly, there is no suggestion in this exchange that their claim to the planet is in any way legitimate or worth considering. Something that the Time Lord has asserted during every previous televised encounter with them. The Doctor even regards one of the race, Madame Vastra, as a good friend and ally. Here it’s just an inconvenient ‘slight wrinkle’, not a history-shattering revelation about the Earth’s past. Yaz, who often acts as the Thirteenth Doctor’s better moral compass, merely dismisses it as a bit of an annoyance.

With only 40-minutes of (a lot of mangled) plot to deal with the ‘Sea Devil’ threat (the final five minutes are given over to relationship business with the TARDIS crew), there is no space in this adventure for nuance about the morality of who has the greater claim to the earth. Instead, the ‘Sea Devils’ are treated as rather generic evil monsters who may just as well have crash-landed from a different planet.

What sets the earth reptiles and their aquatic cousins apart from your typical alien threats to the planet is the uniqueness of their origin story. So, if this is completely sidelined, what is the point of bringing them back? They certainly don’t have the mass cultural appeal to draw in a massive audience, as the feeble 2.2 million overnight figures testify. I know that the audience will grow with people who recorded or will stream on iPlayer, but for it to shift into anywhere near a respectable audience, it needs word-of-mouth enthusiasm from those who have seen it relayed to those that haven’t. From the unappreciative reviews and disparaging comments I’ve seen online, I really can’t see that happening.

So, back to the point. They could easily have been a Sontaran naval fleet, an undersea-stranded Zygon crew, or a new threat altogether. But alongside the backstory, what made the ‘Sea Devils’ creepy in the first place was also ignored. They were kept in the shadows, a threat from the deep, not a bunch of sword-wielding warriors in full view from the outset. The rest of the ‘Sea Devils’ are simply sword-fodder, with no individuality or personality in evidence, just an unquestioning devotion to their deranged leader. Who gets more sympathy in the script when killed than the half-a-dozen that Dan despatches with an unbelievable single sabre swipe. Followed by a lame quip about his mum.

All of these things would be easier to overlook if the story were intended to be an all-action romp. But the final five minutes try to present the episode as a character-driven drama about real people experiencing real emotions. Earlier in the episode, Dan lamely says, “Listen… I’m sorry about your dad”, to Ying Ki, whose father was brutally killed and his body left disfigured only a short time before. The tone of Dan throughout highlights the discrepancy in the emotional journey of the TARDIS crew. He poignantly phones his could-be girlfriend Diane, not to seek support after witnessing so much death and destruction – even perpetrating much himself – but because he’s “been having all these mad adventures” but has no one to regale them to. So, it’s not like he wants to come home and settle down. Sorry, Di. Maybe you were right to unexpectedly end it with Dan after the Flux.

So we come to that whole “Thasmin” thing. I am not opposed to the Doctor having romantic (or other) feelings towards the companions, vice versa or sharing mutual attraction. It just never seems convincing in this instance. For the first two series, I thought that Yaz was just along for the ride. The attraction appears to have all been cooked up in the minds of a few fans out of scant evidence, who wanted it confirmed in the programme.

Rose was always portrayed as being a little bit too fond of the Tenth Doctor, to his mutual consent. Martha’s unrequited crush on him was trumpeted loudly and Amy clearly wanted to get into Eleven’s breeches. I just don’t quite get it with Yaz and Thirteen. Even here, Mandip Gill is forced to do more through looks and expressions than is ever delivered in the script. Why doesn’t a frustrated Yaz rage a little at the Doctor for such a pathetic response? Take this exchange:

Doctor: Yaz… I can’t fix myself… to anything… anywhere… or anyone. I’ve never been able to. That’s what my life is.

Yaz: Yeah, of course.

Have the writers never been in love? If so, do they really think Yaz’s response would be, “Yeah, of course” after the Doctor basically gave her the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ excuse? While still teasing Yaz with the cruel hope that she does have the same feelings in return. The Doctor says she just doesn’t want to act on them.

Are we expected to believe that Yaz is so passive that she wouldn’t call the Doctor out for such a badly-expressed reason? Oh, the actual reason is sound. A near-immortal who changes their whole appearance and personality regularly, who has command of a time-space machine, whose chosen life is one of constant danger, showing no desire to settle down, having a relationship with a one-short-lifetime fragile human who will age before their eyes while they remain the same. Or turn into someone else. That’s understandable. But Yaz doesn’t seem to know about the Doctor’s massively extended lifetime, her many incarnations, and gender-switching. Without that information, wouldn’t Yaz put up a bit more of a fight? Even with it…

Of course, there is much more to say about this Easter special, its characters, performances, direction, and realisation. Superficially, apart from some obvious green-screen CGI, the Covid-conditions restricting the cast, and overseas location filming, it was entertaining enough. If it was a mid-season adventure story with another one following next week, it would be perfectly respectable, if a little underwhelming. But it’s supposed to be a blockbuster for the Easter holidays, leading up to the Thirteenth Doctor’s final adventure: a last hurrah before she hurrahs her last. Shame it wasn’t.

It’s telling that the most thrilling moments happened in the preview at the end. The glimpses of the latest Master, lone Cyberman, and other returnees from the Thirteen’s era. Plus Tegan and Ace. Yes, that probably means something to you. But the general viewing public? Do they know, or more importantly, care? Sarah Jane Smith was brought back from the classic series in School Reunion, an episode that didn’t simply feed on nostalgia; it introduced the character to a whole new generation, who embraced her. There was a real point to her return, to show Rose what happens when the adventures end, and it forced the Tenth Doctor to face up to his past and the people he leaves behind.

With so much to conclude, so many returning elements, what hope do Tegan and Ace have in the centenary special? Will their characters be more than unconvincing cameos? In Tegan’s final scene in Resurrection of the Daleks, she states this as her reason for leaving the Doctor: “A lot of good people have died today. I think I’m sick of it… It’s just that I don’t think I can go on.” In the centenary trailer, we see her wielding a huge weapon, shooting at some kind of being or beings, presumably. I dearly hope that Chibnall hasn’t turned her and Ace into soldiers.

I remember as a child being excited by more and more Easter eggs. But feeling sick when gorging on too much, and finding it unsatisfying. My mother would tell me not to eat too many and spoil my dinner. We don’t need a diet of treats and sweets (cameos and fan-pleasing relationships); we need substance, flavour, and nourishment. A well-prepared meal. Chibnall, you’ve got one last chance…

So it’s New Year’s Day with Jodie Whittaker.  That means it’s time for Daleks. I settled in and watched Eve of the Daleks, a story that very much shows on screen it was produced during a Covid lockdown. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it, but to employ an American term, it was very much a “bottle episode”, with very limited sets, and a very small cast. We had Team TARDIS (the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan) plus two other humans (Sarah and Nick). There were the three Dalek operators, although really it was just one most of the time. There were two other humans, but both had no scenes with any other actors (Mary, Sara’s mum solely on a phone screen, and Karl). But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. In fact, I very much did.

When it was over, I did what I always do – discuss it with a few mates. One of them (Jake) had this to say about the episode…

“By FAR the best thing Chibnall has ever written, Doctor Who wise. It’s head and shoulders above anything else he’s written. Tight, great dialogue, wonderful characters, and a story we’ve never seen before. Tell me a better story he’s done. I’ll wait. Can’t help being sad that the Irish lass can’t be the Doctor herself now, because she was AWESOME. I’d love a sarcastic Doctor like her in the future.”

I sent him back The Power of Three, but he disagreed with me. He went on about Eve of the Daleks.

While I wouldn’t go as far as Jake did in my enjoyment of it, I did like that it was something different. As I said to my wife in the middle of the episode, “this was a small scale story”. It wasn’t one with the Daleks looking to wipe out the universe; they were just going after the Doctor in a single location. It wasn’t an old recycled Terry Nation Dalek idea. Is it the best Dalek story ever? Oh hell no. But one that I very much enjoyed as a standalone. This was basically Doctor Who doing Groundhog day. So much so that Dan even uttered “This is Groundhog Day” in the episode, so they were self aware on that. 

The core concept is that the Doctor has to purge the TARDIS of Flux-related “stuff” (no specific detail as to what), but said purge both explains the “cracks” in the promo photos we saw leading up to the episode, as well as what starts the time loop. The first time loop happens in the pre-titles. It’s the longest one, as these concepts usually are. So much so, we don’t get the titles until nine minutes into the episode. 

Basically, the Daleks claim that the Doctor causes the time loop, and some Daleks were sent to exterminate the Doctor. Which they do several times. The Daleks are armed with a new machine gun weapon, which looks pretty cool – and makes me wonder why that hasn’t happened before. I also think the machine gun weapon went to be an unstated reason why the Dalek exterminations didn’t cause the Doctor to regenerate. Granted, the time loop appears to happen when the five people in the building are killed, so that alone could explain it, as I’m pretty sure the Doctor is always the last one exterminated in a cycle. I realize it’s a nitpick for sure, but the first time it happened I thought, “Hang on, why isn’t the Doctor regenerating”?

One difference here is that the characters regain their memory of the previous cycles – something that doesn’t always happen in these time loop stories. It allowed them to use the cycles as ways to move forward in trying to outsmart the Dalek that was after them. One of the cycles they just walked out in front of the Dalek to move the process forward. I enjoyed that.

Speaking of the exterminations, one of the ones of Sarah gave me an immediate flashback to the finale of Christopher Ecceleston’s run, The Parting of the Ways. Sarah stood there and held her arms out in the exact same way that Captain Jack Harkness did in that episode in front of three Daleks.

There was not an infinite amount of time loops here, the amount of time in the loops was reduced a minute with each cycle – once that was realised, it brought a finality – and that’s when the Daleks kind of let the Doctor know that her extermination was inevitable. Of course it doesn’t end that way, but it does add some tension to the loops to know they’re not unlimited.

One thing that comes up in this story is that Dan has figured out that Yaz as a thing for the Doctor. He corners her about it, and she ends up just crying. He then proceeds to out Yaz in front of the Doctor (a bit uncool) who has kind of a “Uh, what?” kind of reaction. I had immediate flashbacks to Martha Jones here with the unrequited love. It’s not paid off in this episode, so we’ll probably get something about this in the next episode or the finale, where Yaz can have a full-on cry about the Doctor dying. 

One negative to the story is that there were several instances where folks should have been exterminated faster than they were, but only survived due to some “Red shirt level shooting” by the Daleks here.

We progress through various rooms of the storage facility, and find some materials being held there by Sarah’s customers (an unseen “Jeff”) — things he’s not supposed to (including a room full of cans of beans). Some of these things would allow them to destroy the Daleks (and the building). That’s ultimately how they get out. They trick the Daleks with a phone call from Sarah’s mum at which point they slip out of the building and the Dalek then proceeds to blow up the building and themselves. 

Given the materials in the warehouse included fireworks, we got a fireworks show on top of the building collapsing (in a nice bit of CGI). One little throw-in was a character who witnessed the fireworks going off. This character is Karl Wright, played by Johnny Dixon. He appeared in Doctor Who before, in Jodie Whittaker’s first episode, The Woman Who Fell to Earth, being hunted by T’zim-Sha there. It’s an odd deep cut, and I wonder why him. It seems so out of left field, I wonder if he’ll show up again in one of the remaining two episodes.

As I saw written elsewhere, “Sometimes the best things in life are the simple pleasures.” This was a small simple story, but very very enjoyable. I thought the acting was pretty solid all around, too — something that’s not always the case. We got a few laughs here and there, with the Dalek labeling Dan “the inferior human”. While I don’t think it’s as amazing as my mate Jake made it out to be, Eve of the Daleks was a very solid 8/10 for me. 

If the other two remaining specials were written to this level, it will be a good couple of final Whittaker episodes. The first one brings back the Sea Devils who haven’t been a major on screen character since 1984. Looking forward to that for sure.

Finally, one fun little real world thing. After the episode aired, John Bishop tweeted something really nice to read. He said, “Dreams do come true. Had anyone told me as a boy that one day I would be meeting a Dalek on TV I would never have believed them. It was made all the more special by working with such great people on Doctor Who”.  Certainly a nice sentiment to read.