Tin Dog Podcast

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tin-dog@hotmail.co.uk The Tin Dog welcomes you to sit back and listen to his rants and ramblings about all that is best in modern SF and Television. Via the gift of the new fangled Podcast over the tinterweb. As you can probably guess Tin Dog mostly talks about Doctor Who, Torchwood and Sarah Jane Smith but that wont stop him talking about any other subject you suggest. Hailing from a non specific part of the northeast of England, Tin Dog is male and in his mid 30s. A life long fan of almost all TV SF. His semi-autistic tendencies combined with his total lack of social skills have helped him find a place in the heart of British SF Fandom. Even as a child the Tin Dogs mother told him that she can trace his love of SF TV back to his rhythmic kicking, while still in the womb, along to the beat of the Avengers theme music. From Gabriel Chase to Totters Lane, from the Bad Wolf Satellite to the back streets of the Cardiff, Tin Dog will give you his thoughts on the wonderful Whoniverse. Daleks and Cybermen and TARDIS ES Oh My If you enjoy these Tin Dog Podcasts please remember to tell your friends and leave an email tin-dog@hotmail.co.uk

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Tin Dog Podcast Episodes

• TDP 194: The Sun Makers

  10 August 2011 (10:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 22 seconds

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  The Sun Makers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 095 – The Sun Makers Doctor Who serial "An ongoing insurrectionary situation would not be acceptable to my management." Cast Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) Companions Louise Jameson (Leela) John Leeson (Voice of K-9 Mk. I) Others Henry Woolf — The Collector Richard Leech — Gatherer Hade Jonina Scott — Marn Roy Macready — Cordo David Rowlands — Bisham William Simons — Mandrel Adrienne Burgess — Veet Michael Keating — Goudry Carole Hopkin — Nurse Derek Crewe — Synge Colin McCormack — Commander Tom Kelly — Guard Production Writer Robert Holmes Director Pennant Roberts Script editor Robert Holmes and Anthony Read (both uncredited) Producer Graham Williams Executive producer(s) None Production code 4W Series Season 15 Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each Originally broadcast 26 November–17 December 1977 Chronology ← Preceded by Followed by → Image of the Fendahl Underworld The Sun Makers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 26 November to 17 December 1977. Contents [hide] 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 2.1 Continuity 3 Production 3.1 Cast notes 4 Outside references 5 In print 6 VHS and DVD releases 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Reviews 8.2 Target novelisation [edit] Synopsis In the far future, the planet Pluto is habitable, heated by several miniature suns. However, the heat is available only to the ruling classes, the working population being oppressed by the ruthless, bureaucratic and omnipresent Company. When the Doctor and Leela arrive, they help to initiate a rebellion from the Undercity, and stop the evil company's plans once and for all. [edit] Plot The inhabitants of Pluto in the far future are taxed to desperation, not least the functionary Cordo, who is so overwhelmed by the size of his tax bill that he decides to take his own life by jumping from the roof of one of the vast Megropolis tower blocks. He is interrupted by the arrival of the Doctor and Leela from the TARDIS, who save him from his chosen fate, and discover that false suns have been created around Pluto to provide the ability for some of mankind to live. However, the Company which owns the suns and all the buildings on Pluto is using its economic stranglehold over mankind to extort ever growing taxes through an extreme form of usury. The Doctor is concerned at this economic and social structure, where each Megropolis is ruled by a taxation Gatherer, and the entire operation on the planet reports to a malevolent Collector. Some citizens have rejected this social order and choose to live in the dark tunnels of the Undercity. The Doctor, Leela and Cordo venture there and encounter the renegades of the undercity, a vicious bunch of thieves and drop-outs led by the brutal Mandrel. He tells the Doctor that he must use a stolen consume-card to obtain money from a cashpoint or else Leela will be killed. The Gatherer of Megropolis One, Hade, has been alerted to the arrival of the TARDIS. He uses an electronic tracker to follow K9, who has now departed the craft in search of his master. K9 finds the Doctor and Cordo at a cashpoint where the Gatherer sees them and suspects they must be arms dealers. He orders his private guard, the Inner Retinue, to deal with them. When the Doctor tries the stolen card he is overpowered by a cloud of noxious gas and falls unconscious. When the Doctor awakes he finds himself restrained in a Correction Centre alongside a similarly incarcerated man named Bisham. They are likely to be tortured, but the Doctor is as concerned for Leela, whom Mandrel threatened to kill if the Doctor did not return. Leela has defended herself though, and Cordo, who evaded capture, returns to the Undercity with news of the Doctor’s capture. This serves to increase Leela’s standing with the thieves and the threat over her life diminishes. The Doctor’s lot improves too when he is released for questioning by Gatherer Hade, but Hade is playing a game of double bluff. He has the Doctor released but orders his movements tracked, believing the Doctor will lead him to the heart of a conspiracy against the Company. Not knowing about this change in fortunes, Leela, Cordo and K9 attack the Correction Centre to try and rescue the Doctor. He has left, but they do succeed in freeing Bisham. As they depart the Centre they find all their possible travel routes blocked by Inner Retinue troopers. Leela leads her friends in an attack on the guards, but she alone is injured in a skirmish and falls from a troop transporter they have commandeered. The Doctor has returned to the Undercity to find a very agitated Mandrel, who refuses to believe he could have been simply released after such a crime. Once more Cordo returns, this time with Bisham and K9, and defuses the situation when he explains what has happened to Leela. He also uses a stolen blaster to force Mandrel to stop threatening the Doctor. He asserts control and persuades the Undercity dwellers to start a revolution against the Company. Their first target will be the main control area where the Company engineers that PCM, a pacifying drug which helps keep the population servile, is being added to the air supply. Mandrel and his gang are also persuaded to start destroying the monitors throughout the Megropolis and to start spreading the message of revolt. Leela is now presented to the Collector himself, an odious humanoid in a life-support wheelchair who is even more obsessed with money than Gatherer Hade, who fawns all over him. The Collector deduces from interrogating Leela that Hade’s conspiracy theory was unfounded and orders that Leela will be steamed to death in a public execution. He is especially pleased at a public steaming and arranges immediate publicity, unaware of the revolt spreading through the Megropolis. The Doctor heads off to rescue Leela from the steamer, but is running out of time. The Doctor manages to save Leela in the nick of time, but the microphones set up to relay her death screams instead relay the sound of Mandrel warning the Doctor of how little time he has left to rescue her. The Collector is incensed and even more troubled when the revolution starts spreading even more quickly. Gatherer Hade is thrown to his death from the top of his Megropolis, and his normally dutiful underling, Marn, joins the revolution. Leela and the Doctor head for the Collector’s Palace, and there he sabotages the computer system. The Collector arrives and is challenged by the Doctor, who discovers the being is a Usurian from the planet Usurius. He is really a seaweedlike being like a sentient poisonous fungus. The Doctor denounces his operation on Pluto, which consumed Mars as well as the population were moved from Earth. Before the Collector can implement a plan to gas the population of Pluto, Cordo and the lead rebels arrive and help the Doctor defeat the remaining members of the Inner Retinue. The Collector checks his computer to find the Doctor’s input has resulted in projected bankruptcy, and the shock of this causes the Collector to revert to his natural state in a compartment at the base of his wheelchair. The Doctor seals him in to be sure the threat is over, and he and Leela depart with K9, leaving Cordo, Mandrel and the others to contemplate recolonising the Earth. [edit] Continuity Part Two contains a rare false cliffhanger, where Cordo, Bisham, Leela and K-9 spot an oncoming guard vehicle and Cordo says, "It's no good, they've seen us." The reprise at the beginning of Part Three omits Cordo's remark, and continues with Leela ordering K-9 to hide, allowing it to easily disable the guards. Leela refers to her tribe, the Sevateem, seen in The Face of Evil. The Company computer correctly guesses the etymology of the name. The Usurians are aware of the Time Lords and Gallifrey, having graded the former as "Grade 3" in their "latest market survey." [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 26 November 1977 24:59 8.5 "Part Two" 3 December 1977 24:57 9.5 "Part Three" 10 December 1977 24:57 8.9 "Part Four" 17 December 1977 24:57 8.4 [1][2][3] [edit] Cast notes Michael Keating also appeared in the audio play The Twilight Kingdom as Major Koth and in Year of the Pig as Inspector Chardalot. See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who. Louise Jameson stated in the DVD commentary of the story and on the commentary for The Talons of Weng-Chiang that The Sun Makers was her favourite serial. [edit] Outside references Robert Holmes intended the serial to be a satire of his own experiences with the Inland Revenue services. However, much of the political content was toned down by order of producer Graham Williams, who feared it would be controversial among viewers. Many of the letters and numbers used to denote the labyrinth of corridors in the city, for example P45, allude to well-known tax and Governmental forms. The actor who played the Gatherer had deep bushy eyebrows, very reminiscent of the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey. However, Holmes presented the villains of the piece as working for a private corporation rather than a government. Near the end of Part Two, when prompted by Mandrel for a story, the Doctor begins, "Once upon a time, there were three sisters ..." mirroring the same story he started telling Sarah Jane Smith near the end of Part Three in The Android Invasion. The Doctor refers to Galileo Galilei in passing, saying "Galileo will be pleased." When one of the rebels rhetorically asks the Doctor, "What have we got to lose?" he replies, "Only your claims!" This is a playful paraphrase of the famous slogan derived from the last lines of The Communist Manifesto. K-9 refers to Pluto as "the ninth planet." It was regarded as such at the time the programme was written and broadcast; in 2006, Pluto lost that distinction when it was downgraded to the status of dwarf planet. In this episode, Leela and the Doctor are identified as "terrorists." In real life, Leela's character was partially based on Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.[4][5] [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1982. Dicks chose to tone down the scene in which revolutionaries cheer as they hurl one of their former oppressors from a roof, reducing the apparent horror so that the rebels concerned feel that their actions have gone "a bit too far". Doctor Who book Doctor Who and the Sunmakers Series Target novelisations Release number 60 Writer Terrance Dicks Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20059-4 Release date 18 November 1982 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in July 2001. The Sun Makers was released on region 2 DVD 1 on August 2011.[6] [edit] References ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Sun Makers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Sun Makers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Sun Makers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon Patrick. "The Face of Evil". A Brief History of Time (Travel). Retrieved 2007-03-18. ^ Viner, Katharine (2001-10-26). "'I made the ring from a bullet and the pin of a hand grenade'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-03-18. ^ "Sun Makers goes Solo". 28 January 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2011. [edit] External links The Sun Makers at BBC Online The Sun Makers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Sun Makers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews The Sun Makers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Sun Makers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Doctor Who and the Sunmakers

  
  

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• TDP 193: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 4

  10 August 2011 (9:12pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 17 seconds

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  taken with thanks from wikipedia Plot summary Dr. Vera Juarez and several doctors visit an abandoned hospital that is being used to handle the extra surplus of patients but much to Vera's frustration, the plan is a failure as there are too many patients admitted to the hospital and they don't have enough equipment to handle them. Meanwhile, Ellis Hartley Monroe, a Mayor and member of the Tea Party starts a campaign call "Dead is Dead", which aims to segregate the undying from the public until death finally comes for them. Oswald, Jilly and PhiCorp do not like this since her popularity might derail Oswald's and threaten PhiCorp plans. When Ellis makes a speech near the hospital where the extra patients are being sent, Oswald makes a bold move by entering the hospital and meeting the patients there, thus making the press immediately focus on him. Inside, Oswald tells the patients that they all deserve equal medical treatment and that people like Ellis are trying to take their rights away for them as they don't consider them human anymore. He promises to fight on their behalf and instantly the patients, the press and the public call Oswald a hero much to Ellis's frustration. The secret organization that controls PhiCorp drugs and kidnaps Ellis to a car compactor, where they tell her "The Families" will eliminate anyone who poses a threat to them before her car is crushed in the compactor, trapping Ellis inside. After obtaining information from the PhiCorp's servers, Torchwood learns that PhiCorp are building "Overflow Camps" around the world where extra patients will be sent. However, Rhys calls Gwen that her father is being sent to one of these camps as well and by the time Gwen tells him stop them, her father has already been taken away. [edit] Reception Den of Geek gave the episode a positive review saying "Come the end of Escape To L.A., it feels as if most of Miracle Day’s key themes are now firmly established, even if the detail is yet to come. And the episode is an interesting one. It doesn’t have the lovely smaller moments that really set Dead Of Night apart, and we still think that episode three is the peak of the series to date. But, episode four? It's still strong, and it's still worth tuning in to see."[1]

  
  

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• TDP 192: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 3 Dead of Night

  28 July 2011 (7:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 35 seconds

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  Dead of Night (Torchwood) reprinted From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia with thanks and respect 34 – "Dead of Night" Torchwood episode Cast Starring John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper Mekhi Phifer – Rex Matheson Alexa Havins – Esther Drummond Kai Owen – Rhys Williams Bill Pullman – Oswald Danes Others Lauren Ambrose – Jilly Kitzinger Arlene Tur – Vera Juarez Wayne Knight - Briam Friedkin Dillon Casey - Brad Richard Gilliland - Congressman Morganthall Tasha Ames - Carla Thea Andrews - Local Reporter Richard Augustine - George Sayer Daryl Crittenden - Young Man Mitchell Edmonds -Senior TV Anchor Matt Eyde - Atlanta Cop Mary Garripoli - Woman Tourist Ted Mattison - Phi-Corp Rep Jason Medwin - Sunroof Screamer George Murdock - Preacher Brian Treitler - Dr. Murphy Randa Walker - Candice Perlmutter Maurice Webster - Cop Michelle Wong - Nurse David Youse - Dr. Rosenbloom Production Writer Jane Espenson Director Billy Gierhart Producer Kelly A. Manners Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Jane Tranter Doris Egan (co-executive) Vlad Wolynetz (co-executive) Production code 4.3 Series Miracle Day Length 54 mins Originally broadcast 22 July 2011 Chronology ← Preceded by Followed by → "Rendition" "Escape to L.A." "Dead of Night" is the third episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 22 July 2011, in Canada on Space on 23 July 2011, and will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 28 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot summary 2 Sex scene censorship controversy 3 Reception 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot summary Rex (Phifer) and Esther (Havins) have joined Torchwood out of necessity. The team successfully acquire the phone from CIA director Friedkin (Wayne Knight), through which Friedkin received mysterious orders to exterminate Torchwood. The team follow leads and uncover a stockpile of painkillers at the pharmaceutical corporation PhiCorp, indicating they knew the Miracle was going to happen. At a loose end, Jack (Barrowman) takes the night off and picks up a man in a bar, and Rex seeks solace in his surgeon, Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur). Juarez tells Rex that PhiCorp representative Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose) has invited her along to an important meeting tomorrow; Rex recruits Juarez to listen in for Torchwood, while Gwen goes on mission with the special Torchwood contact lenses and steals information from Kitzinger's computer. The meeting turns out to be a seminar, where Congressman Morganthall announces plans to make painkillers legal to purchase without prescription. At Torchwood HQ, Rex and Esther receive a mysterious phonecall from Friedkin's anonymous superiors and figuring their base has been compromised, realise that Torchwood must now leave D.C. Released murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) struggles to fit in the real world, and after being assaulted by police officers accepts Kitzinger's earlier offer of representation. He attends a select board meeting at PhiCorp. PhiCorp award him personal security on the condition he promotes their new painkiller legislation on national television to his growing following. Suspicious of Danes, Jack confronts him at the TV station. Jack gets Danes to admit that he does not feel forgiveness, but also that he enjoyed the rape and murder of his 12-year-old victim; Jack realises from this speech that Danes has a deathwish that is being denied him. Danes' security assaults Jack and releases him onto the streets just as Danes tells the world about the need for PhiCorp's painkiller legislation. [edit] Sex scene censorship controversy "Dead of Night" features a concurrent gay and straight sex scenes; the straight sex scene features Rex and Vera (Mekhi Phifer and Arlene Tur), and the gay scene features John Barrowman and guest actor Dillon Casey, playing bartender Brad. Gay mens' website AfterElton.com enthusiastically reported on Casey's casting in March;[1] the casting side for Brad, released in December 2010, had assuaged fears that Jack would be "de-gayed" by American network Starz.[2] Barrowman later told Access Hollywood reporters that the gay sex scene the series would feature would be more explicit than previous shots of its kind in Torchwood, because Starz as a US premium cable network allowed the show to "push the envelope a little bit more".[3] For airings in the UK, the BBC (a public broadcast network) edited the scene because it was deemed inappropriate for the primetime slot. However, a BBC spokesperson stated that the edit would not affect the story in any way.[4] Barrowman however, responded by saying that sex scenes in the show were not gratuitous did form a part of the plot.[5] This section requires expansion. [edit] Reception The A.V. Club's Zack Handlen awarded "Dead of Night" a B- rating. He felt that the episode did not have any truly tense scenes compared to previous episode "Rendition". While he celebrated that the "two-fer sex scene" was unusual for mainstream science fiction, Handlen felt it "didn't make for gripping television", and felt Jack's hook-up was at least more believable than the prospect of a Rex/Vera romance. Though he gave the episode a relatively high rating, and was optimistic for Miracle Day as a series, Handlen's concluding paragraph stated "an episode like this isn't a good sign".[6] Los Angeles Times reviewer Todd VanDerWerff wrote "With every week it’s on the air, Torchwood: Miracle Day continues to expand its scope"; his reviewer was largely positive but marked with criticisms. He felt "the episode's mid-section was where it was flabiest", referring to Gwen's contact with Rhys and the lovemaking scenes. Like Handlen, he remarked on the believability of the Rex/Vera pairing, saying "It made sense for later in the episode that Rex and Vera had hooked up (since it gave her stronger motivation to work with Torchwood), but in the moment, it seemed ludicrously convenient." Like Handlen, VanDerWerff didn't find the American public's reaction to Danes believable either. However, his summary said "All in all, this was a "putting the pieces in place" kind of episode, and though some of the pieces were moved quite inelegantly -– again, the Rex and Vera hook-up -– much of whether this episode stands out as the start of a decline or a brief hiccup will be determined by where the pieces go from here."[7] This section requires expansion. [edit] References ^ Jensen, Michael (5 March 2011). "Exclusive! Meet Brad, Captain Jack's One Night Stand on "Torchwood: Miracle Day!"". AfterElton.com. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ Jensen, Michael (12 December 2010). ""Torchwood" Casting One Night Stand for Captain Jack". AfterElton.com. Logo Online. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ 8 April 2011, Morgan. "'Torchwood' star: 'New series not toned down'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ Wrightman, Catriona (19 July 2011). "'Torchwood' sex scene cut from UK broadcast". Digital Spy. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ Wrightman, Catriona (20 July 2011). "John Barrowman: 'Torchwood sex scenes aren't gratuitous'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ Handlen, Zack (22 July 2011). ""Dead of Night"". A.V. Club New York. The Onion. Retrieved 23 July 2011. ^ VanDerWerff, Todd (23 July 2011). "'Torchwood' recap: I'm buying stock in Phicorp". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 July 2011.

  
  

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• TDP 191: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep2

  21 July 2011 (8:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 4 seconds

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  RE PRINTED HERE FROM WIKIPEDIA Synopsis As Rex brings the Torchwood team to America, problems arise on the plane. CIA operatives are plotting to remove them, and poison the only mortal man; Captain Jack Harkness. Gwen, Rex along with the help of a Doctor create an antidote using only items found on a plane. Meanwhile, Oswald Danes is appearing on News Talk Shows and is becoming a trend on many online social networks after breaking down on national television. Plot Rex has Jack and Gwen boarded on a plane headed to Washington, D.C. with fellow CIA agent Lyn Peterfield escorting them. However Gwen's husband Rhys and their daughter Anwen are forced to stay in the UK. Back in Washington, D.C., because no one can die due to the Miracle, Dr. Vera Juarez has her hospital staff focus on treating the least wounded first so they can get them out quickly and have enough beds to treat newer patients. After his release, Oswald is being interviewed on a local talk show but doesn't say much since there is a campaign to have him returned to prison and anything he might say might be used against him. But when the reporter shows him a picture of the girl he murdered, Oswald starts to break down and cries, apologizing to the girl and revealing he was too scared to apologize to the victim's mother, which earns him sympathy from some viewers. As he's about to leave the TV station, PR agent Jilly Kitzinger congratulates him on his interview and offers him to be his agent but he declines, after which a TV staff tells Oswald that Oprah Winfrey wants to do an interview with him. Meanwhile, Vera attends a medical conference where doctors are trying to figure out the Miracle but when a Doctor tweets that his hospital needs more antibiotics, Vera realizes because nobody is dying, people who were suppose to died have become living incubators for bacteria which allows it to grow and become resistant to antibiotics. What's worse, the Miracle is not true immortality as people still aged and grow old. With fears that supplies will dwindle as the undying grows, Vera suggest hospitals needs more painkillers to handle this situation. Later, Vera meets Jilly who actually works for a pharmaceutical company called PhiCorp and convinces Vera they can work together as she can help her. When Director Brian Friedkin suspects Esther and Rex may know too much about Torchwood, he has their security clearances deleted, frames them as spies working for China and orders Lyn to kill Jack with an arsenic pill. However, Esther manages to escape before the CIA catches her and tries to warn Rex. Back on the plane, Jack realizes that he's being poisoned which both Gwen and Rex apprehend Lyn. As Jack is slowly being killed by the arsenic, Rex calls Vera for help. With the help of her fellow doctors at the medical conference and the air stewards on their plane, Rex and Gwen successfully creates an antidote and administers it to Jack. When Jack, Gwen, Rex and Lyn arrive at the airport, they are accompanied by a group of CIA agents, unaware that they are under orders by Friedkin to arrests the three and free Lyn. However, Esther manages to warn Rex which him, Jack and Gwen subdues the agents including Rex twisting Lyn's neck and escape. By the time they come out of the airport, they are greeted by Vera with Rex's painkillers and Esther who is their getaway driver. After Rex gets his painkillers, he, Jack, Gwen and Esther are about to go until Lyn, still with a twisted neck, tries to stop them but because of her condition, they leave her alone and drive off. Broadcast This episode was broadcast on Starz in the US on Friday 15th July. It is due to air on BBC 1 on Thursday 21st of July. International broadcasters in Canada and Australia received the show on Saturday 16th July, where it was broadcast on Australia's UKTV network. Entertainment Weekly reported that this episode on Starz was watched by "1.4 million this weekend, down about 30 percent from last week's debut."[1]  Reception Chris Swanson from WhatCulture gave the episode 4 stars and said "I liked this episode. It wasn’t exactly action-packed or anything like that, but it did feature some nice moments, like a conversation between Gwen and Jack about how dangerous being around him is (shades of similar conversations on Doctor Who)." "I also very much liked that they are continuing to examine the logistics of exactly what would happen in a situation like this. Interestingly, no one has yet suggested mandatory birth control, but we do see discussions about the fact that the entire medical industry would have to change from a life-saving position to one that’s more about pain management."[2] References ^ Hibberd, James (July 18, 2011). "'Torchwood' ratings dip for second episode". Inside TV (Entertainment Weekly). Retrieved July 19, 2011. ^ Swanson, Chris (July 18, 2011). "TV Review: TORCHWOOD MIRACLE DAY, 4.2 – “Rendition”". WhatCulture!.

  
  

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• TDP 190: Torchwood Miracle Day Ep 1 - The New World

  14 July 2011 (8:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 52 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIAA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The New World" is the first episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast in the United States on Starz on 8 July 2011 and in Canada on Space on 9 July 2011. It will be broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 14 July 2011. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Reception and Broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis In Kentucky, convicted pedophile and murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is due to be executed by a lethal concoction of drugs. However, the execution fails. At the start of "Miracle Day", a mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the usual security protocols and containing only the word "Torchwood". CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is fatally injured in a car crash whilst receiving information on Torchwood from Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), and is taken to a Washington DC hospital. There he is treated by surgeon Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur), who informs Esther that Rex has survived, and also that no-one has died in the past 24 hours at any US hospital. This information leads to the discussion of the "miracle" on International news and social networking sites. It is revealed that individuals can still become sick and injured, but continue to live regardless. As Esther investigates the remaining files on Torchwood in the CIA archives, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US to deal with Esther, after erasing all online mentions of Torchwood. After saving her from an assassin who later blows up the CIA archives, Jack gives Esther an amnesia pill, and she subsequently forgets about her encounter with Jack, though her memories of Torchwood itself are triggered by a file brought to her by CIA agent Noah Vickers. Oswald meets a representative of the Governor of Kentucky who has come to apologize for any pain Oswald suffered during his failed execution. But Oswald demands that he should be released since he technically already served his sentence or else he will sue the State for breaching his Eighth and Fifth Amendments rights for unlawful imprisonment and unnecessary pain. Realizing the lawsuit would cost millions for the State, the Governor reluctantly release Oswald due to Force majeure much to public anger. In Wales former Torchwood operative and young mother Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is called out of exile by her old collegaue Andy Davidson (Tom Price), who informs her that her father Geraint (William Thomas) has had two heart attacks, but not died. Gwen is persuaded not to investigate the strange events any further by her husband Rhys (Kai Owen). However, CIA agent Rex Matheson links Torchwood with the worldwide miracle and with Esther's help tracks Gwen down using the phonecall data from Davidson's phone. Upon arriving at Gwen's seaside house, a helicopter arrives with the intention of killing Gwen. Gwen fights off the helicopter, and escapes with the help of Jack who has arrived to watch out for her. The remaining members of Torchwood escape to Roald Dahl Plass, the site of the original Torchwood Institute, where Jack reveals that he hasn't healed from an injury sustained at the CIA archives, and therefore is assumed to be mortal, just as the entire populace is now Immortal. Gwen discusses what actions they should take, but is interrupted by the arrival of the South Wales Police force and Rex's announcement that he is renditioning Torchwood to the United states. [edit] Continuity Jack flashes counterfeit credentials to gain access to the bomber's autopsy. He claims to be an FBI agent named Owen Harper, a reference to his late Torchwood colleague whose own extensive collection of false identity cards was shown in "Ghost Machine". The temporal setting of "Everything Changes" and "Day One" is established when Esther reads that Gwen Cooper joined the Torchwood Institute in October 2006. The CIA officers make several mentions of 456 level security, a reference to the aliens (the 456) that are encountered in Torchwood: Children of Earth. As the team sit in Roald Dahl Plass, they note that it and the Water Tower have been rebuilt since the demolition in Torchwood: Children of Earth. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes [edit] Reception and Broadcast The episode recieved positive reviews. Crave Online said it's good to see John Barrowman easily step back into his iconic character,they gave the episode 8 out of 10.[1] When premiered on SPACE in Canada, the episode drew in nearly a million viewers with an average of 432,000, the highest the channel has ever had for a show.[2] Overall, the first episode of "Miracle Day" was entertaining and intriguing enough to justify Torchwood's new lease on life. [edit] References ^ http://www.craveonline.com/tv/reviews/170849-torchwood-miracle-day-101-the-new-world ^ "The New World: Canadian Ratings". Doctor Who News Page. 2011-07-12. Retrieved 2011-07-13. [edit] External links The New World on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki

  
  

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• TDP 189: Torchwood - House of the Dead - Lost Tales 3

  13 July 2011 (10:59am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 8 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The brewery have called 'time' and it's the last night at The House of the Dead - the most haunted pub in Wales. Barry the barman has invited renowned psychic, Mrs Wintergreen, to hold a special seance to mark the occasion, and there's a big crowd hoping for the chance of seeing their deceased loved ones for one last time. But when Jack arrives on the scene, he's determined to stop them. Ianto is puzzled by Jack's behaviour, and Gwen is suspicious. Why is Jack acting so strangely? Then the ghosts start arriving - and all hell breaks loose. By James Goss. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Mrs Wintergreen ... Rosalind Ayres Barry ... Bradley Freegard Mr Jones/Tony ... John Francis Harries Helen ... Lucy Davis Ness ... Moira Quirk Late Arrival ... Shelley Rees Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll.

  
  

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• TDP 188: Torchwood - Submission - Lost tales 2

  12 July 2011 (10:16am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 6 minutes and 19 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE  WITH THANKS AND RESPECT In Ryan Scott's episode, Torchwood are chasing aliens down the M4, when Jack accidentally blows a hole in the Severn Bridge, and the SUV hits the water. Whilst submerged John, Gwen and Ianto hear a strange noise, which, back at the Hub they realise is a cry for help. They track the cry to its source which turns out to be the deepest part of the Ocean - the Mariana Trench. Ianto rings old Torchwood flame, Carlie Roberts, who's an expert in marine geology, and Jack pulls strings with the US government to get them all on board the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, which is heading for the Trench. From there they board the Octopus Rock, the only submarine built to withstand the pressure at that depth, and follow the signal. But when the Submarine crashes, the team are left at the mercy of a hungry alien. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Carlie Roberts ... Erin Bennett Sam Doyle ... Angelo Tiffe Captain Cudlow ... John Francis Harries Henry Goddard ... John Lee Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Tue 12 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4ss

  
  

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• TDP 187: Torchwood - The Devil and Miss Carew - Lost tales 1

  11 July 2011 (10:40am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 36 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM BBC PRESS SITE WITH THANKS AND RESPECT The Devil and Miss Carew Listen: Next on: Today, 14:15 on BBC Radio 4 Synopsis Martin Jarvis and Juliet Mills join the regular cast for this latest Torchwood adventure by Rupert Laight. When Rhys's elderly Uncle Bryn has a heart attack while listening to the shipping forecast, it seems like another routine death at Ivyday Nursing Home. But when Rhys and Gwen go to collect the old man's effects, Gwen's suspicions are roused by another elderly resident. The conversation is cut short, though, by a fire alarm, one of many consequences of the mysterious power cuts that are sweeping the nation. Gwen has a hunch that something is wrong and her search leads her to Miss Carew, a suspiciously fit and strong octogenarian who, despite having supposedly terminal heart disease, has left Ivyday and gone back to work at the Computer firm she used to run. Miss Carew has been offered a deal by Fitzroy, a wandering alien with an aversion to electricity who is looking for a home. It's a deal that Miss Carew can't refuse. But the consequences for planet Earth are unthinkable. Cast: Captain Jack Harkness ... John Barrowman Gwen Cooper ... Eve Myles Ianto Jones ... Gareth David-Lloyd Rhys Williams ... Kai Owen Fitzroy ... Martin Jarvis Miss Carew ... Juliet Mills Sian ... Hayley J Williams Uncle Bryn ... James Walsh Old Lady ... Shelley Rees Rupert Laight is one of the writers of The Sarah Jane Adventures Recorded at The Invisible Studios, by Mark Holden and mixed at BBC Wales by Nigel Lewis. A BBC/Cymru Wales production, directed by Kate McAll. Broadcast Mon 11 Jul 2011 14:15 BBC Radio 4

  
  

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• The Tin Dog Drinking Game by Victor S

  6 July 2011 (10:43am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 seconds

  again the link is here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/tindog-podcast-drinking-game.html The Tin Dog Podcast Drinking Game v 1.3Requirements:    Episode(s) of Tin-Dog Podcast    This list    People (the more the merrier)    Beverages of your choiceInstructions: Simple. Listen the show, and whenever a condition is met, take the appropriate number of drinks. The definition of "drink" should be decided before game play starts. Usually, a good mouthful will suffice.Compiler's Note: I would advise taking some time before game play starts to decide which conditions to use and which to ignore.Remember that this list is canonical, so you probably will _not_ want to use them all (especially with a new podcast, Since you'll spend all your time reading the list, rather than listening).Please send any corrections, suggestions, Requests, submissions, flames, etc. to the address listed below.Thanks Michael for the Tin Dog Podcast: Compiled by victoswindell@hotmail.com (send me your input/changes)Podcast Event - Number of DrinksHost voice not OK - 1Host is recording outside of studio/home - 1Host starts to ramble off topic - 1Host says "let it go" - 1Host says "There Again - 1Host says "Out of its Time" - 1Host says "Better than I remember" - 1Host asks for funds/selling something - 2Host uploads wrong podcast - 2Host changes Theme music - 2Host podcast is not what he said it was going to be - 1Host not reviewing Doctor Who - 2Someone has donated funds for podcast -1Host mentions iTunes - 1REVIEW COMMENTSHost mentions 'steam-punk' -2Host mentions another Dr Who podcast - 1Host plays clip from another podcast -1Host plays audio clip from DW - 1Host play recording of DW Actor advertising the Tin-Dog Pod cast -1Host reads one of his stories -2WHOSTROLOGY is the same as your birthday - 2It's your WHOSTROLOG - 1Host mentions the first or ninth Doctor - 1Host mentions the second or tenth Doctor - 2Host mentions the third or eleventh Doctor -3Host mentions the fourth Doctor - 4Host mentions the fifth Doctor - 5Host mentions the sixth Doctor - 6Host mentions the seventh Doctor - 7Host mentions the eighth Doctor -8Host references/compares another Doctor Episode -1PODCAST REVIEWS EVENTSHost references Non DW SciFi series (Star Trek, X-Files, The Tomorrow People-etc) - 1Host references another DW media (Book Episode, etc) - 1Host really likes episode -2Host likes episode - 1Host sort likes episode -1Host hates episode - 2Host says "LI-N-DA" or mentions 'Love and Monsters' -3Host references actor other work - 2Host mentions "K-9" -2Host mentions "BBC" -3Host gives list of possibilities - 1Host gives a theory - 2Host gives a bit of Who Trivia - 1Host says "TARDIS" - 1Host mentions your favorite Doctor -1Host gives episode 9 or 10 -4Host gives episode 6, 7 or 8 -3Host give episode 5 or below -2Host references NON-SciFi series -2Host mentions a clue for future episode. -1Host says 'Candy Man' -1Host is reviewing a Big Finish Audio -2Doctor Who is the property of the BBC, All right Reserved. We forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained," et cetera, et cetera... "Fax mentis, incendium gloria cultum," et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum!    - *By Victor Swindell, owner of PepperEyes.com, a division of Swindell Enterprises. PepperEyes.com is dedicated to assist those people who are unwilling to b...   

  
  

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• Solo Con Revisited

  6 July 2011 (10:41am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 seconds

  With thanks to Victor page can be found here http://gallifreymatrix.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-have-scifi-convewntionby.html How to have a SciFi Convention...by yourself v1.3This blog was wholly inspired by the Tin-Dog Podcast ‘How to have your own Doctor Who Con’. We just decided to write it all down for ya, and expand it a bit, and run with it. I'm sure you can add to it a bit as well. If you have any suggestions..leave them in the comments..and I'll add them in later. This posting is subject to updating.Anyways, do you miss the old days of going to Science Fiction conventions? Is there a big convention going on in another part of the country that you would like to go to, but can’t afford? Never fear, now you can enjoy the convention experience in your residence, and save a ton of cash. Here are the steps.The PreparationLike anything else prepartation is the key, the more work you put off up front, the better off your con will run. If something isn't right you can just blame the organizers later. Anyway this is all up to you. You have to so all the setting up, buying the stuff for the bar..blah blah blah1. Give your Con a name. Good names can be like of the following (just make sure there isn’t a con with that name):    SoloCon    SingularityCon    It’s All about Me Con    NotaCon    UnoCon    AloneCon    ImaginaryCon    SoleCon    BinaryCon** The next time you host the event, you can just stick a Roman numeral after the name.2. Two days before the con tell your Social media friends you plan on attending the con, and hope to see some of them there. Don’t reply when they ask for information about the con. This way you can complain when you don’t see any of them at the con. More on this later. It would be interesting to know how may internet searches will be done looking for information on the con.3. Make a list of the stars you want to attend your convention (living or dead). This is your convention you can do what you want. You can even include the guest of the con you can't make it to.    Three days before con, send an E-MAIL to their fan clubs telling them how you’re a great fan of the actor, and how you look forward to seeing them t ( name of your Con). This is your kind-a-sort-a invitation. You really don't have to send the e-mail, but if you want to cause even more chaos, give it a go.4. Stock the Bar – after all lot of before, during and after con activity is spent in the bar. You may as well get stock up on the things you know you like, and a few you don’t, or never tried. Just for the effect. If someone happens to drop by during your con, you can serve them the ones you don’t like. (Somebody has to drink them anyway) Don't forget the peanuts, this is very important...just in case a Vogon Constructor Fleet comes by to do some demolition. the neat thing abou this, is that the drinks at your con will be much cheaper at the con, you didn't attend, and you'll actually have stuff you like.5. The Screening Room – One of the rooms in your house has to be the screening room. Pick a random DVD or whatever media you have or just leave the TV on the SCI-FI Channel if if you have it. If you have a recording with a Commentary track, turn this on, to mimic the comments that fans make during the movies anyway. For a more realistic effect pick an episode you don’t like and let that play...all weekend.6. Doing the Schedule – The heart of any convention is the schedule of events. You need to take time to plan your convention schedule and well as plan the logistics and utilization of the space in your residence for the various parts of the convention.o Make of list of weird Panel topics- where would a good Con be without them.§ Topics that you would never attend§ Topics that you would attend· Place these at the same timeo List a Panel where you are the guest speaker based on your expertise§ Make a list of Fandom type questions to ask the expert – A mix of the very intelligent and very dumb.§ You can even play various podcast or recording of interviews.o Plan other fan events.Get some recordings of interviews for one or three of the celebritieis that you've invited. You can can probably locate a podcast or find a few YouTube clips.o Have a Charity of Auction§ List something on E-Bay that you have and donate the proceeds to Charity ;E-bay gives you the option of donating up to 100% of the proceeds to a charity.· It could be a dust ball that you think looks like William Shatner's Trek Hair.· It could be the last Cheerios in your box· It could an un-matched sock from your laundry· If you are cleaning out your closet..sell that stuffo You have to have a Dealers Room§ Put some of your collections in a in a room or on a table.. to be the dealers room§ Make a list of the things you want to have and want to buy (you will need this later)§ You can also have a computer set to e-bay to allow you to shop of items, if you actually want to buy something during the con.o Print up the schedule and hi-lite the things you would like to do using different color, then take the schedule to your favorite sci-fi hang out, bookstore or library, and accidentally loose it there.7. Set up a registration Desk…if you likeo Make a few name tags and VIP Tags for your invited guest, but do not make one for yourself. This will become important later.8. Set up a time for your costume contest. (more on this later)9. You can put up signs for events, and cross off panels that are canceled due to guest not showing, if you wish.Attending the ConIt’s time to go have the convention experience, and let your friends know all about it. If you have a mobile phone with twitter, or a lap top, you are good to go. Send random tweets about what your doing, or not doing.1. Go get in your car. Imagine the long drive to your con, tweet about not having FTL Drive or transporters, and the traffic standing still.2. Get out of your car, and tweet that you have arrived. Tweet that the place looks ..inexpensive3. Go to the registration deck and check in. Complain because they seem to have lost your registration, and you have a handwritten badge, and some free peanuts. Comment how none of the guest have arrived yet.4. Check into your room, tweet how nice and homey the room is. You can even say how weird it is that it reminds you of home. Check out what is on TV, remake about the lack of good channels.5. Complain that you lost your schedule, and they don’t seem to have anymore.6. Complain about the poor poor organization and lack of convention staff. You can't find anyone who can answer your questions.7. Every hour or so hang out in the hallway for 5 minutes with the hopes of catching one of the stars for a picture,  or inverview or trying to catch any of your friends who may have attended from the E-Space, the Continuum, or has the confused with Milliways. Complain that most of your friends went to the other con, or isn’t there. Complain that the stars may have taken another route just to avoid you. Look in the mirror and comment someone is wearing your costume..but that you look more authentic. Read a message on your phone.8. Head to the Bar (Frig) and let your imagination go wild. Chat it up with Sue Richards, and tweet how she completely ignored you.9. Go Check out the dealer room. Complain that they don’t seem to have the things you were looking for (on your list) or how you already have most of this stuff. You can check on E-Bay to see if they have it.a. If you’ve taken out one prize possession to display – pick it up and hold it. You can even tweet about it.10. Go hang in the hallway, and complain about one of the guest not showing up. You will repeat this all during the convention weekend.11. Complain about the poor organization tweet “Couldn't organize a pissing contest in a brewery”12. Head to the Bar again. then back to the corridor to see if you can catch up with anyone you know.13. Drop by the Screening room, tweet how they selected the worst episode ever. Say you can find a staff member to see what else is showing. Several hours later you can complain that the same episode seems to be playing.14. Go hang in the hall way, read something, looking for the next star. Stare at something, check the contents of your bag. Tweet some more. Say how you think you may have seen someone you may know out of the corner of your, but how they just seem to have just vanished in the dealer's room.15. Head to the panel room or Interview room, and listen to a the podcast interview of one of the stars you've invited. Keep putting up your and to ask a question. Tweet how they would not recognize you. The next Panel session is the one where you are the speaker. Read your questions and think of smart ass answers. Tweet about the lack of intelligence in modern fandom.16. Getting the Autograph.a. You can shop on E-bay for the ones you wantb. Complain on twitter that you missed the autograph queue because it was schedule for the same time as your panel. Then complain about whom ever did the schedule17. More Bar Time, put some peanuts in your pocket...just in case.18. Wait for the Costume contest, you can go get some dinner or something. Leave your name tag on.19. Attend the Costume contest (you are the judge..you can also be a contestant)a. Dress as your favorite earth character, nothing fancy or exoticb. Go sit on the porch and judge the people going by for their costume.c. Pick the cutest kid that went by, if there is a small child in the house, they win.d. If you don’t see anyone, you win.20. Call it a day, comeback tomorrow –mix it up a bit21. Complain you missed the closing ceremony because you were checking out.22. Tell your friends you had a great weekend and can’t wait until next year.

  
  

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• TDP 186: The Why Aye Player

  5 July 2011 (11:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 49 seconds

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  New fro the GBC and the BBC the Geordie language converter

  
  

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• TDP 185: Paradise Towers

  1 July 2011 (11:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 1 second

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  REPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Paradise Towers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 5 to October 26, 1987. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 In print 4 VHS and DVD releases 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Reviews 6.2 Target novelisation [edit] Plot The Doctor and Melanie, looking for a swimming pool, land in Paradise Towers, a luxurious 22nd century high rise apartment building now fallen into disrepair and chaos. The building is divided between roaming gangs of young girls called Kangs, grouped in colour theme, and the Doctor and Mel encounter the Red Kangs. They have just discovered the death of the last Yellow Kang and are plotting how to attack the Blue Kangs. Elsewhere in the Towers, one of the Caretakers - who act as 'Judge Dredd' style policemen – is hunted down and killed by a robotic cleaner, which appeals to the sadistic Chief Caretaker when he overhears the death. The Chief sends a squad of Caretakers to arrest the Red Kangs and in the ensuing confusion the Doctor is split from Mel and captured by the Caretakers. Mel meanwhile heads off to one of the still occupied apartments in which two elderly ladies ('rezzies') live. Tilda and Tabby explain that all the able bodied men left the Towers to fight a war, leaving behind only the children and the elderly. The only other man still loose in the Towers is Pex, a would-be hero, who appoints himself Mel's guardian. At the Caretaker control centre, the Doctor meets the Chief Caretaker, who greets him as the Great Architect, designer of Paradise Towers, and then promptly calls for him to be killed. The Doctor cites an imaginary rule from the Caretakers manual, confusing them enough to make his escape. Mel and Pex meanwhile have headed to the top of the building, and are captured by a party of Blue Kangs. Before the pair are freed the Kangs reveal to Mel that Pex survived by fleeing from the war. The Doctor finds the Great Architect is named Kroagnon, and is reunited with the Red Kangs. They explain that Kangs and Caretakers have been disappearing in ever greater numbers. While the Doctor is being interrogated, the Caretakers track him down to the Red Kang headquarters and attempt to break down the door to their headquarters. Elsewhere Mel has visited Tilda and Tabby again and soon finds herself under threat when it emerges they are cannibals and plan to eat her. The Doctor succeeds in holding off the Caretakers long enough for the Kangs to flee. Meanwhile Tabby and Tilda are delayed in their eating of Mel when they are disturbed by a noise in the waste disposal. It turns out to be a metal claw, which first drags Tabby to her death in the disposal system, and then Tilda. Pex arrives and somehow succeeds in saving Mel. Mel and Pex find a map of the Towers and decide to venture to the roof, where the luxury swimming pool is located. The Doctor is taken to the Caretakers HQ again, where he realises that the Chief Caretaker has been allowing the Cleaners to kill people in the Towers, but that the killing has now got out of hand and the Chief Caretaker is no longer in control. The creature the Chief keeps in the basement is demanding more sustenance and making its own hunting arrangements. When the Chief heads off to investigate the deaths of Tabby and Tilda, the Red Kangs attack the HQ and rescue the Doctor. He returns with them to their base, taking with him the Illustrated Prospectus for the Tower, which they all watch. It reminds the Doctor that Kroagnon, the Great Architect of Paradise Towers, also designed Miracle City, a cutting edge development which killed its occupants. It seems Kroagnon had an aversion to people actually populating his buildings. The Blue Kangs arrive suddenly, overpowering the Red ones, but it soon becomes clear their game is over and they must now work together. Mel and Pex finally find the swimming pool. When Mel takes a dip in the pool, she is attacked by a robotic killer crab. The Red Kangs know of the monstrosity in the basement, and guess it must be linked to the terror in the Towers. The Doctor heads off to investigate and finds the Chief has been herded by the Cleaners toward the mysterious intelligence, which turns out to be Kroagnon himself. The Doctor is soon spotted by the Cleaners too, and the robots start to attack. The Kangs rescue the Doctor in the nick of time while on the roof Pex fails to rescue Mel, who has to destroy the crab herself. When the Doctor and the Kangs arrive, the latter taunt Pex for his cowardice. The Doctor explains that Kroagnon felt human beings would ruin his creation and so placed multiple deathtraps throughout the Towers before he was killed and trapped in the machine in the basement. The remaining rezzies, led by a woman named Maddy, join them all at the swimming pool and pledge to work together with the Kangs to defeat the menace in the building. Pex pledges to help too. The Deputy Chief Caretaker and the surviving Caretakers, who have become convinced of the peril in the basement, soon join them. The Chief Caretaker has now been killed and his corpse animated by the artificial intelligence of Kroagnon. He now intends to use the Cleaners to kill everyone in the Towers and repair the damage the “filthy human parasites” have caused. However, the combined human forces are now fighting back against the machines. The Doctor and Pex devise a ruse to lure the Chief into a booby trapped room and thereby destroy Kroagnon, but when the plan goes wrong Pex sacrifices himself to drag the Chief into the trap. They are both killed, but the terror is over. After a period of reflection and Pex’s funeral, the Doctor and Mel leave Paradise Towers, trusting the remaining Kangs, Rezzies, and Caretakers to build a better society. As the TARDIS dematerialises, a new piece of Kang graffiti is revealed - "Pex Lives". [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 5 October 1987 24:33 4.5 "Part Two" 12 October 1987 24:39 5.2 "Part Three" 19 October 1987 24:30 5.0 "Part Four" 26 October 1987 24:21 5.0 [2][3][4] Working titles for this story included The Paradise Tower.[5] Author Stephen Wyatt based his story in part on the J. G. Ballard novel High Rise, which depicts a luxury apartment building which descends into savagery.[5] The music track was originally meant to be provided by a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, but producer John Nathan-Turner had decided that the incidental music no longer needed to be produced in-house. Instead, freelance composer David Snell was hired to provide the score, but Nathan-Turner terminated the commission late in production as he was unsatisfied with the way the score was turning out. Keff McCulloch provided the final score at short notice.[5] [edit] Cast notes Nisha Nayar, an uncredited extra playing one of the Red Kangs, later appeared in a more substantial speaking part as the Female Programmer in the 2005 two-part story "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways". This made her the second performer to appear in both the classic and new series of Doctor Who. Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was married at the time to Mark Strickson, who had been the Fifth Doctor's companion Vislor Turlough. Features a guest appearance by Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker who also later appears in the Torchwood episode A Day in the Death as Henry Parker. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Clive Merrison previously played Jim Callum in The Tomb of the Cybermen. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Wyatt, was published by Target Books in December 1988. It reveals that the Blue Kang Leader is named Drinking Fountain. Doctor Who book Paradise Towers Series Target novelisations Release number 134 Writer Stephen Wyatt Publisher Target Books Cover artist Alister Pearson ISBN 0-426-20330-5 Release date 1 December 1988 [edit] VHS and DVD releases This story was released on VHS in October 1995. A DVD release of Paradise Towers is due in 2011[6] [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 149. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Paradise Towers". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Paradise Towers". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Paradise Towers". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ a b c Paradise Towers at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) ^ http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2010/11/101110013312-dvd-paradise-towers-doctor.html [edit] External links Paradise Towers at BBC Online Paradise Towers at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Paradise Towers reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Paradise Towers reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Paradise Towers

  
  

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• TDP 184: Special Neil and Sue on Radio Tees

  1 July 2011 (5:33am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 15 minutes and 43 seconds

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  exapme from the blog click links to read more from Neil. AUDIO from the bbc local radio - suplied from the internet/other podcasts and provided here simply incase you missed it. With the Wife The Underwater Menace The Highlanders The Power of the Daleks The Hartnell Years The Tenth Planet The Smugglers Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD The War Machines The Savages The Gunfighters The Celestial Toymaker The Ark The Massacre The Daleks' Master Plan 11-12 The Daleks' Master Plan 5-10 The Daleks' Master Plan 1-4 The Myth Makers Mission to the Unknown Galaxy 4 Dr. Who and the Daleks The Time Meddler The Chase The Space Museum The Crusade The Web Planet The Romans The Rescue The Dalek Invasion of Earth Planet of Giants The Reign of Terror The Sensorites The Aztecs The Keys of Marinus Marco Polo The Edge of Destruction The Daleks An Unearthly Child with the Wife in Space Nuffink in ze world can stop us now! Except this story, obviously... A couple of hours before we settled down to watch The Underwater Menace, Sue and I appeared as guests on Bob Fischer's BBC Tees radio show to shamelessly plug this blog. You can listen to the edited highlights below (and Sue's PVC Dalek-suit anecdote was news to me!): Adventures with the Wife on BBC Tees - click to play Episode One Sue: That's just great. This story is going to star that ****ing hat. I hate that ****ing hat. We both enjoy the opening TARDIS scene, especially Jamie's reactions to the insanity he has walked into. There's a playful edge to the proceedings and a warmth we haven't really felt since the glory days of Ian, Susan and Barbara. We chuckle when Ben sarcastically hopes for the Daleks ("I bet the kids wouldn't have complained") while the Doctor's desire to encounter prehistoric monsters is dismissed out of hand ("not on this budget, love"). Me: Where do you hope they'll end up this time? Sue: Somewhere with decent carpentry. The TARDIS arrives on a beach and when Polly guesses at their whereabouts, Sue declares, in perfect harmony: Sue: Cornwall! It's always ****ing Cornwall! It doesn't take very long for our heroes to find themselves in danger: a platform they have been standing on is actually a lift, and as they hurtle beneath the sea, the TARDIS crew succumb to the bends. Sue: That's very interesting. Ben just asked Polly to get them out of there. He didn't ask the Doctor and he's standing right next to him. I don't blame Ben though; this Doctor is still pretty useless. When they regain consciousness, Polly finds some pottery with the logo for the 1968 Mexico Olympiad emblazoned on it, and then our heroes are confronted by a race of people dressed in clam shells and seaweed. Sue believes she has it sussed: Sue: Are they rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony? Their high priest even sports a fish on his head: Sue: Please tell me the Doctor doesn't get a hat like that. Just as Sue believes she has a handle on events, our heroes are strapped to some slabs and sadistically lowered toward a mad man's pet sharks. Sue: Is this a Bond movie now? Me: Yes. You Only Live 13 Times. Sue: Has this got anything to do with the Olympics? Anything at all? When the Doctor signs his name 'Dr. W', he reignites an old debate: Sue: You can't really argue with that, can you? That settles it: his name is Dr. Who. You'll just have to accept it, love. Me: Unless his real name begins with a W - Sue: Like Doctor Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey? Would that make you feel any better? And does it really matter? I call him Dr. Who all the time - Me: Yes, I know. And every time you do it, part of me dies. When Professor Zaroff reveals that they are currently hanging out on the lost continent of Atlantis, Sue doesn't even flinch: Sue: Atlantis. Of course it's Atlantis. Where else would they be in this ****-ed up programme? So, it's James Bond on Atlantis? Gotcha. Thanks to those fainthearted Australians, the cliffhanger moves, although we find ourselves sympathising with the censor as Polly is strapped to a table and threatened with a large hypodermic needle by some evil scientists who want to turn her into a fish. Yes, a fish. Sue: I don't know what Polly is moaning about; I'd love to breathe underwater indefinitely. She could stick around and enter the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz would have nothing on her. Episode Two Me: How short is Polly's surgical gown - Sue: Trust you to notice that, love. The hot topic of conversation during this episode is Zaroff. Who else? Sue: He reminds me of that mad scientist from that show you love: Comedy Theater 2000 - Me: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Sue: That's it. He reminds me of the mad scientist from that: an over-the-top pantomime villain. Me: Believe it or not, the guy playing him is actually a very fine actor - Sue: Oh, I don't doubt it. He's just having a laugh with the part. And who can blame him? How else would you play this character? His plan is completely pointless; there's no clever reason for him to do any of this, he just wants to blow up the world. There's no benefit or motive at all. Me: He's insane. Sue: It's lazy. With no motivation or backstory you have to play him as a larger-than-life lunatic. I like him; he's committed. He's definitely the funniest villain we've had in the series so far. When Ben and Jamie are taken to the mines of Atlantis, a high pitched whining cuts through the scene. We assume it represents the sound of the drilling but whatever it is, it's making our teeth itch. Sue: If we were 16 years old, we would hear that sound whenever we went near an off-license - Me: Have you warmed to Troughton yet? He's basically playing his version of the Doctor now. More or less. Sue: He reminds me of Ken Dodd in some of these stills. That one in particular (see right). The music doesn't help. It's atrocious. It sounds like they've let a small child loose on a Bontempi organ. This is the worst music that I've heard in the series so far. Who's responsible for it? Me: An Australian called Dudley Simpson - Sue: Sack him. He's rubbish. Episode Three Finally, after enduring thirteen consecutive recons (count them! thirteen!), we are reunited with a real bona fide episode. I never thought I'd ever hear myself say this but thank Amdo for The Underwater Menace Episode 3. Sue: Even though the story is still a complete mess, it's a thousand times easier to follow it when it exists. I don't want to state the bleedin' obvious but even the very worst story improves when you can actually see it. The recons I gave good scores to must have been incredible - The highlight of the episode for Sue is, of course, the sight of Jamie and Ben in tight-fitting rubber: Sue: Given the state of some of their costumes, they should have called this story The Underwear Menace. Me: I think the playwright Joe Orton mentioned this story in his diary. Or was it in Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses? No, it must have been Joe Orton; he fancied Jamie in his rubber suit, I think. Or maybe it was Kenneth Williams. My memory is almost as bad as yours. Sue: Jamie and Ben wouldn't look out of place at that nightclub, Heaven. As if to accentuate this observation, Jamie and Ben suddenly launch themselves into the campest salute this side of 'Allo 'Allo. Sue: I'll say no more. Sue: Does Troughton ever go through a story where he doesn't play that bloody recorder? And are there any stories where he doesn't dress up at the drop of a hat (which he'll probably pick up and put on)? He's a borderline transvestite. Me: You might want to hold onto something during the next scene. We're about to meet the Fish People. Sue: They look like a second-rate dance troupe who are waiting to audition for Britain's Got Talent. They're probably going to do a up-tempo version of Yellow Submarine. A miner called Jacko attempts to turn the Fish People into striking militants. He does this by winding them up a bit. At one point he cries, "Are you not men?" and, quick as a flash, Sue replies: Sue: No! We're fish! What are you, blind? Hang on, is that Polly in a snorkel? Me: No, it's a Fish Person. Sue: They're having a laugh. And then it happens. Impossible to describe. Impossible to watch. Sue: This is the lowest point in Doctor Who yet. By some considerable margin. Please make it stop. Me: Is this worse than The Web Planet? Sue: Oh yes, this is even more half-arsed. Me: It's like a perverse joke: you wait 13 episodes for a real episode and then you get this. Sue: I take it all back - this would have been much better as a recon. Something that really niggles at us is the Fish People's economic impact on Atlantis, which is based on the assumption that the food they farm must be consumed immediately: Sue: OK, let me get this straight: Zaroff has a nuclear reactor but he hasn't got a fridge - or, better still, a fridge freezer - to put any food in? That makes no sense at all. Me: This is your first proper look at Patrick Troughton. Have you formed an opinion yet? Sue: I feel a little more comfortable with him now that I've seen him in action. He's far more animated than I expected and he's definitely got charisma. There's something about him. Sadly, the director isn't doing him any favours so I'll have to reserve judgement until I've seen some more. And then we reach the moment The Underwater Menace is probably best known for. But immediately before it arrives - and I'd completely forgotten this - Zaroff stabs someone with a spear, he shoots someone at point-blank range and then he has two others killed off-screen. It's horrific! But it's completely eclipsed by what follows: Sue: Wow. It's so mesmerising, we have to watch it again. And again. And again. Sue: He's having a whale of a time. Me: I'm glad someone is. Episode Four Sue: I still can't believe he didn't bring some fridges with him. Still, I guess if you are planning to blow up the world you can't think of everything. You know, I think every episode of Doctor Who could be improved with a Zaroff. The only thing missing is a scene of him tearing his hair out as he screams, "Why am I surrounded by idiots!". Me: There's still twenty minutes to go. I wouldn't rule anything out. Sue: I like the way the show has kept to its educational remit. Me: What? Sue: Jamie is from the past and therefore he doesn't understand what radioactivity is. Some of the children watching this wouldn't know either - Me: Yeah, that's great. There's just one tiny problem: they don't explain it. Polly says she can't be bothered! Polly and Jamie are struggling to escape the rising waters of Atlantis: Sue: It's turned into a disaster movie now. Me: Oh, it's a disaster all right. Sue: Why is Polly wearing a fireplace corbel on her head? Me: I don't even know what that means. Thanks to those Aussie wimps, we get to see Professor Zaroff drown. Well, I say drown... Sue: That's not drowning! Zaroff has hours left before the water rises above his head! Maybe he was bored and he decided to commit suicide? The world saved, the Doctor and his companions leave the Atlantans to it. Sue: Why are they bothering to rebuild Atlantis anyway? Why don't they just move up to the surface? They've got fridges up there. And while they missed the 1968 Olympics, Mexico have got the World Cup in 1970. It would be a shame if they missed it. The Final Score Sue: That was bonkers. And a little bit shit. 2/10 Sue: Zaroff was excellent, though. I could watch him all day. I'm not convinced that he's dead either; I think he was just wetting his hair a bit. He should definitely return in the new series. The League of Gentlemen could play him. Me: What, all of them? The experiment continues. Tags: anneke wills, frazer hines, innes lloyd, michael craze, patrick troughton Click to share this

  
  

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• TDP 183: The Awakening

  18 June 2011 (11:30pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT This story features a creature known as the Malus, who is responsible for creating a time link between the year of 1984 and the events from the English Civil War. The Doctor must also face the villagers of Little Hodcombe, who have been influenced by the Malus, and save Tegan before she is burned as the ill-fated Queen of the May. [edit] Plot On 13 July 1643, two forces came to the village of Little Hodcombe during the English Civil War and destroyed each other. As the story begins, a group of Roundheads are riding horses in the village of Little Hodcombe, with little regard to the villagers around them. Only it is not 1643, it is 1984. A schoolteacher, Jane Hampden, is convinced that her fellow villagers, led by the town’s leader, Sir George Hutchinson, have taken their re-enactment of a series of war games too far. Hutchinson attempts to assure her that the games are a harmless event, which are merely to celebrate the English Civil War. When Hampden asks him to stop the games, Hutchinson ignores her. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor promises to take his companion, Tegan, to 1984 so she could spend some time with her grandfather, Andrew Verney. The Doctor sets the coordinates to Little Hodcombe, where Verney resides. However, the TARDIS experiences some turbulence and arrives in what appears to be a structurally unstable church. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, while watching on the scanner, see a man in 17th Century clothing, fleeing from the church and the Doctor dashes out to help him. However, the man has now vanished. Tegan is convinced that they have landed in the wrong time zone. However, Turlough tells her that he had checked the TARDIS coordinates and they were in 1984. As the Time Lord and his companions continue pursue the man, smoke starts to billow from a crack in the wall. Eventually, the three travellers are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and taken to Sir George Hutchinson. The Doctor and his companions are first brought before Hampden and Colonel Ben Woolsey, who apologizes for the poor treatment that they received. Hutchinson arrives and explains to the Doctor that the town is celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and then he urges him to join the celebration. Tegan then explains that they have come to this village to see her grandfather, Andrew Verney. She is informed that her grandfather is missing, and runs outside the room, upset. The Doctor follows but loses her. Tegan, still upset, is crying when someone steals her purse. She tries to get it back and she runs into a barn where she finds the ghost of an old man. The Doctor returns to the church and meets a 17th Century peasant, Will Chandler, who emerges from a wall. He has been hidden in a priest hole and believes the year to be 1643. Turlough eventually rescues Tegan from the barn and they return to the TARDIS, where they see a sparkly projection on one of the walls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Will investigate the church. Tegan and Turlough leave the TARDIS and they are re-captured. Turlough is locked in a building with Verney. Willow forces Tegan to change into a 17th century costume. He informs her that she is to become the Queen of the May. The Doctor and Will continue to investigate. Eventually they find a secret passage back to Ben Woolsey’s living room under a slab marked with a picture of a creature that Will identifies as the Malus. Coming the other way through the passage, the Doctor and Will meet up with Hampden, who found the passage’s other end by accident after being locked in Colonel Wolsey's office. They avoid Hutchinson, who has followed Jane down the passage, and the Doctor finds a small ball of metal. The Doctor identifies the metal as “tinclavic,” a metal “mined by the Terileptils on the planet Raaga for the almost exclusive use of the people of Hakol,” a planet in the “star system Rifta,” where “psychic energy is a force to be harnessed.” Returning to the church, the Doctor and Hampden are astonished when a massive alien face pushes its way through the crack on the wall, roaring and spewing smoke. They manage to escape from the psychic projection of a cavalier, and head back to the house via the tunnel. The Doctor realises that the Malus in the church was discovered by Verney and Hutchinson. The latter tried to exploit the creature, but instead, the creature began to use him by organizing the war games. He deduces that the psychic energy released by the war games has fed the Malus. The Doctor and Jane again try to persuade Hutchinson to stop the games, as the final battle will be for real. He refuses and orders Woolsey to kill the Doctor. However, once Hutchinson leaves, Woolsey joins forces with the Doctor. The Queen of the May is taken in a horse-drawn cart towards the village green, where she is to be burned. When the cart arrives, Hutchinson suddenly noticed that the Queen is not Tegan, but a straw dummy that has been put in her place by Woolsey. Hutchinson becomes angry and he orders his men to kill Woolsey and the others. Will appears in the nick of time and uses a flame torch to cause a distraction, which allows the Doctor, Hampden, Woolsey and Tegan to escape and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor locks the signal conversion unit on the frequency of the psychic energy feeding the Malus, hoping to be able to direct it. Willow and a trooper try in vain to break their way into the TARDIS, and Turlough and Verney knock them unconscious with lumps of masonry. The Doctor succeeds in blocking the energy, and the projection of the Malus in the TARDIS dies. The real Malus, in an act of desperation, attempts to drain as much psychic energy from the villagers as possible. He creates a corporeal projection of three roundheads who try to kill the Doctor, Woolsey, Tegan, Turlough, Hampden, Verney and Will. However, the dazed and confused trooper stumbles from the TARDIS and into the main church area, becomes surrounded by the roundheads, and they decapitate him then vanish. Hutchinson arrives and holds them all at gunpoint. When the Doctor tries to talk Hutchinson out of the thrall of the Malus, Willow attacks the group. In the scuffle, Will pushes Hutchinson into the mouth of the Malus, destroying the Malus's medium. Realizing it has failed, the Malus prepares to destroy itself and everything around it. Subsequently the church begins to collapse and the Doctor leads the others, including Willow, into the safety of the TARDIS. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor's companions are surprised to see Will still among them. The Doctor explains that he must have been wrong in his assumption that Will was a psychic projection. He then says that the Malus must have created a temporal rift, which allowed Will to slip into the future. The Time Lord then says that he will take Will back to 1643. Tegan objects and ask the Doctor to allow her some time to visit her grandfather. The Doctor is initially disgruntled but he is persuaded to stay in Little Hodcombe for a while for a rest. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. The Doctor mentions the Terileptils mining tinclavic on the planet Raaga. Script editor Eric Saward added this in the script to create a reference to his own story The Visitation (1982). He had planned to write another story featuring the Terileptils, and wanted to make sure the audience remembered who they were. But as events worked out, Saward never wrote their planned return. This was the first story to feature alterations to the Fifth Doctor's costume. The Doctor wears a lighter-coloured frock coat, and a white "v-neck" cricketer's sweater with thick red and black piping around the "v" and the lower waist, as opposed to the costume he wore during the previous two seasons where the "v-neck" piping was thin and coloured red, white and black and there was no piping around the waist. The shirt is also altered with green lining on the collar and where the shirt is buttoned, instead of red. The Doctor disposed of his original costume in episode 2 of the previous story, Warriors of the Deep, in which he disguised himself in the uniform of a Sea Base 4 guard; it is possible he never retrieved his costume from the base before he left. The Fifth Doctor would wear the secondary version of his costume for the remainder of the season, save for most of Planet of Fire (1984). The newly regenerated Sixth Doctor would also be seen wearing it during the first episode of his debut story, The Twin Dilemma (1984). The Seventh Doctor encounters the other half of the Hakolian war machine that became the Malus in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Hollow Men. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 19 January 1984 25:18 7.9 "Part Two" 20 January 1984 24:47 6.6 [2][3][4] The working titles of this story were War Game and Poltergeist. Pringle had submitted this story in the mid-1970s to then-script editor Robert Holmes as a four-part story entitled War Game. In the 1980s he resubmitted his story (as well as a different four-parter, The Darkness, possibly featuring the Daleks) to script editor Eric Saward. Realizing the story did not have enough impact for four episodes, it was later pared down to two, renamed Poltergeist and then finally The Awakening. The story featured extensive location shooting and studio work. Saward wanted to add a TARDIS sequence with Tegan and Kamelion, utilising the robot prop and played in chameleonic form by Peter Davison and Mark Strickson. However, this scene was cut from the transmitted episode for timing reasons. The recovery of an early edit of episode one on video (in the personal archive of late producer John Nathan Turner) means that this element, previously thought lost, may now be included on a DVD release of the serial. A small part of the scene has appeared in the documentary Kamelion: Metal Man which featured on the DVD release of The King's Demons[5]. The master tape for Part One was found to have some scratch damage when the 1984 compilation version was being mastered, no protection copy was made at that time so the original tx master continued to deteriorate, the tape was checked in the early 90's and the scratch damage found to be far more intrusive than it had been in 84, fortunately the original film sequences were kept and using these, the compilation copy and the reprise from part 2, in 1997 the Doctor Who Restoration Team were able to make a repaired master copy. This was used for the VHS release. The episode will probably have to be restored from scratch when, at some point, it is mastered for DVD. This was officially the final story of the series to consist of two 25-minute episodes. All two parters since then have been 45 minutes long per episode, including most of season 22 and several stories of the revived series. The Ultimate Foe, the concluding segment of The Trial of a Time Lord, is numbered on screen as Parts Thirteen and Fourteen of the latter title; furthermore, they share the same BBC production code, 7C, with the preceding four-part story arc, Terror of the Vervoids, even though they have their own separate novelisation and feature compilation. The production designer for this story, Barry Newbery, had worked on Doctor Who intermittently ever since its very first story. After completing "Awakening", Newbery took early retirement from the BBC, making this story his last professional effort. John Nathan-Turner liked the character of Will Chandler a great deal and seriously considered keeping him on as a companion. However, it was eventually concluded that Chandler's child-like character would quickly wear thin and lacked any clear path of development, so Nathan-Turner dropped the idea. [edit] In print Doctor Who book The Awakening Series Target novelisations Release number 95 Writer Eric Pringle Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20158-2 Release date 13 June 1985 A novelisation of this serial, written by Eric Pringle, was published by Target Books in February 1985. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release The story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984 as a 46min compilation (20/07/84) at 6.50pm. This story was released on a double VHS set with Frontios in March 1997. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Gunfighters on 20th June 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 132. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Awakening". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Awakening". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Awakening". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ http://www.denofgeek.com/Reviews/527149/doctor_who_kamelion_tales_collection_dvd_review.html [edit] External links The Awakening at BBC Online The Awakening at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Awakening at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Awakening on BBCWorldwideTV Youtube channel [edit] Reviews The Awakening reviews at Outpost Gallifrey The Awakening reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — The Awakening

  
  

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• TDP 182:The Gunfighters

  16 June 2011 (6:17am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 14 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Synopsis In 19th Century America in the frontier town of Tombstone, Arizona, the troublesome Clanton brothers, Ike, Phineas and Billy, are in town in search of Doc Holliday to settle an old score over the death of another brother called Reuben. They meet up with their hired hand Seth Harper at the Last Chance Saloon. He knows what Holliday looks like and describes his coat and demeanour. This is overheard by bar singer Kate, who lets her paramour Holliday know he is in danger. The TARDIS has arrived in a nearby stable, with the Doctor in agony from toothache. He and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, dressed as cowboys, soon encounter local marshal Wyatt Earp, who offers them his protection and warns them to keep their counsel. The Doctor finds the dentist – Holliday himself - while Dodo and Steven book rooms at the local hotel. There they are mocked by the Clantons, who suspect the Doctor they refer to is Holliday himself. Seth Harper is sent to the dentist’s surgery and invites the Doctor, tooth removed, to the hotel in five minutes to meet his friends. Holliday is initially happy to let him be shot in his place, allowing the real Doc to disappear, but Kate intervenes to ensure the Doctor survives. This buys some time until Holliday relents and hides in an upstairs chamber of the hotel, firing his gun at appropriate moments to con the Clantons into thinking the Doctor is indeed Holliday the sharpshooter. Soon afterward Wyatt Earp and Sheriff Bat Masterson arrive and break up the fracas, taking the Doctor into custody for his own protection. Steven now becomes embroiled in a plot to smuggle the Doctor a gun to help free him from the jailhouse, but the Doctor refuses to be armed. Steven is shortly afterward confronted by a rabble wound up by the Clantons, who are intent on lynching him as an associate of the disreputable Holliday. Once more it is Earp and Masterson who defuse the situation, and also take Phin Clanton into custody to ensure the co-operation of his brothers. The Doctor and Steven are freed and told to leave town as soon as possible. Dodo has meanwhile fallen in with Kate and Doc, who both plan to leave town and take her with them. When Seth Harper stumbles across their escape plans, Holliday kills him, and the trio then depart. Harper's role as aide to the Clantons is soon replaced by a new arrival, Johnny Ringo, who shoots local barman Charlie by way of an introduction to the town of Tombstone. The Doctor and Steven return to the Last Chance Saloon in search of Dodo and encounter the dangerous Ringo. Wyatt Earp’s brothers Warren and Virgil have meanwhile arrived at Tombstone to help him enforce the law. The Doctor soon tells them that Ringo is in town. Events take a harsh turn when the other Clanton brothers visit the jail to free Phin, killing Warren Earp in the process. Meanwhile Steven heads out of town to look for Dodo with Ringo in tow in search of Holliday. Steven and Kate end up being taken by Ringo to the Clanton ranch where the Clantons recamp and tell their father, Pa Clanton, that they have killed an Earp. Wyatt Earp swears vengeance and starts to build a posse of lawmen to deal with the Clantons once and for all. Doc Holliday returns to Tombstone with Dodo, and offers his services to his old friend Earp too. Attempts by the Doctor to defuse the situation amount to little: there will be a gunfight at the O.K. Corral. On the one side are the three Clanton brothers and Johnny Ringo; on the other, the two Earps and Doc Holliday. At the end of the gunfight Ringo and the three Clantons are shot dead. Shortly thereafter, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo slip away in the TARDIS. They arrive on a strange planet, and decide to go out and have a look. As they leave, a strange man is seen approaching the TARDIS on the scanner. [edit] Continuity For dating of this episode, see the Chronology. Apart from the time travellers, this serial intentionally takes dramatic liberties with historical events and many inaccuracies are present. For example, the participants in the gunfight are nearly entirely wrong; in the fight, Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and Doc Holliday faced down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton. The McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton died. Although Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were initially present at the scene of the gunfight, both ran from the fight and were unharmed. The Clantons' father had been killed by Mexican Rurales in an ambush in August 1881, in retribution for the killing of Mexicans at the Skeleton Canyon Massacre (and most likely did not wear a bowler hat). There was no one by the name of Reuben Clanton, and neither Johnny Ringo nor Phineas Clanton were in town at the time. Warren Earp lived in Tombstone with his brothers, but he was not a marshal. James ran a saloon. Warren was shot and killed in a bar fight almost twenty years after the Tombstone events. Likewise there is no basis in fact for anything about the depiction of the Last Chance Saloon. Neither its name, its offered entertainment, its set decoration, nor its apparent volume of business are appropriate to Tombstone saloons in 1881.[1] [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "A Holiday for the Doctor" 30 April 1966 23:48 6.5 16mm t/r "Don't Shoot the Pianist" 7 May 1966 23:47 6.6 16mm t/r "Johnny Ringo" 14 May 1966 23:52 6.2 16mm t/r "The OK Corral" 21 May 1966 23:53 5.7 16mm t/r [2][3][4] The working title for this story was The Gunslingers.[5] This was the last serial of the series to have individual episode titles (until the 2005 revival). From The Savages on, each serial had an overall title divided into numbered parts or episodes. Despite this, a caption at the end of The OK Corral read "Next Episode: Dr. Who and the Savages".[6] According to About Time by Tat Wood and Lawrence Miles, this was the first Western made for British television. [edit] Cast notes Dalek voice actor David Graham played Charlie the barman. He later played Kerensky in City of Death. Doc Holliday was played by Anthony Jacobs, whose son Matthew visited the set during production of the serial. Thirty years later, Matthew Jacobs wrote the script for the 1996 Doctor Who television movie. Laurence Payne later played Morix in The Leisure Hive and Dastari in The Two Doctors. [edit] Music The Gunfighters is notable for being the first Doctor Who episodes to contain musical narration, in the form of the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon". It was sung by Lynda Baron, who does not appear onscreen (although Dodo appears to hear the ballad at the end of the serial). Baron would later appear, however, in the Fifth Doctor serial Enlightenment, in the role of Captain Wrack. (See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.) The ballad itself is included as an extra on the CD soundtrack release. The notion of commissioning original songs for Doctor Who would resume when the series was revived in 2005, beginning with "Song for Ten" in The Christmas Invasion. [edit] Broadcast and reception A common myth is that this story has the lowest ratings of any Doctor Who story. This myth likely stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between audience share and Audience Appreciation scores. The former indicates the size of the viewing audience and the latter is based on a survey gauging the viewers' opinions of the programme. In fact, the audience size for the serial ranged from 6.5 million viewers for the first episode to 5.7 million for the last. However, the Audience Appreciation scores for the last three episodes equalled or went below the lowest scores for Doctor Who, with the very last episode, "The O.K. Corral", having a score of 30%, the lowest ever to date. That said, the story did post ratings that were disappointing by a number of different measures. The Gunfighters represented a significant decrease over the previous serial, The Celestial Toymaker, which had ranged from 7.8 to 9.4 million viewers. Each episode of The Gunfighters was also significantly lower than for the first 18 weeks of Series 3, wherein the lowest-rated week—at 7.9 million viewers—belonged to the episode "The Feast of Steven" from The Daleks' Master Plan. Each episode of the serial was also beaten by the serials, which were respectively broadcast in similar April–May slots in 1965 (The Space Museum) and in 1964 (The Keys of Marinus). While not the lowest-rated Doctor Who story of all time, or even the lowest-rated Hartnell story, The Gunfighters did open a sustained period of significantly lower ratings for the program that would last almost the entirety of the remainder of the First Doctor's era. Beginning with "The O.K. Corral" — the very same episode that received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode — no Hartnell episode would top 6 million viewers until Episode 2 of his final story, The Tenth Planet. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Donald Cotton, was published by Target Books in July 1985. It is narrated in first person by Doc Holliday (a framing scene introduces him on his deathbed) and makes a major change in the character of Johnny Ringo by depicting him as a student of the classics. Doctor Who book The Gunfighters Series Target novelisations Release number 101 Writer Donald Cotton Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20195-7 Release date 9 January 1986 [edit] VHS, CD and DVD releases This serial was released on VHS in November 2002. Later, in 2007, it was released on CD, with linking narration, the entire "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon", and a bonus interview from Peter Purves. It will be released in a box set named Earth Story along with The Awakening on 20 June 2011. [edit] References ^ http://www.wildwestinfo.com/index1_files/page0003.htm[dead link] Monahan, Sherry. Tombstone's Treasure: Silver Mines & Saloons. University of New Mexico Press. 2007. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Gunfighters". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "The Gunfighters". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Gunfighters". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1994). Doctor Who The Handbook - The First Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 126. ISBN 0 426 20430 1. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Gunfighters: Things to watch out for...". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 89. ISBN 0 563 40588 0. Retrieved 7 March 2011. [edit] External links The Gunfighters at BBC Online The Gunfighters at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) The Gunfighters at the Doctor Who Reference Guide The Whoniverse's review on The Gunfighters [edit] Reviews The Gunfighters reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters reviews at Outpost Gallifrey [edit] Target novelisation The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide The Gunfighters novelisation reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target — The Gunfighters

  
  

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• TDP 181: A Good Man Goes To War

  10 June 2011 (6:27am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 20 minutes and 30 seconds

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  REPRINTED FROM WIKIPEDIA WITH THANKS AND RESPECT Plot [edit] Synopsis The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) have discovered that Amy (Karen Gillan), Rory's wife and the Doctor's companion, has been taken from them and was replaced with a doppelganger made from 'the Flesh' ("The Almost People"). The Doctor has come to learn that the real Amy is being held on a secret asteroid base called "Demon's Run", and collects several old allies from across time and space, including Sontaran Commander Strax (Dan Starkey), Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and her human companion Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and the black market trader Dorium Maldovar (Simon Fisher-Becker), to lay an assault on the base. Rory, after collecting information on the base's location from a Cyberman fleet, attempts to recruit River Song (Alex Kingston) from her Stormcage prison cell, but she refuses, saying she cannot be with the Doctor at this time as this battle is when he will discover her identity. Aboard the base, Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber), who has been watching over Amy during her pregnancy and taken her child, Melody, from her, prepares her human troops to fight the Doctor alongside the Order of the Headless Monks who reside at Demon's Run; the monks are literally headless and incapable of being influenced by emotions. Human soldier Lorna Bucket, who had met the Doctor as a young girl in the Gamma forests, attempts to befriend Amy and gives her a cloth good luck token with Melody's name on it in her language. Amy warns Bucket of the Doctor's fury if she fights against him. Demons run when a good man goes to war Night will fall and drown the sun When a good man goes to war Friendship dies and true love lies Night will fall and the dark will rise When a good man goes to war Demons run, but count the cost The battle's won, but the child is lost “ ” River Song, explaining the meaning of the name of Demon's Run base Assisted by additional Silurian and Judoon forces, the Doctor and his allies launch a surprise attack and secure the base. The Doctor and Rory free Amy and retake Melody before Madame Kovarian can escape with her. As the Doctor celebrates, considering this his greatest achievement, Vastra and Dorium discover that Kovarian has been scanning Melody and has found that the child has both human and Time Lord DNA. The Doctor surmises that Melody was likely conceived on Amy and Rory's wedding night aboard the TARDIS, the baby's DNA influenced by the time vortex. The rest of the Doctor's allies regroup, and Amy and Rory tend to their daughter using an ancient wooden cot that the Doctor claims was his own. Kovarian, well away from the base, contacts the Doctor, explaining that they will be using Melody as a weapon in the war against him. She takes delight in telling him he has fallen into another trap, and that "fooling [the Doctor] once was a joy, twice in the same way is a privilege." The Doctor races to the hangar to warn his friends. Meanwhile, Bucket has arrived and warns the group of Kovarian's trap, but they are too late as the TARDIS is blocked by a force field and they are attacked by the Headless Monks. Dorium is killed immediately, while Strax and Bucket are fatally wounded in the battle. At the same time, Kovarian, appearing through a hatch opening in midair near where Amy and Melody are hiding, tells the baby to wake up. The baby dissolves into the Flesh liquid, leaving Amy distraught. The Doctor arrives too late to help his wounded allies, and helps Rory to console Amy. River appears, and the Doctor berates her for not helping. She tries to explain that she could not, and tells the Doctor how these recent events were partially his fault, having been brought about by those that feared his reputation. The Doctor, angry and emotional, demands to know who she is. River shows the Doctor the cot, and The Doctor recognises River's identity. Elated, he goes off on his own in the TARDIS to rescue Melody, asking River to return everyone to their proper time stream. Amy demands that River explain what the Doctor learned, and she shows them the cot. Initially Amy believes River is referring to the Gallifreyan symbols engraved on it, but they cannot be read by humans even with the aid of the TARDIS translation systems. Instead, River shows them Bucket's cloth charm with Melody's name, still in the cot. The Gamma forest people only know of one source of water ("The only water in the forest is the river" quotes Dr. Song) and have no word for "melody", Bucket used the closest approximations: "song" and "river". River Song re-introduces herself to Amy and Rory as their daughter. [edit] Continuity Dorium previously appeared in the opening to "The Pandorica Opens", selling River Song a vortex manipulator. Henry and Toby Avery, from "The Curse of the Black Spot", appear briefly to secure Madame Kovarian's ship. The space-worthy Spitfires modified by the Doctor and piloted by "Danny Boy" as shown in "Victory of the Daleks" are shown to disable the base's communication array. Fat One and Thin One refer to the Doctor sending the Atraxi away from a planet before calling them back "for a scolding", an incident that took place in "The Eleventh Hour". The Headless Monks were previously mentioned in "The Time of Angels", added to that episode's script to help explain the Delirium Archive's monastic look.[2] Bucket refers to her unit as "the Clerics" - this unit was introduced in "The Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone". "The only water in the forest is the river," the phrase River uses to explain why the people of the Gamma Forest translate Pond to River, was first said to Rory by Idris in "The Doctor's Wife". Rory wears the armour of a Roman centurion, as in "The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang" and "A Christmas Carol". Amy also tells Melody of Rory's nickname of "the Last Centurion", derived from his two thousand-year vigil over the Pandorica in "The Big Bang". In describing Rory's time in and out of the TARDIS, the Doctor refers to "sexy fish vampires" ("The Vampires of Venice"), Rory's death and erasure from time ("Cold Blood") and his time as an Auton before the universe was restored ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang"). [edit] Prequel On 28 May 2011, immediately following the broadcast of "The Almost People", the BBC released a prequel to "A Good Man Goes to War". The prequel has Dorium talking to two Headless Monks. He gives them the brain of a Judoon, which contains a security protocol the hooded figures need. Dorium tells them that he knows what they are up to, as he hears a lot of rumours around the area. He asks them, "All this, to imprison one child? Oh, I know what you're up to, I hear everything in this place. I even hear rumours about whose child you've taken. Are you mad? You know the stories about the Doctor? The things that man has done? God help us if you make him angry!"[3] [edit] Production The seventh episode of series six was the 777th episode of Doctor Who, but there are no seven puns as the production team did not realise this until after shooting.[4] [edit] Cast notes Dan Starkey appears as the Sontaran Commander Strax. He previously played Commander Skorr in "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" (2008) and Commander Jask in The End of Time (2010). Neve McIntosh played the Silurian sisters Alaya and Restac in "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010). [edit] Broadcast and reception Matt Risley of IGN rated the episode a 9.0/10, stating that the episode was an "epic" one that "opened with a grandstanding, wonderfully OTT pre-credits tease and didn't really let up from there."[5] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph said that the episode was good but lacked significant background motivation into the villains. Fuller also notes that the revelation of River Song being Amy's grown up child "is perhaps a narrative strand that would sit uncomfortably with a series where loss has often been brushed off as soon as the next couple of episodes". However, he did have praise for the performance of Matt Smith, commenting that "the last few weeks have seen Matt Smith’s Doctor in a welcome generally more serious vein, which he kept up here, with leavening at the right moments where his alien lack of comfort with human emotions, although used to comic effect, rang very true, as did his awkwardness when discovering the truth about River".[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian was less favourable, stating that that the producers "promised us a cliffhanger, and now we're left the whole summer long to contemplate whether our favourite show can really have just dropped the ball. Oh there was plenty to love about this mid-season finale, and even more to pick over. But as an hour of drama it was all over the place". Because the episode was so fast-paced with little being explained, he did not feel any emotional connection to the Anglican marines or Lorna Bucket. Unlike Fuller, Martin was not favorable to Matt Smith's Doctor, stating that "the non-event of the battle means that the Doctor never really gets to show this dark side we've been hearing so much about" and that Smith's predecessor, David Tennant, "got angrier most weeks". Martin did have praise for the final reveal of the episode, stating that although it had been "hidden in plain view from the very beginning as soon as its revealed Amy has called the baby Melody", he was unable to make the connection and was suitably surprised.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith's Series Two: Latest News". Doctor Who Magazine (432): 9. 6 April 2011 (cover date). ^ "The Born Identity". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 04 June 2011. No. 7, series 6. ^ "A Good Man Goes to War Prequel". BBC. 28 May 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2011. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011rf7y ^ http://tv.ign.com/articles/117/1172497p1.html ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/doctor-who/8552099/Doctor-Who-episode-7-A-Good-Man-Goes-to-War-review.html ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/jun/04/doctor-who-a-good-man-goes-to-war [edit] External links "A Good Man Goes to War" at the Internet Movie Database A Good Man Goes to War on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki "A Good Man Goes to War" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage "A Good Man Goes to War" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)

  
  

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• TDP 180: The Almost People Smith 2.06

  2 June 2011 (7:30pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 14 minutes and 9 seconds

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  "The Almost People" is the sixth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 May 2011. It is the second episode of a two-part story which began with "The Rebel Flesh". Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Broadcast and reception 3.1 International broadcast 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis The ganger of the Doctor struggles to reconcile his old regenerations, quoting from them, before he stabilises. Both Doctors look the same but can be told apart by their different shoes. The two Doctors determine that they need to restore power to the factory in order to send a distress call to the mainland. Amy becomes distrustful of the ganger Doctor and asks him not to call her "Pond", his sobriquet for her. While the group escapes from the chapel, the Jennifer ganger explains that every time a ganger dies, the last question in their eyes is "Why?". She convinces the other gangers to rise up against humanity. Rory, still looking for Jennifer, eventually finds two Jennifers, each insisting they are the 'real' Jennifer. They fight each other; one finally pushes the other into an acid pool, where she melts and is revealed to be a ganger. The humans and the Doctors arrive at the power control room. Sensing the Flesh in his head, the ganger Doctor runs outside, and Amy runs after him. She confronts him about the death she witnessed, but the ganger Doctor does not respond. He echoes the Jennifer ganger's question: "'Why?' It's all the eyes say. 'Why?'" He pushes Amy up against the wall, and she runs back into the control room, scared. Cleaves separates the Doctors, saying they cannot trust the ganger. The Doctor sends his ganger and Buzzer off to find Rory and Jennifer, explaining that the sonic screwdriver can distinguish between humans and the Flesh. Jennifer leads Rory to a room and asks him to initiate a power system, but this instead turns off the factory's cooling system and the acid begins to boil. The Doctor and the humans are forced to flee the communications room as acid pipes start to explode. Jennifer and Rory come across a pile of discarded gangers, left to rot but fully aware. Rory says they have to show the world what they have found: to this end, Jennifer tricks Rory into locking the humans and the Doctor into the crypt, and Jennifer reveals herself to be in fact another Jennifer ganger. This episode features the 'Eye Patch Lady'. Meanwhile, Jennifer has killed Buzzer and the Doctor ganger is recruited by the other gangers. With the help of a holographic phone call to Jimmy's son, the Doctor ganger convinces them that they share the same compassion as the humans. Ganger Cleaves orders the humans released. This enrages Jennifer, who transforms into a monster intent on killing them all. The group runs through the factory and find the TARDIS, which falls through the ceiling. The Cleaves ganger and the Doctor say they will remain to hold back the Jennifer ganger. Amy tries to get the Doctor into the TARDIS, but he reveals that they switched boots; the ganger Doctor and the original have been pretending to be each other all along. Amy apologises for mistrusting them, and the ganger Doctor tells Amy, "Push - but only when she tells you to." The Doctor and Cleaves gangers stay behind as the others leave, sacrificing themselves to destroy Jennifer. The Doctor drops Cleaves and the Jimmy ganger off at their company headquarters. Amy suddenly begins to feel pain in her abdomen, and The Doctor tells her she is having contractions. In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy she is a ganger, and has not actually been with them for a long time. He explains they visited the factory so he could scan the Flesh in its early stages. He promises to find the real Amy, and blocks her connection to the ganger. The ganger disintegrates. Amy wakes up in a white room. The Eye Patch Lady slides back a window and looks down on her, telling her to push. Amy looks down to see that she is pregnant, and screams as she goes into labour. [edit] Continuity While struggling with his past regenerations, the Doctor's ganger alludes to several previous Doctors' words. He misquotes the First Doctor's line "one day we shall get back... yes, one day" from An Unearthly Child as "one day we will get back", speaks the Third Doctor's famous line "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", and speaks with the voices of the Fourth and Tenth Doctors (Tom Baker and David Tennant respectively), the former expressing that Doctor's fondness for jelly babies.[1] The Eye Patch Lady previously made brief appearances in "Day of the Moon", "The Curse of the Black Spot" and "The Rebel Flesh". According to Executive Producer Beth Willis, the Amy Pond ganger has been acting in place of the original Amy Pond since the beginning of series 6.[1] The original Amy is shown to be in labour; the Doctor has performed several inconclusive pregnancy tests on Amy since "Day of the Moon". Believing she is talking to the Doctor's ganger, Amy informs the original Doctor of his future self's death as seen in "The Impossible Astronaut". [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes Raquel Cassidy previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio drama The Judgement of Isskar where she played Mesca.[2] Cassidy also previously starred in the BBC TV series Party Animals alongside Matt Smith. Marshall Lancaster, who played Buzzer, has also starred Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, which were written by Matthew Graham, who wrote this episode and also "The Rebel Flesh". [edit] Broadcast and reception Dan Martin of The Guardian said of the episode, "The Almost People feels a bit uneven, though it's worth saying that it's one of those where everything makes more sense on second viewing",[3] but went on to describe the gangers as "an exercise in moral dilemmas", and "memorable Almost Villains".[3] Gavin Fuller of The Telegraph described it as a "taut, claustrophobic, sci-fi thriller", and as an "impressive episode with its neatly realised psychological and body horror"[4]. A largely positive review also came from Neela Debnath of The Independent, who states that Matt Smith "excels in his acting, managing to be reassuring and threatening, hilarious and sinister all within the same few scenes".[5]. Both Martin and Fuller were less generous of Jennifer's monster transformation. Martin commented "this dark, thoughtful story is restored to camp running-for-your-life-around-some-corridors"[3], and Fuller called it "something of a pity".[4] [edit] International broadcast BBC America plans to show this episode on 4 June, one week later than it is aired in the UK, due to expected low numbers of TV viewers during the Memorial Day weekend.[6]

  
  

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• TDP SPECIAL

  2 June 2011 (7:01pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 22 seconds

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  GAME CHANGE

  
  

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• TDP 179: Frontios

  27 May 2011 (7:23pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 10 minutes and 5 seconds

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  Frontios is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from January 26 to February 3, 1984. Contents [hide] 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 2.1 Cast notes 3 Continuity 4 Production 5 In print 6 Broadcast and VHS release 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Reviews 8.2 Target novelisation [edit] Synopsis Its inhabitants having fled a dying Earth, the planet Frontios is mankind’s last colony and the location of hidden dangers. [edit] Plot The TARDIS lands in the far future, on the planet Frontios, where some of the last vestiges of humanity are struggling for survival. The planet is being attacked by meteorite showers orchestrated by an unknown enemy responsible for the disappearance of several prominent colonists, including the colony’s leader, Captain Revere. After witnessing Revere being “eaten by the ground,” Security Chief Brazen engages in a cover up. To the public, Captain Revere died of natural causes. After a state funeral, Revere’s son, Plantaganet, assumes the leadership of the colony. The TARDIS is mysteriously affected by a meteorite storm and dragged down to the planet by gravity. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough emerge, in the middle of the bombardment, to investigate. Despite his earlier reservations about getting involved, the Doctor violates the cardinal rule of the Time Lords by helping the colonists who were injured by the meteorite bombardment and by providing medical assistance. Needing better light in the medical facility, the Doctor sends Tegan and Turlough to fetch a portable mu-field activator and five argon discharge globes from the TARDIS. However, once they arrive, they find that the ship’s inner door is stuck, preventing them from getting beyond the console room. Norna, Tegan and Turlough obtain an acid-battery from the research room to power the lights. On their way back, however, they are forced to render the Warnsman unconscious to avoid capture. Another bombardment occurs and, in the Warnsman’s absence, catches the colony unawares. When the skies clear, the TARDIS has gone, seemingly destroyed; all that is left is the Doctor’s hat stand. Plantaganet orders the execution of the Doctor, but Turlough intercedes, using the TARDIS hat stand as a weapon. Plantaganet tries to attack the Doctor with a crowbar but suffers a heart attack. The Time Lord manages to save his life using the battery, but Plantaganet is later dragged into the ground by some mysterious force. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough discover that the culprits are the Gravis and his Tractators, giant insects with incredible powers over gravity. Turlough briefly undergoes a sort of nervous breakdown due to the fact that the Tractators once attempted to invade his home world long ago; his mind contains a deep, horrific "race memory" of the event. The disappearing colonists were being used by the Tractators to run their mining machines. Plantaganet was kidnapped to replace Captain Revere, the current driver who is now brain dead. The Gravis intends to transform Frontios into an enormous spaceship. Once successful, he would be able to spread the terror of the Tractators across the galaxy. The Doctor, Turlough, Brazen and his guards rescue Plantaganet by knocking out the Gravis. However, Brazen gets caught by one of the mining machines and is killed while the others escape. Tegan wanders around in the tunnels and comes across bits of the TARDIS’s inner walls. She is chased by the Gravis, who has now regained consciousness, and two of his Tractators. She inadvertently comes upon one of the TARDIS’s inner doors and she opens it to find herself in the TARDIS console room, which has bits of rock wall mixed in with its normal walls. She also finds the Doctor, Turlough and Plantaganet hovering around the console. The Doctor ushers the Gravis in and then tricks him into reassembling the TARDIS by using his power over gravity. The Gravis pulls the TARDIS back into its normal dimension. Once fully assembled, the Gravis is effectively cut off from his fellow Tractators, which revert to a harmless state. The Doctor and Tegan deposit the now-dormant Gravis on the uninhabited planet of Kolkokron. Returning to Frontios, the Doctor gives Plantaganet the hat stand as a farewell token and asks that his own involvement in the affair not be mentioned to anyone, especially the Time Lords. Once the TARDIS has left Frontios, its engines start making a worrisome noise. The Doctor appears to be helpless as the ship is being pulled towards the centre of the universe. [edit] Cast notes The part of Mr. Range was originally to be played by actor Peter Arne, but he was murdered at his home prior to the start of recording. Jeff Rawle later played Mr. Harding in Mona Lisa's Revenge, an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Lesley Dunlop later played Susan Q in The Happiness Patrol. [edit] Continuity No explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story. This story remains, to date, the sole appearance of the Tractators in the television series. However, on March 6, 1984, then Doctor Who script editor Eric Saward wrote to Bidmead a request that he write a sequel to Frontios, which would have featured the return of the Tractators and the Doctor’s arch nemesis, the Master. This lost story is brought back to life (minus the Master) in the Big Finish audio The Hollows of Time. The short story Life After Queth featured in Short Trips: Farewells details an adventure the Doctor, Tegan and the Gravis had on the way to Kolkokron. The Big Finish audio story Excelis Dawns details an adventure the Doctor had on the way back to Frontios. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions) "Part One" 26 January 1984 24:39 8.0 "Part Two" 27 January 1984 24:35 5.8 "Part Three" 2 February 1984 24:30 7.8 "Part Four" 3 February 1984 24:26 5.6 [2][3][4] The story’s working title was The Wanderers. This story was the final televised story written by former Doctor Who script editor, Christopher H. Bidmead. The actors who played the Tractators were all trained dancers, as the script called for the actors to curl around their victims like woodlice. In the event, the Tractator costumes produced were too inflexible for this to be done. It is unstated what happens to Kamelion, who has been inside the TARDIS since The King's Demons. The writers of The Discontinuity Guide theorise that he is disguised as the hatstand.[5] The final episode ends on a cliffhanger, with the TARDIS dragged into a time corridor. The episode was followed by a trailer of clips for the following serial, Resurrection of the Daleks, which continued the story. In addition to the death of Peter Arne, production designer Barrie Dobbins committed suicide after finishing most of the preparations for the story. His assistant had to complete Dobbins' work. [edit] In print Doctor Who book Frontios Series Target novelisations Release number 91 Writer Christopher H. Bidmead Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-19780-1 Release date 10 December 1984 The story was novelised by Bidmead and published by Target Books in December 1984.Bidmead includes many gruesome images of the Tractators technology including a hovering translation device. The cliffhanger that led into Resurrection of the Daleks is removed. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release This story was released on a double VHS set with The Awakening in March 1997. It is due to be released on DVD in May 2011. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 133. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Frontios". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ "Frontios". Doctor Who Reference Guide. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Frontios". A Brief History of Time Travel. Retrieved 2008-08-30. ^ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "Frontios" (reprinted on BBC Doctor Who website). The Discontinuity Guide. London: Virgin Books. p. 299. ISBN 0-426-20442-5. Retrieved 20 April 2009. [edit] External links Frontios at BBC Online Frontios at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) Frontios at the Doctor Who Reference Guide Extended Edit: Frontios in Time Space Visualiser [edit] Reviews Frontios reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Frontios reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide Frontios in Time Space Visualiser [edit] Target novelisation Frontios (novelisation) reviews at Outpost Gallifrey On Target—Frontios [hide]v · d · eDoctor Who season 21 serials Warriors of the Deep • The Awakening • Frontios • Resurrection of the Daleks • Planet of Fire • The Caves of Androzani • The Twin Dilemma

  
  

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• TDP 178: The Rebel Flesh

  21 May 2011 (6:30pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 20 seconds

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  The Rebel Flesh" is the fifth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and is the first episode of a two-part story which will conclude with "The Almost People". Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Broadcast and reception 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis As the Doctor (Matt Smith) continues the unresolved TARDIS scan on the possible pregnancy of his companion Amy (Karen Gillan), the TARDIS is caught in the first waves of a "solar tsunami" and materialises on Earth in the 22nd Century. The Doctor, Amy, and Amy's husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) find themselves on a remote island in the future, where a factory housed in a former castle monastery pumps a valuable, highly corrosive acid to the mainland. The skeleton crew of the factory uses a self-replicating fluid called the Flesh from which they create exact doppelgängers of themselves, colloquially called gangers. The crew controls the gangers from special control beds, operating the hazardous environment of the factory via the disposable bodies. The Doctor, initially posing as an inspector, fears the worst part of the solar tsunami will strike the solar-powered factory soon, threatening those still remaining, and offers to take the crew in his TARDIS. The foreman, Miranda Cleaves (Raquel Cassidy), refuses to shut down the factory until she receives orders from the mainland. As the solar storm begins, the Doctor races to disconnect the solar collector, but an electrical strike hits the castle, throwing the Doctor off the tower and knocking everyone else inside unconscious. When the crew awakens they find themselves out of the control beds with no sign of the gangers. However, their own personal belongings have been gone through and the TARDIS has sunk into acid-corroded ground. The Doctor explains that they have likely been unconscious for more than an hour and the gangers have gained sentience. They soon discover that two of the gangers are amongst them, posing as Cleaves and Jennifer (Sarah Smart), when the two give themselves away by losing their facial similarities and turn pale-white. Jennifer also exhibits the ability to contort and stretch her body well beyond human limits. The Jennifer ganger struggles with her new identity and befriends Rory who has begun to demonstrate an emotional attachment to her. The Cleaves ganger works in secret with the other gangers to try to kill the real humans, as the human Cleaves works towards killing the gangers. The Doctor attempts to reunite the two sides but fails when the human Cleaves kills one of the gangers with a high-powered electrical charge. As the gangers plan an attack, the Doctor accuses Cleaves of killing a living being, but Cleaves refuses to acknowledge this. The ganger version of Jennifer goes in search for her human counterpart in order to kill her. The Doctor determines that, as they're in a monastery, the safest place to be is the chapel, and directs everyone there. As the gangers in acid-protection suits bear down on the chapel, Rory, responding to the sound of Jennifer screaming, deliberately separates from the group against Amy's wishes. In the chapel, a figure emerges from the shadows: it is a ganger of the Doctor. [edit] Continuity The Doctor is seen, for the third time this series, covertly consulting the TARDIS computers to find out if Amy is pregnant; as in previous episodes, the readout alternates repeatedly between positive and negative. Also, the "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber) makes a brief non-speaking appearance through a sliding hatch, shocking Amy as she explores the castle looking for Rory. [edit] Production [edit] Cast notes Raquel Cassidy previously appeared in the Fifth Doctor audio drama The Judgement of Isskar where she played Mesca.[1] Cassidy also previously starred in the BBC TV series Party Animals alongside Matt Smith. [edit] Broadcast and reception The episode achieved an overnight rating of 5.7 million with an audience share of 29.3%.[2]

  
  

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• TDP 177: The Doctors Wife (Fixed)

  19 May 2011 (5:46am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 41 seconds

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  "The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011, written by Neil Gaiman.[2] Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Synopsis 1.2 Continuity 2 Production 2.1 Writing 2.2 Casting 2.3 Filming 3 Broadcast and reception 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot [edit] Synopsis While in deep space, the Doctor, Amy and Rory receive a hypercube containing a distress call from a Time Lord. Tracing the source of the call to a rift leading outside the universe, the Doctor deletes part of his TARDIS to generate enough energy to cross through the rift. After landing in a junkyard on a solitary asteroid, the TARDIS shuts down and its matrix suddenly disappears. The three explore, and meet the strange inhabitants, Uncle, Auntie, a green eyed Ood called Nephew and an excited young woman named Idris who fawns all over, and then bites, the Doctor. While Uncle and Auntie lock up Idris, and Amy and Rory return to the TARDIS, the Doctor follows the distress signal and finds a cabinet containing a large number of hypercubes. Upon further investigation of Uncle and Auntie, he finds they are constructed of body parts from other beings, including Time Lords. They are controlled by the asteroid, called House, which is sentient and able to interface with other technology around it. House led the Doctor there and ripped out the TARDIS' matrix, initially in order to consume its Artron energy, but upon learning that the Doctor is the last Time Lord and that no more TARDISes will ever arrive, decides to transfer itself into the TARDIS and escape from the rift. Amy and Rory are trapped inside as the House-controlled TARDIS dematerialises. The Doctor learns that Idris contains the personality of the TARDIS' matrix. Idris, as the TARDIS, and the Doctor come to realise they selected each other hundreds of years prior when the Doctor fled Gallifrey, and have a personal chat. Without House's support, Uncle and Auntie die. Idris reveals that House had stranded many TARDISes before on the planet, and that this universe only has hours left before it collapses, and that Idris' body only has a short time before it also will fail. The Doctor and Idris work together to construct a makeshift TARDIS from scraps, and then pursue House. Aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, House threatens to kill Amy and Rory. He plays with their senses as they try to flee through the corridors, then sends Nephew after them. Idris makes a psychic connection with Rory to give him directions to a secondary control room, where he and Amy are able to lower the TARDIS shields without House's interference. This allows the Doctor to land the makeshift console in the secondary control room, which atomises Nephew. House deletes the secondary control room as he prepares to break through the rift, which the Doctor anticipates. The TARDIS safety protocols transfer them to the main control room, where the dying Idris releases the TARDIS matrix back to where it belongs, deleting House from the TARDIS machine. As the Doctor, Amy, and Rory recover, a remnant of the TARDIS matrix, still in Idris' body, sadly comments she will not be able to communicate with the Doctor after this but will be there for him. Idris' body disappears as the TARDIS matrix is fully restored. The Doctor installs a security field around the matrix to prevent it from being compromised in the future. Rory asks the Doctor about some of Idris' final words—"The only water in the forest is the river"—but the Doctor doesn't understand. After Amy and Rory leave to find a new bedroom, their original purged by House, the Doctor talks to the TARDIS, and, in response, a nearby lever moves on its own, sending the TARDIS to its next destination. [edit] Continuity This section may contain previously unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not attributable to the original sources. See the talk page for details. (May 2011) This section describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (May 2011) "The Doctor's Wife" revisits many mythology elements regarding the Doctor and the TARDIS established from the original run of the show and continued into the new series. Idris, as the TARDIS, affirms that the Doctor left with her, a type 40 TARDIS, to flee Gallifrey more than 700 years ago, and the TARDIS' history of unreliability is explained as her taking the Doctor not where he wants to go, but where he needs to go. The Doctor has mentioned that the TARDIS is alive in previous episodes, including in The Five Doctors, and has referred to 'her' as "old girl" many times, and as "sexy" occasionally in his Eleventh incarnation, both of which Idris indicates she likes. The Doctor refers to altering the control room's appearance as changing the desktop, as the Fifth Doctor does in "Time Crash". Like the Third Doctor in Inferno, the Doctor and Idris operate a TARDIS control panel outside of an outer TARDIS shell. The Doctor also jettisons TARDIS rooms to create thrust, as in Logopolis and Castrovalva. The TARDIS is mentioned to have retained an archive of previous control rooms unbeknownst to the Doctor, including many he has yet to create; the one shown in this episode is the design featured between "Rose" and "The Eleventh Hour", used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. When speaking of his fellow Time Lord the Corsair, the Doctor implies that Time Lords can change gender on regeneration. The Doctor admits he killed all of the Time Lords, alluding to the events of the Time War and The End of Time. In The War Games, the Second Doctor contacted the Time Lords using a cube similar to those seen in this episode. The Doctor suggests visiting the Eye of Orion, which is seen in The Five Doctors. The Doctor again refers to himself as "a madman with a box", reprising Amy's and his own description of himself in "The Eleventh Hour". The Ood "Nephew" displays green eyes (indicating, as with the green-lit TARDIS, that he is possessed by House);[3] Oodkind's eyes also changed colour in "The Impossible Planet" / "The Satan Pit" and "Planet of the Ood". Alluding to the Ood controlled by the Beast in the former episodes, the Doctor refers to Nephew as "another Ood I failed to save." The Doctor states that the Corsair always put a tattoo of a snake eating its own tail on each of his new bodies; the tattoo is on the left arm of his final body, being worn by Auntie. The Third Doctor's body came complete with a snake tattoo on his left arm, as shown when he showers in Spearhead from Space. [edit] Production [edit] Writing "The Doctor's Wife" is Neil Gaiman's (pictured) first contribution to Doctor Who. The episode was written by Neil Gaiman. After Steven Moffat replaced Russell T Davies as the showrunner of Doctor Who, being a fan of Gaiman's blog, Moffat met with Gaiman and Gaiman asked to write an episode. In an interview Gaiman stated "I came up with something that was one of those things where you thought that nobody's done that before."[4] The episode was originally titled "The House of Nothing".[5] Gaiman suggested they make an episode which centres on the TARDIS itself, which was not done before for the entire series since it began in 1963. The central idea was a "what if" scenario to see what would happen if the Doctor and the TARDIS got to talk together. Head writer Steven Moffat liked the idea of featuring the TARDIS as a woman, believing this to be the "ultimate love story" for the Doctor.[6] Gaiman began writing the episode before Matt Smith was even cast as the Eleventh Doctor; Gaiman envisaged David Tennant's performance in the first draft, knowing Smith would play the Doctor differently. Despite this he had no issue writing the dialogue. The episode was originally slated for the eleventh episode of the fifth series. However, it was delayed to the sixth because of budget issues; the eleventh episode would be replaced with "The Lodger".[4] Even so, Gaiman was forced to operate with less money than he would have liked; for instance, he had to scrap a scene set in the TARDIS' swimming pool.[7] The move to the sixth series also meant Gaiman had to include Rory, who ceased to exist in the original slot in the fifth series. With Rory included, Gaiman had to "reshape" much of the second half of the episode, featuring Amy being on the run in the TARDIS. In the original draft where Amy was the only companion, Gaiman added a "heartbreaking monologue" by the character, further stating "you get to see what it's like to be the companion from the companion's point of view, and she got to talk about essentially in that version how sad it is, in some ways. One day something will happen to her, she'll get married, she'll get eaten by monsters, she'll die, she'll get sick of this, but he'll go on forever."[4] At a certain point, Gaiman had tired of re-writing drafts and asked Steven Moffat for help. Moffat wrote in what Gaiman called "several of [the episode's] best lines" and rapidly rewrote several scenes when budget problems harmed filming locations.[8] [edit] Casting In September 2010, Suranne Jones announced she was cast a guest spot on Doctor Who as Idris for an episode of the sixth series of Doctor Who. Jones previously played Mona Lisa in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode Mona Lisa's Revenge.[9] Sometime after appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures, Jones was contacted to appear on Doctor Who at Gaiman's request, because they were looking for an actress who "is odd; beautiful but strange looking, and quite funny."[10] Moffat meanwhile described Idris as "sexy plus motherly plus utterly mad plus serene."[6] During a read-through of the script, the producers asked her to "neutralise [her] a bit," because they did not want Jones to "be a Northerner" or have a standard accent, but to act "kinda like the Doctor."[10] Later, in March 2011, Gaiman confirmed Michael Sheen would also guest star in the episode to voice a character.[11] Adrian Schiller previously appeared in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Time Works where he played Zanith.[12] [edit] Filming It was planned as the third episode in the 2011 series but the order was changed during the production process.[13] Filming took place in August 2010,[5] although during a 10 October 2010 appearance on Daybreak, guest star Suranne Jones stated that she had been filming green screen special effects only the night before.[14] The scenes where Amy and Rory are on the run allowed the audience to explore the TARDIS outside the control room, something the producers had wanted to do for a while. A series of corridors was constructed and retained for future use. [15] The episode also featured the return of the older TARDIS control room from the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant era. Gaiman had originally wanted to reconstruct a console room from the original series, but the cost proved prohibitive. [16] The set was retained after filming for "The Eleventh Hour", but has since been removed.[17] Arthur Darvill noted the floor of the older set had a cheese grater-like quality to it, so when the scene called for the cast to fall on it, they found it uncomfortable to stay down for a long period of time.[6] "The Doctor's Wife" features a make-shift TARDIS console, which was piloted by the Doctor and Idris. The console was designed by Susannah Leah, a schoolgirl from Todmorden, who won a competition on Blue Peter, a children's creative arts program, that challenged its viewers to imagine a TARDIS console based on household objects.[18][19] Leah's design was selected by Moffat, Edward Thomas, a production designer for Doctor Who, and Tim Levell, a Blue Peter editor, along with final input amoung the three age-group winners from Smith.[19] Michael Pickward, the production designer for the series, commented that Leah's design captured the nature of "bits and pieces" of what TARDIS consoles have been in the past, as well as the nature of the makeshift console needed for this episode.[19] The drawing was redesigned faithfully by the production team into the prop for the show, including the use of a coat hanger to start the makeshift TARDIS.[19] Leah was brought by Blue Peter to see both the set under construction and on location during filming of the makeshift TARDIS scenes, meeting Smith and the other actors and production crew.[19] Character Options will release a toy playset based on Leah's console later in 2011.[19] The House planetoid in the pocket universe was filmed on location at a quarry outside Cardiff.[6] [edit] Broadcast and reception After its original broadcast, "The Doctor's Wife" received overnight figures of 6.09 million viewers, with a 29.5 per cent audience share. It became the third highest broadcast of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1, and the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, which was shown later on BBC One.[20] The episode recieved a final BARB rating of 7.97 million with an audience share of 34.7%.[21] The episode was positively received. The Guardian's Dan Martin said: "With so many wild ideas at play, this would have been so easy to get wrong...yet in every sense it was pitched perfectly".[22] The AV Club gave the episode a score of "A", saying it was a "pretty terrific [episode]...a brisk, scary, inventive adventure filled with clever concepts and witty dialogue. And a lot of heart when in the way it deals with an important relationship rarely addressed on the series".[23] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. Retrieved 5 May 2011. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife". Radio Times. 4 May 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011. ^ "Monsters: The Ood". BBC. Retrieved 2011-05-18. ^ a b c Brew, Simon (9 May 2011). "Neil Gaiman interview: all about writing Doctor Who". Den of Geek. Retrieved 16 May 2011. ^ a b Masters, Tim (24 May 2010). "Neil Gaiman reveals power of writing Doctor Who". BBC News. Retrieved 6 May 2011. ^ a b c d "Bigger on the Inside". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 14 May 2011. No. 4, series 6. ^ Martin, Dan (14 May 2010). "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4" (in English). The Guardian. Retrieved 15 May 2011. ^ "Adventures in the Screen Trade". Neil Gaiman. 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2011-05-21. ^ Jeffery, Morgan (23 September 2010). "Suranne Jones cast in 'Doctor Who'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011. ^ a b Martin, Will (14 May 2011). "Suranne Jones ('Doctor Who') interview". Cult Box. Retrieved 20 May 2011. ^ James, Richard (21 March 2011). "Michael Sheen to appear in new series of Doctor Who". Metro (Associated Newspapers). Retrieved 20 May 2011. ^ "Doctor Who - Time Works". Big Finish. Retrieved 15 May 2011. ^ "Episodes shuffle for the 2011 series...". Doctor Who Magazine (430): 7. 9 Feb 2011 (cover date). ^ "Broadcast of 10 October 2010". Daybreak. ITV. ITV. 10 October 2010. ; YouTube video, accessed 20 May 2011. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927 ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/may/16/neil-gaiman-doctor-who-doctors-wife?commentpage=1#comment-10775927 ^ "Coming to America". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 23 April 2011. No. 1, series 6. ^ "Blue Peter awaits for our Susannah". Todmorden News. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2011. ^ a b c d e f "TARDIS Console Competition". Presenters: Helen Skelton,Barney Harwood, and Andy Akinwolere. Blue Peter. BBC. 10 May 2011. ^ Millar, Paul (15 May 2011). "Eurovision TV ratings reaches 11-year high". Digital Spy. Retrieved 15 May 2011. ^ "Final BARB-Rating". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. BARB. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011. ^ "Doctor Who: The Doctor's Wife – Series 32, episode 4". The Guardian. 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21. ^ "The Doctor's Wife". 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2011-05-21.

  
  

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• TDP 176: Mane... Manaq.... Auton Box Set

  16 May 2011 (12:09pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 36 seconds

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  info to follow

  
  

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• TDP 175: I talk about Ben Cook talking about Moffs Spoiler Rant

  11 May 2011 (12:29pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 9 minutes and 48 seconds

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  Does what it says in the title. Rant from Moff included!

  
  

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• TDP 174: Curse of the Black Spot Smith 2.03

  8 May 2011 (4:31am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 46 seconds

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  The TARDIS crew, following a distress call, lands aboard a 17th-century pirate ship stranded in the middle of the ocean due to the lack of wind. Its captain, Captain Henry Avery, and what is left of its crew fear a seductive siren-like creature that marks those injured with a black spot on the palm of their hands, then appears and apparently destroys them. In a tussle with the crew, Rory receives a cut on his hand, and also receives a similar black mark. The Doctor orders everyone inside the ship, believing them to be safe away from open water, but the siren appears through seeped water and takes another crew member. The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Captain Avery and the remaining crew secure themselves in the ship's dry magazine. There, they discover Captain Avery's son, Toby, who had stowed away aboard the ship, unaware of his father's illicit deeds. Though uninjured, Toby has come down with a fever, and shares a similar black mark on his palm. The Doctor and Captain Avery, after a brief conflict over who is in charge, leave the others to try to bring the TARDIS to them. They make it inside safely, but the Doctor finds the TARDIS is acting haphazardly and they are forced to evacuate it before it dematerializes to an unknown location. As they return to the others, the Doctor realizes that the siren is using reflections to appear to them, such as that created by still water. They race back to warn the others, and destroy any reflective surface on the ship. A storm begins, and Captain Avery has Amy, Rory, and the Doctor help him to hoist the sails to allow them to leave. In the chaos, Toby, while trying to bring his father his coat, drops a polished crown from it. The siren emerges from it and appears to disintegrate Toby. Soon, Rory falls into the ocean, and the Doctor rationalises that the siren has shown intelligence and will likely get to Rory before he drowns. The Doctor convinces Amy and Captain Avery to prick themselves to allow the siren to take them as well so they can negotiate with it. They soon find themselves aboard an alien spaceship, its crew long dead from exposure to an Earth virus. The Doctor surmises the spaceship, the source of the distress signal, is trapped at the same time-space coordinates as Captain Avery's ship. Furthermore, the siren uses mirror-like portals to travel between the two ships. Further exploration reveals a bay where all of Avery's men, including Toby and Rory, are in medical care, along with the TARDIS; they were taken by the siren, the black spot being a tissue sample for reference. When they try to rescue them, the siren appears and turns violent on them. The Doctor realises the siren is a medical program, seeking to heal the injured crew. The Doctor and Amy convince the siren to turn Rory over to their care, while Avery decides to stay with his son and his crew in the ship, unable to go back to England himself while the ship will care for his crew. Using Rory's nursing knowledge, Amy and the Doctor are able to revive Rory after he is removed from life support. The Doctor teaches Captain Avery enough of the spaceship's controls to allow him, Toby, and his crew to explore the stars. In the epilogue, the Doctor and Amy talk about mutual trust; Amy confides to Rory that they still cannot talk to the Doctor about his future death, while the Doctor secretly finds his pregnancy scan on Amy remains unresolved. [edit] Continuity "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber) appears for the second time in this episode. Similar to her first appearance in Day of the Moon, she appears to be looking through the other side of a small sliding window in a door despite the fact that the window is actually in the solid timbers of the ship and disappears when it is closed. [edit] Production [edit] Writing and casting Lily Cole was cast as the Sea Siren in the episode. The episode was written by Stephen Thompson. The producers wished to develop a Doctor Who episode set on "the high seas."[4] The episode was also made to allow the Doctor and his companions to "kick back and have some fun."[4] As the episode was pirate-themed, the producers wanted to fit in as many elements from pirate fiction into it, including treasure, mutinies, a stowaway boy, walking the plank, storms, swords and pirates with a "good heart" and "not really evil."[4] However, Arthur Darvill noticed that a parrot was not included.[4] "The Curse of the Black Spot" was originally planned to be ninth in the series but the order was changed during the production process.[5] Hugh Bonneville plays Captain Avery. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan described Bonneville as "great fun."[4] Bonneville previously played Sir Sidney Herbert and Tzar Nicholas the 1st in the Seventh Doctor audio drama The Angel of Scutari[6][7]. Lily Cole was cast as the Sea Siren. The producers were looking for an actress who is "beautiful," "striking," and yet somewhat "spooky."[4] Cole came early into suggestions, and she accepted the role.[4] [edit] Filming and effects Filming took place primarily in Cornwall and the Upper Boat Studios in Wales. The exterior of the pirate ship was filmed at a dock in Cornwall, while the lower decks were built from a set at the studio. The principal challenge to film at the dock was to ensure the audience would not see it. The crew set up smoke machines to simulate fog. To create the storm the crew used wind and rain machines, the latter of which went through 15,000 litres. The loud noise from the wind machines caused communication difficulties during takes. Anticipating they would get soaked, the cast present on the deck wore dry suits underneath their clothes. Before filming the storm sequences began, Darvill heard that he would perform the stunt where he is thrown into the sea, and was willing to perform it. However, the stunt would later be performed by a double.[4] The scenes in which Cole appeared on the ship was done by using a harness as if she was flying. Because the actress wore green dress and makeup, the conventional greenscreen was replaced by bluescreens in the studio. Cole felt it was fun to fly on the harness, but found it painful after a few hours. Gillan was allowed to perform several of her own stunts in the episode. She was excited to learn that her character would fight pirates with swords, and was taught how to handle one with basic moves.[4][8] Gillan was also allowed to swing across the ship. However, a stunt double was required to film the sequence where Amy is thrown across the deck by the Siren.[4] [edit] References ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0110g4b ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview. Retrieved 15 April 2011.  ^ BBC. "BBC Week 19: Saturday 7 May". Press release. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/2011/wk19/sat.shtml. Retrieved 22 April 2011.  ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Ship Ahoy!". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 7 May 2011. No. 3, series 6. ^ "Episodes shuffle for the 2011 series...". Doctor Who Magazine (430): 7. 9 Feb 2011 (cover date).  ^ "Doctor Who: The Angel of Scutari". Big Finish. http://www.bigfinish.com/122-Doctor-Who-The-Angel-of-Scutari.  ^ "The Angel of Scutari". Hugh Bonneville online. http://www.hughbonneville.co.uk/past-hugh-bonnevilles-previous-projects/item/the-angel-of-scutari.html.  ^ "Gillan enjoyed sword fight scenes". This is Croydon Today. 21 April 2011. http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/news/Gillan-enjoyed-sword-fight-scenes/article-3475495-detail/article.html. Retrieved 28 April 2011.  "The Curse of the Black Spot" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage

  
  

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• TDP 173: Day of the Moon - Smith 2.02

  3 May 2011 (12:37pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 17 minutes and 13 seconds

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  "Day of the Moon"[2] is the second episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The second episode of a two-part story written by Steven Moffat, it was broadcast on 30 April 2011 in the UK on BBC One, in the U.S. on BBC America, and in Canada on Space. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Continuity 1.1.1 Outside references 2 Production 2.1 Cast notes 3 Broadcast and reception 4 References 5 External links [edit] Plot In the three months since the end of "The Impossible Astronaut", the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song have been attempting to track the Silence, an alien race who cannot be remembered after they are encountered. Reunited at Area 51 with Canton Delaware, who had been pretending to work against them, the Doctor plants a communication device in each of the group's hands to record audio of meetings with the Silence. Amy tells the Doctor she was mistaken and is not pregnant. While the Doctor alters part of the command module of Apollo 11, Canton and Amy visit an orphanage, hoping to find where the girl in the spacesuit was taken from. Amy discovers a nest of the Silence, and a photograph of her and a baby amongst pictures of the little girl from the space suit. The girl enters with the Silence, and Amy is abducted and taken to their time engine control room. Arriving too late to help Amy, the Doctor and his allies find her recording device. Canton is able to shoot and wound one of the creatures, and from it the Doctor discovers the creatures are the Silence, a group he was warned about by several of his foes in his recent adventures. Analysing the now-empty space suit, River realises that the girl possesses incredible strength to have forced her way out of it, and that the suit's advanced life-support technology would have called the President as the highest authority figure on Earth when the girl got scared. The Doctor realises why the Silence have been controlling humanity — by guiding their technological advances, they have used humanity to build a spacesuit, which must somehow be crucial to their intentions. Meanwhile Canton interrogates the captured Silent in the Area 51 prison, who mocks humanity for treating him when they should "kill us all on sight". Canton records this using Amy's mobile phone. The Doctor uses Amy's communication chip to track her location, and lands the TARDIS in the Silence's control room five days later. As River and Rory hold the Silence at bay, the Doctor shows them the live broadcast of the moon landing. As they watch, the Doctor uses his modification of the Apollo command module to insert Canton's recording of the wounded Silent into the footage of the landing. Because of this message, humans will now turn upon the Silence whenever they see them. The group frees Amy and departs in the TARDIS, while River kills all the Silence in the control room. Amy reassures Rory that the man he overheard her speaking of loving through the communication chip was him, not the Doctor. River refuses the Doctor's offer to travel with him, returning to her Stormcage prison in order to keep a promise. She kisses the Doctor goodbye, and as the Doctor has never kissed her before deduces that this is her last kiss with him. In the TARDIS, Amy appears unable to remember seeing her picture in the orphanage and claims that she told the Doctor, rather than Rory, when she believed she was pregnant through fears that travelling in the TARDIS might have affected her child's development. As the trio set off, the Doctor discreetly uses the TARDIS scanner to attempt to determine if Amy is pregnant. Six months later, a homeless man in New York City comes across the young girl, previously seen in the astronaut's suit. The girl says she is dying, but can fix it; before the man's eyes, she appears to begin regenerating. [edit] Continuity The Silence's 'time engine' set was previously used in "The Lodger".[3] The Doctor describes it as "very Aickman Road", a reference to the house the ship occupied in that episode.[4] When the Silent reveals his species' name to the Doctor, the Doctor has flash-backs to "The Eleventh Hour" and "The Vampires of Venice", the first mentions of the Silence.[4] The Doctor is held captive in Area 51, which he had visited previously in the Tenth Doctor animated story Dreamland. The Doctor and Rory discuss both being present at the fall of Rome. As an Auton, Rory guarded the Pandorica from the Roman era to the present day in "The Big Bang", and the First Doctor indirectly instigated the Great Fire of Rome in The Romans. "Eye Patch Lady" (Frances Barber) briefly appears to Amy in the orphanage, and will return in a later episode.[4] The Doctor is imprisoned within walls of "zero balance dwarf star alloy, the densest material in the universe..." Dwarf star alloy first appeared in the 18th season Tom Baker story "Warriors' Gate", forming the hull of a slave ship capturing time sensitive Tharils. The density prevented the Tharils (who possessed the ability to go out of phase with time) from escaping. [edit] Outside references Near the end of the episode, President Richard Nixon asks the Doctor if he will be remembered by future generations. Amused by the question, the Doctor coyly remarks that the American people will never forget Nixon, a reference to the Watergate scandal that effectively ended Nixon's presidency. The Doctor also tells Nixon to record every word spoken in the Oval Office, another reference to the Watergate scandal (which revolved around the Oval office secret taping system). The Doctor also tells Nixon to say hi to David Frost. Frost is a British journalist, who had a famous interview with Nixon. During his conversation with the president, Canton confirms that his lover (whom he wishes to marry) is black. Interracial marriages had still been banned in certain states as recently as 1967. This revelation seems to explain Canton's previous statement about being fired from the FBI for "wanting to get married" in "The Impossible Astronaut" until he clarifies that his lover is a "he". Same-sex marriage was not legal in the United States in 1969. [edit] Production Steven Moffat, head writer of the new series, said before broadcast that this would be one of the darkest openers to a series ever done for Doctor Who.[2] Director Toby Haynes believed that the darker episodes like "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" would allow the series to get into "more dangerous territory."[3] The creation of the Silence was partly inspired by the figure from the Edvard Munch painting The Scream.[2] Introducing the alien villains became a "big challenge" for the producers; it would tie in with the loose "silence will fall" arc that carried through the fifth series. Moffat did not wish to end the arc in the previous series, as he felt it would be "more fun" to continue it. Elsewhere in the episode, Delaware was written to be deceptively antagonistic towards the protagonists, which was based on actor Mark Sheppard's past as villains for his work in American television. Moffat was also keen on the idea of having the Doctor imprisoned with a beard in Area 51.[3] Many of the opening scenes of the episode were filmed on location in the United States. The sequence where Delaware chases Amy was shot in the Valley of the Gods in Utah. Gillan found it difficult to run because of the altitude. The sequence where Delaware chases Rory was shot at the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. The Dam sequence was the final scene to be shot in the States. The sequence where Delaware chases River in New York was in fact shot in central Cardiff. A set was later constructed in a studio for the jump sequence, and Kingston was replaced by a stunt woman to perform the jump. The scenes set in Area 51 were filmed in a large disused hangar in South Wales.[3] The Florida orphanage was filmed at the abandoned Troy House in Monmouthshire, which many of the cast and crew believed is haunted. To add the effect that a storm is outside the building, the production crew placed rain machines outdoors and flashing lights to simulate lightning. The Silence were portrayed by Marnix van den Broeke and other performers. The masks caused vision difficulties from the performers, who had to be guided by two people when they have to walk. Broeke does not provide the voices of the Silence, as it would be replaced during post-production. The control room set used from "The Lodger" was used again for this episode. Moffat wanted the set to be used again, feeling it would be a suitable Silence base. The set was adapted to give it a darker, evil feel.[3] [edit] Cast notes Ricky Fearon who played the tramp previously played Foreman in the Torchwood episode To the Last Man. [edit] Broadcast and reception "Day of the Moon" was first broadcast on 30 April 2011 at 6 pm.[5] The episode received preliminary overnight ratings of 5.39 million viewers, equalling a 30.5 per cent audience share. The episode was down by 1.1 million from the previous week, but was still the second most seen broadcast for the day, behind Britain's Got Talent on ITV1.[6] Dan Martin of The Guardian liked the episode for its "action, tension, horror and River Song in a business suit," but felt it "sags a little around the middle."[7] Martin believed the scenes with Amy and Delaware in the orphanage was the "fear factor" of the episode.[7] [edit] References ^ "Matt Smith Video and New Series Overview". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/news/bulletin_110411_01/Matt_Smith_Video_and_New_Series_Overview. Retrieved 15 April 2011.  ^ a b c "Doctor Who boss says season start is 'darkest yet'". BBC. 5 April 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12969897. Retrieved 7 April 2011.  ^ a b c d e "Breaking the Silence". Doctor Who Confidential. BBC. BBC Three. 30 April 2011. No. 2, series 6. ^ a b c BBC - BBC One Programmes - Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon ^ "Doctor Who, Series 6, Day of the Moon". BBC Online. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y5l3. Retrieved 2 May 2011.  ^ Millar, Paul (1 May 2011). "'Doctor Who' audience slips to 5.4m". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s7/doctor-who/news/a317300/doctor-who-audience-slips-to-54m.html. Retrieved 2 May 2011.  ^ a b Martin, Dan (30 April 2011). "Doctor Who: Day of the Moon — Series 32, episode 2". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/apr/30/doctor-who-day-of-the-moon. Retrieved 2 May 2011.

  
  

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• TDP 171: Smith 2.01 The Impossible Astronaut

  25 April 2011 (9:01pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 16 minutes and 48 seconds

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  "The Impossible Astronaut" is the first episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Toby Haynes, the episode was first broadcast on 23 April 2011 in the United Kingdom, as well as the United States and Canada. It will also air in Australia on 30 April 2011. The episode is the first of a two part story, which will conclude with "Day of the Moon". The episode was seen by 6.52 million viewers in the United Kingdom, the lowest rating for an opening episode since the show's revival, but received positive reviews from critics. This episode was dedicated to Elisabeth Sladen who played The Doctor's former companion Sarah Jane Smith, who died of cancer earlier in the week of broadcast. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Continuity 1.2 Outside references 2 Prequel 3 Production 3.1 Writing 3.2 Cast notes 3.3 Filming and effects 4 Broadcast and reception 4.1 Broadcast and ratings 4.2 Critical reception 5 References 6 External links Plot An astronaut from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. A replica of this suit was created for the episode. Amy and Rory, not having seen the Doctor for two months but aware of his recent exploits in history, receive a "TARDIS blue" coloured envelope. The envelope contains a date and time along with a set of physical coordinates that lead the couple to Utah, where they rendezvous with the Doctor and River Song. From the Doctor's perspective, it has been nearly two centuries since his last adventure with Amy and Rory (he left them when he was aged 908 and is now 1103). The Doctor now carries a diary identical to the one carried by River Song, and it is apparent that River and the Doctor have shared many adventures together as the two time travellers compare notes at a diner. The Doctor takes the group on a picnic at a nearby lake where he tells them he is taking them on a trip to "Space 1969". There, Amy sees a mysterious figure in the distance, but it then vanishes and Amy appears to immediately forget what she saw. The picnickers are soon joined by an older man named Canton Everett Delaware III, who had also received an envelope. Suddenly, a figure in a space suit emerges from the lake, and the Doctor warns the others to stay back and not interfere while he goes forward to talk. The Doctor appears to recognize the person in the suit when it raises its visor. They talk for a while, after which the Doctor stands still, his head bowed. Before anyone can react, the astronaut raises an energy weapon and twice shoots the Doctor, who begins to regenerate. A third shot disrupts the regeneration process and kills the Doctor. The astronaut then retreats back into the lake, leaving the Doctor's companions stunned and horrified. Assured the Doctor is dead, they give the Doctor a Viking-style funeral using a can of gasoline Delaware brought. Regrouping at the diner Amy, Rory, and River discuss the sender of the envelopes when the Doctor—a younger version of himself now aged 909—emerges from the restroom, revealing he also was given an envelope. Hesitant to tell the Doctor of his pending death, they explain the situation so far, and the Doctor uses Delaware's name and "Space 1969" in the TARDIS, ending up at the Oval Office of the White House in 1969. They watch as President Nixon takes a call from a mysterious young girl named "Jefferson Adams Hamilton" asking for help while a younger Delaware looks on. The Doctor reveals himself and gains Delaware's trust, convincing Nixon to give him a few minutes to locate the child. While he works out her location, Amy again sees a mysterious figure, and excuses herself to the restroom. There the figure, a Silent,[2] waits for her, and destroys an innocent woman despite Amy's pleas. Amy realizes the alien figure is wiping her memory of her encounter when she looks away, and takes a photo of the alien on her mobile phone. By the time she returns to the Oval Office, having no recall of the events, the Doctor has found the girl's location —a building near Cape Canaveral, Florida at the intersection of streets named Jefferson, Adams, and Hamilton. The Doctor and his companions leave in the TARDIS, followed closely by a curious Delaware. In the building, they find pieces of a space suit as well as ancient alien technology. Alone, River warns Amy that though they may encounter the astronaut that killed the future Doctor, attempting to stop the astronaut now may create a time paradox. River and Rory explore a vast network of tunnels under the building and spreading throughout the planet, encountering and forgetting other Silence. They eventually come on a control room similar to the one seen in "The Lodger", unaware that they are being surrounded by more Silence. Behind Rory, there is a flashing similar to the flashing a Silent had made as it was killing the woman in the bathroom near the Oval Office. River turns to see him, and shouts his name. We do not see what has happened. Above ground, the Doctor, Amy, and Delaware hear the cries of a girl. Delaware gives chase, but Amy, suddenly in pain, realizes she must tell the Doctor something as they follow. They find Delaware nearby, unconscious, and Amy finally lets the Doctor know that she is pregnant. Before they can react, the astronaut appears. Amy reaches for Delaware's gun, while the astronaut lifts its helmet, revealing the face of a young girl. Before she can stop herself, Amy fires upon the astronaut. Continuity The envelopes each contain the date 22 April 2011 (the day prior to the first broadcast of this episode), and coordinates (37°0′38″N 110°14′34″W / 37.01056°N 110.24278°W / 37.01056; -110.24278). River Song tells Rory that she and the Doctor are travelling through time "in opposite directions." She comments that a day is coming when "he'll look into my eyes, and not have the faintest idea who I am. And I think it's going to kill me." In the Series 4 episode "Silence in the Library", the Tenth Doctor meets River for the first time (from his perspective); at the conclusion of that story, River is killed saving people trapped inside the Library's core. The control panel River Song and Rory find in the underground tunnels is the same control panel that was found in the upstairs flat in the Series 5 episode "The Lodger".[citation needed] The TARDIS had been previously turned invisible in the Second Doctor story The Invasion. When Canton first leaves the TARDIS, the Doctor remarks, "Brave heart, Canton." This is a reference to the Fifth Doctor's recurrent statement to Tegan, "Brave heart, Tegan." [3] The older Doctor is seen with a diary similar to River Song's at the beginning of the episode, swapping notes with River. Outside references In Amy and Rory's home, Rory is watching the Laurel and Hardy film The Flying Deuces. The Doctor then runs up and waves at the camera. In the White House toilets scene, Joy believes the alien to be something from Star Trek. River notes that the Easter Island statues were created in the Doctor's honour, laughing and talking about Jim the Fish. The Doctor calls River Song Mrs. Robinson. That is a reference to a book called The Graduate from 1963 by Charles Webb. In the film from 1967 Anne Bancroft plays the older Mrs. Robinson. She seduces the young Dustin Hoffman. Prequel On 25 March 2011, a short exclusive scene serving as a prequel for the first episode was released on the show's official website. The prequel depicts Richard Nixon[4][5] (Stuart Milligan) receiving a recorded phone call of a girl's voice while sitting in the Oval Office. The girl, whose voice the president appears to recognize from a previous call, begs him to "look behind you", warning him that there is something there. The president angrily refuses and the line goes dead; the camera then pans around him to show an out-of-focus, inhuman figure standing to the president's right. Production Writing Show runner and episode writer Steven Moffat (pictured) created the Silence to compete with other creatures in the past in terms of "scariness." The episode was written by Steven Moffat, who took charge as show runner since 2010. Having also written the following episode, "Day of the Moon", Moffat wanted the 2011 season to start with a two-part story in an attempt to begin with more gravity and a wider scope in plot. In the Doctor Who Confidential episode following the broadcast of "The Impossible Astronaut", Moffat states it was one of the darker episodes of the series, but it still maintained the same level of humour. The inclusion of the Doctor getting killed felt like a series ender for some of the producers, but was actually there to "kick it off."[6] In writing the death scene of the future Doctor, Moffat wanted to acknowledge to the audience that Time Lords are not invincible, and could still die permanently if killed before regeneration, a fact the series previously acknowledged in The End of Time. In creating the Silence, the alien antagonists of the episode, Moffat wanted them to challenge other monsters in past in terms of "scariness."[6] He felt these creatures are a "much bigger deal."[6] Amy Pond's pregnancy will be involved in a story arc as the series progresses.[6] Cast notes In October 2010, it was announced that Mark Sheppard, who appeared in other past science fiction series including Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural and Warehouse 13, would make a guest appearance on the series. Sheppard described playing Canton as a "dream job," and wished to appear in another of Moffat's works, including Sherlock.[7][8] Even though Sheppard is an English actor, it was his first appearance on British television.[9] For the scene depicting the older Canton Delaware, it was planned that Sheppard would appear older using makeup effects; he successfully suggested instead that his father, William Morgan Sheppard, play the role. American actor Stuart Milligan was cast as President Nixon, which he found exciting, having played other presidents in the past including Dwight D. Eisenhower. Prosthetic pieces were applied on his cheeks, nose and ears to resemble Nixon as much as possible. He also practiced how Nixon would speak, but initially found it difficult since he had to wear fake teeth.[6] Milligan previously appeared in the animated Tenth Doctor special Dreamland as the voice of Colonel Stark.[10] Filming and effects Karen Gillan (centre) was genuinely upset filming the death scene of the future Doctor. This pair of episodes marks the first time that Doctor Who has filmed principal photography footage within the United States;[11] the American-produced TV movie of 1996 was filmed in Canada. Some second-unit establishing shots of New York and the Statue of Liberty were filmed on Liberty Island for the episode "Daleks in Manhattan", but none of the cast of the episode were involved in the shoot.[12] Filming took place in the state of Utah. For the opening shot for the location, director Toby Haynes wanted it to be epic so that the audience could recognise where the episode was set. The crew wanted to add as many American icons as they could into those shots, including a Stetson hat, a 1950s Edsel Villager and a yellow school bus. Moffat, having enjoyed writing episodes featuring River Song, wanted to give her an impressive entrance. Haynes had Alex Kingston block the Sun light from the camera angle and blowing smoke from her revolver. The scenes involving the picnic and the future-Doctor dying took place on the shore of Lake Powell. The suit worn by the future-Doctor's killer was a fabricated replica of an Apollo space suit. It was waterproofed as the killer came out of the water, and in real life space suits were not designed to be used in water. In filming the death scene the filming crew noticed that Karen Gillan was genuinely upset and "was acting her heart out."[6] In filming the "Viking funeral" scene, Haynes wished to film it during the sunset. However, the sun set over the desert, so was instead filmed during sunrise, as the sun rose over the water.[6] Kingston had to genuinely slap Matt Smith several times in a scene because it was difficult to fake. Kingston recalled that after a few takes, Smith got red cheeked and grew frustrated at having to do the sequence over and over again. The Oval Office set was constructed at Upper Boat Studios in South Wales. Because the production crew had access to several pictures and plans of the real office, they were able to replicate it in almost every detail. The main problem for building the set was the plastering; the crew normally plaster one wall at a time for normal rooms, but because the Oval Office was round, they had to do the entire set at once. The American-style diner scene when the companions reunite with the Doctor in this episode is actually located in Cardiff Bay.[13] The Laurel and Hardy film the Doctor intruded was done by Smith dancing in front of greenscreen.[6] The episode opens with a still-caption tribute to actress Elisabeth Sladen, who died from cancer on 19 April 2011. Sladen had previously appeared in the series as companion Sarah Jane Smith, and as the same character on the spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures.[14] Broadcast and reception Broadcast and ratings "The Impossible Astronaut" was first broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2011 at 6 pm.[15] The episode also aired on BBC America in the United States and Space in Canada on the same day.[16][17] It aired on ABC1 in Australia on 30 April.[18] After its original broadcast in the United Kingdom, "The Impossible Astronaut" received preliminary overnight ratings of 6.52 million viewers, a 36.7% audience share in its timeslot. Despite winning its timeslot, ratings were down by 1.2 million from the previous series premiere "The Eleventh Hour", meaning it has the lowest ratings of all the opening episodes of the series since the shows revival in 2005. The episode became the second highest rated programme of the night, behind Britain's Got Talent, which attracted 8.99 million on ITV1.[19] Critical reception The episode was met with positive reviews from television critics. Dan Martin of The Guardian reacted positively towards the episode, believing the cast performed better than the previous fifth series. He stated "Steven Moffat has thrown away the rule book and made Doctor Who as, you imagine, he's pictured it should be his whole life. Killing the Doctor leaves the shape of the series mapped out, raises the bar so that no one is safe, and sees Amy, Rory and River facing a terrible dilemma."[20] Martin liked that "Amy's numbed horror ramps things up to a series-finale level on intensity from the off," and then switches "into an Oval Office comedy of manners," and "morphs into gothic horror and finally flings you to the ground with its cinematic cliffhanger."[20] He was also positive towards the American setting, and "our eccentric British foursome bumbling through it," believing the series raised its game with this."[20] With regards to the Silence, Martin believed it was "a standard Moffat psychological trick, but the most refined to date."[20] Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy called the episode "a fantastic launch for the sixth series," adding "the Doctor Who team's US location shooting has certainly paid off, lending these early scenes a grand scale that the series could scarcely have expected to achieve in 2005, let alone in 1963."[21] Commenting on the future-Doctor's death, Jeffery said "seven minutes in, a nation's collective jaw dropped as The Doctor — this show's lead — is mercilessly gunned down. This plot twist is simply stunning, and it's difficult to imagine even casual viewers not sitting up to pay attention at this point."[21] Jeffery also believed that the series regulars were on "top form," adding "the more abrasive aspects of Amy Pond's personality seem to have been toned down this year, and Karen Gillan responds with her best, most sympathetic performance to date. Arthur Darvill also lives up to his recent promotion to full-time companion. His comic timing is simply superb, but he excels too in the episode's darker moments."[21] Jeffery rated the episode five stars out of five.[21] Gavin Fuller of The Daily Telegraph believed it was "a cracking start to the first part of the 2011 series, with the shocking ending of Amy seemingly shooting a girl making one keen wait for the conclusion next week to see how it all resolves itself," as well as enjoying the concept of the Silence.[22] Rick Marshall of MTV believed that "Steven Moffat and the Doctor Who crew offer up yet another great episode," but also said the "big cliffhanger will likely cause more than a few fans' heads to explode."[23] In addition, Marshall believed the alien antagonists "give the Weeping Angels a run for their money in scare factor."[23] Simon Brew of Den of Geek thought the episode was "a triumphant return for Doctor Who, bubbling with confidence and throwing down story strands that hint at an engrossing series."[24] Brew liked Sheppard's performance as Delaware and Darvill's increasing presence as Rory. Brew also complimented Haynes' work in the United States, saying it was an improvement from "Daleks in Manhattan", which featured British actors attempting to play with American accents.[24] Tom Phillips of Metro said the 1969 US setting were "beautifully used," and enjoyed the "spookiness" of the Silence. However Phillips felt the episode would be "a bit hard to get into" for new viewers.[25]

  
  

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• TDP 172: Lis Slayden a collection of tributes

  25 April 2011 (7:48pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 26 minutes and 41 seconds

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  Elisabeth Claira Heath Sladen[2] (1 February 1946[3][4][1][5] – 19 April 2011) was an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who. She appeared as a regular from 1973 to 1976, opposite both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and reprised the role many times in subsequent decades, both on Doctor Who and its spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Early career 2.2 Sarah Jane Smith 2.3 Other work 3 Personal life 4 References 5 External links [edit] Early life Sladen was the only child of Tom Sladen, who fought in World War I and served in the Home Guard during World War II.[citation needed] Her mother Gladys' maiden name was Trainor,[3] which is a Northern Irish name commonly seen in Liverpool.[citation needed] Sladen developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning dance lessons when she was five, and dancing in one production with the Royal Ballet. She was a primary school contemporary of future politician Edwina Currie (née Cohen), appearing in at least one school production with her; and a grammar school contemporary of Peter Goldsmith, the future Attorney-General, when both attended Quarry Bank School (now Calderstones School).[6] [edit] Career [edit] Early career After attending drama school for two years, Sladen began work at the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as an assistant stage manager. Her first stage appearance was as a corpse. However, she was scolded for giggling on stage, thanks to a young actor, Brian Miller, whispering the words, "Respiration nil, Aston Villa two" in her ear while he was playing a doctor. Sladen was so good as an assistant stage manager that she did not get many acting roles, a problem she solved by deliberately making mistakes on several occasions.[citation needed] This got her told off again, but she started to get more on-stage roles. Sladen made her first, uncredited, screen appearance in 1965 in the film Ferry Cross the Mersey as an extra. Sladen eventually moved into weekly repertory work, travelling around to various locations in England. Sladen and Miller, now married, moved to Manchester, spending three years there. She appeared in numerous roles, most notably as Desdemona in Othello, her first appearance as a leading lady. She also got the odd part on Leeds Radio and Granada Television, eventually appearing as a barmaid in 1970 in six episodes of the long-running soap opera Coronation Street. In 1971, Sladen was in two episodes of Z-Cars. Then, in 1972, she was appearing in a play that moved down to London, and they had to move along with it. Her first television role in London was as a terrorist in an episode of Doomwatch. This was followed by guest roles in Z-Cars (again),[7] Public Eye, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and Special Branch. [edit] Sarah Jane Smith In 1973, Doctor Who actress Katy Manning, who was playing the Third Doctor's assistant Jo Grant opposite Jon Pertwee, was leaving the series. Producer Barry Letts was growing increasingly desperate in his search for a replacement, when Z-Cars producer Ron Craddock gave Sladen an enthusiastic recommendation. Sladen arrived at the audition not knowing it was for the new companion role, and was amazed at Letts's thoroughness. She was introduced to Pertwee, whom she found intimidating at the time. As she chatted with Letts and Pertwee, each time she turned to look at one of them the other would signal a thumbs-up.[8] She was offered and accepted the part of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. She stayed on Doctor Who for three and a half seasons, alongside Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Tom Baker as the Fourth, receiving both popular and critical acclaim for her role as Sarah Jane. When she left the series, in the 1976 serial The Hand of Fear, it made front page news,[citation needed] where previously only a change of Doctors had received such attention. In October, 2009, Sladen paid tribute to her boss and friend, Barry Letts, after he died. She said Letts was her closest friend on Doctor Who. Sladen returned to the character of Sarah Jane Smith on numerous occasions. In 1981, new Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner asked her to return to the series to ease the transition between Tom Baker and new Doctor Peter Davison. She declined but accepted his second offer of doing a pilot for a spin-off series called K-9 and Company, co-starring K-9, the popular robot dog from Doctor Who. However, the pilot was not picked up for a series. Two years later Sladen appeared in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors. She reprised the role in the 1993 Children in Need special Dimensions in Time, and in the 1995 independently produced video Downtime alongside former co-star Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield. This was her last on-screen appearance as Sarah Jane Smith for some time. Sladen played Sarah Jane in several audio plays. Two of them were produced for BBC Radio, The Paradise of Death (Radio 5, 1993), and The Ghosts of N-Space (Radio 2, 1996), together with Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney. Big Finish Productions has also produced two series of Sarah Jane Smith audio adventures set in the present day, released in 2002 and 2006. Her daughter Sadie has also appeared in the audios. In later years, Sladen had also participated re-visiting a few classic Doctor Who serials on DVD in doing audio commentaries and interviews (in the stories she starred in), but as of 2008 she stated in an interview that she was no longer doing them due to "contractual reasons with 2entertain".[9] Following the successful revival of Doctor Who in 2005, Sladen guest starred as Sarah Jane in "School Reunion", an episode of the 2006 series, along with John Leeson, who returned as the voice of the robot dog K-9, and David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. Sladen was ever faithful to the character and worked a lot of the characterisation herself, in the lead-up to the broadcast of "School Reunion" she was quoted in The Daily Mirror as saying: "Sarah Jane used to be a bit of a cardboard cut-out. Each week it used to be, 'Yes Doctor, no Doctor', and you had to flesh your character out in your mind — because if you didn't, no one else would." She also spoke favourably of the characterisation in the new series.[10] Following her successful appearance in the series, Sladen later starred in The Sarah Jane Adventures, a Doctor Who spin-off focusing on Sarah Jane, produced by BBC Wales for CBBC and created by Russell T Davies. A 60-minute special aired on New Year's Day 2007, with a 10-episode series commencing broadcast in September 2007. The programme was nominated for a prestigious Royal Television Society award[11] and was recommissioned for a second 12-episode series which was broadcast in late 2008.[12] The third series was broadcast in Autumn 2009, and again achieved audience ratings well in excess of the usual average figures for the time slot (sometimes even double). A fourth season began airing in October 2010. Sladen also read two original audio stories for The Sarah Jane Adventures,[7] which were released in November 2007 on CD: The Glittering Storm by Stephen Cole and The Thirteenth Stone by Justin Richards. This was the first time that BBC Audiobooks have commissioned new content for exclusive release on audio.[13] Two new audio stories ("Ghost House" and "Time Capsule") were released in November 2008, both read again by Sladen.[14] Sladen appeared in the final two episodes of Doctor Who’s 2008 series (season 4) finale "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End" and was credited in the title sequence of both episodes.[15] Her final appearance in Doctor Who was a cameo in the concluding part of "The End of Time", Tennant's last episode as the Doctor.[16] [edit] Other work After Doctor Who, Sladen returned to Liverpool with her husband and performed in a series of plays. This included a two-hander with Miller in Moonie and his Caravans. Notable appearances following that include a two-year stint as a presenter for the children's programme Stepping Stones, a lead role with Miller playing her husband in ITV drama Send In The Girls, a BBC Play For Today, a role as a stand-up comic's spouse in Take My Wife, and a small part in the movie Silver Dream Racer as a bank secretary in 1980, only her second motion picture appearance. In 1981, former Doctor Who producer Barry Letts cast her as the female lead in the BBC Classics production of Gulliver in Lilliput. She continued to appear in various advertisements and in another Letts production, Alice in Wonderland (playing the Dormouse), as well as attending conventions in the United States. After the birth of her daughter Sadie Miller in 1985, Sladen went into semi-retirement, placing her family first, but finding time for the occasional television appearance. In 1995, she played Dr Pat Hewer in 4 episodes of Peak Practice. In 1996, she played Sophie in Faith in the Future, and appeared in 15 episodes of the BBC schools programme Numbertime, which was repeated annually for around ten years. This was her last television acting appearance until the 2006 Doctor Who episode "School Reunion". In 1991, she starred as Alexa opposite Colin Baker in The Stranger audio adventure The Last Mission for BBV Audio. Sladen also appeared in a Bernice Summerfield audio drama, Kate Orman's Walking to Babylon. In 2008–09, Sladen appeared in a panto production of Peter Pan at the Theatre Royal Windsor, playing Mrs. Darling and a beautiful mermaid.[17] [edit] Personal life Sladen married actor Brian Miller in 1968 in Liverpool;[18] the marriage lasted until her death. Their daughter, Sadie Miller, appeared with her in the range of Sarah Jane Smith audio plays by Big Finish Productions. As a child, Sadie appeared alongside Sladen in the 1996 documentary, Thirty Years in the TARDIS, wearing a replica of the Andy Pandy overalls Sladen wore in The Hand of Fear. Sladen died early on 19 April 2011,[19] after having cancer for several months.[20][21][22] The first episode of series six of the revived version of Doctor Who "The Impossible Astronaut" aired on the Saturday following Sladen's death. The episode started with a screen announcing that it was dedicated to the memory of Elisabeth Sladen. Straight after 'Doctor Who', a special tribute called 'My Sarah Jane: A Tribute to Elisabeth Sladen' was aired on CBBC.[21] Sladen had also been interested in being involved in the Doctor Who Fourth Doctor Big Finish series.[23] [edit] References

  
  

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• Elisabeth Sladen has died

  19 April 2011 (7:10pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 1 minutes and 27 seconds

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  Twitter and Facebook are alight with rumours that Elisabeth Sladen has passed away.The Doctor Who star, who is best known as Sarah Jane Smith and also stars in the spin off CBBC show The Sarah Jane Adventures, is said to have passed away earlier today.Sources say the 63 year old star died because of complications arising from a battle with cancer.The actress was a regular on BBC’s Doctor Who with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and has reprised her role many times. She first joined the sci-fi show in 1973 and stayed on for three and a half seasons, before leaving in 1976.After numerous appearances through the 80s and 90s, Elisabeth returned in 2006, acting opposite the then Doctor David Tennant in an episode titled “School Reunion”.Following her successful appearance in the series, Sladen was then asked to front The Sarah Jane Adventures, written by Russell. T Davies for CBBC. The show ran for four series, with a fifth scheduled to air later in 2011.Sladen was amazing on screen and a real fan favourite, she was welcomed back for two episodes of Doctor Who’s 2008 series finale “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” and was credited in the title sequence of both episodes. She also had a cameo in the concluding part of The End of Time, Tennant’s last episode as the Doctor. This was her last appearance on the show.This has not yet been confirmed, so more news to follow.

  
  

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• TDP 169: Planet of the Spiders

  7 April 2011 (6:55am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 59 seconds

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  Planet of the Spiders is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 4 to June 8, 1974. It was Jon Pertwee's last serial as the Doctor and marks the first, uncredited appearance of Tom Baker in the role. It also marks the last appearance of Mike Yates. Contents [hide] 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 2.1 Cast notes 3 Production 4 Continuity 5 In print 6 Broadcast, VHS release & DVD Release 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Reviews 8.2 Target novelisation [edit] Synopsis Mysterious goings-on at a meditation retreat run by Tibetan monks are linked to the blue planet Metebelis III, and a colony of monstrous, evolved spiders. The Doctor must reflect on his past and reconcile with his present to defeat a deadly and possibly fatal challenge... [edit] Plot Following the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Mike Yates was discharged from UNIT and is now attending a Tibetan meditation centre in rural England. He is visited by Sarah Jane Smith and they witness some curious happenings at the centre, seemingly organised by a resident called Lupton, a middle aged former salesman, and his cronies. Mike and Sarah stumble across Lupton performing an incantation, which conjures up a giant spider into the middle of the basement room. It jumps on Lupton’s back and then disappears. The spider manifests itself in Lupton’s head, telling him to seek out and locate a certain blue crystal. The Third Doctor has developed an interest in psychic ability, but his testing of a clairvoyant called Professor Clegg backfires when his subject has a heart attack. It is triggered when Clegg comes into contact with a blue crystal from Metebelis Three (sent back from the Amazon by Jo Grant), which caused him to see the image of deadly spiders. Sarah returns from the retreat, having left Mike to watch things there, and she and the Doctor swap spider tales. Meanwhile Lupton has also arrived at UNIT HQ and steals the crystal from the Doctor’s laboratory. A multi-vehicle chase ensues which Lupton escapes by teleporting himself back to the monastery. Once there, the spider reveals that it is plotting against some of its sisters back on Metebelis Three. The spiders and the crystal originate from the same blue planet in the Acteon Galaxy, which was none too hospitable to the Doctor the last time he visited (during The Green Death). The Doctor and Sarah now make for the monastery and tell the deputy abbot, Cho-Je, that something is very amiss. The crystal now strays again when it is taken by Tommy, the simple-minded handyman of the retreat, whose mind is opened and improved by the power of the crystal. Lupton is teleported to Metebelis Three, unconsciously allowing Sarah to follow him. She soon meets the human slave inhabitants of the planet, a generally dispirited bunch, other than the rebellious Arak, who flees to the mountains. The planet is ruled by the Eight-Legs or giant spiders, and their Queen is the supreme ruler. They govern using guards chosen from among the planet's Two-Leg (human) population and their own phenomenal mental powers, amplified by the blue stones of the planet. The Doctor arrives on the planet and he makes contact with Arak, who explains that the Metebelians are the descendants of the crew of an earth space ship, which crashed hundreds of years before. A spider on board found its way to the Blue Mountains where, through the effect of the crystals, its progeny grew larger and larger and cleverer and cleverer. The Doctor works out that a “negative” stone can absorb and reject the power of the blue crystals and starts a revolt among the humans, but this is defeated and the Doctor ventures to the Blue Mountains. There he encounters the Great One, a giant spider which controls the world of Metebelis and desires power over other domains too. She knows the crystal is still on Earth and sends the Doctor there to get it for her. He flees back to Earth with Sarah – not knowing the Queen spider has now implanted itself in his companion's mind. Tommy has given the crystal to the abbot, K’anpo Rinpoche, who is an elderly Time Lord and the one-time hermit mentor of the Doctor. He now lives in peaceful exile on Earth. He tells the Doctor of Sarah's control and they work together to expel the Queen Spider. A fight breaks in the monastery between Lupton’s cronies and the Abbot’s men. The Abbot advises the Doctor to take the crystal to the Great One: the Doctor started this chain of events by removing the crystal in the first place, and it is up to him to put it back. He departs in the TARDIS with the crystal. On Metebelis Three, Lupton has been killed by the spiders after falling out with the Spider Queen. When the TARDIS lands, the Doctor heads to the cave of the Great One and gives her the crystal, which she uses to complete a lattice that begins to magnify her mental powers. However, the forces unleashed are too strong for the Great One and the positive feedback kills her and the other spiders. A vast wave of deadly radiation floods the cave. The Doctor, now very weak, staggers back to the TARDIS and teleports away. Three weeks later, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah are in the Doctor's laboratory when the Doctor returns and promptly collapses, and the Doctor dies. The abbot K’anpo arrives in his new body, having regenerated into the form of Cho-Je, who was a sort of forward projection of his soul. He tells them that the Doctor will change too and before their eyes the Doctor starts to regenerate into the Fourth Doctor. [edit] Cast notes This story marks the final appearance of Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates. Franklin would reprise his role in The Five Doctors (1983) and Dimensions in Time (1993), although on both occasions they were illusory versions of Yates. After his departure from the series, Franklin would go on to become a stage and television director. Kismet Delgado, the widow of Roger Delgado, who had played the Master during the Third Doctor's era, was one of the voices for the Spiders. Gareth Hunt, who would go on to play Mike Gambit in The New Avengers, appears here as a human rebel on Metebelis III. Carl Forgione would later play Nimrod in Ghost Light. [edit] Production Serial details by episode EpisodeBroadcast dateRun timeViewership (in millions)Archive "Part One" 4 May 1974 (1974-05-04) 24'40" 10.1 PAL 2" colour videotape "Part Two" 11 May 1974 (1974-05-11) 25'02" 8.9 PAL 2" colour videotape "Part Three" 18 May 1974 (1974-05-18) 24'58" 8.8 PAL 2" colour videotape "Part Four" 25 May 1974 (1974-05-25) 23'53" 8.2 PAL 2" colour videotape "Part Five" 1 Jun 1974 24'01" 9.2 PAL 2" colour videotape "Part Six" 8 Jun 1974 24'43" 8.9 PAL 2" colour videotape [1][2][3] The final story of Season 11 (to have been titled The Final Game) was originally intended to write out the character of the Master, with the villainous Time Lord sacrificing his life to save the Doctor's. Due to the death of actor Roger Delgado, script editor Terrance Dicks abandoned the project in favour of a new story, which eventually evolved into Planet of the Spiders. Coincidentally, Kismet Delgado, Roger's widow provided her voice to one of the spiders. The train station Sarah Jane arrives at in Part One is Mortimer railway station, near Reading. [edit] Continuity This story was the second and last appearance of the "Whomobile". The character of Surgeon-Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, the UNIT medical officer, is referred to by the Brigadier who calls for him when the Doctor falls into a daze after staring into the crystal. Sullivan would not actually appear on screen until Robot, where he was played by Ian Marter. The Spiders of Metebelis Three make further appearances in the short story "Return of the Spiders" by Gareth Roberts (in the collection More Short Trips) and a brief appearance in the Eight Doctor Adventure The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks. They also have a full encounter with the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish audios The Eight Truths and Worldwide Web by Eddie Robson. The Eighth Doctor Adventures novels Interference: Book One and Two by Lawrence Miles has the time-travelling voodoo cult Faction Paradox changing history so that the events of this story never happen and instead having the Third Doctor regenerating on a planet named Dust after being shot. A later novel in the series, The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole, resolves this paradox and restores the Doctor's timeline to its previous state. The canonicity of the novels is unclear. It is unclear how long it takes the Doctor to return to Earth in the TARDIS from Metebelis Three, although three weeks have passed for Sarah and the Brigadier. Paul Cornell in the Virgin New Adventures novel Love and War established that the TARDIS was lost in the time vortex for the equivalent of ten years. This is revealed during a sequence in cyberspace where agents of the alien race called the Hoothi are attempting to trap the Seventh Doctor in a virtual recreation of the worst moments of his life, of which this regeneration is the most painful for the Doctor to re-live. This story includes the character of K'anpo Rimpoche, the previously unnamed Time Lord hermit from the Doctor's childhood, first mentioned in The Time Monster. K'anpo has the power to travel through time without the use of a TARDIS, to make a corporeal projection of a potential future incarnation (Cho-Je) of himself, and to stimulate the regeneration process of another Time Lord. K'anpo was referenced again in the Fourth Doctor serial State of Decay as the man who told the Doctor about the legends of the Great Vampires. The Doctor regenerates due to radiation poisoning a second time when the Tenth Doctor allows himself to absorb a lethal dose of radiation to save his current companion Wilfred Mott in The End of Time. [edit] In print Doctor Who book Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders Series Target novelisations Release number 48 Writer Terrance Dicks Publisher Target Books Cover artist Peter Brookes ISBN 0-426-10655-5 Release date 16 October 1975 A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in October 1975 as Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders. The novel's prologue shows Jo Grant and her husband Professor Jones in the Amazon jungle following the events of The Green Death. Harry Sullivan is referred to as Doctor Sweatman. [edit] Broadcast, VHS release & DVD Release This story was repeated on BBC One as a 105-minute omnibus on 27 December 1974 at 14:46.[4] The serial was released on VHS in April 1991 as a double pack. It will be released on DVD in the UK on DVD on 18 April 2011.[5] It will be released in the USA and Canada on 10 May 2011.[6] [edit] References ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Planet of the Spiders". Outpost Gallifrey. http://gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=zzz. Retrieved 2008-08-30. [dead link] ^ "Planet of the Spiders". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_3z.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.  ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Planet of the Spiders". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/zzz.html. Retrieved 2008-08-30.  ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1996). "Planet of the Spiders (ZZZ)". Doctor Who The Handbook - The Third Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 162. ISBN 0 426 20486 7.  ^ "April 2011 DVD - Planet of the Spiders". Doctor Who Online - Release Guide. 17 February 2011. http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/releases/#dvd-planetofthespiders. Retrieved 18 February 2011.  ^ Lambert, David (26 January 2011). "Doctor Who - BBC Announces 'Terror of the Autons' and 'Planet of the Spiders'". TVShowsOnDVD.com. para. 3. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/n/14960. Retrieved 27 January 2011.

  
  

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• TTZ 10:

  4 April 2011 (9:54am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 minutes and 0 seconds

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• TDP 168: The Revisitation Box set Number 2

  21 March 2011 (2:13pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 25 minutes and 59 seconds

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• TDP 167: Space and Time (for Red Nose Day 2011)

  21 March 2011 (2:09pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 9 seconds

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  Plot [edit] "Space" Amy is trying to get the Doctor's attention while he fixes the TARDIS. She discovers that Rory is helping the Doctor by installing thermal couplings underneath the glass floor of the TARDIS. Rory and Amy then start a small argument, when the TARDIS suddenly shakes and the lights go out. The Doctor asks Rory if he dropped a thermal coupling, which Rory admits to and apologises for doing. Amy then apologises as well, and, at the Doctor's confusion, explains that Rory was looking up her skirt through the glass floor when he dropped the thermal coupling. The Doctor then notes that they have landed through "emergency materialisation" which should have landed the TARDIS in the safest space available. The lights come on, revealing another TARDIS inside the control room - the TARDIS has materialised inside itself. The Doctor experimentally walks through the door of the TARDIS inside the control room and instantly walks back into the control room through the door of the outer TARDIS. The Doctor tells Rory and Amy that they are trapped in a "space loop" and that nothing can enter or exit the TARDIS ever again. Despite the Doctor's words, another Amy walks through the TARDIS door. [edit] "Time" Continuing from the ending of "Space", the other Amy reveals that she is from a few moments in the future, and is able to come into the current outer TARDIS because "the exterior shell of the TARDIS has drifted forwards in time". The other Amy knows what to say and do because, from her perspective, she is repeating what she heard herself say earlier on. The Doctor sends the current Amy into the TARDIS within the current TARDIS, in order to "maintain the timeline". However, not long before the current Amy is gone when another pair of Rory and Amy walk in through the door of outer TARDIS, explaining that the Doctor, from their perspective, just sent them into the inner TARDIS. The current Doctor promptly sends the current Rory and now current Amy through the inner TARDIS. The Doctor then explains that he will set up a "controlled temporal implosion" in order to "reset the TARDIS", but in order to do so he must know which lever to use on the control panel. Moments after he speaks, another Doctor walks though the outer TARDIS door and tells him to use "the wibbly lever", which he quickly pulls, then steps into the inner TARDIS to tell his past self which lever to use. The inner TARDIS dematerialises while the outer TARDIS (being the same TARDIS) does the same, and the Doctor assures Amy and Rory that they are now back in "normal flight", and then advises Amy to "put some trousers on". [edit] Continuity The situation where a TARDIS materialised within a TARDIS in a recursive loop has occured before in previous episodes in the Third Doctor and Fourth Doctor's era, "The Time Monster" and "Logopolis". However, in both cases, it was the Master's TARDIS that had joined with the Doctor's, whereas in "Space" and "Time", the same TARDIS materialised within itself. In attempting to explain "conceptual space" to Rory, the Doctor used the analogy of the curve of a banana, the mentioning of which being a running joke since the episodes of the Ninth Doctor. Amy's line "Ok kids. This is where it gets complicated" is similar to one she delivered in "The Big Bang". [edit] Production This is the third charity short produced since the program's return in 2005, the other two having been made for Children in Need. The first, with an official title of only "Doctor Who: Children in Need", aired in 2005. The second, "Time Crash" (also written by Moffat, and also featuring a time loop and ontological paradox), aired in 2007. An earlier charity short in aid of Comic Relief, The Curse of Fatal Death, also written by Moffat, aired in 1999. This story also involved a time loop within a time loop. [edit] Broadcast and reception The Guardian responded positively, noting it "manages brilliantly to nod to just about every Whovian in-joke, demographic and fetish within the span of two tiny instalments". [1] [edit] References

  
  

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• TDP: Solid Silver Police Box Pendant For Sale

  18 March 2011 (1:25pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 59 seconds

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• TDP 166: Snakedance (Mara box set DVD2)

  14 March 2011 (9:08am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 37 seconds

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  Plot The arrival of the TARDIS on Manussa, formerly homeworld of both the Manussan Empire and Sumaran Empire, triggers nightmares in Tegan, who dreams of a snake-shaped cave mouth. It is evident to the Fifth Doctor that the Mara is reasserting itself on her mind following her possession by the entity while on the Kinda planet of Deva Loka (Kinda). He attempts to calm her by taking her and Nyssa in search of the cave but Tegan is too scared to enter when they find it, and runs away. Alone and confused Tegan lapses under the control of the Mara once more, revelling in horror and destruction. The emblem of the snake soon returns to her arm. Manussa is in the grip of a festival of celebration of the banishment of the Mara from the civilisation five hundred years earlier. In the absence of the Federator, who rules over the three-planet Federation, his indolent son Lon is to have a major role in the celebration, supported by his mother the Lady Tanha and the archaeologist Ambril, who is an expert in the Sumaran period. Lon is intrigued with the notion that the Mara might one day return as prophesied, but Ambril is unconvinced and believes such talk is the product of cranks. When the Doctor tries to get Ambril to take the threat seriously he too is dismissed as a maverick, though the young deputy curator Chela is more sympathetic to the Doctor and gives him a small blue crystal called a Little Mind's Eye, which is used by the Snakedancers, a mystical cult, in their ceremonies to repel the Mara. The Doctor realises the small crystal and its large counterpart, the Great Mind's Eye, can be used as focal points for mental energy and can turn thought into matter. This, he determines, is how the Mara will transfer from Tegan's mind to corporeal existence. He realises that the Manussans must once have been a very advanced people who could use molecular engineering in a zero-gravity environment. They created the Great Mind's Eye without realising its full potential, and the crystal drew the fear, hatred, and evil from their minds, amplified it and fed it back to them. Thus the Mara was born into Manussa and the reign of the Sumaran Empire began. Meanwhile Tegan makes contact with Lon and passes the snake mark of the Mara to him too. They visit the cave from Tegan's dream which contains a wall pattern which could accommodate the Great Crystal. Lon is sent back to the Palace while she causes more havoc and takes control of a showman, Dugdale, who is used for her pleasure. Lon meanwhile covers his arm and goes about trying to persuade Ambril to use the real Great crystal in the ceremony, placing it in a position in a wall carving that will evidently enable the Mara to return as the Doctor predicted. To persuade him to comply, Ambril is shown a secret cave of Sumaran archaeological treasures and warned they will all be destroyed if he does not help him. Ambril thus agrees to the change in format. The Doctor and Nyssa have meanwhile been aided by Chela, who shares with them the journal of Dojjen, a snakedancer who was Ambril's predecessor. All three venture to the Palace to persuade the authorities to do something about the situation, but soon see Lon is in the grip of the Mara and orchestrating a very dangerous situation. All three escape and the Doctor now uses the Little Mind's Eye to contact Dojjen, who lives in sandy dunes beyond the city. They venture there and the Doctor communes with Dojjen by opening his mind after being bitten by a poisonous snake. He is told by the wise old snakedancer that the Mara may only be defeated by finding a still point in the mind. All three now head back to the city to prevent the ceremony of defeating the Mara using the real Great Crystal. The festivities are now at a peak, with a procession taking place which culminates in a ceremony at the cave. Lon plays the role of his ancestor Federator in rejecting the Mara. After a series of verbal challenges he seizes the real Great Crystal and places it in the appropriate place on the wall. Tegan and Dugdale arrive and she displays the Mara mark on her arm, which is now becoming flesh having fed on the fear in Dugdale's mind. With the crystal in place, the Mara is able to create itself in the cave, becoming a vast and deadly snake. However, the Doctor arrives in time and refuses to look at the snake or recognise its evil, relying instead on the still place he finds through mental commune with Dojjen via the Little Mind's Eye. This resistance interrupts the manifestation of the Mara and its three slaves are freed while the snake itself dies and rots. The Doctor comforts a distraught Tegan, sure that the Mara has at last been destroyed. [edit] Cast notes Features a guest appearance by Martin Clunes. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who. Brian Miller is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen who portrayed long-time companion Sarah Jane Smith. He later played Harry Sowersby in The Mad Woman in the Attic, an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Brian Grellis previously played Sheprah in Revenge of the Cybermen and Safran in The Invisible Enemy. [edit] Continuity Every story during Season 20 had the Doctor face an enemy from the past. For this story, the enemy was the Mara, who was featured in the previous season's story Kinda (1982). In the redesigned TARDIS of the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, one of the consoles displays different time eras such as the Rassilon Era, Humanian Era and the Sumaron Era. The Sumaron era may be a reference to this episode. [edit] Production Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership (in millions) "Part One" 18 January 1983 (1983-01-18) 24:26 6.7 "Part Two" 19 January 1983 (1983-01-19) 24:35 7.7 "Part Three" 25 January 1983 (1983-01-25) 24:29 6.6 "Part Four" 26 January 1983 (1983-01-26) 24:29 7.4 [2][3][4] In post-production, episode four of this story overran very badly. As a result, it had to be completely restructured. Originally the door for a third Mara adventure was to be left open, with closing scenes discussing the ultimate fate of the Great Crystal. Furthermore, a sequence in which the Doctor comforts Tegan had to be removed. The scene was reincorporated into the beginning of the subsequent serial, Mawdryn Undead (1983). The success of Kinda and this story prompted Script Editor Eric Saward to commission Bailey to write a third and final story to feature the Mara: May Time. However, the story was abandoned due to production problems. This is one of the very few Doctor Who stories in which no one dies. [edit] In print Doctor Who book Snakedance Series Target novelisations Release number 83 Writer Terrance Dicks Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-19457-8 Release date 3 May 1984 A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in January 1984. It was the first of several to feature Peter Davison's image in the logo. [edit] Broadcast and VHS release This story was released on VHS in December 1994. This story was released on DVD on 7 March 2011 along with Kinda in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales. [edit] References ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 125. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (31 March 2007). "Snakedance". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011737/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=6d. Retrieved 30 August 2008.  ^ "Snakedance". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_6d.htm. Retrieved 30 August 2008.  ^ Sullivan, Shannon (7 August 2007). "Snakedance". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/6d.html. Retrieved 30 August 2008.  [edit] External links Snakedance at BBC Online Snakedance at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel) Snakedance at the Doctor Who Reference Guide [edit] Reviews Snakedance reviews at Outpost Gallifrey Snakedance reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide [edit] Target novelisation On Target — Snakedance

  
  

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• TDP 165: The UK Census 2011

  9 March 2011 (8:01am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 19 seconds

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  Jedi knights?! How many Jedi Knights were in the UK 2001 Census? Over 390,000 people answered “Jedi” in the 2001 census for England and Wales and 14,000 in Scotland (a lower proportion). This is more than the number of identifying Sikhs, and more than Jews and Buddhists combined. However, this did not mean that Jedi became an official religion- it doesn’t work like that! Why answer Jedi? Much of the public and media discussion focused on legitimate concerns with the census, which the “Jedi” answer could be disruptively used to promote. Some reasons people answered “Jedi” include: concern about how ‘religion’ data might be used concern about the inclusion of a question on religion at all making a statement about privacy or annoyance with interference a reaction against the apparent presumption of having a religion making a point about the way people tend to legitimize religion based on its antiquity or number of adherents Should I answer “Jedi”? Our recommendation is that if you are not religious, answer “No religion”, because at some time or place, someone will refer only to the explicit “No religion” answers, from which you will be left out if you answered “Jedi”. If you want to write Jedi as a protest against anwering the question at all, see Why should I answer the question at all?

  
  

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• TDP 164: Kinda (Mara tales DVD 1)

  5 March 2011 (12:00am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 26 seconds

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  Doctor    * Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)Companions    * Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)    * Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)    * Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)Others    * Richard Todd — Sanders    * Nerys Hughes — Todd    * Simon Rouse — Hindle    * Mary Morris — Panna    * Sarah Prince — Karuna    * Adrian Mills — Aris    * Lee Cornes — Trickster    * Jeff Stewart — Dukkha    * Anna Wing — Anatta    * Roger Milner — AnnicaProductionWriter     Christopher BaileyDirector     Peter GrimwadeScript editor     Eric SawardProducer     John Nathan-TurnerExecutive producer(s)     NoneProduction code     5YSeries     Season 19Length     4 episodes, 25 minutes eachOriginally broadcast     February 1–February 9, 1982Chronology← Preceded by     Followed by →Four to Doomsday     The VisitationKinda is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from February 1 to February 9, 1982.Contents[hide]    * 1 Synopsis    * 2 Plot    * 3 Continuity    * 4 Production    * 5 Outside references    * 6 In print    * 7 Broadcast and VHS release    * 8 References    * 9 External links          o 9.1 Reviews          o 9.2 Target novelisation[edit] SynopsisAn idyllic paradise-like planet, Deva Loka, is not as it seems. Its inhabitants, the Kinda, are a gentle and seemingly primitive people. On the surface, a perfect place to colonise. But if it is so perfect, why are the colonisation team disappearing one by one? When Tegan sleeps near the Windchimes she is confronted by the true evil that threatens Deva Loka.[edit] PlotAn Earth colonisation survey expedition to the beautiful jungle planet Deva Loka is being depleted as members of the survey disappear one by one. Four have now gone, leaving the remainder in state of deep stress. The leader, Sanders, relies on bombast and rules; while his deputy, Hindle, is evidently close to breaking point. Only the scientific officer, Todd, seems to deal with the situation with equanimity. She does not see the native people, the Kinda, as a threat, but rather respects their culture and is intrigued by their power of telepathy. The social structure is also curious in that women seem dominant and are the only ones with the power of voice. The humans are holding two silent males hostage for "observation". Todd believes they are more advanced than they first appear, as they possess necklaces representative of the double helix of DNA, indicating a more advanced civilisation.Elsewhere in the jungle the TARDIS crew are also under stress, especially Nyssa of Traken, who has collapsed from exhaustion. The Fifth Doctor constructs a delta wave augmenter to enable her to rest in the TARDIS while he and Adric venture deeper into the jungle. They soon find an automated total survival suit (TSS) system which activates and marches them to the Dome, the colonists' base. Sanders is a welcoming but gruff presence, further undermining Hindle at regular intervals. At this point Sanders decides to venture out into the jungle in the TSS, leaving the highly strung Hindle in charge. His will is enforced by means of the two Kinda hostages, who have forged a telepathic link with him believing their souls to have been captured in his mirror. The Doctor, Todd and Adric are immediately placed under arrest as Hindle now evinces megalomania.Tegan faces a more metaphysical crisis. She has fallen asleep near the euphonious and soporific Windchimes, unaware of the danger of the dreaming of an unshared mind (one not engaged in telepathic activity with another humanoid). Her mind opens in a black void where she undergoes provocation and terror from a series of nightmarish characters, one of which taunts her: “You will agree to being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other". The spectres are a manifestation of the Mara, an evil being of the subconscious that longs for corporeal reality. Mentally tortured, she eventually agrees to become the Mara and a snake symbol passes to her own arm. When her mind returns to her body she is possessed by the Mara. In a scene reminiscent of the Book of Genesis she passes the snake symbol to the first Kinda she finds, a young man named Aris, who is the brother of one of the Kinda in the Dome. He too is transformed by evil and now finds the power of voice.Back at the Dome, Hindle has conceived a bizarre and immolatory plan to destroy the jungle, which he views as a threat. Adric plays along with this delusion. Hindle’s world soon starts to fall apart when first Adric 'betrays' him and then Sanders defies expectation and returns from the jungle. However Sanders is radically different from the martinet in earlier episodes. Panna, an aged female mystic of the tribe, presented him with a strange wooden box (the 'Box of Jhana') which when opened has regressed his mind back to childhood. Sanders still has the box and shows it to Hindle, who makes the Doctor open it.The Doctor and Todd see beyond the toy inside and instead share a vision from Panna and her young ward, Karuna, who invites them to cave. The shock of the situation (accompanied by strange phenomena) allows the Doctor and Todd to slip away into the jungle where they encounter Aris dominating a group of Kinda and seemingly fulfilling a tribal prophecy that “When the Not-We come, one will arise from among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed.” Karuna soon finds the Doctor and Todd and takes them to meet Panna in the cave from the vision, with the wise woman realising the danger of the situation now Aris has voice. She places them in a trance like state and reveals that the Mara has gained dominion on Deva Loka. The Great Wheel which turns as civilisations rise and fall has turned again and the hour is near when chaos will reign, instigated by the Mara. The vision she shares is Panna’s last act: when it is finished, she is dead.In the Kinda world, multiple fathers are shared by children, just as multiple memories are held, and at Panna's death her life experience transfers to Karuna. She urges Todd and the Doctor to return to the Dome to prevent Aris leading an attack on it which will increase the chaos and hasten the collapse of the Kinda civilisation.Back at the Dome Hindle, Sanders and Adric remain in a state of unreality, with the former becoming ever more demented and unbalanced, and infantile. Adric eventually escapes, and attempts to pilot the TSS but is soon confronted by Aris and the Kinda. He panics, and Aris is wounded by the machine (which responds to the mental impulses of the operator) and the Kinda scatter.The Doctor and Todd find an emotionally wrecked Tegan near the Windchimes and conclude that she was the path of the Mara back into this world. They then find Adric and the party heads back to the Dome where Hindle has now completed the laying of explosives which will incinerate the jungle and the Dome itself: the ultimate self-defence. Todd persuades Hindle now to open the Box of Jhana, and the visions therein restore the mental balance of the two. The two enslaved Kinda are freed when the mirror entrapping them is shattered. The Doctor then realizes the only method of combating the Mara- he realises the one thing evil cannot face is itself and so organizes the construction of a large circle of mirrors (actually reflective solar panels) in a jungle clearing. Aris is trapped within it and the snake on his arm breaks free. The Mara swells to giant proportions but then is banished back from the corporeal world to the Dark Places of the Inside.With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the Dome back to more balanced selves, the Doctor, Adric and an exhausted Tegan decide to leave (as does Todd, who decides 'its all a bit green'). When they reach the TARDIS, Nyssa greets them, fully recovered.[edit] Continuity    * The Mara features again in the next season's serial Snakedance.    * Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 episode "The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were described by Jack Harkness as being "waves of Van Cassadyne energy...your brain gets barbecued."    * A fairy like creature which is compared to a Mara features in the 2006 Torchwood episode Small Worlds, however there may be no connection between the two.    * In Time Crash (2007), the Tenth Doctor asks the temporally misplaced Fifth where (i.e. when) he is now – and speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own memories.    * In Turn Left (2008), the time beetle on Donna Noble's back is also revealed when faced with a circle of mirrors.[edit] ProductionSerial details by episode Episode     Broadcast date     Run time     Viewership(in millions)"Part One"     1 February 1982 (1982-02-01)     24:50     8.4"Part Two"     2 February 1982 (1982-02-02)     24:58     9.4"Part Three"     8 February 1982 (1982-02-08)     24:17     8.5"Part Four"     9 February 1982 (1982-02-09)     24:28     8.9[2][3][4]    * The working title for this story was The Kinda.    * This was the first story to feature Eric Saward as script editor.    * In the ancient language Sanskrit, "Deva Loka" means "Celestial Region".    * Nyssa makes only brief appearances at the start of episode 1, and at the end of 4, because the script had largely been developed at a time when only two companions for the Doctor were envisioned. When it was known a third companion would also be present, rather than write Nyssa into the entire storyline it was decided she would remain in the TARDIS throughout and be absent through most of the narrative. To account for this absence Nyssa was scripted to collapse at the end of the previous story, Four to Doomsday. In this story she remains in the Tardis, resting. Sarah Sutton's contract was amended to account for this two-episode absence.[4]    * For the scene in episode 2 in which the two Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.[edit] Outside references    * Writer Christopher Bailey based this story heavily on Buddhist philosophy. He used many Buddhist words and ideas in writing Kinda; most of the Kinda and dream-sequence characters have names with Buddhist meanings, including Mara (temptation — also personified as a demon), Dukkha (pain), Panna (wisdom), Karuna (compassion), Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). Additionally, Jhana (also spelt Jana in the scripts) refers to meditation.    * This serial was examined closely in the 1983 media studies volume Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado. This was the first major scholarly work dedicated to Doctor Who. Tulloch and Alvarado compare Kinda with Ursula K. Le Guin's 1976 novel The Word for World is Forest, which shares several themes with Kinda and may have been a template for its story. The Unfolding Text also examines the way "Kinda" incorporates Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as elements from the writings of Carl Jung.[5][edit] In printDoctor Who bookBook coverKindaSeries     Target novelisationsRelease number     84Writer     Terrance DicksPublisher     Target BooksISBN     0-426-19529-9Release date     15 March 1984Preceded by     Mawdryn UndeadFollowed by     SnakedanceA novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1983.In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book, read by Peter Davison.[edit] Broadcast and VHS release    * The serial was repeated on BBC One over 22-25 August 1983, (Monday-Thursday) at 6.25pm. This story was released on VHS in October 1994 with a cover illustration by Colin Howard.    * This story is set to be released on DVD in 2011 along with Snakedance in a special edition boxset entitled Mara Tales. It will feature an audio commentary by Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding and Nerys Hughes.[6][edit] References   1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 119. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.   2. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Kinda". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011611/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5y. Retrieved 2008-08-30.    3. ^ "Kinda". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5y.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.    4. ^ a b Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Kinda". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5y.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04.    5. ^ Tulloch, John; and Alvarado, Manuel (1983). Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-21480-4.    6. ^ Matthew Waterhouses' autobiography Blue Box Boy[edit] External links    * Kinda at BBC Online    * Kinda at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)    * Kinda at the Doctor Who Reference Guide    * KI'n'DA - Cardiff Doctor Who group[edit] Reviews    * Kinda reviews at Outpost Gallifrey    * Kinda reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide[edit] Target novelisation    * On Target — Kinda

  
  

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• TDP 163: William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 - 22 February 2011)

  1 March 2011 (7:39am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 18 minutes and 53 seconds

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  William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011)[1][2] was a British television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.[3] Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Doctor Who 3 After Doctor Who 4 Death 5 References 6 External links Early life Courtney was born in Cairo, Egypt, the son of a British diplomat and educated in France, Kenya and Egypt. He served his National Service in the British Army, leaving after 18 months as a private, not wanting to pursue a military career. He next joined the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art,[4] and after two years began doing repertory theatre in Northampton. From there he moved to London. Prior to Doctor Who, Courtney made guest appearances in several cult television series, including The Avengers (1962, 1967), The Champions (1968) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969) and as a racing driver in Riviera Police (1965). Doctor Who Director Douglas Camfield originally considered Courtney for the role of Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade (1965), a role that ultimately went to Julian Glover,[citation needed] and kept him in mind for future casting. Courtney's first appearance in Doctor Who was in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan, directed by Camfield, where he played Space Security Agent Bret Vyon opposite William Hartnell as the Doctor. Camfield liked Courtney's performance, and when the director was assigned the 1968 serial The Web of Fear, he cast Courtney as Captain Knight. However, when David Langton gave up the role of Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart to work elsewhere, Camfield recast Captain Knight and gave the part to Courtney instead. Lethbridge-Stewart reappeared later that year in The Invasion, promoted to Brigadier and in charge of the British contingent of UNIT, an organization that protected the Earth from alien invasion. It was in that recurring role that he is best known, appearing semi-regularly from 1970 to 1975. Courtney made return appearances in the series in 1983, and his last Doctor Who television appearance was in 1989 in the serial Battlefield (although like many other former cast members, he returned to the role for the charity special Dimensions in Time). Coincidentally, he appeared with Jean Marsh in both his first and last regular Doctor Who television appearances. Courtney has played Lethbridge-Stewart, either on television or in audio plays, alongside every subsequent Doctor up to and including Paul McGann, as well as substitute First Doctor Richard Hurndall. He did not appear in the revived series. While he has acted with Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant in the Big Finish audio dramas Sympathy for the Devil and UNIT: The Wasting, Tennant was playing a different character, Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, on both occasions. The character is referenced in the Series 4 episode "The Poison Sky" and is said to be "stuck in Peru". Fifteen years after Dimensions in Time, Courtney returned as Lethbridge-Stewart (now, Sir Alistair), freshly returned from Peru, in "Enemy of the Bane", a two-part story in the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures aired in December 2008, starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. The story pitted Sir Alistair and Sarah Jane against Commander Kaagh and Mrs. Wormwood who try to wake Horath using the Tanguska Scroll. It was intended by the Sarah Jane Adventures production team that Courtney would reappear in the following year's The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith so that Lethbridge-Stewart would meet the Tenth Doctor, but Courtney was recovering from a stroke and unable to take part.[5] After Doctor Who Courtney continued to act extensively in theatre and television after his main Doctor Who appearances, guest-starring in such popular television programmes as Minder (1984), All Creatures Great and Small (1980, episode "Matters Of Life And Death"), Only Fools and Horses (1988) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986). In 1982 he was cast alongside Frankie Howerd in the World War II-set comedy series Then Churchill Said to Me but the series remained untransmitted for over a decade due to the outbreak of the Falklands War. He also had a regular role in the comedy French Fields between 1989 and 1991. He has also appeared in the Big Finish Productions audio drama Earthsearch Mindwarp, based on a James Follett novel, broadcast on the digital radio station BBC 7. He also appeared in an episode of the long-running BBC TV series The Two Ronnies alongside Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett as the character of 'Captain Dickie Chapman', a fellow prisoner-of-war (POW) in Colditz during World War II, in a sketch based on the original BBC TV series, Colditz. In 1985, Nicholas played 'The Narrator' in The Rocky Horror Show. Amanda Redman also starred in the production as Janet. Courtney starred as Inspector Lionheart opposite fellow Doctor Who actor Terry Molloy in the audio series The Scarifyers, from Cosmic Hobo Productions. The first two Scarifyers adventures, The Nazad Conspiracy and The Devil of Denge Marsh, were broadcast on BBC 7 in 2007; the third, entitled For King and Country in 2008, and fourth, The Curse of the Black Comet, in 2010. He regularly made personal appearances at science fiction conventions and was also from 1997 the honorary president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society. His theatrical agent was former Doctor Who actress Wendy Padbury. In 1998, Courtney released his autobiography, titled Five Rounds Rapid! (ISBN 978-1852277826) after an infamous line of dialogue the Brigadier had in the 1971 Who serial The Dæmons. He recorded his memoirs, subtitled A Soldier in Time for release on CD in 2002 by Big Finish. An updated autobiography, Still Getting Away With It (ISBN 978-1871330731), was published in 2005, with co-author Michael McManus. Until his death, he lived in London with his second wife, Karen. In 2008 he appeared in the film Incendiary, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, alongside Ewan McGregor. Death Nicholas Courtney's death was reported by SFX[1] and The Stage[2] early in the morning of 23 February 2011. The exact nature of his death was not given in these early reports. Doctor Who audio play producers Big Finish, with whom Courtney had worked on several releases in his continuing role as the Brigadier, confirmed the date of his death as 22 February 2011.[6] The BBC reported that he had "died in London at the age of 81".[7] According to his official web site, he died following a long battle against illness.[8] Doctor Who writer Mark Gatiss called him "a childhood hero and the sweetest of gentlemen".[7] Former Doctor Tom Baker also paid tribute, having visited him on the Friday before his death. Baker wrote "We shall miss him terribly" in a newsletter on his website, in which he also indicated that Courtney had been battling cancer.[9] References ^ a b "Nicholas Courtney RIP". SFX (Future Publishing). 23 February 2011. http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/02/23/nicholas-courtney-rip/. Retrieved 23 February 2011.  ^ a b Scott, Matthewman (2011-02-23). "Doctor Who’s Brigadier Nicholas Courtney dies". The Stage. The Stage Newspaper Limited. http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/31367/doctor-whos-brigadier-nicholas-courtney-dies. Retrieved 2011-02-23.  ^ Clapperton, Guy (November 2, 2006). "Regenerating an original Doctor Who". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/02/bbc.broadcasting. Retrieved 28 December 2010.  ^ Alumni of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art: Penelope Keith, Angela Lansbury, Paxton Whitehead, Eva Green, Ross Kemp, Terence Stamp. LLC Books. 2010. ISBN 1155690842.  ^ McManus, Michael (26th February 2011). "Nicholas Courtney: Actor known for his long-running role as the Brigadier in Doctor Who". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nicholas-courtney-actor-known-for-his-longrunning-role-as-the-brigadier-in-doctor-who-2226111.html. Retrieved 27th February 2011.  ^ Briggs, Nicholas (2011-02-23). "Nicholas Courtney 1929-2011". Big Finish website: News (Big Finish Productions). http://www.bigfinish.com/news/Nicholas-Courtney-1929-2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.  ^ a b "Doctor Who 'Brigadier' Nicholas Courtney dies aged 81". BBC News (BBC). 2011-02-23. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12549622. Retrieved 23 February 2011.  ^ Official web site ^ Nick Courtney: The Brigadier is dead External links Official Web site Nicholas Courtney at the Internet Movie Database Voice Agent profile and contact Obituary in The Guardian Obituary in The Independent Obituary in The Telegraph

  
  

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• TDP 162 (159-161) Solo Con 2011 Omnibus

  27 February 2011 (8:35pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 22 minutes and 48 seconds

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  all three parts back to back

  
  

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• TDP 161: Solocon Day Three - Round Up

  20 February 2011 (11:30am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 3 minutes and 54 seconds

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• TDP 160: Solo Con Day 2 - Podcasting

  19 February 2011 (9:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 28 seconds

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  Podcasting Panel

  
  

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• TDP 159: Solo Con Day 1

  18 February 2011 (12:00pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds

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  Arival and first impressions of the con

  
  

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• TDP 158: Chicks Dig Time Lords

  11 February 2011 (9:09am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 54 seconds

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  In Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, a host of award-winning female novelists, academics and actresses come together to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, discuss their rather inventive involvement with the show's fandom, and examine why they adore this series so much. All told, this essay collection is designed to inform and delight male and female readers alike, and to examine some of the more extraordinary aspects of being a female Doctor Who enthusiast. Essay topics include Carole Barrowman (Anything Goes) discussing what it was like to grow up with her brother John (including the fact that he's still afraid of shop-window dummies), longtime columnist Jackie Jenkins providing a memoir of her work on "Doctor Who Magazine," novelist Lloyd Rose (Camera Obscura) analyzing the changes in Rose between the ninth and tenth Doctors, and much more. Other contributors to this essay collection include Elizabeth Bear (the Jenny Casey trilogy), Lisa Bowerman (star of the Bernice Summerfield audios), Mary Robinette Kowal (Shades of Milk and Honey), Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue), Jody Lynn Nye (the Mythology series), Kate Orman (Seeing I), Catherynne M. Valente (The Orphan's Tales), and more. Also featured: a comic from Tammy Garrison and Katy Shuttleworth (Torchwood Babiez), plus interviews with India Fisher (Charley in the Doctor Who audios) and Sophie Aldred (Ace on Doctor Who, 1987-1989).

  
  

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• TDP 157: Dirk Gently on BBC4

  4 February 2011 (8:35am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 8 minutes and 23 seconds

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  Dirk Gently From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Dirk Gently (real name Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by Douglas Adams and featured in the books Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. He is portrayed as a pudgy man who normally wears a heavy old light brown suit, red checked shirt with a green striped tie, long leather coat, red hat and thick metal-rimmed spectacles. "Dirk Gently" is not the character's real name. It is noted early on in the first book that it is a pseudonym for "Svlad Cjelli". Dirk himself states that the name has a "Scottish dagger feel" to it.   Holistic detective Dirk bills himself as a "holistic detective" who makes use of "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" to solve the whole crime, and find the whole person. This involves running up large expense accounts and then claiming that every item (such as needing to go to a tropical beach in the Bahamas for three weeks) was, due to this "interconnectedness," actually a vital part of the investigation. Challenged on this point in the first novel, he claims that he cannot be considered to have ripped anybody off, because none of his clients have paid him yet. His office is supposed to be located at 33a Peckender St. N1 London, with telephone number 01-354 9112 (407-2882 in the advertising campaign for the book). Gently has an odd facility for accurate assumptions, as every wild guess he makes turns out to be true. As a student at Cambridge University (St. Cedd's College) he attempted to acquire money by selling exam papers for the upcoming tests. His fellow undergraduates were convinced that he had produced the papers under hypnosis, whereas in reality he had simply studied previous papers and determined potential patterns in questions. However, while innocent, he was arrested and sent to prison when his papers turned out to be exactly the same as the real ones, to the very comma. Portrayals Dirk Gently was played by Michael Bywater in a 1992 TV documentary on The South Bank Show. Scot Burklin portrayed Dirk in the 2006 American premiere of the play Dirk at The Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles. Harry Enfield played the character in the 2007 and 2008 BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Stephen Mangan, of Green Wing fame, was cast as Gently in a pilot episode for a proposed TV series broadcast on BBC4 on 16th December 2010. Aborted third book Douglas Adams was working on a third Dirk Gently novel, The Salmon of Doubt, at the time of his death. However Adams said "A lot of the stuff which was originally in The Salmon of Doubt really wasn't working", and that he had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it The Salmon of Doubt."[1][2] The first ten chapters of this novel, assembled from various drafts following Adams' death, together with a memo suggesting further plot points, appear in The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time. References ^ "The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams - Reviews, Books". The Independent. 2002-05-10. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-salmon-of-doubt-by-douglas-adams-650803.html. Retrieved 2009-11-06.  ^ "Cover Stories: Douglas Adams, Narnia Chronicles, Something like a House - Features, Books". The Independent. 2002-01-05. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/cover-stories-douglas-adams-narnia-chronicles-something-like-a-house-672250.html. Retrieved 2009-11-06.  External links BBC Dirk Gently guide BBC4 Dirk Gently Dirk Gently By Douglas Adams Novels Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency · The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul · Unfinished: The Salmon of Doubt Adaptations Radio: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul · Theatrical play: Dirk Characters & Places Professor Chronotis · Samuel Taylor Coleridge · St. Cedd's College Related Shada · City of Death · The Raincloud Man · Douglas Adams at the BBC · The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy · Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams · Holism

  
  

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• TDP 156:The Ark

  25 January 2011 (1:58pm GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 14 minutes and 32 seconds

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  Almost ten million years in the future, the TARDIS materialises on a vast spacecraft including its own miniature zoo and arboretum. The First Doctor and Steven Taylor are still explaining the basics of their time travel ability to new companion Dodo Chaplet when she starts to show signs of a cold. It is only a matter of time before they are found and taken to the control chamber of the vessel. Their captors are the mute Monoids, seemingly identical alien beings with a single eye. The Monoids live in peace alongside the humans who command the spaceship, their own planet having been destroyed, but often do much of the menial work. The humans in charge of the ship explain that the Earth is about to be destroyed because of the expansion of the sun, and that this ship is an Ark sent into space with the last remnants of humanity, civilization and various forms of flora and fauna. The human Guardians in charge of the craft run a tight ship: failure to conform to rules means either death or miniaturisation until they reach their destination, an Earth-like planet called Refusis II, which takes nearly 700 years to get to. As an amusement during the journey a vast statue is being carved by hand, depicting a human being. Dodo's cold has now spread amongst the Monoid and human populations, but regrettably, they have little natural immunity. When the Commander of the Ark collapses with the malady, the whole ship is placed on alert as Zentos, the Deputy Commander is suspicious of the travellers and believes they have deliberately infected the ship. When the first Monoid dies, there is little the Doctor can say to pacify the angry Guardians. Zentos places the Doctor, Steven and Dodo on trial for their crimes, with a young Guardian called Manyak and the Commander's daughter Mellium as defence. Steven acts as the first defence witness, attacking the closed nature of the minds of the Guardians, but exhausts himself in the process and collapses with the fever. His words have no impact on Zentos, who orders their execution, but the ailing Commander intervenes to protect the three travellers and permit them access to medical equipment to devise a cure to the cold. The Doctor is thus able to recreate the cold vaccine from the membranes of animals on the craft, and this is administered throughout the crew. The Commander, Steven and the others infected are soon on the road to recovery. Their work done, the trio have only time to observe the end of Earth on the long-range scanner before the Doctor leads them back to the TARDIS. Curiously, when the TARDIS rematerialises, they are still on the Ark. However, seven hundred years have passed and there has been a major change: the Monoids are in control. They have completed the statue in the image of themselves, having staged a coup during the long journey. This was made possible by a genetic weakness introduced into the humans, but not the Monoids, by a second wave of the cold virus 700 years earlier. The Monoids also now have voice communicators and use numerical emblems to distinguish each other. The humans are now little more than slaves, with the odd exception like the collaborator subject Guardian Maharis, and have little hope of change. The Doctor and his friends encounter the Monoid leadership, installed in a throne room on the Ark, after which they are sent to the security kitchen to help prepare meals for the Monoids. Two humans, Manissa and Dassuk, believe the moment of their liberation is at hand. Steven tries to help them in a revolt which is unsuccessful. The arrival on Refusis is close at hand and a landing pod is prepared. Monoid 1 wants to make sure that the new world is inhabited only by Monoids, despite promises that the human population will be allowed to live there too. A landing party is assembled – the Doctor, Dodo, Monoid 2 and a subject Guardian named Yendom – and they soon reach Refusis II and start to investigate. A stately castle which seems to be unoccupied is in fact the home to the invisible Refusians, giant beings rendered invisible by solar flares. They welcome their guests and have been expecting them but only want to share the planet with other peaceful beings. Monoid 2 and Yendom flee the castle, and en route Yendom realises the humans will not be allowed to reach Refusis with the Monoids. Monoid 2 kills him and is shortly afterward killed himself when the landing pod explodes. The tension of the situation foments dissent in the Monoid ranks, with Monoid 4 openly opposing Monoid 1's plans to abandon the humans and colonise Refusis without more checks on the planet. Three launchers are sent to the planet, Monoids 1 and 4 commanding them, and when the crews emerge Monoid 4 interprets the destroyed landing pod as evidence of the danger that Monoid 1 has led them to. A civil war erupts between the two Monoid factions. The Doctor, Dodo and a Refusian use the confusion to steal one of the launchers and pilot back to the Ark. The Monoids have placed a bomb on board the ship and plan to evacuate soon to the planet surface, leaving the humans to die on the spaceship. Word of this threat spreads and spurs a human rebellion. The arrival of the Doctor and the Refusian spur things along, and they soon realise the bomb has been placed in the head of the statue. Thankfully the Refusian is able to help dispose of the statue into space before the bomb explodes. The humans now begin to land on Refusis themselves, having been offered support on peaceful terms by the Refusians. Many of the Monoids have been killed in their civil war and those that remain are offered peaceful settlement alongside the other two species. Once more the TARDIS departs, and this time the curiosity is that the Doctor simply vanishes from the TARDIS control room… [edit] Continuity In The Ark in Space, the Earth was also evacuated because of solar flare activity that rendered the biosphere uninhabitable for five thousand years. There, however, the survivors of mankind slept in suspended animation and returned to repopulate the planet after that period had passed. The Earth is seen trailing smoke as it heads towards the Sun at the close of episode two. The Doctor estimate the date as 10,000,000, however in the 2005 episode "The End of the World", Earth is finally destroyed by the expanding Sun around AD 5,000,000,000. Series writer Paul Cornell opines that the fictional Time War alluded to in the revived series of Doctor Who rewrote some historical events, among them the destruction of Earth.[1] The Monoids also feature in the Bernice Summerfield audio drama The Kingdom of the Blind by Big Finish Productions. The TARDIS is referenced in the first episode as "that black box" whereas by the time of the third doctor when the series was recorded in color it is obviously a blue police box. [edit] Production Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership (in millions) Archive "The Steel Sky" 5 March 1966 (1966-03-05) 24:00 5.5 16mm t/r "The Plague" 12 March 1966 (1966-03-12) 25:00 6.9 16mm t/r "The Return" 19 March 1966 (1966-03-19) 24:19 6.2 16mm t/r "The Bomb" 26 March 1966 (1966-03-26) 24:37 7.3 16mm t/r [2][3][4] Although Lesley Scott is credited as a co-writer, she does not appear to have done any actual work on the scripts. Her then-husband, Paul Erickson requested that she be given a credit, but her name appears on no other related documents[5]. Despite this, Scott was credited as a contributor to the Dr. Who Annuals published by World Distributors/World International[6]. The Monoids were played by actors, each holding a ping-pong ball in his mouth to represent the alien's single eye. The upper portion of the actor's face was hidden by a Beatle wig. This serial features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard. (See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.) Doctor Who book The Ark Series Target novelisations Release number 114 Writer Paul Erickson Publisher Target Books Cover artist David McAllister ISBN 0-426-20253-8 Release date October 1986 (Hardback) 19 March 1987 (Paperback) Preceded by Black Orchid Followed by The Mind Robber [edit] Commercial releases This story was released on VHS, in 1998. It was later released on CD (The CD version contains a two minute reprise from the end of the previous story The Massacre), with linking narration by Peter Purves. The CD also includes an interview with Peter about this story and his time on Doctor Who. This CD is available as an Audio Book on the iTunes store. It is scheduled to be released on DVD in 2011 and will have an audio commentary with Peter Purves and Michael Imison[7]. [edit] In print A novelisation of this serial, written by Paul Erickson, was published by Target Books in October 1986. [edit] References ^ http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who.html ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Arc". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. http://web.archive.org/web/20080331033427/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=x. Retrieved 2008-08-30.  ^ "The Ark". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.  ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-04-29). "The Ark". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/x.html. Retrieved 2008-08-30.  ^ Pixley, Andrew, "Doctor Who Archive: The Ark," Doctor Who Magazine, #228, 2 August 1995, Marvel Comics UK, Ltd., p. 26. ^ Pixley, Andrew, "The Ark: Archive Extra," Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition, #7, 12 May 2004 (The Complete First Doctor), Panini Comics, p. 73. ^ http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/news/Default.aspx#merchandise-jan-feb-dvd-releases

  
  

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• TDP 155: Gallifrey 2011 Convention Advice and Big Finish

  21 January 2011 (10:54am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 18 minutes and 58 seconds

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  Some cds to consider buying to get the covers signed by guests and some advice on going to a convention

  
  

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• TDP 154: The Four Doctors and The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories

  18 January 2011 (9:59am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 11 minutes and 43 seconds

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  The Four Doctors is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is free to subscribers of The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Continuity 4 Notes 5 External links [edit] Plot The Fifth Doctor investigates the Vault of Stellar Curios, where he has observed evidence of time leakage. But then the Daleks attack, looking for the contents of the mysterious vault. The Eighth Doctor also shows up and he and his former self create a time loop trap, spanning between their lives. This sends the Daleks to the Seventh Doctor's encounter with Michael Faraday in 1854 and the Sixth Doctor's visit to an early Dalek battlefield. [edit] Cast Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann Daleks - Nicholas Briggs Professor Kalinda - Ellie Burrow Colonel Ulrik - David Bamber Michael Faraday - Nigel Lambert Roboman - Alex Mallinson Lady Cowen - Ellie Burrow Whitmore - David Bamber Magran - Nigel Lambert Jariden Device - Alex Mallinson [edit] Continuity This is the first performed multi-Doctor story to feature the Daleks, apart from one scene and one Doctor in The Five Doctors. The Special Weapons Dalek featured in Remembrance of the Daleks. Robomen were used in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Dalek Prime was in the novel War of the Daleks. [edit] Notes This is the first time all four Big Finish Doctors have teamed up in one story, apart from a brief scene in Zagreus set within the Eighth Doctor's mind. The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. As with all Doctor Who spin-off media, its relationship to the televised serials is open to interpretation. It features the winner of Big Finish's Opportunity for New Writers contest in which they accepted unsolicited amateur submissions. Rick Briggs's "The Entropy Composition" was chosen from about 1200 submissions. Contents [hide] 1 The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories 1.1 The Demons of Red Lodge 1.2 The Entropy Composition 1.3 Doing Time 1.4 Special Features 2 External links [edit] The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories The Doctor - Peter Davison Nyssa - Sarah Sutton [edit] The Demons of Red Lodge by Jason Arnopp Nyssa and the Doctor suddenly wake up in Red Lodge, Suffolk in the year 1665. Panicked by recent memory loss, they quickly run into some very familiar faces. Emily Cobham/Ivy Cobham - Susan Kyd Villagers - Duncan Wisbey, John Dorney [edit] The Entropy Composition by Rick Briggs White Waves, Soft Haze, a prog rock symphony by Geoff Cooper, was produced in 1968, but never released. Erisi - Andree Bernard Naloom - Ian Brooker Mrs Moloney - Joanna Munro Geoff Cooper - James Fleet [edit] Doing Time by William Gallagher The Doctor spends over a year locked up in a prison on the planet Folly. Janson Hart - John Dorney Governor Chaplin - Susan Kyd Dask/Judge/Jabreth/Hobbling Pete - Duncan Wibsey [edit] Special Features by John Dorney The Doctor contributes DVD Commentary to a 1970s horror movie, Doctor Demonic's Tales of Terror. Martin Ashcroft - James Fleet Sir Jack Merrivale/Professor Bromley/Narrator - Ian Brooker Johanna Bourke/Carlotta - Joanna Munro Mr Pinfield/Yokel/Running Man/Carriage Driver - John Dorney [edit] External links The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories at the Doctor Who Reference Guide This is also the first Big Finish collaborative multi-Doctor story since their very first Doctor Who release The Sirens of Time.  

  
  

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• TDP 153: The Mutants

  6 January 2011 (11:25am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 27 seconds

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  his article is about the 1972 Doctor Who serial. For other uses, see mutant (disambiguation). 063 – The Mutants Doctor Who serial A mutated Solonian on the planet Solos. Cast Doctor Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) Companion Katy Manning (Jo Grant) Others Paul Whitsun-Jones — The Marshal George Pravda — Jaeger Christopher Coll — Stubbs Rick James — Cotton James Mellor — Varan Jonathan Sherwood — Varan's Son Garrick Hagon — Ky John Hollis — Sondergaard Geoffrey Palmer — Administrator Peter Howell — Investigator David Arlen — Warrior Guard Roy Pearce, Damon Sanders, Martin Taylor — Guards Sidney Johnson — Old Man John Scott Martin — Mutt Production Writer Bob Baker and Dave Martin Director Christopher Barry Script editor Terrance Dicks Producer Barry Letts Executive producer(s) None Production code NNN Series Season 9 Length 6 episodes, 25 minutes each Originally broadcast April 8–May 13, 1972 Chronology ← Preceded by Followed by → The Sea Devils The Time Monster The Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1972. The Mutants is also the title used by the production team for the series' second serial, which introduced the Daleks. To distinguish between the two, the earlier serial is usually referred to as The Daleks. Sometimes both stories are referred to as The Mutants, further distinguished by the production codes — (B) for the former and (NNN) for the latter. Contents [hide] 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Continuity 4 Production 5 Outside references 6 In print 7 Broadcast and commercial releases 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Reviews 9.2 Target novelisation [edit] Synopsis It is the 30th century, near the end of the Earth Empire. On the colony world of Solos, something is transforming the human population, turning them into hideous mutants. But as the Third Doctor and Jo find out, that is only the beginning. [edit] Plot In the 30th century, the Earth Empire is contracting and plans are being made to decolonise the colony world of Solos. The militaristic Marshal and other human soldiers, known as Overlords, rule it from Skybase One. The Marshal opposes the decolonisation plans outlined to him by Administrator sent from Earth, and is also obsessed with eradicating the Mutants or Mutts that have sprung up on the planet below. The Solonians themselves are a tribal people, split between those who actively oppose the occupation, such as Ky, and those like Varan who collaborate with the imperialists. Indeed, the Marshal and Varan ensure the Administrator is murdered before he can confirm to Ky and other tribal chiefs that the Earth Empire is indeed withdrawing from Solos. The Third Doctor and Jo arrive on Skybase One, their TARDIS having been transported there by the Time Lords. They have with them a message box which will only open for an intended recipient – and that is not the Marshal or his entourage – but seems to be for Ky, who has been framed for the murder of the Administrator. Jo and Ky flee to the surface of Solos, which seems to be poisonous to humans during daylight hours, and this affects Jo quite soon. Ky saves her with a stolen oxygen mask. The Doctor learns from the Marshal and his chief scientist Jaeger that they are involved in an experiment using rocket barrages to terraform Solos, making the air breathable to humans, regardless of the cost to indigenous life. They continue to bombard the surface with ever more deadly rockets. Varan by now has discovered the Marshal’s treachery and events make him an outlaw on Skybase. The Doctor makes contact and together they persuade Stubbs and Cotton, the most senior soldiers to the Marshal, that much is wrong on Skybase. He then flees to Solos with Varan, and at the thaesium mine where Ky and Jo are hiding he encounters many Mutts, who are not as hostile as they first appeared. The Doctor passes the message box to Ky, and it opens to reveal ancient tablets and etchings which are written in the language of the Old Ones of the planet. Help in avoiding poisonous gas released by the Marshal is provided by a fugitive human scientist, Sondergaard, who lives in the caves and knows much about Solonian anthropology. Sondergaard explains he tried to inform Earth Control about the Marshal's evil, but he was prevented and forced to flee to the caves, where the radiation seems to have affected him. He interprets the contents of the box as a “lost Solos Book of Genesis”, and the Doctor then calculates a Solonian year to be equivalent to two thousand human years, with natural changes in the population every five hundred years within the cycle. Investigating a more radioactive part of the caves, the Doctor thus deduces the Mutant phase is a natural part of the Solonian racial life-cycle. Varan has by now become a Mutt himself, the transformation beginning with his hand. He hides this and leads a Solonian attack on the Skybase which results in his death and those of many of his warriors. On Skybase Jo, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton are captured by the Marshal, and Stubbs is killed in a failed escape attempt. The Doctor meanwhile has returned to the Skybase – without Sondergaard, who seems too weak following the radiation contamination. He instead returns to the caves to communicate with the Mutants and explain to them the changes in their metabolisms are natural and not to be feared. The Doctor is now back on Skybase and surmises the Marshal to be mad. It becomes clear that the Earth Government has now dispatched an Investigator to look into the strange events on Solos. The Marshal’s rocket attacks have not terraformed the planet, but they have left a hideous environmental impact and he knows he must clean this up or face problems when the Investigator arrives. Under duress the Doctor uses Jaeger’s technology to conduct a rapid decontamination of the planet’s surface. The Investigator arrives and demands answers, but is given more lies by the Marshal, supported by the Doctor, who fears Jo will be killed if he does not co-operate. Luckily Jo, Ky and Cotton have escaped their detention and arrive in time to help the Investigator see the truth of the situation on Solos and the crimes of the Marshal and Jaeger. The Doctor accuses them of "the most brutal and callous series of crimes against a defenseless people it's ever been my misfortunate to encounter." Sondergaard now reaches the Skybase with some Mutants, one of whom scares the Investigator enough that he accepts the Marshal’s analysis that the creatures should be killed. Ky now begins a process of mutation, but it is accelerated beyond the Mutant phase so that he emerges as a radiant angel-like super-being. He communicates with thought transference, can float and can move through whole walls. Dispensing justice, Ky eradicates the Marshal. Jaeger has been killed too and the Investigator now makes sense of the situation. Sondergaard and Cotton elect to stay on Solos to see the other Solonians go through the mutation process, while Jo and the Doctor slip away, their mission from the Time Lords complete. [edit] Continuity A Mutt appears in the beginning of The Brain of Morbius. The Doctor describes it as being one of a mutant insect species that is widely established in the Nebula of Cyclops. Whether this is the location of Solos is not stated. [edit] Production Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership (in millions) Archive "Episode One" 8 April 1972 (1972-04-08) 24:25 9.1 PAL colour conversion "Episode Two" 15 April 1972 (1972-04-15) 24:24 7.8 PAL colour conversion "Episode Three" 22 April 1972 (1972-04-22) 24:32 7.9 PAL 2" colour videotape "Episode Four" 29 April 1972 (1972-04-29) 24:00 7.5 PAL 2" colour videotape "Episode Five" 6 May 1972 (1972-05-06) 24:37 7.9 PAL 2" colour videotape "Episode Six" 13 May 1972 (1972-05-13) 23:43 6.5 PAL 2" colour videotape [1][2][3] Working titles for this story included Independence and The Emergents. The opening shot of the story features a bedraggled, hermit-like bearded figure (Sidney Johnson) shambling out of the mist towards the camera. Both fans and Jon Pertwee alike have compared the scene to the "It's" man at the start of most episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.[4][5] [edit] Outside references This serial is mentioned in Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses, where it is criticised for alleged racist attitudes. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin, as well as producer Barry Letts, actually intended for the story to have an anti-racist message.[6] So powerful was this story's condemnation of the policy of Apartheid in South Africa, many polytechnic student unions renamed buildings "Bob Baker and Dave Martin House", in honour of its writing team.[citation needed] [edit] In print Doctor Who book Doctor Who and the Mutants Series Target novelisations Release number 44 Writer Terrance Dicks Publisher Target Books Cover artist Jeff Cummins ISBN 0-426-11690-9 Release date 29 September 1977 Preceded by Doctor Who and the Planet of Evil Followed by Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in September 1977. This was the only book to feature the abbreviation "Dr Who" on the spine. [edit] Broadcast and commercial releases This story came out on VHS in February 2003. This story is due for DVD release in 2011 and will have an audio commentary by Katy Manning, Garrick Hagon, Bob Baker, Jeremy Bear, Brian Hodgson, Terrance Dicks and Christopher Barry moderated by Nick Pegg.[7] The music from this serial was released as part of Doctor Who: Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram Cary in 2003.

  
  

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• TDP 152: A Christmas Carol

  4 January 2011 (9:28am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 12 minutes and 4 seconds

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  A Christmas Carol" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.[12] It is the sixth Doctor Who Christmas Special since the programme's revival in 2005, and was broadcast on 25 December 2010 on both BBC One and BBC America, making it the first episode to premiere on the same day in both the United Kingdom and United States. It was broadcast on 26 December 2010 on ABC1 in Australia[13] and on Space in Canada.[14] The episode features the acting debut of Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins,[15] She stars alongside Michael Gambon, Micah Balfour and Pooky Quesnel.[6] The episode had an initial rating of 10.3 million viewers on BBC One and BBC One HD according to overnight figures, making it the second most watched programme on Christmas Day, just behind EastEnders. The rating was roughly comparable to the 2009 episode, The End of Time Part 1, which had 10.0 million watching on BBC One and 0.4 million on BBC HD.[16] A preview of the episode was shown during the Children in Need annual telethon on 19 November 2010.[16]   The crew of a space liner carrying more than 4000 passengers struggles to maintain the ship's course while traveling through the strange cloud cover of a human-inhabited planet that interferes with their controls. Amy and Rory, aboard the liner for their honeymoon, send a distress call to the Doctor to help. The Doctor is unable to use the TARDIS directly to save the liner, and lands at a house topped by a giant antenna-like spire that seems to control the clouds. The sole resident of the house is bitter, peevish, old Kazran Sardick. The wealthiest and most powerful man on the planet, his father had built the spire. The Doctor tries to convince Kazran to turn off the cloud controls — isomorphically locked to him — but he mockingly refuses. Kazran, like his late father, considers the rest of the population of the planet little more than cattle, and cares not for the lives aboard the liner either. This becomes apparent to the Doctor when Kazran refuses to release a young woman, Abigail, from cryonic storage to her family for even a Christmas day. Recognizing that Kazran's father has had a significant effect on Kazran's life, the Doctor devises a scheme inspired by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the idea being to influence Kazran in his past and present to become more compassionate to the lives aboard the liner. The Doctor visits a young Kazran shortly after his father had struck him for trying to experiment with a unique phenomenon of the planet: the ability of all manner of fish to "swim" in the foggy air. The Doctor discovers the ice in the clouds contain a weak electrical charge; this is what allows the fish to swim, but is also what is disrupting the space liner. The "boys" experiment with the fish anyway, until a shark attacks them and swallows the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The Doctor recovers half, but inadvertently harms the shark in the process; it cannot return to swim in the clouds. The Doctor concludes that some sort of life support container could transport the shark safely to the clouds. Young Kazran shows the Doctor a system of cryonic chambers beneath the spire, where Kazran's father stores as "security" family members of people to whom he has lent money. Kazran directs the Doctor to Abigail's chamber; Kazran knows she had been fascinated by the fish before she was put into storage. They release her, and she sings to the shark, resonating with the ice crystals, and calming it. The three then successfully return the shark to the clouds. Before putting Abigail back into her chamber, Kazran promises that he and the Doctor will return every Christmas Eve to celebrate it with Abigail. The Doctor keeps this promise, travelling forward every year to reunite Kazran and Abigail, taking them across time and space, and watching them develop a romance as he grows to a young adult and is introduced to her family. However, after several Christmas Eves, Abigail reveals a secret to Kazran, leading him to decide to end the tradition and leave her in cryonic storage indefinitely. The Doctor gives the broken half of the sonic screwdriver to Kazran to use when he needs it. Meanwhile, in the present, older Kazran enjoys his many new memories, but, heartbroken at Abigail's fate, still refuses to disable the spire. From the liner, Amy appears to present-time Kazran as a hologram. She shows Kazran the crew of the doomed liner, singing Christmas carols, using the musical vibrations to partially stabilise the ship within the cloud system, just as Abigail calmed the shark, but still leaving the ship doomed to crash. Kazran waves away the holograms, continuing to refuse to release the controls. When the Doctor appears and tries to show Kazran his future, Kazran reveals Abigail's secret, that she was dying before she was frozen and will live only one more day outside of the chamber. Fully admitting that he will die alone, he values the one day left he has with Abigail over the thousands on the liner or the population of the planet. Unbeknownst to Kazran, the Doctor has brought young Kazran into the present to show the boy his future; he is shocked by his elder self's revelation. This change is reflected in the newly compassionate older Kazran, and he agrees to release the spire controls. They find, however, that the Doctor's interference has changed Kazran's past too much; Kazran's father, seeing his boy too kind to others, never programmed the spire's controls to recognise Kazran. The Doctor concocts a new plan: by unfreezing Abigail and having her sing through the broken half of the sonic screwdriver amplified by the spire, the other half, still inside the shark, would be able to resonate the ice crystals, disrupting the cloud field, and allowing the liner to safely land. Kazran is aware that Abigail will die after one day, but he releases her anyway; she comforts him, reminding him they have had many Christmas Eves together and it is time for Christmas Day to come. The Doctor's plan is successful, and as the ship safely lands on the planet, the breakup of the clouds releases snow across the city. As the Doctor takes young Kazran back to his past and reunites with Amy and Rory, the old Kazran and Abigail celebrate a shark-drawn carriage ride together. [edit] Continuity Several nods to earlier outfits in the series appear in A Christmas Carol. Amy Pond wears her kissogram policewoman's outfit from "The Eleventh Hour", while Rory wears a Roman centurion's outfit as seen in "The Pandorica Opens". In one of the many Christmas Eves the Doctor and Kazran spend with Abigail, they present themselves to her in matching long, stripy scarves. The Fourth Doctor's trademark accessory was long, striped scarves. The two also appear in fezes, an item of clothing the Doctor became fond of in "The Big Bang".[17] The Doctor initially scoffs at the idea of "isomorphic controls" – controls that will operate only for a specific person or limited set of people. In the classic series Pyramids of Mars the Doctor states to Sutekh that the TARDIS controls are isomorphic, although many other characters are seen operating them. In "Last of the Time Lords", the Master had a laser screwdriver with isomorphic controls. During one of his trips with Kazran and Abigail, the Doctor introduces them to Frank Sinatra and inadvertently ends up marrying Marilyn Monroe, though he later attempts to claim that the ceremony did not take place in a legitimate chapel.[18] The Doctor has hinted at marriage before during "The End of Time", suggesting his wife was Queen Elizabeth I, which was also reported upon by Liz 10 in "The Beast Below". [edit] Production [edit] Writing According to Ben Stephenson, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, the episode is a "clever twist on the much loved A Christmas Carol".[19] Matt Smith added "It's as Christmasy as it comes in 'Doctor Who' land. It's loosely based on a 'Christmas Carol' with a time travelling twist. Steven has managed to reinvent it. I think those two things marry quite well together — 'Doctor Who' and Christmas."[20] Steven Moffat, writer for this episode said "It's all your favourite Christmas movies at once, in an hour, with monsters. And the Doctor. And a honeymoon."[12] A read-through took place in Cardiff on Thursday, 8 July and production started on 12 July 2010 and lasted into August 2010.[21][19] [edit] Cast notes Arthur Darvill is included in the opening credits in this episode, for the first time since he joined Doctor Who. [edit] Broadcast and reception A Christmas Carol was tied with Come Fly with Me as the second most-watched program on Christmas Day in the United Kingdom, following EastEnders, and with a average viewership of 10.3 million peaking at 10.7 million.[22] [edit] International broadcast A Christmas Carol is the first episode of Doctor Who that was broadcast the same day in the United Kingdom and in North America through BBC America. Previous episodes from the revitalized series would have from a week to months-delay between the BBC and the BBC America or Sci Fi channel airing. Richard de Croce, Vice-President of Programming at BBC America, stated that they will try to continue the same-day airing on both stations with future episodes of Series 6.[23] In the United States, 727,000 viewers watched A Christmas Carol, an 8% increase on the previous holiday special, The End of Time.[24]

  
  

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• Planet of the Ming Mongs Issue One

  17 December 2010 (8:56am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 34 minutes and 37 seconds

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  Superbly Put together Fanzine.   Thought youd like to see it

  
  

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• TDP 150: Short Story (The Outpost) Messages from other Podcasters and Xmas Update

  15 December 2010 (9:17am GMT)
  Episode Duration: 0 days, 0 hours, 13 minutes and 23 seconds

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  Short Story (The Outpost) One of my Entries into the Big Finish "Short Trips" Comp. Longer story in the Christmas TDP Also Messages from other Podcasters and a Chritmas Doctor Who Update

  
  

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