PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 712

Doctor Who 2 Series 2 Episode 2 - 4

 

Tooth And Claw April 26 2006 Written by Russel T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

In 1879 Scotland the Doctor and Rose meet Queen Victoria and visit the Torchwood Estate. The Queen's encounter with a werewolf causes her to start the Torchwood Institute. Nothing blows up but the werewolf comes close when it's destroyed with what everyone thought was a telescope. It's really a werewolf killer that's focus moonlight through the Koh-i-noor diamond. It's a much more massive diamond than the real thing.

 

School Reunion April 29 2005 Written by Toby Whithouse and directed by James Hawes.

 

Anthony Head plays the head of school, something about him and the school has made Mickey suspicious. Mikey calls Rose for some help. The Doctor poses as a teacher and Rose as a dinner lady. Turns out Mickey was right to be suspicious, Anthony and his staff are alien bat creatures. They're turning the children into a super computer using chips. The chips that go with fish not a kind that go in a computer. The school staff has also eaten a lot of the locals.

 

Elizabeth Sladen returns to the series playing Sarah Jane Smith and she brings K-9 with her. Next year she'll have her own series. The Sarah Jane Adventures aired until 2011 when Elizabeth passed away.

 

The Doctor and Sarah Jane reunite and deal with the trouble at the school. There's a bit of a look at the problem with dating an immortal. K-9 sacrifices himself to blow up the alien bat creatures. When Sarah Jane turns down a chance to go along with them on their next adventure Mickey decides he wants to take a ride on the Tardis.

 

The Girl In The Fireplace May 6 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

Mickey's first adventure takes the gang to a spaceship floating in space thousands of years in the future. Some clockwork men have built time windows to 18th century France. The Doctor meets a young girl through a fireplace. He visits her through another window and she's older. Other windows are the same. Eventually it all comes to a head and the clockwork men are defeated. Nothing gets blown up but the Doctor explodes through a mirror into a 18th century ballroom.

Another good batch of episodes. Good commentaries but no other extras. That's OK it takes hours to get through the disc with just that much stuff.

Science Fiction Sunday 711

Doctor Who 2 Series 2 Christmas Special - Episode 1

 

The Christmas Invasion December 25 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Hawes. David Tennant wakes up from his regeneration only to crash the Tardis in London. Rose enlists her mom Jackie and part time boyfriend Mickey to help her with the Doctor.

 

While that's all going on the Earth is once again invaded. This time it's the Sycorax who've got profit from slavery in mind. They'll kill a third of the human population if they don't sell half of humanity into slavery. Prime Minster Harriet Jones pops up, she get transmatted to the alien space ship with some of her people. The aliens detect the Tardis and bring that along too. The Doctor remains asleep until the smell of a cup of tea revives him.

 

When the Doctor wakes up he gets right to work saving the day. He has a sword fight with the alien leader and tosses him off of his space ship. It's a long way down to Buckingham Palace. The Doctor has gotten harder in his new body.

 

The PM blows up the alien ship and the Doctor turns against her, ruining her career with 6 words whispered in the right ear. We hear more about Torchwood.

 

Rose has a nice Christmas dinner with her family before she jumps into the Tardis with the Doctor for a new adventure.

 

New Earth April 15 2006 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Hawes.

 

Human's have moved to New Earth after the sun blows up. The Doctor has gotten a message about some trouble in Ward 26 in the fancy hospital the Tardis lands near. The place is run by the Sisters Of Plenitude, they're an order of humanoid cats.

 

They seem to be doing good work but the Doctor uncovers the nasty truth. They experiment on cloned humans. That pushes him over the edge and it's off to jail for the cat ladies.

 

I enjoyed both of those episodes, they're both on the first disc of the 6 disc set. I thought I'd cut back a few eps each week, 6 or 7 was too many to get though in one day with all the extras too.

I listened to the episode commentaries and thought they were fair. There's a short video diary by Billie Piper, some deleted scenes and outtakes. Nothing too special in any of those bits.

Science Fiction Sunday 710

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episodes 7-13

 

The Long Game Aired May 7 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Brian Grant.

 

The Doctor and Rose wind up on a space station above the Earth in the year 200,000. It's got an alien blob guy who's controlling the humans with 24 hour a day TV. Simon Pegg is the Editor. The Doctor turns off the air conditioning and the over heated blog blows up.

Father's Day Aired May 14 2005 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

Rose saves her father from death and unleashes some monsters from another dimension. The poor guy has to kill himself to set it all right. Some monsters blow up with the rift closes.

 

The Empty Child Aired May 21 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. First of 2 parts.

 

German's are bombing London during the Blitz. Plenty of explosions in London Town. Rose gets rescued by Captain Jack, played by John Borrowman. He's a crook from the future who's scam could turn the human race into zombies. Captain Jack joins the Tardis gang to help set his big mistake to right.

 

The Doctor Dances Aired May 28 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. Second of 2 parts.

 

The German's are still bombing London and Jack's ship get blown up.

 

Boom Town Aired June 4 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis is refueling in Cardiff when the Doctor finds that Margaret Blaine Slitheen survived the explosion at number 10 and is mayor of Cardiff. She's got a great new scheme to create employment and power by building a nuclear power plant in the middle of the city. The Doctor figures out it's all part of an escape plan that will blow up the Earth. Only some bits of Cardiff get blown up.

Bad Wolf Aired June 11 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. First of 2 parts.

The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack are al kidnapped and transmatted into futuristic versions of Big Brother, The Weakest Link and What Not To Wear. Losing gets the player disintegrated. The Doctor breaks out of his show and he's surprised to find he's on the space station from The Long Game. Turns out some aliens had moved in to start controlling the humans. Plenty of small explosions during the episode.

 

The Parting Of The Ways Aired June 18 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. Second of 2 parts.

Turns out the baddies behind the subjugation of the humans are the Daleks. The Doctor will blow up the Emperor Dalek.

All in all a pretty good lot of shows.

Science Fiction Sunday 709

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episode 1-6 Russell T Davis is the show runner and main writer of this series. Christopher Eccleston is the 9th Doctor and Billie Piper is Rose Tyler. This was the only season for the 9th Doctor.

This is the first time I'm seeing the new version of the show. I had started watching the first run of the Doctor's adventures on November 18 2012 and ended on May 3 2015. For some reason I decided to put off watching the new series. I hadn't thought it would take over 7 years to get back to it.

 

Rose Aired March 26 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

The Autons return to London. Rose meets the Doctor at the department store that she works at. The Doctor  blows that up. He figures out that the Autons are controlled by a central hub located in the London Eye. The Doctor blows up the Autons control center. Rose decides to take the Doctor's offer of a ride in the Tardis

 

The End Of The World Aired April 2 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

The Doctor crashes an end of the Earth party on a space platform. It's packed with rich aliens who've come to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth 5.5 billion years in the future. Rose nearly gets burned to a crisp when the baddie starts killing the viewers. The Doctor figures out who that is and lets her blow up. Then the Doctor and Rose watch the Earth blow up.

 

The Unquiet Dead Aired April 9 2005 Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

It's 1969 and the Tardis dumps the Doctor and Rose in Cardiff. They meet Charles Dickens and a lady who has a psychic connection to some aliens. The aliens turn out to be evil and the Doctor blows them all up.

 

Aliens Of London Aired April 16 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

Rose returns home a year after disappearing and her mother is in a right state. Rose's old boyfriend Mickey was suspected of murder, lucky for him the Bill hasn't got any evidence. The police are informed Rose has returned. Things would have settled down but an alien spaceship crashed into the Thames.

 

World War Three Aired April 23 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

This is a continuation of the previous episode. The Aliens are creeps who want to destroy the Earth so they can sell off the remains. The Doctor blows up 10 Downing Street to kill the aliens. Rose leaves with the Doctor for some more adventures.

 

Dalek Aired April 30 2005 Written by Robert Shearman and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis lands in a private museum of alien bits and bobs. The owner is a rich guy who's got the last Dalek chained up in his basement. His megalomania gets his brain wiped and is tossed away. Rose gets the Dalek to blow itself up.

There's a lot of explosions in Doctor Who and a big body count in many episodes. I enjoyed the series more than I expected. It's quickly paced and the stories are interesting. Both the CGI and physical special effects are fairly good. Good locations and good sets too. It's nice to see the show made with a better budget.

I'm kind of sad that Christopher Eccleston is only in the one series. I'm enjoying his doctor. Rose is fun but she brings a lot of personal drama. Her mom was alright but I'm not much of a fan of Mickey. I heard he's in the second series.

Disc one has the first three episodes with a commentary for each and several featurettes. Disc two has episodes 4-6 with commentaries, some trailers and a couple of featurettes. I've looked at all the featurettes so far but I've only listened to the first couple of commentaries. I'll get to the rest before I watch the last half of the series.

Science Fiction Sunday 708

Doctor Who The Movie The 1996 TV movie that brought back the Doctor. Nine years later they started making more episodes of the series. Written by Matthew Jacobs and directed by Geoffrey Sax. 

I found I liked the story less than the last time I watched it in 2015.

Dr Who And The Daleks 1965 Theatrical release with Peter Cushing as Dr Who. The movie is based on the 2nd Doctor Who serial The Daleks by Terry Nation, written by Milton Subotsky and an uncredited David Whitaker, directed by Gordon Flemyng.

I watched the Kino-Lorber Blu-ray this time around. It looks very nice, even on my old TV. Though the movie is based on the TV show serial it's not the same Doctor. Peter Cushing is a human who's invented the TARDIS. He's got a couple of nieces, Susan and Barbara, one of the nieces has a boyfriend called Ian. All of them get accidentally transported a planet with Daleks. Dr Who and the gang help the humanoids that are on the edge of extinction.

I found it mostly entertaining but a bit draggy in the middle. It's nice seeing the results when there's more money than usual.

The K-L Blu-ray has the 1995documentary Dalekmania that appeared on the UK DVD I watched in 2014. There's a new commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss. There's an interview with Gareth Owen, a restoration featurette and a trailer, all were on the old DVD release.

Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150AD 1966 Theatrical release with Peter Cushing as Dr Who. Based on the Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion Of The Earth by Terry Nation, written by Milton Subotsky with additional material by David Whitaker, directed by Gordon Flemyng.

The sequel has Dr Who and his two nieces from the first movie. Bernard Cribbins is a policeman who get attacked during a late night robbery. He stumbles onto the TARDIS, thinking it's a regular old police box he steps into use the phone. He passes out, wakes up in the future, and joins them in the fight with the Daleks.

I enjoyed the sequel more than the first film. It looks good, the story is tighter and there's plenty of action. Still, not the Doctor from the TV.

The Kino-Lorber Blu-ray has a commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss. It's also got the 1995 Dalekmania documentary, an interview with Bernard Cribbins, an interview with Gareth Owen, a restoration featurette and a trailer.

Science Fiction Sunday 707

Doctor Who 0152 Battlefield Four part story that aired September 6 to 27 1989. Written by Ben Aaronovitch and directed by Michael Kerrigan. The first story of the last series.

The Tardis takes the Doctor and Ace to Earth in 1989. The Doctor meets up with  Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart for the last time in the current series. They have to battle Morgaine and her soldiers, Morgaine is played Jean Marsh. There's plenty of battling going on with explosions and a high body count. All in all still amusing.

Doctor Who 0153 Ghost Light Three part story that aired October 4 to 13 1989. Written by Marc Platt and directed by Alan Wareing.

The Doctor and Ace visit the town she came from, only a 100 years in the past. There's a spooky house that Ace has a connection to in her day. Some thing evil lives there and the Doctor needs to sort that out. It's still a rather clumsy story but I got to the end.

Doctor Who 0154 The Curse Of Fenric Four part story that aired October 25 to November 15 1989. Written by Ian Briggs and directed by Nicholas Mallet and an uncredited John Nathan-Turner.

The Doctor and Ace are still on Earth, this time it's World War 2 and they are on the Northumberland coast. A good story with plenty of action.

Doctor Who 0155 Survival Three part story that aired November 22 to December 6 1989. Written by Rona Munroe and directed by Alan Wareing.

Ace makes it home to Perivale and has an adventure with some alien cats. Oh, yeah, the Master shows up for the first time in 3 years. It was a decent story and I'm a bit sad to see the Doctor go.

No worries, there will be more Doctors, next week in fact, I'll watch the 1996 movie and the two 60s films with Peter Cushing as the Doctor. I have Blu-rays of the latter and I've heard they look very nice.

Science Fiction Sunday 706

Doctor Who 0148 Remembrance Of The Daleks Four part story that aired October 5 to 26 1988. Written by Ben Aaronovitch and directed by Andrew Morgan. My old post tells me I watched the 2 disc special. I only have the one disc edition but have rectified that. 

It's 1963 and the Doctor returns to the junk yard in Shoreditch where we first meet him. He's there, with Ace, to defend the Earth from yet another Dalek invasion. This time the Daleks have figured out how to go up stairs. As punishment the Doctor blows up their planet and kills most of the Daleks. Nice. They were creeps of the top order.

Good bit of fun and plenty of action. I enjoyed it as much as I did when I saw it the first time.

Doctor Who 0149 The Happiness Patrol Three part story that aired November 2 to 16 1988. Written by Graeme Curry and directed by Chris Clough.

The Doctor and Ace encounter another wacky society run by a psychopath. It's colorful, noisy and there are plenty of weird characters.

I said in my old post that I was enjoying the season more than the previous one. Still do.

Doctor Who 0150 Silver Nemesis Three part story that aired November 23 to December 7 1988. Written by Kevin Clarke and directed by Chris Clough.

The Cybermen are back. They are looking for the Rassilon's Nemesis statue. The Doctor and Ace beat the heck out of them. There's a crazy lady from the 17th century looking for the statue. It doesn't go well for her.

Not quite as good as the previous couple of stories but I got to the end anyway.

Doctor Who 0151 The Greatest Show In The Galaxy Four part story that aired December 14 1988 to January 4 1989. Written by Stephen Wyatt and directed by Alan Wareing.

Some awful aliens put people to death in their circus. The Doctor and Ace put an end to that business.

A bit of a step up in the fun over the last episode. Better series than the last. One more series to go.

Science Fiction Sunday 705

Doctor Who 0144 Time And The Rani Four part story that aired September 7 to 28 1987. Written by Pip and Jane Baker and directed by Andrew Morgan.

Sylvester McCoy steps in to play the Doctor after the BBC fired the last guy. Mel is still there but she leaves by the end of the 24th series. That's this one.

The Doctor and Mel have to deal with the Rani, she's not much fun and she's not that interesting. She wants the Doctor's knowledge for some stupid plot. He puts an end to her plan but fails to put the Rani down and she runs away.

Sadly it was poorly written and more cartoonish than it used to be.

Doctor Who 0145 Paradise Towers Four part story that aired October 5 to 26 1987. Written by Stephen Wyatt and directed by Nicholas Mallett.

The Tardis dumps the Doctor and Mel at Paradise Towers and finds another of those screwed up societies that the Doctor runs into so often. There's a monster in the basement and some goofy characters bound to their mythology.

I didn't care that much for this story either.

Doctor Who 0146 Delta And The Bannermen Three parts story that aired November 2 to 16 1987. Written by Malcolm Kohll and directed by Chris Clough.

The Doctor and Mel get involved with a tour bus that's taking a trip to Earth. The tour bus is a spaceship that's shaped like an English tour bus from the 50s. On the bus is Delta, she's escaping a creep who's killed off her race. The bus has an accident and winds up at a holiday camp in Wales.

Delta's got the last of her race in egg form. The child is born and grows up quickly. The baddies showed up and the Doctor helps keep the child safe.

I liked this one a bit better than the last two.

Doctor Who 0147 Dragonfire Three part story that aired November 23 to December 7 1987. Written by Ian Briggs and directed by Chris Clough.

Mel and the Doctor run into another ruthless dictator on the planet Svartos. He'll need putting down and the Doctor provides. Sabalom Glitz makes an appearance, Mel makes her exit and Ace takes her place. 

I still liked the story as much as I did the first time and I'm still not caring much for these companions. Only two more series to go, then the movie and the newer series. I've only seen a few random episodes of the new series so it's mostly new to me.

Science Fiction Sunday 704

Doctor Who 0143 The Trial Of a Time Lord

The entire 23rd series was taken up by a 14 part story that aired September 6 1986. The series changed back to the 23 min episodes this season. The number of episodes changed, Series 21 had 24, Series 22 had 13. I watched this over 3 Sundays back in 2015, I watched the whole lot today. The episodes come in their own box set in the UK. Each story has it's own case and cover but they don't have the episode titles on the cover. My set has a title stick on the front of each DVD. I don't care for stickers on my DVDs, I usually remove them, these I kept.

Doctor Who 0143a The Mysterious Planet Four part story that aired September 6 to 27 1986. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Nicolas Mallett.

All the stories of this series are book ended by the trail of the Doctor on Gallifrey, all the adventures are seen as flashbacks. In this one the Tardis lands on a planet called Ravalox. It's a feudal society with an evil robot in charge. The mystery is it's Earth 2,000,000 years in the future and a long way from Sol.

Still thinkin' it's still about average for a story from that era, the Doctor was less annoying this story.

Doctor Who 0143b Mindwarp Four part story that aired October 4 to 25 1986. Written by Philip Martin and directed by Ron Jones.

Nice to seen Brian Blessed again. He's a warrior King who likes a good fight. There's more trail going on. This time the Doctor is on Thoros Beta where he and Peri get involved with the odd stuff going on there. Peri nearly has her brain removed by a crazy doctor. It's always something when your with the Doctor. It's Peri's last story, she winds up as Brian's bride.

I thought it was a bit better than I did 7 years ago but that might be the afterglow from seeing Brian shout at everyone. It's still a weak story and a good reminder that I'm not much liking script editor Eric Seward or producer John Nathan-Turner and the way they run the show.

Doctor Who 0143c Terror Of The Vervoids Four part story that aired November 1 to 22 1986. Written by Pip and Jane Baker, directed by Chris Clough.

This time the Tardis settles on a spaceship where there's a dual threat going on. The trail adds a 3rd threat for the Doctor. There's a new companion, noisy Mel with massive red hair. Honor Blackman plays a scientist. The killer plants were fairly interesting but it was a good idea to get rid of them.

About average.

Doctor Who 0143d The Ultimate Foe Two part story that aired November 29 to December 6 1986. Written by Robert Homes, Pip and Jane Baker, Eric Seward and John Nathan-Turner, directed by Chris Clough.

The trail continues and the Master shows up to screw around with everyone. The Doctor wins through in the end. It's the last episode with Colin Baker, the BBC fired him and he wouldn't do a regeneration when Sylvester McCoy. I still think he would have been a better Doctor if he'd worked for some of the previous producers and writers.

Over all it was a bit anti climactic for a long story.

Science Fiction Sunday 703

Doctor Who 141 Timelash Written by Glen McCoy and directed by Pennant Roberts. Two episode story that aired March 9 to 16 1985.

Fairly typical story with the Doctor rescuing some oppressed people. I'm finding the Doctor more and more annoying, same with Peri. HG Wells shows up in the story and he was annoying as all get out. The story is thought to be one of the worst of the series. I'm not thinking their wrong.

Doctor Who 142 Revelation Of The Daleks Two episode story that aired March 23 to 30 1985. Written by Eric Saward and directed by Graeme Harper.

Davros makes another appearance, he;s lured the Doctor to Necros, a burial planet, where Davros is using the dead to make his version of soylent green. Alexi Sayle is one of the guest stars, he plays a really annoying DJ. He was so awful sounding I speed through his scenes. The Doctor and Peri are at their most annoying in this episode. Sward is both writer and script editor, he seems to be working to take the fun out of the series. I found it one of the worst of the series.

Poor scripts and plenty of violence put the show on hiatus until September 1986 when it returned with a 14 episode story called The Trial Of A Time Lord. I plan to watch the whole thing next week. Lucky for me there's only 4 series left and the number of episodes that air each series will drop.