Urban's 'Doctor Who' Thing

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

For some reason that's totally beyond me I've decided that I am going to rate and review (ho ho) every single Doctor Who story from 1963 to the present day. That's a whopping 244 stories (Counting the Christmas special later today).
Thankfully because I've watched the show since I was 4 years old and became a proper fan in 1993 when I began to collect videos & DVDs I can pretty much do most of this from memory.
I won't be doing stories that are completely or mostly missing in the BBC archive (20 in all) but I will be doing ones where most of the story exists.

First Doctor - William Hartnell 1963-66

Series 1
001 An Unearthly Child
002 The Daleks
003 The Edge of Destruction
--- Marco Polo ---
004 The Keys of Marinus
005 The Aztecs
006 The Sensorites
007 The Reign of Terror

Series 2
008 Planet of Giants
009 The Dalek Invasion of Earth
010 The Rescue
011 The Romans
012 The Web Planet
--- The Crusade ---
013 The Space Museum
014 The Chase
015 The Time Meddler

Series 3
--- Galaxy 4 ---
--- Mission to the Unknown ---
--- The Myth Makers ---
--- The Daleks' Master Plan ---
--- The Massacre
016 The Ark
--- The Celestial Toymaker ---
--- 017 The Gunfighters ---
--- The Savages ---
018 The War Machines

Series 4
--- The Smugglers ---
019 The Tenth Planet

Second Doctor - Patrick Troughton 1966-69

--- The Power of the Daleks ---
--- The Highlanders ---
020 The Underwater Menace
021 The Moonbase
--- The Macra Terror ---
--- The Faceless Ones ---
--- The Evil of the Daleks ---

Series 5
022 The Tomb of the Cybermen
--- The Abominable Snowmen ---
023 The Ice Warriors
024 The Enemy of the World
025 The Web of Fear
--- Fury from the Deep ---
--- The Wheel In Space ---

Series 6
026 The Dominators
027 The Mind Robber
028 The Invasion
029 The Krotons
030 The Seeds of Death
--- The Space Pirates ---
032 The War Games

Third Doctor - Jon Pertwee 1970-74

Series 7
033 Spearhead from Space
034 Doctor Who and the Silurians
035 The Ambassadors of Death
036 Inferno

Series 8
037 Terror of the Autons
038 The Mind of Evil
039 The Claws of Axos
040 Colony In Space
041 The Daemons

Series 9
042 Day of the Daleks
043 The Curse of Peladon
044 The Sea Devils
045 The Mutants
046 The Time Monster


Series 10
047 The Three Doctors
048 Carnival of Monsters
049 Frontier In Space
050 Planet of the Daleks
051 The Green Death

Series 11
052 The Time Warrior
053 Invasion of the Dinosaurs
054 Death to the Daleks
055 The Monster of Peladon
056 Planet of the Spiders

Forth Doctor - Tom Baker 1974-81

Series 12
057 Robot
058 The Ark in Space
059 The Sontaran Experiment
060 Genesis of the Daleks
--- 061 Revenge of the Cybermen ---


Series 13
062 Terror of the Zygons
063 Planet of Evil
064 Pyramids of Mars
065 The Android Invasion
066 The Brain of Morbius
067 The Seeds of Doom

Series 14
068 The Masque of Mandragora
069 The Hand of Fear
070 The Deadly Assassin
071 The Face of Evil
072 The Robots of Death
073 The Talons of Weng-Chiang

Series 15
074 Horror of Fang Rock
075 The Invisible Enemy
076 Image of the Fendahl
077 The Sun Makers
--- 078 Underworld ---
079 The Invasion of Time

Series 16
080 The Ribos Operation
081 The Pirate Planet
082 The Stones of Blood
083 The Androids of Tara
084 The Power of Kroll
085 The Armageddon Factor


Series 17
086 Destiny of the Daleks
087 City of Death
088 The Creature from the Pit
089 Nightmare of Eden
*** The Horns of Nimon***
--- Shada (Aborted) ---

Series 18
090 The Leisure Hive
091 Meglos
092 Full Circle
093 State of Decay
094 Warriors' Gate
095 The Keeper of Traken
096 Logopolis

Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison 1981-84

Series 19
097 Castrovalva
098 Four To Doomsday
099 Kinda
100 The Visitation
101 Black Orchid
102 Earthshock
--- 103 Time-Flight ---

Series 20
--- 104 Arc of Infinity ---
105 Snakedance
106 Mawdryn Undead
107 Terminus
108 Enlightenment
109 The King's Demons

20th Anniversary Special
110 The Five Doctors

Series 21
111 Warriors of the Deep
112 The Awakening
113 Frontios
114 Resurrection of the Daleks
115 Planet of Fire
116 The Caves of Androzani

Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker 1984-86

--- 117 The Twin Dilemma ---

Series 22
118 Attack of the Cybermen
119 Vengeance On Varos
120 The Mark of the Rani
121 The Two Doctors
--- 122 Timelash ---
123 Revelation of the Daleks

Series 23
124 The Trial of a Timelord

Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy 1987-89 /1996

Series 24
--- 125 Time And the Rani ---
--- 126 Paradise Towers ---
127 Delta And the Bannermen
128 Dragonfire

Series 25
129 Remembrance of the Daleks
130 The Happiness Patrol
131 Silver Nemesis
132 The Greatest Show In the Galaxy

Series 26
133 Battlefield
134 Ghost Light
135 The Curse of Fenric
136 Survival

Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann 1996

137 The TV Movie (The Enemy Within)

Ninth Doctor - Christopher Eccleston 2005

Season 1
138 Rose
139 The End of the World
140 The Unquiet Dead
141 Aliens of London / World War III
142 Dalek
143 The Long Game
144 Father's Day
145 The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
146 Boom Town
147 Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

Tenth Doctor - David Tennant 2005-10

2005 Christmas Special
148 The Christmas Invasion

Season 2
149 New Earth
150 Tooth and Claw
151 School Reunion
152 The Girl in the Fireplace
153 Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel
154 The Idiot's Lantern
155 The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit
--- 156 Love & Monsters ---
--- 157 Fear Her ---
158 Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

2006 Christmas Special
159 The Runaway Bride

Season 3
160 Smith and Jones
161 The Shakespeare Code
162 Gridlock
163 Daleks in Manhattan / Evolution of the Daleks
164 The Lazarus Experiment
165 42
166 Human Nature / The Family of Blood
167 Blink
168 Utopia / The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords

2007 Christmas Special
169 Voyage of the Damned

Season 4
170 Partners in Crime
171 The Fires of Pompeii
172 Planet of the Ood
173 The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky
174 The Doctor's Daughter
175 The Unicorn and the Wasp
176 Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead
177 Midnight
178 Turn Left
179 The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

2008 / 2009 / 2010 Specials
180 The Next Doctor
181 Planet of the Dead
182 The Waters of Mars
183 The End of Time

Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith 2010-13

Season 5
184 The Eleventh Hour
185 The Beast Below
186 Victory of the Daleks
187 The Time of Angels / Flesh And Stone
188 The Vampires of Venice
189 Amy's Choice
190 The Hungry Earth
191 Cold Blood
192 Vincent And The Doctor
193 The Lodger
194 The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang

2010 Christmas Special
195 A Christmas Carol

Season 6
196 The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon
197 The Curse of the Black Spot
198 The Doctor's Wife
199 The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People
200 A Good Man Goes to War
201 Let's Kill Hitler
202 Night Terrors
203 The Girl Who Waited
204 The God Complex
205 Closing Time
206 The Wedding of River Song

2011 Christmas Special
--- 207 The Doctor, The Widow and The Wardrobe ---

Season 7 (Part 1)
208 Asylum of the Daleks
209 Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
--- 210 A Town Called Mercy ---
211 The Power of Three
212 The Angels Take Manhattan

2012 Christmas Special
213 The Snowmen

Season 7 (Part 2)
214 The Bells Of Saint John
215 The Rings Of Akhaten
216 Cold War
217 Hide
218 Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS
219 The Crimson Horror
220 Nightmare In Silver
221 The Name Of The Doctor

50th Anniversary Special
222 The Day Of The Doctor

2013 Christmas Special
223 The Time of the Doctor

Key
YELLOW - Reviewed
BLACK - To Be Reviewed
RED - Episodes Missing From Archive
BLUE - I'll also not be including the Tom Baker story The Horns Of Nimon, but i'll explain why later.

I'll be dividing the whole thing up into 5 sections, The Really Terrible Stories, The Bad Stories, The Average Stories, The Good Stories & finally The Best Stories.

So I'll begin right at the bottom with The Really Terrible Stories and The Worst Doctor Who Story EVER....

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

210: The Web Planet

Doctor : 1st (William Hartnell)
Companions : Ian Chesterton (William Russell) Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill)
Vicki (Maureen O'Brien)
Series : 2
Originally Transmitted: 13th February - 20th March 1965

Many people have attempted to watch every single episode of Doctor Who since it began in November of 1963. Many of those same people even managed to struggle through all 6 episodes of The Sensorites (Coming soon). But very few people ever manage to make it through all 6 episodes of The Web Planet.

The Web Planet - Ender of Doctor Who marathons ever since someone copied it from someone else and shared it around on a 20th generation videotape some time during the 80s. (I never did this BTW, my fandom started in the early 90s when UK Gold repeated the whole series on TV).

The Web Planet is bad, I mean really really bad. So why didn't I include it sooner?

Well because you just have to admire the balls to try to pull something like this off given the time it was made and the limited resources. The shows budget around this time was approx £2000 per episode which according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator is around £32,800 in todays money.
That would have to pay the cast, crew, build all the sets and film the thing as well. Not only that due to the limited editing facilities you could only have 3 cuts per episode, the whole thing was filmed in one night and any special effects were painted onto the film, no CGI whatsoever.
Compare that the the show now which is rumoured to cost £1 million per episode with 3 weeks to film plus many months in post production and you can see the vast difference.

So what were they trying to pull off?
Well the Tardis lands on the planet Vortis, in the Isop galaxy. Well I say it lands there it's actually dragged down there and all the power in the Tardis is shut off. The Doctor opens the doors by waving his ring in front of a theremin which seems to work.



Once outside he and Ian look at rocks for a while, and then the most dramatic thing in the entire episode happens....

IAN CHESTERTON'S PEN DISAPPEARS

Seriously, it just vanishes into thin air. The Doctor is highly amused by this and for good measure asks Ian for his school tie, and then dips it into a puddle of acid ruining it. Poor old Ian's having a really rough ride in this story.
Vicki & Barbara meanwhile are left locked in the Tardis. Barbara hears a strange sound and follows it out of the Tardis like she's hypnotized. Vicki is left in there are the Tardis is dragged away by a strange force.

All this takes around 25 minutes to happen and they've not even met the natives of the planet yet. To say this story has been padded out is an understatement.

One of the most annoying aspect of this episode is that to make the shots on the planet's surface look more alien they have this really annoying blur effect.



Later on in the episodes, especially when you see the really bad insect costumes battling each other you have this rather strange feeling that you're watching a school nativity play with a really bad hangover. This is made even worse that you can hear the actors thumping around on what is obviously a stage rather than a planets surface & crashing into cameras. It really does look a bit amateur hour.

Finally we start to meet some of the inhabitants of the planet. First we meet the Zarbi.



The Zarbi are obviously giant ants, they were docile until the Animus invaded the planet Vortis and uses them to try and take over the planet. They do this seemingly by bashing things with their head and using Venom Grubs.



The Venom Grubs are lcreatures resembling woodlouse that can spit fire from the end that that big pointy thing at the front known as a larvae gun. I always found the concept of a larvea gun rather odd. Wouldn't the human equivalent be a baby gun? or a toddler gun? The Venom Grubs are actually mentioned in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-reference during the new series in the 9th Doctor story Boom Town where we are told they're used to punish the Slitheen.

There are some good guys in all this meet The Menoptera.



The Menoptera are a moth like creatures who escaped The Animus when it invaded Vortis by flying to one of the planets moons. The Animus however used it's power by increasing the gravitational pull of the planet bringing all of the Menoptera back to Vortis, the same gravitational pull that forced the Tardis to land there. On their return the Menoptera as forces work as slaves in The Crater Of Needles. A giant crater filled with acid that the Menoptera fill with plant vegetation to feed The Animus. The Menoptera leader is played by distinguished actor Martin Jarvis in his first television role. Probably fair to say he's been in better things since.

Also on the side of good are the Optera



The Optera are the descendent of the Menoptera who decided to live underground when the Animus took over Vortis. Due to the evolutionary process they've lost their wings, have much bigger eyes and are more sensitive to light. For some unknown reason the leader of the Optera speaks with a kind of Mexican accent for no apparent reason, which would be far more annoying in any other story but in this one with the silly high pitched Menoptra squeaks and weird speech patterns to make them sound more alien this is almost a blessing. Oh and they also jump around like kangaroos which is so funny you can't take anything they say seriously.

So anyway, the Animus realises something is afoot and begins to communicate to the Doctor via an old school hairdryer.



In fact William Hartnell even calls it that in the story. At first The Animus believes the Doctor is an agent of The Menoptera. When the Animus realises that he isn't a Menoptera agent and knows nothing he instructs the Zarbi to bring The Doctor to him.
Meanwhile the Doctor's companions have spent the past 3 or 4 episodes gathering together a resistance movement and they attack.(That one sentence just saved you around 100 minutes of having to watch this)

The Doctor along with the now freed Vicki finally meets The Animus who turns out to be a giant spider plant.



The Animus tries to absorb The Doctor's and Vicki's minds by having a psychedelic light show a full year before Pink Floyd ever thought of the idea and which would have probably looked a lot better had it been in colour.



Then Barbara arrived with a couple of Menoptera and an isotope which she intends to use to kill the Animus however it treats her to a psychedelic light show before she has the chance. Thankfully Ian and a few friends walk in at that moment distracting The Animus away from Barbara who uses the opportunity to use the isotope and kill it and the story finishes.

Or so you would think, the story then drags on for yet another 10 minutes of insect backslapping & celebrating and Ian complaining about the loss of his beloved tie before thankfully this whole thing ends and we can get on with a decent story about The Crusades with Julian Glover & Jean Marsh.

It's an easy target but The Web Planet is crap. It was meant to be seen once as a piece of entertainment nearly 50 years ago and at the time and once broadcast on TV they probably thought that was the end of it. I doubt anybody could have foretold in 1965 that this would still be being watched & judged by that days standards all these years later. Amazingly the first episode of this story attracted 13.5 million viewers, the highest ever viewed episode for Doctor Who in the 1960s. It also spawned 2 sequels in 'Twilight Of The Gods' a novel featuring Patrick Troughton's Doctor and Return To the Web Planet, an audio story with Peter Davison's Doctor, so clearly somebody liked this story and was inspired by it. Of course that doesn't make me want to watch this the whole way through ever again.

I leave you with the one famous clip of this story that has become famous over the years, a Zarbi running head first into the camera which was amazingly left in the episode.....

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

Many people have attempted to watch every single episode of Doctor Who since it began in November of 1963. Many of those same people even managed to struggle through all 6 episodes of The Sensorites (Coming soon). But very few people ever manage to make it through all 6 episodes of The Web Planet.

I wondered why it took so long for you to get around to reviewing this delight and yes I'm one of the few that has managed to sit through all 6 episodes and I've done it twice as well, even though I may have fallen asleep. The novelisation was slighter better but not by much though.

The Web Planet is bad, I mean really really bad. So why didn't I include it sooner?Well because you just have to admire the balls to try to pull something like this off given the time it was made and the limited resources. The shows budget around this time was approx £2000 per episode which according to the Bank of England's inflation calculator is around £32,800 in todays money.That would have to pay the cast, crew, build all the sets and film the thing as well. Not only that due to the limited editing facilities you could only have 3 cuts per episode, the whole thing was filmed in one night and any special effects were painted onto the film, no CGI whatsoever.Compare that the the show now which is rumoured to cost £1 million per episode with 3 weeks to film plus many months in post production and you can see the vast difference.

This explains a lot because the concept of the story is actually very good, as is the lunar type planet against the lunar sky backdrop. The Zarbi were just plain terrible though, the Menoptera some of the campest creatures ever seen on Doctor Who but the biggest embarrassment had to be the Optera hopping about! The only saving grace of the story was probably the Animus who was done well. Also the story was very much a pioneer effort that fell flat, which was in contrast to the earlier Keys of Marinus an absolute classic.

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

209: Warriors Of The Deep

Doctor : 5th (Peter Davison)
Companions : Tegan (Janet Feilding) Turlough (Mark Strickson)
Series : 21
Originally Transmitted: 5th January - 13th January 1984

When I think of the 80s as a decade, I always think the same thing. Everything to me seemed to be brightly coloured, tacky & plasticky.
And that's exactly what Warriors of the Deep is, brightly coloured, tacky & plasticky.
It's supposed to be set in a sea base with nuclear weapons at the bottom of the ocean that's been there for years. So your first thought is why does it look so bright and new, and why do all the crew have bizarre eye make up?



Granted it's supposed to be set in 2084 and they want things to look a little futuristic. But you would think that in a story that is essentially a base under siege type story you would set an atmosphere by have things creeping around in the shadows with hidden monsters going around killing people, but no. I mean how can things lurk in shadows when your set and your lighting is so bright that there are no shadows. It's supposed to be an old sea base after all. Brightly lit sets and lack of atmosphere would be something that would plague Doctor Who during the 80s.

Warriors of the Deep also see the return of two of the more popular monsters from the Jon Pertwee era who had only featured one story up till now. The Silurians last seen in the 7 part 1970 story Doctor Who and the Silurians



And The Sea Devils last seen in 1972's 6 part story of the same name. This time wearing full battle gear rather than the silly string vests made out of fishing nets they wore in the previous story.



Both creatures were reptiles who existed on Earth before man. They both went into hibernation during a time when lots of solar flares were due to hit the earth. For some reason after the solar flares they never woke up until the present day. During the story 'The Sea Devils' The Doctor mentions that the scientist who discovered the Silurians got his dates mixed up and that they should have been called Eocenes as they are from the Eocene era not the Silurian era, however during this episode they refer to themselves as Silurians. During the new series they would become known as Homo-Reptilia. The Sea Devils strangely call themselves Sea Devils too despite this name only being used to describe them by an Irish sea fort worker who went mad after being attacked by them.

Our story starts in the Tardis where Turlough has decided he wants to stick around with and travel with the Doctor for a while longer and the Doctor wants to show Tegan something of Earth's future. They materialise in space where they are warned to leave and then suddenly attacked by a security satellite.



The Doctor takes evasive action and a split second before the Tardis is hit he makes a quick jump and they land on Sea Base 4.

It's 2084 and the world is divided up into two power blocs with nuclear missiles trained on both sides. Sea Base 4 is one of the bases that holds these missiles with their advanced launching program, which means that the missiles can only be launched by a 'Sync Operator'. The Sync Operator links his own mind to the weapons system for authorisation. Sadly for Sea Base 4 their sync operator has just been murdered and now they have a trainee in charge of the weapons. Let's just take a moment to look at this advanced computer launching program...



Makes you kind of wonder why they didn't just use a shot of someone playing Missile Command. It would have probably looked a lot more realistic.
I was always rubbish at missile command.

Anyway the Doctor and co arrive on the base and because things have been going wrong with the base they're imminently labelled as foreign spies sabotaging the base. The Doctor gets thrown into a big tank of water during a fight but managed to escape. He changes into underwater outfits and we have this running joke where there's an unpleasant smell inside his helmet.

After Tom Baker had left it was thought that there was too much humour in the series so they decided to make Peter Davison's Doctor much more serious. After a couple of years of this they decided that there did need to be some humour in it after all and inserted this one joke about the smelly helmet, and that was it. One joke throughout his entire run as The Doctor.

They soon realise that The Doctor is not their problem when they begin to be invaded by the Silurians & Sea Devils using their secret weapon, The Myrka.



The Myrka has gone into Doctor Who folklore as being possibly the worst made monster ever to make it into the series. In the original script the writer Johnny Byrne had this big sea creature that would enter the base and kill people in the shadows while not really being seen by the viewer, just the occasional glimpse of it. Of course because the thing was so brightly lit this wasn't done and so they just had it in the middle of the studio in all it's crapness being shot at. Also there was a delay in BBC visual effects making this thing so when they did finally get to film with it it left green paint all over the set and the actors. The two actors inside the Myrka operating it were William Perrie & John Asquith who were more well known at the time for playing Dobbin, The Pantomime Horse in the childrens TV show Rentaghost (I loved that show).

Anyway back to the story.
At this point Tegan chooses this moment to become trapped under the world's most unconvincing piece of debris which wobbles around as soon as anyone touches it even though it's supposed to be crushing her leg. The Myrka breaks through the outer doors of the base and is just about to trample on Tegan when she's freed by the Doctor and the Sea Base crew close the inner doors to trap the creature.

While the creature is trapped the Doctor works on a big ray machine to deal with it as the crews weapons have no effect on it. The Myrka breaks through the inner doors but before The Doctor can use his machine we are treated to one of the worst scenes ever in Doctor Who when Dr Solow (played by 70s Hammer Horror star Ingrid Pitt) decides to take on the Myrka by doing a the oddest version of karate you've ever seen, even though she already knows that guns can't harm this thing.



Michael Grade who was head of programming at the BBC at the time has said that seeing that scene made his mind up to cancel the series in 1985. You can't really blame him after that.

The Silurians & the Sea Devils use the Mykra as a diversion tactic to break into the base through another entrance while the crew are busy dealing with the Mykra they kill most of the remaining crew on the way. They plan to launch all the missiles on the base circumnavigating the use of a Sync Operator by using their own technology. The Doctor goes off looking for something to use to fight against the reptiles.
He luckily comes across a chemical store which just happens to be full of hexachromite gas, which also just happens to be lethal to reptiles. He is spotted by a Sea Devil & shot at, but the shot misses and hits a gas cannister which engulfs the Sea Devil making snot come out of it's collapsed face.



The surviving crew want to use the gas to fight the rest of the reptiles but the Doctor doesn't want to end it that way, when he's reminded that they have control of the nuclear missiles he reluctantly agrees and fixes the gas to go through the base's ventilation shafts.

On the control deck all of the reptiles begin to die and in some cases split their trousers.



In a last ditch attempt to end it peacefully the Doctor instructs Tegan & Turlough to give the reptiles oxygen while he plugs himself into the weapons program and stops the missiles aided by Vorshak, one of the base crew.



Vorshak is shot at and killed by the Silurian leader who in turn is killed by Turlough. The Doctor deactivates the missiles. He looks around at the carnage and sees that all of the reptiles are dead and apart from himself, Tegan & Turlough only one member of the base crew named Bulic are still alive. He tells the survivors that there should have been another way.


Warriors Of The Deep never really stood much of a chance of being any good. For a start they lost 2 weeks production on the story because Margaret Thatcher called a General Election, from that point on they were in a race to get this story done. In fact things were so problematic during this story that the director Pennant Roberts was forced to film rehearsals and use those in the final edit when the original shots were dropped because of time constraints.

It was during the filming of this story in the summer of 1983 that the news broke that both Peter Davison & Janet Fielding would both be leaving, coincidence that it was during this story they decided to leave? possibly.
Speaking of Janet Fielding, you may have noticed that Tegan & Turlough are hardly mentioned in the story, that's because they spend most of the story either locked up or hiding in some shaft somewhere. Although Tegan does get let out long enough to get her leg trapped for the cliff hanger to episode 2.

One thing I find interesting about this story is it's setting, and also the comparisons to one of the new series stories 'Cold War'.
In 'Warriors Of The Deep' a returning Doctor Who monster (Silurians & Sea Devils) take over a underwater sea base in 2084 to fire nuclear missiles and destroy the world.
In 'Cold War' a returning Doctor Who monster (An Ice Warrior) takes over a nuclear submarine to fire nuclear missiles to destroy the world. And the year it does this in ... 1983. The year Warriors of the Deep was made.
Which made me think that Warriors of the Deep may have been better had it had a contemporary setting rather than a futuristic one. Instead of giving the sea base crew snazzy outfits and eye shadow just make then look like real soldiers. If you have a small budget then set it on a small dingy submarine rather than a brightly lit sea base. Give it a sense of creepiness & claustrophobia and some atmosphere. 60s Doctor Who used to do this amazingly so it begs the question why couldn't 80s Doctor Who do it.

No atmosphere, no tension, no real interest. In fact the total opposite of what made the Silurians & The Sea Devils so great in their 1970s stories.
I really hate this.

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

Christopher Barry 1925 - 2014



Veteran director Christopher Barry has died at the age of 88.

Christopher Barry was responsible for some of the most admired stories from the classic series of Doctor Who, where he was the longest serving director, responsible for 43 episodes spanning the years 1963-1979. He directed all of the first four Doctors - one of only three directors to do so.

Barry joined the Doctor Who team in the late summer of 1963, when he was assigned to direct the second story, The Daleks, replacing Rex Tucker who had left after artistic differences with producer Verity Lambert. The script he would bring to life would see the introduction of the Daleks and ensure the success of the fledgling series. Barry would end up directing episodes 1,2,4 and 5 of the story, creating the 'sink-plunger' cliff hanger at the end of episode 1 which would see the nation on the edge of their seats until the full revelation of the Dalek machine in episode 2. He was in the studio directing episode 2 when the news of President Kennedy's assassination broke.

Barry returned to the series a year later, directing The Rescue, the story which saw the introduction of the first new companion since the series start, Vicki, played by Maureen O'Brien. He stayed on to direct the next story The Romans, a historical romp which saw much more humour introduced to the series. Having introduced a companion, his next Doctor Who assignment was to see the departure of another, as his final story with William Hartnell, The Savages, was to be the last story to feature Steven Taylor, as played by Peter Purves.

In 1966, Barry masterminded the introduction of a new Doctor, when he directed Patrick Troughton's first story, The Power of the Daleks. The story, long missing from the archives, had the difficult job of introducing a new lead actor to the series and cementing the long term success of the series.

His next outing was with the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, when he directed the 1971 story The Dæmons. Long regarded as a classic, the story is often cited as a favourite by members of the cast and production team. Barry returned the following year to direct the six part story The Mutants.

Having overseen the debut of one Doctor in 1966, Barry was able to do so once again when, at the end of 1974, he directed Robot, introducing the world to the man who would become the longest-serving (continuous) on-screen Doctor - and arguably the most famous in the public eye from the 'classic' era - Tom Baker. The story was one of the first with all location work recorded direct onto video tape using a BBC OB unit. The following year he directed another classic, The Brain of Morbius, which saw the fourth Doctor encounter the eccentric surgeon Solon and his Time Lord secret. It was in this story Barry featured on screen alongside other production team members as one of the faces projected onto the screen during the Doctor's mind battle with Morbius.

Barry's final story for classic Doctor Who came in 1979 when he directed the four part story The Creature from the Pit, with the DVD release of that story containing a retrospective of his work. While the series was off air he also directed the 1995 story Downtime, a direct-to-video story produced by the independent production company Reeltime Pictures.

Christopher Barry began his film and TV career in the movies, working as an assistant director on star vehicles including Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), The Love Lottery (1954) and The Ship That Died of Shame (1955). By 1958 he was directing, working on the BBC’s Starr and Company, the crime drama Private Investigator and the long-running soap opera Compact. He directed episodes of Paul Temple, Moonbase 3, Poldark, Angels, Nicholas Nickleby, The Onedin Line, Z Cars, All Creatures Great and Small, Nanny and Juliet Bravo. He also directed eleven episodes of the TV adaptation of John Christopher's The Tripods.


Christopher Barry died after a fall at his home in Oxfordshire.

Doctor Who News: Christopher Barry 1925 - 2014

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

Doctor Who and the Python

In 1979 while Doctor Who was filming the story City Of Death at BBC Television Centre John Cleese was busy recording the second series of Fawlty Towers in the next studio. Both Baker & Cleese seemed to get on with each other so the Doctor Who script editor at the time Douglas Adams (Yes, THE Douglas Adams) wrote a small cameo appearance for Cleese along with actress Eleanor Bron, a good friend of Cleese playing the part of a pair of art critics in the Louvre Gallery where the Tardis happened to be parked during this story.



As well as this scene Baker & Cleese also recorded a short comedy sketch that would be put on the BBC's Christmas tape, A tape that was traditionally shown during the BBC's annual Christmas party for it's employees which usually featured out-takes & specially recorded sketches.

[Unknown Soldier]

Great write up on Warriors of the Deep, I remember watching that on TV as a kid when it first aired in the 80's. Me and a friend of mine were so excited that the story was going feature favourites such as the Silurians and the Sea Devils. Let's just say we were hugely disappointed and the arrival of the Myrka was the final straw! I remember the infamous karate kick like it was yesterday

The original Silurian adventure was not only a classic story but probably one of the very best of all the novelizations as well as it added extra depth. The Sea Devils was quite simply one of the best adventures ever on Doctor Who, so it was such a shame how both the Silurians and Sea Devils were used on their long-awaited return.

[Urban Hat€monger ?]

I have no idea if I made it to the end or not the first time I watched it.
I know I did the second time but that was because I was watching it with the DVD commentary on, so I don't know if that counts or not.

[Trollheart]

What would you class as the very worst Christmas episode Urban, assuming it's not "The doctor, the widow" etc. ? For me I really think Kylie on the Starship Titanic edges it. I mean, why? And what has it got to do with the festive season (other than that I'd be thrilled to wake up and find her sitting in my Christmas stocking! Or better yet, in hers!)? I feel that every Christmas episode has its own special brand of awfulness (remember the 200-foot tall warrior woman statue or something that terrorised London for no good reason?), and I'd be hard pressed to think of one that was actually good. Do they go out of their way to make them that bad?

[James]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

What would you class as the very worst Christmas episode Urban, assuming it's not "The doctor, the widow" etc. ? For me I really think Kylie on the Starship Titanic edges it. I mean, why? And what has it got to do with the festive season (other than that I'd be thrilled to wake up and find her sitting in my Christmas stocking! Or better yet, in hers!)? I feel that every Christmas episode has its own special brand of awfulness (remember the 200-foot tall warrior woman statue or something that terrorised London for no good reason?), and I'd be hard pressed to think of one that was actually good. Do they go out of their way to make them that bad?

I think The Christmas Invasion is a great episode!