Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol4 review Pt3

The previous story, The Faceless Ones, ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, and this story, The Evil of the Daleks, picks it up nicely. It is unusal to see a second story revisiting some of the locations of the previous one in this way, and makes for interesting listening.

We have some nice, but basic, detective work from the Doctor as he and Jamie track down their missing TARDIS, and with it uncover a deeper, more sinister, plot. I think you can guess who’s behind it by the title of the story…
While this is a highly entertaining adventure, I am curious (but not curious enough to look at the moment) as to what continuity nerds think of it. There is a lot in this story that flies in the face of the Dalek-lore that has went before in and come after, and I’m sure there are fans out there who don’t like that at all. Me? It doesn’t really bother me! Still, it’s interesting to see some of the ideas put forward here echoed and used to a great deal less effect in modern Who tales like Daleks of Manhattan.

What we get is the Second Doctor at the height of his powers; he is at his sarcastic and manipulative best here and poor Jamie is on the receiving end of a lot of it, but his inherent nobility and honesty are a joy to behold.
I would have dearly loved to see these shows ‘in the flesh’ as it where, because Hines and Troughton are just so good here…
Loved this.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 4 review Pt2

Well, we've been away from the blog for a while as we were coming up to and then recovering from the Hi-Ex! weekend, but it's time to get this show on the road again!

We continue our review of the latest Lost TV Episodes collection from AudioGo.
Next up is The Faceless Ones.

This story is a bit of an odd one, or at least it feels like it. It feels very dated in some ways, being that it is set in Gatwick Airport in 1966, which was of course contemporary with the show bring broadcast.
The story itself is a bit of a mix, it feels in places like something that could almost have been in the Avengers (The Steed and Mrs Peel version that is), but then the sci-fi elements give it a Twilight Zone vibe. Between these two elements there is a nice story with a great sense of dread and paranoia, which I suspect would have been even more so at the time because it was using such a well-known location, and was feeding into the whole political atmosphere of the time in doing so.
The whole thing might be an episode too long, but on the whole it moves along well, helped by the always great Troughton and Hines (Michael Craze and Anneke Wills who play Ben and Polly are strangely absent for most of the story, and I suspect it is not unconnected with them leaving at the end of the adventure), as well as guest star (although she wasn't a 'star' at the time) Pauline Collins. Her character is a lot of fun and makes a wonderful foil for Jamie – it’s a pity she didn’t stay on as a companion.

The best thing about this one for me though, was the difference in attitude to airport security. Back then, before we had been trained to be frightened of everything, there seemed to be a more lax attitude to things. The Doctor’s reporting of a dead body in a hanger was met only with a sarcastic, ‘You better call the police then,’ rather than the immediate arrest and detention at Her Majesties pleasure for a few years he would receive today.
And I loved the moment when one character was enquiring about a missing passenger and they were told, ‘We’re dealing with thousands of passengers every week, we can’t keep track of every one.’
Changed times indeed.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 4 Review pt1

AudioGo have released another collection of ‘lost’ Doctor Who audios, and, as always, we shall review each of the stories separately.
This box set begins with The Macra Terror.

Folks may already be familiar with the Macra from their, if truth be told, largely pointless cameo in the David Tennant story Gridlock.
Here though, the Macra are a much more sinister monster, and I can’t help but think that they benefit from being left to the listeners imagination, rather than be seen in all their televisual SFX glory!
There are some problems with this story, foremost among them being the ill advised and embarrassing holiday camp singing.
But… when it is good this is among the very best Who tales ever. Like all great sci-fi, The Macra Terror is making a point. And I was amazed to read on the liner notes of the story that there is even a debate about what this story is saying about social control and individual freedom.
Surely when the Doctor says, “Don’t just be obedient, always make up your own mind,” the message of the tale should be beyond doubt?
As you can tell, I really loved this one – this story and others like it – is what makes Who the greatest television series ever (although The Wire has blurred that once clear line for me somewhat…)!

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 3 review pt6

In the final part of our review of this rather magnificent box set from AudioGo, we will have a look at The Moonbase.

The box set is rounded off with this story, which sees the return of an old foe…

Well, not really an old foe. As this is only their second outing, the Cybermen are still a novelty act. But such was their popularity in there debut story, The Tenth Planet, another adventure was quickly commissioned.

As entertaining as this is -  Cybermen are my favourite Who villains and I’m always happy to see them back – this is more or less a retread of the same ground covered in the previous tale, with an isolated base on the moon substituting for an isolated base in the Antarctic.

Of course this is not to say that it is not without merit. The story is a good one, and there is a wonderful sense of menace and claustrophobia to he had.

One cannot help but imagine how powerful the scenes of Cybermen sneaking into the sickbay to spirit away bodies would have been when first seen. And this sort of horror does somewhat put paid to the claims that ‘modern’ Who is becoming too scary for children. It has always been too scary for children (at least from an adult point of view, children will tell you different).

As with the previous missing adventures collections, it goes without saying that this one is all but essential for the Who fan as well, and I for one cannot wait until Volume 4!

Doctor Who the Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt5

Part five of our review of this box set from AudioGo features The Underwater Menace.

This one is great.

However, I fear that it is great for all the wrong reasons!

As with The Highlanders, this one sees the main cast all in full flow. They are clearly having a great time and enjoying each others company, which lifts their performances to a wonderful level.

Things are not so strong on the supporting actor’s front though. I don’t want to single anyone in particular, but some folks seem to believe they’re on stage at a Christmas panto!

(By the way, Anneke Wills, in a great interview in on the bonus disc that comes with this box set is not at all coy about naming names!)

As for the plot… well, it is utterly ludicrous! Zaroff is a spectacular villan in the James Bond mould. But the scheme he has embarked upon here is one so fantastic and over the top it makes the machinations of Goldfinger and Hugo Drax seem positively pedestrian!

And of course I know that criticising the more fantastic elements of the plot is easy to do. But these things do not present themselves as a problem if they are sold well by both the writing and the acting, it’s just that this is not quite the case in this instance!

I mentioned the disc of extras earlier. As it is stored in the box with this story, I’ll mention it here.

As well as the long and very entertaining interview with Wills, these is also an equally interesting and informative documentary about incidental music throughout the history of Doctor Who. No! Wait, honestly, it is very interesting! Trust me, it is more than worth a listen.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 3 review pt1

Audio Go have just released a third boxed set of Lost Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Who where the video has been lost, but the audio track still remains. There are a few stories included in it, so rather than post one big review, as with the previous collection, I’ll be breaking it down and reviewing each story individually.

We will begin with The Smugglers.

One of the things I don’t like about modern Who (and in that I include stories from the late ‘70s onwards) is there treatment of the historical stories.

I like the fact that, in these older tales, the Doctor and his companions would turn up in an historical setting and have an adventure there. There would be no crashed spaceships or mysterious alien visitors to deal with, just a contemporary problem to be solved.

And this is one such story. Here the Doctor, along with new companions Ben and Polly, land in Cornwall in the seventeenth century and quickly become involved in an adventure that sees them encountering pirates and buried treasure in creepy old church yards.

Hartnell is brilliant in this one. There are other episodes when you can sense that his heart is not in it, or that he is too ill to muster the energy to make the effort, but he seems to be enjoying himself in this one. Perhaps it was the fact that they got to do some proper location work that lifted him a bit..?

Companions Ben and Polly, played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (who also provides the splendid narration), are a strong addition to the cast, and both are entertaining as they go through the familiar not-quite-believing-they have-travelled-in-time thing at the beginning.

Good as the cast are, and as exciting a premise as this is, the story is not quite up to scratch and does dip in places.

However it ends on a strong note, with the TARDIS heading off on a new adventure, and one that I can only imagine was supremely shocking to the poor unsuspecting public at the time…

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes review pt4

At last we reach the final part of the Audio Go Lost Episodes review!

We finish with The Savages.

And so this lovely collection comes to a close with this tale. We’ve had a monster story with The Dalek’s Masterplan, an historical with The Massacre and something else entirely with The Celestial Toymaker- so it’s nice that this final story is ticking the sci-fi story box.

There is a great sci-fi idea at the heart of this story. And as we have seen with other Who ideas (The Ark in Space/Alien and a computer virtual world called The Matrix, for example), this one has turned up- albeit in a slightly different form- in a blockbuster sci-fi movie many years later, but to tell you either the idea here or even the movie would be too big a spoiler.

As with the rest of this box set, the linking narrations by Peter Purvis are excellent and go a long way towards bringing this to life. However, I think this is the only one from this set where I did find myself hankering for some visuals whiles listening to it, but I think this was because the narration was so vivid, rather than it lacking in any way.

I would like to mention my favourite idea from the story, but again, I feel I’d be spoilering it too much to do so, but I will say that it does produce some excellent performances from Hartnell and Frederick Jaeger, who plays Jano, the human leader.

I do fear that the casual listener will go through this set and assume that all early Who tales were as strong and/or thought provoking as the ones included here- be warned they are not.

So, this is a strong story with some fine performances. In the end though, I’m not sure if I’m disappointed or proud of the programme makers for not hammering home the point behind the title…

And finally- there is an extra disc in the set which has an hour long documentary which was first broadcast in 2009 on Radio 4. It is an illuminating show, explaining how these audios came about and includes interviews with Peter Purvis and some of the team of dedicated fans and professionals around the world who make it their mission to track down the remaining missing Who episodes.