Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt2

Audio Go have just released a third box set of Lost TV Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Doctor Who where the video has been lost but the audio remains. There are a few stories included in the set, so rather than post one big review, I'll be breaking it down and review each individually.


Next up is The Tenth Planet.

I know I say this about a lot of these AudioGo ‘classic’ Who releases, but this one really is important.

Why, you may ask?

And if you are asking that, then immediately deduct twenty nerd points.

Because The Tenth Planet is notable for two things.

The first is that it introduced the world to what are, for my money, the best Doctor Who villains ever: the Cybermen. The second is, of course, is that this was William Hartnell’s final Who adventure.

I suppose the big question is: is this a suitably notable tale for him to go out on?

For the most part, yes it is.

The setting, an Antarctic base, owes much to Hughes’s The Thing from Another World, but plotwise they could not be more different.

There are many stills of this adventure out there, and as far as I know there is at least one episode still in existence, because I’m pretty sure I have seen it, or at least some of it.

The Cybermen are a brilliant creation, and Kit Peddler does not get enough credit for what he unleashed on the world. Most people have, I am sure, heard of Terry Nation, but what of the writer who created a creature equal to the Daleks? Maybe we should start a campaign…

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. The story is pretty tense, but there are one or two moments in there that have always stuck out like a sore thumb to me. 

Chief among them is the moment when companion Ben attacks one of the Cybermen. 

What the Cybermen should have done then was simply kill him - this would be the most logical course of action, but instead they order one of their number to take him into another room and watch him! Yes, I know this is because he is a cast regular, but it is something that should and could have been addressed in the writing. Still, too late now, eh?

Like Peter Purvis did with great skill in the previous set, Anneke Wills, who played Polly in this story, provides the linking narration.

As for Hartnell, there are mixed feeling listening back to this. He is clearly a man who is tired. This comes across loud and clear in his performance, but whether he is tired with the series or through ill health, I do not know (although I’m sure some of you do).

Either way, it makes his final moments all the more powerful and poignant, and in turn sets us up nicely for the next story in this set…

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 pt1

Audio Go have just released a 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, I’ll be breaking it down and reviewing each story individually.

First up is The Dalek’s Masterplan.
This is a hefty set, comprising of five discs in total. The first disc is an oddity, in that it features Mission into the Unknown- an episode of Doctor Who in which none of the regulars appear. It works well as a prologue and is a nice set up for the story to come. The rest of disc one is an interview with Peter Purvis, who played the Doctor’s companion Steven in the adventures in this set, and who also provides the linking narration between scenes. It’s an interesting interview, and Purvis’s opinions are refreshingly honest. Be warned though- if you haven’t yet heard The Dalek’s Masterplan, don’t listen to this first, as it spoilers the story to quite a degree!

Now, on to the main event. This is a very long tale- weighing in at twelve episodes. At this length it is probably too long, and there are a couple of episodes that are pure padding- however things still seem to go at quite a lick and one of these episodes, The Feast of Steven, provides one of the unexpected highlights. This is a Christmas caper were we see The Doctor and his companions visiting a police station and then a Hollywood film set and become embroiled in some film making shenanigans- including starring in a Keystone Cops film (no, I’m not making that up). However, it is the last line that makes it a classic, when Hartnell goes (I suspect) widely off script and wishes the viewers at home a Happy Christmas!

As for the rest of the tale. It is the standard Terry Nation Dalek plot if we want to be honest about it. The Daleks have the ludicrous and meaningless plan to invade the universe. Actually, the plan starts off as invading the galaxy (starting with Earth in ‘The Solar System’), but after a few episodes this expands to destroying the Galaxy and invading the universe. One cannot fault their ambition.

And when they are well written, Daleks are always worth it. So for every time they inexplicably don’t murder someone we get a scene of them debating whether white mice are a threat or not. For every clunky piece of exposition when they explain their plan to each other we get a wonderful line like “You make your incompetence sound like an achievement.”

Hartnell is great, and somehow his fluffed lines add to the charm and even the believability of his Doctor rather than detract from it.  
Some of the other acting is… variable. Purvis is superb. For those of us who grew up with him as a Blue Peter presenter, it may come as a surprise to discover he is actually a very fine actor. This is balanced out by Kevin Stoney, who plays Mavic Chen. His acting is quite woeful for most of the story. Nobody seems to have let him know that he’s not on stage or performing in a pantomime.

Apart from that though (or even because of it!), this is well worth a few hours of your time.