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The BBC has released four new images from the forthcoming 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, together with interviews with Steven Moffat (Executive Producer) , Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor), David Tennant (Tenth Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) and Joanna Page (Queen Elizabeth I). The photos and interviews can be accessed here. Vivien Fleming
It’s time to admit defeat and acknowledge that the Doctor Who Mind Robber’s 50 Day Countdown to Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary needs to cheat. That’s right, we’re ten days behind in our countdown and the author is now faced with the pressing need to construct not one but two cosplay outfits for the The Day of the Doctor 3D Cinema screening. Our first act is to magically loose days 18 through to 27 of our countdown. The second is to change kilter and prioritise the sewing machine and overlocker over the keyboard. Stay tuned as both a Second Doctor and a Fourth Doctor cosplay outfits emerge before your eyes. Enjoy!
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
BBC One has just announced on Twitter that the official trailer for the 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, will be broadcast on Saturday evening just prior to Atlantis at 8.00 p.m. Details have yet to appear on the BBC’s Doctor Who website.
Vivien Fleming
Ian Chesterton was the Doctor’s first male companion and a science teacher at Coal Hill School. The training of his discipline made him particularly sceptical of the Doctor’s claims when first they met. Some of Ian’s best dialogue was in the early days of Doctor Who when he found the belligerence of the old git almost unbearable. Join the Doctor Who Mind Robber as we explore 10 of Ian’s best moments.
An Unearthly Child (Episode 1)
(Ian and Barbara enter the TARDIS for the first time)
Ian Chesterton: But it was a Police Telephone Box. I walked right round it. Barbara, you saw me.
The Doctor: [to Ian] You still think it’s all an illusion?
Ian Chesterton: I know that free movement in time and space is a scientific dream I don’t expect to find solved in a junkyard.
The Doctor: Your arrogance is nearly as great as your ignorance.
The Doctor: You don’t understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can’t fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms?
Ian Chesterton: No.
The Doctor: But you’ve discovered television, haven’t you?
Ian Chesterton: Yes.
The Doctor: Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn’t you?
Ian Chesterton: Well, yes, but I still don’t know…
The Doctor: Not quite clear, is it? I can see by your face that you’re not certain. You don’t understand. And I knew you wouldn’t! Never mind.
Ian Chesterton: Let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard, it can move anywhere in time and space?
Susan Foreman: Yes.
The Doctor: Quite so.
Ian Chesterton: But that’s ridiculous!
Ian and Barbara with the Doctor in An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child (Episode 2) – The Cave of Skulls
(The TARDIS Crew arrive in pre-historic times and soon realize that they don’t even know the Doctor’s name)
Susan Foreman: We’ve left 1963.
The Doctor: Oh, yes, undoubtedly. I’ll be able to tell you where presently. Zero? That’s not right. I’m afraid this yearometer is not calculating properly. Hm! Well, anyway, the journey’s finished.
[looking at Ian on the ground]
The Doctor: What are you doing down there?
Barbara Wright: What have you done?
Ian Chesterton: Barbara, you don’t believe all this nonsense.
Susan Foreman: Well, look at the scanner screen.
The Doctor: Yes, look up there. They don’t understand and I suspect they don’t want to. Well, there you are. A new world for you.
Ian Chesterton: Sand and rock?
The Doctor: Yes. That’s the immediate view outside the ship.
Barbara Wright: But where are we?
Ian Chesterton: You mean that’s what we’ll see when we go outside?
Susan Foreman: Yes, you’ll see it for yourself.
Ian Chesterton: I don’t believe it.
The Doctor: You really are a stubborn young man, aren’t you?
Ian Chesterton: All right, show me some proof. Give me some concrete evidence. I’m sorry, Susan. I don’t want to hurt you, but it’s time you were brought back to reality.
Susan Foreman: But you’re wrong, Mr. Chesterton.
The Doctor: They are saying I’m a charlatan. What concrete evidence would satisfy you? Hmm?
Ian Chesterton: Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman.
The Doctor: Eh? Doctor who? What are you talking about?
Ian Chesterton: Just a minute. You say we’ve gone back in time?
The Doctor: Yes, quite so.
Ian Chesterton: So that when we go out of that door, we won’t be in a junkyard in London in England in the year 1963?
The Doctor: That is quite correct. But your tone suggests ridicule.
Ian Chesterton: But it is ridiculous. Time doesn’t go round and round in circles. You can’t get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future.
The Doctor: Really? Where does time go, then?
Ian Chesterton: It doesn’t go anywhere. It just happens and then it’s finished.
Barbara Wright: You’re very quiet.
Ian Chesterton: I was wrong, wasn’t I?
Barbara Wright: Oh, look, I don’t understand it anymore than you do. The inside of the ship, suddenly finding ourselves here. Even some of the things Doctor Foreman says…
Ian Chesterton: That’s not his name. Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we knew his name, we might have a clue to all this.
Susan, Barbara, the Doctor and Ian in An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child (Episode 3) – The Forest of Fear
The Doctor:: You seem to have elected yourself leader of this little party.
Ian Chesterton: There isn’t time to vote on it.
The Doctor:: Just as long as you understand that I won’t follow your orders blindly.
Ian Chesterton: If there were only two of us, you could find your own way back to the ship.
The Doctor:: Aren’t you a tiresome young man?
Ian Chesterton: And you’re a stubborn old man. But you will lead. The girls in between and I’ll bring up the rear. Because that’s the safest way.
The Doctor and his companions in The Forest of Fear
The Daleks (Episode 2) – The Survivors
(Ian and Susan are confronted by the Daleks for the first time)
Dalek: You will move ahead of us, and follow my directions. This way. Immediately! I said immediately!
[Ian begins to run away]
Dalek: Fire!
[they fire at him]
Ian Chesterton: My legs! My legs!
[Susan runs towards Ian]
Dalek: Stop!
[to Ian]
Dalek: Your legs are paralyzed. You will recover shortly, unless you force us to use our weapons again. In that case, the condition will be permanent.
[to the Doctor and Susan]
Dalek: You too, help him.
Ian Chesterton: My legs, my legs. I can’t use my legs!
Ian’s legs are paralysed in The Daleks
The Daleks (Episode 2) – The Survivors
(Ian and realizes that the Doctor has foolishly put all of the crew in danger by lying about the TARDIS’s fluid link)
The Doctor: We need… We need drugs to be treated.
Ian Chesterton: But where are we going to find them?
Susan Foreman: The TARDIS will have to take us to another time and place, where we can be cured.
Ian Chesterton: But don’t you remember? We can’t move the ship until we find the mercury for the fluid link!
The Doctor: For the fluid link, yes. Yes, I’m afraid I cheated a little on that. I was determined to see the city, but everybody wanted to go on, and well, to avoid arguments, in short, there’s nothing wrong with the fluid link.
Susan Foreman: What? Grandfather, do you mean to say that you risked leaving the ship just to see this place?
Ian Chesterton: You fool! You old fool!
The Doctor: Abuse me as much as you like, Chesterton. The point is… we need an immediate return to the ship, and I suggest we leave at once.
Ian Chesterton: We’re not leaving until we’ve found Barbara.
The Doctor: Very well. You may stay and search for her if you wish, but Susan and I are going back to the ship. Now, come along, child.
The Doctor: All right, carry on, fine. How far do you think you’ll get without this.
[holds up the fluid link]
The Doctor: Give that to me!
Ian Chesterton: Not until we’ve found Barbara.
The Doctor: Give it to me I say!
Ian Chesterton: No. It’s time you faced up to your responsibilities. You got us here. Now I’m going to make sure you get us back.
The Doctor: Chesterton, this is…
Ian Chesterton: We’re wasting time. We should be looking for Barbara.
Susan Foreman: He’s right, Grandfather. We are wasting time.
The Doctor: Child, if only you’d think as an adult sometimes… Oh, very well, very well. Let’s go, then. Let’s go.
Barbara, Susan and the Doctor in episode 2 of the Daleks, The Survivors
The Daleks (Episode 5) – The Expedition
(Ian is frustrated that the Doctor always gets his name wrong)
The Doctor: I’m afraid my little trick has rather rebounded on me. What you might call tempting providence, Chesserman.
Ian Chesterton: Well, don’t worry about it now, Doctor. It’s happened.
The Doctor: Yes. Well, at least you’re not vindictive.
Ian Chesterton: Well I will be if you don’t get my name right.
The Doctor: Hmm?
Ian Chesterton: It’s “Chesterton”.
The Doctor: Yes. Hey?
[irritated]
The Doctor: Yes, I know that.
The TARDIS Crew in The Expedition – Episode 5 of The Daleks
The Reign of Terror (Episode 5) – A Bargain of Necessity
(Ian has difficulty believing that his word will be accepted)
Léon Colbert: Now be sensible. Save yourself from the guillotine.
Ian Chesterton: You wouldn’t believe my story anyway.
Léon Colbert: Suppose you let me be the judge of that. How did you get to France?
Ian Chesterton: You really want to know, eh?
Léon Colbert: The truth?
Ian Chesterton: Oh yes, it’s the truth all right.
Léon Colbert: You swear it?
Ian Chesterton: Yes, I swear it! I flew here with three friends in a small box. When I left England it was 1963.
The title card for the animated episode 5 of The Reign of Terror – A Bargain of Necessity
The Reign of Terror (Episode 6) – Prisoners of Conciergerie
The Doctor: Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn.
Ian Chesterton: And what are we going to see and learn next, Doctor?
The Doctor: Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let’s go and search for it.
Ian found himself imprisoned in The Reign of Terror
The Romans (Episode 4) – The Inferno
Ian: I’ve got a friend who specialises in trouble. He dives in and usually finds a way.
The TARDIS Crew in The Romans
The Web Planet
I’ve seen a colony of ants eat their way right through a house. That size, they could eat their way through a mountain. Why are they that big?
The Doctor and Ian in The Web Planet
The Crusade (Episode 2) – The King of Jaffa
(Ian is knighted by King Richard of England).
Richard the Lionheart: [tapping his sword on each of Ian’s shoulders] In the name of God, St. Michael, and St. George, we dub you Sir Ian, Knight of Jaffa. Arise Sir Ian and be valiant.
[holds out his hand and Ian kisses it]
Ian Chesterton: Your majesty.
Sir Ian of Jaffa is knighted by Richard the Lionheart in The Crusade
The Crusade (Episode 4) – The Warlords
(Ian saves the Doctor’s life by pretending to betray him)
Ian Chesterton: I am Sir Ian, my lord, Knight of Jaffa. I know this villain’s treachery… and hearing that you were looking for him, I followed you.
(Later, as the party return to the TARDIS)
Ian Chesterton: …Any more cracks about knighthood, and I’ll carry out that execution!
The Doctor: Well, my dear boy, I must say I think you’ve earned a good knight’s sleep!
The Doctor and King Richard in The Crusade
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
BBC Two has announced on Twitter that it will be airing the Mark Gatiss penned docudrama on the genesis of Doctor Who at 9.00 p.m. on Thursday 21 November. Fans in Australia must wait until 8.45 p.m. on Sunday 24 November when An Adventure in Space and Time will be shown immediately after the encore screening of the 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor, on ABC1.
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
In the lead-up to Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, Tom Baker has spoken to members of the British press about his role as the Fourth Doctor. Several excellent articles have been published on Baker’s interview including one on Digital Spy, which includes discussion on the longevity of Doctor Who; why he turned down participating in the 20th Anniversary Special; why he’s never watched Doctor Who; and why, for once, he’ll be watching The Day of the Doctor.
You can read Digital Spy’s article here, and also access a Radio Times article here and a BBC News, Entertainment & Arts article here.
Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
The BBC Media Centre has published a synopsis of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary Special, The Day of the Doctor. In Australia the episode will air early on the morning of Sunday 24 November on ABC1 and will be repeated at 7.30 p.m. that evening. The BBC’s synopsis states as follows:
The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special.
In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London’s National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor’s own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Nick Hurran
Executive produced by Steven Moffat and Faith Penhale
Produced by Marcus Wilson
Stars: Matt Smith, David Tennant and Jenna Coleman with Billie Piper and John Hurt
Three Doctors – Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt in The Day of the Doctor
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
Following the success of Doctor Who Pop Up Shops in Sydney and Brisbane, Melbourne fans will get their own short-term shop this Saturday. Operating from Shop 2, 177 Bridge Road, Richmond, the store will open this Saturday, 9 November 2013 at 9.00 a.m. To celebrate its opening fans are encouraged to attend in costume, with a small prize to be awarded for the first 20 fans arriving in cosplay.
A Cyberman outside of the Brisbane Pop Up Shop on 8 October 2013
The Australian and New Zealand Retail Manager of BBC Worldwide, Rachael Hammond said:
The popularity of the Sydney and Brisbane stores have reinforced just how passionate Doctor Who fans are about the brand, and with the 50th anniversary fast approaching, we are delighted to offer Melbourne fans the opportunity to interact and take home their very own piece of Doctor Who, especially in the anniversary month.
Fans wait outside of the Brisbane Pop Up Shop on 8 October. Hundreds of fans waited up to two hours to gain entry to the shop
BBC Worldwide is promising that the shop will stock a large array of Doctor Who merchandise not currently available in Australian stores including the Who Home Range and women’s apparel from the American designers Her Universe. A limited number of the Silver Collectable Coins, pressed by the Perth Mint, will also be available for sale. These 1oz silver proof coins are currently listed as unavailable on the Perth Mint website, where their retail price is listed as $115.00.
Together with the usual range of BBC Doctor Who merchandise, the shop will also have a TARDIS and a K-9.
You can check out the Doctor Who Mind Robber’s photographic gallery from the Brisbane Pop Up Shop opening here.
One of the fabulous cosplayers waiting in line at the Brisbane Pop Up Shop
A pictorial history of Doctor Who adorned a whole wall of the Brisbane Pop Up Shop in October
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
UKTV (Australia and New Zealand) has announced a bumper schedule of Classic Series Doctor Who to celebrate the show’s 50th Anniversary this month. Doctor Who News has listed the entire month’s programmes which includes a 36 hour marathon on the weekend of the 23rd and 24th November. Starting on Saturday morning at 5.30 a.m. in Australia, UKTV will broadcast the BBC America produced Doctor Who Revisited: The First Doctor followed by the first Doctor Who serial, An Unearthly Child. For the next day and a half every Doctor Who Revisited special for each of the 11 Doctors will be shown, followed by one complete serial from each Doctor’s era.
Full details are available from Doctor Who News here.
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
Even with the recent recovery of nine missing episodes from The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear, Patrick Troughton’s tenure as the Doctor still has 54 missing episodes, including four serials in which not a single episode is held – The Power of the Daleks, The Highlanders, The Macra Terror and Fury From the Deep. William Hartnell’s Doctor has 44 of his episodes missing, including six serials without a single episode – Marco Polo, Mission to the Unknown, The Myth Makers, The Massacre, The Savages and The Smugglers.
In the absence of so many stories, making an informed choice on the Top 5 serials for the First and the Second Doctors is both difficult and hypothetical. A brilliant soundtrack could mask poor visual representations, whilst a boring audio may hide a visually stunning masterpiece. Without seeing the moving pictures one can never be 100% certain that a story is as good as its reputation. All that being said, here’s the Doctor Who Mind Robber’s humble opinion of the Second Doctor’s Top 5 stories.
Is The Space Pirates really as bad as its reputation? Only the moving pictures can show for sure
The recovery of five episodes and release of all six parts of The Enemy of the World on iTunes recently quickly lead to a reappraisal of this story’s worth. Previously only episode three had been held in the BBC Archives and released on the triple DVD set, Lost in Time. That episode was somewhat unrepresentative of the other five and caused many to underestimate the serial’s true worth.
The Enemy of the World was the only Season 5 story without monsters and not of the “base under siege” genre. Patrick Troughton’s dual role as the Doctor and the evil would-be world dictator, Salamander, allowed him to show another side of his acting skills, notwithstanding the rather dubious Mexican accent. Enemy was also Barry Letts’ Doctor Who debut and heralded the show’s first action scenes involving helicopters and hovercraft. Such adventures would become second nature during the tenure of the Third Doctor.
Patrick Troughton plays the evil would-be world dictator, Salamader, in The Enemy of the World
This will undoubtedly be a controversial choice however it’s one of my personal favourites. Only episodes one and three are held in the BBC Archives. The last story of Ben and Polly’s tenure as companions, The Faceless Ones is set in the ‘present day’ and features excellent location filming at Gatwick Airport in London. Pauline Collins appears as Samantha Briggs, a young woman from Liverpool who is searching for her brother who did not return from a package holiday to Rome. A psychological thriller about identity loss, it was sure to have heavily influenced Mark Gatiss’ 2006 episode, The Idiot’s Lantern.
The Faceless Ones influenced the 2006 story The Idiot’s Lantern
One of the most highly regarded Sixties Dalek stories, The Evil of the Daleks was the first and only serial to be repeated in the UK during that decade. The repeat was written into the script of the Season 5 finale, The Wheel in Space, and the Season 6 premiere, The Dominators. The new companion Zoe was to view the Doctor’s thought patterns, presumably during the season break, and decide whether she wished to join the TARDIS Crew.
Yet another missing story, only episode two of The Evil of the Daleks is currently held in the BBC Archives. The story introduced the Dalek Emperor which was a direct spin off from the Whitaker penned Daleks cartoons in TV Century 21 magazine. The Dalek “human factor” is intriguing and like The Faceless Ones, undoubtedly influenced New Series Doctor Who. Robert Shearman’s Series 1 story, Dalek, has several nods to The Evil of the Daleks, whilst Gareth Roberts’ short novel, I Am a Dalek, revives the “human factor” in more than mere words.
The Evil of the Daleks was the first Doctor Who serial ever repeated and the first and only repeat to be scripted into serials
2. The War Games
Patrick Troughton’s last serial as the Second Doctor, The War Games is a 10 part epic which forever changed the history of Doctor Who. Although the name of his home planet is not yet disclosed, the Doctor is revealed to be a Time Lord. A renegade Time Lord, the War Chief, has given the secrets of time travel to an alien race which seeks to conquer the galaxy. In their quest to build the best fighting force, human soldiers have been transported from Earth to fight a number of simultaneous wars. These discrete battle zones see engagements from the First World War, the American Civil War, Russo-Japanese War, English Civil War, Boar War, Mexican Civil War, Crimean War, Thirty Year War, Peninsula War, and Roman and Greek war zones.
Being unable to return all the War Games participants to their own time and space, the Doctor reluctantly calls in the Time Lords. Having himself been a renegade since stealing a TARDIS and taking to the universe, the Doctor is at last compelled to face justice for breaching the Time Lords’ Non Interference Policy. Jamie and Zoe are returned to their own times, with all but the memories of their first adventure with the Doctor wiped, and the Doctor is sentenced to exile on Earth. His knowledge of the TARDIS’s time travel functions is denied him, and he is forced to change his bodily form. The term “regeneration” has not yet been coined. So ends the monochrome era of Doctor Who and Patrick Troughton’s three year tenure as the Doctor.
Only in the 1960s could you get something as trippy and psychedelic as this
An almost psychedelic trip through the land of fiction, The Mind Robber is just about as good as Doctor Who gets. This five part serial sees the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe caught in the world of children’s fairytales. They encounter Lemuel Gulliver, brilliantly portrayed by Bernard Horsfall, Princess Repunzel, Medusa, a Unicorn and a cast of Who created characters. Far from being what it seems, nothing is reality. Zoe and Jamie are transformed into fictional characters after Jamie had earlier had his physical appearance altered. The TARDIS explodes for the first time and the Doctor and his crew find themselves drifting in space. Zoe shows that being small in stature is in no way detrimental to fighting a 21st Century cartoon superhero, and Repunzel’s hair really is the strongest and most effective way of quickly scaling rocky cliff faces. It’s all brilliant stuff!
The Doctor, Zoe and the re-faced Jamie meet up with wind-up tin toy soldiers in The Mind Robber
Vivien Fleming
©Vivien Fleming, 2013.
The Doctor Who Mind Robber 