Blake's Seven Review: Series A Episode 3 - Cygnus Alpha

Jenna: You wouldn't be trying to get rid of me, would you?

Avon: I have to get rid of Blake first. You're next on my list.

The Story
Blake, Jenna and Avon follow the prison ship London to Cygnus Alpha in their newly acquired ship.  They explore the ship, discovering hand weapons and a teleport facility.  They also encounter the ship's main computer, called Zen.  Zen informs them that the ship has been named 'Liberator' but is reluctant to give them any further details about how it operates.

The Liberator

 Meanwhile the London has deposited it cargo of prisoners, including Vila and Gan, on Cygnus Alpha.  The prisoners encounter a group of what appears to be priests who take them to a medieval looking castle. 

Blake risks the teleport device and goes down to the planet's surface. He meets with the priest's fanatical leader, Vargas who explains that his ancestors, the first prisoners left on the planet, created a religious order so that they could survive.  Each new batch of prisoners become new recruits to the order so he is unwilling to allow Blake to take any of the prisoners away. When Blake refuses to give up the Liberator, Vargas has him tortured and locked up with the other prisoners.

Blake stages a breakout but all the prisoners, other than himself, Vila and Gan are killed.  The three of them teleport back up to the Liberator but discover that Vargas has also teleported up with them.  Vargas tries to take control of the ship but Blake teleports him into deep space where he explodes.


The Seven

Blake: Worked on a government project that looked into the possibility of matter transmission.  It's not clear when he worked on this project: was it before or after his first attempt to rebel against the Federation? The project failed as they were never able to successfully transmit living matter.

Blake is the first to try out the Liberator's teleport device that seems to operate along similar principles to the failed project.  Fortunately for him the teleport works.

Avon: Has personality clashes with both Blake and the ship's computer, Zen.  Isn't able to accept the fact that the computer might have a will of its own although he does acknowledge that the Liberator has an almost organic feel to it, making it seem alive.  He's the first to find the Liberator's 'strong room' that holds uncounted riches.  He tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade Jenna to abandon Blake and leave in the Liberator with him and the treasure.  He also initially attempts to stop Jenna from teleporting Blake and the others back up from the planet at the end of the episode.

Avon also worked on the same matter transmission project as Blake although neither of them were aware of the other (Avon: "Small world.", Blake: "Large project.").


Jenna: Establishes some sort of mental link with Zen when she touches a control panel and brings him on-line for the first time.  The name of the ship, 'Liberator', comes from something that Jenna was thinking when she was in mental contact with Zen.

Jenna is very loyal to Blake and, as the ship's name suggests, she seems to support his ideals.  She gets concerned for his welfare when he's down on the planet's surface and rushes to hug him when he comes back safely.  Although it's not made obvious, there does seem to be a hint of attraction between Jenna and Blake

Vila: Is nervous about venturing out on to the surface of Cygnus Alpha and his attempts to lighten the mood with humour irritates some of his fellow inmates.  As in the previous episode, he sticks closely with the bigger and stronger Gan.  When offered the chance to escape he, not surprisingly sides with Blake and Gan.  In the final fight with the cult members, Vila initially hides under a table, before getting hold of a teleport bracelet.  Later he appears horrified when he (accidentally?) stabs a cult member in the back.


Gan: Seems to be quite protective of Vila, warning the other prisoners to back off.  Takes charge when the prisoners venture out on to the surface of Cygnus Alpha and catches the eye of female cult member, Kara, who later sacrifices herself to save him.  Gan is the first join with Blake when he offers the prisoners a chance to escape Cygnus.

Zen (Peter Tuddenham)/The Liberator: Zen is the main computer of the alien ship that Blake and his friends have 'acquired'.  He first establishes some sort of mental link with Jenna, presumably to establish whether Jenna, Blake and Avon are hostile, and then informing them that the ship's computers will accept their commands.  He also renames the ship 'Liberator', taken from something that Jenna was thinking. His main 'visual reference point' for crew members is a smooth, circular surface set into one wall of the flight deck.  Small lights flash across the surface when Zen is functioning and a larger rectangular light comes on when Zen speaks, flashing in time with his voice.

Zen seems reluctant to give Blake and his friends too much information about the ship, stating that "wisdom cannot be given, it must be earned."  He also doesn't seem to like Avon.

The Liberator's flight deck contains an armoury holding some unusual looking 'guns'.  Only one gun is allowed to taken by any one person, although this rule is ignored in future episodes.   The ship also has a teleport facility.  A process that the Federation has yet to perfect, the teleport works in much the same way as the transporter from 'Star Trek': those being teleported stand inside a small alcove while someone else works the controls on a nearby console. The main difference is that the individual being teleported must be wearing a teleport bracelet, a flimsy looking device that also contains a communicator.

Mark's Remarks

I read an article in a recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine which said that Terry Nation's main source of inspiration was...Terry Nation. And that's certainly the case here as Nation takes an idea that he'd originally come up with in 1965's 'Daleks Masterplan' (the idea of a prison planet where the prisoners are left to fend for themselves) and expands on it.  Whereas in the Dalek story, the criminals were brutal savages who were barely surviving, here we see what happens when the prisoners are able to form a society.  It's a pretty unappealing society, based on fear and presided over by the shouting beard that is Brian Blessed but, from what little we see of Cygnus Alpha, it's infinitely preferable to dying alone on the surface of the planet.

The main story though concerns Blake trying to recruit a crew for his newly stolen ship. In order to inject a bit of suspense into proceedings, two hitherto unseen prisoners are introduced as potential Liberator crewmembers. To the surprise of probably no one both characters are killed in the climactic battle between prisoners and cult members leaving the already established Vila amd and Gan as the last men standing. Brian Blessed's character, Vargas ends up being teleported into deep space and explodes mid-rant. In space no one can hear you scream - unless you're Brian Blessed.

The other new arrival to the crew is of course Zen, the ship's computer.  Peter Tuddenham's vocals give Zen the air of an no nonsense school teacher, happy to impart knowledge where appropriate but not prepared to tolerate any nonsense from the kids.  His verbal slapping down of Avon in their first encounter is a particular highlight.  Sadly, Zen's character doesn't really much more beyond what's seen here but, despite that, he's still one of my favourite characters in the series.

Jenna doesn't get a whole lot to do in this episode other than change her outfit and have some interesting scenes with Avon, who has quickly established himself as the most interesting member of the crew.  His attempts to persuade Jenna to leave without Blake show just how self-centred and untrustworthy he can be.  Blake's 7 would have been a far duller series without Avon that's for sure and Paul Darrow is clearly enjoying himself in the role.

Overall then, a solid episode, if unspectacular and livened up no end by Brian Blessed. 

Blake's Seven Review: Series A Episode 2 - Space Fall

Jenna: At least you're still alive.

Blake: No! Not until free men can think and speak. Not until power is back with the honest man.

Avon: Have you ever met an honest man?

Jenna: [glances at Blake] Perhaps.

The Story
Blake is being transported aboard the prison ship London to Cygnus Alpha. Along with a handful of fellow prisoners, Blake begins planning his escape. He, Jenna and fellow prisoner Kerr Avon manage to take control of the ship's main computer, release the rest of the prisoners and hold the ship's crew to ransom.

The rest of the prisoners are soon re-captured and the ship's second-in-command, Sub-Commander Raiker, starts killing them one by one until Blake, Jenna and Avon give themselves up.

In the midst of this, the prison ship comes across a large alien vessel that appears to be drifting.  Believing it to be abandoned, Raiker suggests sending a boarding party over to the alien ship and claiming it for the Federation.  Four crew members are sent over but are attacked and killed by an unseen force.

Desperate to claim the ship, Raiker sends over Blake, Jenna and Avon to investigate as he considers them expendable.  The three prisoners discover a strange security device on the ship that attempts to first mesmerise and then kill them.  Blake resists the device and destroys it.

With nothing left to stop them, Blake, Jenna and Avon take control of the alien ship and escape, in the process killing Raiker who tries to stop them.  Blake decides to follow the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha so that he can free the rest of the prisoners.    



The Seven

Blake: Seems to be far more sure of himself than in the last episode. His first thought after the prison ship takes off is about best to go about taking the ship over. He seems to naturally take command of the little band of prisoners, making the most of the people and resources that he has and almost succeeds in taking over the ship.

Blake's main concern is with getting back to Earth so that he can destroy the heart of the Federation and ensure that "power is back in the hand of the honest man". Later, when he, Avon and Jenna have taken control of the Liberator, Blake decides to follow the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha, free the other prisoners and then fight back against the Federation.

Avon (Paul Darrow): Possibly the most popular character in the series, Avon makes his first appearance here. Cynical, cold and calculating, he is the antithesis of Blake's impassioned freedom fighter.

Like everyone else, Avon is a prisoner on the London. According to Vila, when it comes to computers, Avon is the number two man in all the Federated worlds. Who is number one? The guy who caught him. Avon would have stolen millions of credits from the Federation banking system had he not been caught.

Avon's expertise makes him an important part in Blake's plan to take over the prison ship. It's Avon's job to take control of the main computer and allow the prisoners to escape. This he does and he's somewhat disappointed when all his hard works comes to nothing after the break out fails.

Along with Blake and Jenna, Avon is sent over to the abandoned alien ship to see if its safe. He helps Jenna to work out how to fly the ship, allowing the three of them to escape. He doesn't seem impressed by Blake's plan to free the other prisoners.

We discover that Avon has, or maybe had, a brother.


Jenna: Jenna is an expert pilot, perhaps not surprising given her smuggling background. She claims that she could fly the prison ship if they can capture it. Later, Blake gives her two minutes to learn how to operate the alien ship which, by all accounts, she manages to do.

She takes an instant dislike to Raiker who singles her out for some 'special attention'.  As the only woman on board it's not hard to work out what he had in mind.  She receives a slap from him when she whispers something in his ear that he takes exception to.


Vila: Can perform basic conjuring tricks which he uses to distract the guard while Blake and the others put their plan to take over the prison ship into operation. He doesn't like confined spaces and says that there's a medical name for it (Jenna: "Cowardice?"). When the takeover is in progress, it's Vila who causes it to fail as he gets confused and drops his gun, allowing the guards to overpower the prisoners. He would have been shot by Raiker had Blake not surrendered.


Gan (David Jackson): A man of few words, Gan is a powerfully built man who has strength to match his size. He backs up Vila while the latter performs his conjuring tricks and later 'persuades' a guard to open a door and let the prisoners out ("Look, we only need your hand. If you want to stay attached to it...do as your told."). He doesn't carry a gun during the breakout but this doesn't seem to hinder him as he's capable of taking two guards down at once barehanded.



Mark's Remarks:  The slow genesis of the series continues with another very good episode. We're introduced to two more of the Seven in Gan and Avon although at this stage it's not clear exactly who, other than Blake, is going to make up our band of heroes.  At one point young fellow prisoner Nova looks like a dead cert to join the gang but ultimately he just ends up dead.

The ill-fated Nova

The crew of the prison ship are interesting and well rounded characters. There's the world- weary Commander Leylan, the eager young Artix and the villain of the piece, Sub-Commander Raiker who bullies everyone around him and is utterly corrupt. One cant help but cheer when he gets his comeuppance.

Raiker

Despite the fact that the series was made on a very tight budget, it's clear that a lot of time, effort has put into the design of the alien ship, both internally and externally. The ship is huge, clearly dwarfing the prison ship. Inside and out, the ship is aesthetically pleasing and that alone is enough to distinguish it from the sparse and functional Federation vessel.

Of the regular cast, it's Paul Darrow's Avon who steals the show and gets many of the best lines.  Blake also gets some good moments, particularly in his impassioned speech about destroying the Federation.  On the downside, David Jackson as new recruit, Gan, is rather poorly served.  He doesn't get a whole lot to do other than being Vila's wingman and threatening to pull someone's hand off.  Sadly, this is something that happens quite a bit throughout the series.  Vila's character also seems to undergo something of change here.  In the first episode I found him to be somewhat unsettling and a little creepy.  Here he becomes the bumbling fool who drops his gun in the middle of the breakout and is very lucky not to get himself shot by Raiker.

These minor character issues aside, this is a very good episode and, like the first episode, not really indicative of what we would see in the rest of the series.

Blake's Seven Review: Series A Episode 1: The Way Back

"There were many activist groups. But the only one that really meant anything was led by Roj Blake"

The Story
Roj Blake lives in a huge domed, city on Earth. Like much of the rest of the population, his food and drink is dosed with suppressants to keep him in a drug-induced stupor.  He meets up with two friends who persuade him to stop eating the tainted food before taking him outside the City for an illegal meeting of opposition to controlling Federation administration of Earth.

At the meeting, Blake meets Bran Foster, a man he doesn't recognise but who claims to know him. Foster explains to him that the two of them had once led a a large opposition group against the Federation before Blake was captured and had his mind wiped. He asks Blake to rejoin them.

While Blake ponders this, the meeting is invaded by a squad of Federation soldiers who kill everyone except Blake. He is taken in for questioning but, although he claims to know nothing, the head of the Federation Justice Department, Van Glynd, decides that it would e best if Blake 'disappeared'. He arranges for false charges of child molestation to be made against Blake. Despite his defence attorney's best efforts, Blake is sentenced to spend the rest of his life on a penal colony.

In the holding cells, Blake meets smuggler Jenna Stanis and thief Vila Restal for the first time. The prisoners board the prison ship and, as it lifts off, Blake vows that he'll get back to Earth.


The Seven:

Blake (Gareth Thomas): Blake is sceptical of his friends' s claims that all his food and drink has been drugged in order to keep him docile. He's also reluctant to go outside the City walls as to do so is a 'Category Four crime'. Nevertheless, he does agree to do so as he's told that he'll meet someone who can tell he something about his family.

Blake reveals that he has a brother and a sister who settled on one of the outer planets. This appears to be his only family. Bran Foster, the man he goes outside the City to meet, tells Blake that both his brother and sister and dead and that correspondence Blake received from them was faked.

Foster goes on to reveal that, after his capture, Blake was mentally conditioned to turn on his fellow rebels. Then once the rebel threat was crushed, Blake was conditioned again to forget any involvement he may have had with the rebels. Foster now wants Blake to rejoin the rebels, who are once again ready to strike.

Foster's words do seem to have an effect as, throughout the episode, Blake begins to regain the hidden memories about his past life. His witnessing of the brutal massacre of Foster and the other rebels at the hands of Federation guards probably also helps to trigger some of those memories.

He's still seen as a threat by the Federation administration who cannot simply execute him as he would be seen as a martyr by the rebels. This is why they end up concocting a false charge of child molestation and use it to get Blake sentenced to deportation to the prison planet of Cygnus Alpha.


Jenna (Sally Knyvette): She first meets Blake as they are waiting in the holding cells to board the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha. She calls herself a 'free trader', although Vila prefers to call her a smuggler. He also considers. Jenna something of a celebrity.  She appears to be the only woman prisoner (this is confirmed in the next episode) and, shortly before boarding the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha, she confesses to Blake that she's afraid of what's going to happen.

Vila (Michael Keating): Like Jenna, he meets Blake in the holding cells for the prison ship. He's a thief, "compulsive I'm afraid", and the first thing we see him.do is steal Blake's watch.  He has apparently had his head adjusted by some of the best experts in an attempt to remove his compulsion. All attempts have failed hence he is being sent to Cygnus Alpha.

Vila is something of a coward. When Vila thinks Blake is going to attack him for stealing his watch, he maintains that he was just looking after it for him as "the place is full of thieves."

Mark's Remarks:

Blake's Seven has a bit of a reputation for being somewhat campy and over the top.  Whilst that night be true of certain episodes, it's certainly not an accusation that can be levelled at this episode or indeed much of the first season. Indeed, 'The Way Back' is probably about as bleak as the series gets. There are scenes of people in a drug induced stupor, scenes of mental torture and a surprisingly brutal massacre - and that's just in the first ten minutes or so. And it doesn't get much lighter than that in the rest of the episode.

Blake is our way into this strange new futuristic world. The notion of him having had his brain altered so that he has no idea of who he really is the perfect excuse for Terry Nation to give us the background to the series and to the character of Blake without it seeming too much like an info dump.

The Federation are quickly shown to be thoroughly evil and corrupt, first with the aforementioned massacre and then with the way in which their Justice Department attempts to remove Blake by framing him for child molestation. Their methods make it easy to sympathise with Blake and the other rebels.

And the Federation are powerful. Blake is helpless against its might, being unable to offer up any defence to the false accusations made against him and the only people who believe him are ruthlessly killed. So, not for the first time in this series, the bad guys win. Blake's helplessness in this episode shows why he can't fight the Federation alone.

From an acting point of view, Gareth Thomas carries the episode as Blake. It's not hard to see why Blake was seen as something of a figurehead amongst the rebels but he's not some one-dimensional square-jawed hero. He's also confused and vulnerable and Thomas does a good job of portraying that side of the character. Only two of the other regulars appear here and they're both sidelined by Blake's story. My favourite is Michael Keating's Vila. He gets some of the best lines and it's interesting that here Vila comes across as somewhat shifty and untrustworthy, a side of him that will be less noticeable as the series progresses.

Overall this is a very good opening episode.  It sets up the series well, while at the same time being fairly atypical of the series as a whole.

Blake's7 Review: Series A Introduction

Blake's Seven first appeared on British TV screens on the 2nd January 1978. Although definitely not a spin-off of Doctor Who, the two shows do have some similarities: both were made by the BBC on very tight budgets, both shared creative and behind-the-scenes personnel and both had curly haired leading men.

But that's where the similarities end. Whereas Doctor Who at this time was becoming more light-hearted and comedic, Blake's Seven was aiming at the opposite end of the spectrum. Set in a bleak, dystopian future, the series sees a small group of criminals turned freedom fighters waging a war on the mighty yet oppressive Galactic Federation. They are led by political troublemaker Roj Blake and have at their disposal a powerful, stolen alien spaceship that is superior to anything the Federation has.

Although the series occasionally strayed into camp territory (it can be hard to take a group of intergalactic terrorists seriously when they look like they're about to head out to the disco) the series still managed to produce some gripping drama. The crew were in constant danger and no one was invulnerable. The spectre of Death constantly hung over the crew and, before the series ended, he would swing his scythe more than once.

The Series A crew (left to right): Vila, Cally, Blake, Jenna, Avon, Gan with Zen in the background

I've decided to re-watch and review the entire series and hope to post a new review every week, but don't hold me to that. We begin, appropriately, at Series A (the series' in Blake's Seven were always lettered rather than numbered) where Blake gathers his crew and begins his campaign against the Federation.


Season A Episodes:

The Way Back 

Space Fall

Cygnus Alpha

Time Squad

The Web

Seek-Locate-Destroy

Mission to Destiny

Duel

Project Avalon

Breakdown

Bounty

Deliverance

Orac

The Doctor Who 50-50: Part 31 - 1992

On Screen

The year began with some good news. Doctor Who was back on terrestrial TV! Admittedly it was repeats and it was on BBC 2 rather than BBC 1 but the mere presence of Doctor Who on TV again after two years of nothing was a reason to be cheerful.

And this wasn't just a one-off repeat, this was a full season of repeats with one story due to be shown for each Doctor. The season began with a specially made. clip show called by Resistance is Useless. This programme, which was crammed full of clips from throughout the series, was presented by The Anorak. The Anorak was just that - an talking anorak with a Birmingham accent. It was a little dig at the stereotypical, geeky fan.

The Anorak

After Resistance is Useless came the first of the repeats: William Hartnell in the first episode of 'The Time Meddler'. The story had never been repeated since it was first shown in 1965.

Over the next few weeks, more classic stories were repeated.  Following The Time Meddler came the Second Doctor's story 'The Mind Robber' and 'The Sea Devils' as the story chosen for the Third Doctor. The remaining stories for Doctor's Four to Seven were to be shown in 1993 but Third Doctor fans were able to enjoy a bonus repeat in November 1992 as The Daemons from 1971 got another showing.

The years had not been kind to The Daemons.  The original colour copies of four of its five episodes were missing from the BBC archives, replaced with inferior black and white prints.  However, by 1992, the wonders of modern technology meant that it could be re-colourised.  The re-colouring process was featured on an episode of BBC science programme Tomorrow's World and the story itself was repeated shortly after on BBC 2.

On Video

There were a number of video releases this year including a few that were a bit special...

The regular releases continued throughout the year with releases for   The Aztecs, The Claws of Axos, Robot, Logopolis, Castrovalva, Earthshock, Mawdryn Undead, The Caves of Androzani and The Twin Dilemma.  One unexpected addition to the release schedule was 'Tomb of the Cybermen'.  This story had been missing from the archives for many years, believed destroyed.  However a copy of it was found in a TV station in Hong Kong and returned to the BBC at the end of 1991.  It was rushed on to video in May 1992 so that fans could enjoy it as soon as possible.

Another special release was Shada.  You may recall that Shada was a story that was partially filmed back in 1979 but was ultimately abandoned due to a strike and never completed or broadcast.  Well, what had been filmed was finally released on video in 1992.  Obviously there were gaps in the story which were filled with newly-recorded narration from Tom Baker.

The 'Years' series of videos also continued with four releases: 'The Pertwee Years', 'The Tom Baker Years', 'Daleks: the Early Years' and 'Cybermen: the Early Years'.  The Pertwee, Dalek and Cybermen tapes had similar formats to the previous Hartnell and Troughton Years and included complete episodes from various stories.  The Tom Baker Years were different.  Here, Baker sat and watched clips from each of his television stories and then talked about each story.

Finally, there was another release in the Myth Makers series of interview tapes, this time focusing on Ace actress Sophie Aldred.  Sophie also appeared in 'More than a Messiah',  the second of the series of straight-to-video films starring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Stranger and Miss Brown.

On Audio


1992 proved to be a good year for fans of the black and white era of Doctor Who and of the Troughton era in particular.  Not only had 'Tomb of the Cybermen' been returned to the BBC archives and released on video, but two other 2nd Doctor stories were also released as soundtrack cassettes.

To explain: back in the 1960s, you usually had just one chance to enjoy a particular television programme. There were few repeats and, of course, no such thing as VHS or DVD.  So when an episode of, say, Doctor Who was shown there was a good chance that you'd never get to see it again.  However, a number of enterprising young fans realised that they could stick a microphone next to the TV and record the soundtrack of an episode on to tape.  That way, they could at least listen to their favourite Doctor Who stories over and over again.

The soundtracks of a good many Doctor Who episodes were recorded in this way, including all of those episodes that were missing from the archives.  In the early 90s, those same enterprising fans (now somewhat older) donated their recordings to the BBC, meaning that soundtracks of some of those missing stories could be released and enjoyed by fans.

The first two titles released were 'The Macra Terror' and 'Evil of the Daleks', both from Patrick Troughton's first season as the Doctor.  Because both stories had originally been intended for the visual medium of TV there were certain sequences in these recording that would make little sense to someone listening to them.  One episode of 'Evil of the Daleks', for example has a lengthy fight scene which doubtless looked great on screen but would be just random noise if listened to.  To get around this problem narrators provided specially recorded links to aid the listener by giving some background description.  The two narrators were Colin Baker for 'The Macra Terror' and Tom Baker for 'Evil...'.

Also released this year were a number of music titles.  Following on from the release of the 'Ghost Light' soundtrack in 1991, Mark Ayres music for Season 25's 'Greatest Show in the Galaxy' received the album treatment.  Also released were 'Earthshock' and 'The Five Doctors'. These were not, as you might expect from the titles, the soundtracks of those two particular stories.  These were the 'Doctor Who: The Music' albums from the early 80s repackaged and re-released with one or two new tracks that didn't appear on the original albums.



In Print
The New Adventures continued throughout 1992, the series starting to create its own unique identity, quite different from the television series that had spawned it.  Although this new, more adult version of Doctor Who didn't well with everyone, the series did have its fair share of fans who were keen where the books would take them.

The first three books released in 1992 were a linked trilogy of novels.  Under the umbrella title of  'Cat's Cradle', the three books were linked by the fairly straightforward premise that the TARDIS has been invaded by something.  For the duration of the trilogy, a silver cat follows the Doctor and Ace around.  The cat is a projection created by the TARDIS and acts as a warning of the damage caused to the time machine.

This linking theme was a very loose one with only the first and third books ('Time's Crucible' and 'Witch Mark' respectively) really dealing with the issues of the ailing TARDIS.  The second book, 'Warhead', was written by the last script editor of the TV series, Andrew Cartmel.  It saw the Doctor and Ace tracking down a young couple with psychic powers named Vincent and Justine in a bleak looking early 21st Century. Vincent and Justine would also appear in later books, also written by Cartmel.

Something else that would reappear in later books was the Doctor's house in Kent. Revealed in a later novel that it was bought in the 1970s by the Third Doctor 'the house in Allen Road' as it was referred to makes its first prose appearance here and would feature several more times as a base of operations for the Doctor. Interestingly, I've discovered that, had the TV series continued into the 1990's, then the house would likely have appeared on screen.

Following the Cat's Cradle trilogy and with the TARDIS more or less restored to full health, came 'Nightshade', written by someone now very well known to modern TV viewers: Mark Gatiss.  'Nightshade takes the Doctor and Ace to the late 1960s and a small village that is under attack from an alien entity  The entity feeds on emotions and people's darkest memories are coming back to haunt them.  The Doctor and Ace find themselves teaming up with aging actor Edmund Trevithick, who once played a character on TV called Professor Nightshade (Gatiss' own version of Professor Quatermass) to stop this entity.

Paul Cornell returned with his second novel, 'Love and War', which hearlded a major change in the series.  The novel sees Ace leave the Doctor after he manipulates her one time too many, causing her new boyfriend, Jan to go to his death.  It also introduces the Doctor's new companion, Professor Bernice Summerfield, or Benny to her friends.  Benny is an archaeologist from the 26th Century who is particularly interested in the 20th Century.  She's smart, funny, likes a drink and thinks that she's able to handle the Doctor.  She only agrees to travel with him if he promises not to mess with her life the way that he has with Ace's.

Benny's debut was something of a big deal.  By this point, the New Adventures were more or less seen as the official continuation of the TV series so Benny was seen as the next 'official' Doctor Who companion.  She even got a two page article in the Doctor Who Magazine to introduce her.  She was very popular with the fans at the time and her debut novel is widely considered to be one of the best of the New Adventures range.

Sadly, a lot of the good feeling evaporated with the next book, and the final novel of the year: Transit.  Transit was written by Ben Aaronovitch who had previously the highly regarded 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and less well regarded 'Battlefield' for TV.  He'd also novelised 'Remembrance' for the Target range which proved very popular.  People were expecting big things from this book and were left disappointed.  Some simply didn't like the story, which featured a futuristic train network spanning the solar system being invaded, but most took exception to the bad language, explicit sex and extreme violence.  The New Adventures had always boasted of stretching the boundaries of Doctor Who but many felt that this book took things too far.  It's significant that the books were toned down somewhat after this.

One point in Transit's favour is that it introduced a new recurring character: Kadiatu Lethbridge Stewart.  She's a genetically engineered soldier from the early 22nd Century who is distantly related to the one and only Brigadier Lethibrdige Stewart.  As Bernice is incapacitated for much of this novel, Kadiatu acts as the Doctor's temporary companion.  She will appear again in future novels.  

Alongside the novels there were a number of non-fiction books also released in 1992.  On the paperback front there was 'The Universal Databank', the third book from Jean-Marc L'officier and The Fourth Doctor Handbook by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker.  The Universal Databank was an A to Z of everything in Doctor Who although, unlike previous A to Z efforts, it did actually manage to get through the whole alphabet.

The Fourth Doctor Handbook was the first of a series of such books that covered each of the seven Doctors.  The series is widely regarded as being one of the most detailed and scholarly overviews of the TV series and its been reprinted at least twice to my knowledge.  This particular volume examined the genesis of the Fourth Doctor, examined the actor who played him, looked in detail at each of the Fourth Doctor's TV stories and also examined what went on behind the scenes.



From those same authors this year came a large hardback book titled simply: The Sixties.  The first of three books, The Sixties perhaps not surprisingly took a look at Doctor Who during the 1960s.  It was an indepth look at the making of the series during that decade as well as the two Peter Cushing films and the Dalek stageplay, Curse of the Daleks. One other major selling point was the huge amount of photographs included, many of which had never been published before.

The other major hardback release in 1992 was The Monsters written by Adrian Rigelsford.  The book detailed the background of several of Doctor Who's most popular monster races, excluding the Daleks and Cybermen who already had their own books.  These histories are described in a series of fictional accounts that take the form of UNIT reports, ancient legends or books supposedly written by characters from the TV series.  As with The Sixties, the illustrations are a major selling point of this book with many of the illustrations provided by Andrew Skilleter who was one of the major Doctor Who artists during the 80s and 90s.

1992 also saw the return of The Scripts books. Four books had previously been released in the late 80s but nothing more had been released for a couple of years.  Now two of those original books, The Tribe of Gum and Tomb of the Cybermen were re-released alongside two new books: The Daemons and The Masters of Luxor. This last book was especially interesting as it was the script of a story that was never actually made.  The Masters of Luxor, had it been made, would likely have occupied the slot that was taken by the very first Dalek story.  These scripts showed fans what we might have had instead of the Daleks.

Finally, the Doctor Who Magazine continued the old Annual tradition by releasing their second Yearbook, containing articles, comic strips and short stories.


In Comics

At the end of 1991, Doctor Who Magazine published the first part of a comic strip titled Evening's Empire.  For one reason or another the rest of the strip was delayed and reprints were presented in its place. By April the story had been scrapped entirely and DWM moved on to 'The Grief' - a three part story that saw the Doctor and Ace encountering more space marines being menaced by alien monsters long since thought dead.

From here on, the strip tied in closely to the New Adventures novels.  As mentioned above, the New Adventures were seen to be the official continuation of the TV series so it made sense for the comic strip to join in too.The Grief made reference to the Timewyrm novels and saw Ace starting to doubt whether the Doctor cares about her any more, something that comes to a head in the novel, Love and War. 

The next strip, Ravens tied in with the novels even more closely.  It's set during the second Cat's Cradle novel, Warhead, and written by Andrew Cartmel who also wrote the novel.  This story sees the Doctor enlist the aid of a Japanese warrior from the past called the Raven to help save a kidnapped woman and her daughter from a street gang in the 21st Century.  It's a rather unusual take on the Doctor who basically uses the Raven as a hired sword to kill the gang.  It was somewhat criticised at the time.

The next two stories were 1 parters and saw the return of popular artist John Ridgeway, who had previously illustrated all of the Sixth Doctor comic strips.  The first of these,  Memorial, is the story of the Doctor helping to save the last remnants of dying race while also helping an old man deal with the loss of his brother during World War II. 

Cat Litter was Ace's last appearance in the comic strip for the time being as Benny Summerfield had just made her New Adventures debut. This strip set up Ace's departure as it saw the TARDIS  randomly deleting rooms including, ultimately, Ace's own bedroom. Her room has been replaced by someone else's and the Doctor wonders if the TARDIS is preparing for the future...

The year came to an end with the first two parts of Pureblood, the debut strip for Benny and the long-awaited return to the comic strip of the Sontarans.

The New Doctor is Here!

Well, three weeks after Peter Capaldi began filming his first series as the Doctor, the BBC have finally revealed the Doctor's new look. I'm no expert on fahion so I don't have much to say other than I like it a great deal. Despite what some have said, I think it looks suitably distinctive from Matt Smith's costume whilst at the same time it doesn't try to be too different. It also has some very Jon Pertwee influences which is no bad thing.

 

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing it 'in action', so to speak.  But, now that we've had the costume reveal, what's everyone going to talk about for the next seven or eight months until the new series starts?

At the End of the Day - A Fiftieth Anniversary overview

So the Anniversary is officially over, the Day of the Doctor has come and gone and it now feels a bit like that post-festive lull between Christmas and New Year.  Although if 'Christmas' was the 50th Anniversary then that makes 'New Year' the upcoming Christmas Special.  Which is confusing.

And what of the Anniversary?  Did it live up to or even exceed expectations?  In my opinion it was everything that one could have hoped for and then some.  Here's some of the highlights for me:

Destiny of the Doctor

An enjoyable series of audiobooks that ran throughout the year.  Beginning in January with the First Doctor and ending in November with the Eleventh,the series produced some great stories that did a good job of evoking their respective Doctor's eras while also being imaginative and original stories in their own rights.  My personal favourites of the series were Smoke and Mirrors (featuring the Fifth Doctor meeting Harry Houdini), Enemy Aliens (with the Eighth Doctor and Charley from the Big Finish audios) and Night of the Whisper (featuring the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack).

For those who stuck with the series throughout the year there was the added bonus of an over arcing plot line that saw the Eleventh Doctor making a cameo appearance in each story, asking each of his predecessors to do something to aid on some secret mission that only becomes apparant in the final story of the series.

The only thing that slightly the whole experience is the unfortunate and unplanned demise of Audio Go, producers of many audio books, including Doctor Who.  As co-producers/distributors of the series along with Big Finish, Audio Go's sudden collapse at the end of October led to fears that the final story in the series would not be released.  Fortunately Big Finish were able to go ahead and release the story via their own website so the series is complete.  That said, I haven't actually got the final story yet so I can't say if it will be a fitting end to the series.  But I don't think I'll be disappointed.





Series 7b

With everything else that was going on this year, it's easy to forget that there were eight new episodes of Doctor Who shown in the Spring months.

For the most part it was a good series.  'The Bells of St. John was good, fun, if undemanding opening and was a good introduction to Clara.  I'm afraid that I have to agree with those who thought that 'Rings of Akathan was dull, although it was nice to learn a bit about Clara's background.  I was similarly underwhelmed by 'Cold War' although the re-designed Ice Warrior looked great.

Fortunately the rest of the series really seemed to pick up.  'Hide', 'Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS' and 'The Crimson Horror' were all very good and then, when I thought it couldn't get any better, we had 'The Name of the Doctor'. This episode tried to do three things all at once and, for the most part suceeded.  It served as a fitting finale to the current series (solving Clara's mystery and the final face off with the Great Intelligence), set up things for the future (John Hurt) and paid tribute to the show in its anniversary year.  A great way to end the series and get people excited for the anniversary special.

Peter Capaldi

I'm not sure if it happened by accident or design, but the next Doctor was announced right in the middle of this anniversary year.  And for the first time ever, he was announced as part of a special live television broadcast, shown around the world.  If you're going to make an announcement in that way, you're going to have be fairly certain that the man in question is going to be a popular choice.

Fortunately the man chosen as the Twelfth (or is it Thirteenth?) Doctor was Peter Capaldi, someone who many people hoped would be cast but few people believed would be.

The Proms

The regular Doctor Who Proms from the BBC are always very enjoyable but a personal highlight for me was the medley of music from the original 26 year run of the series.  It's nice to see the composers from that period of the programme receive their dues, particularly Dudley Simpson who's music was as much a part of Seventies Doctor Who as Tom Baker and Jon Pertwee.

The Return of The Web of Fear and Enemy of the World

As most Doctor Who fans are aware, there are a large number of black and white episodes missing from the archives.  As each year passed, it became increasingly unlikely that we would see any more of those missing episodes returned.  And then, just two years after the last find, a further 9 missing episodes returned!  The biggest find in over twenty years!  And the best thing about it was the episodes made up (almost) two complete stories.

Some rumours suggest that the episodes were recovered back in 2010 and that they were held back until the Anniversary year in order for the news of their recovery to make a greater impact.  Other information suggests that the find was much more recent and the fact that they've re-emerged now is just a conicidence.

Whatever the reason, they are back and they're available to watch either via ITunes or on DVD (Well, Web won't be out on DVD until 2014) and that's the important thing.  The question is: is there more to come?

The Light at the End

  

This was the perfect way to start off the Anniversary celebrations.  Big Finish released their celebratory story - The Light at the End exactly one month before the Anniversary date itself, presumably so that it wasn't overshadowed by everything that was happening on the TV.

Featuring Doctors 4 to 8 teaming up to take on the Master as well as some clever cameos from the first three Doctors and a host of companions, this was just what the Doctor ordered (forgive the pun) for anyone who felt that the 'classic' Doctors were under-represented in the TV special.

An Adventure in Space and Time

This docu-drama, recounting the early days of the series, was a highlight of many fans' anniversary celebrations.  I knew it was going to be good but it actually surpassed my expectations.

The story of Doctor Who's genesis is a familiar one for long-standing fans of the programme but to see it brought to life (albeit with a bit of dramatic licence used) was truly fascinating.  And I really liked the final scene where William Hartnell gets a glimpse of the future of the programme and realises that his legacy will endure.

The Doctor Who Celebration 

This huge event took place over the weekend of the Anniversary at the Excel Centre in London.  I was there on the opening day, the 22nd November.

I can honestly say that I don't think I've seen so many Doctor Who fans gathered together in one place.  I don't know the exact numbers but I understand that there were about 7000 fans there each day.  Fortunately the attendees were split between two groups (Ice Warriors and Weeping Angels) and the day was organised in such a way that it was near-impossible for all 7000 people to be in the same place at the same time.

One of my personal highlights was the entrance to the main exhabition hall itself:

Granted, this may not look too impressive in the picture but the idea was a good one.  You walked into a black and white television set (you can probably tell that the street backdrop is in black and white).  You then take a short walk down the street that gradually changes from black and white to colour before arriving at the gates to I.M Foreman's junkyard, as seen in the first episode.  You then walk through the gates into the hall itself. 

The hall was absolutely full of displays, exhibits, talks and various other activities, too numerous to mention.  I particularly enjoyed a talk by Dick Mills, formerly of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  He gave an overview of how the original Doctor Who theme was created.  I also liked a session with the people from Big Finish Productions, who showed what it was like making Doctor Who audios.  They also gave a few people from the audience the chance to have a go themselves.

The highlights of the event, though were the three talks that took place on the Main Stage.  The first was an interview with Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy.  They seemed to having a lot of fun and, amongt other things promoted their own special film, The Fivish Doctors Rebooted.

The second panel featured Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman and Steven Moffatt, none of whom I'd seen live before so that was interesting.  Not surprisingly they wouldn't anything slip about either the Anniversary Special or the upcoming Christmas episode.

The final show on the Main Stage was a Special Effects show.  Whilst not quite up to the standard of the previous two shows, it was still very entertaining and some of the explosions made a few people jump!

Overall it was a great day and no one else who went seems to have had a bad experience either. It was certainly the perfect way to build up the anticipation for the Anniversary Special. 


Night of the Doctor/Day of the Doctor

 After everything else, this could have been something of an anti-climax.  Furtunately it wasn't.

It may not have been to everyone's taste but Steven Moffatt's take on an Anniversary story not only celebrated the past but also filled in a few gaps in the Doctor's long history.  The prequel, 'Night of the Doctor', finally gave us the long awaited return and regeneration of Paul McGann whilst also introducing us to John Hurt's 'War' Doctor.  'Day of the Doctor' itself finally showed us the final days of the Time War, that has been such a large part of the past 8 years of the series, as well the Doctor's involvement with the War. We even get to see the beginning of the regeneration from John Hurt to Christopher Eccleston.

As well as celebrating the past (including cameos from all the past Doctors) Moffat also sets things up for the future. Not only was there the relevation that Gallifrey is safe, but lost, we then get Tom Baker playing a future incarnation of the Doctor who's retired to be curator of the National Art Gallery. And then, of course, there was this:

A brief glimpse of the next Doctor. Was there a better anniversary present than that?




The Five(ish) Doctors Rebooted 

For many fans there was something better than seeing Peter Capaldi in Day of the Doctor and it was this. Tucked away on the BBC Red Button channel, this 30 minute comedy film, written and directed by Peter Davison, was the perfect way to end the Anniversary weekend.

At the Celebration event at the Excel, Peter Davison had boasted that his film had an even better cast list than Day of the Doctor and he wasn't wrong. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet but it's well worth watching to see famous peoppe making fun of themselves.

Well that was the Fiftieth Anniversary for me. There's so much more that I could have mentioned and more still that I didn't have the chance to experience for myself. One thing's for sure: this was the biggest anniversary celebration that the series has had. I don't think we'll see one bigger.