Dalek

The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special

December 17, 2013

On Sunday 15th December 2013 was the final Splendid Chaps podcast;

The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special. I didn’t want them to go, but I'll keep warm, there may be a tear, it'll hurt, but the moment has been prepared for.

It all began with a girl in a red dress. Except she wasn't inside a Dalek, she was singing next to one. And her dress was more Christmas party than junior entertainment manager. There was a 1960s Dalek movie Dalek on stage and Petra Elliot singing the "ill-conceived" hit from 1964 by The Go-Go’s; "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek". I happen to know the words to this song quite well, as I listened to it many times to write the lyrics our for the Tardis Wiki, it's for the same reason I also know the lyrics to “Who is the Doctor?" a spoken word song by Jon Pertwee.

Following on from the song John and Ben came out on stage. John in a fetching Barbara-wear inspired cardigan and Ben in a Tenth Doctor-influenced dressing gown.

Each of the guests brought a 'gift' of a Doctor/main character to the podcast, with information and observations.

The people / shows that were covered were; Peter Cushing and the 1960s Dalek movies, Trevor Martin and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, The Curse of Fatal Death, Big Finish's Doctor Who Unbound series, Scream of the Shalka, K9 & Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures, plus Torchwood.

Alexandra Tynan who designed the Cybermen also made a return appearance, and mentioned of 'An Adventure in Space and Time' that the scene at the start with her Cyberman design and the bloke smoking in the suit didn't happen and wouldn't've happened back then, but the theme and style was spot on. And also the look of all the people in it they got spot on. She also said in the regeneration scene, where Patrick Troughton is standing there with William Hartnell, she was there, but in '

An Adventure in Space and Time' there were "two blokes there!". Of Scream of the Shalka it was mentioned by Fee Plumley that technology and where the BBC saw it going played a part in it. Both in its production and being at the forefront of media on the net at a time before YouTube and everything, at the moment the site needs Flash 4.0 to run the webcast which is still up on the site.

But in 2003 when it was released most people were still on dial-up. Though like Ben McKenzie, I was excited to be able to watch Doctor Who at the same time as everyone else, something that wouldn't really happen again until The Day of the Doctor. Yes there are broadcasts practically after the UK ones, but that's only been happening in the past year or three. It was, I seem to recall painfully slow on dial-up. I remember letting it load and just waiting, a bar very slowly moving along the screen as it loaded up on my 56k modem. But it was amazing to be able to see that story.

You can still relive the experience of watching it now, follow this link and click play all on any of the episodes. You’ll get a box that says “You will need Flash to see the animations. Get help here”, don’t do that, instead click Full Screen, and after a particularly long loading screen it will play. Or follow this link to episode one. It also had interesting bits of technology, as was pointed out in the live show by Fee Plumley. The mobile phone in the TARDIS, replacing the phone inside the panel of the exterior police box shell, and the Doctor being able to use it to escape falling into a blackhole by "reminding it that it's part of the TARDIS". In the webcast it unfolds in spectacular fashion and he escapes.

Adam Richards who presented the K9 & Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures

portion made an interesting observation, or relayed the observation that when The Sarah Jane Adventures was on TV, it allowed Doctor Who to be a bit more dramatic and gritty. Because The Sarah Jane Adventures could have farting aliens and useless Sontarans and, basically do the light hearted and occasionally comical stories that Doctor Who couldn't or didn't want to do. It did get me thinking though, why don't we have alternate series anymore for Doctor Who. It has if anything gotten darker and more complex, but has held its audience.

But back in the 2007-11 we had 3 Doctor Who-based series going at once; Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Elisabeth Sladen passed away and Torchwood reached a few crescendos. With series 3 of Torchwood it reached epic levels of grittiness. With as Djoymi Baker saying they're left with 2 very bad choices, give 10% of children to the aliens to use as drugs or say goodbye to the human race. The American Torchwood still had that grittiness but as Djoymi Baker pointed out, taking it away from Wales and bringing it to sunny beaches and whatever just doesn't work. The grittiness, the cold, grim Welsh landscape is what made Torchwood different and unique.The BBC could easily generate another spin-off series using what people have been introduced thus far, to create other marketable programmes. There's the Eighth Doctor series that everyone's now clamouring to have, now that they've seen him in The Night of the Doctor and seen what great acting chops Paul McGann has. He's been doing great work in Big Finish audios. Actually that reminds me when Myke Bartlett was talking about the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbounds he mentioned something I'd not thought about before.

When Big Finish got Paul McGann in originally to do the audios, they defaulted to the 25 minute and episode format, something his Doctor never did as he debuted in the 85 minute TV movie and he debuted with a fairly "classical" companion an character with an RP sort of accent (Charley Pollard), an Edwardian companion for Paul McGann's Byronic Eighth Doctor.

It was only much later that they went for single episode stories that fit onto 1 CD.

Back to The Night of the Doctor, those 7 minutes really showed to everyone the potential for an Eighth Doctor series, but I'm not sure if the BBC would green light a series like that considering they're launching a new Doctor with Capaldi's 12 or 13th Doctor depending on who you ask (Moffat lies). Having two properties like that on the same time for similar audiences is something they'd probably want to avoid. There's the potential for a "science leads" UNIT, with Jemma Redgrave's Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. UNIT could be the new Torchwood, and as Torchwood's been destroyed (or maybe living on in America), it'd be the perfect sort of thing to create. There's always the alien hunter route with Mickey and Martha. Except both actors are off doing other things.

Maybe they could just do a spin off series with the Curator introducing tales from the Under-Gallery and then stories leading off from that. I’m sure Tom Baker would love to do some acting straight to camera. Returning back to the Splendid Chaps Christmas Special live podcast recording. There were songs. Several. There was the aforementioned “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek” at the start of the show, then Ben McKenzie sang a very solemn version of “Song for Ten” from The Christmas Invasion just before the interval.

Then at the start of the second segment after the interval was the whole song with its many verses from Ghost Light “That’s The Way To The Zoo”. Then finally from The Gunfighters “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon (Splendid Chaps Edit)", all five verses, with a lyric sheet provided to the audience (although many had to share, but I was on the end of the isle with no one next to me so I have one, which I shall cherish, or more likely lose). According to John Richards he got the sheet music and lyrics for “That’s The Way To the Zoo” from Mark Ayers and there were many more verses than appeared in Ghost Light. All up it was a great end to the podcast series. I was there for the first episode, and well due to life getting in the way had missed a few here and there. I am sad that it’s finished, and wish there was more, it was great to actually be able to go to a live podcast recording, monthly about Doctor Who. Although it won’t be the end, it can’t be, this is Doctor Who. They’ve already announced a spin-off web series.

Plus, it can always come back, maybe for a special show in November next year...or something. Doctor Who doesn’t die, it just changes formats, is kept alive in different formats, it endures the wilderness, it lives on, being reinterpreted and rewritten. So I hope the podcast will return in the same incarnation but a new outfit and new venue. Or maybe return in a new, different incarnation, with vague descriptions of where it’s been, it’ll have odd ears and a modern jacket, but one day... One day it will come back, until there must be no tears, no carrot juice, just go forward and make the spin-off of your desires.

Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.

Dalek films at The Astor Theatre

August 06, 2013

On Saturday night (3rd August, 2013) I saw at The Astor Theatre the two 1960s Dalek films; Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Both I’ve seen multiple, closer to countless times on both VHS and DVD.

I went to see them again, in part because I have never seen them ' the big screen' before and also because, as part of my 'be more social' self-motivation thing have gotten onto meetup.com and found some people who share similar fascinations, thoughts and cultural touchstones that I do.

One of them ‘The Melbourne Sci-Fi and Fantasy Meetup Group’ had a meet for this screening of this double feature. Although several people RSVPed on the site only three actually attended, well 4 including myself.

Screenshot: Dr. Who and the Daleks (used under fair use)

It was an absolutely squally night for it with a lot of rain coming down leading up to the start and at the end of the night. I don't know about during, I was in the cinema. The rain paused long enough for me to talk to the theatre and back to my car between the downpours.

Even with only 4 people I had a good chat with the others who'd come along.

Watching the movie in a cinema with other people who also appreciate it is a new experience for me and my appreciation of these two films.

It was interesting to look at Dr. Who and the Daleks with a fresh perspective, as it’s a film I’ve not seen for at least 5 years, probably more than though, though the DVD has been sitting on my shelf, so I could watch it if I wished to.

With Dr. Who and the Daleks, I never really appreciated its comedy. I just mostly saw it as an adaption of the TV story upon which it's based. Even later on having read about it and knowing that the “Ian” character in the movie is there as more of a comedy role than that of a 'hero' character that the TV series Ian was.

But watching it alone the humour isn't really there for me, or rather I saw it but didn't recognise it as comedy humour.

There is a lot of slapstick humour to Ian's performance, in almost all of his scenes he is doing some simple physical comedy, usually falling over/into/onto/sitting down onto something. It seems obvious thinking on it now, but it took watching it with a group of people in a cinema to really appreciate the comedy of it, or the intended comedy.

It’s something I just didn’t really notice watching it alone and away from other people who notice (and laugh) at the comedy.

There’s also unintentional comedy in the movie that simply comes from it being a very 1960s movie. The opening titles and music is very incredibly 1960s.

Dr. Who and the Daleks is very efficient with its story telling, another thing that I never really noticed the last time I watched it.

Having somewhat recently watched The Daleks, the TV story upon which the movie is based it seems almost rushed. The TV story is 7 episode long with each running around about 25 minutes giving the story 175 minutes to run.

Dr. Who and the Daleks has a running time of 79 minutes.

Dr. Who and the Daleks is not a continuation of the TV series, instead it’s its own stand alone series, a different universe to the TV series of Doctor Who.

In what seems to be less than 5 minutes all the main characters are presented; Dr Who played by Peter Cushing the scientist who’s a bit childish (and yes his name is “Dr Who”), his granddaughter Barbara who’s probably early to mid-20s, his other graddaughter Susan (sometimes called “Susie) and Ian. Susan and Barbara are established as being quite smart with Dr Who being a bit childish through them each reading science books and Dr Who reading an Eagle comic, commenting to himself “most exciting”.

Only Susan really gets to show off her intelligence that’s introduced in the opening moments of the movie, Barbara, who is shown to be pretty tough (more so than Ian) isn’t shown to be quite as smart as Susan or Dr Who.

The wallpaper has owls on it. That was the other thing I noticed when watching it up on the big screen. The Whos (I guess that’s their name) have owl wallpaper.

Why Dr Who has built a time machine within a Police Box isn’t really explained. It seems to be the classic reason of “why not?”.

Nevertheless there’s the establishment of its larger within than without, some good WTF expressions from Ian played by Roy Castle.

The standout performance across both movies and individually in each is Roberta Tovey in the role of Susan.

She has to do a lot of the technical dialogue, Peter Cushing does some of the explanations of Tardis (it’s not in either film “the TARDIS” as it is in the TV series. Whenever it’s mentions it’s “we need to get back to Tardis”.) Given how much younger she is than Carole Ann Ford was in the role it’s fairly commendable what she does. She’s got a lot of dialogue with most of the major players in the first film; the Daleks, the Thals and the main cast and is convincing in it.

Screenshot: Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (used under fair use)

In the second film Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D . Tovey’s Susan is in someways more mature than Ford’s Susan Foreman role in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Mostly down to her age. There’s one scene in the TV story when Susan meets the rebels of London and Dortmun asks Foreman “and what do you do?” and she replies “I eat” and then giggles. Which would have been fine dialogue for Tovey’s Susan, but not for Ford’s Susan who 6 episodes later gets partnered up and left behind by the Doctor in a post-invasion-apocalyptic London.

Tovey’s Susan in Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. is actually quite mature given what happens to her and what she faces.

Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. wasn’t as much a revelation as the first film was to me.

It still has some humour, though it’s more obvious humour than the first.

It’s also a much darker story, set on a post-invasion Earth with the Daleks ruling it. Although not as grim as the TV version of the story The Dalek Invasion of Earth makes it out to be, it’s still several steps darker than the first film.

The one thing that I noticed was the music, how much more there was of it in this film. There was music and sound effects in Dr. Who and the Daleks, in that film it was present, though not obvious. In Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. it was present and a member of the narrative; there was an obviousness to its presence in the film. It signalled scenes more so than the previous film did.

There were a few other notable things between the movies I noticed. The plunger control for Tardis, which Ian comedy falls onto in the first film is also present in the second. Not something I realised, mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever watched these films back to back.

The journey in Tardis is momentary in the first film, in keeping with the pace of that film it happens almost, though not quite instantly. In the second there is a sense of movement and travel in Tardis as they journey through time, that camera at an angle shifts from side to side as though on a boat.

At the end of Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. there is also a neat illustration of time travel, while of course the whole film presents time travel, but at the start and its end it shows one outcome – the bank robbery successful and with Tom Campbell being hit over the head seeking help in a Police Box – Tardis. In the second outcome at the end Dr Who puts him back a few minutes earlier before the robbery takes place and Campbell is able to knock out the getaway driver.

Campbell does not encounter himself, despite going back ‘before’ he encountered Tardis the first time. So it’s a little vague on some of the intricacies of time travel, but does neatly illustrate what Tardis can do.

MICF - Splendid Chaps (1)

April 08, 2013

Splendid Chaps the Fourth Doctor Podcast

I saw a Dalek do stand up.
It was Petra Elliott inside the Dalek, but still it was a Dalek doing standup.
A Dalek that looked like it's been around the festival a few times.
But it still looked cool.
And Petra spent the whole show trapped inside the lower half of the Dalek shell. Sort of like a female Davros or a half finished Dalek.

The guests for the Splendid Chaps podcast were Dave Callan and Paul Verhoeven.
Everyone was wearing a scarf, well except for Callan who was wearing a t-shirt that had the Fourth Doctor's costume on it.
They're something I've been tempted by, but have as yet not been tempted all the way to hitting buy.

Some things I did learn about; Paul Verhoeven's "Steam Punks" he asked the set and costume people to build him a console that was like the TARDIS but wasn't and the same for his costume.

Doctor Who-wise no gigantic great insights into Tom Baker's era that most of it was mentioned at some point. the Sarah Jane era, the Leela era (very briefly) and the Romana era.
Also Adric got a mention and Tom Baker's moods.

Next podcast is the comedy podcast, in that it's the one about comedy, rather than being just about the fourth Doctor's era.
It seemed to go past in a flash, it didn’t seem like a hour of podcast being recorded.
I also missed out on the door prize by 2 tickets I was 51 the winner 49.
I’m still not sure about the musical act to end the podcast. I knew of the “Doctor Poo” that they mentioned in this show, it’s a fairly obscure reference. Very in fact and the musical performance while good, I’m still unsure about. I think I would prefer to hear more discussion and things like that than the musical act.